Mango

I would like to see them trade Byram for something reasonable. Otherwise the Mitts trade is just reshuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic. I like Byram, but I wouldn't say it is super clear that the Sabres with Bo is remarkably better than the Sabres with Mitts. I think at some point this team is going to have to move on from one of its big pieces that will bring a big enough haul to revamp one of our units. If we can get Byram for cheaper than Power and Power brings back a couple of pieces up and down the line up, so be it. I am not sure Power is more valuable to this team than a top 4 RHD and a middle 6F with a strong 200 foot game. I am not saying he definitely brings that back either but that is the type of return I would be looking for and would be willing to pull the trigger on it.

This is where I am at. We can have Byram, but it means we have to trade Power. Or we can trade Power. But we cannot have both. That is outside of the fact that we have one of the most expensive blue lines in the entire NHL, and are arguably a bottom 5 group at actually playing defense. The reason is they both make the other one redundant. After that I eat Sammy's contract and rebuild the blue line from Dahlin out with guys who actually play defense.

I would have believed much more in this curse if Terry Pegula had bought the team in 1976. Honestly, I am not sure that there is any curse worse than one Terrance Pegula. In fact, if they reshot Angels in the Outfield but made it about the Pegula lead Sabres, we would STILL miss the playoffs and the angels would demand a trade.

Dave, Phish,moe., Umph, Mumford, Lumineers,Tedeschi Trucks, Gin Blossoms, Govt Mule, Blink 182. Hoping to squeeze in Weird Al.

Tim Horton, Team Bus Driver

In true Pegula fashion the new hire will likely be much worse. Like historically bad. Maybe even the very worst on ice reporter of all time. It's literally possible because that's literally the state of the franchise since the day he bought the team. But if this was a different franchise/owner I would likely agree with you

Right. That's why Rayzor is basically the sideline reporter and Marty is in the booth. My vote is for Pat LaFontaine. Or get Biz/Whitney and let those guys go to town on this franchise live. They're tools,for sure, but Pegula deserves the smoke so let's just bring it to him.

This is why I've turned so hard against the org. I gave them so many "well maybe...'s" I really thought they were on to something with this current group. But Pegula and Adams have only proven to me that they are without a doubt the dumbest guys in any professional sports room.

It was always clear as day. Spend on quality vets while we take advantage of guys on ELC'S. And as the ELC'S end sub in the home grown extensions and that's when Kulich, Savoie, and even Bensonetc will come to fill the bottom of the roster. We really botched this one. There was a wide open window for the Sabres to really do this right and be a challenger and they botched it as bad as they've ever botched anything in the Pegula era. I think that's why this one hurts a lot more and I hate Adams/Pegula about as much as I've hated any rivalry in Buffalo sports history. We were right there!

I think the short story long of the entire blue line is that you only get 2 $8M+ defensemen. I can be convinced on either Power or Byram in that role. Then we need waaaay more defensive production out of a $5M player that we are getting out of Mule. Somebody said to me earlier, and they're right. The blue line in particular is hurting this team due to compounding cap/production issues.

They 100% cannot and should not pay another hefty contract tona defenseman. At bare minimum you have to rid yourself of the Samuelson contract before giving Bryam 8x8. But even then we'd still be the most expensive blue line in the league. A stat that continues to blow my mind. We are soooo bad in our own end.

Good chance the problem is actually the local fauna and government duties. Tomato tomato really.

For most NGB'S the junior dev staff are so incredibly mediocre. The fact that guys like Carle keep getting the call up for the world champs and the US Dev guys just bumble around doesn't give me any confidence that USA Hockey is any different. That's the same model I'm familiar with. Keep some good vibes people on staff. Then bring in the HC or an assistant from Cal (or whatever( to run the show for the u19 or u23 world championships.

Kevyn Adams as General Manager. Maybe even a promotion to President of Hockey Operations at some point.

There's a non-zero chance that Terry and Shevyn has spoken to Beane about building and organjzadion and taken an inventory of everything he's done in Buffalo come away with 2 things. 1. Surround yourself with people you trust 2. Bring in people from Carolina. And then this the result of what these two dummies came away with.

Hey! It also sounds like the GM of our farm team is not coming back either. So maybe show a little bit of respect.

My knee jerk response for reason is that Lindy's big complaint is that this roster (see, org) is soft, does not how to win, and lacked leadership. So Shevyn went out and got a guy that won a bunch, wore the C/A often, and at the peak of his career was a tough a resilient player. But instead of getting somebody on the roster, he just got his buddy who will likely just show up to practice every once in a while and tell the guys that they are a bunch of p-words. Then we will get a presser about how we brought more toughness into the building so stop being critical of the roster he built. (A roster he continuously says is his fault is not good enough, but then always follows it up with being good enough)

Sheesh. That blurb sounds like he's leaving on great terms. LoL No exit interview or EOY recap? Sheesh. Either Pegula was like "nah we don't need to hear from you". Or Karmanos was like "fork that, what's the point. I'm out". Neither are good looks for the franchise.

Agreed. This isn't the PIP. He was already on a PIP, and his presentation about the results. He passed. He's off of it now.

This is wildly infuriating for a million reasons. I'm so sick of these USA hockey guys. As a guy who was on the senior team for team USA and lived at the Olympic training center for my sport, these u19 coaches or whatever are not any good. They aren't winning national championships. They aren't good enough to be assistants at the collegiate level. No way they ever coach a u23 national team. They're only there for feels. They're there to run programs that generate revenue not actually develope athletes/win meaningful games. You'll notice often in a lot of sports that the governing body has these full time junior coaches but when it comes time to send a junior team to a world championship the NGB selects totally different coaches. The full time junior coaches are tier 3 or 4. But on the other hand this could be good. Could it be a transition from coaching to scouting? Pro scout is likely a better role and career path for somebody like that.

I've advocated this but I don't think this is what's happening. I thought Ruff into a POHO/Senior Advisor role and/or one of the assistant GMs he's worked with comes over as GM. If it were Ruffs ship to captain I'd assume we'd hear about shanges in the coaching staff. However, I do think that Ruff did have his hands in getting rid of Cozens and adding Norris, Zucker, and McLeod I just don't think it's the dramatic shift you're implying.

Man, I was at least hoping that the advisor and the Eric Staal announcement were two different things. Ugh.

Really difficult to find him a more effective partner when he is a gigantic reason why we have the most expensive blue line in the NHL while also being wildly ineffective. People keep saying "go find him a partner". The dude gets paid the kind of money that he should be making his partner look good. His contract is hampering our ability to go find him the partner that people are clamoring for.

If I were the owner I would have walked out to the podium after that palm trees and taxes presser and fired him live on air. That was as bad a presser as I have ever seen in any professional sport. Still boggles my mind that the lead recruiter said "nobody wants to come here" and then listed actual reasons why, without any refute. Buffalo isn't even in the top 10 for worst weather or taxes in the NHL. FAAAHK DOOD.

If Adams needs the support of a tutor in year 6 then he should have just been fired. I know you know this. I'm more just yelling at clouds.