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It's difficult to get into the head of this reticent and withdrawn owner. I sense, as you seem to do, that he made a decision that he wasn't going to allow his hockey franchise to be a $$$$ drain for him. The irony is that if he was wise enough to hire the right staff and be committed to building a winning franchise, he would end up generating more revenue and profits. Take the Bandits as an example of the better business pathway. He hired good staff that not only put together a talented team that wins and competes for championships but is also tremendously entertaining. When the Bandits play the place is rocking and rolling with all the adults sucking up a copious amount of overpriced beer. The same scenario should be playing out for his hockey franchise located in a good hockey market. His own ineptitude has ended up sabotaging his franchise and demoralizing his fading fanbase. Ineptitude and hubris can be financially costly.

Pronman at the Athletic has his “way too early” 2026 mock draft up today. The draft order for the mock was set using current betting lines. The Sabres draft 6th in the mock. Only Pittsburgh from the East draft earlier than the Sabres. Pretty useless info, but nonetheless an early indicator of how some view the Sabre off-season. Utah picked 17th. The Sabres took Ethan Belchatz, a RW from Windsor.

If there was a sweetener with Kadri due to age and such Id be all about this. Kadri put up quality numbers with an underperforming team starting a retool.

This is a smart move by Adams. Gives an amount of cost certainty and means there can't be an offer sheet that is insane. I still think the Sabres will sign Bo(hemian) to a 4 year $6.5 to $6.75 AAV contract and this case never gets ruled on. When do we know what the Sabres are offering in arbitration?

Restaurants and bars were heavily hurt for a while, he had the means to ride it out but chose not to. Probably a good move. Covid didn’t devastate the NFL Buffalo Bills and its massive TV revenue, and Covid didn’t not adversely affect any natural gas businesses (if he was still involved in them). The acquisition of the big boat did seem to change things though. It seemed odd to hear a family worth ~$6B publicly talking about about “maintaining the family lifestyle” while putting the Sabres into EEE cost cutting.

I heartily agree that we entering the season with a lot of “ifs”. Where we are at is where we are at.

Sometimes the unfavorable situation you are in is better than the alternative response that would get you a less than value return. It’s understandable why you are uncomfortable with having so much cap $$$ dedicated to the blue line. However, teams get constructed differently and still succeed. So if this is a blue line dominate team for the short term, then so be it. As far as our GM liability, this is another creation of our peculiar owner.

If "ifs" and "buts" were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas. When teams rely on a lot of ifs, the outcome is rarely positive. Too many for this team.

It seems that the COVID onslaught financially caused a financial drain. At the time he was heavily invested in the hospitality business, hotels and restaurants. The Covid plague was financially devastating for all of his businesses. It seems that after that financial stressful period he tightened his wallet. Just maybe, he might be loosening up there. The problem is what has hurt him the most is his own hockey decisions, especially relating to staffing. What’s to be learned? The obvious: when you shoot yourself you wound yourself.

Woke up to four pages of this. Anything I can say or think has probably been said. Two more years of Byram at ~$7M when you have Power at $8.3M and Dahlin at $11M is not a great situation for a lot of reasons. On the other hand I don’t trust Adams to acquire futures and then flip them with any success. It’s not something he has shown us he can do.

If he were only getting futures for offers it certainly would be considered trash offers from a Sabre perspective. What seems to be developing is that currently the return isn’t as high as hoped. And it seems BB’s contract expectations are not being met by the market. So it might be in the player’s interest to bet on himself by signing a short team deal and improve his future market value. And it would be better for the Sabres to have him on the team, even if for the short term, rather than peddle him for less than perceived value. This can be a situation where individual interests mesh.

Alex Tuch is due to be an UFA after this season, am sure many fans want to see him re-signed so we should be looking at our cap closely. Giving guys like Samuelsson and Power deals they don't deserve have hampered this team. Cozens too but thankfully got rid of him although not sure Norris a better alternative given his health concerns.

Bo seems to have a good agent. The agent knows as other GM's know last year was outlier when he didn't get concussed. It definitely plays a factor in trade value, and money going forward, along the higher insurance rate for him. Lafontaine had a great agent soaking the Rangers so he was set for life. Bo is not a Lafontaine, and I think his agent knows that 7 million in arb, will set him up for retirement. Don't ever wish upon another being taken out the game earlier than on their timeline, but concussion issues a factor in this...

Because I don't think he's going to be a good player much longer.

Why are Sabres fans worrying about a contract...

Doubtful as any team trading for him would prefer term at a higher cost than 2 years at 6m or so and UFA after that. It’s fine for Adams cuz in 2 years it will be Jaro’s problem

Is this a possibility to get BB on a cheaper contract and by that get more teams interested?

Should he no, will he, probably

A 38 point D man is worth 7m?

Don’t think that has changed. I also think that if the Sabres thought the were going to be able to have him for more than 2 years this whole scenario probably wouldn’t be happening. I think this scenario was the 2nd choice for both Adams and Ferris. If Ferris couldn’t get a big-money long-term deal now, he’ll take a quick path to UFA. And if Adams couldn’t get a reasonable extension with term, he’ll take contract certainty without term.

Not aware of the post covid era numbers, but I believe that pre covid taking a player all the way to arbitration all but guaranteed that they weren't staying with their org longer than they were required to. I think the number of players that sign another contract is pretty small.

This offseason the entire East really haven't done much; MTL got better but everyone else is effectively budging slightly up or down akin to us. Toronto lost Marner but gain Nick Roy Florida re-signed their guys Carolina got better with Ehlers but still has questionable goaltending.

I doubt he got "trash offers" but I imagine they were not player for player offers. I bet he got a lot of offers involving picks and prospects and if he'd taken those and then flipped them to someone else he'd have gotten what he wanted as we alluded to earlier.

Is it just me, or did very few teams get obviously better this off-season around us in the eastern conference? Montreal added two good pieces without losing anyone of importance off their roster but I’m not sure how many teams can say that. Bruins got some role players but failed to address their lack of scoring Columbus was role players in role players out Maybe Gibson is an upgrade for Detroit, but he hasn’t been good the past few years. Islanders lost Dobson Jersey was around the edges Gavrikov is an upgrade on Miller probably for the Rangers, but not huge The Senators added depth guys Zegras and Dvorak help the Flyers but I’m not sure Vladar will patch their gaping hole in net Penguins were quiet Lightning were quiet It feels like a shallow free agent market and a lack of sellers made for a pretty stagnant off-season. Barring more trades, it looks like any big leaps or drops are going to come from coaching, chemistry and internal growth/regression.

This one is for Darth