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It's fair. But if I told you I could guarantee the Sabres make the playoffs this year but then would miss the playoffs again for another 14 years would you take the deal?

I have not been following this closely and so am confused. The County's out? The County's in? The County is in some state of limbo? Poloncarz was there. And he has some post-press conference Tweets.

Your point about the city having less resources than the county is why I asked about it. We should soon find out what the implications will be from the announced change. Your reservations about the change go to the crux of the issue.

I believe, like BCA in Rochester, they will need to sign a new lease agreement with whoever takes over the arena.

Jiri Kulich had a decent rookie year at the age of 20. With 62games, 15g, and 9a, that's fairly solid with a 0.387ppg and a 0.242gpg as a rookie. He played 352 5v5 mins with Thompson this past year and they were pretty good together. 54.76xgf% and 53.15hdcf%. Interestingly Kulich was 3rd on the team in xgf% after Benson and Thompson at 50.91xgf%. As you can see Kulich's xgf drops down away from Thompson. Part of that is that half the minutes away from Thompson were played with Quinn who was not good last year, those 161mins with Quinn are 44.36xgf%. Kulich also has the 2nd best cf% on the team (if you just want to look at shots for and against) with a 51.62cf%. Basically Kulich at worst was a neural level player in terms of his contributions and for a 20yr old rookie, that's not bad at all. There's your numbers. He's one of the top guys in xgf, hdcf, and cf on the Sabres. Part of that comes down to deployment and linemates for sure. We also should note that teams will key in on Kulich's strengths more this season since they have tape on him. He only has 63 NHL games played, which means he is very inexperienced. At 21, it is hard to gauge what we should be expecting from Kulich. Peterka went from 32pts to 50 between years. That is a 36% increase which for Kulich puts him at 33pts in 62 games or 43pts if we ramp that up to a full 82 game season. If Kulich had played 77 games like JJP, he would have had 29pts (JJP had 32 his rookie year). Would you be happy if Jiri Kulich at his age and experience managed to be a net positive level player overall with 43pts in 82games this season? That would be like 23g, 20a just to make it easier. If he manages that, is Buffalo a playoff team? Are you content with that level of progress from him?

There is only one thing that matters, and that is making the playoffs next season. Who gives AF about anything beyond that?! If you don’t think he helps in that, fine, but to say you don’t want him because of what he will make in ‘28-‘29,… really?… REALLY?!?!! It borders on ridiculous.

True... but imo, they can have those players.. I want players that hate playing golf in April and would rather win hockey games than party, and get older and more experienced...

That is when the city and county lease expires. I jut looked this up: The Sabres lease is up at the end of the 26-27 season, but the team has an option to extend 5 years to 2032.

Whether it is city or county or both, this information will be public. I really do not like the city taking it over, the city has enough problems to contend with, the county provided a higher tax base to pull from and the arena still fell into disrepair, and now the county is out. This is not a good situation.

It’s what happens when money guys think they’re creatives.

What, you don't like Adelphia's color scheme?

Oh there is. Just when you think Pegula can’t be any bigger of a loser.

I think Terry is pressuring the city to fund or help fund upgrades or a new arena which is why the county walked away. The state and county already gave Pegula almost 1 Billion for his football stadium. But my point is that since Terry hasn't gotten the city to agree to anything, he isn't saying anything.

They actually didn't. A year to year agreement with the Sabres is not out of the question. A 10 year agreement on naming rights doesn't provide any stability for the org in Buffalo. In fact, I would argue that making a gigantic deal about the naming rights without releasing any info about long term plans for the actual franchise and/or the building they play in should be a warning sign that the franchise isn't commited to the region at all. Pegula tends to telegraph his moves with the Knight Hawks, Amerks/BCA with a bit of gaslighting, I am struggling to see this as any different. (at the moment)

October 2025

Even without the edit, this looks like the lamest, most unimaginative corporate BS ever. To call it cookie cutter would be an insult to cookies and cutters. It looks like what would happen if I asked AI "can you show me two rich white guys unveiling something" this is exactly what you would get. I've seen vanilla ice cream less vanilla than this *****. Yes, I know it doesn't matter. It is just amusing to me.

I hope there is video of this. I see reports of pyrotechnics and terry in a keybank hockey helmet.

I'd love to get him at $5-5.5M AAV, but he's got the skills and track record where $7M AAV a year is justifiable because he's the type of player that plugs a major hole on the Sabres roster. His on ice performance alone pprobably won't justify a $7M AAV in the final two years of the contract, but having guys like Kadri, Zucker, Tuch, and Dahlin around these young players over the next 2-3 years would be a huge help in the development of these young skaters and continue to drive the "change in the room" Lindy is preaching.

I hope they're not changing the colors again just to match the Key logo on the away helmets.

It’s practically another well.

For starters, and I'll say it even when he's winning Vezinas for the Sabres... it's right there in his surname. But the reason he's been poorly regarded as a product is that his performance was awful and he had some injuries along the way. If you look at Leinonen's years in the lower Liiga circuits, he's never dominating. There are a few blips of .900+, but it's rare. Ullmark (in SHL, but a 6th round pick) by comparison got into the .900s early in his J18-J20 life and stayed there, whether playing for Modo in the SHL or at the lower levels. Leinonen finally had a good (not great) season last year, but it was in Allsvenskan - 2nd tier level. His Liiga career thus far is an awful 1-10-4 with .844 sv% and 3.90 GAA. Leinonen could still become great, but he has a long way to go. For direct comparison, Niklas Kokko - the 2nd goalie taken in the 2022 draft (17 picks later by SEA) has +.900 % in almost every league he's been in (Mestis, Liiga - in 34 games, and .913 in 33 AHL games last season). His performance is that of a top goalie chosen in a draft.

AI gave me the same thing roughly