Drunkard
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Posts posted by Drunkard
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4 hours ago, TrueBlueGED said:
And I'm not even remotely confident in Krueger picking the 1 combination out of 4 that might work. Part of why I'm so gung-ho about trading Risto is to prevent coaches from being their own worst enemy.
Never mind my previous post. I get it. The coaches have all been idiots. Carry on.
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9 hours ago, That Aud Smell said:
Yeah - it’s a cap dump.
Fair post.
Bear in mind Risto’s reported inability to be coached, his insistence on freelancing, and his evident low hockey IQ.
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.
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22 minutes ago, dudacek said:
From Tim Graham’s Q&A in the atheletic
There is a feeling that Terry Pegula did not want an experienced GM and did not hire a hockey president because he wants to have the last word in all the player matters (trades, salary, etc). With a first-time GM and no president, Pegula is the guy who takes the last decision, and I think the abrupt and unfortunate Ryan O’Reilly trade it is on Pegula, not on Botts. What is your insight? — Sergiu S.
People I trust tell me this is inaccurate. In fact, Terry Pegula has been increasingly hands-off over the years with both the Sabres and Bills. He hires executives to do those jobs and lets them work without meddling.
Pegula has final say over every personnel move; that is any owner’s prerogative. But insight from those who know insist Pegula provides Sabres GM Jason Botterill and Bills GM Brandon Beane all the latitude and resources they wish.
Many folks are upset the Pegulas haven’t installed a hockey or football czar above Botterill or Beane, or haven’t hired another president since Russ Brandon’s firing. I don’t understand why this is a controversial issue. The term “president” isn’t consistently applied throughout sports. A president with one club might be what another team calls its general manager or its vice president of hockey operations. Some presidents handle only the business and carry zero sway on sports decisions. Botterill and Beane are in charge, so there’s no need for a president, no purpose for another layer in between either GM and the Pegulas
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.
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39 minutes ago, dudacek said:
As a GM, it would take some of the guesswork out of scouting, and as a fan it would give me more immediate gratification from my top pick.
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?
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2 minutes ago, WildCard said:
Maybe he agreed to waive his NTC (honestly not even sure he had one) to go there on the condition they buy him out?
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.
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15 minutes ago, WildCard said:
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.
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20 minutes ago, CallawaySabres said:
I guess what I am saying is blow up the awful bottom 6, add a reasonable 2nd line winger, but don't go blowing 9 million and 7 years on some 2nd line center you may regret big-time. Our 2nd line Center is already in the system and you then fill out the wings when ready.
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.
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11 minutes ago, ... said:
I wouldn't mind this conceptually if there was some reason to believe the team's performance would be biased more toward the first half of last season than the second half. I mean, there was no reason for them to not be in the wildcard mix except for blowing all four tires plus the spare - unless it was coaching. While I'm interested in the boldness of the RK hire, I'm equally a-feared it will fail.
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.
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17 minutes ago, dudacek said:
Sound very much like the plan is to keep Sam on wing and get him someone he can feed.
We’ve seen glimpses of another gear with Sam when he wants the puck more and is not deferring to Jack.
But he needs better than Sheary to work with.
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.
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25 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:
This is such a broad brush and ignores so many miles of context that I'd go as far as calling it a completely dishonest way to frame the way this season played out.
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.
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Just now, Randall Flagg said:
I'd prefer Haula, then Dzingel, then Eakin. My impression is that Eakin doesn't play very good hockey.
I'm just going to be really upset if we don't Fix, with a capital f, the 2C position for at least this coming season.
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.
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13 minutes ago, nfreeman said:
I don't think @GASabresIUFANwas claiming that JB shouldn't be held accountable for the ROR trade -- only that JB thought he was getting players consistent with the "moneypuck" approach.
The first bolded is ridiculous on its face.
"At least the Chicago fire helped clear some real estate plots."
"At least Black Sunday helped the Sabres stay under the cap."
"At least my hand doesn't itch any longer since that car accident in which I lost my arm."
As to the 2nd bolded -- here is how @GASabresIUFANconcluded his post:So it seems pretty clear that GA was describing what he sees as JB's overall philosophy/plan, but also stating that the plan needs to start delivering results -- not just apologizing for him and ignoring bad moves.
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.
