jahnyc

Do we have prospects desired by other teams? Rosen and Östlund seem like similar type players in that they are not big or physical, but have some scoring abilities. I doubt they would trade Helenius and I am not sure about Wahlberg garnering trade interest. Sabres seem to like a certain type of player. I could argue that Rosen, Östlund, Kulich, Quinn, and Peterka are all similarly sized, not physical and better offensively than defensively. We need more diversity in terms of player types.

I am not clear at this point whether they really will do something, and if they do, what they are looking for. Keeping Adams as the GM for at least this year creates all kinds of complications for this search. Who will this advisor report to? Are they looking for an advisor to Adams, and if yes, what will be his role, if any, if Adams is out after this year? Who would be interested in this role if they could be out after one year? Are they thinking that this hire potentially replaces Adams after next season? Just seems like a very unattractive situation with very limited upside in the near term where you are not GM, may have to report to the current GM and you are stuck with a head coach (who has a history with the owner and fans) and coaching staff that you had no role in choosing.

If by some miracle the Sabres make the playoffs next season, I can't see this roster as currently configured as having the ability to play a physical style or match the physical style of a playoff opponent. This team is not built for playoff hockey (or even regular season success).

Stratego and Risk are the best.

I am sure some of it is coaching, including the lack of continuity in terms of system and style, but someone from outside of the current organization needs to identify the player personnel issues and get them fixed. Some of the questions seem to be: Do we have a starting caliber goalie on the roster or in Rochester? Do we have a true 1C? How do we fix the defensive pairings? Who needs to go and who and what type of defensemen need to be added? How do we get some forwards with toughness so we don't lose all of the physical battles and not have to have our top players stand-up and get battered? What improvements are needed for the bottom six? Realistically, how long is this going to take to fix?

These potential moves make no sense. Why would Appert have more of a role internally? What are his qualifications? His record as head coach at RPI was poor and I have no idea why he has been considered to be the likely candidate to replace Ruff when Ruff retires. My sense from the board was that Karmanos had the requisite experience to be the GM (and has done a good job with the Amerks) and now he is leaving? Retaining an experienced advisor for Adams after five years of Adams as GM? Having him report to Adams and not Pegula? Individually and collectively, none of this can be made sense of.

It has been a nice run, but with with no chance to make the playoffs, all they really have done is ruined their chances at a top five pick in the draft. Is TP going to use the team's recent performance as a potential reason to keep KA and our coaches around for another year? I really hope not. The bar was very low this year to make the playoffs and we were out of the race months ago.

Our trading Cozens encapsulates everything that frustrates me about our GM. From the pre-trading deadline rumors and chatter, it is pretty clear that the Sabres have (and had) a number of desirable assets (Tuch, Byram, Peterka and Cozens, among others). What also is clear is that our GM took this opportunity to trade one of our assets for another disappointing player that is less physical with a concerning injury history (shoulder). This team needs a more physical overall presence, both with our forwards and even more so with our defense. The current pieces don't fit together into a cohesive team for the current style of play in the NHL (and the playoffs, if we ever make the playoffs again). If we are going to trade our players, is it too much too ask that we try to fix our obvious deficiencies (the same ones that we have had for years)? I am tired of watching our players get the worst of every physical encounter with the opposing team. It is deflating for fans, and it must be even more deflating for the players.

Unfortunately, I expect that Adams will be back and Sabres will make no meaningful moves with their front office or coaching staff. That Adams was able to re-sign Greenway and Zucker and then trade Cozens supports this. If the Sabres were going to bring in a new GM, the message to Adams from ownership would be to do nothing at the trade deadline or with regard to re-signing players with expiring contracts. Can't really fathom how they can bring Adams back with his complete failure as the GM, but it seems likely that they will.

Tuch is exactly the type of player you don't trade.

The season is almost half over and at this point, I do not have any optimism that this team as currently composed will perform much differently as the season continues. I understand that it can take time for players to adjust to a new coach and system, but the current state of the team's play suggests there are other issues. I like Ruff, but it definitely was concerning that there were few changes to the coaching staff. Maybe most troubling is that after all of the efforts to focus on the draft, there do not seem to be any potentially budding type superstar players in Buffalo or Rochester. I hope I am wrong about this, because the team needs something to help get it out of this too many years long funk.

The team is poorly constructed. There is some individual talent, but the sum of the parts does not make for a quality team. Watching the Devils successfully drive to the net or get to the front of the net from behind the net suggests that we just don't have the physical mix of players to stop this from happening. The Devils have some very good young talented players and I think their young core is better than our core. Not sure if that can be fully blamed on Adams and the scouts, but I don't think that Adams knows how to put together a competitive team roster. He has had enough time, and the poor results continue.

Given where he was picked in the draft, I would have expected that Savoie would become a top six forward. I understand that we did receive some value back, but it is disappointing on a number of levels, including that the organization soured on him before he could start full-time with the Amerks (or Sabres). Makes me wonder about the front office's ability to assess draft eligible players and overall drafting skills.

I hope we are not done. If the overall goals were to acquire a top six forward, a center that can play on the second or third line, and another rugged defenseman, it seems to me that the moves to this point do not address these needs. Maybe it can be argued that we improved our third and fourth lines, but we will see if that is the case once the season starts. Have we adequately replaced Skinner? I don't think so, and I also don't think we have any current players in Rochester that are ready to be major contributors to the Sabres this season and fill that role. In terms of trades, if there is uncertainty within the Sabres organization about certain of our prospects and/or there will be not enough available slots with the Sabres in the near or longer term for some of our prospects, now is the time to make moves, particularly if they are viewed more favorably outside of the organization than our internal assessments indicate. Of course, this has not happened to this point. After the first wave of free agency, it seems to me that again we are going into a season with obvious holes and flaws that we (as fans) see. Last year, it was goaltending, and we got lucky that Luukkonen showed marked improvement, which saved our season from being more of a disaster. I think banking on Ruff making this roster a playoff caliber team is unrealistic. We need more.

Not sure I understand why the Sabres are so radioactive. I get that there are more desirable places to play, but the team has a young core and pipeline with an overall decent future and a new head coach who is generally well respected. Must be some pretty awful information out there about the franchise for so many players at different levels (free agents, college players who haven't signed and players that are under contract that don't want to be traded to the team) to not want to come here (and for GMs to honor those wishes for players that could be traded to the Sabres). Doesn't there have to be more to this?