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That's fair and I don't necessarily disagree at all. Quinn hasn't lived up to a #8 pick, but his arrow was pointing up until the Achilles injury. That can be a rough injury to recover from so I think he gets a little longer runway to arrive as a result, a bit of a mulligan for this year. If he spends 2025/26 looking like the same player he was this season, then yeah. I'd be leaning towards bust. I preferred Rossi then and still do now. At this point, I'd really prefer Holloway who had a nice season for STL and looks like a good power forward, something this team needs more of. Give me Jarvis over Jack, too. But the wildcard is would Rossi/Jarvis/Holloway have become the players they are here? Would Quinn have been better in MIN/CAR/STL? As for Power, looking back, that 2021 draft sucked. Who do you take instead? Beniers? Nice rookie year, middling since. Kent Johnson is coming along in Columbus, but not at #1 overall expectations. McTavish has been okay for the Ducks, but again, not like a #1 overall. Luke Hughes? Meh. Eklund? He's progressing, but nobody had him rated that high. I'm still bullish on giving Power time. Rosen, could have had Wyatt Johnson, but there's rally not much below him. Again, bad draft. In 2022, nobody really stands out below Östlund. Kulich seems like a good pick. They're still pups. You're probably right about Benson. Overall, aside from 2020 I cannot take much issue with his picks. Nobody stands out to me below who he selected. I agree aside from Peterka, his non-firsts do not look to be exactly pounding at the door. And that is where good GMs find value. He hit it out of the park with Peterka, but so far nothing else.

Personally expect we can speak to his drafting. He's drafted in the top 10 pretty much every single year (at least 3 out of 4 and gets a top 10 pick once again this year); only Benson and Kulich of all his 1st round selections has looked as good or better than what you'd expect to get at his draft slot and at minimum 2 of them look to be underperforming where they were selected (especially when compared to guys that were still on the board) and a case could be made that at least 1 other is underperforming. And even the selection of Benson comes with an * because if they didn't have Savoie on the same junior team they probably wouldn't have gotten to know him nearly as well as they did. Of his post-1st round picks only Peterka (who was a great selection and a smart move up) has exceeded expectations. There are a LOT of 2nd round picks he's gotten to make and not many have flashed the wow factor nor are expected to be a top 6 guy. With the exception of Novikov, are any of the D tracking to be top 4? Are any post 2nd round guys tracking to be that diamond in the rough that makes top 6 / top 4? (Maybe Poltapov, but can't recall if he was 2nd round or not and he's locked up in the KHL for a few more years anyhow.) He's shown to be middling at drafting. Sure somebody might turn out to be a late bloomer and truly surprise, but you can't expect it. And when your operational model is draft great and build your core through the draft & through youth traded for during the great purge, middling simply isn't good enough.

I too am glad that I've avoided the gambling bug. I do the normal stuff -- March Madness brackets, Super Bowl squares, fantasy football -- but have always stayed away from the real sh1t. Somewhat ironically, I sort of enjoy the "degenerate gambling" banter on a podcast I regularly listen to. Maybe it's akin to getting a contact high from someone else's smoke.

I tend to agree. It's not a defense of Beane but his last 2 top picks prior to last week were Kincaid and Coleman. Those 2 and Samuel were all hurt for long stretches last year. They should all enter the summer healthy. Then he signs Palmer who does get separation and cuts on a dime. Shakir gets paid. I do think a lot of this noise is blowback for not picking Worthy last year. He has twice been accused of domestic violence, so I'm sensing a pattern in the character dept. When you lead the NFL in scoring, the issue is the D. We all saw what Philly did in the SB. They had 1 vet WR visit and I'm guessing more will be talked to. Beefing up the D was prudent.

To the bolded, Ruff flat out said what he sees of the roster while being in the organization is significantly different than what it appeared to be to him when he was outside the organization. Personally expect we'll see some substantially different direction in what players get let go and who/what get brought in than what we've seen in previous off-seasons where Adams was exclusively the final decision maker. Will it be good enough? Well, it can be. Will it be? Don't know. Wouldn't want to have a mortgage payment riding on it. Heck, right now, we're not even sure who has what titles nor who will still be here even by the time the draft rolls around. Would still like to see (as does pretty much everybody here) some major changes in the coaching ranks and would like to see Adams with a less direct role on the personnel available to the HC. And will continue to dream of what might be with Sullivan until he officially signs in NY or Boston. (This place really has morphed into hockey purgatory over the past 15 years; THAT would be a sign we're finally nearly done with our penance and hockey heaven awaits.)

