jahnyc

If there are aliens that can travel to Earth, they are far more advanced by orders of magnitude than we are. Of course, the concern always will be whether they would be hostile and pose an existential threat. If yes, I doubt there would be anything we could do to prevent their plans for us given their likely overwhelming technological superiority (unlike the many SciFI movies where we prevail against all odds). Separately, there have been claims that many of the relatively recent technological advances were the result of recovered technologies from alien crash sites. Would be fascinating if this was true.

The title did not need to change because it does not appear that the Sabres will be active in free agency and I don't really understand KA's approach to free agency. The team, as constructed, will not compete for a playoff spot this upcoming season. Yes, we may seem some improvement with individual players and our overall team points, but we have significant deficiencies at key positions, both in terms of skill and depth. We should always be looking to upgrade the team through free agency and trades, and we need more defensemen and a starting NHL level goalie to even compete this season (without any consideration of injuries, which will happen). I get wanting to give our young players time to develop, but other young players with more potential or players with immediate impact can be available in trades and sometimes in free agency. We have all been patient, and no one is telling KA to trade our young players, but basically going into the season knowing and accepting that the chances of making the playoffs this season are really low after years of futility does not make sense to me.

I wouldn't worry about Pegula's SPAC not finding a target company and dissolving, or the economic consequences to the Pegula family if the SPAC does not find a target company. Most SPACs eventually find a target company to combine with prior to the drop dead date and SPACs also can extend the time to find a business combination target company if they contribute additional funds to the trust account. Pegula would only lose the at risk money put up in connection with the IPO (typically to purchase warrants) and have an obligation to pay certain expenses (such as legal fees) if the SPAC is unsuccessful in finding a target company. This would not be a material loss for the Pegula family.

Shouldn't the Sabres have negotiated a bump up in trade return if he signed a new contract with the Panthers?

In my mind, the question really boils down to whether ownership is committed and supportive of getting it right, even if it takes more years to get there. More years of rebuilding will potentially see declining attendance and interest, but both will come back in the future if the team wins. If the Pegulas do want to sell the team that can lead to significant uncertainty for the future of the rebuild and the team.

There is no way the Ducks are offering all of that for Eichel. I just don't see it.

I wonder if the original plan and vision was to build a downtown stadium as part of an overall sports oriented downtown area with their other assets but because of Covid and cost, the ownership settled on proceeding with a stadium in OP. Surprised that they opened with taxpayers footing the entire bill for the new stadium and renovation of the arena. I think we all would expect that the NFL will provide some contribution out of the league stadium fund and for ownership to contribute some amount as well. This is a bad look for the Pegulas given current circumstances and will only open them up to a fair amount of negative attention. Even offering a small initial contribution would have helped.

Every GM in the league knows that the Sabres need to trade Eichel, but the actions of Eichel's agents are not helping this process. This is a complete mess on top of the mess of a team that we already have. Clearly, the Sabres wanted to trade Eichel before the draft to get assets in the draft. After that did not happen, trading Eichel before free agency must have been the goal because they knew that some teams would be otherwise spending cap dollars that would affect their ability to add Eichel. The offers must be really poor (if there have been any real offers), and they are unlikely to get better at this point having given the current situation.

I don't think all of this had to happen. Some of it became expected. No way is KA smarter than all of the other GMs, particularly with no prior experience. A plan that will turn around the team quickly having as its primary attribute a focus on players that want to be here does not sound like a plan to me at all. I don't think our young core is that good, at least not good enough that we should expect that they will have success this year or next without adding significant pieces. Other than Cozens, Dahlin and Powers, what do we really have?

