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I believe the delay is due to arena bookings from the previous round. They book and assume each series will go 7 games. If things end earlier, they don’t seem to change any dates.

The GM position has so many varied aspects to it. It is the like being the head of a multi-company corporation. One required trait you have to have to be successful is that you have to hire quality support staff. Another critical trait is that you have to have a broader vision than if you worked in one of the departments in the company. KA is a fine fellow. He’s playing checkers in a chess match. I say this with no malice intended: He’s simply in over his head.

Worth the listen/watch about 25 min in the get to the article

As you point out, it isn’t a startling revelation that the organization reeks of dysfunction. However, anything that might give some insight to where this non-talking owner’s head is at has some interest. My attitude of contempt for this arrogant billionaire who has degraded this once proud franchise to a laughed at and scorned franchise has not changed. On a positive note, the addition of an experienced hockey person to the staff is a positive step. It’s so sad that when this stubborn owner does something that should normally be expected it becomes a cause for celebration.

Hmmm .. sounds like late 60’s ? … Old growth forests can be frightening.

there is way too long of a wait between these playoff series. At most it used to be 4 days

Why are people so convinced that you can only make one deal? You can make multiple trades and signings to improve your team. And why are people so attached to the players that have failed to win anything? Outside of Dahlin, move anyone who makes the team better.

Has us take O'Brien. He's a 6'2" center known for his playmaking who took off the 2nd half of the year. He doesn't play heavy though which would be my only question but he can, as in if to watch enough there's a bit if underlying jam. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6393069/2025/06/03/nhl-mock-draft-2025-pronman/

Probably because this thread is about a 100pt winger and not a rhd. You can do more than 1 thing and Buffalo will have to. You trade for Robertson based on a Peterka trade and you trade for a rhd with something else.

It was approved in 2013. Also even if that's true, everybody should run from a medical practice who refuses to perform the best procedure for you (that insurance covers) because of funding dollars. The way it was explained to me was that the solution to a failed disc replacement is fusion and you just end up where you would have to begin with so there is no "worse off" https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8405360/ It's possible UB doesn't use an artificial disc that is approved for double disc replacements which is another concern, but different. Anyways, the whole thing made me shift my thinking that the Eichel decision wasn't just politicking, but just flat out underqualified medical advice.* *I know that anecdote isn't data and I am just a schmuck on the Internet.

If they would want those players. They might not. Definitely don't see that Byram trade happening.

No "perfect world" at all there. Well, O'Reilly handing the keys to somebody else the night he decided to create a new drive thru at Timmy Ho's, but that's the only item necessary to let the rest of it play out. And, does it REALLY take a perfect world to have a decision that seemingly insignificant at the time to have been made differently. (And yes, that decision could've had much more tragic results, but it didn't.) Btw, they HAD a goalie - Ullmark. One more key piece allowed to simply walk out the door. And, yes, that core would need players added around it. Obviously. But that core about 2 years ago would've been in a position to be winning a round or 2 and when you have that who knows how the chips may fall through the rest of it. And had it actually been allowed to play together it should've been able to at least get to the dance earlier than that. Remember, winning the lottery after Housley's last year gave Botterill the ability to "pivot" so we never saw O'Reilly and Dahlin play together as teammates. But, literally, the reason this team is on a 14 year playoff drought is because they not only decided to tank but decided after that to switch direction at minimum 3 times and arguably at least 4 times and with each major reset you take a couple of steps back before you can just get back to where you were.

Lots of "in a perfect world" in this statement. Not a one of those forwards plays a heavy SCF type of game. They all require a person on their line that relishes playing that way. Dahlin is the only one with all of the skillz including taking pleasure in playing mean. Montour was next closest. McCabe hits but, as I see it, doesn't enjoy it and he is a middling, or maybe slightly better, playoff D man. Put this way, we actually managed to retain the meanest of the bunch in Dahlin. When they were here, only ROR and, to some extent, Montour had the two-way game that eventually developed to help them win their Cups. You'd need to have a coaching staff, supporting players and especially a goalie to make it work, as we all know. Of all of them I think Reinhart would have been best to keep assuming his development arc remains as it has been - which is impossible without Maurice and Barkov.

It was made clear to the Sabres he would not sign a long term deal Necas was the Sabres consensus pick in the first round that year then Mitts started to drop-someone needs to write a book about the missteps of the Sabres Drought. It will surpass War and Peace in length

If he play here I'd be all for it but to me feels like he wouldn't want to be here.

Martin Necas may be available as well. Colorado wants to sign him but with only 1yr left on his deal, he might be trying to get to UFA.

I couldn’t imagine doing another three years! All the power to you

I brought him in season and Codi Cecil feels like a top 4 Damn that makes sense at least to me.

Hopefully he comes in a Byram and/or Quinn trade, hell at this point I'd take Byram for Miller, Schneider and a C level prospect from the Rangers.

Obviously I hope you're right but KA is just bad enough to do it.

Our glaring need is RHD. Love Robertson as much as the next guy but nowhere is RHD being filled in this discussion

Truly don't expect him to make any trades for prospects and picks. (Unless, say it's Rosen for a D prospect that is on that same ~1 year away timeline.) Ruff and Kekalainen aren't going to be on board for any sort of a tear down now. There aren't going to be any roster players traded away for just prospects this summer.

We 'Spacers are way too close and informed (and hypothetically full of conjecture) to really be surprised by anything in the article. It's just additional confirmation. The article was written for the NHL fan -- like a CBJ fan who says, "I wonder what Jarmo is getting himself into..." reads it and says, "I knew Buffalo was bad... but good golly, I had no idea." We already discuss the details of the flailing and failings of this organization in every single thread here. Obviously, there isn't/won't be a 2nd article from Fairburn. The general facts are all there and the subtext and what is unstated is the scariest part. But a 3rd party more "angled" reporter could've likely gone much further with damning quotes, and smear, and such.

You remember what KA gave up for Byram? I just don't trust him as a GM so hoping we get NHL players back but knowing idiot we'll get prospects and picks which is last thing we need.

You're higher on Benson than me. To me we need a 20 goal, 50-60 point winger on the 2nd line. I like Mercer as he can play left or right or even Center as needed.