Brawndo

1. Agreed Levi should have been in Rochester in November and stayed there 2 and 8 No changes in Assistant Coaches was bad. Should have made a move here 3 and 5 Yep 4. Tried to keep the vibes from last year and signed them as a thank you for years of service, needs to be more cut throat there. Hathaway would have have been nice 6. Is a tough one. The UFAs that were looking for one year deals were hesitant as they did not know what their role would be when Quinn came and I’m not sure the front office was completely in the playoff or bust mode this year 8. Every NHL team has scouts that could see how bad VO was at the end of the season. His contract limited the number of teams that could take on his full salary to about eight, a number of those teams are rebuilding modes and would’ve required another asset to go to them in a trade. As the Sabres are not in any financial constraints, it didn’t make much sense for them to add an asset just to get rid of a player and I do not believe that salary retention was ever an option either to make a deal

Granato will probably stay until at least the end of the season to become the first head coach to actually complete three full seasons behind the bench since Pegula took over and He did lead the team to its highest point total since 2010-11. These two factors guaranteed him this entire season imo This is been the biggest barrier to the Sabres Hiring Experienced Hockey Personnel is the Pegula’s reputation for meddling and firing people too soon around the league. From various accounts Terry has taken a step back and let Adams and company run things with some exceptions. I have a sneaking suspicion that TP views the Eichel Trade as the end of an era and has adjusted His expectations based on this,(yes fans have and are entitled to a completely different perspective) This I believe has lead to an internal cap on some spending mostly in UFA. Now that being said, Granato should be let go at the end of the year along with a majority of his assistants. Mike Bales is the only member of the staff that has won a Cup as a coach. Hopefully Adams has proven to people around the league to be enough of a buffer between Pegula and Hockey Ops that more experienced coaches and players might be interested. They will probably need to pay the bad team tax though and overpay for anyone. Adams had a lot of work to do when he took the job. Starting with improving the prospect pipeline, how the develop players and most importantly building a playoff contender and an eventual Stanley Cup Contender. He has taken steps with the first two, but hasn’t come close on the final one. I would give him another chance at hiring a HC, because I’m not 100% convinced that Granato was His First Choice. The Sabres 2020-21 Season ended May 8th and Granato wasn’t officially named HC until June 29th, there were other candidates considered for the job and a few rejected interviews outright. He did realize that needed help and brought in Karmanos(who was actually Rutherford’s First Choice for GM in Vancouver) and Ventura who was a direct result of Karmanos being hired. Both of them have contributed to building SC Winners, Karmanos three times and Ventura Twice. They should have a larger role in personnel decisions. The only good thing about Adams not making a big trade or signing a UFA is he does have the assets and the cap space to make moves. He just needs to do it. Firing Adams puts either a failed retread in the GM slot or promoting Forton or Nightengale ( we don’t want this) and has Pegula telling the GM to select Alex Nylander over Charlie McAvoy all over again

I dunno maybe send him to Rochester?

Benson is out tonight, Robinson in Samuelsson out, Bryson in Levi in net

I do not see the 2024 Draft Thread right now, but here on McKenzie’s Rankings complied from 10 scouts

Comrie has much better GAA and Save Percentage in the same number of games as Levi in the AHL But as you can attest that’s fools gold when it comes to the NHL

Levi has proven that he is too inconsistent for the NHL as would be expected of a 22yo Goalie. His development pathway needs to be completely independent from the Sabres Success or more appropriately the lack there of. There are enough people around the league who are asking what the hell the Sabres are doing with Levi and this organization does not get the benefit of the doubt with their goaltending. The Seattle Game should have the final straw and he should have been sent down. The Amerks have played five games including last nights since that game, He should have played quite a few of them.

No it’s the exact wrong thing to do. Levi has played exactly three games in the month of January (2 NHL and 1 AHL) and probably gets His Fourth against the Ducks on Wednesday. UPL will most likely get LAK and the Sharks on Saturday. Which means a 22 yo goalie prospect will have averaged one start every seven days for the month of January including an 11 day stretch without any games played. Levi said himself the hardest task to accomplish this season will be going from the workload he had in the NCAAs to the Pro Level, he is on track to play less games this season than last year. Adams on multiple occasions has said the most important thing for a young goaltender is to play games. When the people in the front office, who have been part of multiple championship teams, say Levi should be in Rochester then he should be. Levi has not proven to be consistent enough to be in the NHL even as a backup, hell his save percentage was .823 last night for the Amerks. This would be the fifth time out of his last six starts that His Save Percentage was less than .900. UPL is the starter in Buffalo. Levi should be the starter in Rochester and get the practice reps that come with that. The Amerks will play a total of 10 games in the month of January, Levi should have gotten six or seven of those starts. The biggest plus for Adams has been player development. Why the organization is messing around with its most important prospect makes zero sense.

None. Krueger’s Deal expired, as did Botterill’s They have no dead money on coaches or front office types.

Back to Rochester for Bryson

3-1 ENG

Quinn was held on two separate occasions with no penalties called

That’s a BS Call on Benson

Mitts back on the Top Line

COZENS

2-0 SHG

1-0

Today is Dahlin’s 400th Game

Guarantees in life Death Taxes Granato reverting to the Samuelsson-Dahlin Pairing

I remember around the time that Karmanos was being hired, Chad DeDomincis mentioned that Rutherford was interested in taking an advisory role with the team with one major stipulation, that TP stayed out of Hockey Ops. Pegula has taken a major step back from the day to day operations since Kim’s Medical Issue, so hopefully that helps with future coach recruitment

Botterill was taking calls on Him at the TDL but they didn’t get a deal done. St Louis was pushing hard at that point

Tocchet was a member of the media when he was hired, did you expect this to remain under wraps while the process played out? The Canucks were below the Sabres in the standings last season and now lead the league in points and are on pace for 104, how many Canucks Fans think that’s bad management.

Adams and Weekes played together and do retain a good relationship. Weekes broke the Jonas Johansson Trade 3-4 hours before it was announced. Shortly before the Eichel Trade, Weekes reported a Calgary was a strong contender and outlined a possible return package from the Flames. That was denied by Calgary and Weekes took a lot of grief for this. Then two months ago on a Podcast Eichel was being interviewed about the trade and he stated Pat Brisson kept Him in the loop as the deal got closer and that it was down to Vegas and Calgary in the last 24-48 hours giving credence to Weekes report. The Sabres have locked up their core and Adams mentioned about a month ago in an interview they haven’t opened up negotiations with Mitts on an extension. So do I think it’s probable that GMs are calling to determine what Adams plan is with Casey and that Weekes asked GMKA about it absolutely. Dismissing it as speculative BS is premature. Personally I would keep Mitts and consider a Cozens move instead.