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He is certainly willing to make deals, but which major young player did he trade away? https://www.nhltradetracker.com/user/trade_list_by_GM/Jarmo_Kekalainen/135/4 I went through all four pages of his trade history and only saw one proven high end young talent developed in the CBJ system that he traded away. I see plenty of acquisitions of proven talent like Duchene, Panarin and Saad. The closest to a JJP trade would have been Johansen for Seth Jones. This was a swap of former top 4 picks. At the time CBJ was in desperate need of talented young puck moving D. We don't have such a need. That 1 high level young player trades in 10 years as GM. I'm sorry, but I don't see Jarmo advising Adams to move JJP.

I get that, but you also have to have a clear plan and direction going in so that you make moves for those players and you don't do this sort of rotational add and subtract getting nowhere. Young players also need clear direction and expectation.

This move has restored hope in me that they are still trying to be a real NHL franchise. At some point about 2/3 into the Bills’ pre-TP drought, I realized that Ralph had stopped trying and was just cashing the checks — and this past season I kinda got there with TP and the Sabres. I hope I’m wrong. This move helps. But I won’t feel confident that TP is all in until I see them spending close to the cap this year.

I don't think Ottenger is the one leaving town...

Would you trade 9 for Rossi?

Yes, there currently is depth at LHD. But IF they trade away Samuelsson and 1 of Power or Byram, is that still the case? And, even if they don't trade their NHL LHD depth away this year, will next season's GM still agree that it shouldn't be traded away? Personally like the idea of taking BPA with the 1st & 2nd round picks and then go for filling in gaps in the pipeline with the rest of the lottery tickets. (And ALWAYS draft a goalie every year. They're way too hard to evaluate at 18.) And like the idea of trading the pick for help TODAY even better. 😉

Jarmo has not shied away from smaller players in the past. The hard part is convincing the members of the front office who passed on him in 2020, that’s it’s not a bad thing to trade for him now

His record says otherwise. He’s not afraid to make trades, including his best young players

I remember when Buddy Nix said you gotta take the best player available. We had Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson already, but Nix was a BPA guy. So we took CJ Spiller. Given there wasn't room for 3 feature backs we traded Marshawn for a 4th round pick and a conditional pick. But essentially we traded out 9th overall pick, for the next year's 4th round pick and lost Lynch in the process. Meanwhile we were deficient all through the lineup at every position besides RB. So, given our organizational strength at LHD and undersized F's, I think we need to draft for need, especially since there are no surefire franchise changing players in this draft at 9th.

We can hope for a similar end result

Sounds like Danny Briere 2.0 type trade possibility

Agree. Vader wasn’t really on Tarkin’s leash, was he? @DarthEbriate The Emperor is of course another matter but I digress

Digesting this longer, I think Jarmo will be strong voice in the planing and strategy, plus his past ability to execute trades will be helpful.

At his most press conference he looked a defeated man Most recent, even @That Aud Smell

True, the sytle has changed based upon personnel. But the timing of that is off slightly. They started moving towards a significanlty more offensive entertaining style shortly BEFORE THE lockout. So, they were very well positioned to take advantage of the rules opening up the game when the lockout ended.

He's short and I believe he was on the ice for 2g against. I'm not being flippant either, the talk out of Minnesota is that Rossi's size isn't in favor with the GM. Rossi has limits due to size. I think Minnesota wants to get harder to play against and specifically bigger.

Some won't wait until the end of the season to turn negative, some will wait until its official that another one has bitten the dust. But, personally, see today as once again bringing us that fleeting glint of hope. But regardless of whether that glint manages to germinate an actual seed into something fruitful or not; don't see where it's the fans fault that for far too long SHKIIIP has been nonarable land. Personally don't get why people must fan one certain way or they're doing it "wrong." EVERYBODY at this site is ridiculously fanatical about this team (even the ones that have been nearly wiped from considering themselves fanatics or even simply the diminutive of that word "fans" any more). If some poster "hedging" his view on today's news irks you so, why not just come up with a list of people to temporarily put on ignore and enjoy that once again we've been given a glint of hope.

I think the Sabres want to be a pace-pushing, always-attacking team, both on offence and defence. Adams has said it numerous times, as has Ruff.

Why do we think Rossi got 4th line minutes in the playoffs? He was their 10th most used forward (11th if you count Hinostroza, who played just 1 game) at 11:08 per game. He was behind Freddie Gaudreau and Marcus Johansen. He averaged 18 minutes during the regular season. Evason is an idiot is not an acceptable answer; he had reasons, what were they? Could the fact he went 3/6/9/-13 in 23 games down the stretch, been a factor? If so, why did he slump? His ice time was not cut in the regular season. Im not interested in investing assets in another guy who’s not a playoff-type performer.

When Lindy started with the team in the 90s, they played a tight checking, low scoring game. After the lockout, he saw the roster he had and turned the offence dial to 11. When asked about the stark contrast between the two styles of play, he publicly stated that you need to coach to your team's strengths. If you have a high flying offence, you don't constrain them in a defense first system. So theoretically, our coaching staff can adapt to the type of roster we're able to assemble. It's hard to get good players... let alone players that only play a particular style, so largely you need to play with the cards as they're dealt.

I'd still like a clear identity to the Sabres that is stated clearly and then coaches etc. are hired to fit that identity and when they don't live up to playing like that stated identity we and they can call them out on it. What exactly are the Sabres aside from young?

Ya. If you need the C to lead you are no leader at all. If Jarmo is the most fit to steer this ship he’ll be the one doing the steering It was either on Friday or Stanksturday

When did Adams show these mannerisms? Today? Did they put out a video? The guy’s never exhibited in-charge vibes during his entire time as GM.

And Juri Kulich could be as good as Sebastian Aho. I’d still take Aho.