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Dahlin, Benson, Tuch, Zucker, Greenway, Thompson, Krebs, Byram, Kesselring, Doan and Danforth will show up. Kulich can get there. Norris, Timmins and Malenstyn can buy in if the rest are doing their share, they are not lead dogs. Power, Quinn, Bryson and Samuelsson need to be dragged into battle or purged if the Lady Byng is their idea of hardware. They will never be Bennetts but they need to want to win 50/50 battles.

Well, we know he kept Eichel for a year longer than he'd've liked to keep him. Because when he took over, Eichel told him that he'd be fine with getting moved if Adams wanted to switch directions. How many others? No data.

At some point, that has to end. Your team is necessarily the farm team for the rest of the league if you don't get to a point where you tell the kids they have to grow up and a big part of adulting is doing things you don't necessarily want to do in places you don't necessarily want to be. Yes, Peterka didn't hold many cards. But he also returned a guy that Adams claims to have been wanting for a long time (Kesselring). Though Mittelstadt had never asked out and actually wanted to be in Buffalo, he too was traded for a guy that Adams claims to have tried to trade for at an earlier date. What player that Adams has coveted for years do you expect Levi, at this point in time, would bring back AND fit under the cap? Personally, don't see one. Add in @LGR4GM's speculation that Dahlin might've wanted Peterka gone, and if that's the case, the move makes sense from a couple of standpoints. (Not saying I like it, just that can see reasons for the move having been made.) Can't see a way to get to trading Levi making any sense at this time unless Adams is a drooling idiot; and have never seen him actually drooling in any interaction with him.

You make a keen observation that JJP wasn't singled out for criticism of one's play. Coaches critiques players and hold them accountable in a variety of ways. There is nothing abnormal about that. What's surprising to me is that the Sabres are rightly criticized for soft and irresponsible play. So when that issue is emphasized and there is an attempt to hold people accountable, there is a response by some that old-school coaching was not appropriate for this particular young player. That doesn't resonate with me. You are right that JJP had options that the other contractually bound players didn't have. So he exercised his prerogative; and so did the organization. The GM traded a discontented player for players that hopefully will help strengthen in other areas. That's the sports marketplace in practice.

Never been strong in my J Fresh. Is this card legit saying that based on whatever model they use Byram’s game has been worse than all but 3% of NHL defencemen? Basically, he’s among the worst half-dozen blueliners in the league? That shouldn’t pass anyone’s sniff test. What players on this roster do people expect to show up when the going gets tough? Who are the softies holding us back who need to be purged?

It has been noted (weeks ago) on this board JJP had zero leverage, too. All you have to do is have your agent tell Adams you want out.

Jackikin Eichwalker did not stay loyal to the Sabres, however. He was seduced by the desire for victory, the Cup Side.

You are astute and perspicacious. Some people get invested in their own narrative. The longer they promote their own narrative the more unwilling they are to see a different course. So when the Sabres go in a different direction (maybe temporarily?) due to a lot of variables that can't control, this pumped up crowd becomes deflated when the outcomes deviated from their road map. There are plenty of reasons to be critical of this flailing franchise. But in this particular case the GM acted reasonably well with the situation on hand. The moral of the story: It's easy to get angry when you work at it.

Of note through all this... Ruff called out TNT and Cozens as centers who weren't putting in the effort to play center last season. TNT got moved to wing. Cozens just continued playing center (I have a note that he started one game 11/1 vs. NYI on the wing before immediately going back to center). So JJP wasn't alone as a top 6 key scoring forward who wasn't playing his defensive role up to expectations. The difference between them all is JJP had a choice - a smallish choice, but a choice nonetheless. TNT is under contract with reasonable big money, Cozens is already traded (also under big money). As an RFA, JJP's rights were owned for a couple more seasons, but he was not under contract this summer. He used that little leverage to say adios to this inept franchise. If you were a player -- what would you do? Would you want to sign for 1 year to play it out all over again next summer, 2 years to UFA, or sign here long term? With this GM/Owner forever linked? Why? You're in the NHL -- you can play hockey and make (likely) more money elsewhere on a team without an internal cap, or with lower taxes and more palms if that's your thing. Or go be on a team trying to win. (Or a team trying to tank, if that's your thing. Or pull a Skinner and go to the Sharks for sunshine and no playoff expectations.) Good... gooooood... your Sabreing has made you powerful!

They did dump Cozens -13, and Lafferty -15... but somehow kept Bryson-9. They did dump Clifton's -6 and Kubel's -4

You know what is funny. I bet if he was 1yr away from UFA and Adams signed him to the same 2yr deal, ppl would be all nodding their heads like "oh good good, got one of his UFAs years under contract so we can always re-sign him." Also if Byram sucks you are rid of him in 2years unlike the only 2 million dollar a year less, Mattias Samuelsson.

Question. JJ Peterka was -1 on the season but Zach Benson was -2... who's a better defensive forward?

Yes, this walks him to UFA status as early as he could get there. It also gets his UFA money pushed out to when Skinner's cap hit is only a bit over $2MM/year and not hitting next year's cap when Skinner's hit is over $6MM. Which gives them money to re-sign Tuch and still add more to the roster this season and next. They still need to add a veteran forward. They still need to find a way to not have the coaching equivalent of dumb and dumber and even dumber yet; realistically it looks like that will wait until next year; which is ridiculously frustrating when the concern is Dahlin, Thompson, and Tuch will want out. Of course, Dahlin, Thompson, Power, and Norris are all signed through '29-'30 so there's only so much any of them can do to get off this garbage scowl. (But don't want Tuch bolting either.) If they'd've fixed the coaching and were to bring in that aforementioned F, wouldn't hate this off-season. (It still would have needed to have the GTing work out and they didn't honestly address it. But they would've improved 2 of 4 areas in need of improvement and marginally improved another. Presuming they do bring in another F, will improving 1 of 4 and marginally improving another be enough? Only if all the items they need to break their way actually do so.)

I expect his best season to be the 26/27 season, as he sniffs the big money of pending UFA status. No stats to back this up but 80-90% of career seasons happen there. That will be when they will have to trade him.

If the Sabres are F-ed at the trade deadline but Byram has played very well, there will be playoff bound teams very interested in his services, especially with another year on his deal. Or if Buffalo is somehow, someway, by some hockey God's almighty will in the playoff picture, Byram probably helped get us there.

The defense would certainly look worse without Byram than it does with him next to Dahlin (unless Byram's game goes to *****).

We can hope he has another great season in 2025-26 and maybe move him in season or after for more talent in goal or in the forward ranks as needed. I'll give the team credit to getting him to a fair contract but all things considered think this was the second best scenario of how this played out.

It'll make it easier to trade him now that his price is set.

Y’all were told the only successful course of action was trading Byram for offense. Which could still happen. Unfortunately, WGR and Sabres Twitter mandated that it was the only path to success. Now, just like the WR situation with the Bills, things took a turn in a different direction and we are calling it a failure based on predetermined expectations set by outside influences.

As you wish.

Fair contract for both sides that now takes Byram to the point of being a UFA once it's complete.

I would say yes. If the GM couldn't get a fair-value return for him in a trade, then it made sense for the player and the franchise to stay here. With him, our blue line unit is more than solid, it can be quite good. Of course, there is an assumption that Power will advance as a player and that Samuelsson stabilizes his game. What this short-term deal is give the franchise more time to seek better options if they arise. There are a lot of things to criticize our GM for, but not for how he handled the Byram situation.

or less

Maybe they should convert him to a top 6 forward and see what he can do.

Unless he gets called up.