Randall Flagg

It's so plausible for this trade to exist and go a long way towards fixing things. It also feels like jason is determined to only go the grigorenko route and we have to watch the trade sail past us just out of reach

Wayne wants to stay too. 2x2 mil and a 3rw slot locked up coming soon to theaters near you

Iirc since the initial hit the ssss has whiffed like crazy

In a vacuum it's not that bad of a press conference. He had one or two weekly appearances during February that were absolutely horrendous compared to this one. An annoying tendency of his is to repeatedly talk about the model - we want young players constantly coming in, being developed filling holes and becoming parts of or supplements to the core. That is fantastic - it's also the most basic, baseline organizational goal that anyone could ever imagine, and not one GM or organization has ever operated as if this wasn't the goal on the hockey end. Teams that are good, like Tampa, or Boston, or Washington, do it successfully for years, and win a lot of games while doing it. We suck at it. He talks about this over and over again, every time he speaks. Then he'll cite "the development of our young players" and "the success of Rochester," ignoring that any GM can bring in 27 yo AHL lifers to make the AHL team good, and that Victor Olofsson is the only skater who's come close to following this theoretical path in the last three seasons, and that Casey and Tage are the only two skaters in the organization to have the potential to take this path, aside from Victor, over Jason's tenure. (Maybe Murray's pick Asplund, but he is a bad NHLer so far and has been dangled in trades.) It's literally all just talk, basic common sense buzzwords and phrases, with three years of nothing remotely like it happening, while many of our competitors do it better and have better records in the meantime We once again are going to lean to some degree too much on a trio of young guys who have never shown themselves to be not-bad NHLers. It will once again not work, just because that never works. One might stick, two if we're insanely lucky. But the chances of development being harmed even more than it has been, for one or more of these skaters, is far higher. Kim made me think we had some juicy moves lined up. Jason kinda put a damper on this. I don't think we are going to have a 2C during Jason's tenure as Sabres GM aside from the one he traded for Berglund, Sobotka, a lotto protected pick, a 2nd three years out, and the Blues' 5th best prospect, Tage Thompson Jason talked about playing well in the 5-6 games before the pause. We played Colorado quite well. Lost. Then got our butts kicked the rest of the way, with some of the worst games of the year. If you want numbers to back that, had the worst goal differential in the league during those couple/few weeks that he refers to, and the worst expected goal metrics in the league to go with them. Dead last in both what matters, and the things that try to predict future things that matter. What planet is he on? The other annoying thing he always does is refer to stretches of 2-3 weeks of good hockey. Jason, all bad teams can find 4 good stretches of hockey over a span of 3 bad years, especially considering he is referring to some stretches of 3-4 games. The tank Sabres went 10-3-3 at one point. That is not evidence that sustainable hockey is coming at some point, especially with how critically flawed the roster is. It's only evidence that sometimes Jack can score at a 130 point pace for a few weeks, and sometimes Hutton can play like a vezina goalie for a month. That's literally it. Overall, your team has a comfortable spot in dead last for all offensive chance generation metrics that exist, throughout the entirety of your tenure. Until that goes from easily-last to pretty good, your team will suck. Like I say, Tage lifting weight (and everyone that tells me he put on 9 pounds of muscle in one offseason and will be capable of doing something like that again is fooling themselves, there is zero chance a human who isn't starting with literally zero muscle can do that and pass a PED test) is not going to be the difference here, and neither is Mitts getting better, unless by "getting better" you mean becoming a top-end NHL 2C, and there is a chasm of develoment between that and where he is now The reality is, this guy thought that each of his last three teams would finish 15-20 points higher than they did, because that would make his goals and justifications make sense. As it stands now, his quoting of either stupid things that don't matter (isolated stretches of good hockey, sometimes as small as 4 games) or random stuff he had nothing to do with (Eichel and Sam continuing natural development as evidence for his model of youngsters working, ignoring the possibly irrreparable damage his decisions have done to Casey and Tage, and the lack of anything serious beyond them) is laughable. He clings to them because they're the only things that exist that he can pretend match the outline that a dedicated 9 year old NHL fan could draw up in equivalent detail, even though their existence has helped us only to seasons that haven't matched the fireable seasons of his predecessor. If a serious 2C trade doesn't happen this offseason then he is the worst GM in franchise history

