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It's hard for me to really remember how Briere played shift to shift.

He really is very much a "trust the process" man. If I'm honest with myself, I think I am too, and that's why probably why I'm willing to give him every opportunity to play this out. I think by and large his strategy is the correct one given this market and the crater that has been built in it. But just because the strategy is correct, that doesn't mean the execution is correct. That's where I tend to see things differently than @PerreaultForever a lot. I think Adams actually is trying to do a lot of the things he complains about in terms of culture and building from within. It's the execution where the two of them differ: Adams went speed and skill first over grit and defence, and force-feeding youth responsibility early rather than shielding them behind a collection of Pat Maroons and Brian Giontas. Given where we started in the summer of '21, I personally think we'd be in about the same place right now, had we followed the Maroon/Gionta path: a playoff bubble team, crossing our fingers that the youth was about to break out. But we will never know. What we will find out over the next 12 months is whether Adams did indeed blow it, and a Lindy-led core of Thompson/Tuch/Cozens/Quinn/Peterka/Bryum/Dahlin/Power/UP/Levi - developed the way he has chosen to develop it - has the right stuff. Because that is what Adams has built, entirely by design, and that is where he will sink or swim.

Of course, it’s just so easy to do now and yes I know your post was actually about the scouts. It’s just a funny distinction I wanted to raise because as of now, I’d rather have Jack’s career than Connor’s. We’ll see on the oilers this year tho i do know the Canucks are finished

It’s that simple for me. Me and Adams are very different (beyond the full luxurious head of hair thing). Adams is a Stanley Cup champion. I have decided a Stanley cup is never likely therefore useless as as both justification, and utter goal, of being a Sabres fan

Leaving tomorrow for Prague. Bringing my signed Iginla 2002 Salt Lake jersey and a goat head hat to show support for Cozens, Power and Byram. Bucket list item would be to bump into Hasek.

I get this. Make the playoffs even if you need to move a young asset and keep building on the success of being a playoff team. Make the playoffs.

Figured you would come to his defence. I don’t think I have taken any shots at his skills. He’s a very good player on a good team. I might pile on when people comment about his Huh! interview and the stuff about the loudest he’s ever heard, blah blah blah. He wasn’t my favourite Sabre when he was here because of the Masshole vibes. Anyway, I was mainly taking a shot at the term generational which almost every top draft pick seems to get tagged with.

He might value long term success as much as I/we do: I’m not inside his head. Seems like it’s plausible. But he doesn’t value a playoff berth in and of itself as highly as I do: I think that’s clear Both in terms of product value outright, and also strategically in terms of it’s usefulness as an almost alchemical tool in building future success for him playoffs are a “achieve by way of the successful implementation of..” and for me they are a little more of a “will result in more success” dynamic. For him playoffs are symptom of success, for me I think they may be cause, in large part - such is the nature of this mystical 13 year stretch

No, we tanked when our previous core failed because losing was acceptable. The Roy, Pominville, Stafford, Ennis, Myers years were the shitshow that got us all into this god-awful mess in the first place. Losing being acceptable was a culture well in place before the tank.

I think the way you worded it is pretty accurate. Adams is a man of conviction. No absence of the typical human stubbornness we are all prone to. As mentioned, the prevailing tone of that video is “I told you this would happen.”, it really was. There won’t be an urgency to turn over every stone in a pursuit of any lose cheerio that may provide the nutrients of a season in which we can finish top 16: but you can see it in his face and demeanour - there’s certainly an urgency for the a top 16 finish *by way of the natural fruition of his plan*. He thinks that’s probably this coming season but, the goal is never going to come before a descriptor of the process in any uttered sentence from him, do you know what I mean? Not sure if that answers your question

Do you think playoffs are the goal? I’m familiar with your position on that personally, and that’s not the discussion I’m going for here. I’m looking for your reading of Adams. Previously, Adams has always been pretty explicit that his goal was to build a team that could be a contender for a long time. Ideally, Tampa/Chicago, but if not, at least Carolina/Boston/Washington. I don’t think that has shifted at all. He’s not switched into “playoffs or bust” mode, I think he’s “critical mass is now here for long-term success” mode. Might be semantics as far as this season goes, but in general do you think his mindset has shifted?

