Taro T

Would be perfectly fine with them taking a chance on him at 11 just because his brother is going to be SOOOOOO good and if he's 90% of what his brother is, it'll be worth it.

Pretty sure it's called the "premium version" aka the pay for version. 😉

Didn't we see THAT Reinhart in the game in Winnipeg way back when?

Have said it before, but believe that if the team is unsuccessful the next 2 years then Adams is gone, but if they are then he bumps up to PoHO with probably Karmanos becoming the GM (maybe Ventura gets it) and Ruff sliding into an advisory role to Kevyn as soon as he's ready to be done coaching. If things go kerplewy once again this year (or even if they don't this year but do spectacularly next year) then Adams is gone and Ruff becomes PoHO with probably Karmanos or Ventura becoming the GM but if Lindy has somebody from outside in mind then he brings in a GM. Should things go well, Appert has the inside track to be Lindy's successor. If they don't, would guess the HC becomes Peca because, well, because.

Don't believe that the 2nd knee injury was from Muni. But, yeah, he had 2 bad knee injuries.

Was just a youngun then. 😉 Nuni blowing out Audette's knee seems like just yesterday.

Ehh, Craig "Newknee" Muni and Donald Audette ended up teammates for a while courtesy of Muckler's "All your Eulers are belong to us" spree before the Knox Bros directed him to become financially responsible. First day of training camp must've been pretty awkward as Donal' was one of the guys that needed a new knee after getting cheap shotted by Craig.

Wasn't that the Caniacs main gripe back in '06?

The trade makes sense if the "window" for being true contenders opens 3 years from now and remains open for a few after that. Around then, you've got Cozens or Savoie hopefully claiming the 1C, the other a very good 2C, Thompson either rolls to W or is the 3C and the wingers are Quinn, Peterka, Benson, Kulich/Thompson (with the other likely the 3C), Tuch on the 3rd line (maybe 4th by then). Östlund or Rosen or possibly even Krebs or something one of those guys has been traded for as the 9th guy in the top 9. Maybe Greenway's still here. Or the guy they get at 11 is ready for that. The D is likely set for a long time and will be entering its prime about then, as is/will be the GT. With all the potential at F (3 years from now), Adams was willing to forego keeping Mittelstadt to have what he seems to believe is a locked in D. As Clifton ages past his prime, they've got Novikov to step into the more physical role and Johnson should be good by then too. Not a fan of that philosophy, pushing your all-in window out even further, but it actually makes that trade "make sense." Everything (other than bringing in Ruff, who in almost all likelihood will be ready to step away from coaching by then; but he'll be ready for either a schmoozing job (as PoHO) or a cushy job (senior advisor to the PoHO) by then and even that kind of) seems to be on the "Levi timeline."

It could be a red flag. Then again, the Sabres traded away Eichel and that worked out pretty well for Vegas.

Didn't call him Commode Door for nothing. 😉

Not at all. Expect he'll sign for 2-3 years at $1.5MM or less (hopefully ~$1.1MM but not sure it'll end up that low) but with a 1 way deal. He really likes it here and personally expect that he isn't going to Tim Kennedy himself out of town. That was a bit before his time, but expect Ruff and Adams will ensure he knows all about that cautionary tale.

Boring can be good. Hope it isn't, but it can be. 😉

Pretty sure it was: losing Perreault, Schoeny, & Mickey to injury, Crozier to pancreatiitis, and the death of Horton was just too much to overcome and really messed up a promising year.

Will he still be allowed to use 30 whiteboards in the environmentally friendly rink or will he need to have an entire wall or 2 of low voltage OLED boards in the dressing room?

Comes down to how badly they need cap space and ALSO how much somebody else bidding for him would offer. Anybody recall the other teams that were in the mix for him when Tampa gave up nearly an entire draft for him?

Yeah, when you run into one arsehole it's probably the other guy. When you run into them constantly, the problem might be right there in the mirror.

Would be nice if for once the Sabres were the team doing the "buy low" shopping rather than their usual "sell low" merchandising.

