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Valid points, but the scouting staff really needs to be looked at as well along with the entire coaching staff.

Make the playoffs, and build from there. Brick by brick. Take your lumps. That’s *always* the way it was supposed to be. Instead they went with the utterly hubristic “Simply making the playoffs is for mere mortals, are we are building a cup team not a playoff team” nonsense Nothing wrong with Jarmo being merely the guy that gets the team back on a real, honest to goodness nhl team track

Or he can pass on McKenna thinking he's the fifth best and then McKenna turns out to be the best after all just took an extra year or something. You never know with these things. Look at how much more impactful Schaefer has been to Power. They were not the same but both were consensus first overall picks in their drafts. You rarely know for sure.

Never said Jarmo was an idiot, I don’t see his success in Columbus to be that appealing. Yes, they have made the playoffs but they ain’t all the great either.

Seattle this year plays a faster version of what the Islanders have played over the last decade. Choke everything off and clog the middle. Force the play outside and try to win 1-0. They are good at it but not good at scoring. I expect the Sabres to have a hard time with this but you never know. They definitely have more scoring skill if they can fight through it. But will they? More often than not they don't.

I wouldn't trade Dahlin either - unless he has privately said he wants out and has had enough. Then you might not have a choice. I wondered when they tore it down with Eichel and Reinhart if Dahlin had too much losing stink on him and maybe should have been dealt as well for that reason but if he truly wants to stay then no, I don't trade him. I will say this, Dahlin has a nasty side to him and if this was a bigger, stronger, meaner team where he felt safe and protected at all times I think he'd be a beast. As is he plays a little more restrained at times. That's just my opinion of course. Power got too much money that's the problem there. Paid for future performance but so far that future performance hasn't emerged. Might be tough to find a team that'll believe they can bring it out of him. Philly apparently called about Byram in the summer. They also wanted Hughes. I'm looking hard at them for Byram if it's me in charge. No idea who or what might be available from them though.

I don’t think he can. I never argued he could be. I suppose he could take over and jettison Dahlin and draft McKenna only to find he was the fifth best in his class, but I don’t think Jarmo is an idiot.

Live look at the officials being extra careful with the bills today

Exactly, so how could Jarmo Kekalainen be any worse?

That was my feeling before Jarmo got here. Pegula would stay internal and give it to Forten (and then likely Appert as coach) and I'd hate all of that but Jarmo may have been brought in specifically as an option. Pegula needed him around to get to know him before handing it over. I wouldn't be surprised if Adams stays with a different title. He does more of the business stuff and Jarmo handles the GM hockey stuff. The "free reign" thing is the issue though. If he doesn't get it and it's still some group decision thing with Pegula in on every call then not much will change if anything. It's always possible but highly unlikely. The real question (aside from his power and autonomy as we mentioned above) is how can he reconstruct this roster to actually work. Will Tage and Rasmus want to stay if there's any sort of rebuild? Will they actually have a good goalie? What can he do saddled with Norris if he rarely plays? Power and his contract if he doesn't improve? Tuch and RFAs that may ask for the moon to force a way out. Will the philosophy change? The identity? Will they actually have an identity? It's not an easy fix for anyone, and if Pegula meddles, even a little (eg. imagine being a GM, thinking Quinn is a slacker and needs to go, but Pegula says to you "I like Quinn, don't trade him" how do you operate under that?) I hope they make the change. I hope Jarmo can get it done, but a big part of me thinks they do need to blow it all up and start over or as I said earlier a full radical subtraction phase and a Torts type coach to change the culture and raise the bar. Maybe Jarmo can bring that in too. idk

He lost JJP. He’d lose Benson and Doan. He’s garbage.

1 play, 65 yard TD rush for New England. *table flip*

KA was not good selection as a GM. That doesn’t mean that he should be automatically pre-judged. He didn’t do everything wrong but he definitely do enough right things to make the Sabres a serious team. He was given more time on the job than most other owners would have allowed. His body of work was inadequate. And that’s an easy and fair judgment to make.

Well... hmm. Okay, keep going.

28-24 lead after being down 0-21. Please don't screw this up.

100% agree. I don't agree that they should be trading Dahlin

Isn't that what Adams did?

Only if he completely strong-arms the RFAs and mangles their relations, then fails to get a goalie. But if he nurtures the toughness of Doan and Benson and finds a real coaching staff…

Yup. What's he gonna do? Trade everyone for nothing and we'll just miss playoffs and be more boring?

Are you really going to be revisionist and pretend they had a choice? Eichel was pissed off about the neck surgery and wanted out and Reinhart was going to walk at the end of his deal. They had no choice. The failure of the organization is failing to build a proper roster around two extremely high draft picks (among others) over the years before.

This replay assist stuff is *****

Non-rhetorical

How can Jarmo be worse than Adams?

This is the moment where a good GM gets on the phone and calls all those teams who were supposedly in on Hughes and says "sorry you didn't get your guy but can I interest you in an Owen Power or Bo Byram as a plan B?" That other team who really felt they needed a mobile puck moving D man might overpay with some of those pieces they'd already offered for Hughes and thus mentally had already seen their team without them. But that's what an actual GM would do.

To piggyback on this response: none. I said it in the summer. Adams gets no credit for anything. He took a blossoming roster with Eichel-TNT as two centers, Dahlin, Reinhart, and Ullmark and made it worse year over year except for one blip. He’s the curse and needs to be exorcised. ##### him with a light saber except the pain wouldn’t be bad enough because he wouldn’t suffer enough before passing out. He convinced Pegula to rebuild instead of building around good players who had the high-end talent required to go deep in the playoffs.