Taro T

That's an interesting way to look at a rebuild. IMHO, a rebuild needs to be judged relative to how close the team is to being a true legitimate contender not simply whether it is seasoned or not. Yes, Detroit is more seasoned in general than the Sabres are at present, but simply don't see them contending nor close to contending. So, IMHO they are either behind in the rebuild because the Sabres are closer to contending legitimately. Or their rebuild has stalled, which again puts the Sabres as being closer to contending legitimately. Kind of like how the Sabres 1st 2 rebuilds stalled out. After year 2 of each, they weren't ahead of pretty much anybody. And they circled back to square 1 about 1 year later each time.

Really expecting pretty much the same season from Tuch that we saw last year. @dudacek talked about "right place - right time" and Alex might be the poster child for that. He's a special player (not in the Dahlin type special, but special none-the-less) playing in the place he always dreamed of playing. Really believe that being here in Buffalo, he's a bit more than he'd be elsewhere. And absolutely love that he's a Sabre.

Yes, 2 of those arrived prior to Beane. But both of those 2 were well within the MC portion of the McBeane era. Edmonds, who is getting a truck ton of money from Chicago seems to be much more highly rated elsewhere than in Buffalo would, by the way he gets ball washed on the broadcasts, also arguably be called a star. Wyatt Teller is a star (well as much as a guard on a horrible team can be). And Harrison Phillips is still a beast. All, Beane draft picks. How many players selected outside the top 1/2 of the top round are expected to be "stars?" Especially w/in their 1st 3 seasons? Beane has had exactly 3 picks in the top 1/2 of the 1st round in his 6 drafts: Allen, Edmonds, and Oliver. Oliver was looking real last year until the high ankle sprain. Let's see how he does this year before declaring Beane can't draft "stars." He absolutely can draft starters.

They had Rick Dennison as the OC the year Mahomes was drafted. Can see why they didn't see that as ideal for a QB brand new to the league. Pretty sure they also thought there was a solid possibility that their draft spot in 2018 would be pretty high as they dumped nearly all their "name" players and kept Tyrod Taylor at QB. Had they started out at 10 in that draft rather than 21 they definitely don't have to give up as much draft capital to get to 7 and 16 in that draft. So, the plan from day 1 when McDermott showed up to not let the outgoing GM draft the QB of the future (hello Buddy; been there, done that) and instead wait until the GM he trusted was in place with a draft class that next year coming along which compared at least prior to the draft as in the same league as the vaunted 1983 QB class. And the reason many (not sure if it's most or not, but many Bills fans, this one included, felt this way) Bills fans didn't want Allen is while he had the most raw tools of any of the QBs available in '18; he also was the most raw and the Bills coaching staff included a HC with a defensive pedigree, an OC who had success as a receivers and TE coach with some schmuck named Brady but had no success in any form as an OC in the NFL and had spent the previous year as an OC at Alabama, and a QB coach (David Culley) that nobody had ever heard of. Throw in arguably the worst WR corps in the league and a mediocre at best offensive line. Who in their right mind EXPECTS that to be a successful situation for him to walk into. Had Mahomes gone to the Bills and Allen to the Chefs; expect Josh would be the one with 2 SB's but not positive we'd be looking at Mahomes as a sure fire HoFer. And as for Beane not being any good at drafting, pretty sure 11 of his picks are going to be starters on this team this season and at least 3 others will be starting for other teams. And if the "Punt God" weren't railroaded out of the league, it would be 15 of his picks are starters. 15 out of 25 (11 O, 11 D, 3 ST) in 6 years. That seems pretty good from this vantage point. And on a team that won it's division the past 3 years and is the favorite to do so again.

And getting away from the focus of this thread, but Lyubushkin was very bad when he was playing through the early season leg injury especially when he was paired with somebody that should've been in Ra-cha-cha (which was pretty much everybody on the depth chart below Fitzgerald). When healthy, he was pretty much as advertised. Still am disappointed that we won't see how he would've worked out in his 2nd year in Granato's system especially when he'd've been paired with a player better than himself when on the 2nd pairing or drawing relatively easy minutes with another actual NHLer on the 3rd pairing. But they likely made assurances about playing time to Johnson to get him to sign and Granato loves him some Jokiharju; so he likely was pencilled in as #7 and it's understandable why he'd want out if he in fact did want out. Hoping the estimate of 20 games for Bryson is on the high side. But would be very surprised if Samuelsson and Johnson both exceed 65 games and the rest of the crew will get dinged up some too.