Apologies. Meant Karmanos. Nightengale didn't "sound" right, but was drawing a complete blank on Karmanos and Ventura. (Been a long weekend crawling around in the attic trying to fix some crud that shouldn't need fixing. And yesterday it was friggin' HOT up there. (Nearly passed out on the ladder getting out of there. That ended THAT job for yesterday.)

Totally forgot that. 🍺

IF the team does well the next 2 years, expect that Adams becomes the PoHO, one of his 2 primary AGM's moves up (probably Nightengale Karmanos), and Ruff moves into an advisory role to Adams if he's ready to stop coaching. And if Ruff wants to continue coaching for a year or 2, that advisory role remains open waiting for him to fill when he's ready. (Personally expect he'll be ready to move out of the grind in 2 years, but who knows, while Lindy tends to be adaptable to circumstances he also can have a stubborn streak.) IF the team does poorly / treads water the next 2 years, expect that Adams is out, there's a new GM that Ruff has input in choosing if not outright choosing, and Ruff becomes the PoHO.

Pretty sure we get that in 2 years, when either Adams or Ruff get named PoHO. 😉

2 years because of the 2 year contract and because of Ruff's age. Guys with his resume don't only get 2 year deals. Pretty sure the plan is that if things go well, that he slides into an advisory role and Adams becomes PoHO with one of the hotshot AGM's taking on Adams current title. And if things go poorly, then Ruff becomes the PoHO and either one of the hotshot AGM's take on Adams' current role or they do a legit GM search led by Ruff. Expecting that Lindy is getting ready to hang up the whistle; and if after 2 years, he decides he wants to stick around a little longer behind the bench, am sure they'd let him (provided things didn't blow up) but even Bowman got out of coaching at 68 (and he'd tried to do so unsuccessfully back in his late 40's).

Realize your comments are generalized, but you picked the wrong post to complain about too little patience for Cozens or that he's the guy that should be the 3rd line C. Every lineup this kid has come up with for this upcoming season has him at 2C with Quinn stapled to his side. And, while it's likely that Krebs is the 4C this coming season, he very well could be next year's Jost. (IMHO, it's more likely he's the 4C than the 3C, but that's in the mix too.) By next year's Jost mean the 13th F who slots in pretty much anywhere in the bottom 6 when an injury hits. He really needs to be working his butt off this off-season because there is an opportunity there for him to grab the 3C role or he could Asplund his way right out of town or he could be any of several things on the 4th line. Again, Pat Kane can be on a bonus laden 1 year deal. Meaning he can come it at $1-2MM officially on a contract that would give him a good shot at getting $6MM this year. If the Sabres end up under the cap w/ that bonus, great; there are no cap ramifications the following season. If they don't stay under the cap, that overage gets taken off next year's cap. Which is why having Kane pretty much forces their hand to dump Skinner NEXT off-season provided Kane doesn't hit the proverbial wall this year. We KNOW there was interest on both sides for a deal but it didn't happen when the Sabres started the year as basketcases. From what Adams has said he's looking for this off-season, expect he would fit the W role to a T. He just needs to convince him that the Sabres have their heads out of their you know whats. So, no, their remaining cap doesn't keep them from making "two bigger $$ additions."

Didn't mean to imply a lack of muscle kept him from being a reasonable 3C. Meant it kept him from being the D-bag he seems to want to be on the ice. Should he become the D-bag he wants to be, would that (and being a year closer to his prime, and at 23 he's getting to a point where he should start being what he is) be enough to create enough space for him to make the passes we on rare occassion saw from him when he first became a Sabres and be an effective 3C? Benson's game is significantly different than Krebs' game. Benson learned to understand the game on a high level early, because at his size he'd've gotten killed sometime in the last 8 years after checking was introduced. And, it's kind of unfair to compare Krebs to Benson because Benson is the rarest of cats. Can't recall the last time a guy that wasn't drafted in the top 10 played a full NHL season at 18. Maybe the comparason for Krebs will be Asplund, but am hoping (with no real reason TO hope) that the better comparason is Mittelstadt or Thompson. 2 guys that were NHLers at very early ages and struggled early but figured it out when they got some man strength added to the rest of the toolkit.