It was locker cleaning day in Buffalo, and whew baby, a lot of tough quotes from some of the Sabres vets. It was a tough year from all the losses to COVID to losing Eichel to trading Hall, so it's little wonder we got some great quotes at locker cleanout.

First, from Sam Reinhart, who had a great year:

Sam Reinhart, who is 14 months from being a UFA, is frustrated. The RFA says he hasn't given thought to his next contract with the Sabres. pic.twitter.com/3eOq7g9JV3

— John Vogl (@BuffaloVogl) May 10, 2021

At a certain point, can you blame Reinhart? Seven seasons with Buffalo, six full years, has at least 20 goals in five of his six full years, had probably the best year of his career this season, and still has zero playoff games to his name. And if you look at the Buffalo roster, would you feel confident in them getting to the postseason next year? Or even the year after? How long should Reinhart wait for the team around him not to suck?

And then Rasmus Ristolainen:

The most telling quote so far is from Ristolainen: "For me, I can't go for another rebuild or wait multiple years. For me. I mean, we have to get to playoffs next year. For me, it's either here or or then somewhere else." #Sabres

— Mike Harrington (@ByMHarrington) May 10, 2021

Maybe a little bit less of a leg to stand on here because Ristolainen should have been out of the NHL three years ago. For some reason, the Sabres continue to believe he's some cornerstone or something, which might help inform us as to why the team has sucked for a decade.

Oh, you didn't think it would end there, did you? Here is Jack Eichel:

Jack Eichel says there has been a disconnect between him and the Sabres regarding his injury. He said he'd be lying if he said things went smoothly.

He says his main goal is to be ready to play next season … WHEREVER THAT MAY BE.

— John Vogl (@BuffaloVogl) May 10, 2021

It sounds like the team wouldn't let him have surgery on his neck despite a second opinion and Darren Dreger would later say that Eichel's agent is in touch with the Players' Association. It appears as though Eichel got a second opinion outside of Sabres doctors and wanted to go with that opinion. The Sabres wanted to go with their own doctors. Instead of appeasing their franchise cornerstone, now he may be on his way out.

That isn't hyperbole, either. This level of vitriol coming from a player towards his team is almost never made public, and I can't remember any young superstar saying anything of this magnitude while still under contract for several years. It could that he sits out or something, but it very much looks like as if both Eichel and Reinhart could be done with the Sabres.

To be honest, this isn't a terrible thing. The Sabres are a long, long way from being a contender and could use several high-end pieces. Should they be trusted to rebuild a team in the wake of Eichel/Reinhart, given their inability to build a team with them? No.  

No matter how this turns out, it's clear this is a fractured relationship. Teams and players work things out all the time, but we could be on the cusp of the most significant trades in the NHL in recent memory.

Or maybe they just trade Reinhart and keep Eichel. Regardless, this is going to be a very interesting summer in Buffalo.

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Ryan Strome on some internal stuff with the Rangers:

Interesting response from Ryan Strome on all the off-ice stuff for #NYR this season:

"It was bizarre… some things that the media may not even know about. There's a lot of internal things going on all the time and stuff like that. I think, in a way, it's made us stronger."

— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) May 10, 2021

First things first: he may not necessarily be talking about locker room issues. Beyond Tony DeAngelo and Jeff Gorton, there was the whole COVID thing. Mika Zibanejad had his battles, as did other prominent Rangers players. There is also the isolation, which is something I think all of us can identify with at this point. So, when Strome says there was some internal stuff, it's not necessarily about the personnel.

With that said, it's hard not to think that there is something going on behind the scenes. There was the TDA stuff earlier in the year, the Tom Wilson incident, the GM getting fired and all that entails. We don't know exactly what happened behind closed doors, but maybe we'll find out someday.

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Chris Kreider said that it was back spasms that kept him out of the lineup late in the year. It is good news that it is nothing significant but any back problem for a guy on the wrong side of 30 years old is always a concern. We should note that he still cracked 20 goals in 50 games, but he did so while shooting nearly 20 percent and his shot rate fell to a five-year low. Is it something that will bother him next year? Because if his shot rate keeps declining, and this beast of a person is struggling with a back problem, well, it could be very bad news for his fantasy value.

