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With consistent good goaltending deficiencies get masked. That’s the most critical issue for me. In a cap system there are going to be roster weaknesses. That happens even with elite teams. Good net play overrides the problem area. A lot of attention has been directed to the loss of Jack and Reinhardt. And understandably so. However, not getting Ullnark into the fold has been a lingering and plaguing issue since he left. With an Ullmark level of net play the tenor of the discussions would be substantially different in a positive way.

Howl. Howl. Howl.

Chicago trades Joe Veleno to Seattle Burakovsky

I have no problem with Boosh, I actually really liked him, he has some tough injury luck with us and he made a few bone head plays but overall he was good i too have no problem bringing him back to play 5/6 on this team i just really want a true top 4 guy to play with Power, but Boosh would be welcomed back by me

Lyubushkin is not a top-4 d-man. We agree. The real point is that it is a myth that teams, even elite teams, have rosters that perfectly align with our preconceived notions of what a top-4 d-man is, or a top-6 forward, or, in some cases, a #1 goalie. Teams make the playoffs, finish high in the standings, go on deep playoff runs, every year, with players like Lyubushkin in their top-4-D or Evan Rodriguez in their top-6-forwards. We missed the playoffs by one point two seasons ago with a bottom pairing of Lyubushkin and Jacob Bryson (with Riley Stillman and Kale Clague in the mix), and a 2nd line of Cozens and rookie wingers Quinn and Peterka, and a goalie by committee situation. As fans, we, generally, seem to approach roster building from the perspective of acquiring our 4-7 D and our 9-13 forwards, with the goal of making up for glaring shortcomings, such as: below NHL-average-level-coaching, or overpaid youngsters (Power, Cozens, Samuelsson) being forced to play roles they are not ready for. If the Dallas Stars can finish 5th overall with Thomas Harley and Lyubushkin as their 2nd pair, then we should be able to compete for a WC spot with Power and Lyubushkin, or Byram and Clifton, as our 2nd pair.

Winning doesn’t matter when your goal is to tank the team fanbase in order to make 10x as much money selling the team to another city.

Toews is a special case. He's over 35 and coming off injury. Notice the contract is only for a single year. There are 3 classes of players that can sign contracts which include performance bonuses: Players on ELCs who are allowed to negotiate bonuses for certain listed achievements. (Though the actual bonus itself can be negotiated as long as the total of bonuses if all achieved doesn't put the total earnable salary in any single year of the up to 3 year long ELC years above the rookie cap of ~$3.8MM. There's the rookie salary cap (minus bonuses) and then there's the rookie salary CAP (including performance bonuses.) Players 35 and older can sign contracts with performance bonuses provided the contract is for a single year. Veterans (players w/ 400+ NHL games credited towards pension earnings) that were on IR for at least 100 days in the last season of their most recent SPC contract are also allowed to have earnable performance bonuses in their contract provided the contract is only for 1 season. As long as the player contract doesn't put the player outside an allowable contract (can't be for less than the league minimum without meeting any bonuses and can't put the player over the individual salary threshold should the bonuses be met) then there are essentially no limits on what non-ELC performance bonuses are allowable. (Said essentially because the total of all earnable performance bonuses for those players qualifying for non-ELC performance bonuses can't cause the team to exceed the cap by more than 7.5% of the SC. (This is the team's "performance bonus cushion".)) And if the achievement of bonuses put a team over the cap, they don't get dinged for them in that season they're earned. They count against the team's cap in the next season. E.g. a team with $1MM in cap space has a player earn $2MM in performance bonuses. At the end of the year, the 1st $1MM counts against the cap in the current season and the other $1MM counts against the team cap the following year. (Similar to how when a team buys a player out, the cap hit doesn't all hit in the 1st year of the buyout.)

