Taro T

OR he does understand that, but saw the team's timeline on Dahlin's timeline and he always had '26 or '27 as the target. And with Ullmark walking and Levi entering the system '27 ended up getting highlighted in red. Hopefully we don't find that out for certain by them missing the playoffs again and him still retaining his job. He knows players need X # of games in the NHL to become vets (he's actually spoken to that on more than one occassion) and he's also mentioned that he believes he's acclimating (not his word, but it's appropriate) the kids to the NHL at a younger age than most so he's putting that game plateau on a higher importance level than physical age when it comes to having players develop. He MIGHT be right. We'll find out if he is if guys like Peterka look like typical guys in their mid-20's entering their 3rd year rather than the typical guys that are only 22. It's a fairly untested hypothesis because there are almost no owners of NHL teams willing to let a GM prove a theory about developing youthful professional hockey players rather than pushing to win at all (reasonable) costs. Am nearly certain he did expect the team last year to be good enough to make the playoffs. Which was, in hindsight especially considering he knew Quinn would be out for ~3 months, a very poor expectation. These same players now, for the most part, have another 70-80 games under their belts and a coach that has been successful in the league AND he APPEARS to be ready to augment the kids with some additional talent. We are being held hostage to a science experiment. One which few, if any, GMs will attempt to replicate because it almost definitely needs 4-5 years to show results and in a professional sports league that's usually a lifetime for most players. Thing is IF he's right, then the Sabres truly are in a window of contention that will be open at least 5 years and maybe an entire decade. Unfortunately, because ownership has bought into the experiment, we've been forced to either buy in as well or abandon our favorite team. REALLY hoping Adams is right because this drought will push the Bills drought to start the century if he's wrong. (And the only minor consolation is there is a lot for a new GM to work with if he's wrong. But that minor consolation doesn't make the drought end in year 14 nor 15 in all likelihood.)

Yes, that is when the window closes. The question was when does the window open. Personally, would be very surprised if it doesn't happen sometime tomorrow as a courtesy to Skinner. Adams says he speaks often with all the GMs in the league. He already knows if anybody running a team Jeff might be willing to get traded to has any interest in him. Skinner went above and beyond in helping to market the team (even if his efforts on the ice rarely were the keys to victory), in additional to "Between 2 Staals" he also was part of the very 1st (Zoom only) Blue and Gold Insights (along with Mittelstadt). He's tried to do right by the Sabres and Adams preaches doing right by people, so expect it'll be official tomorrow morning if a trade isn't there.

Personally didn't like the trade, but simply for the reason that Adams traded a 25 yo C for a 22 yo D-man. Byram's ceiling is higher than Mittelstadt's, but he's also about 4 years from reaching his prime whereas Mitts was already entering his. Am tired of everything pointing to '27 as being THE YEAR when the Sabres aren't just relevant they're actually very good. (That last part with the "actually very" is a bit of wishful thinking BUT it might be legit.)

48 hours after the Finals ended.

That's what Leo Roth said. Kelley himself said no punches were thrown but he was put in a headlock and had his shirt ripped (pocket IIRC) in the encounter. NOT a good look regardless and Hasek is lucky he didn't face discipline from the league for the encounter, but Leo never was one to let details get in the way of a good story.

Kind of like how when a significant portion of a crowd is chanting "Fi-re Don-ny." 😉

Pretty sure you knew this and meant to post it that way, but the actual $ savings will be ~$7MM. Skinner will receive 2/3's of what remains on his deal but over 6 years rather than 3. So, if he's stilll owed ~$21MM he'll end up with ~$14MM gross.

To your 1st point, those kids can still get shirts, they just don't get hats anymore. 😉 To your 2nd point, expecting there'll be a lot of clearance stuff available in the Sabres store when TC opens up. Might be a good time to let the little Shrader visit grandma.

Lindy Ruff. 😉

Seriously, for all the true transgressions Fanatics has had and will have, you slag them for this? EVERY apparel manufacturer making hat for a championship series makes the hat in one of 3 colors - gray, white, or black and glues the team specific patch onto the hat. So that rather than having to destroy 1/2 of the hats they've made (or essentially give them away for pennies in a 3rd World country) they just reheat the hats with the losing team's logos on them and puts the winners on instead. Would expect that Nike was the originator of the practice, but maybe it was Reebok or Adidas.

