LGR4GM

This happened last week.

He has, just not professionally. The Sabres went from basically never draft goaltenders (2020 and 2021) to taking 5 goalies in the next 4 drafts including using a 2nd round pick on one. Of course... that won't matter for another 3-5 years so your point stands. I just wanted to mention all the goalies we drafted.

Zac Jones: 115games, 28pts, -10, 76 blk/82, 48 hits/82, -1.1relcf%, -13.6xgf and he's gonna turn 25. The MOFO has played only 115 games and he's -13.6xgf but they have him as the 8th defender or maybe 7th over Bryson. If he plays a game in Buffalo it will be 10 games too many.

Probably Wilford or someone liked Zac Jones and Adams was like "cool! lets get him!"

That's the neat part, they're not.

Yes it does. It saves our hard earned money and keeps out of the pocket of someone who is ineffective. Billionaires get enough handouts, I don't have to participate though.

Here's what I will say about hits. They only capture one form of physicality in the NHL and are not recorded in a regular manner. Zach Benson is credited with 35hits last year but I would not say Zach Benson is not physical. From what I have seen with hits, almost anytime a defender pins a forward along the boards it counts as a hit but all those other physical interactions are lost. I hope the Sabres do a better job of finishing checks and I was shocked to see Clifton's hit totals as I felt he was useless most of the time. Either way, we are less experienced Defense without Joker and Clifton but with Kesselring and Timmins. If we lose Byram, we become even less experienced and I think experience is one of the most necessary things for a defender in the NHL. Adams has done such a poor job of building the defense prior to this year that Jacob Bryson is 2nd on that defense in games played behind Dahlin. That shows you how bad Adams has been and addressing the defense before now. The funny part is now he is in a total panic over it and is over-addressing it. Kesselring, Timmins, JBD, Mrtka, Bedkowski all added in the last 4 months and I understand 2 are draft picks but thats 5 RHD in as many months. We can see what the focus is. Oddly enough in another 3-5 years it could actually pay-off as Mrtka, Bedkowski, Strbak, Kleber, and Komarov mature. Of course pick 3 of the 5 and remember they will play less than 200 NHL games in all likelihood. My money would be on Mrtka, Strbak, and Komarov. Also shoutout to Gavin McCarthy who has a shot and is yet another RHD. The Sabres have taken 6 RHD in the last 3 drafts.

Just so much evidence that Adams has no original thoughts. Malestyn was Apperts because AHL playoffs. Greenway was Granato because coached him before. This random plug from Lindy. This is probably how a lot of NHL guys operate because it is the old boys club but man, Adams hasn't heard an idea one of his coaches has without liking it.

Changed up hits and blocks to be per 82 games (/82) played so it normalizes across all of these dudes. Rasmus Dahlin: 509 games, 360pts, -58, 103 blk/82 blocks, 124hits/82, +11.4relcf%, +17.9xgf and is 25 Timmins: 159 games, 46pts, +21, 86 blk/82, 71 hits/82, 2.2relcf%, +16.5xgf and he will be 27 when the season starts Power: 242 games, 111pts, +8, 108 blk/82, 34 hits/82, 0.5relcf%, -21.4xgf and is 22 turning 23 in November Kesselring: 156 games, 53pts, +14, 70 blk/82, 108 hits/82, 3.6relcf%, +8.4xgf and is 25 Byram: 246 games, 110pts, +26, 104 blk/82, 112 hits/82, -1.7relcf%, -5.9xgf and just turned 24 Bryson: 254 games, 43pts, -38, 89 blk/82, 49 hits/82, -4.7relcf%, -31.6xgf and will be 28 in November Samuelsson: 212 games, 43pts, +3, 132 blk/82, 169 hits/82, -10.8relcf%, -26xgf and he's 25 -------------------------------- Jokiharju: 407 games, 97pts, -17, 87 blk/82, 90 hits/82, -3.6relcf%, -37xgf and he's 26 Clifton: 384 games, 77pts, +43, 110 blk/82, 217 hits/82, -7.3relcf%, -14.1xgf and he's 30

We shall see but Wilford driving them into Lake Erie seems likely.

Just because Kevyn Adams was dumb enough to overpay power, doesn't mean he should overpay Byram. I think Byram is open to staying but the issue is he's not a 9 million defender. 7, sure, 8, no. 9, hell no.