Happy World Giraffe Day! https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLJ0vJyqF3H/?igsh=MW0zd2tnZXd0Z2VuNw==

If you are getting Lyubushkin to play on either of your top two pairings, you are excessively reaching. That's not appealing to me. However, getting him as a third pair player and helping to reorient how our unit plays (tougher and more basic defensively), then I'm all for it. My hope is that dealing off Byram with added inducements will bring in a defender who will be a good fit for either of the top two pairings. My priorities are to bring in an experienced goalie and to recompose the blue line unit with a couple of new faces. I know I am going to attract a lot of howls here but I haven't given up on Sameulsson as the secondary/support player on either of the top two pairings.

“ Teams Best & Worst Draft Picks of the Last Decade - The Athletic Best: Brandon Hagel The Sabres have hit on some talent at the top of the draft, but the best value pick the franchise has made this decade is finding Hagel in the sixth round of the 2016 draft. Of course, the Sabres botched it by not signing him to an entry-level contract and letting him walk. He’s since become a 90-point player for the Lightning and was on Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off. Worst: Alexander Nylander The No. 8 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, Alexander Nylander, played just 19 games and scored only three goals for Buffalo. He has just 49 points in the NHL and has now played for five different NHL teams. Mikhail Sergachev, Charlie McAvoy and Jakob Chychrun all went after him in the top half of the first round in 2016. — Matthew Fairburn” Ofcourse the Sabres best value pick is the guy they don’t sign to an ELC who goes on to be a star in the league. Botts gift to the Sabres that keeps on giving. 😂

I think a reasonable, if very unexciting, option to pair with Power is a guy who we had recently for a year and probably should have kept: Lyubushkin. I've long thought Dallas was the team we should emulate. Dallas's top 4-D this year, up until the Heiskanen injury, was Heiskanen, Harley, Lindell, and Lyubushkin. Except for Lyubushkin, all are lefties. I think that Harley is a close comp to Power. Harley is 23, had 50 points this year, with 33 hits and 110 blocked shots. Power is 22, had 40 points, 26 hits and 109 blocked shots. Harley played mostly with Lyubushkin 5v5, but Dallas would mix-up their top 4 based on game situation. Also, isn't Lindell a facsimile of what we want Samuelsson to be? And every Sabre fan knows that Dahlin is better than Heiskanen. Lyubushkin has 2 years left on his deal at $3.25. The Athletic ran an article today on 9 overpaid players who could be traded (OK, this is perhaps working against my argument). Here is what they wrote on Lyubushkin: "Ilya Lyubushkin was competent for the Stars this past season — he was nowhere near the liability that Matt Dumba was — but his $3.25 million cap hit is a tad pricey for what he offers. Lyubushkin is a steady stay-at-home defenseman with limited puck skills. He’d be solid on any team’s bottom pair, but clearly isn’t the answer for the Stars in the top four." Now, Lyubushkin was good enough to play in Dallas's top 4 all year, and not prevent Dallas from being a top regular season NHL team. Do you want him in your top 4 when you are contending for the Cup? No, but we can worry about that when we get there. My argument is basically this: I know we want a couple of new D-men, preferably R shot, to play with Dahlin and Power. And we want them to fit the billing (hey, I would like Dobson and Weegar too). But I look at the conference final teams this year and I see the following d-men in the top 4 for minutes played in the regular season (pre-trade deadline): Mikkola, Kulikov, Kulak, Gotsebehere, Lyubushkin. These are mostly guys who have been available for peanuts in recent years. Lyubushkin would not be my first choice, but we could and have done worse. And we could get him for next to nothing probably. Maybe even as an add-in that slightly lowers the cost on Robertson.

When it comes to music I'm a dullard. The era I'm still musically attached to is MoTown. Don't mock me because I deserve empathy for being so far out of touch.

I thought Mattias played his way off th stop two pairs? How much ice time did he get with Rasmus last season? If Samuelsson is on the top pair to start the 2025-2026 season, the Sabres will be vying for the top pick once again.

