Taro T

You were not the only Reinhart fan boi around here. And @Weave at a minimum also was never particularly sold on Eichel, too. Probably a couple of others. Personally, really enjoyed watching Eichel play when he was healthy. But am glad the drama is past. This is the first, LITERALLY, off-season we've had without drama since before the Knoxes started selling a minority stake to the criminal. (And even with that we still had the hopefully successful drama of Mrs. Pegula's hospitalization. In some ways our franchise seems cursed. And such a bizarre curse - you will never be able to simply have an off-season where there aren't concerns about which key players they'll lose or whether the team will still have owners. What drunk Loaf fan stumbling out of the Aud on a night where the Loafs got embarrassed again managed to slur that one out? Can we ritually sacrifice a case of Labatts and be done with it?) (Sorry, rambling.)

To the bolded, unless there has been a recent addition to the development staff, Adams is on record as wanting to add 1 more body there & he also wants to add 1 more scout. (He'd said the analytics department is set up as they want it to be.) Which means there will be even more contact between the team & the prospects. And it is so good to see the Sabres doing what we'd've hoped they'd do under the previous owner - spend a little bit of the billionaires' money in other areas than just spending on player salary (which is capped per the CBA) because they can spend as much as they want in those other areas. It's the polar opposite of introducing video scouting. (True, they are saving tons on player salary at present, but really doubt the hockey department will get gutted when Dahlin is making ~$9MM/yr nor that he'll be allowed to walk to maintain an internal cap.) If the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a freight train, they're setting up the support structure to stay good for a long time.

With Bishop being fully eligible for BF-LTIR, providing the rumors are correct that the team controlling his rights would only be out of pocket $750k thanks to insurance, all taking on Bishop's contract did was save the Stars $750k. Suppose they might've gotten a 6th for taking him, but doubt it. The Sabres got the 7th and near certainty that they'd be able to make a mid-season move without worrying about going under the cap floor. Which is a decent purchase for only $750k IMHO.

If they do have any left, even though they run small, maybe you can squeeze into one. Got 1 of the w/b butterknives that is way tighter than a normal hockey sweater (definitely couldn't play hockey in it, but it's big enough to just sit & watch it) but it is wearable. And it is possible that they might've had additional HCs in the back room that weren't on the rack that they didn't notice in the backroom. (The store was a zoo that day.) Still expect a phone call couldn't hurt any.

They won't. Whatever they have (and they ordered last year) is what they have. At this year's home opener they had maybe 6 of the white & blue butter knife sweater left from the shortened season. If you really want one would recommend calling them and asking what they have. Almost positive they will ship. And if for some reason they can't / won't, they will hold it for you until you can get there. PS - the Adidas sweaters run smaller than typical. Size 48 in the CCM or ProPlayer sweaters is equivalent to a 52 or 54 in Adidas.

Totally unrelated questions. Was the Sabres store open & if so, were the new 3rds in it?

He has. And it's fair to believe he can at this level too. But he would not be the 1st nor the last to not win at the highest level even though he won at lower levels. Our own previous # 1 example of coach as a motivator has won 3 titles at the Junior level but none at the highest level. When nearly 97% of all coaches & teams don't win in any given year, the odds are against it even if he turns out to be the best coach this team has ever seen & even if this team is more cohesive than the '74-'75 version. As long as he keeps this team entertaining and he & Adams keep this team competitive (providing they get it to there), it'll be good enough IMHO. But ain't my John Hancock on the checks.

Injuries really derailed him. Sad.

Hope you're right. For our sake & theirs. They both seem like straight shooters & bright and seem to have ownerships trust.

Talking about starting the year w/ Quinn &/or Peterka in Ra-cha-cha, wonder if anybody would be able to find easily/ readily how often the Sabres had less than 15 F's on the roster and only 8 D in the past 5 years? Doubt it was more than a handful of games after the 10 game mark in any of those years. So, there likely isn't much reason for a fear of locking them in Ra-cha-cha by adding F's that can legitimately play top 9/ bottom 6 to start the year w/ them in the A or having to send them back down later or losing an F later that they don't want to lose to the waiver wire.

Adams is absolutely in position to cement his role for a long time if the Sabres starting goaltending ever rejoins the ranks of NHL caliber starting goaltending. Granato may be in that spot as well; too soon to say. Because if he ends up a hockey version of Marty Schottenheimer or Chuck Knox eventually ownership will likely want to roll the dice on someone that can get them over the top. (Presuming Granato can be as effective with a veteran team as he appears to be with a developing team.) Almost ALL coaches get fired at some point & usually well before 10 years in 1 place. But his demeanor & intelligence might let him be one of those rare exceptions. All that said, hoping you're right.