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2 minutes ago, nfreeman said:
The decision to tank was, by orders of magnitude, much more consequential than the ROR trade.
And your description of @GASabresIUFAN's post omits his critical point regarding what JB thought he was getting before Bergy and Vlad fell off the table.
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.
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1 minute ago, nfreeman said:
Is anyone disagreeing with you on this? Or on the assertion that the return for ROR was lousy?
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?
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1 minute ago, Zamboni said:
It is. But as with everything, most like to alter things to fit their definition. Analytics driven player acquisitions at a fair to low cost, to better a team. The basis of Moneyball/puck.
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.
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54 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:
Sure, He thought he was getting two decent but overpaid depth players and then both went AWOL on the Sabres.
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.
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2 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:
I don't think JBot is cautious, I think he is very calculating. I see him as playing "Moneypuck" with the Sabres; looking to max value out of each cap $ and looking to get the right players for the least reasonable asset price. We can debate the success or lack thereof of the strategy at a later date.
Outside the Kane deal (rookie GM error) and the ROR deal (more to this story), most of his trades and signings have been very calculated. The Scandella/Pommers for Ennis and Foligno trade, Sheary for a 4th, Skinner for Pu and Pucks, Montour for a 1st, Baloo for a 3rd, protecting Ullmark by giving up Carrier all come to mind.
We needed NHL D and leadership - Therefore he acquired Scandella, Baloo and Pommers and he used others teams issue to get them. Montreal didn't want to lose Baloo to expansion for nothing, Minnesota needed grit and cap space.
We needed a goal scoring winger to player with Jack - He acquired Sheary from Cap strapped Pit for a 4th and then a better deal came along in Skinner who the Canes needed to trade because he wasn't going to re-sign and ended up getting 2 desperately needed LWs for a 4th, a 2nd Pu, Hunwicks contract and a few lower picks.
He has also made moves just as calculating to add depth to the organization in Rochester and the prospect pipeline. For example signing Euro FAs Pilut and Ruotsalainen to add more near ready prospects to bridge the gap while the Asplunds, Borgens and Laaksonen's of the world develop properly.
Overall, I see his vision and am beginning to understand his acquisition philosophy. As I've said before, I think he is laying excellent ground work for long-term success, but for him and his plan to be here long-term, we actually need to make more headway at the NHL level as soon as next season.
Nobody could possibly be playing "moneypuck" then take a look at Berglund and Sobotka and want those guys, can they?
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On 6/22/2019 at 12:37 AM, ... said:
Two pages and no dossier comment?
I agree. I was patiently waiting for a golden shower joke and nothing.
Someone has to grab the low hanging fruit around these parts.
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On 6/21/2019 at 4:50 PM, Randall Flagg said:
So hard to read, and so accurate for the moment.
My locker room source says they only needed to wash his uniform once a month, as it rarely saw sweat
So he won't be replacing Brian Campbell as the new hyperhydrosis guy? That's a shame.
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22 minutes ago, darksabre said:
Ifs and buts.
Botterill isn't Terry's boss, and if you want to be fair to Terry, the Sabres are a small market team not unlike some of the other teams who you say were unwilling to pay the bonus too.
String Terry up if you want, I wont stop you. But to say Botterill should have been able to will Terry into paying O'Reilly's bonus with cold hard logic is to oversimplify the realities of how people, especially business owners, make decisions.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.
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31 minutes ago, Kruppstahl said:
Kim's qualifications are zero.
Terry has, from day one, struck me as a meathead, especially considering he is a billionaire and some sort of engineer.
Their ownership of both teams has gone very poorly so far.
For Buffalo sports fans who are just happy to have retained their teams regardless of competence, Pegula is a great owner.
For those wanting more, he has been terrible.
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.
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Just now, Brawndo said:
That was me who posted this originally.
This is the reason I posted it.
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.
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2 minutes ago, darksabre said:
That's not Botterill's fault then. That's on the owners of these other teams. The Blues outbid them by paying the bonus.
Take it up with T-Pegs if you're mad that he didn't want to pay the bonus.
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.
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12 minutes ago, darksabre said:
Then why didn't those teams make better offers? Are their GMs all stupid?
I think if someone had wanted to outbid Armstrong they would have. But they didn't.
Choose your own adventure as to why that is.
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.
Terry tells AP it's time to start winning
in The Aud Club
Posted
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.