Then not sure why Eichel's name comes up. He was a 2nd overall pick (as was Reinhart). Sabres only have 4 1st overalls in their history: Perreault, Turgeon, Dahlin, & Power.

Well, sure. The way his bashing poor Luke Adam over the head absolutely ruined his career and left him a quivering drooling hunk of flesh left a mark on Ruff's soul.

Umm, wasn't the timeout with ~1:30 left taken by the Eulers? Didn't understand taking the TO then because the refs had just let them waste about 1 minute getting their guys back out there. Get that he wanted to draw a play up, but at that point the FO was at the BL & they WEREN'T (at least they didn't) taking Skinner off the ice AND they'd just had a pseudo-mini TO. That absolutely didn't cost them the game, but just found it a strange circumstance to take the TO there. Would've been much better off taking it at the next whistle; which turned out to be with ~35 seconds left - plenty of time for McDavid to work the puck to Draisalt so he could fan on yet another shot. 😉

Maybe, but at least those classy Euler fans got to watch their hero accept the Conn Smythe Trophy. 🤔

Murray was REALLY good at identifying guys that were physically talented. But he was REALLY REALLY bad at understanding how people interact with each other and how those interactions could let players like Rodrigues become more than they appear to be and cause players like Kane &/or Bogosian end up bad influences on young players that you're really relying on. If Murray had an Adams who does seem to understand the human side of the game and how to relate to people as an advisor he could trust, the whole thing could've worked.

To this day, believe that people would've been ok with the trades of that weekend had Lehner been brought in for the 3rd 1st round pick and the 2nd one been part of the package to get O'Reilly. Murray knew he didn't need to use the pick that went out for Lehner to get O'Reilly; had he needed it for that doubt he would've ended up with Lehner. But that Murray team was simply cursed. Lehner screws up his ankle bumping the post in the 2nd period of the home opener against Ottawa of all teams, ruining his 1st 3 or so months of his Sabre tenure and O'Reilly drives his truck into a Timmy Ho's putting him in the owner's dog house. Yes, Murray had no idea how personal interactions or life in general could effect how his horses performed on the ice, but those were 2 of his 3 key pickups that year. And both had 'seriously, that actually happened' events hanging over them and then the next year right before opening night Girgensons gives Eichel a high ankle sprain in the last practice prior to the season opening.

But 26.5 year old average age teams probably on occassion do win Stanley Cups. '27 could be a very good year for the Sabres. (Provided everybody hasn't been axed before then resetting the timeline once again.)

Charles Barkley walking away from TNT's basketball desk. Wonder if he'll be part of the ownership group that ends up getting that new team? (Wouldn't bet against it.) And personally, hate that Arizona lost its team, but hate the idea of expanding past 32 teams even more. Right now, there is at LEAST 1 team currently in the league that will wait until 2056 to hoist the Stanley Cup for the next (or 1st) time. Expanding that out is nuts.

5. EVERYBODY forgets Kulikov. The man LITERALLY breaks his ass for the Sabres and nobody cares nor remembers. 😉 (And, technically 6 as it looks like Dudley is still a special advisor or has some other role for them.)

Eh, still believe he should've come out and at least let Bettman shake his hand over it, but also get why in this moment it was too difficult for him to do that. He's the most recognizable face in the NHL to those like us who live and breathe it, but he plays in Edmonton and the casual fans that tune in for the "big events" only don't know much at all about him because the Eulers rarely get early US nationally broadcast games. As crimes against hockey are concerned, not coming out is at worst a misdemeanor and likely only a traffic violation; but it still would've been nice for someone as revered as him to stay in his lane and not go speeding right out of the rink.

At some point everybody ends up leaving. Unlike the players, who will still be partying at noon tomorrow, a LOT of the people in the building have to be at work tomorrow. Personally, would still be there in the MMArena should it have been Buffalo beating Buffalo West, work tomorrow be darned; but totally get that not everybody can set their own schedule.

Really hope you're right.

You too quick. Nice post.

Only the 2nd time a skater from the losing squad won. And when Leach did it, pretty sure he set a goal scoring record.

Why? Do you really want them to rehire Murray?