thewookie1

The thing is what was he supposed to do if the trades weren't there? Would you have traded our 1st for some rental goalie?

This year he was thrust into the position and had to deal with multiple circumstances which would of muddled the goalie trade market. Teams needing 3 goalies being the primary one. There were only 3 goalie related trades the entire offseason; Allen to MTL which was early in the offseason (prior to the draft) Devon Dubnyk being shipped to the SJS in what was seemingly a cap dump and Matt Murray's RFA rights going to Ottawa. Of the three, Matt Murray was an RFA which ended up costing $6.25mil a year even with having a rough season last year. Dubynk was quite literally dumped for a 5th and had a terrible year last year. And lastly Allen, arguably the best of the group, but was acquired prior to the draft and was the 2nd trade overall. Adams supposedly went after a few goalies but even if he had hoped the regular season might help one shake loose; the league implemented a taxi squad with a minimum of one goalie just prior to the season starting which would of effectively killed the market instantaneously and/or made the prices sky rocket. Next year will be more of a typical offseason and Hutton, Ullmark, and Johansson are not under contract. There are no strings to the first two and Johansson is supposedly being shopped. And perhaps this offseason Adams will actually get some experienced help.....

No, and his contract is up. I'll give Adams the mulligan on year 0's offseason for goaltending. If he brings Hutton back or any other terrible candidates though, I'll no longer be willing to sympathize with his present predicaments.

Ullmark has been solid I'm still willing to give Adams the benefit of doubt on why he didn't upgrade the backup position. We have only the knowledge that nothing concrete occurred but plenty of rumors that he has been hunting for upgrades. They don't exactly have a ton of cap space either to just throw in a goalie trade without Hutton departing with it. The prices on trade candidates might just be to exorbitant to be worth it. In the end, he chose Taylor Hall over a goalie upgrade as we saw the opportunity to get MAF. Adams was likely counting on our scoring being better and with Ullmark having an above average season we should of been playoff worthy. Sadly, Hall has been mostly a bust and Ullmark was injured leading to us having zero goaltending and still little scoring. I wouldn't of traded our 1st for any of the likely goalie candidates available.

Well at minimum he has been helping Cozens + as Cozens himself has mentioned it. The other reason I was getting at is I want Adams to play hardball is to prevent teams from thinking he'll crack under the pressure and cave on demands. If no one offers better than a 4th for Staal, I'd just take my ball and go home. If one team offers a 3rd and 5th, I'd likely say yes but we need Adams to show he isn't weak.

But isn’t that all we’ve been doing this past 6 years? Throwing as many youngsters and random bot 6 guys at the problem and hoping it plugs the leak. If Eichel’s season is through and depending on Cozens situation I’d be looking to hold on to him for the mere value of not having our center depth be highlighted by Mittelstadt, Sheahan, Eakin and Asplund. I’d rather not set records of ineptitude and then lose the lottery and potentially Eichel.

I'd rather keep him then, anything past the midway point of the 3rd round is practically worthless. How many players in the late 3rd or on have actually ended up good on the Sabres besides Olafsson?

Friedman said a 2nd could be had for Staal. Get a 1st for Hall(50%) a 2nd for Staal(50%) a 2nd/3rd for Montour(50%) a 5th for Reider perhaps.

Don’t care, he could disappear into an ether and I wouldn’t mind.

If he wants 6x6 Ullmark is nuts. He’s an slightly better than average goalie most nights. Bennington won a Cup which also inflates his value.

It certainly seems likely this injury has been causing his problems all year.

