dudacek

I'd take either of those deals in a second. I'll be ecstatic if we get a late first on its own for Hall.

Is the type of return I think is in the ballpark: the lesser Eichel to replace him on the roster, the high-end Grade A prospect, and the emerging player in a position of need. The Sabres may have to toss a lesser asset back to get the Rangers to say yes.

Adams isn't going after Strome. His moves will be geared toward acquiring Chris Drury/Rod Brind'Amour/Kevyn Adams/Jay McKee "burn to win" types. Trust me, it will be our new flavour of the day.

One in nine people vaccinated isn't even close to amount needed to slow transmission. Even 50 per cent means that half the people you come in contact with are potential carriers.

This, times 1,000. People get so stupid when projecting prospects: "there's no way we're giving up Lafreniere" Of course you are, if Lafreniere hits his ceiling, he's still not as good as Eichel. These two together wouldn't get me to bite, but for me, one of the guys coming back has to be at least as good as Reinhart, and one of the prospects has be at least as rated as Cozens... ..unless you get prospect basket that carries — in addition to being overflowing with talent — the cap space to acquire another Reinhart by other means.

Different voice is always interesting. Did we really ever like the pressers from Housley and Bylsma?

He is very Sobotka, isn't he? Just has to pass the puck into the corner a few times when he has it in the slot and he'll get there.

Interesting and perhaps predictable that the worst Sabres included Risto, Reinhart, Olofsson and Hall. Staal, definitely predictably, joined them. Skinner, also predictably, played like he was having fun again. Mittelstadt, Cozens (what the hell happened to him in the second?) and Bryson showed flashes of good and bad. Get used to seeing that a lot down the stretch. The fact that a 31-year-old who has played two games in a year, and hadn't played an NHL game since 2016, let in four and still had the best Sabres goalie performance by a guy not named Linus all year tells you all you need to know about Carter and JJ.

Rod is Pacific Northwest boy. Seattle, oddly, has no coach yet. Hmmm......

I will be shocked if the majority of our UFAs arent gone in three weeks. You don’t trade your third-string goalie when your starter is injured, let alone for a sixth-rounder, if you aren’t in full spring cleaning mode. And dumping UFAs for assets is rebuilding GM 101. (The fact Botterill turned Bogosian, Scandella/Frolik, Larsson and Vesey into absolutely nothing and even gave up a pick for Wayne Simmonds is more evidence of his failures)

Johansson had to play something like 26 NHL games this season in order to remain an RFA. He will be a UFA and the Sabres got an asset they could for a player they were unlikely to re-sign. He's a borderline prospect at best. It's like trading Justin Bailey for Taylor Leier.

Tell that to Dustin Byfuglien

Seems fair. Hope this marks a trend that every UFA will be dumped for whatever asset we can get.

It's interesting to read elsewhere that some Avs fans are hoping it's Compher going the other way — he's an outsized contract they want to dump due to a bad season.

In three seasons, Botterill's team never did reach the sad heights of the team GMTM got fired for. And if it was headed up, how do you explain this season, with Botterill's coach, Botterill's blueline, and Botterill's goalies? (And we all know Botterill didn't really acquire any worthwhile forwards). Jason Botterill was an utter disaster and this current mess is largely of his making.

He will be a UFA this summer if he doesn’t hit a games played clause that he will not hit. I think Granato neglected to add the word “yet”

The only difference is this time Buffalo insisted the game be played in the desperate hope their season might be cancelled.

My preference is a player in his early 20s who is a spare part in Colorado but has some upside that we can give an opportunity down the stretch after cleaning out all our UFAs.

He’s headed to Colorado along with Risto and a pick for Alex Newhook. These kinda things happen to the Sabres all the time.

Botterill's chief scout, Jankowski, was hired directly from Hockey Canada. (Agree with your point on needing staff with diverse backgrounds and connection, just pointing it out)

This, given the rumoured interest. Or, as likely, one of JJ, Hutton or Tokarski is hurt and they need a body for the taxi squad.

