respk

I'm hoping Murray is planning on competing for the top spot. I think the biggest concern is how far some other teams may be willing to go into the tank going forward. Edmonton, Arizona, etc. could have firesales and leave the Sabres out of the top two. While not absolutely crippling to the rebuild not winning the tank could possibly make the rebuild much more difficult and longer.

I think the only way this happens is if another team decides to tank and doesn't care what it looks like. I think if it starts to look like the race to last will be close Murray will trade enough players so that Buffalo wins the title. I can see Stafford, Stewart and the best of the goalies gone. Along with several of the defense and a couple of more forwards traded. Murray knows the high draft pick is crucial to the rebuild and I think he'll do almost anything to make it happen.

So what's the tie breaker for the top draft choice should a tie occur?

Why would we "suffer" through the last season and this one for something other than McEichel? At this point there appears to be a rather big drop off after McEichel and maybe Hanifan. yes it is a loaded draft but, since we have no chance of making a run in the playoffs, let's finish last and have the chance to pick the player Murray wants instead of selecting 7 or 8. If we don't get McEichel, then Murray will need to attempt to trade for some first line scorers as we don't seem to have them in the organization. This is the one piece we seem to be missing in our prospect pool. The Sabres do not have the can't miss candidate, outside of possibly Reinhardt, that can fill the first line roles. They don't seem to have those top line players. Lots and lots of 2 and 3rd liners though. If they don't get one of the top two draft picks, it changes the team building strategy. Murray has to trade instead of draft that top line scorer.

Nolan is clearly an overachiever if he can be ranked 26th with this team.

Some of it has to be on Nolan and the coaching staff. But a large portion of the blame has to be leveled at the players. I also think Murray is saying what he has to to make it look like the Sabres are trying to win. I think Murray architected this team very carefully so that it would not be better than last year. The lack of effort is what has surprised me so far. Lack of effort is mostly on the players. I think the team is right where he wants it to be. We'll see what happens when trades start. If Murray trades for players that can help now or if he trades for future players and draft picks that will pretty much give a clue as to what his plan was.

After this year I really think we'll see significant improvement in the Sabres next season. With either McDavid or Eichel stepping in, some of the other youngsters ready to move up and a package deal trade for some scoring I could see significant improvement in 2015-16. There are a lot of if's but I wouldn't be surprised to see them be on the edge of the playoff hunt in 2015-2016 and in the playoffs in 2016-2017.

If the Sabres don't finish with the 1st or 2nd pick in the upcoming draft, the pain of watching them last season and this will be wasted. Hanifin, or a second tier forward, just won't cut it.

Why would that be the case? The tank and drafting of McEichel is only a part of the plan. By next year 2 or 3 of the recent draftees should be ready to contribute at the NHL level. Murray makes a couple of good signings in FA and the Sabres get better. Even if we don't tank, Murray still needs to make good FA signings and the recent draftees still need to get to NHL level. So those two items are the same between each plan. The tank plan is better because it provides the chance at a "generational" type player and the non-tank plan does not. What is the true cost of the tank? Worst case about 42 wins over a two year period. A two year period where the Sabres had no chance of doing anything in the playoffs even if they did make them.

Would certainly hope so, but if not the possibilities are endless and none of them are good.

I knew this team would be bad but I really thought they would be better than last year. With the moves that Murray made I was wondering if he had done too much as I am a big fan of the tank. I thought they would work and battle to loss after loss. I didn't think they would be this bad. This is Rolston bad. But there is always someone that is worse off. Can you imagine being a Carolina fan? Ouch.

Actually this appointment makes some sense. The position calls for a manager and this guy appears to have done that in other posts he has held. He doesn't need to be an infectious disease or more specifically ebola expert. Some of the people who work for this guy will need that expertise. Whoever holds the position needs to be able to coordinate the different aspects of the ebola response and manage all the different angles of it. I think it would have been better to find someone who is not quite so tied to a specific political party as it may have let them rise above the political mess, but that is the way Washington works now days.

