tom webster
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Posts posted by tom webster
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18 minutes ago, Buffalonill said:
That's one dumb contact yikes .
The bengals are screwed
Salary caps are going to explode for all major sports. The contract is an indication that both sides understand that.
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3 minutes ago, Pimlach said:
Thanks for that info. I never knew that he was that high regarded by anybody.
True on the Robert trade, but he also knew Robert had not hit prime yet, and Robert had more promise than Shack. He could find another Schack.
Jacque Richard was a no risk rehab project. The guy had big talent, but he did not handle life in the NHL.
I don't believe that he ever thought he could replace Dudley with Gratton?
He got Gratton for Butch Deadmarsh in late 73. Gratton was a former FOA draft pick, he was worth a look, and Deadmarsh was not much. He traded Gratton, who was mediocre for the veteran Freddie Stanfield by Jan 1975. Stanfield had won before.
Stanfield improved the top 9 spot held by Gratton, and scored 12 goals in only 32 games for the Sabres that season, which helped them immensely to get to the Stanley Cup Final series. He was wehat we call a veteran rental in today's word. But another smart acquisition.
Dudley was still on that 74-75 team. Gratton was replaced by Stanfield, but Dudley was still there.
Punch let Dudley go after that season because he would not pay him what the WHA was offering. All the NHL GMs let good players go, they stuck together to keep salaries down. They players all came back if they were still good enough, which is what everybody figured.
Yes, Dudley was hard to replace, he never really did. Even when he came back, he was not quite the same player.
I may be confusing Gratton with someone else but while the other points you made are valid, they don’t change the fact that Punch valued talent as much, if not more then grit.
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2 hours ago, Pimlach said:
Korab played both wing and defense with Chicago, before he came to Buffalo. He was a good defenseman with a good offensive game too, and he also played point on the PP.
Thommy Abrahamsson? what a memory! He was signed from the Swedish league but was never a Sabre.
Played in the WHA, had one partial season in the NHL. I just looked at his stats. He is the opposite of a Korab. 15 PIM in his entire professional career. He would have been very soft to play against in that era, and Imlach did not like soft.
By the way, while Punch valued toughness, he also valued skill. He traded grit for the likes of Rene Robert, Jacques Richard and the like and he let Dudley walk because he thought he could replace him with Norm Gratton.
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1 hour ago, Pimlach said:
Korab played both wing and defense with Chicago, before he came to Buffalo. He was a good defenseman with a good offensive game too, and he also played point on the PP.
Thommy Abrahamsson? what a memory! He was signed from the Swedish league but was never a Sabre.
Played in the WHA, had one partial season in the NHL. I just looked at his stats. He is the opposite of a Korab. 15 PIM in his entire professional career. He would have been very soft to play against in that era, and Imlach did not like soft.
Imlach thought that Abrahammson would be better than Salming. If I remember correctly, the sticking point was Abrahammson wanted his brother, a goalie, included in the deal.
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2 hours ago, Scottysabres said:
He skated with me, taught some things when I was 5, 6, 7 yrs old at Sabreland. I liked the way he played.
Ok. Just my opinion. I’m sure it’s a great memory for you.
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3 hours ago, Scottysabres said:
Martin - Perreault - Robert
Andreychuk - LaFontaine - Mogilny
Hawerchuk - Gare - Briere
O'Reilly - Hecht - Peca
13th: Gilmour
Zhitnik - Dahlin
Scheoenfeld - Ramsey
Korab - McKee
7th: Tallinder
Hasek
Miller
Korab was not that good. If you just wanted a fighter, Playfair was better. A better d-man would have been Hajt. Even Punch didn’t think much of Korab defensely. His plan was to play him at wing once he brought Tommy Abrahamson (sic) over from Sweden.
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25 minutes ago, Taro T said:
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.
Surprised no reference to Robitaille taking out Perreault.
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8 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:
Pretty much done deal on Waddell to Columbus.
Im just intrigued if Buffalo really looked at him because that tells me they are serious about bringing some senior hockey minds into the organization.
my number one choice is Dudley but I’ll be interested to hear if they are talking to anyone about a senior advisor role.
Maybe they have figured out that when you hire a GM with no experience it would probably help to have a solid vet hockey man to help guide him a bit.
I love Rick Dudley but he’s 75 years old.
Also, not to be a Debbie downer, but there is a real possibility that Sabres’ “interest” in Waddell was leaked in order to expedite and sweeten Columbus’ offer.
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My understanding is only the Columbus job would be as GM. Chicago would be POH, Buffalo, Senior Adviser
Lije Shrader has alluded to, if you want someone to push KA to be aggressive, Waddell is not your guy.
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5’9” former defenseman. Seems about right.
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17 minutes ago, dudacek said:
Quinn and Peterka are two years into their ELC's.
You and pay them a lot next summer if you want.
But you also can literally wait 5 more years before you have to give them big contracts.
If the deserve the big money earlier, then that's a good problem to have.
You move somebody to clear up space. That's what the good teams do.
Not to mention Skinner’s $9M will be gone, one way or the other.
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9 minutes ago, Jorcus said:
I think you have to factor Peterka and Quinn contract upgrades in all of this.
As I’ve said ad nauseum, the cap will be sky rocketing and the Sabres have plenty of space for Quinn and JJP.