Dahlin is Sabre and not a trade chip. His problem is two fold however; Krueger has made him lose his confidence over the past two years by effectively making him overthink everything to the point he standing around trying to process everything going on instead of trusting his gut and abilities. The second issue is with every partner he has had except Borgen this year. Dahlin knew where Borgen would be and thus felt more assured that he could jump up into plays and confident he had his back. Last year Miller did well with Dahlin because he was playing a more defensive posture usually since Dahlin was 19. It seems like this year they decided to throw him to the wolves because Miller, Montour, etc all jump up constantly into plays, leaving Dahlin in a state of constant hesitation. What he needs is a steady Dman who allows him to gain confidence and play his game. It reminds me a bit of Tyler Myers after losing Tallinder and just assuming he'd work with anyone. Dahlin has incredible skill and super edge work at his disposal yet our coach seems hellbent on making him play defense first role. You can see, Dahlin cares about the D-zone and if he doesn't think its safe then he begins to play hesitant when handling the puck. He needs that worry adequately relieved so that his offensive talents can shine and his general defensive skill has a chance to actually form. Bryson right now is getting the treatment that Dahlin had the last couple years, the Dman playing with him is allowing him to play his game and being the vet of the two and making sure the D-zone is covered. This allows Bryson to play loose, confident, and only further prosper as he knows the old guy has his back. Defenseman take years to mature and be cultivated into well rounded players; but that's the thing, they need to be allowed to learn and not feel overwhelmed at every possible moment. Every young Dman needs either savvy vet or defensive stalwart in order to properly bloom into the prospect they are capable of becoming. Said player with the youngster needs to commit to that role however, it isn't a glorious role but it helps the team overall. What we have here are zero Dman being willing to play the role and allow Dahlin to grow and prosper. It's the same reason why many younger Dman have success and later drop off; when they are a young callup or rookie they aren't a threat and the other Dmen sort of baby the youngster. Once he's a little older or becomes a "threat" to their spot is when the less team-oriented players rear their ugly heads. The only real odd exception to this are the non-offensive Dmen who come up into the league; since they aren't going to put up points consistently and will mostly play the defensive role themselves you don't see them drop off unless they are legitimately below-average.

Fire the coach into the sun. Can someone please help Dahlin, his confidence has been destroyed.

Perhaps his shoulder injury was more of a neck injury he had been playing through. Combine that with broken ribs and you would certainly get a player having visible difficulties taking hits and holding the puck. He understands how important he is to this team and wanted to play through it but between multiple additional minor injuries and the team’s inability to do much of anything they have told him to rest and heal

I give it a 5% chance its his burner and a 10% chance its his son and an 85% chance its merely a troll

No I'm just looking for RHDs for Dahlin to play with not potential Eichel trade doomsday prophesies

Nothing makes Raanta worth a 2021 1st. If anything we should of taken Vegas up on their offer of MAF with a 2nd for future considerations. We wouldn’t of got Hall but it would of likely helped us far more.

I would imagine a seriously better looking team but still hampered by Ullmark, Borgen, and McCabe’s injuries. They’d at least be more interesting to watch.

I wouldn’t take that NYR proposal you described since Lafienere is a winger and Zibaneijad has 1 year left on his contract after this year and is cold as ice right now. out of those, the only one I could get behind is Kopitar and Byfield as a 34 year old Kopitar will likely age well due to his style not being dependent on pure speed.

Can anyone name some RHDs that are defense first for Dahlin to play with? Obviously we already have Borgen but I’d rather not have all my eggs in one basket.

Any idea what our record was when Taylor was the interim assistant coach? I’d guess that while he was here filling in that role they became enemies

He may very well want to bring Brind'Amour here, in that case I would fire Krueger and let Ellis just run the team until the end of the season. Otherwise go get Gallant and let's get it going again. Finish the year strong.

I will never trade Eichel in our conference. I hate the idea of trading him but if my hand is forced he is going to the west.

Correct, effectively you are telling Jack and the others who really love Krueger that this isn't any sort of betrayal or blindsided firing. Hell he's giving the players the keys and telling them to go pick Ralph up. I definitely heard this scenario when he mentioning needing to be even-keeled as a GM and not making rash decisions or trades.

I think this was rather well done honestly. Adams is about as close to fan GM as you can get seeing as he’s from Buffalo and was a Sabres fan both before and after his NHL career. He did a good job balancing on the tightrope between the fans and the internal staff’s being angered. To a degree I think this was also Adams telling the players that if they like Krueger and want to keep him around; they need to win these games coming up or else. The only thing I disagreed with is that our goaltending was fine but I do agree we aren’t terrible due to goaltending. We’ve lost maybe two games due to goaltending versus at least six due to an inability to score.