This all seems like what I envision this means. Ultimately, we still don't know how well Adams has drafted because it takes years to flesh that out. Early returns are decent enough. We can get a decent feel from his first rounders: 2020 #8 Jack Quinn - A lot are ready to give up on him, I'm not there yet. Achilles injuries are a mother to recover from, particularly for a skater. How much has that affected his production? I like his offensive game for the most part, has a good shot. Not sold he will ever be more than below average defensively and weak on the boards. You can live with that if you have guys around him to mitigate it and he's producing offensively. I see his ceiling as a middle-six winger with a 30 goal/60 point ceiling. Floor is Olofsson. 2021 #1 Owen Power - The potential is vast, but so far the production is middling. Defensemen take longer to cook, so I'm not panicked by his glaring flaws like many others. He needs help with his development to get to that ceiling. Otherwise he will end up just another puck-moving soft blue liner. 2021 #14 Isak Rosen - Still growing as a player, he's been solid for the Amerks the last two years, but I've barely noticed him on the ice in his 15 games with the Sabres. He seems redundant to Quinn. I wouldn't mind seeing him as a trade chip if the value is there. 2022 #9 Matt Savoie - He netted Ryan McLeod who I thought was fantastic this season. 20 goals, 53 points and can fit anywhere from 2C-4C who is one of the fastest skaters in the league, a solid defender, and excellent on the PK. McLeod should be here for a long time and be a really good player for us. That's good value for a #9 pick. 2022 #16 Noah Östlund - Only 8 games, but I thought he acquitted himself well starting out on the 4th line. Seems to have good hockey sense and plays a responsible game. Not sure he'll ever be much of a scorer, but I could see him becoming a reliable middle-6 forward in a year or two. I have no real concerns about this pick at this point. 2022 #28 Jiri Kulich - I like Kulich. I think he has the makings of a 2C down the road with a solid 2-way game. He alternated between excitingly noticeable and invisible in his first full year, which is to be expected. He's a part of the future. 2023 #13 Zach Benson - Our little ball of mischief. Got thrown to the wolves as a kid and though the stats don't stand out, he gives his all every shift and if his offensive game grows to match his effort his ceiling is very high. Could end up our Marchand a couple years down the road. 2024 #14 Konsta Helenius - Way too early to have much of an opinion here. Peterka was a homerun in round 2. He's the kind of guy you hope you find there. Other than him, we haven't got much return from any other Adams non-1st rounders yet. I guess this is all to say, to this point, it's hard to really grade out Adams' drafting. His first rounders seem to be coming along just fine, just lacking significant production at this point. Quinn, Kulich, and Benson have shown flashes but still have some strides to make in assorted areas. Power has been somewhat disappointing, but again, most defensemen take a while to find their footing. Rosen, Östlund are wildcards because they've barely played. Helenius is just getting started and is a few years off. Savoie got you McCleod. Aside from Peterka, we don't know how he's doing later. We're still probably 2-3 years from knowing how effective he is drafting, but at least so far he doesn't appear to be a disaster. Where he has been a disaster is building a functional roster. If he's drafting, I don't have a huge issue. But he clearly lacks the gravitas to do the rest: Manage the cap - We don't know how much them spending under the cap has been a KA thing or a TP mandate. But his contract decisions have been spotty. TNT looks like it could be a steal, signing him when he did was the smart move. But he also handed out bad deals to Samuelsson, Cozens, and looking like maybe UPL. May have pulled the trigger early on power, too, but we don't know for sure yet. Go to league meetings - Is this the guy we want as the face of the franchise in these situations? A good GM needs to be able to be confident and command respect. I see him seriously lacking in both of those areas. The "taxes" and "palm trees" diatribe will always stick with me. That's weak excuse-mongering. I don't want excuse-mongering from the guy making decisions. Coaching decisions - He inherited Raaaalph and made the right call firing him when he did. I cannot fault him for Granato. Granato ultimately wasn't overly successful, but he did a nice job developing some of our younger guys. Hring Lindy was a mistake in my opinion and a lazy move. His roster of assistant coaches has consistently been among the worst in the league. It looks like he's married to Appert as Lindy's successor and that's a bad idea and more nepotism *****. Really don't want him making the next hire.

