thewookie1

With how Lindholm has looked as of late, that's a very risky move for Vancouver. Lindholm will need to bounce back. Calgary gets the better end of this one in my opinion, they get a 1st as well as a player in Kuzmenko who put up 39 goals last year. As well as some other dudes.

Moving a team doesn’t help give the owners club a boost of money and a new market. Arizona has Bettman keeping it safe and the NHL would be nuts to move the Sabres with our positive TV numbers and proximity to Toronto.

I'm curious as to how much Boone Jenner would cost and if he'd be worth overpaying. He's only got 18 pts in 34 games this year which is the main hold up.

Honestly I think he’s tried to move Olofsson for 2 years to no avail. I honestly don’t think anyone ever offered much to the point he chose to just eat it versus trade him far below his original ask and thus show weakness to other GMs. Okposo and Girgs are great people and I’d offer Okposo a front office job but as players they both very limited and Okposo scares me when he gets into shoving matches due to his injury history. From my brief interactions I’ve had with Okposo I’d say he’s a legitimately great guy. Girgs is a great event killer but his offense has deteriorated every year since his rookie season. Probably, I’ve never been an aggressive person in regards to decision making or risk taking. But honestly, I don’t exactly see a good move in the Top 9. I see far more risks than potential rewards. If you stripped Skinner’s NMC he’d be my likeliest choice to move to find a different type of player. Otherwise you’re just looking for a better Greenway to push him down a line. Id love to say I’m not gun shy but Buffalo teams have a tendency of getting burned badly by any trade with actual value involved. Regardless of how we do, the other side always seems to get the better result. The Bills literally traded the picks in which Mahomes and Justin Jefferson were taken who are arguably the best at their respective positions. We got Tre White, Allen and Diggs out of it but somehow we still lost somehow. The Sabres got Alex Tuch, a guy who bleeds blue and gold in the Eichel trade and has been better than expected; however Eichel suddenly decided to play defense and won a Cup. Reinhart’s trade got us our best future goalie candidate and a steal in Kulich yet Reinhart has literally exploded this year in goals and helped take Florida to a Cup Finals. You can run further down the list with Montour, Scandella, And even Ristolainen to some degree. Arguably the only trade that worked out for us pretty well was ROR’s original trade as Colorado didn’t get any major success stories out of the players. And there’s the mutually detrimental trade of Lehner for “Colin White” which just hurt both sides to varying degrees. So yes I’m gun shy for good reason; I don’t feel like watching us trade Cozens for an ok player while Cozens turns into a monster.

Honestly I'd just re-do the 4th Line, get a RHD and try again with a different coach. It isn't sexy or groundbreaking but certainly realistic and yet still potentially sound. Skinner is a great player while simultaneously being an anchor of a contract due to his one trick pony skillset. Thompson has had an off year but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt seeing as he's been injured all over the entire season. Tuch is one of those heart and soul guys with a Buffalo connection so he's not going anywhere. Quinn has been great this year, if only he could stay healthy for more than a 20 games. Peterka has showed up big time this year; his issue seems to be consistency which tends to be fixed when Quinn and Cozens play with him. Cozens has had an eventful season with terrible puck luck, a facial injury, and contractual pressures only increasing due to his unluckiness in shooting. He could be a center or wing in the future. Mitts, I'd look to give him 3 years and 6mil or so per. He's grown into quite the player but I've got mixed feelings about 3 Centers at 7x7mil Greenway is a solid player who can be a 3rd/4th liner. Benson has been a great youngster on the wing with the sky being the limit on his potential. Likely will be the eventual replacement for Skinner in regards to being the small feisty guy. There's 9 forwards and honestly all of them have plenty of talent as well traits to help us. We just need 3 more grizzled vets with skill sets that differ from our present bunch.

