All Activity

Here is where I get concerned... 1 year deal, do we trade those assets away for a 1 year rental... if you do the deal it needs to come with a contract extension. I personally would be reluctant to trade Helenius, I honestly see his attitude as part of a solution... I am not saying i wouldnt but I would really need to be sold on the player...

Out of respect for my Canadian brothers, I’m doing something I’ve never done before and that is root for the Oilers to win it all.

This team needs more prospects like that. Forechecking is a skill and those guys win championships. Bear has less manipulation than Benson but a better shot.

This was my first extended video view of Bear, I am impressed. That last goal in the video was awesome, it is my puck and it is going in no matter how many times you get in my way. He’s not a banger like Brady Martin but his motor is huge. He looks like a bigger Zach Benson. The comparisons to Seth Jarvis probably got your juices flowing.

The best would be if Adams and Jarmo weren’t on the same page for roles and Jarmo just started dealing guys at the combine without Adams knowing about it.

Jarmo at the combine.It would be fun to listen in on his conversations with other teams. He has no attachment to any players and would be open to anything.

2025 Stanley Cup Final will begin Wednesday, June 4, when the Edmonton Oilers host the defending champion Florida Panthers in Game 1 (8 p.m. ET; SN, CBC, TVAS, TNT, truTV, Max).

Done. You’ll both be blocked

Thanks for the link. I had a few hours to kill. I like Fairburn and he rose another notch with this article. Nothing in here changed my mind but some things that were fuzzy have been clarified. I can see TP’s trust for KA despite the brutal record Trumps the fanbase’s opinion. There is a path for him to move into another role and JK taking over, with a winning or a losing season. There wasn’t much talk about Staal but KA trusts him. I hope Staal’s hockey mind is better than his play over the last few years.

Nah, may be old, but ain't anywhere's near PA old. 😉

We do agree that the playoff drought would've ended. How much more than that they'd accomplish is pretty much impossible to say. Were Botterill still the GM, and in a world where he doesn't punt O'Reilly (as he did with ownership's blessing at a minimum if not their prodding) he very likely would've been retained longer, doubt the team would be a true contender though do expect they'd've won at least a series or 2 by now. It's a team that would have a perennial Selke candidate on it, a perennial Norris candidate on it, a Vezina candidate on it, and as it turns out 2 other F's that can play pretty responsibly in their own end now that they're actually adults. But ownership very well may have tired of Botterill. Thing is, with all that on the roster, you aren't compelled to move Kevyn Adams into that role when Kim and Terry decide it's time to move on from J-Botts. If we get lucky and they tire of him when they did, Bill Zito is still available, and considering he was interested 3 years earlier and the Sabres "tank fruit" are finally ripening there's no reason to believe he wouldn't still be intertested in the job. (We know he likes a BUNCH of Sabres from that era.) It's all what ifs and conjecture and there really isn't much point to the exercise, but not much else going on now as we have absolutely no idea what Kekalainen is recommending to Adams and likely won't until close to the end of the month when the draft finally arrives. (And am VERY much looking forward to the day when the draft is something that we don't really put a whole lot of energy nor interest in as picks in the 20's and 30's definitely aren't expected to help out for at minimum 2 more years and more likely 3 or 4 more years.

Agreed. The Sabres started last season with a top 6 of: Peterka / Thompson / Tuch Benson / Cozens / Quinn It is not that any of those players were not NHL ready, it is that 4 of them were 23 and under. Then, when the first injury happened, we called up 20 year old Kulich. And Krebs was our 4th line C. And Byram and Power were in our top 4 D. And Levi was our back-up goalie. Most of these guys were ready for a role. All of them on the roster, in key positions, at the same time, was not a plan for success. It was a GM in over his head.

The only way I move UPL is if we acquire a legitimate #1 G, I know some have suggested Oettinger which is nice except he under contract til 2033. That's a super commitment and I am not comfortable with it as this team, I don't know if system/players or combo of both but worry he won't live up to that contract here.

https://puckgm.puckpedia.com/rosters/612790 We'd need to jump through some hoops next offseason but we'd be in the clear in 27-28. Using some deferred salary I gave Tuch 8.35mil cap hit Robertson we give 1x9.5mil with the intention to offer 8x11.5mil the following year. Essentially we'd just have to convince him that are tight this offseason but great in 2 years.