I started transcribing this but got sloppier as time went on, because I don't have enough time to keep pausing/rewinding. Just wrote main ideas by the end. Q: You have a team with very little identity/passion, fans have lost their patience, please tell us in a big picture view, what is your plan? what kind of team are you trying to build, what has to change for you to join this league again? A: I think ... a key focus for us is to get players developing within our organization, within Rochester, understanding how to win in Rochester and come up to the NHL... I think we tried to improve our development at the goaltending position...on the defense, I think it's a team we've tried to look at the standpoint of a lot of puck-movers, guys who can skate well, we brought that in, you look at the development of Rasmus Dahlin and Jokiharju, we feel very happy about our defense and where it is right now and where it's going, our forwards are still a work in progress. It was great to see our star players such as Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart, have solid years and continue their development, but for us to make another step to be into the playoff mix, it's going to be imperative that we find more scorers in our group here, and have the development of young players such as Casey Mittelstadt, Tage Thompson, and Dylan Cozens. Says the fans are passionate, they understand it's a strong market, when we perform well they've supported us, we understand the difficulty that it is to compete in the NHL day in and day out. Cites 8th in the league in home wins. Important to keep that moving forward in the next couple of years, but improve the road record. How are you looking at this offseason? A: Biggest thing to know is where the cap is going to be. We've put orselves in a good position with flexibility, but will be difficult to sign players until we know the cap. We think this pause will be challenging to keeep players sharp for our young players, but it's a great opportunity for them to get yoked. Imperative we take advantage of this time. How disappointed are you in being so close to the playoffs when you had been ready to go play MTL and possibly jump them for the spot? A: We should have won more games before that, it's our own fault. Biggest disappointment is that I felt our group really enjoyed being together, challenging each other. Compliments Ralph's communication over the last few months and on the season in general. sux that 50th anniversary season had to be cut short. Played well in the 5-6 games leading up to the pause but didn't get the results we wanted. Have to get results at the end of the day. Q: Where do you feel you've come up short in your time here, what do you need to address from a GM's perspective? A: We have to do a better job at creating more offense through our 4 lines, having more depth scoring. I have to give Ralph the ability to change different lines up, have more depth. I will always support and believe in our young players in the system here, excited Tage is gonna be back, Casey went down with the riht attitude, opportunity for him to get stronger. Couple extra months prep for Cozens. I'm going to continue to believe in these young players, that these players will help us get over the hump and give us depth. But it'll also be something we look at through UFA/trades to add forward to our mix. Q: Fans are rightfully frustrated, why should they be confident in our team's direction with so little improvement year by year? A: the younger players. We showed it. Cited the freaking 10 game win streak, and then our start this year. Disappointing to come home from Sweden with a tough trip, liked the December after that, then the games before the TDL. ~Jason, all teams, even bad ones, can string four good stretches of hockey together, 10 games or fewer, over the course of two years. This is not evidence that you just need to wait for Tage to get stronger and we're fine Excited to play those hard games in Feb/March and see where it would go. The group has shown glimpses that we can be a very strong team. But it's imperative we add more depth and improve our young players into legit NHL players. Our fan base would be excited about our young players, and that we showed those glimpses that we need to show over 82 games. Q: Two seasons with big collapses. How would you categorize the leadership, what more do those leaders need to do to help get over the hump of these collapses? A: The biggest growth you see every day on the ice with Jack, his 2 way game against other team's top players and handling those matchups. As he continues to grow as a captain, learns how to handle different situations, he's grown from that standpoint. It has to be a group effort though, important we continue to have players coming up in the system willing to speak up and talk, and to have strong communication with the coaches. That's why we got Wayne Simmonds. Core guys are open to ideas and understanding what they have to improve, interacting