I just want to point out that the mess we are watching right now is largely of Jason Botterill's making. Botterill had a five-year development-based plan to rebuild the Sabres from the Amerks up that theoretically should be bearing fruit now. Adams' big moves of the off-season were basically an attempt to patch the most glaring holes on Jason's team (centre, offensive depth) with Staal, Hall and Eakin. All three moves have been failures, but the bones of this team are still Jason Botterill's Don't believe me? This is Jason's goaltending. It was Botterill who came up and stuck with the plan to sign Carter Hutton to carry the load for three years while passing the torch to Linus Ullmark as Jonas Johansson developed in the background. This is Jason's defence. It was Botterill who focused attention and resources on an offence-first, lopsided blueline corps, investing significant assets in Montour, Miller, and Jokiharju — two of whom can't stay in the lineup and none of whom has made a difference — while sitting on Risto and squandering Scandella, Bogosian and Pilut. This is Jason's development program. It is Jason who counted on Casey Mittelstadt and Tage Thompson to be significant contributors, and whose coaches failed to advance the development of each (as well as that of Rasmus Dahlin), and failed to graduate a single Amerk to full-time NHL status. (Olofsson was a Murray pick who developed largely in Sweden) These aren't Jason's forwards, but that's even more damning. He was handed four top-six forwards Eichel, O'Reilly, Kane and Reinhart. He got nothing of significance for Kane and nothing of significance for O'Reilly. He signed 2-goal scorer Jeff Skinner to a $9 million contract. Not one of his 2ndary acquisitions over three years — Sheary, Vesey, Johansson, Berglund, Sobotka, Frolik... — made an impact on the Sabres, short-term, or long-term. Only Skinner and Curtis Lazar remain. And until this week, this was Jason's coaching staff. He hired Krueger, he hired Housley, and he signed off their assistants. Their results speak for themselves. He is the worst executive in Sabres history.

Looks to me like we're more than 95 per cent in agreement 😁

What I would do with the current roster: Eichel: under contract for five more years at good value; hold on to him unless he wants a trade, or someone offers you something that will transform the franchise Reinhart and Risto: headed for UFA in the summer of ‘22, in desperate need of a new environment, decent value; trade both for good hockey players of similar talent and age Staal: pending UFA; trade him for the best available asset as soon as possible and get him away from this franchise Skinner: under contract for six more years at terrible value; embrace him for who his is and put him in a position to succeed. Hall: pending UFA; trade him for the best prospect offered; Do not consider re-signing him for any more than you would any declining 10-15 goal scorer. Olofsson: under contract for another year at good value; entertain offers, if you can flip him for a competitive 2-way middle-six or middle-pairing ES guy, do it Montour: pending UFA; trade him for the best available offer McCabe: pending UFA; try to re-sign him to a fair offer, don’t count on him taking it Ullmark: pending UFA; try to re-sign him to a good offer in the context of the overall goalie market Eakin: under contract for another year on a bad but affordable contract; trade him if anyone will take him, do the math on buying him out and re-signing Sheahan to a league-minimum contract, or failing both of those, pencil him in as the 4C/PK Sheahan: pending UFA; trade him if you get a reasonable offer, offer him a league minimum contract if you can find a way to dump Eakin. Let him walk otherwise. He’s fine in his role, but we can’t have too many guys like that. Lazar: under contract for another year at good value; pencil him in as the 13th forward Girgensons: under contract for two more years at an inflated but affordable price; consider your options but pencil him in as a useful bottom-6 regular. Rieder: pending UFA; trade him if you get a reasonable offer; let him walk, he’s fine in his role, but not with Lazar, Eakin, Girgs and Asplund already here Okposo: overpaid for two more years on a bad contract; have a frank talk with him that he will have to earn a roster spot next year and will likely be in Rochester, offer him a job in the organization to retire, or the opportunity to shop himself around the league, treat him with the respect he deserves Davidson/Irwin: pending UFAs; trade them if you get a reasonable offer, do not re-sign Miller: mildly overpaid for another year; shop him for fair value, hope Seattle takes him, understand that he might be in Buffalo until next years deadline. Bryson: under contract on his ELC; let him compete for a job in the top six, starting now Jokiharju: pending RFA; sign him to a cheap bridge deal, let him compete for a job in the top six, starting now Dahlin: pending RFA; offer him six years, $30 million, sign him to a cheap bridge deal if he doesn’t take it. Consider offers, but unless somebody knocks your socks off, make it a priority to sign a coach and a partner to maximize his potential. Cozens: under contract on his ELC; play him in the middle six with players who can help him succeed. Mittelstadt: pending RFA; sign him to a cheap deal, let him compete for a job in the middle six, starting now, don’t shop him, but don’t be afraid to throw him in as a piece to cement a deal. Thompson: under a reasonable contract; don’t shop him, but don’t be afraid to throw him in as a piece to cement a deal, let him compete for a job in the middle six, starting now Asplund: pending UFA; sign him to a cheap deal, let him compete for a job in the bottom six, starting now Hutton/Johansson: pending UFAs; accept any reasonable offer, do not re-sign.

Same players, same system, same result. I think any glimpses people saw of a player looking better were just the normal glimpses you get from time to time. It’s going to be a long two months.