This I agree with. Each regime since Eichel didn't know how to - or wasn't allowed to - build a competitive team. Those players you mentioned, none of them were going to be placed in the correct environment with a competent roster which, as history has proven, is exactly what they needed to succeed (who doesn't?). We know Pegula has been meddling. Strike one. Therefore, we know they would never assemble a proper roster. Strike two. And, we also know a capable coaching/front-office regime would never manifest during this period. Strike three. All of the above aside, IMHO none of those players is the kind of character that can drag a team into the SCFs, let alone the play-offs (history proves this, too). And, sorry, we've also seen what Ullmark would look like in a play-off series. Assuming one of the players in question remained with the team and we made it into the play-offs with Ullmark, we'd still be talking about goal-tending. The only thing we'd have is a break in the play-off drought. We'd also have a roster and regime that no one wants to mess with because - at least - it got us a round in the play-offs despite its faults. I suppose my error here - my "perfect world" failure - is that I'm thinking of this as if we had an owner that learns from past mistakes.

You don't believe that Beane is implementing Pegula's vision with the Bills do you? Beane is implementing his own vision (along with McDermott's) and it happens to be one that Terry agrees with. Luckily, Terry's son did not play Pop Warner Football.

I was shown how to get access to the article. Adams is defensive on his qualifications for the job but there is no doubt he has been way over his head and that Terry hired him to control everything. From the Fairburn article: On Oct. 11, 2020, five months after hiring Adams, Pegula stood inside his new general manager’s office. At that point, Adams had no assistant GMs. His director of scouting was Jeremiah Crowe, who had three years of pro scouting experience before getting elevated to that role. The analytics department was Jason Nightengale. This was the first day of NHL free agency. Pegula and Adams discussed the possibility of signing Taylor Hall to a one-year, $8 million contract. Hall had won the Hart Trophy two years earlier with a 39-goal, 54-assist season for the New Jersey Devils. The Sabres had failed to qualify for the expanded 24-team playoff during the pandemic, extending their playoff drought to nine seasons. "We sign this guy,” Pegula said to Adams in a behind-the-scenes video released by the Sabres, “we’re not only trying to make the playoffs. We’re trying to win the Cup.” “Yeah,” Adams said. “I mean this is … yeah.” This is dysfunction at the highest levels. Terry was clueless to think that signing Taylor Hall, and underachiever for most of his career, made his Oct 2020 roster a playoff roster, yet he thinks it made them a cup contender. This would be laughable if it wasn't so sad.

Jarmo doesn't thrill me. But I could actually see this scenario playing out with one change: I don't think Jarmo accepts Appert as his HC. I think Adams likes Appert, and I think Appert is seen as a potential replacement for Ruff, but I don't think it's an etched in stone thing. If we see Jarmo ascend to GM, I think he picks his own coach. I actually think that Lindy Ruff would be the sort of coach that Kekalainan would hire (which is not a positive for me).

Well, there's one UFA the Sabres won't sign. Marcus Johansson signs a 1-year $800k extension with the Wild. He'll be 35 this season, but last year he was 11-23-34 in 72 gp. Functional 3/4 winger last season, but the contract is to be their 13th forward. For comparison, at this time, Josh Dunne will be the only NHL contract in the Sabres organization that would make less than MoJo next season. Any of the draft picks will make more if they happen to make the NHL roster.

fwiw, he was spotted about a mile north of that. maybe he loves SPoT coffee?

Danny got there early to check out Canalside.

Initially I did not like the idea of trading Peterka but if we can package him for Robertson I am definitely interested. Dallas would like a young top 6 guy like Peterka and he would like the glamour and glitz of Dallas. (They gotta lotta' nice girls, yeah.) Robertson improves our top 6 and gives us options. Send in Jarmo!

... d'oh. Combine?!

Buffalo, man. I'm fairly sure that you would have helped care for a family friend's kid who just graduated at the top of her high school class locally. (She's a 2006-born kid who was red-shirted before starting school - owing in large part to some challenges she faced early in life.) Big stick taps to you.