Sorry but I don't believe this for a second. It implies Ruff is smarter than he is. It also is far from occams razor. They needed a center, analytics identified McLeod. Beck Malenstyn was Appert who played against him in the AHL. Lafferty and Kubel might have been an archetype Ruff wanted but suggesting they set some minimal bar makes Lindy look worse. Kubel was waived. Gilbert was big and tough and wanted to be here. They also dumped him so if Lindy wanted him... that didn't last long. Zucker. They needed a winger and I could buy into Lindy tossing out Zucker. I just don't see some mastermind type of thing going on. I can totally complain if Lindy ordered these parts because he then didn't understand this teams true weakness.

I also thought Larkin as 3C was fantastic for the USA.

If Lindy is the coach and also responsible for the roster, then this is Back to the Future. Lindy will be like the old style GM/Coach - like Punch and Scotty and Muckler all were for the Sabres. These men ran the hockey operations, coached the team (for periods of time), and they owned the roster. They delegated to the scouting staff for pro and amateur player evaluations, they had a contracts specialists to do the contracts/legal stuff. They decided on who to draft and on trades. Adams will probably be a VP of Hockey Operations and he will run the draft, manage the cap, go to the league meetings, and help with trades and coaching decisions. Like McBeane, both Adams and Ruff will report direct to TP. Not saying I want this. But it is a possibility.

My condolences.

Look at who was brought in from outside the organization this year... McLeod, Zucker, Lafferty, Aube-Kubel, Malenstyn, Gilbert Mcleod was brought in for the long term potentially as a middle six center. Plays fast and smart. Zucker was brought in as competent veteran leadership and exceeded expectations I think. Lafferty, Aube-Kubel & Malenstyn were brought in strictly to flesh out the fourth line with competent NHLers. For an AHLer to make the they needed to beat one of those guys out. They were essentially short term JAGs, but not liabilities like past Sabres JAGs have been. They're not blocking the young talent, but they are setting the bar at an acceptable level for a younger player to cross over to the NHL. Gilbert was strictly a depth acquisition, but one that provided some grit and toughness. Reimer was the new Craig Anderson type of goalie: Can still play but brought in to help goalie development. If those guys were brought in at Lindy's suggestion, that's the kind of roster building I want to see. Each guy brought something that Lindy wanted. That's a different kind of shopping than I would expect Kevyn to do on his one. I think McLeod and Zucker were probably on a list of maybe 5 named players that Lindy gave Kevyn and said, Get a coupla these guys, this roster needs that. He probably said for the fourth line he wanted a combination of speed, size and grit and Kevyn brought that in. Gilbert was largely inconsequential but was there when the Sabres needed him. I think Lindy told Kevyn: Give me a tough stay-at-home guy and Kevyn did that. Reimer was a good backup but I don't think he was as good as Anderson, especially from the mentor perspective (but maybe he was... I don't know). It's Kevyn pulling the trigger and making the acquisition but Lindy telling him what to acquire. Based on this year's crop, I can't complain. Lindy is ordering the parts and Kevyn is his procurement office.

I don't believe that Pegula is very much involved, if at all, regarding personnel decisions with the Bills. As you smartly point out, both McDermott and Beane keep the owner informed about what they are considering prior to making a decision. The difference with the hockey franchise is that he is more keenly interested in that sport than he is with football and lacrosse, two extraordinarily successful and well-run franchises. Pegula does have a history with hockey at Penn State, and because of that background he behaves as if he knows more than what he actually does. As an owner, he could do whatever he wants to do. Sometimes not being involved is the best involvement one can take. This franchise has stumbled since he took receivership of it nearly a generation ago. It's way past time for him to hire a competent GM, even if it is from within (Karmonos), and allow him and his staff to do their jobs without interference. As the story goes: When you find yourself in a hole the first order of business is to stop digging.

Plain and simple Adams has not had good results, TP may like him and trust him, but he must know by now that Adams plan is not working and that Adams is not nearly as talented and knowledgeable as Beane. Adams has 5 years and his team has regressed in the past 2 seasons. Beane is a baller with a nice haircut and a well fitted suit.

I can buy that; but is that really a change? Or at least enough of one to effect real change on the ice? Lindy says "I need X, Y, and Z", Adams still has to go out and do the shopping. You hand a cheapskate a shopping list saying you need these groceries and expect quality ingredients handed to you, but all the moron did was buy day old bread and store-brand garbage.