The very interesting time will be what happens if the sabres are running about 20 or so in late December early January. Does Murray trade away assets in an effort to finish last or does he stand pat and see what happens. I'm hoping he trades away some assets for draft picks. (Stafford, Myers, Stewart, etc. ) and finishes last. To attempt to make a push for the playoffs would be very counter productive. No player or coach is going to tank but the roster can be manipulated so that the team finishes last.

I don't think Murray is foolish enough to not finish last. If it looks like there is any chance they don't finish last, Stewart, stafford, myers, ennis, etc get traded. And anyone that can be sent down with out clearing waivers gets sent to the AHL. To do anything other than finish last at this point would just be big time foolish.

I certainly hope not. I don't want the Sabres to compete for the final playoff spot, make it and lose in 4 games. That could hinder the rebuild. The Sabres need top 3 talent. Outside of Reinhart and possibly Grigorenko there is no player in the system that has shown to have top 3 talent. The Sabres have a few players that are projected to be 2nd line and a bunch of players that are projected to be 3rd line players. McEichel hopefully would be a top line player who can score when the team desperately needs a goal. What is the difference between making the playoffs this year and drafting first or second, 20 wins? I'll take McEichel, give up the 20 wins for the possibility to draft the next "generational" player that can increase the teams chances of being good for many years.

If we draft any lower than second, something went terribly wrong during the season.

While Donner had his problems that are well documented he also did some good for Rochester. If nothing else, he tried to improve Rochester sports. Unfortunately, it didn't always work out just right but at least he was taking a chance. That's more than can be said for 99.9% of the leaders that are in Rochester.

The border must be secured against illegal immigration as it is an illegal activity. Describe it any way you would like but it is illegal activity. Since Mexico has a "fairly" stringent illegal immigration policy how do this many illegals get from Honduras or other parts of central america to the US through Mexico? This illegal immigration was paved for by the Bush administration and the Obama administration allows it to continue. A failure on both accounts. The politicians have failed the US on all accounts on the illegal immigration issue.

I'm betting that his wife runs the Sabres and he runs the Bills. I think I heard rumors that Mrs. Pegula wanted the Sabres and Mr. Pegula has always wanted the Sabres. If that is the case, has there ever been, let's say, women "controlling" (for lack of a better word) owners in the NHL?

I'm very much enjoying the tank and find it very interesting. Not only to see where our pick ends up but the Isles and the Blues as well as activity at the trade deadline and FAs. We are watching the rebuild of a team in progress. I understand that some people don't like it, but it really is the best way to rebuild as it is a three pronged approach. Get your high draft picks, trade for some players and sign some good free agents. The idea of relying on FA signings and trades with some mid to late round draft picks is much more limited. Granted either approach has much risk, I just think the tank is far less because you'll have more assets to work with. Especially with how well the Sabres have executed the tank so far.

I think what Murray actually said was that he was building a team that is big, fast and skilled. Not one or two faceted as we have seen in the past but all three.

The tank isn't about players playing to lose. No player worth a contract is going to do that. The players will always step on the ice to win the game. Nolan will coach the team to attempt to win every game. The tank is engineered by Murray and is in full motion. The FAs were all nice signings but combined with the losses, really didn't make the Sabres better enough to win more games. The major problem is that other teams may compete with us for last place. However, if it looks like they won't finish last I would expect that some assets will be traded. Myers, Hodgson, Stewart, Ennis and Stafford would be the prime candidates for a few high draft picks and possibly some strategic prospects. After this season we'll see a significant free agent signing or two combined with the 1st or 2nd pick in the 2015 draft should end the tank.

The questions are easier to hear on the feed that WGR has up. Not all of them but many of them. The questions on the feed on the Sabres website are nearly all inaudible.

So far I like what Murray is doing and I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on the Ehrhoff buyout. I'm wondering how the rest of the NHL players view it. Not so much that it was done but in the way it was done with basically calling out the player in some real and implied statements.

What better way to represent your city? Booing Bettman says far more about those booing than it does about Bettman. Philadelphia fans have a well deserved reputation as blithering idiots. It didn't matter who the commissioner was, he was going to get booed. I thought Bettman handled it extremely well. He knew exactly what was going to happen, weathered the storm, made a decent joke about it and outlasted the clueless fools.