tom webster

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.

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.

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.

Ok. Just my opinion. I’m sure it’s a great memory for you.

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.

Surprised no reference to Robitaille taking out Perreault.

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.

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.

5’9” former defenseman. Seems about right.

Not to mention Skinner’s $9M will be gone, one way or the other.

As I’ve said ad nauseum, the cap will be sky rocketing and the Sabres have plenty of space for Quinn and JJP.

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.

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.

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.

I think it will be Prospal.

You won’t see Ellis. Appert is taking his spot behind the bench.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sorry, this is just ridiculous

Probably sooner

He has 23 goals, 48 points in 55 games. His shots on goal pace is similar to the regular season. He is not why they have had little success in the playoffs. Oh, and he’s not getting traded.

Collier was one of the league’s great innovators. In Buffalo he was the first coordinator that used the zone blitz and in Denver his “Orange Crush” defense was the first 3-4 defense in the league.