thewookie1

Neither asked for a trade due to the team. Miller wanted to go to the West Coast for his wife and Vanek didn't want to stick around through a full rebuild.

I do know through a secondary source at least one of the reasons Lafontaine left. During that season the team took a trip to Nashville the afternoon prior to the game the next day (regular 8PM start) Kim had decided that she wanted the team to stop by the new music studio they owned in Nashville to hang out with the people they had deals with and the workers there that night; so the day prior to the game. Pat and Kim got into a rather heated argument over it because Pat outright refused to let the team go. After some back and forth, Kim pulled the ownership card and overruled Pat. Frankly this story actually has me agreeing with Kim for this specific occasion. Another situation mentioned was Tim Murray working around Pat straight to the Pegulas when he wanted to go scorched earth with the tank. One other interesting tidbit I learned.... Buffalo interviewed Danny Briere for a POHO position around the time Adams became GM. Both sides were interested but Briere wanted Brandon Beane/McDermott's clauses. (Beane and McDermott have non-meddling agreements in their contracts that allow them to "kick out the Pegulas" when dealing with football related activities. Effectively it lets both of them run the team while Terry and Kim had a very reduced access to the players. For example Kim couldn't take the Bills to the Nashville music studio as it would violate the agreement. It also limited Terry's influence on personnel decisions) The Pegulas hated this primarily due to it shutting them out of their own team. As such they outright refused to give Briere carte-blanche and after some back and forth he stayed in Montreal until going to Philly as AGM. Now for my personal conjecture. Originally Kim was going to run the business side of the Sabres and Bills and as such be able to bend the non-meddling agreement slightly so they could take advantage of Josh Allen's fame and the like. After Kim's event, Terry no longer heavily meddles with the teams but that is partially due to Adams being a man Terry trusts and doesn't feel is looking to take advantage of him. Kim's dream of a strong PSE died with that stroke/cardiac event. Now Terry has more or less dismantled the overhanging PSE structure since he just wanted to own teams and enjoy the perks of being an owner. I personally see no intention to sell the Sabres fully as if he wanted to get rid of it he wouldn't care about not having any place at the table. He may want to sell a minor portion to bank role an arena revamp but no more than that.

But that isn’t accurate; each year is a separate entity. You can’t merely average seasons together due to the massive differences in circumstances between each season as well as one being a shortened season against a makeshift division. Adams had a train wreck 1st season while being copilot to Krueger’s wild ride The 2nd season saw marginal improvements The 3rd season was our most successful season since 2012 with us being in the race until game 78. Thus far Season 4 has been at minimum a moderate step back. If I knew for certain that Adams willingly ignored a potential 1G trade with a reasonable ask then I’d be far less lenient but I can’t know that because I don’t work in the front office. You can be hellbent on hating Adams for inaction all you want but you are doing so from a very limited scope of information. What would you say if the extreme case was true? No one is trading a 1G for anything remotely sane. And they haven’t since Ullmark’s departure. I have no idea how close to reality this could be but would your vitriol change? I hate losing, I want better results too. I just don’t have any motivation to get worked up over a lack of moves in a position that has few trades to begin with and a league that trades are rarely done outside of the Deadline or draft/FA time. I can’t bring myself to wholesale denounce Adams for something I do not know the full story. It may be a result based world but not knowing the causes can make any final determination difficult to make. For instance, I have no qualms with Adams turning down a hypothetical Saros for 4 1sts deal this past offseason since it would be borderline psychotic. Or a Cozens for Pesce type deal. Trade offers that are ridiculous that he declines aren’t automatically a blight on his record due to circumstances. If you need $1000 and someone offers you $1000 for your Porsche you wouldn’t take it because it’s insane. Making trades for goalies is a borderline impossible job. If it were so simple then Toronto and Edmonton wouldn’t be in constant disarray over their goalies. There are “64” NHL goalies, less than 32 would be considered legitimate 1Gs. Boston has two and the Rangers/Isles have 1.5 1Gs. Trading for a goalie is very nearly the same as trading for a QB in the NFL. The best QBs don’t get traded, the mediocre ones occasionally do when their team drops off and decide to rebuild, the bad ones are a dime a dozen and are swapped at random as needed. Rarely, if ever, do you see a generally good goalie or QB traded and when it happens you see massive overpayment and 9/10th of the time huge regrets by the team receiving the major player. After all, there’s a reason a goalie is being dealt and rarely is it flattering to the goalie. Arguably the best goalie we could theoretically get our hands on is John Gibson from Anaheim who is covered in warts and scars. After all good goalies are on good teams and good teams don’t trade away good goalies barring cap issues as well as a cheaper and likely better option in the wings. Jacob Markstrom would be the only other goalie that would fit the criteria of a once well thought of goalie with ok stats usually being borderline expendable. Even then those teams know they have a rare commodity and thus ask for far more than the player is actually worth. Gibson for instance has been on trade rumors for 3 years and yet nothing has happened likely due to Anaheim asking for a King’s ransom for a guy who’s at best a Prince.