To the bolded 100%. But, with as deferentially as Adams speaks about Anderson, really doubt it was in the cards unless it was something like the nearly executed Murray trade. And not convinced that Adams signs Comrie if he has Murray, though it's possible & would've made the whole platoon that much more likely to be able to be good enough w/ Murray assuming last year's Dell role. (I.e., given a legit shot to be on the Sabres but more likely Ra-cha-cha bound had they still then signed Comrie.) Would trust Murray way more than UPL or Subban should 1 of the top 2 need relief for injury or exhaustion or whatever.

No idea what move Adams will make but fully expect he isn't done w/ the big team's roster yet. This sort of move is quite plausible; it's kind of a Skinner-esque trade for bottom 6 help.

Nice. 🍺

Oh, Price is a HoFer, but definitely not on Hasek's plane. The comment you quoted was, as you noted, directed towards the the idea that Noone else has had that same effect on a roster. Pretty sure we're on the same page; just stating it differently. 🍺

True dat. (Providing it's not Comrie that goes down.)

Yeah, the management team definitely seems to favor trying to select & develop offensively gifted D-men. Considering there's a lot more of the true (or at least primarily) defensive D-men around and good ones can be picked up as UFAs for under $3MM / year 😉 ; they might be onto something there.

IMHO, depending upon how Granato deploys the skaters onto the 2nd - 4th lines, and again hopefully it changes based upon opponent, rather than just having 2 & 3 getting balanced ice time, all 3 of those lines could be comparable. And truthfully, could see Lybushenko & Jokiharju getting similar ice time too. With Dahlin & Samuelsson getting the lion's share and Power being a solid 3rd in ice time shortly into the season, if not right from day 1.

With Skinner, Thompson, Tuch, Asplund, Mittelstadt, Olofsson, Cozens, Okposo, Girgensons pretty much locks to be in the top 12 on opening night and Krebs, Quinn, Peterka, & Hinostroza vying for the other 3 spots; and with Dahlin, Samuelsson, Power, Jokiharju, & Lyubuskin pretty much locks to be in the top 6 with Bryson, Pilut, Fitzgerald, & the 3 tweeners vying for the 6th spot; and Comrie & Anderson between the pipes; this lineup when healthy might actually finally have ALL 20 spots filled with ACTUAL NHLers and if the don't IMHO at most they're only shy a 6 D, 12th F, or backup goalie (or some combination). And this is with Adams still having nearly 3 months & $19MM in cap space to fill those last holes/ all depth. It seems this will at most be the 2nd time since the Pegulas owned the team and possibly only the 1st time since then that we've been able to say the entire game night lineup is comprised of NHLers. Which is a good thing to finally have once again. Were there any other Sabres teams since we were told there will be suffering that are this deep? Ottomh, can't think of any.

He's taking it in Rubles. With the exchange rate, it will be. 😉

Beat me to it. 🍺 Stanley Cup Finalist to 32nd out of 32. (There were some other changes too, but Price was the biggest difference by far.)

There definitely won't be 8 100 point teams unless the East teams pretty much treat the West teams like they did back in '67. Can't see there being that much dominance cross conference though the East will will the bulk of the matchups. All the top East teams took at least as small hit on paper (not sure that's true for Carolina & the Rags, haven't seen their moves, but expect it will be for at least the Rags w/ them losing Copp & their backup goalie) & most of the has been have improved on paper. It should be fun to watch this year as there will be a lot of good hockey in the MMArena this year.

Like @gilbert11 said. 😉

Yeah. Everyone is mentioning the Otters, Wings, & BJs as additional competition for a playoffs spot. But Joisey has made some nice moves this off-season too. Going to be much easier to make the playoffs in the West IMHO. Moe-ray-all & Filly are the only 2 pushovers left in the East. (MAYBE the Aisles drift down to that level too, but doubt it.)

They have 3 2nd round picks so they have a lot of ammunition for restocking the D pipeline. And if a 1-2 year stopgap or 2 waiting for those reinforcements is/are necessary to fill in the 3rd & 4th pairings, those guys are pretty much always available for anywhere from Adams favorite FA price tag up to the Fitzgerald price tag. Barring major injury, they don't need to replace any of the top 3 & likely are set at 4 as well. It's a concern, but IMHO it's pretty much where C was last year. 1 draft later & that pipeline should be deep enough. Fully expect we can say the same about the D next August.