Drunkard

Hey at least he finally realized that it's time to start trying to win. It would have been nice if he had decided that before he refused to pay Eeyore's bonus on 7/1/2018. That would have been a better time to start trying, but at least he's not going to wait until Dahlin is 30. And on the bright side we've only wasted 4 years of Eichel! Yay us.

Never mind my previous post. I get it. The coaches have all been idiots. Carry on.

If he's such a nightmare to coach why has every coach we've had fed him minutes like he's shea Weber in his prime? You'd think if he was that hard to coach at least one of our coaches would have found a way to limit his ice time.

Thanks for posting this but it makes everything clear as mud. If Pegula really is hands off and Botterill and Beane basically have autonomy as suggested they why was Botterill in such a hurry to trade Eeyore before the bonus was paid on July 1st? That contract was perfectly structured (by Tim Murray) to make it easy to move and extremely attractive to any and all budget teams each year after the bonus was paid on July 1st.

But we have the great Jason Botterill for our GM. We shouldn't want to level the playing field by making things easier for GMs because it would reduce our advantage over all the other teams who don't have Jason Botterill. Shouldn't we want to want the job to be as tough as possible so we can leverage his greatness?

I think that's likely the case. Getting bought out still nets him a decent chunk of his remaining contract. Failure to report nets him nothing financially.

Makes sense since you are only allowed to exceed the cap by 10% in the offseason. If/when they get Marner signed they'll know exactly how much money they need to free up so they can do that before announcing the deals for those guys.

I agree. If they were able to grab somebody like Stastny who only has 2 year left on his deal it would be ideal because that would give both Mittelstadt and Cozens a chance to develop. I'd much rather see that than to see them put themselves in cap hell for Duchene or be stuck with Turris for 5 years.

This. While the Sabres may have improved overall in points last year from the previous last place finish, they earned the lion's share of them earlier on and during the streak before becoming a tire fire in the back half of the season. If they go into this season with the status quo of players from last year, it'd be more inclined to expect them to look more like the 2nd half team than the 1st half team and wasting another season. That puts RK off to a bad start and makes JB's seat all the warmer. I think it's probably too risky to stick with the status quo.

I heard from my super secret source that JB has his eyes on these babies. Rumor has it, he's just slightly uncomfortable with giving up a prime piece for the full set, but if they throw in a late 1st in 2022 he may just pull the trigger.

Exactly. It's just as bad as the argument that we finished in last with O'Reilly so losing him was no real loss. Not sure why that argument doesn't apply to Eichel, Reinhart, or anyone else on the team but it seems to get pulled out selectively and never applied across the board.

I agree. I'd rather throw a 1 year, $12 million contract at Joe Thornton and see if enough zeros would make him willing to go to a bottom feeder than play 2C by committee again.

That's fine, I just happen to disagree. Nothing wrong with that. If everyone agreed this board would be boring to read. I think he's a poor evaluator of talent and that's why he tends to rely move on volume. I'm pretty sure he described it himself as throwing enough darts to hit some bulls eyes but I can't find the quote and I'm limited in my ability to search because I'm at work and half the links I click on are blocked. People ripped on Evander Kane for playing that way, but apparently it's a good philosophy for the guy running the team? I'd prefer a different GM that focused on quality instead of quantity. We have enough mediocre and bad players. We don't need any more guys like Sobotka or Danny O'Regan. Bums like that can be picked up on waivers all the time, but that's what quantity gets you.

At least tanking helped us acquire good players. The other decision, not so much. I read his whole post and he basically tried to push the Kane trade and other trade aside and then use the rest of his tenure as the justification for his assessment. I guess he can do that, but you can make almost anybody look competent if you ignore or explain away the bad stuff and only focus on the positives.

Somewhat. I've been doing my best to avoid bringing up he who will not be named, but it's hard not to think of it when GA described Botterill as cautious, calculating, and playing moneyball when he brought those guys in. I know, I know. Let it go, right? Like the decision to tank?

And that's probably a good way to try to build a team, but acquiring Berglund and Sobotka are not good examples of following that methodology.

Ok. That certainly doesn't sound like moneypuck though. I thought moneyball was supposed to be all about finding players who produce at higher levels than they get paid, not taking on overpaid depth players who end up getting even worse after you acquire them.

Nobody could possibly be playing "moneypuck" then take a look at Berglund and Sobotka and want those guys, can they?

I agree. I was patiently waiting for a golden shower joke and nothing. Someone has to grab the low hanging fruit around these parts.

So he won't be replacing Brian Campbell as the new hyperhydrosis guy? That's a shame.

Fair enough. I place plenty of blame on Pegula as well, for the record, but I recognize he's a novice that happens to have veto power. I honestly don't think Botterill knew exactly how much trading Eeyore was going to set the team back though.

He also lied about drilling another gas well and making the sole purpose for the team's existence to be winning the Stanley Cup. If he did he wouldn't have handcuffed his rookie GM in trading a good player for scraps just to avoid paying his bonus. I guess moving him before July 1st was more important than icing the best team possible.

Cool. I remembered reading it, but couldn't remember who posted it or where. You guys seem to want to give Botterill a pass and that's fine but I'll continue to disagree. Pegula has more money than God and he has every right to spent it how he pleases, but if that's his mindset then his introductory press conference was a lie. He cares more about who paid O'Reilly his $7.5 million bonus than winning. It means that he was willing to set the team back and all his big talk about drilling another gas well and starting today our purpose is to win the Stanley Cup was just nonsense and he let his ego get in the way of making the team better or at least not setting the rebuild back.

I still blame Botterill because he's supposed to be the subject matter expect on all things Buffalo Sabres and it's his job to turn the organization into a winner. I don't doubt that Pegula likely instructed him to move him before the bonus was paid, but Botterill should have explained just had how badly not waiting would hurt the return in the trade and set back the organization that he is supposed to be leading to success. Pegula is a novice owner and given that Botterill came so highly regarded and recommended by the league it should have bought him enough clout to convince his boss.

They wanted to wait for the Sabres to pay the bonus on July 1st before they traded for him. Budget owners can be that way. I've lost track of how many times I've read Senators and Hurricanes fans complain about their owners on HFboards. Botterill traded him to St. Louis because the Blues paid the bonus while the bargain bin teams were still waiting it out.