I agree with this. Maybe I'm missing something about Dobson's game, but isn't he a right-shot hybrid of Byram and Power? Or is he closer to a Bouchard level talent? In a perfect world, at least one of Dahlin, Byram, or Power would be a right shot. But all of them can play the right side. Of all the redundancies in their games, handedness seems like the least of them. At this point I'm 95% certain that Byram is gone. I would bet (not a lot) that we open the season with Samuelsson and Dahlin as pair #1 and that a new veteran is brought in to play with Power. Rasmus Andersson makes sense, if the Sabres aren't on his no-trade list, which is only 6 teams; maybe he hates palm-trees. The 3rd pair will be a combo of Clifton, B-Docker, Bryson, and Johnson, and it would not shock me if we re-signed Gilbert.

I would still find it hard to believe. Two things. One. He wasn’t traded from a Cup winning team. He was traded from a team that went on to win the Cup. There is a difference. Two. Internal Disgruntlement. Love that band. Their third album was a masterpiece.

His contract year is coming up next year. Another season of team failure will get him into thinking of his options. I'm not saying that I have inside information but what I do know is that the level of internal disgruntlement will increase if this team doesn't get on a better track. This topic about Tuch's not too distant options that related to his expiring contract (next year) was discussed on WGR by Paul Hamiliton. It should be remembered that Tuch was traded from a Cup winning team to a team that hasn't even sniffed the playoffs since he arrived at his new destination. There is no question that losing is demoralizing to the competitive spirit in players.

In war, yes. In professional sports? It’s the goal but clearly not the only thing that matters. It may be what matters to you personally. To the league, the teams, the players? It’s a job. A great job. Earn enough for generational wealth. Winning is fun, it makes everything better. It’s also not always easy to do. The Sabres being example A. Leagues set up their pay scale to promote parity and give seemingly everyone, a perceived equal chance of success. No one team can hoard all the best players in a salary cap system. The Sabres have found a loophole for continued failure. Put people in change with no reprecussions for job performance. The players and GM have no recourse for poor performance.

I think there has been an obvious concerted effort by most pro-sports teams to homogenize the game-day experience so that a typical fan can say they had a good time, regardless of the outcome. Teams want you buying merch and $12 popcorn and $14 beers. And at the last TV timeout they want to run a promotion and to then play the latest pop-hit and show people in the crowd smiling and dancing, regardless of the score. I don’t live near an NHL city. In the last couple of years I saw a game in Edmonton and in Calgary. Night and day experiences (in part because of the actual teams on the ice). The Oiler game was a complete and non-stop assault on one’s senses. Not a moment of time between whistles that was not filled with a fan promotion or loud music and shots of happy fans on the video screens. You could not have a meaningful discussion with the person beside you. The Flames game was more sedate. Still a lot of promotions and music, but toned down a bit. The crowd seemed a little older. For a single game experience, the Oiler game was a ton of fun, but I don’t think I would enjoy it 40 times a year. The Flames game was more to my liking and seemed like fan engagement in the game would be a bit more organic, if the team was actually good. Anyway, back to the initial post. The Oilers are certainly committed to winning. No team does up the game day stuff more than Vegas. If there is a connection between the game day experience and a commitment to winning, then I think that the more a franchise commits to the game day experience probably also reflects a greater commitment to the on ice product, rather than the other way around. If they are cheaping-out on one, they are more likely to be cheaping-out on the other.

Don't tempt me, I do love me some bread

Thank you.

I would find that really hard to believe.

That’s not a rumor. That’s just two guys talking about his situation.

I totally agree. Who cares if winning matters to the tourist or visiting fan. I'm a Yankees fan, if I visit Fenway should they worry about entertaining me? The only main focus in any arena, for that arena, should be winning for the people that are fans of the team playing in said arena. Yeah I'm good with making it fun for the kids and different "levels" of food options, rich people/poor people, everyone in between. But asking if winning matters to a person not a fan of the two teams playing? Who cares! One they're already there, so you already got 'em and two they'll enjoy it more if the home team goes bananas. How could any organization spend time caring if that person or people come back, next time they're in the area?

Also guys coming off of long term injuries. He checks all the boxes.