with all staff for these improvements. That's why we tried to bring in players with rings and experience in the playoffs. (Simmonds, Sheary etc) Q: Interest in Samson long term deal? What about Dahlin? A: Both are TBD as far as salary cap/arbitration/timelines are up in the air. Obv staying in communication with them. Sam had strong season, dedicated to off ice training and self improvement. Think the world of Dahlin, PP QB skillz, better at defense this year, one of the guys we need to bulk up in this free time. Q: Goaltending - are Ullmark and Hutton your goalies? wanna add a veteran? A: Continue to evaluate into the summer. Linus was good at ES, stepped up when injuries hit the team in January. Cites the last game. Carter's game slipped after Sweden, something we have to look at, getting more consistency from him. Two years in a row he's fallen off in the second half. Q: You've been a cap team (over this year), given loss of revenue have you received any new financial mandates from ownership? A: We're all dealing with unprecedented times, affecting a lot of different things, had to make hard decisions in the organization already. In my communication with them so far is, is there a situation where staff members can help out in different areas? Difficult to try and predict what future entails. Have to look at a lot of different scenarios. Like our contract flexibility with players so we can react to the salary cap flexibility. Q: You have a core of a lot of guys who have played a lot of games with no playoffs. When is the future? When is it about today? A: In the salary cap world, you have to always have young players coming through your system. But the fact that we traded for Jeff Skinner, or Wayne Simmonds, we understand there's a balance. We're not gonna trade 5 first rounders, but when there's an opportunity to help our team out we try to do that. Johansson as another example. We always want to make sure we have a pipeline of young players, but we're excited about the core guys and have to surround em with enough depth. Q: What themes have come up with the players, where they think things went wrong? A: They were excited to play at home, have all those alumni, the white jerseys, having pride in front of our own fans. That shone through this year, which they were excited about. They understood the struggles coming back from Sweden, a lot of them were still trying to figure things out, disappointment playing well in those games post TDL but not getting the results. We are happy we play well but need to get the results. Our PK has to be better next year. PP was good, no reason it shouldn't be in top 10 overall. Need special teams improvement next year. Q: How do you balance patience, knowing that you believe in your plan, vs the urgency of knowing that this fan base hasn't tasted success for quite some time, some of it not your doing, some of it does fall on you? (Wawrow bending over backwards) A: Not surprised our passionate fans want to see a winner on the ice. We understand that. We talk about development of young players. We aren't building towards 3-4 years down the road, we want them to help core players right away. We try to bring in players that want to be here, want to be part of the community, seeing what KO/Skinner/Eich have done in the community. They are ingrained here, want to be here, and show a winner to our community. It gets us excited. Blah blah trades/UFA to support these guys blah Q: Pegulas mentioned that your job security might not be popular. How much pressure you feel? A: There's always pressure with this position. I know how hard players/coaches are working, I want them to have success on the ice. My responsibility won't change, have to build the organization to be strong at all levels. I think we're on the path to doing that, it has to continue to grow across the offseason. We put ourselves in a position to have a stronger team for next year. Q: Are you dead set on making the 1st pick? Would you consider moving it to add depth down the middle? A: Have to see what happens in the lotto, and what's available in the trade market. We have been very open, it's something we'll at least consider. Q: What's your opinion of the structure of the draft lotto? A: We're glad we have the same odds as we did under the old scenario. Q: What's up with Skinner yo A: There's certainly disappointment when a goal scorer is not scoring goals, especially someone passionate about his trade who works so hard like Jeff. He actually had a pretty good start of the year from a goal scoring standpoint. What gives us confidence is that his chance production was still there. The production should come back next year Q: Where did you see Jack's growth? A: He took a lot more detail into the 2-way game, it allowed him to create more offense. Jack's communication helped Olofsson develop, Jack's knowledge base is building and he's passing it along to other players. Open dialogue between the coach and the players boring question about draft timelines

