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I'm trying to think of a list of 10 good moves they made and all I can come up with is the Risto trade and maybe trading for McLeod.

Don't be so sure about Philly. I mean probably, but Ersson can be better than UPL and Vladar can be as good if not better than Lyon. Problem they've had is the 2 Russians were awful and Ersson got burned out. Ersson with a lighter workload could be better than UPL. The possibles are all possibles except for Silovs. I really like him and think he might be pretty good. Other teams would say the same thing you say about Gibson about UPL. I think the bottom line is IF goaltending is the key factor to making the playoffs we won't.

Oh no I'm sure he will score some. Might even have a high scoring stretch, but I don't think anything will be radically different from what we've already seen from him in Ottawa. Oh I know. I like Kulich. Always have if you've noticed, and as usual I do think we are rushing him.

That was,…

ROR Would’ve made no difference either way the team was set up imo

Bump. Sure we got some venting here

ROR trade was so bad imo. I ain't sayin I'm a genius, but 2+2 is on my mind.

Do I think the Sabres make the playoffs this coming season? No. Do I think Adams has made the team better overall in his tenure? Also no. But it is too soon to write off the 25-26 season. Some core players could take a solid step forward in their development. But I consider the division and some points that will be available throughout the season. Florida will coast to the playoffs. The Leafs may be a one-line team now, which can always fall apart if folks get injured but not too injured to LTIR for reinforcements. Boston will likely decide to tank by December. Detroit could as well. The Habs are prime candidates to regress a bit in the standings (and still improve overall). The Sabres could (very, very very unlikely) find themselves competitive for an 8 seed through no fault merit of their own.

If Luukkonen can't recover his second-half of 2023-24 self, then yes. Lyon will give you solid backup numbers, but that's better than Luukkonen has been with the exception of that one half-season (December/January excellence, and otherwise fairly consistent). A point on that consistency in 23-24, Luukkonen had a quality start rate of 67%. He was consistently solid, a few duds, and two excellent months where the team should have won more games. Thus far it appears to be the anomaly, however. But if he can be that goalie again for 50 starts.... Hope is the best strategy in the history of ever.

Ralph Krueger on the list because that killed any chance of winning with Eichel and Reinhart. I'm not clicking on some nonsense that even lists Kane in the top 10. Sounds lazy.

.... and 3 inexperienced GMs later the product is still unwatchable. How does the rebuild go if someone like Dale Talon had been hired to replace Regier instead of the 3 stooges?

You forget, the tank began with an EXTREMELY experienced GM. And he got canned shortly into the tank because he put an absolutely unwatchable product on the ice.

Hmm. Now there's an interesting question. Are Kulich and Doan at a similar point in their development? Only thing I'll add now is Doan is 2yrs older than Kulich. April 04 v. February 02.

I was hoping the wordly @Sabres Fan in NS had posted to solve my Lusks Mystery. Alas, no. My friend, see my video post above and tell me what the bloody Hell the man said, and what it means.

The worst move wasn't the decision to tank, but Pegula's decision to bring in un-proven talent to run the team without having a experienced professional to guide the raw GM's. All of the issues stem from 3 rookie GMs with Adams being the worst of the bunch and that is saying something.

Yes, but they do

I would care a lot more about line combos if the coaches weren't crap. Truly is an off-season with next to zero excitement

Probably

Close. The one WORST move of the drought was the decision that there would be "suffering." It ALL rolls down from there.

There is ONE worst move. There are not ten. The move was naming Eichel captain instead of O'Reilly. Everything else, even including goaltending, flows from that. Once seasoned hockey players saw that the team was in the hands of a fool, it was over.

Was unsure where to put this: Found out today the Sabres built a 1mil sauna in the locker room for Eichel during that scramble to placate Eichel. Was honestly not surprised

The Tage thing was more for sake of discussion than literal. That said, I’m not really a “top six” kinda guy when it comes to lines. I think Doan is skilled enough to be the grinder on a skill line if needed. Forgive me if you’ve read this before: Kulich AHL 123 53/41/94 Doan AHL 104 40/38/78 Kulich NHL 63 15/9/24 Doan NHL 62 12/16/28 Kulich was the 28th pick in the 2022 draft, Doan the 37th a year earlier. The popular wisdom that Kulich is way ahead of Doan isn’t reality. They’re at similar levels in their development.

UPL

It’s going to be an interesting camp. There are so many different approaches to take in constructing the lines. What is apparent in this Roslovic discussion is that by bringing in another second/third line player it offers a lot more options when putting together lines. KA needs to bring in another forward before camp begins.