That’s the only way any dealing of future assets makes sense - that’s why you are dealing them. No one prefers to give up the better asset just for fun. It’s just that, if you aren’t willing to deal your most valued future assets, that’s fine, but the offshoot is generally a season filed with “well, who even was there?” you sacrifice the pick because you need to make the deal, not to present a message. Adams talks a lot of messaging but i haven’t seen him make any personnel swaps that seem a message in and of themselves

Won a cup as the best player in the entire playoffs, so, the ideal player to draft “lol”

Haven’t looked, I’m watching Peterka and Germany vs USA.

There’s a statute of limitations on all this “when the poor culture started” stuff. It can change year over year simply by fielding a winning team. The mistakes of the tank aren’t a literal obstacle anymore. We missed the playoffs by 1 point last year, and that’s all we need to shake it: we weren’t prevented from gaining that 1 point by some mystical lingering culture force

So it’s the time of the year where we complain about how good the players are that we couldn’t wait to run out of town when they were here? Hmm…Krebs can definitely be ERod, different position, but Owen Power can be Reinhart (smart, but way too soft), UPL is Ullmark, Cozens for Mittelstadt, Greenway for Carrier, Skinner for Montour (skill, consistency issues, punchable face), gotta reach a bit for Jokiharju, but you guys are good. You’ll come up with something.

This Norway v Czechia game is something.

? The culture started when we decided to tank where losing was acceptable.

Yeah, Rob Lachowicz. Good guy. Hard worker.

People are saying his messaging has been on point this offseason, and I can kinda see it at times, but if you watch that there still seems an incredible resistance to simply uttering the words “playoffs are the goal.” the overall tone here was one imo more so of defensiveness: “if you remember 4 years ago, I said it would take time and patience. Well, you got it. Plan continues.” And he started out by carefully highlighting that it was his 5th year of GM. At first I was impressed: ok, he’s saying year 5, he’s saying it’s been a long time now and it’s go time. But he actually brought up year 5 to separate himself from the “13 years” frank led off with Haha

I think if Adams can move several of our existing prospects for a piece that helps now, he should keep the pick. Clearing out prospects who are on the cusp of moving to the NHL roster and refilling the pipeline with someone who is years away from the pros makes more sense. The only way trading the pick makes sense is if the return is a clear-cut improvement to the roster filling a dire need. If he can't do that, and, instead, makes a trade to look like he's doing something, but the return is just another player who looks good on paper but doesn't do anything for the roster (see Bo Byram), then Adams needs to be fired.

Because the league also primarily exists to sell tickets and winning gets you more games you can sell tickets to: the reality of the AHL is that it’s both. It’s a development league and a professional, entertainment based league, too. Tough balancing act for every organization. It does provide a good cautionary tale in general: our alottment of prospects doesn’t translate to winning in an inferior league, we can’t just graduate guys and win in a better league, it just doesn’t work like that. I understand we don’t have all our prospects together at the same time there but no team ever does, NHL or not. We didn’t even have prime Eichel together with ROR. A lot of team building is timing. Regardless of league

I wish Clague and Jost were on the roster. Would of better matched the far more seasoned Crunch team. Plus what has happened to Prow, is he just old now?

That in of itself is sort of a catch-22; when your team is good the AHL team will naturally become storage for extra players. When your team is building up or tearing down you'll have an influx of youth needing a spot to play and Top 6 AHLers won't sign because they feel they should play on your NHL squad. I agree with this part; but also feel there's a limit on how much a player can gain from playing in lesser leagues and due to our prospect numbers it creates a bit of a crunch.