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There are potential positives that he can bring. The main problem is that the role he's hired for is for players to learn the front office/hockey ops. It's an apprentice. He's there to learn from Adams. In Colorado, it's Andrew Cogliano (retired just last year) -- but Sakic and MacFarland are well-established and have loads of success. But that's a top team. So, let's do a rebuild team: San Jose. The closest is Patrick Marleau in a "Player Dev and Hockey Ops Advisor" title. But Marleau can learn from a pretty qualified group. Grier has 3 assistant GMs, a Hockey Ops Advisor in Doug Weight who has been a head coach in the NHL and been in front office activities for 6-7ish years already. And then, Grier has 3 senior advisors (Tim Burke who's been around forever and built the excellent Marleau/Pavelski teams; Todd Marchant who had 10 years in the Ducks front office before joining the Sharks in the last couple years; and Ryan Stewart who went from scout to Dir. of Pro Personnel with the Chicago Blackhawks over the course of 15 years).

We starting the "all in" season with a 20 year old goalie with no NHL experience When does Barrasso get here?

Alternative theory: Terry grew up poor and ended up wildly successful (financially at least) without throwing money at the problem of poverty. He just worked hard. And waited. And waited. It was time and pressure in the Shawshankian tradition, that got him to the other end of the sewage pipe and eventually to a boat in Mexico. Terry started off talking about how he never fired anyone at East Resources (or was it no one ever left?) and how his role model owner was Art Rooney, who decided after years of losing and replacing people that "panic isn't working." Terry also stood at some interview early on, maybe on Day One, and said something like, "I don't get too high or too low." I remember him tilting his hand back and forth as he said it (what I had for dinner last night? no clue). Terry also famously said only one team wins a Cup every year. Where is all that leading? Maybe Terry circa 2020 just decided to get back to his foundational beliefs. This'll take time and not necessarily money (going back to his business roots), I'm not going to keep firing people (and paying people to not work for me), let's plan the work and work the plan, etc. All of the preceding might be classic PASabrefanian hogwash, but I want to believe it moreso than Terry has quit on the Sabres. I might even have to believe it. I mean, if he's quit, that's really, you know, not good.

I was looking at Rob Blake's history with the Kings. He was an assistant GM for a few years after their cup seasons. They missed the playoffs in 16-17 and he took over as GM in 17-18. They had a single season resurgence back into the playoffs, and then started a rebuild in 18-19. They bottomed out in 19-20 and in the summer of 2020 they drafted Byfield 2nd overall. They missed the playoffs for one more season (the 2020 covid year), and in the 4 seasons since they have had 99, 104, 99, and 105 points. He had some misses. The Turcotte draft and the Dubois trade, being the biggest two. Perhaps in hindsight, Stutzle was the pick over Byfield. He couldn't get past McDavid and Draisaitl four seasons in a row. It seems to me that there is some parallel to the moment that the Kings drafted Byfield in 2020 and the moment, under Adams, that the Sabres drafted Power in 2021. I thought I would compare the rosters of the 19-20 Kings and the 2020-21 Sabres, the respective seasons before the Byfield and Power drafts. Kings / Sabres Kopitar / Eichel Kempe / Reinhart Toffoli / Hall Iafallo / Skinner Vilardi / Mittlestadt Lizotte / Cozens Amadio / Thompson Doughty / Dahlin Roy / Montour Martinez / Ristolainen Walker / Miller Quick / Ullmark Now, consider that one season after bottoming out and drafting Byfield, the Kings had a 99 point season and went on to average 102 points over the next 4. And then, Blake decided it was time to move on to see if someone else could get the Kings over the first round playoff hump. Contrast that with the Sabres. Four seasons after drafting Power we have averaged 82 points per year, we have not made the playoffs, and they are just now apparently getting serious about surrounding Adams with a veteran hockey man to assist him in how he carries out his duties. Would Adams voluntarily step down to allow another person to take the team to the level of just making the playoffs? Of course not. Adams knows that this is likely to be his only job as an NHL executive. Blake, on the other hand, will have a job with another NHL team as soon as he wants one. Imagine how different the outlook for the coming seasons would be, if tomorrow it was announced that Kevyn Adams has been relived of his duties and Rob Blake has been hired as GM. The Sabres are not a serious NHL team.

There's nothing the Sabres can say at this point that will make me care about next season. The Miss Buffalo has sailed.

Nuance is frowned on here. Suit up in your armor, or colors, or what have you. The SabreSpace leadership has delivered its talking points, so please stay on topic and follow along. While I disagree with your take, I appreciate the opinion. An outside perspective is needed, however, Kevyn hasn't earned the opportunity to hire one of his friends, regardless of his playing experience. A new voice is good, but when the room still has stale air from the same losing leadership, that voice could be drowned out.

Yeah but I learned you can use the concave chest of a trucker in Frankfort as a urinal. The Kentucky Pisspot.

Why would you put Byram on the pp when you have Rasmus Dahlin?

