nfreeman

First bolded: the #1 goalie issue is far from resolved. Linus hasn't shown more than maybe being a bottom-half starter. In evaluating JB, his failure to bring in a strong #1 goalie -- which is the most important position on the ice, especially for a young team struggling to escape from loserville -- is a huge negative IMHO. 2nd bolded: as I and others have stated previously, it would be nuts to assume that 2 of Mitts, Cozens and TT will be meaningful contributors next season, when none of them has shown the ability to do so to date. 3rd bolded: No. The complaints about JB arise from the fact that we are 3 years into his regime, the team still stinks, there is exactly one forward in the pipeline who can reasonably be expected to be a top-6 guy and JB has made quite a few indisputably terrible moves.

In all seriousness, there is a real chance this or something like it comes to pass.

Interesting.

Cozens centering Skinner and a good RW sounds great down the road, but JB should not be penciling that in for next year. He needs to find a quality experienced #2C this summer.

I think in evaluating the Sabres' drafts in the past decade, we have to remember that because the Sabres have stunk during that period, their picks have been higher in each round than average -- so the right comparable for the Sabres' first-rounders isn't the entire first round -- it's the top 7 or top 10 or so of the first round. Same for each other round.

This is obnoxious.

Mark Messier? Whoa big fella. That’s the kind of talk that makes the hockey gods decide to give us another 5 years in purgatory Eric Staal seems more apt than Jordan (even if also pretty optimistic), no?

Please cease and desist with this gif before others demand equal time and the poopstorm commences.

Yes -- that was one of them. Still quite rare though. Excellent post. Regarding the bolded, though -- the team is 5-5 since Linus got hurt, so it's not like they were headed for the playoffs and then the bottom fell out.

Well, if you're claiming unprovoked personal attacks, here are the gems you've recently graced us with in this thread: You need to knock it off.

I like Montour. He's an outstanding skater, has good hockey IQ, can play in every situation and is on a steady improvement arc IMHO. I think perhaps for some posters he's tainted by association with JB and the over-weighting of defensemen on the roster, but I think he'll prove out to be a very good player.

I'd rather trade Miller than Risto or Montour, and I only want to trade any of them for a no-BS top-6 forward.

I agree with a lot of this, but it's a bit too rose-colored IMHO. I don't think it's fair to say that JB has maneuvered the Sabres out of cap hell. He didn't figure a clever way out of the KO, Moulson and Hunwick deals -- the Sabres just had to keep taking those hits. Until Bogo flaked, they were capped out, and it's still a consideration now at the deadline (and let's not forget the Berglund cap windfall). And a big reason they are capped out is the plethora of overpaid guys brought in by JB like Hunwick, Sobotka, Sheary, Frolik, etc. Again, a team tight against the cap shouldn't be this bad. I also think the failure to bring in a quality goaltender is unacceptable, especially after Hutton made it clear last year that he can't do the job. As for the prospect pool, every team has good prospects. The Sabres' prospect pool was just ranked #16 in the NHL by the Athletic, FWIW. So nothing special there. Bottom line is that he's accountable for the results. If the results are 85 points, as you note, that's probably good enough to buy him another offseason. But if they end up with 76 or 78 pts, which could easily happen -- he could easily get canned.

But what if, per my post upthread, they limp home and finish with 78 pts? It's quite possible.

As to the bolded -- how involved do you think he is? Do you think he is pushing JB to trade Scandy for Frolik, or to draft Cozens? My impression is that he isn't involved at all, although I think he told JB that if ROR was to be traded, it needed to be before the $7.5MM came due -- but that was close to 2 years ago. As for the role of a hockey czar -- I'm open to someone being empowered to evaluate and determine the fate of JB, and to sign off on all major GM decisions.

C'mon. You know better than this. Separately: the Sabres have 27 wins and 62 pts with 22 games left. They had 76 pts last year, in JB's 2nd year, and 62 in JB's 1st year (after getting 78 pts in GMTM's last season). Let's assume they don't go on an insane 17-5 streak and get into the playoffs, but rather muddle along around .500 for the rest of the year. If they go DeLuca .500 and get a couple of OTLs (i.e. 11-9-2), they'll end up with 86 pts. I think JB is safe in that situation. If they go NHL .500 -- say, 9-9-4 -- they'll end up with 84 pts. JB is probably safe in that situation too. But what if bad goaltending and a UFA selloff causes them to lose badly and mail it in for the last 6 weeks of the season and they go, say, 7-13-2, for a total of 78 pts, with empty seats and tons of booing in the arena? That's the number that got GMTM fired in his 3rd season, and it would unquestionably represent a disappointing season. In that situation, I think it's at least 50/50 that JB is gone.

When was the last time a GM quit due to owner interference? I don't think I can come up with a single example. I'm sure GMs push back on owners all the time, and try to convince the owners that they are wrong in pushing for move XYZ, but that is quite different from ignoring/dismissing the owner's wishes.

No one is going to do this, on any team.

Exactly. The owner is always the boss. There is no "taking power away" from the owner. Unfortunately, it looks like TP has whiffed on his third GM decision. My reason for wanting a POHO or senior hockey adviser put in place is that I think JB does some things well but he needs an experienced voice to consider and evaluate his NHL hockey talent decisions -- because for the most part, those have been lousy decisions.

Good man. Still: JB has plenty of time and plenty of opportunity to bring in a goalie and a good forward and plenty of notice that both were sorely needed. We all saw it and we all knew it was needed. Those 2 moves would’ve put this team in or very close to the playoffs. He’s accountable.

An embarrassing loss right after an embarrassing outcome to a trade. The devil on TP’s shoulder whispering “fire him!” just got 4% more convincing.

What? Do you think JB has done a good job overall as GM of the Sabres? Would you rather have what MTL got for Scandy or what the Sabres got for him? Please provide examples of premium prices that have been traded for cap space at the deadline. Also, I didn't change the thread title.

This is obnoxiously stated. As to the substance: first, there is a material difference between living with a $2MM cap hit for the entire season and living with it for 28% of the season. When you have it for the entire season, it affects your plans and the options available to you for the entire season. When you only have to live with it for 28% of the season, you've already experienced the first 72%, and you know what you need for the remaining 28%. In other words: this was much easier for MTL to live with than it would've been at the beginning of the season. Second, I'm not sure what you're saying in your last paragraph, but if it's that you think Scandy for Frolik was a better move than Scandy for a #2, I think you are dead wrong. If the Sabres are up against the cap to the point where they can't retain a $2MM cap hit for 30% of the season in order to get a 2nd instead of a 4th -- that's also a JB failure. A team this bad shouldn't also have zero cap flexibility. I also think there are various moves that are and were then available to free up cap space in a pinch for just such an occasion -- and that's before the Bogo contract termination windfall. At the end of the day, I think this is another one of those "understandable at the time and the consequences aren't so bad" JB moves that nevertheless add up over time and hinder the achievement of optimal roster construction results.

Apples and oranges IMHO. And while Scandy's salary is $4MM, Montreal isn't retaining a $2MM cap hit -- they are only retaining the prorated portion through the end of the year. STL has 23 games remaining, which is 28% of the schedule. 28% of Scandy's $4MM salary is $1.12MM. Montreal retained half of that, which is $556K. Any respectable GM would have retained that much to get a #2 instead of a #4 for Scandy. JB just mis-timed the market and mis-evaluated how much Scandy would yield in trade. He screwed it up.

In all seriousness -- we know TP hates being embarrassed. This is embarrassing.