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I certainly do not believe that the Sabres are a better team now than if they would have remained.

All three players that I mentioned that left have thrived in their new locations. And with respect to Jack, I have not heard of a scintilla of problems with him in Vegas. There are no "what if" games being played here. The Sabre organization under Pegula are recognized as a poorly managed franchise by everyone in the business.

Yep, there’s been a notable difference between what the models are saying and what the traditional hockey media is saying. I think that may be exactly at the heart of what I’m talking about. For example above podcast posed the question: Dahlin/Thompson, Seider/Raymond or Sanderson/Tkachuk? Nobody even considered the Sabres, despite the fact that by the Athletic’s own rankings Dahlin is a full tier above the rest. Instead they talked about Sanderson breaking through. Even Dahlin is an afterthought. People acknowledge he's good, as in almost certainly top 10 good. They don't realize that he's good as in surefire top 5 good, despite what all the counting and analytic measurables say. I still read people talking about how he needs to improve defensively, or hear broadcasters say things like "out-of-character for Dahlin" when he crosschecks somebody or sticks a glove in their face. They don't pay enough attention to know who and what he actually is because the Sabres aren't interesting enough to force them to pay attention. The Sabres stink is a real thing.

Imagine wasting most of Drake Mayes QB life b.c he is stuck in a division with Josh Allen.

No, unless new locker room leadership emerged first. Eichel, for all his skill, was a terrible leader and contributed to the mess this team became. The Sabres fate was sealed when they drafted him because he was "the guy" and the Sabres had to do everything to make Jack happy. If you want to play "what if?" imagine if we got McDavid.

Now that's a leap. Jack didn't understand anything other than he hated Buffalo. I'd argue Jack along with Evander was the source of the bad locker room vibes that derailed this franchise.

To paraphrase: "If Muel attempts to exude any actual effort, his body disintegrates into a fine powder. Once they scoop up the powder and recombine it into a human form, he will be week to week."

There's a 0% chance any nhl team is claiming a 5'9" defender of his skill level.

I would love to have Johnson beat him out. Lindy might push to have this happen even though KA would balk at having his prize #7 Dman waived.

True, but aren't even those still seeing them in only the low 90's? If that's where they are they're still putting a huge portion of their destiny on others failing rather than them succeeding. (And yes, in the East, it's been that way for at least 3 years, so it makes sense for it to happen again. But it's just so frustrating to see them once again not step up in the off-season and put themselves in a position where it would take some serious bad luck for them to miss rather than needing some serious good luck to make it.)

Several analytics models like the Sabres to make the playoffs.

Technically it kicks in next year. There have been credible reports the league and PA are looking into implementing some provisions of the new MOU (due to take effect in September '26) as early as during this season. No data on exactly what will get implemented and what will slide to September.

The hypocrisy

Athletic hockey podcast had an interesting and largely worthwhile breakdown of our division. Fairburn was good as usual with some of his usual stuff, but it was notable how non-invested the hosts were in the Sabres compared to the rest of the division. I mean it’s pretty clear that underlying the professionalism there was a strong undercurrent of “this team doesn’t really matter.” I think it’s reflective of the general tone of the national media toward Buffalo this off-season: we’re the awkward cousin that they slide over because they have to while waiting to get to the more interesting people at the wedding. As far as I’m concerned the team is reaping what it’s sown, but I’m not putting a lot of stock in what the national media is saying, rightly or wrongly because I don’t think they’re paying much attention.

They had a bit on after the whistle about what to do with mrtka today. Rivet said to send him to rochester because he is physically ready and peters said send him to junior bc he's just a kid. Imo, the decision should be made based on what skills you want him to improve. If you want to improve with the puck, send him to junior... he will have more time with it on his stick than in the ahl. Plus he can run the pp, which he probably wouldn't be doing in his first year in rottenchester. If you want him to begin learning how to properly defend against full grown men within a sabres like system then send him to the ahl.

Uh, define "lose seats." One of the proposals they seemed VERY interested in back a few years was replacing a lot of the seats down along center ice in the 100's with tables that 3 or 4 could sit and and watch the game getting a full concierge experience. Think the seats over by the bar on the 200 level behind / near the goal line that the Sabres defend twice. Hoping they don't decide to do that, because that would result in a full reshuffling of where everybody that's put up with this team for the past 15 or so years (with many being there for much longer than that) ends up having their tix.

The buyout went from 700k per season before this season to 1.4 if bought out next off-season. As usually, another great decision by GM Howdy Doody.

I think we're a better overall team now and you do too. I think we had them and weren't a playoff team. We used their talent, in part to aquire different talent, but I wouldn't want to go back to that time.

Just buy out Samuelsson. Time to move on.

My general point is that if the hockey operation was competently managed, they all would still be here. The hockey operation mishandled the Reinhart and Ullmark contract negotiations. They both would have stayed. (I believe that we both agree on that point.) However, both players ended up getting out after not getting the extension done when it could have been done. There’s no question that due to overall mismanagement we lost three good players when it could have been avoidable. That’s how I see this issue of losing players that we already had.

Yes, but your previous post implied that all three players thought the organization was a train wreck before they left and the fact is, only one ended up at that conclusion before he asked out. Sam and Linus apparently thought highly enough of the situation that they were really, really close to signing here before ultimately walking. Sam was actually even apologetic on his way out.

It’s not about one player and position. We had Eichel, Reinhart and Ullmark on the roster. Because of a lot of factors they all wanted out and got out. You don ‘t think our situation would be different if they stayed? The critical issue goes beyond particular players as it does to the overall hockey operation.

There’s a couple players that took team friendly deals. If there’s one person that should take a team friendly deal it’s Tuch. And if he won’t then let him go. Make it clear to the fan base that he was asking for too much and for too long. He won’t get the type of contract he’s seeking from any other team in the league. This is the Skinner contract situation all over again. We’re going to overpay and for too long because the team feels like they can’t let him walk.

Muel is a waste. Just buy him out next year(should have done it this summer). The happiest person right now…Bryson.

There is another issue related to this discussion of playing in the prime performance years that you are not addressing. That is players such as Tage and Dahlin are in their prime years now. And their elevated performances are being wasted with too much focusing on the future rather than the present. And don’t kid yourself not thinking that players such as Tage and Dahlin are fed up watching the playoffs from their couches instead of being on the ice.