Thankful for the summaries and discussion, gonna watch it now.

If Samuelsson fills Pilut's AHL shoes then he will become our best prospect. That would be an incredible development.

That's one less annoying Sabre fan argument I have to read on twitter

Either Kim is talking about a genuinely good trade or set of moves that fixes our biggest problem(s), that is pretty much set to go, and we don't have to worry about Jason's continued tenure (though criticism of the first three years will always be warranted and necessary, he certainly has a chance to earn future security and gratitude with a good offseason, which is all we've wanted in each of his first 3 disastrous tries) Or this whole thing is as stupid as her quote sounds in any other context, and it wouldn't matter if they fired him or not because we're doomed either way as long as they own the team. So really, it's just time to sit and watch and see what our team's long-term outlook really is. One way or another, it'll be a relief to grasp the reality that is finally ready to settle in and become firmly clear.

I don't know how, but I know your first AND last name. No clue where it came from. Would never share. But you're right that you're not anonymous hahaha That being said it killlllllllllls me to not have this tantalizing piece of information. (No pressure to share, just enjoy the power you wield)

I understand that my needle is not likely to be moved

Our playoff drought should be intact. We are 26th in the NHL. This product being rewarded with "ending the playoff drought" would be a disaster long term r.e. the current GM. The utter embarrassment of missing out a 24 year playoff should hurry the decisions that need to be made before we have any shot at being the team we want to be. Wanting to extend the clown show because we finished 26th in the league and had a pandemic is crazy and nothing like the Bills getting a wild card spot by long established standings rules

My needle gets moved on next year's team if and only if ^

I don't remember Henry being much of a problem for us, which plays into what I was saying - Tennessee's team before the QB change was a tiny insignificant shadow compared to the one that steamrolled its way to the most TDs over the last ~7 games of the regular season. I assume we will be facing a team more like that one than the one we saw last year, when we travel to Tennessee this time around.

I think the Bills could finish 8-8 and be a better team this year than last year. Last year's schedule was cake, and this year's has the potential to be the hardest in a while. Obviously we don't know for sure and teams change over time, but our NFC division faced went from the worst division in football to the best division in football with the Super bowl finalist, a team with a perennial MVP candidate QB, the previous year's super bowl loser with a perennial defensive MVP candidate, and an upstart Cards team that has a good offense and started scaring good teams late last year. The AFCW this year has the superbowl champs with the best QB in the game (a ~wash with Baltimore last year, being generous) and no teams that approach the dumpster fire that was cincy last year. our other AFC opponents this year (PIT, TEN) are stronger than the equivalent last year (Mariota's TEN, Denver with Brandon Allen) Brady leaving helps, but this is a big boy schedule compared to last year's kiddie schedule, on which we beat no teams better than .500 Cowboys and the Steelers with no QB That said, I think this Bills team takes a huge step forward, finishes 10-6, and wins the division by 2 games or more over the next best team. Even if you don't like Allen, the gap between him and Darnold/Fitz/Stidham doesn't approach the gap in overall roster depth this Bills team has compared to those teams. IMO we are in for the most exciting Buffalo sports season since 2006.

I agree, but I'm also glad that the current format severely limits the chances that a team that would have been competing with us for Dahlin in 2018 doesn't get a chance to play int he playoffs. There are degrees of imperfection, and the current format is *acceptable if capable of being improved upon, while stuff like your other examples (and BUF over NYR theoretically) are abominations

It took me probably over 12 hours to make this post about "justice" in the NHL's playoff format: So maybe you're talking about PA and not me, but this is actually an important issue to me and isn't colored by how much I resent team management The solution we are talking about (which I don't actually believe will happen) would be a disgrace

What a brilliant schedule. I love everything about it. The AFCE teams have a tough road. I'm not sure when it happened, but I like football a lot more than hockey now

Gotcha. Yeah, that is trash, as is the North Stars ever having the chance to get decimated in the finals with that horrendous regular season record I'm grateful that the structure is at least fixed to the point where we don't see stuff like this anymore. This is so bad

I mean I'm with ya on scrapping the division idea in general. Because while eleven is correct that this does happen in the current format, I have never seen something approaching the egregiousness that would be the Sabres playing and the Rangers sitting. Also agreed about not changing the lottery stuff. There is zero point to that.

I can't imagine feeling anything but weary nihilism when thinking about the idea of talking about who the sabres pick in the bottom half of the top ten and what role they could theoretically fill x years down the road

We're 6th from the bottom and the NHL is discussing an idea that would put us in the playoffs over a team that would finish about 14 points ahead of us in the standings had the games been finished. Them ultimately deciding to not do so would not constitute "screwing us"

I genuinely don't see why they want to expand the playoff field. Just do it normally. Play a catch-up game or two if you have to, to make it fair. If they did go to 24 teams, top 6 in each division, they would HAVE to put the Rangers in over Buffalo. If you're making stuff up already, make up more stuff so that it's actually ***** fair. The Rangers get punished for being a clear 2 tiers better than Buffalo, DESPITE the hard division they play in, that makes the record more impressive in reality? That's ridiculous. Jason and Terry/Kim don't deserve a playoff appearance of any kind. Display an ounce of competence, build a real team, and then get in when you actually earn it It's not that hard, you don't even have to be in the top 50% of teams to get a spot