Ok, so i am going to be the unpopular opinion. I am going to ignore WHO HE IS and WHERE HE CAME FROM!!! Bare with me here..... He was an exceptional player that played a brand of hockey that this team desperately needs. He is widely respected league wide (With the exception of Buffalo). He is someone OUTSIDE the organization that a lot of folks have been screaming that we need to add without recycling same people. He is and was a WINNER in every league and tournament he has been in. His knowledge of the game is also highly respected. I get his Buffalo tied past. I am sure he knows it as well. How much does that say for an individual that knows he is going to treated like a second class citizen by many fans of the team he joined. I honestly believe this could be a good thing for the organization and for himself. I also understand the bias against him. I am a day 1 fan and hate the Lames as well, but he could bring an outsider insight that is highly needed for this team. I am sure i will be lambasted for my thoughts, but does it really hurt? If he can guide our GM to make 10% better decisions to help this team, then it is a win.

Because this is a list of defencemen whose PP production helped them get paid. The entire point of the post was to show the coin Byram might be able to access if he got a shot on the PP to pad his stats.

Mom's for fascism

Google, it's quicker.

The Sabres need to draft more ***** stirrers.

OK, I'm on urbandictionary.com right now.

The old saying, Ain't Momma happy, ain't nobody happy comes to mind. Until the Sabres end the drought, ain't nobody happy. Ain't nothin' gonna change. Why another Pegula owned team wouldn't take the same approach his football team took... owning its drought... is beyond me. There's still time for the Sabres to openly make it Mission One. (Of course there's more than just talking about it. No one should want Adams to mortgage the future to make one playoff appearance, but he has lots of room to move on the spectrum of GM moves.) As for talk, they missed an opportunity to set the tone off the opening faceoff of the offseason. In Staal's statement, certainly written by some staffer but OKed by KA I would think, the new assistant wrote, "Throughout my career I was fortunate to be on so many successful teams and I hope I can lean on some of those experiences to help the organization moving forward." How bland. Help? Moving forward? As opposed to backward? Why not: Throughout my career I was fortunate to be on so many successful teams and I hope I can lean on some of those experiences to make the Sabres a similarly successful team and not only end the playoff drought here but do what we did in Carolina: win a Stanley Cup."

Look up the definition of piddling.

Zach Benson didn't and never will. The problem the Sabres and frankly this place have had for over a decade is two fold. First, size equals grit or physicality. It doesn't and it never will. Second, that you can just teach guys to be physical. Sure maybe some guys but the attitude of F you that some players possess isn't taught. The Sabres to their mild credit have finally started to put together that some guys are just built that way. They need more of them. Bear, Martin, McQueen. To go along with Benson, Helenius, Zeimer. Dudes that will muck it up and come back for more. Less Nylander and Power and more Benson and... I guess Novikov cuz the Sabres D corp outside Dahlin doesn't have it.

Sorry if asked and answered but what will Eric do?

The Sabres seem fairly adept at removing all players with an ounce of intensity from their organization. Even when they acquire those types of players, they realize no one in the organization cares so they assimilate like the little borg creatures they are. I don’t have to get punched in the face to make $7 mill a year, sweet, sign me up. The Sabres have created a culture of indifference. No one else cares, so why should I. The last people to realize it are the fans. We care 1000x what any current player, coach or GM does.

This sums it up perfectly right down to the boat/yacht😁. I can even picture Pegula wearing the Skipper’s hat and taking it off to slap Adam’s after every f🤬🤬kup.

To all the accountability Stan’s out there, the Sabres have finally achieved 0% accountability. - Keep GM that has the worse track record in modern NHL history - Give Seth Appert, who other than having great hair seems profoundly bad at anything he’s been tasked with, more responsibility - Hiring Eric Staal, a player every fan I know hates, and also put forth little to no effort in his lone season here, also has no experience at anything other than hating WNY and LBGTQ

I’d stay aware from Bear as well. Players with Achilles injuries don’t have a good record of fully recovering. Is he going to be the same player as before? And this opinion may be colored by what we say ourselves last season, but for a team who hasn’t played a playoff game in 14 years, why pick a question mark? We don’t have the luxury of lottery tickets, especially for a player like Bear. If we want a player of his intensity, trade for one.

Watching the games last night and two things occurred to me. 1. As you note, I think the Leafs are certainly the most complete team in the East. Maybe in the league. They could win it all. 2. Of the goalies left, Oettinger is the best and I don’t think it is close. So I like Dallas’s chances. This should doom the Leafs and Stars. Also, a side note on Dallas. I’m watching them close out games with Cody Ceci on the ice (he played the last 3 minutes v. Colorado in game 7) and I’m thinking he would be a great partner for Power or Byram on our 2nd pair. He was available for a song last off-season. He is a UFA July 1. Of course, other teams will notice this.

Pegula likes his yes men.

It just seems whenever someone is doing a suboptimal job, they get demoted upwards. Appert fell upwards. Looks like he is going to do so again. Forton, same thing. There was talk of Adams falling upwards, but that’s probably for next year.