Expecting him to get mostly the same usage (at least until Quinn is healthy and back to game shape) on the 2nd line and 2nd PP with getting shorted ice time in the 3rd of games they're protecting a lead; so with no increase in responsibility. But do expect to see him nuzzling just above the 50 point plateau. So, didn't vote because it's a pretty fair split between option 2 and option 3.

Never said it does directly affect (nor directly effect) the STH base. This policy is strictly for single game seats. But, if a 20 something from Fort Erie or Niagara on the Lake has to wait until the people in Kenmore and Penfield all get cracks at tix and he either can't buy a ticket or ends up in the corner in the nosebleeds when tix at CI were still available; maybe he gets ticked off and says screw it and eventually gives up on the Sabres. There'll be a few people that happens to. How many people that grew up Sabres fans that were planning on taking a trip to Buffalo are now going to bag the trip because they can't get good seats on day 1? There'll likely be a few of those as well. Rather than worrying about whether people are rooting for the Sabres, Loafs, or Kraken when they're in the building; how about worrying about how do they convert those that are within what should be their market that aren't Sabres fans into Sabres fans. A much bigger priority of theirs should be getting the Sabres on TV on the NP. And an even bigger priority than that should be making the team good again. (Which is outside that VP's responsibilities; but coming up with a better TV plan isn't.)

Well, get the Sabres back on either OTA TV in Buffalo or on cable TV on the NP and after a handful of years you push the bulk of the barbarians back to the other side of Welland. Which is a start. They're never going to eliminate this issue, but this particular solution is going to shaft a lot of their existing fan base which will have the perverse result of turning some of them into Sabres haters. Still don't see why they don't wait to see how icing a great team works towards solving the issue rather than just hammering it now. There are a LOT of Fish fans in Ra-cha-cha. (A fair number over the border as well.) The Bills don't need to resort to this type of solution to keep how many of their fans show up down to manageable levels. Put a good product out in front of the fans and your fans will want to show up. Until the past couple of years, the MMArena was never overtaken by Bruin fans even though as a relic of the Bruins Amerks affiliation there are a lot of Bruins fans in Ra-cha-cha. What, are they going to stop allowing folks from the former Flour City to buy tickets the day they go on sale too? Maybe they get hypertechnical with this and bump certain zip codes on a game by game basis? Why yes Mr. Pittsford resident you may buy a Yotes ticket immediately but if you want to see the B's it's the back of the bus for you! Just seems like they're planning on using a saws all when an exacto knife would do. Maybe a little sandpaper (fixing the team) is all they really need and both cutting methods are excessive?

Durn shame they traded Lyubushkin away because he's the 9 if Busch is still here. Personally like Clague's game better than Bryson's (kind of like saying paying bills is less annoying than filling out tax forms; don't really like either task) but expecting Bryson stays the 8 which means he'll play in about 20 games this year. But don't see him as anything more than that.

There certainly are 1,000's of Sabres fans in the building most all nights from Southern Ontario (the Niagara Peninsula east of Welland particularly). Had a little health issue yesterday (am fine now), so am still a smidge groggy and don't recall if it's 2k or 4k; but it is significant in a building that tops out at ~19k. So, they really are most likely messing with a significant portion of the fan base by implementing this policy. And with that said, IMHO the much better plan to remedy this issue is to ice a good to great hockey team. They're on the way towards doing that. Back in the Criminals and Golisano days, there were 2 large groupings of seats in the 100's and another about 1/2 their size that were owned by ticket brokers. Probably 600 - 800 seats total that were always primarily filled with visiting fans (even for Vancouver or Atlanta (ok, well maybe not primarily filled with Atlanta fans, but there were still 50 or so there)). And then when the Loafs, Habs, Penguins, or Bruins showed up in town there could be anywhere from 2k - 6k more of those fans in the building depending upon how both teams were doing and which night of the week it was. And it was pretty rare for it to be up to 6k because most of the seats were STH seats and minipack seats and online secondary ticket markets didn't exist. But though those fans were loud, they still were in the minority, and were way more a minor irritant than something to get up in arms about. Since new ownership took over, it became way easier to sell tix on the 2ndary market and the Sabres were really bad. Those 2 items are what's driven the increase in obnoxious Loaf fans showing up in the building. Until they see how much of that is due to the former rather than the latter; it seems this plan is premature. They're never going to eliminate visiting fans being in the building and they shouldn't want to totally eliminate it anyhow. But would prefer to see how the Sabres being an exciting and good team to watch lowers how many of those invaders show up before implementing a plan that ignores that aspect of this issue. My 2 cents.