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2 minutes ago, Pimlach said:
In what way has Adams earned the right? The "only missed by one point" season was Granato's coaching effort almost overcoming Adams poor effort with the roster.
I do agree to giving him more time ONLY because this team still looks like a $hit show from the outside and all the change gets amplified when you lose. Plus he hired a new coach so he should be tied to him for awhile.
Adams still looks to be a mile over his head as a GM, but who else are they going to get? The owner has huge trust issues with bringing in experienced and strong hockey leaders and he is not respected in the league.
Adams coaching search sure raised a few eyebrows. He said one thing and he did another. He knows Lindy, they live in Clarence, Lindy helped give him a start, Lindy is a true Sabre, Lindy has credibility, Lindy is proven, ya da, ya da, ya da.
He may have talked to a few candidates, but he never had serious interviews with any of the top candidates - Toronto is doing that now and actually bringing guys like McLellan and Berube into the building to talk, and taking more than 3 days to do this.
Adams did the easiest thing he could do in hiring Lindy. You could have made that hire happen.
Lindy could work out, and he might be enough to get whatever growth is needed to make them a playoff team. But Adams is still there because his time as a GM is not up yet, I do not see anything earned.
His ascent to become an NHL GM still looks like a puzzling and desperate move, made by a billionaire couple worried about the family fortune in the face of a global pandemic.
He has not proven or earned anything other than his ability to be Pegula's trusted yes man. His timer now moves onto season 5.
The last paragraph is wrong and the others make assumptions disguised as absolute truths.
He convinced TPEGS to build/rebuild the analytics, scouting and front office staff. He has kept him at arms length by keeping him informed. Yes, he has made mistakes and I have blasted him for it. Ullmark and the assumption that progress was linear have been my biggest beefs. This year is obviously crucial and there won’t be a sixth without playoffs next April.
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49 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:
Kevyn Adams is responsible. He let it happen.
This where I’m at. However, I do think he has earned the right to correct it and learn from it, which know us not a popular sentiment.
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My only question after reading this statement was did leadership go to Adams with their concerns? It’s a similar situation to Drury going to Regier about Satan.
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5 hours ago, thewookie1 said:
Jay McKee, Vinny Prospal, James Patrick
I think it will be Prospal.
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29 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:
But when it's part and parcel of an organization that doesn't look like it's trying win? Then it becomes an issue.
For me it's downright Pavlovian. I see Matt Ellis' fat jowels working on chew or gum or whatever. The Sabres lose. I throw up a little in my mouth. Eventually I see Ellis and go directly to throwing up a little in my mouth.
It can't be any different for the players.
You won’t see Ellis. Appert is taking his spot behind the bench.
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13 minutes ago, Mango said:
Not just that. This org has been very open about how difficult it has become for them to get talent to come to Buffalo. Lindy may not be a world beater, but he is a well respected hockey man across the league. Forcing an assistant staff on any coach, but particularly on a coach like Lindy, will only make it more difficult for this team to climb out of the hole Terry Pegula has dug for them.
I would bet that assistant coaching staffs would be about 39th on a list of 40 as a reason a player came to a specific team.
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8 hours ago, GoPuckYourself said:
Not sure what you mean, 4 years of Tim Murray, 3 years of Botteril, going on 5 years of Adams.
Teams don’t fire GM’s that quickly. Pegula gets more hate around the league for how quickly he has changed course, not for poor hires.
The average tenure of an NHL GM is roughly 5.5 years and they normally get to hire 2.2 coaches before being dismissed.
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1 hour ago, thewookie1 said:
Savoie has slowly become the only “untouchable” non NHL prospect this year. Kulich’s playoffs were lackluster as was Rosen. Östlund and Wahlberg are still raw.
If Savoie actually wins the WHL title with his team he’d become the first Sabres prospect to actually win their youth league championship in quite some time. So effectively he isn’t available for a rental or 3rd liner
Scott Ratzlaff’s team won WHL last year. A lot of these guys have won important championships. It really doesn’t translate to anything at the NHL level.
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1 hour ago, GoPuckYourself said:
Adams shouldn't even have this season, no respectable owner would have given Adams going on 5 seasons with not 1 single playoff series under his belt. This owner rewards mediocrity like no other unfortunately.
That’s actually not been true till Adams. Say what you want about the people he has hired but he hasn’t just done nothing as the team has lost and underperformed.
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2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:
It's hard for me to really remember how Briere played shift to shift.
Briere spent a lot of time driving the net and playing behind the goal line. Obviously their stature is similar but I haven’t seen enough of Savoie. The one thing that made Danny standout, however was his drive and fearlessness. That was something that endeared him to Drury. They both hated losing. It’s something you can’t coach and it’s something that we can only hope Savoie emulates.
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7 minutes ago, Buffalonill said:
He avoids contact like the plague once he gets hit he's done he doesn't like being hit.
And yes he is a problem why they haven't had success you're getting 13 million you need to show up
Sorry, this is just ridiculous
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8 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:
Well if it is like the Sabres search they talked to him before firing Keefe and should have it wrapped up within the week.
Probably sooner
Buffalo Bills 2024 Thread
in The Aud Club
Posted
If by that you mean that the bubble might soon burst, I think we are years away from that. Between gambling, tech and a world market, I think top end guys are going to approach $80M per year, at least in basketball and football.