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I figure they have half a brain between them, but Rivet has the whole half.

Hoping you are, as usual, right. The scary thing in all of this is 2 fold: 1. afraid the next shoe to drop will come AFTER Dahlin has decided there's no point to staying here. (Really don't want to be back to square 1.) 2. have serious concerns that Kekalainen's successes were built off the genius that Bill Zito is. In which case, yes, Jarmo will be an improvement, but he very well might just be marginally better than either of Adams 2 predecessors. Which SHOULD be good enough to get the Sabres back into the league, but likely as the Aisles or Nucks of the past 10 years. AKA able to threaten to get into the playoffs and maybe even win a round, but no real threat to truly succeed.

Doesn’t matter if he said it or not, everyone knows he considers himself PoHO. Kevyn does NOTHING without Terry rubber stamping it.

The NHL absolutely knocked it out of the park with the Vegas draft at the sphere and the Four Nations Tournament only to follow them up with whatever the hell that was.

There are enough rumblings about Jarmo taking the Senior Advisor Position with the understanding he would move into the GM Position within 12 months. And there is a 0.00000001% chance that Adams realizes he is in over his head and will accept a position in the business side of the organization

This is true. Owners can win 2 different ways and one is more important than the other. They can maximize the amount of money they make and they can actual win a Cup. Only 1 team wins a Cup each season, so this probably amounts to bragging rights. The real goal is to make money.

and that is most likely what will happen, but it's not how you build a winning hockey team.

Well, yes, he can. Why should we have ANY expectation that he might do so? So far, he treats Adams the way Granato treated Henri, and we all know Granato LOVES HIM some Jokiharju.

Owners care about maximizing revenue, empty seats at KBC doesn’t achieve this. Pretty much all the contracts with the Front Office (including Adams)and Coaching Staff expire after this year, Pegula can walk away with no financial compensation owed after June 30th.

Hiring Ruff was the canary in the coal mine. Him retaining the entire staff (even Ellis came back, just in a lesser role, and to be replaced by a guy who might actually have the distinction of being both paid to coach and being worse than Ellis) for the 2nd time in a row was the canary dying.

Any thoughts on whether the other owners can actually get Pegula to punt Adams? Can see them being torn on the issue. Yes, Buffalo could bring in quite a bit more money into the system if they'd rejoin the league. BUT if they do rejoin the league, then the other owners are competing against 31 other franchises rather than just 30. They already took Arizona back into the league (though they relocated the club, it is quite likley now an actual rival rather than a joke / afterthought), do they really want NO byes on their schedules?

Physicality has never been a part of Power’s Game. His height allowed him to get away with it in the USHL and NCAA, yes he needs to be more physical but he has demonstrated a significant improvement in his defense metrics in each of the last three seasons. It’s too bad they could not get Jay McKee or even James Patrick to coach the defense. Both have experience with younger players on top of NHL Careers would have been beneficial.

Evolving Hockey defense percentiles for his first full three seasons at 13th, 34th and finally 78th during his first year with Ruff. I was ok with the Ruff Hiring as his teams usually see a bounce his first season, that certainly did not happen with the Sabres. It also stopped Adams from hiring His First Choice in Seth Appert. Now I hope we get a completely new coaching staff in 2026-27.

I believe there are a couple reasons the league has not stepped in. First there is a general sense of sympathy towards the Pegulas for what Kim is going through. The league had to clean up two situations with Ownership of Ottawa and Arizona needing to change hands Getting the new CBA done. There probably is an overall reluctance by the other owners to strip a franchise from a fellow owner as they would not want the same thing happening to them. I imagine the decreased revenue coming from the Buffalo Market is a bone of contention for the other owners, there probably will be a strong suggestion about hiring someone with experience into the GM role, Hello Jarmo, and spending to the cap coming in the next season or two

Hiring Ruff after no search was the canary in the coal mine... and it died.

Agreed. But the system isn’t Wilford’s. The system is Ruff’s.

Can you imagine how good Power could be if he used his size to move someone out of the crease or check someone along the boards or get in the way of passing lanes. These are fundamental skills for a defenseman that Power doesn’t have or won’t do. The system is part of the problem, but most of the blame lies with Power.

All this talk about “games played”, while important, when it comes to such young players, physical maturity is just as critical in a player’s development. Power isn’t at his physical peak, is yet to acquire his “man strength”, and most likely has a few more years to go before reaching it. That’s why I think we would regret jettisoning him in a few years. We can say that about a few other players on the team as well. Get him a dependable partner who can handle the more physical demands of the position and let him play to his strengths as he matures.

If a team like the Sabres are recipients of revenue sharing, at what point does the NHL step in and encourage him to sell the team. The NHL did so with Alex Meruelo and the Coyotes, found him a nice buyer, and eventually tripled his money in less than 5 years. This had a lot to do with the Coyotes not having an NHL arena to play in. But, I wonder if there are any by-laws stipulating revenue generation as requisite for ownership? This is likely why there is a new stadium for the Bills being built. The Sabres revenue growth over the past 10 years must be negative. ChatGPT says the owners must be in the bottom half of revenue, have a small market, the owner must not have too much personal wealth, and lastly, this: Effort to Improve Revenue Teams must also show that ownership is making “best efforts” to increase revenue (e.g., through ticket sales, sponsorships, arena improvements). The NHL can withhold funds if the league believes the team isn’t trying hard enough to improve financially. Would be interesting to see if withholding revenue sharing could lead to an ownership change.

Not a fan of Terry at all so I have no reason to defend him, but you are correct this did not happen

I am going to disagree on the cap situation, that one is all Terry. Matthew Fairburn mentioned that the Sabres have had almost 60 million dollars in unused cap space over the past five years and only cap dump the Sabres have taken on was Ben Bishop to get to the floor. They are one of the franchises that receives revenue sharing and yet they never retained or acted as a third team broker to retain salary. How do you think the owners of the teams that pay into revenue sharing feel when their organizations are performing salary cap gymnastics in a flat cap world while the Sabres are sitting on unused space. Adams is complicit in the fact he is still willing to do this entering his sixth season as only two teams have made the playoffs in the past decade that were in the bottom ten for spending. Sean Monahan and Calgary’s First was offered to the Sabres as a cap dump, something that Adams actually wanted to do, but was ultimately told no. Instead Montreal ended up with two firsts for their trouble. I understand that GMs have to check with their owners about potential moves, but could you imagine Jim Nill or Joe Sakic calling their respective owners to ask about trading Henry Jokiharju for a 4th at the TDL?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YblnsHKDto Little over a Year away!

Truth.

People don't realize criminals like Trump shape the future for themselves and for no one else. Remember Bernie Madoff? He was very heavily involved with shaping the regulations in the finance world. Giving Trump all this power is just insane and with everything that has gone on people choose to ignore it. It's why people like Elon are trying to create AI to be able to control how people get answers. It's why the tech sector mostly sided with Trump even though he used to attack them. They all want a piece of the pie and can see how easily social media has made that for them. Why do you think red states don't value education as much as blue states, keep you fat and dumb and you will vote how they want. Here we are sitting on a line of 2 extremes b.c there is no middle anymore. Get everyone over the age of 60 out of office. This old power needs to go.