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Listen to your gut. It is responding rationally. 😄

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6368342/2025/07/07/2026-nhl-mock-draft-gavin-mckenna/ I think I would lean Šimon Katolický, a Czech who plays in the Liiga system. He's got a late July bday and is a 6'4" 198lb winger who should get a bunch of playing time in the u20 Liiga system this year as a 17yr old. This draft has a bunch of big rangy wingers in it.

I agree with your overall point, but also we have fought for the most expensive blue line award the least season or two and our blue line pretty much sucks. It's already money poorly spent. Everybody gets paid and nobody plays defense.

As a fan I would continue to root for the long term good than a one playoff year and then done.

The Sabres are a bottom 5 destination in the NHL full stop. A franchise that was once (the day Pegula purchased) the 4 most winning franchise in the league (total P%) has plummeted to 14th in 14 years. I don't think you understand just how consistently bad a team has to be to do that so that me explain what it would take to try and climb out of that hole. If you took Scotty Bowman's 10 best individual years as a HC, and you linked them allllllll together for Buffalo, the Sabres still wouldn't get back to 4th. You'd take the 10 best years ever, from the best NHL coach ever, win 6 Stanley Cups, and still that would not be enough to correct this teams historical stats. That's insane. The Sabres under Pegula have literally been worse than Scotty Bowman was great. So much worse that the greatest 10 year run to ever (hypothetically) be coached wouldn't be enough to average it out. If we're not the Coyotes then we're pretty effing close.

My theory is that Terry was cash poor at the time and that has continued with the stadium costs. The result is that he has worried less about the Sabres because he doesn't have (in relative terms, I am sure he has 10million but if he can save it, that helps) the liquid assets to deal with the 10million a year or so he loses there. He keeps that as low as possible so it isn't 15million a year or more and that way he has just a smidge more liquid to pay for his yacht maintenance and the stadium.

Doesn't matter a team like the Sabres doesn't have the luxury of being picky.

A team that has not made the playoffs in a record setting number of years is not in need of cap watching.

Create a perennial contender and they absolutely will... the taxes and palm trees excuse is horrific. Players who want to win as part of their DNA want to go to winners.... the ones that want a country club or just to get paid I don't want. Look at the Bills... people are taking pay cuts to stay here... win, create a winning culture and attract players that find this valuable... and this narrative goes away. Continue to let the Eichel's and the Reinhardts of the world walk or the Dahlin's and the Tuch's and Thompsons into the future and you get what you always got... this isnt about geography, its about culture and opportunity.

I'd imagine its cashflow for the Bills stadium more than anything. They sold ownership stake for cash for overruns too. I think the sabres were in the red for a number of years, and he needs them to not be costing millions of dollars in extras until the new stadium is completed.

This may be unpopular... I absolutely think we need a better combination of youth with vet leadership... but to me taking on a big contract of a 34 yr old player that might get you into rd 1 of the playoffs at the expense of a promising player isnt where I am at... now maybe thats because I am concerned we are too far gone to "re-tool" or maybe because the playoffs arent my goal... a cup is... or maybe because I dont have faith that Adams has the accumen to make a trade like this and make us better in the long term... That said, I do know that getting into the playoffs for our existing roster like Tuch, Dahlin, Thompson etc... is pretty much paramount... how can anyone expect them to go thru 3 more years of not ever even being in the playoffs and actually not force their way out... In the end even if we do make the playoffs and are a 4-1 first round exit in a beat down... not sure that prevents those players from wanting out... I think I think we are too far gone... that Adams will eventually be fired and some other GM may want to tear it down again... I don't know... I would probably be excited if we did do a deal, but my gut tells me when you are dealing from a position of extreme desperation and weakness that bad things happen... I'll hang up and listen LOL...