Merely telling you as I see it; I don't exactly feel bad for Adams but I can sympathize based on what we do know. What good does it do to just stomp our feet and whine about Kevyn not doing something if we give no context. It would be like blaming a person trying to buy a computer at a Best Buy on Black Friday who chooses not to because none of the deals made sense.

Yes he does care about winning however he doesn’t feel beholden to the years prior to his hiring. Where we have 12/13 years of baggage, he has about a third of that. 1. As I’ve mentioned a million times by now, the number of legit 1Gs that have actually changed teams over the past 4 years have been few and far between. This does not mean he shouldn’t have acquired a vet goalie this past offseason but it does sound like we made a promise to Levi about not blocking him and giving him an opportunity to be our starter. (Friedman more or less hinted at this) Seems pretty likely based on our previous experiences with college goalies screwing us. 2. Regier had the GM role from the late 90s through to the 2012 season. Of course he would find some good players in that time, he held the role longer than most. Adams hasn’t found a UFA/trade Top 4 D, Top 6 Forward or yet again you mentioned a goalie. He has however drafted Quinn, Peterka and Benson whom all slate to fill the Top 6 winger role. Last year we looked great in our top 6; he failed to rid us of Olofsson’s weight but he’s now Bottom 6. Top 4 defenseman is the only thing that perplexes me to be honest. We can all see we need a veteran solid Top 4 defenseman. It certainly seems as if Adams himself is very much aware of this and has made attempts to fix the issue. We know he targeted Chychrun from Arizona but was more or less cheated price wise. We also have strong indications that he went after Pesce only for the deal to fall through at the final minute which strikes me as a player using his NTC. He also was very interested in Hanifin during the off-season but was likely turned away by the trade cost or Hanifin’s extension demands. While all failed attempts, they certainly point to Adams knowing of and trying to fix the issue. We aren’t happy with what he ended up trying but it had its merits. Clifton looked good in Boston and Johnson could be a handy addition to the locker room. In theory an ok bandaid for the D core when imagining continued progression. Instead Power decided to back into a ditch and Samuelsson went from steady eddy to Mr. Softee. Combine that with Clifton struggling mightily and Johnson being over used due to the other circumstances and you get the sheer mess we have now. Now Adams is sort of trapped defensively for this season. The emergence of R. Johnson gives him no wiggle room. To bring in a defenseman he’d need another roster spot which would mean either benching/cutting the vet they brought in to help mentor (seriously bad look) or sit the new guy who’s only played 30 or so games here. Unless your on a Cup team, GMs of all other teams would be extremely unlikely to play with either of those scenarios. He’s more or less handcuffed to this D group by proper etiquette because dumping either new guy would make acquiring future pieces even more difficult because they’ll see what we did with them. Vegas is ridiculed and despised for their cutthroat approach and if they lacked success I’d imagine they’d be utterly screwed. We don’t have that success to get players/agents to look past the unsavory stuff. 3. Complimentary pieces are honestly a crap shoot. I didn’t feel bad about them bringing back the group wholesale. Now I certainly wish they’d of let Jost walk and picked up anyone 4th liner with an ounce of face off talent or general grit. Perhaps I’m sentimental but I really wanted Okposo to hit game 1000 and Girgs to be here for a playoff berth for his years of hard work. But frankly I’d be too sentimental to be a GM. Perhaps that is what it comes down to, maybe Adams, like myself, are just too sentimental for the position. Where you want to win but simultaneously be a good guy overall. The team has a familial relationship and that makes for a great atmosphere but it also can create problems with upgrading in order to win. You are effectively in a constant battle between team success and team cohesiveness. As much as I like Granato as a person, we likely need a bit more of hardcore coach who will tell this familial locker room that you have better play 60 min or you’ll start losing family members. (That sounded darker than it was meant but you get the idea) I frankly have no clue if Adams has it in him; he’d have to move some prospects and let some of family atmosphere go by the wayside to be replaced with some more business-feel.