In the pipeline? Personally don't really consider Power nor Levi to be in the pipeline as they're pencilled into the top 4 and the starter role respectively. And expect BOTH of them to become stars though it would be too much to ask to have either/both in the Dahlin class. MAYBE Cozens becomes a star. Personally expect him to be in the Peca level of stardom. We'd consider him a star and some around the league would as well. Not sure that was a universal opinion and there really was no harm nor shame in that. Expect Benson also has the potential to be a star too. But it's waaaaaaaay to early to say that and definitely too early to expect it. But is fun to wonder just how many of these players could get there.

ENERGY - natural gas, prospecting, drilling, producing, etc. Didn't want to limit it to CH4 specifically as couldn't recall if they still had any petroleum producing properties as well. And they turned a 4 - 5 figure investment into a 10 figure nut. They do that well.

At the end of the day, under the Pegulas the Sabres have been a disaster, the Bandits rose back to where they were back in the 90's and 00's, the Bills lingered in mediocrity the 1st 2 years but have been very good since, the Amerks have gone from near disaster to winning playoff rounds, and the Kin-ig-hit Hawks went from expansion club to Bandit playoff toy in only 3 years. You can say none of it is on him, but at the end of the day, again, the buck stops with him on all of it. And fortunately, he's gotten good people in the right places and let them do their job in 4 of the 5 ventures. And it's possible we're on the verge of his teams being 5 for 5. (6 for 6 if you want to include getting the right coaches and trainers available for Jessica to rise to the top as well.) (No data on the team in Jacksonville as they haven't even played a game since coming on board, so they aren't included.) And yes, it may very well be getting out the way of the right people. It actually pretty much is that. And that's the way it should be unless the owner has a particular background in the sport (and even then it oftentimes should be, as fans of the Dallas Cowpokes would tell you.) But there are a lot of indications that's where we're finally at wrt the Sabres as well.

Oh yeah, the Sabres (and their fans) have suffered immensely under the current ownership. And the owners' non-energy related and non-sports entities have all seemed far less than ideal at best. But the Sabres are the only one of the sports teams they've owned for any appreciable time that haven't been at the top of tier. And, it seems (provided GT holds up) that the Sabres are poised to join those other squads. Ownership in general does energy well and (w/ the notable exception for the Sabres) sports as well too.

Basham's a Jint. Apparently a late round pick swap accompanies the move.

Well, it would seem to be at least 3 organizations (and possibly 5) not including any management aspect PSE had over the tennis pheonom's activities. Presumably the Amerks & Jacksonville still fall under the Sabres direction and the Bandits (and Kin-ig-hit Hawks) do their own things as well. It also SEEMS that Roth and Pegula are both still actively involved in the Bills. So, the only things that changed from this vantage point are all the little sideline projects might be gone and maybe running Harbor Center is now its own thing as well. Those that have speculated that this is pretty much a move used to bow to the reality that K. Pegula can no longer keep all her irons on the fire and T. Pegula doesn't want to champion all those side endeavors seem to be onto something.

Didn't look through the thread, so apologies if this one's been used: Jokiharju - Krebs - Greenway Dahlin - Johnson Levi (Henri likes to join the rush, why not leave him up there?) Or just play SH: Quinn - Krebs Dahlin - Johnson Levi Realize there are combinations that do have 3 F's, 2 D, & a G that don't include 26 & 27; but those 2 were not optional IMHO. And with only 47 digits left, until somebody reclaims 9 there aren't many actual functional lineups that wouldn't get blown up. As soon as somebody does take that number, then swap Rousek in for Greenway and #9 for Henri.