Easy no, you don’t trade good young players with experience + a 1st for a defensive prospect. That would literally defeat the purpose to trade Power. Savoie, Jokiharju and a 2nd would be my opening offer Can’t take Elvis due to his cap hit; in that case we’d effectively be trading Mitts regardless

Jiricek is rather pissed at CBJ. Feels as if he’s been punished for disagreeing with the staff on his play. Barely getting any minutes and no power play time and now they sent him back to the AHL. There was some fear he may refuse to report however he loves the staff in Cleveland. Can we spin Savoie for him lol

Hopefully the break allows us to forget the other 2 wins and we can try to get another 2 wins

Part of this is due to Tuch being hobbled most of the year as well as Quinn being out half the season. Part of it has to do with the terribly executed attempt at defensively responsible hockey. Which both literally and mentally slows them down. Lastly Hinostroza, Jost and Bryson are faster skaters than Greenway, Benson and Johnson. Underachieving is also baked into it as well however I can’t exactly quantify that

Not for the Sabres to be there, just the odd formation in the standings

Oddly enough, we are more or less the last place team of passable hockey teams at this time. We have a 7+ point lead on all 5 teams behind us and would jump to 24th with a win and losses by MTL, MIN and CGY. Just very unusual.

He's legitimately nice on Twitter and seems down to Earth when I've seen him a few times at Tops.

I give credit to Thompson for at least trying to get engaged with some hits and puck carrying after they went down 1-0. Dahlin played fine, easily our best player tonight. Kudos to the 4th line who played with energy all night. UPL stood on his head to keep the score reasonable. Tuch skated, then got banged up, then skated and got banged up again Skinner was his usual bad Skinner version, all finesse and little to no attack. Power needs some confidence and to work non-stop on his shot in the offseason like Dahlin did in his years 2 and 3 offseasons. He has zero trust in his shot and thus will quite literally pass the puck to a Skinner covered by three guys versus shoot it on net. Overall a god awful game with small positives surrounded by giant negatives. They better be flying against LA from start to finish tomorrow night.

I can definitely accept the that opinion; I don't hate his announcing but its a far cry from RJ

Don’t think he’s had a job since Buffalo but he is 73 now and would have been at least 65 when he was fired here. May have just retired. As for Tim Murray he hasn’t even been a scout or anything since Buffalo. He must of legitimately did something bad that we aren’t aware of because I’ve never seen a former GM who was a front office lifer vanish like that. Botterill has been the AGM in Seattle and has been in proposed candidates when GM searches are ongoing. Adams has always been an odd one due to his experience being all over the place. Player, Assistant Coach, Scout, high up roles in the Harbor Center and Jr Sabres programs and something akin to an auditor for the Pegulas in the 2019-2020 area. He has done well at bringing on great analytical minds to his youth scouting but the lack of pro scouts seems odd. From a manager POV he seems very good, easy to work with, listens to his staff, etc. Where the issues seem to arise is with his more mild approaches to goaltending and pushing the team into the playoffs.

Yes and no; there is a definite bias to the top teams or those deemed as such.

We have a back to back in California so I’m not surprised. Looks like Comrie is all but finished as a starter in Buffalo

I frankly have no clue; I'd fear if Adams was fired the next guy would want to reset the clock again to get "his" guys. And/or they'd go stupid with the assets like Tim Murray. As for Granato, I love the guy; but I frankly think his role no longer works. He can help you develop players but we need someone who can take this talent and turn it into a playoff team versus a great developmental team that can't seem to quite get over that peak. How do you fix the team? I'm unsure and terrified by that. I can already just imagine watching us trade Cozens or Power only for them to take off into the stratosphere like everyone else seems to. Or letting Mitts leave after next season and go on to have a great career.

Can anyone explain to me how Benson was penalized for doing something every player alive does? This season in the end can be boiled down to the Powerplay being putrid. Our 5v5 scoring is Top 10 this year.

Well that was outta left field

It’s just not right, we outplayed them 2/3rds of the game and still lose.

Speaketh into existence

His effort is still there but he’s trying to force himself to play to his contract instead of just playing

Sabres playing against the trap is a never-ending practice of futility.

Cold and Ruthless are different than "firing your coach" but leaving him in limbo for multiple weeks and letting the media hound the guy over very real rumors about him being replaced. That's just bad management