We likely need a head coach that will encourage them to play physical; we have some guys like Dahlin and Cozens who will play physical but it looks like they are just unable to play every role simultaneously.

How can a team never improve? It would make sense if we were constantly cycling players but we literally brought back the same team and they stalemated again. It just doesn't make sense; there is no seeming progression. We are literally stuck in an endless timeloop of players who start to get good, level off, ask to leave or get too old then possibly get better after they leave while we continue the same rat wheel. Its baffling. Now we are royally ***** with all trades being absurd prices or being vetoed by target players and firing the coach will only put us back into the whole coach cycler. Why will they just not shoot on the Powerplay

Frankly I think Benson is neither sad or happy about his situation. Being an 18 year old in the NHL where the only other 18 years olds are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd overall is nothing to scoff at. He probably would of loved to play for Team Canada but its not like he's playing 4th line grinder minutes here. The desire of being wanted certainly has an effect.

He wants to win just not as much as many of us do.

If Benson would have gone, this thread would be about how Adams is not serious about winning and all that.

Merry Christmas everybody!

The hit was "clean," but Erik Johnson should not have been given anymore penalties than his dance partner. While the fight took place after the hit; it was more about the continuous bullying by the Rangers and the lack of referee cleaning that up. After all, Johnson literally asks the guy if he wants to go; that is not an instigator. The refs arguably cost us the game due to their overall bias and complete ambivalence to NY's dirty late hits and the like. (Regardless of the refs we need to play better and the PPs likely wouldn't of helped however its more in a sense about how absurd the refs were) I think that's the crux of it; the refs won't do the policing but did so against us for daring to stand up to the bully. If I were Erik Johnson, I too would be irate over the double standard. If they aren't going to penalize the Rangers for questionable stuff and we try to stand up to the bullying; we shouldn't then be put at a disadvantage for literally trying to stand up for ourselves when the refs won't do their job. All in all, last night felt as if there was a double standard where the Rangers had immense leeway whereas the Sabres had none. Simultaneously the Sabres were penalized for daring to fight back against the Rangers.

Ugh, their goalie robs us 3 times and they score because UPL decided to leave the net

Grinding out a point, refs have a hot date with the Rangers after the game though so be aware

The only way you’d be happy is if Granato killed himself screaming at the refs

So bloody aggravating how the refs seem very one sided.

These refs are in the Rangers pockets

Another BS extra 2 min for daring to protect our other guys.

Why are you so utterly obsessed with critiquing the freaking pregame show?

Effectively we don't have penny pinching owners who immediately trade away anyone wanting money. We are very likely secure in Buffalo Management varies in competence from person to person and year to year The Sabres are inept and feel cursed but are far from the "worst" franchise in sports. If its based on Playoffs, we are tied with the Jets barring a miracle run this season. If its based on Championships, we aren't even in the first page of more embarrassing droughts. There isn't a team in sports who haven't had low points and some baseball teams can go decades with little to no success. I'd honestly argue the LA Angels are more inept seeing as they had two of the best baseball players in the league and failed to do anything with them whatsoever. The Angels are at 9 years of futility but unlike us had two literal super players on their roster for half that time and one the entire tenure.

Colorado Rockies, literally bribed the Cardinals to take their best player. Detroit Pistons are on a 25 game losing streak. Oakland As are getting moved after 20 years of getting cheaper every year. The NY Jets have just as long of a playoff drought as well as a literal loon at QB. Arizona Coyotes who lack a legit stadium and have multiple times got into hot water over not paying staff and/or players. Pittsburgh Pirates are just too cheap to get anywhere. The Indianapolis Colts owner is literally bonkers The KC Royals have the worst record in baseball since 2007 and have been terrible in all but 2 years in which they won and lost a World Series strangely enough. Also super cheap ownership. I could probably think of more but I’m tired of listing already. And that doesn’t even include European franchises.

The Sabres have a bad organization no doubt, but no where near the worst in all of pro sports

The guy rants about the Leafs and has done it for at least a decade. Even gained a job with Sportsnet I believe for a couple years before leaving again due to the success of his podcast. Why he has a following is because he's the average angry fan.

The rest of the quote did show Dahls felt it was on them; he wasn't blaming the fans for their play. It was more akin to the team being angry that their problems were being blamed on Granato