They are worth about 5x what he paid for them, because he has degraded the product. You're right though, he hasn't liquidated the Sabres assets like Harbor Center or the other things attached to the team he controls. To the bold, you are arguing about the total value of the team which is less than if it were a model franchise competing for cups. I think terry believes his investment is rising and that he doesn't have to go more in the red for that to continue. On top of that I think he prefers not to spend to the cap because it eases financial things around his empire. 10million buys a lot of Yacht fuel. Basically, Terry Pegula looks at the Sabres as an asset that will continue to increase in value even if he underfunds them some. It's a win win for an investor. Why put in more money when the product is increasing its value anyways? But again, I also fully believe Terry is so focused on the Bills that that is where he is spending at the expense of the Sabres.

All the owner stuff you added. I am perfectly aware that 20% isn't controlling interest... because 20% is about 31% away from that. You give me another reason why Terry has spent under the cap every single year for half a decade, sometimes by almost 10mil. I think it is to balance the books because the Sabres aren't making him money. Wouldn't that be good business? Lots of businesses run that way, they cut costs and degrade their products and then liquidate what's left and move on.

NHL teams can sell up to 20% to private equity firms. Figure he could probably say the Sabres are worth 1.5billion on the open market... he could get 300million-ish

Not that I am aware. With an offer sheet you have to keep the player for 1 year before trading if you match but arbitration has no requirement I know of.

He sold a 20% stake in the Bills to get a Billion in cash for stadium over-runs. At some point in the past they had to cut Sabres costs to maintain the family lifestyle, we've literally never recovered from that in 2020.

Mildly improved GT because Lyons can play more than Reimer did. Also, I would hope that Ruff learned not to give UPL 400000 starts because he can't handle it.

Another thought... I wonder if you could trade Byram and Krebs to Anaheim for McTavish. They have Carlsson, Strome, Poehling, and Granlund with McQueen and Sennecke in the pipe... I wonder if they would be willing to move McTavish to upgrade their defense. Unsure but just a random thought of the day.

If I were Buffalo at this stage, I would do Byram - Dahlin Power - Kesselring Samuelsson - Timmins

The Florida Panthers do what Buffalo has failed to do for years, pack mentality. Not some pugilist who you need to protect the frail and soft willed players like Samuelsson but a pack mentality where if Thompson gets run, no one waits to see what they should do or ask for their fighter buddy to handle it, nope you just drop gloves and start firing. Sabres haven't had that since Chris Drury got screwed and Drew Stafford didn't hesitate... see Miller Lucic.

The problem with the PP is coaching. That and they insist on running it through the point which is super easy to defend, you just stay in the box and barely slide when it goes to the half wall... because all the Sabres do is stand around.

Fully disagree here. Timmins pushes Samuelsson and Bryson down another slot, he is very much needed. I also don't think an "offense first" defender is going to clock a whopping 15pts, that doesn't scream offense first as Samuelsson had 14pts, is he offense first? You don't pair Timmins with Karlsson if you want Timmins to be offense first. I understand about the limited PK work but that could be personnel related or Timmins related. Maybe he won't be used on the PK here or maybe he will. With the PP slots taken by Dahlin and Power, it seems unlikely that Timmins won't be used on the PK here and if he is the 2nd PK unit behind Kesselring/Samuelsson or Power/Samuelsson or whatever, so we shall see.

So we're trading a defender who was better last year for one who was worst and has already said they want to sign in vegas We're trading a winger for a winger 10 years older who had the same point total and we're trading a young goal scoring center for an old goal scoring center which for next year is probably making us better as Kadri is better than Kulich. To summarize, we are trading Byram who is better than Andersson (who we get for 1 year), Quinn who is the same as Coleman (who we get for 2 years), and Kulich for Kadri (who we at least get for 4 years). This trade sucks IMPO. The only clear win is Kulich for Kadri and that is probably only for a year or two (if Kulich gets better). NOTE: Ftr I understand that Coleman is better at 5v5 defensively but idk, just seems meh to trade Quinn for him.

They would probably move Dahlin back to the left which he is also very good at.

Part of that is because they give HUGE minutes to Samuelsson and Bryson and they are bad. On top of that, Owen Power was awful under Ruff last year and I think part of that is his partner. I also think Wilford needs to go but that's another story. Basically Buffalo needs to stop playing Bryson at all and needs to put Samuelsson into the 3rd pair where he belongs. If they ran... Byram - Dahlin Kesslering - Power Timmins - Samuelsson? Literally anyone other than Byrson They would probably improve their defense quite a bit. Question becomes what if we have to run: Timmins - Dahlin Kesselring - Power Samuelsson - Johnson? Jones? The fact Buffalo thinks Zac Jones is some sort of useful NHL player is certainly something.