dudacek

Please don't read this as an endorsement of Granato. But he might be the most well-versed in the X&Os of any coach we had since Lindy. He's certainly the most experienced. https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/104317/don-granato

I, for one, am happy Taylor Hall is providing a convenient target upon which to channel 10 years of pent-up anger and frustration.

Be interesting to see how the little fella plays hungover today against the Bruins.

Skinner Reinhart VO Asplund Mittelstadt Tage R2 Cozens Okposo Rieder Eakin Sheahan Bjork Caggiula Two guys gotta come out. You would think one should be Eakin and they let Sheahan play centre. But I don't know. And the way they talked up Bjork makes me think they want him to be on the 3rd line.

While you are right that he waited too long with Ralph K, you're jumping to conclusions with the rest. At the end of January, the Sabres were 4/4/2, and no one was thinking about firing the coach. Adams had never fired his coach before, he liked him personally, the owners loved him, the players seemed to like him, the team was without its starting goalie and mostly without its franchise player and both the team and the coach had been wracked with COVID. Krueger was fired 18 games later. And Adams may have learned things from the experience that will help in dealing with future coaching decisions.

So, am I wrong to think R2 is heading back to the Amerks? They didn't bring in Bjork and Caggiula to not give them a look.

Not sure if you guys caught KO’s interview after the Flyer game, but they asked him about the kids. Said he’s keeping the details between them, but it sound like he has been doing some mentoring with Casey and Casey has really taken some things to heart. Kyle is impressed with how Mitts has responded to being given the responsibility of a top line centre. Also, (me, not Kyle) Rasmus Asplund is just a dog on a bone out there lately. Really enjoying his game.

I’m probably artificially inflating this, but the way they play in these six games against the Bruins carries meaning to me.

So, what did people think of Kevyn’s answer to the assistant GM question? He’s just had some “very serious” conversations with a candidate “and we will see where that goes.” It almost sounded like either he was waiting to hear a reply, whether it was to an offer, a point of contention, approval from the boss....? He left little doubt rebuilding the hockey department is a major focus. "It's a priority," he said. "It's a huge hire in terms of how we're putting together the hockey department and structure and, like I said before, we need to build the front office back up. "We need to hire more scouts, we need to make sure that we're putting the pieces in place from our front office right through the scouting department, player development department and just make sure that as we move forward, we're having the right people in the right positions."

The have to expose one goalie under contract. That’s why they signed Tokarski to a 2-year deal.

The Sabres will definitely have flexibility if they choose The way thing stand now they literally do not have a goalie to protect.

Yeah, my emphasis was more on the other half of my post; that, from what we know, I think Adams acted with integrity.

Which was his right, even if it was his intention from start.

Or maybe the other Montour offers were so similar it didn't make sense to waste a retention slot for what may have amounted to a worse 3rd-rounder. There are certainly justifications for every move or non-move but as @Thorny has been saying (and I fully support his campaign) we can only judge them on results.

I think you've got to step outside the X-Box GM role and understand that Hall negotiated a no-trade in good faith exactly so he could steer a situation like this in the direction he wanted. I think Adams is just showing some with integrity.

Your big picture point is dead-on but I think this specific instance is a little unfair. They went into the season six proven NHL defencemen and Irwin and Davidson as proven filler ahead of Borgen and Bryson, the two kids you didn't pencil in, but hoped would beat someone out. Bryson has. Borgen appeared to be on his way to doing the same. Samuelsson entered the season at no better than 11th on the blueline and seems to be outplaying his slot.

I just want to point out that we did not use our third option to retain, and we did not weaponize the approximately $6.7 million in pro-rated cap space created by our recent moves.

Samuelsson got a lot of love from Adams in today's presser.

A little nugget that may have slipped past in to today's presser was that Adams wants this team to have an identity, that identity if fast and relentless, and Bjork and Caggiula were acquired because they possess those qualities.

I know stats aren't everything, but in the 33 games he played without Krueger in BUffalo he went 7/12/19/-2 and those numbers weren't easy minutes, or padded by the PP.

He is a better player than we saw. Of that I have no doubt.

I gotta take a deeper look at both players and their contracts, but generally speaking Vrana and Mantha are on a relative tier, no? And isn't that same tier where one would find Sam Reinhart?

It would be interesting what that signing actually cost us. Would we be sitting here with Tyler Toffoli, for example? Would we have signed another goalie? Would Ralph still be here?

So nice to have another Bruin to hate.

I still don't see how Sabrespacers could have watched Taylor Hall play this year and say they would have given up a first for him is they were the GM of a contender. Hall hasn't been MVP Hall since he blew out his knee. I'll repeat, 18 goals in his past 112 games.