tom webster

I think Krebs gets traded and I think people are surprised with the return

Again, you have no idea what motivates every single person. Mario Williams signed with the Bills because he saw a deer in Jim Kelly’s back yard. People are motivated by a myriad of things.

Again with the absolutes. You have no idea what will motivate all of the free agents available. The players they want might not make Buffalo their first choice but there will be a player or two, probably more that want to come to Buffalo.

Skinner wasn’t signing any contract unless it guaranteed he was playing for Detroit, Buffalo, Pittsburgh or Toronto. You can argue whether to sign him to anything but that clause was non-negotiable.

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.

Salary caps are going to explode for all major sports. The contract is an indication that both sides understand that.

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.