nfreeman

I think the PK problems primarily stem from goaltending and coaching, not the play of the 2 forwards on the PK. So I'm skeptical that Frolik will make much of a difference there.

Good to see ya sir! Don’t be a stranger.

Some data on Frolik: - 6’1”, 190 - he turns 32 next month. - he’s from the same town in the Czech Republic as Jagr is. - hockeydb and nhl.com list him as a RW; hockey reference lists him as a LW. - 3 years in Florida, then 2 in Chicago, then 2 in Winnipeg, then 4 in Calgary before this season. - in his 2 Winnipeg seasons and his 1st 2 years in Calgary, he was a pretty steady 40-point guy. He dropped off in his 3rd season to 25 points in 70 games, bounced back last year to a 40-point pace again, but had a poor start to this year with 10 points in 38 games. So he is likely in decline. - as others have noted, he’s a UFA after this season, so this isn’t a long-term move. It’s certainly reasonable to think though that they’ll get more out of Frolik for the remainder of this year than they would’ve gotten from Scandy.

Did RK or anyone else give an update on Victor?

This is a perfectly fine move. Scandy had negative trade value at the end of last season. RK was able to rehabilitate his value and the Sabres were able to get a pick for him, clearing some cap space and easing the logjam at D so Miller doesn’t need to be healthy-scratched. It’s not the good forward we need but that wasn’t going to happen in a Scandy trade.

Plan the parade. D'oh! @apuszczalowski beat me to it.

What is the bolded based on?

Dude.

True. I should've said "no one real wanted to buy the team and keep it in Buffalo." Kind of a distinction w/o a difference though.

I agree with the others who have stated upthread that it won't happen as long as TP owns the team, and that it is unlikely that he ever sells. BUT if TP were to sell unexpectedly, or get hit by a bus, or other unforeseen event that results in the team being sold, I think it's close to 50/50 that the new owner would move the team. The NHL would try to find a new owner that would keep the team in Buffalo, but there is no guarantee that they would succeed. The NHL tried this when the Rigases had to sell, and no one wanted to buy the team and keep it in Buffalo until OSP was offered a hugely discounted sweetheart deal. If there is an ownership group that is ready to pay top dollar to buy the team and move it to a bigger US market with a new arena that throws off $$, many of the other owners will vote in favor of allowing it to happen.

Well, that tempest in a teapot didn't last long. Best of luck to him, presumably in Rochester.

You're referring to this one, yes? https://theathletic.com/1497801/2020/01/01/why-the-sabres-and-jason-botterill-want-to-end-their-reliance-on-long-term-injured-reserve/ I'm not all the way to "terminate JB immediately and with extreme prejudice" yet. But if this season ends up as bad as it looks it might, AND if JB's "cap management" ends up hamstringing the team the way Vogl describes, I could see myself getting there.

JFC. The 2 of you polluted about 4 pages of a GDT with this BS. Both of you have been here long enough to know better. Don't do it again. Actually, it is.

This is an outstanding post. Separately: RK sounded more discouraged in his postgame presser than I've heard him sound all year. Even after that debacle, I still really like RK and think he's doing a good job with a poorly constructed roster. They haven't been far off in most of their recent losses. And they haven't shown up dead on their feet out of the gate at all, which happened frequently under Howie, other than the game a couple of weeksw ago in which Eichel was a late scratch.

Unbelievable.

JB has also traded ROR! And Kane, and Foligno, and high draft picks.

Further to the JB evaluation discussion, here's something I saw today: Fun fact: The Colorado Avalanche have only drafted 5 players on their current roster - Landeskog, MacKinnon, Rantanen, Jost, and Makar - the rest were trades, free agents, or waiver claims Kinda makes one realize that other GMs have been able to far outpace JB's results in terms of finding quality contributors from around the NHL.

I think JB has a plan that is reasonably well-constructed, takes a long-term view and is based on drafting and development, speed and puck-skilled defensemen. I think it's reasonably likely that he's been assured by TP that his job is not in jeopardy this year, and accordingly JB is not operating with desperation in the short term. I think though, as @dudacek has stated, that JB's plan (like all plans) requires good execution, and that it is highly questionable whether JB is good enough at talent evaluation (including players, coaches, staff, scouts, etc) to execute his plan competently. There has been an unnerving number of misses on guys like Hutton, Housely, Mittlestadt, Berglund, Sobotka, Sheary, etc. It's also hard to avoid the conclusion that most of the bright spots on the roster were not brought in by JB. It could still work out but this season could be effectively over in a week or so, and at that point it will be hard to be anything other than fatalistic.

If this is true, it will probably factor into TP's decision on whether to give JB another year.

I'm a fan until the end, and I want JB to succeed, and I like a number of the things he's done, but he's got to be accountable for the results. We're well into his 3rd year and his results are freaking terrible -- and looking mighty likely to stay the course. My bottom line is that since Lindy was fired, the Sabres haven't done as well as they would've done had all major decisions been made by the SabreSpace executive committee for hockey operations. And I'm not really kidding about that -- this board certainly could've led the team to 3 DFL finishes, plus a bunch of other bottom-6 finishes, no playoffs and a bunch of disappointing draft picks, all the while spending at or close to the cap. Until the Sabres get some guys in charge who deliver better results than my internet friends and I can produce, I'll reserve the right to expect more.

So the Reino-on-his-own-line experiment (which I thought worked reasonably well) is over after 1 game? I suppose they needed to reshuffle the lines to accommodate Dalton "Fists of Fury" Smith.

This too has the cold ring of truth -- i.e. that it's a desperation move that portends the end of his tenure -- kinda like when Darcy, unable to find a decent center anywhere, drafted Grigorenko and kept him with the Sabres immediately.

Well, I think that means that he's probably going to play tomorrow vs TB. And if that's true, it means IMHO that RK thinks his team needs a kick in the rear.

Plan the parade!

Kane will turn 32 at the beginning of next season. He's under contract at a $10.5MM cap hit for 3 more years after this one. He's not going to come cheap -- so forget about Bogo and a 2nd-rounder. At a minimum, it will cost the Sabres' 2020 1st-rounder plus either Reino or Risto plus something like Mitts or Borgen. If I were JB, and I could get Kane today for that price, I would probably pull the trigger. (Which is another reason to have a hockey czar -- so JB has an experienced and smart hockey guy in the room to discuss major decisions with.)