Taro T

He was drafted in '01, so he qualifies as "drafted this century" which was the delineation that was hoped to be usable. Unfortunately, or fortunately, it wasn't. That other date seemed a reasonable marker to highlight that they have no established NHLers at the position that aren't REALLY old by NHL standards.

See PA, we always knew you'd come around. 😉 Baby steps. 😛

And Norman Green swore up and down that he had no intentions of moving the North Stars. Not every potential owner is as overt in his intentions as Jim Ballsillie was. Really doubt the Pegulas have any interest in selling a majority stake in the Sabres so most if not this entire discussion is moot. And do agree the league will TRY to find ownership that will commit to staying in Buffalo should the Pegulas decide to sell and will set up roadblocks to a potential move. But, even with that, the NHL isn't exactly known for vetting potential owners well. See Bruce McNall & Charles Wang for reference of people that should never have been owners. And see how close Mark Hammister came to owning the Sabres. He absolutely would've pulled an Art Modell had Golisano not stepped up and beat him out because like Modell & his ownership of the Browns Hammister was ridiculously undercapitalized. And for reference, my only reason for getting in this discussion was to counter a claim that "you can't just move a team because you own it;" there is court precedence that says an owner can.

That is an assumption on your part. IF the Pegulas were to sell, it is difficult to see that assumption being better than 50/50 as there are very few potential owners with enough capital to make an ownership transfer not be underfunded with the owner based out of WNY when people that already own an are excluded. True. But if an ownership group without local ties succeeds the Pegulas then Jacobs & Bettman won't really be able to do as much as you expect. And Jacob's is already 82; he isn't going to live forever. Look. My expectation is that the Sabres aren't going anywhere. But IF the Pegulas sell the team outright, it isn't as certain a given as it has historically been.

The dream of a perfect season is done. Went down 1-0, tied it, but went down 4-1, tied it, went down 8-4 at the 1/2, tied it 9-9, but then gave up a couple of quick ones and lost 12-10. A big factor was TD Irelan winning unofficially all but 2 faceoffs. Bandits now 6-1.

The league would very much try to keep the Sabres in Buffalo. Their broadcast partners like having astronomical TV ratings. They don't want to lose that. But, if an owner was dead set on moving the team, not much the league can do to stop it when all is said & done.

And you don't seem to understand that if the NHL takes a franchise to court to keep it playing where they want it to should the league and the owner disagree that the league will most likely lose that lawsuit. Bettman can wish all he wants and can set roadblocks which can make it difficult & force the new owner to go to court, but if it gets to court, Bettman's wishes likely don't come true. Where Bettman has leverage is he and the other owners can make life difficult for the selling owners should they pick one that will move the team. But, if that sale goes through, well under Bettman's tenure the Jets moved, the Whalers moved, & the Thrashers have moved. Way fewer moves than the NFL or the NBA but they have happened.

If not for the possible repercussions regarding getting Portillo in house & the likelihood it lowers the odds of getting a competent current NHL netminder, would e fine w/ his addition to the team depth. Can't see it happening w/ the Sabres already having 3 touted prospects about his age. He has to have better opportunities available to him should he continue his excellent Olympic play.

Agreed. But especially w/ 3 of the Pegula's 5 teams (4 of 6 if you count Jessie's tennis career) playing very well right now & the 1 we care about seemingly poised to finally not stink (as soon as next year w/ the addition of a goalie not currently in the system & in 2 years w/out one) & fossil fuel prices rising, really don't see a tremendous possibility that they'll sell a majority stake in any of the franchises in the near/intermediate future. Also, still have the contract holdouts of the '90's due to undercapitalized ownership & the breakup of arguably the best Sabres teams ever due to ownership cheaping out, so really don't want to risk going back to cheap owners &/or the threat of the team moving again. (Remember those fun days of bankruptcy & receivership?) We've already suffered through ownership's growing pains. Ready the start reaping the rewards rather than breaking in new ones. 😉

At least 2 of the US goals were horrible. Neither the one where the goalie lost the puck battle behind the net & the 4th one that trickled between his arm and body should've happened. Levi might have stopped the other 2 as well, but at least they were legit hockey play goals that actually are scored on a nightly basis against good goalies.