If the Sabres leave, this kid just got a HUGE defacto raise and way more free time. Would really rather they didn't and don't expect they will.

It could also be a precursor to eventually having the kids splitting up the empire when Terry's and Kim's trips around the sun on this marble come to an end. No idea which kids get to split the $3B+ Bills and which one ends up with the significantly less valuable Sabres. Reminds one of this:

Glad that they will finally be fixing the sound system. Have taken to putting in ear plugs when going to the rink because it is so loud at our seats. Saw that they'll be, in theory, improving the food in the rink. Wonder if they'll address the lack of consistency of quality from one stand to another? That's nearly as big an issue as the food in general being subpar. They're going to have a 1,000 member fan food council? They haven't had the 20 or so member regular fan council meet in over a year. Get that active again before moving on to this other thing.

Dan Kelly should be ahead of Emrick. Other than that, nice choices. Hewitt, Kelly, Gallivan, and Jeaneret are THE 4 in hockey.

Considering we don't know what Johnson has left in the tank and Jokiharju is a (very) poor man's Dahlin or Power with significant issues in transition back into his own zone and in 5v5 in zone coverage (though he is good at in zone PK coverage, go figure) you can say Lyubushkin is at absolute best the 7 on this team but it wasn't necessarily the case. Neglecting the politics that come with those 2 players pencilled in on the 3rd pairing, there were 3 players on this roster that could've been either the 5 or 6. Plus, this team will NOT have the D remain as healthy as the F's were last year. They need at least 8 guys that can take a regular shift for long stretches and neither Bryson nor Clague give one the "warm fuzzies" should they need to play in 10 or so consecutive games. (1 game, sure; 2 games, maybe. But no way is it a good thing to have either of those in the lineup for a long stretch.) Still hoping this was the move that's a precursor to another D man coming in. That puts Stillman back into the 8 spot and Johnson and Jokiharju rotating into the 6 from the 7. With Clague, Bryson, and Johnson available to be the 3rd guy brought in for a couple of games when the injury bug is severe. Otherwise, they just made it substantially harder to win games when Samuelsson and X are out. Which we all know is almost assuredly going to happen at some point.

Don't forget the sideline throw to Davis that got called back because of another Brown penalty. Absolutely. Thought a few of those calls were very ticky-tack. But even having 8 penalties in a full game is bad; were they only called 8 times in the 1st half it would still have been horrendously bad and something they have to fix. Am hoping the offensive penalties were due in most part to guys knowing they were on islands against very good pass rushers which would not happen in the regular season. Was extremely disappointed in Elam's play on the other side of the ball. Flip Benford's and Elam's draft slots and nobody cares, but a 1st rounder looking so bad in his 2nd season is problematic. Chalked Elam's problems getting on the field last year as being due to being a man corner in a zone D but he's got to figure this out. If Bernard isn't back soon could see Beane trading for a MLB. Dotson looked very bad in that role.

USED the Wolves of the AHL for the past 3 years. But Chicago didn't renew the affiliation agreement. Don't know nor care enough about the Canes to find out where they'll be sending their prospects this year. Hades works just fine.

He played injured a LOT last year. When healthy, he was a solid stay at home D-man. Was really looking forward to seeing how he'd perform this year in his 2nd year in Granato's very different style of play; especially if he would stay healthy. Spacek went from a healthy scratch in the playoffs in his 1st season to team captain at the innaugural Ice Bowl. D-men often look significantly better in their 2nd season on a new team than they did in their 1st season. But, from Granato's perspective he can now justify his love of all things Jokiharju and keeping him in the top 6. Was a much closer call should Lyubushkin been back. Still hoping this means a bigger D trade is in the works. Because if they do bring in another true top 4 quality D-man, can see not wanting to have 11 NHL capable D-men in the organization (not necessarily 11 GOOD NHL D-men as Bryson and Clague aren't, but there are at least a handful of NHL teams that they could legitimately be the designated pressbox sitter when fully healthy and it would be terribly discouraging to know there were 4 guys ahead of you (plus they may want to look at Ryan Johnson before going to the 10 or 11 should injuries hit hard) to actually play in the NHL again).