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Ryan Lindgren signed a three-year extension worth $3M a season. He has been excellent on a defence pair with Adam Fox, and as long as those two stay together, Lindgren should be worth this contract. Just beware that outside of hits, he doesn't bring a lot to the table, so even $3M a season might be too much in cap leagues.

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Don’t forget to grab your copy of the Dobber Playoff Draft List! Get the edge you need on the postseason with your good friends here at Dobber Hockey.

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Brendan Gallagher was at practice in a non-contact jersey:

Vêtu d'un chandail de non-contact, Brendan Gallagher participe à l'entraînement du #CH ce matin.

Paul Byron aussi est là. #RDS

— Luc Gelinas (@LucGelinasRDS) May 10, 2021

The Habs need Gallagher in the lineup desperately, and it appears as though he'll be ready for the postseason.

To say that he's the heartbeat of the team is an understatement. Since April 5^th, the date of his injury, the Habs have gone from second in expected goal share in the league and first in actual goal share (all at 5-on-5) to 23^rd in expected goal share and dead last in actual goal share. Now, a lot of that is PDO-driven, but they clearly started playing much worse with him out of the lineup, and the cascading effect that resulted.

Gallagher will never play enough minutes to be a truly elite fantasy option in a given season, but he can be elite for the Habs when he's healthy. At the least, he should be ready for the postseason, and that's when Montreal will need him most.

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A lot of teams sat a lot of players so there wasn't really much to talk about from Monday night. Here are some highlights.

Ondrej Kase returned Monday night, suffered an upper-body injury, and left the game. This is just terrible news for Kase, who hasn't played since the second game of the season. He has had a real bad run of injuries, but so did a guy I'll talk about later these Ramblings.

By virtue of the Islanders not beating the Bruins in regulation, the Bruins will face the Caps in the first round with the Penguins against the Islanders. I am really looking forward to that series.

With an overtime loss, the Habs secured their playoff appearance, knocking both the Canucks and Senators out of postseason contention. It will be interesting to see what the league does with the rest of the games now that every team has locked a postseason berth and nearly half the league is done, or a game away, with their season. Are we going to watch Vancouver-Calgary games for a week? I hope not.

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Something I find kind of funny is Kris Letang's 2021 season. I guess not funny, but I think if people wondered if any player would stay healthy in a COVID-ridden season with a condensed schedule, Letang would have been one of the biggest concerns. In fact, he only missed on game all year. Going back four years now, he's played over 86 percent of Pittsburgh's games, or about 71 games per 82. In the four seasons prior to that, he averaged playing in a little over 66 percent of Pittsburgh's games, or about 55 games per 82.

Not that Letang is a picture of health now, but there is a giant chasm between expecting a player to play 55 games and expecting a player to play over 70. He currently sits third in scoring among defencemen with 45 points and combined for over 150 hits+blocks in those 55 contests. It was a very good season for Letang.

What about next year? Well, we'll have to see what Pittsburgh looks like now that Brian Burke is in charge. But at the least, Letang's injury issues are no longer the concern they were a couple years ago. I still don't have enough confidence to take him as a top-10 pick among blue liners or anything, but he's definitely not someone to just cross of your draft list anymore.

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On the topic of Eastern Conference defencemen, shout out to a good rookie year from Ty Smith. He finished with 23 points in 48 games playing for a bottom-5 team scoring-wise. His 5-on-5 primary assist rate put him between Adam Fox and Sam Girard, which is very good company.

He has some work to do defensively, but that is the case for almost any rookie defenceman that steps into the league. He showed that he can drive the bus offensively, at least a little bit, and that's precisely what this team needs, and what he needs to bring to the team. The defence can come along in a couple years, they need him to show offensive upside, and he has.

This is exciting for the team. He looks like a true top-pair guy of the future, a true PP1 QB. It might take some time for the rest of the team's talent to catch up to him, but his upside is sky-high 2-3 years down the road, I believe.

Then again, I have been wrong about young defencemen before. I thought Vince Dunn would be in the top PP role by now, and, well, not so much.