The lawsuits won by Al Davis in his battles w/ the NFL suggest otherwise. And though the purchase agreement between Golisano & Pegula stipulated the Sabres can't be moved, those clauses are seldom upheld by courts to remain in perpetuity & through multiple team sales / purchases and would almost definitely not withstand a bankruptcy filing. It's REAL easy to declare bankruptcy when your franchise has had multiple seasons with fewer than 1/3 of the seats filled. Would really like you to be right about that. Doubt you are.

Agree to a degree. But would actually take a different tack on that comparison. Because it was highly unlikely Anderson would be both available AND playing at a high level for the majority of this season, the play of his replacement should be factored into HIS effectiveness & results. Looking at it that way, it's a no brainer which guy was the surer bet heading into the season & the better choice through the midpoint of the season & very likely the entire season.

And that's the thing that's so frustrating about this seemingly endless debate which won't end until at least 1 of Portillo & Levi are ready for the big time or Adams actually brings in a goalie. He might have wanted to bring in a goalie that 1st year & he WAS close to a deal w/ reportedly 3 different teams when the rules got changed & the potential trading partners backed out. But even the desire to get a goalie then isn't absolutely clear as Nedeljokivic was available for free but no claim was put in. IMHO he did NOT want a real goalie this year as he wanted at least 1 more high draft pick this coming season. He very well might not want one again next year to get 1 final really high pick before the Sabres reapply for entry back into the NHL the following year. Have said it before & sure it gets old to hear (well, read technically 😉 ) as it gets tiresome to say, but next year Adams might once again be in a no lose situation in his own eyes. If UPL & 1 of the college kids are ready a year (+?) early, then the kids win games & the Sabres are in the playoff chase at least, & if not then they're still in the lottery with 3 winning (Eichel quality or better) tickets available. Either way he wins. But WE, the fans, only win next season if at least 1 goalie & likely needing 2 of them defy the odds & prove to be ready for prime time next year. And, absolutely agree that planning to ride it out is a horrible plan. Though it could work, the odds are stacked against it.

Can agree w/ this. (Though w/ the team Adams has assembled expecting just a little luck will be necessary to pull it off. IF he really wants to bring an actual current NHL quality goalie in.) 🍻

The US navy unis are nearly as bad. Those look like practice jerseys. The Canadian reds look like something Nike would've come up w/ as alternates for the Cleveland Browns if they tried their hands at hockey.

And @dudacek provided a non-exhaustive listing of names, some of which do fit @JohnC's criteria. So, yes, expecting that Adams CAN'T get something done because a single poster here doesn't provide you names of who KA should sign is hyperbolic and is providing him a ready made excuse to fail for a 3rd time to fix the most glaring hole on the roster he's responsible for.

Minus the nasty, that's the guy that he does remind of.

Seriously? If one of us schmucks hanging out on a message board devoted to a losing hockey team's travails can't identify the useful goalie that can be made available at a reasonable cost & term then the man with a bevy of scouts in his employ who speaks to other GMs on a daily basis and is getting paid a very handsome sum to do just that can't possibly be expected to do so either? Holy hyperbolicly bad take there batman. 😉

You do realize that at the time he was traded to the Sabres, Dominic Hasek was Chicago's 2nd goalie, right?

