kas23

I agree with this. The decision was Golisano's. It would've made no sense hockey-wise to let them go after what the team accomplished. I hate to say it, but DR's hands were tied the whole time. But, once the shackles came off, he proved to be a better GM when his hands were tied.

No thanks to Shattenkirk. He'll be expensive and he's not the right age. By them time we're actually seriously contending for the Cup, his value (performance per cap hit) will likely be low (definitely lower than now). We need to shed these types of contracts, not add them.

You don't know if you don't try. I'd never say no to a young D with potential.

It's good to see Jack isn't the only player/GM.

I bet Putin could do at least 20.

Forget it, I've been told he was a horrible GM.

I'm talking about the players he drafted. Ghule, Asplund, Pu. You can't deny that. The problem with GMTM is he caved to the fan pressure to make this team competitive ASAP. He took the "I heard of him" approach to acquiring players (and HC too!), instead of just focusing on the draft and system of play. ROR, Kane, & Okposo are great, but will they be great in 3-4 years when we're actually a serious contender? We look at TOR and EDM and it took them well over 5 years to get to where they are. Murray tried to do it in 3 years and failed.

Ok, maybe calling Murray "excellent" was a bit much. He did have a great eye for talent though. His main problem was that he tried to force the rebuild. He traded away a lot of draft picks to spene up competitiveness. Now, I know 90% of fans want to be competitive yesterday, but that's just not the best way to build a team long term. I think JBott realizes this, and most fans are going to have to become comfortable wit this.

Murray was actually an excellent GM. He just didn't mesh well with Pegs vision of how a GM should act.

I think this is a fan narrative that has become a bit out of hand. Straight from JBotts mouth: "We view him with having a great skill level, plays with pace," Sabres General Manager Jason Botterill said. "We just think he can fit well within our group of dynamic players such as Jack Eichel, Ryan O’Reilly and Sam Reinhart within the next couple years." http://buffalonews.com/2017/06/23/one-minnesotan-another-mittelstadt-happy-go-sabres/ Clearly he thinks Sam is part of the future.

Don't worry, JBott himself explained BPA very clearly. From TBN: ""If there's a fit, we'll make that selection for a defenseman or a goaltender but we're not going to force it," he said. "... If there's another good center man tomorrow in our early picks, we're probably going to select him. if it's close, then we'll probably lean toward a defensemen."" http://buffalonews.com/2017/06/23/mike-harrington-lots-needs-sabres-stay-middle/ Clearly, "BPA" is not blind to position. That is, position plays a roll in the player picked, but it is not the determining factor for drafting a player.

It's happened twice to us now in the last couple years, if you count Vesey (we owned his rights at one time and he chose to go the FA route). Lemieux couldn't have done this to us because he was a NCAA player.

Is there a trade brewing? It's taking long.

Screw #21. I'd trade Kane for Vesey, just out of spite.

There's no need to be punitive towards the player. Just have him re-enter the draft. And if this happens, the team losing the player should get a comp pick.

Don't forget we'll need space to lock up Antipin long term when he blows it up this season.

We do need an extra bag of pucks, right?

Botteril's forest for the trees or organizational approach may be what we need, but only if he's able to surround himself with excellent scouts or AGMs (which I don't think he has any yet). We praise for GMTM's excellent eyes for prospects, but he wasn't very well at molding a cohesive team.

Not only that, this "draft" was nothing but a dog and pony show. Each GM knew who they were taking and why. Due to the trading aspect of this "draft", no one really was "protected". It didn't matter who was official protected and exposed because every player was potential in play to be moved or be a pawn. It would've been a lot more interesting if the NHL said "no side deals" to influence selections.

I know, and look what it got us: Ennis, Bogo, and Moulson. There must be smarter ways to hit the floor.

This sounds more like a chaffing dermatitis than a true "allergy", which I think was a non-medical description of his rash, concocted by some reporter and people have ran with it. An allergy to leather and fabric would be extremely rare. Here's a good article about The Gunk: http://www.lockerroomdoctor.com/the-gunk-a-virulent-oozing-rash/ Of course there's really no good pictures of it.

The only bad thing about the Carrier loss was that it wasn't one of our garbage contracts. Otherwise, he was a dime a dozen. Anyone know how VDKs are going to meet the cap floor?

And what about Rochester? I would say that's a more important coach to hire than guys who are going to help Housley run drills in practice.

If Vegas gets Theodore as reported, I wonder if they would flip him for Kane or our 1st. Or, is this wishful thinking?

But, this is basically what we went through 3-4 years ago. We took everyone's cast offs. Hit bottom. Got 2 top 2 picks, and at one point did have 3 1st round picks as well as a boat load of 2nd rounders. GMTM just traded most of them away.