It's difficult to get into the head of this reticent and withdrawn owner. I sense, as you seem to do, that he made a decision that he wasn't going to allow his hockey franchise to be a $$$$ drain for him. The irony is that if he was wise enough to hire the right staff and be committed to building a winning franchise, he would end up generating more revenue and profits. Take the Bandits as an example of the better business pathway. He hired good staff that not only put together a talented team that wins and competes for championships but is also tremendously entertaining. When the Bandits play the place is rocking and rolling with all the adults sucking up a copious amount of overpriced beer. The same scenario should be playing out for his hockey franchise located in a good hockey market. His own ineptitude has ended up sabotaging his franchise and demoralizing his fading fanbase. Ineptitude and hubris can be financially costly.

Pronman at the Athletic has his “way too early” 2026 mock draft up today. The draft order for the mock was set using current betting lines. The Sabres draft 6th in the mock. Only Pittsburgh from the East draft earlier than the Sabres. Pretty useless info, but nonetheless an early indicator of how some view the Sabre off-season. Utah picked 17th. The Sabres took Ethan Belchatz, a RW from Windsor.

If there was a sweetener with Kadri due to age and such Id be all about this. Kadri put up quality numbers with an underperforming team starting a retool.

This is a smart move by Adams. Gives an amount of cost certainty and means there can't be an offer sheet that is insane. I still think the Sabres will sign Bo(hemian) to a 4 year $6.5 to $6.75 AAV contract and this case never gets ruled on. When do we know what the Sabres are offering in arbitration?

Restaurants and bars were heavily hurt for a while, he had the means to ride it out but chose not to. Probably a good move. Covid didn’t devastate the NFL Buffalo Bills and its massive TV revenue, and Covid didn’t not adversely affect any natural gas businesses (if he was still involved in them). The acquisition of the big boat did seem to change things though. It seemed odd to hear a family worth ~$6B publicly talking about about “maintaining the family lifestyle” while putting the Sabres into EEE cost cutting.

I heartily agree that we entering the season with a lot of “ifs”. Where we are at is where we are at.

Sometimes the unfavorable situation you are in is better than the alternative response that would get you a less than value return. It’s understandable why you are uncomfortable with having so much cap $$$ dedicated to the blue line. However, teams get constructed differently and still succeed. So if this is a blue line dominate team for the short term, then so be it. As far as our GM liability, this is another creation of our peculiar owner.

If "ifs" and "buts" were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas. When teams rely on a lot of ifs, the outcome is rarely positive. Too many for this team.

It seems that the COVID onslaught financially caused a financial drain. At the time he was heavily invested in the hospitality business, hotels and restaurants. The Covid plague was financially devastating for all of his businesses. It seems that after that financial stressful period he tightened his wallet. Just maybe, he might be loosening up there. The problem is what has hurt him the most is his own hockey decisions, especially relating to staffing. What’s to be learned? The obvious: when you shoot yourself you wound yourself.

Woke up to four pages of this. Anything I can say or think has probably been said. Two more years of Byram at ~$7M when you have Power at $8.3M and Dahlin at $11M is not a great situation for a lot of reasons. On the other hand I don’t trust Adams to acquire futures and then flip them with any success. It’s not something he has shown us he can do.

If he were only getting futures for offers it certainly would be considered trash offers from a Sabre perspective. What seems to be developing is that currently the return isn’t as high as hoped. And it seems BB’s contract expectations are not being met by the market. So it might be in the player’s interest to bet on himself by signing a short team deal and improve his future market value. And it would be better for the Sabres to have him on the team, even if for the short term, rather than peddle him for less than perceived value. This can be a situation where individual interests mesh.

Alex Tuch is due to be an UFA after this season, am sure many fans want to see him re-signed so we should be looking at our cap closely. Giving guys like Samuelsson and Power deals they don't deserve have hampered this team. Cozens too but thankfully got rid of him although not sure Norris a better alternative given his health concerns.

Bo seems to have a good agent. The agent knows as other GM's know last year was outlier when he didn't get concussed. It definitely plays a factor in trade value, and money going forward, along the higher insurance rate for him. Lafontaine had a great agent soaking the Rangers so he was set for life. Bo is not a Lafontaine, and I think his agent knows that 7 million in arb, will set him up for retirement. Don't ever wish upon another being taken out the game earlier than on their timeline, but concussion issues a factor in this...

Because I don't think he's going to be a good player much longer.