A few observations in no particular order from last night's game. They seemed to not realize the league wasn't taking the Olympic break in the 1st, but woke up in the 2nd. That's one thing (among others) they need to fix before next season. After having a few days off,, they need to come ready to play. Fortunately their longest break after February is 3 days & that only happens once. At least 3 times all the players on the ice (at least those near the puck) had no idea where the puck was when it got deflected high into the air. Haven't seen that happen that often before. Early in the 3rd, shift after Tuch scored his goal, he took a heavy shot that deflected off Werenski's leg and the BJ's cleared it. Weren't was in great discomfort, so much that the ref asked if he needed a whistle. He shook the ref off, but could barely get to his feet much less propel himself towards his bench. So, the ref helped him up & then gave him a huge boost towards his bench. He eventually worked his way off the ice & was back about 6 minutes later, so no serious damage done. But honestly can't recall seeing a ref help a player off the ice during play before. It won't be on the highlights as the play was in the Sabres zone by the time e therefore gave him the boost. Weird. Speaking of Tuch & blocked shots. In the 1st, right before an icing, Tokarski made a save & the puck made an enormously loud thud as it hit Tuch's shoulder pads at chest level. He never flinched & never reacted to it at all even though he couldn't get to the bench for about a minute. Guess it sounded worse than it was. While we're discussing Tuch, as enticing as having Krebs & Tuch on the same line is, really don't want to pull Skinner off Alex's line. We've found the ONE player in the entire league that Skinner can effectively pass the puck to & don't want to mess that up. 😉 Though Skinner CAN'T hit the post w/ a wide open net off that feed from Tuch in the 1st.) Skinner might have had his best all around game last night even though he didn't score a goal. Wtf is Dahlin's goal song? They played it for about 4 minutes waiting for the video review & it epitomizes what you'd expect to hear in a Euro version of a Pokémon video game. Love the player, but he really needs to never score another goal at home. 😉 And speaking of Dahlin, maybe part of his lack of chemistry w/ Jokiharju is that Swedish Finnish thing because he was going ALL over the ice to hit Laine every chance possible. Guess he likes Finns in B&G, but he really doesn't like them wearing opposing colors. Which is good. Krebs was finding the puck like crazy, but his passing was waaaaay off. Expecting it was due to a lack of playing much w/ his linemates as he was clearly expecting them to zig, but they zapped & the puck was turned over or given back to Tokarski from the offensive zone. D'OH! Also looking forward to him bulking up a bit as he was getting ragdolled at times by BJ D-men. But it never stopped him from going after the puck nor to the front of the net. Hagg couldn't get anything to go right for him. Hopefully that was bad luck or rust because he's likely in the lineup at least until Power shows up. Merzerklins was bad. Tokarski said, "hold my beer." Not sure why he got the start over Anderson. That decision likely cost them a point. Watching OT, had just got done saying, "2 D, guess Granato wants OT to go a little longer than ..." "so much for that, it was a nice idea though." Anyone that thinks Dahlin can't fly, go back and watch him go back for the puck as the PP in the 3rd was expiring & he realized the BJ coming out of the box had the line on the puck. He found a completely different gear & won that race cleanly. Thompson continues to show he is the 2nd Sabre exception (right after Larsson) that proves the rule that all C's can play W. As long as Granato is coach, doubt we ever see him back on the wing, but NEVER want to see him at wing again. Hayden has an excuse for making poor plays - he just doesn't have NHL baseline skills. Wtf is Bjork's excuse? Really think he simply doesn't have "hockey smarts." Can't wait for him to be supplanted. Nice pass from Jankowski to Mr. Leatherman (he may not be the ideal tool for the job, but he can get just about any job done) Kyle Okposo. Will Olofsson EVER buy another goal? Bounced a shot off the far post right after Dahlin's goal that looked like it would go. Another very sparse crowd. Definitely less than 5,000. Probably less than 4,000. Would believe it if you said there were under 3,000. The intermission band was playing blues & was actually pretty good at it. No idea who they were. Bring in live bands for the intermission was a very good idea. Hope that stays for next year.

Which puts it as a standard Sabres injury timeline where the end of window is the absolute earliest the player MIGHT be back.

The last REALLY noticeable game that yours truly recalls where Dahlin kind of quit on a play & was clearly exasperated was December 4 vs Carolina. That was at the height of goalies going down pretty much daily. And well after Eichel's departure.

Not the right place for this, Dell's between the pipes rather than UPL but don't really want to start a GDT during the 3rd period. That said ... Really nice breakout leading to a tic-tac-toe play to get Ethan Prow the go ahead goal vs the Baby Pens. Ra-cha-cha up 2-1 about 1/2 way through the 3rd.

At the youth levels it's more like 60-40 right to lefty. There are definitely more righties than lefties here.