If his involvement with the Sabres is the same as his involvement with the Bills I will consider that out of the way. He attends the key meetings with the Bills but he does not tell them how how to run things, he does not hire/fire coaches, he does not randomly change the structure of the FO, he never talked about EEE nonsense relating to the Bills, he does not dictate a salary cap for the Bills - in fact he agrees to generous bonuses for the Bills players and spends far over the cap.

I can see it: Let's say Lindy is in charge of roster makeup, identifying needs/roster holes, and giving Adams a shopping list. Adams job as GM, then is to fill those holes with the closest thing he can get that meets Lindy's requirements. Adams handles the contracting, cap control, etc., the business side of the equation, and Lindy manages the roster. To some extent, isn't that the McD-Beane dynamic?

My hope was that Kevyn would also be that kind of person. I think we've seen he doesn't really know how to properly steer Pegula, or maybe he hasn't found the right partner (or perhaps he has in Ruff and we'll see that in the coming season.... rose colored glasses scenario)

So lets take this at face value. Lindy is in charge of the roster making him the de-facto GM. That means one of 2 things - Adams is keeping the GM title as a figurehead (what purpose does that serve exactly?) or he's being reassigned within the organization. Option two would lead me to believe it's some sort of title promotion because what GM has ever accepted a demotion? Even if this hypothetical promotion is largely symbolic, what kind of message does that send throughout the organization? That failure in one job just leads to you getting advanced? "Accountability" was the buzzword last summer, that is an action completely devoid of accountability. And Lindy as GM? What experience does he have as a personnel guy? And lets dispel with the notion that Lindy is some infallible legend of the game. He was a good coach his first go-round with the Sabres. Had some great seasons, won a lot of games. But ZERO cups. And since he left Buffalo the first time? He's coached 9 seasons (4 in DAL, 4 in NJ, and now 1 back in Buffalo); in those nine years he's logged a respectable (not great) .531 points %, and made the playoffs 3/9 years. Again, what experience does he have as a personnel guy? Want an experienced guy like that as a POHO in an advisory role? Sure, fine. But making the calls on the roster AND coaching? Come on, man. WTF are we doing? My familiar refrain - this is not a serious hockey organization.

You might compare that crew to the team VGK obtained in the expansion draft. Everyone was "second best" but with a good system and a good coach they went all the way to the SC finals in year one.

Kinda like my marriage. My wife and I discuss every decision. I let her make the little decisions and I make the big ones. 30 years in, and there have been no big decisions.

I know this is a popular sentiment but if he hires the right person, he doesn’t have to get out if the way. He is as involved either way the Bills, if not more, but Beane and McDermott know the fine art of making their boss feel heard without letting him make bad decisions. These are all multibillion corporations now led by alpha males and a few females. They all meddle.

Personally, don't believe Pegula doesn't care about winning. Believe he actually cares deeply about it. But considering none of the avenues he's taken to get to a place where the Sabres are winning, and he's taken several different ones, with many nearly 180 degree direction changes included; believe it's more accurate to say he doesn't know how to go about icing a winning team. And nobody he's had in charge of it was able to do so in the time they were given before he pulled the plug and changed direction. Heck, he's even had the same individual change direction (Regier from Golisano's "the only directive is you must make a profit each year" to let's spend to the cap and bring in the highest profile FA's that will come here, to "suffering" and Adams go from "get the guys Kreuger and Eichel want" to "EEE"). At some point, he needs to not only get the right person in charge but also give that right person the time to get the team he wants. The good thing is, at this point, there is so much youth around that can be converted into good current hockey players (maybe not great, but good) and there is a base (Dahlin, Tuch, Thompson, a few others) that can currently be augmented that the right person shouldn't need anywhere close to 5 years to get back into the dance (it should be doable this coming season) and they should be able to be true contenders in 3-4. The bad thing is, since showing Regier the door, the results say he hasn't come anywhere close to finding the right person yet.

Most of the time I want him to do less, not more. Hire better FO leadership and get out their way - do that Terry.

Kreider was an extra winger who would not have played, and barely played, without injuries. He was there for leadership. Thompson and Tuch have a lot to prove as 3 zone players to make Olympics. Thompson on wing helps his chances. If the top two are Eichel and Mathews, there is no place for Thompson as center. Also no place for 30 percent on draws. Hopefully, he will be full time winger next year. Better for him and the Sabres.