Some quick thoughts below: 1. It must be very demoralizing for the current players for the Sabres to see Ullmark sign with the Bruins and have Sam and Risto traded with no assets coming back that will contribute to the team in the near term. Layer on top of that the captain of the team (Jack) is desperate to get out (others as well) and the Sabres lack of any significant participation in free agency make for a situation that can only result in even young players questioning whether there is commitment to winning in Buffalo (or even a plan). This will have an impact in their desire to stay with the team over the longer term. 2. It will be a long time before the Sabres will be an attractive option to free agents. Winning will be the only thing that will help with this. A new arena wouldn't hurt either. 3. What kind of support will be there for the team after this kind of an offseason, which follows years of poor teams and records? At what point does attendance to games completely crater? Realistically, how do you ask for patience at this point, particularly with no current commitment to field a competitive team? 4. I am very surprised that we have traded two significant assets and not received a quality prospect in return ready to play or close to playing for the team. 5. I think it is gross mismanagement to leave this kind of a rebuild and this specific situation in the hands of a GM who has no prior experience. GMTM and JBot had more experience coming in a first time GMs, and they failed miserably. Lessons should have been learned. 6. I never thought that the Pegulas wanted to sell the team, but I am now having my doubts. I am not sure anything else can explain the hiring of a rookie GM, cost cutting with scouts, lack of meaningful participation in free agency, and trading away salary. 7. Our drafting has been awful. I still don't understand the Quinn pick when there were better players available. I hope we will have better luck with this draft class.

Jack plus a back injury that will need surgery and significant recovery time is not going to yield four significant assets. Added to the uncertainty around the neck surgery are a long term contract at a high salary and questions (whether deserved or not) around his character and leadership abilities. I agree that if there had been a real market, Jack would have been traded before the draft. Jack's agents did us no favors yesterday. At this point, I probably would be satisfied with a top prospect and a first round pick that is not protected in next year's draft. I was surprised with the return for Sam, even with the need for him to be extended. I expected a lot more, so I am prepared to be very disappointed with the return for Jack.

What a terrible trade. I believe Levi was a seventh round pick last year and the Panthers will be good next year, meaning the draft pick will be towards the end of the first round. No prospect or other player that will be slotted in now into the line-up. F- for this trade (and an A for the Risto trade). Adams is in over his head and I don't trust him to improve the team in free agency.

It definitely will be a new era if we trade Eichel, Sam and Riston in the near term. Unfortunately, this would be exactly the type of situation (selling significant assets) that you would want an experienced GM and team for. We don't have that, and we also have an understaffed scouting group, which is another concern. JB was an inexperienced GM, and we paid the price with a poor trade for Ryan O'Reilly. We can blame the Pegulas for putting constraints on JB, but maybe a more experienced GM would have been able to navigate ownership better and get a different result.

What if Ron Francis offered to take Skinner, assuming that the Sabres could get Skinner to waive his no trade?

I think the return for Eichel may be significantly less than what some are expecting given his injury, salary and remaining term on his contract. NHL GMs also know that he wants out of Buffalo, which will further negatively impact any expected return for him. It will be tough to get the package of players that this team needs for Eichel.

I wonder how good of a return the Sabres would get for Jack given his injury and big salary. Worried that we will have a repeat of the O'Reilly trade where our inexperienced GM gets us back a bunch of near useless pieces. Maybe my biggest concern is the long-term impact on the ability of the Sabres to attract talent and be a desirable place for players, which was already a problem. Whether Jack is using this situation for leverage to get traded, it is not a good look to have a dispute with your injured captain over his appropriate course of treatment. It also does not help when you have players like Risto and Sam being openly unenthusiastic about coming back. I guess a true house cleaning of the "veteran" players may end up happening.

Probably still a bad team, but if the team had strong coaching from the beginning of the season and a healthy Eichel, wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that Hall and Montour would have made this team at least a .500 team this year if not better? I know that Hall was ineffective during his time here and Montour never seemed to live up to his perceived potential, but I do believe that with a better system and coaching, we could have had a different result. I think I would be optimistic for next season if we had Hall and Montour (understanding that both players would be free agents and would need to be re-signed).

How is KA being set up for success? He has no prior GM experience, the scouting staff was decimated, he inherited an awful head coach and he has no assistant GMs. That is a recipe for disaster, and I think we are seeing that now. After our playoff drought and consistently poor play over the last 10 years or so, It is not fair to expect that Sabres fans will accept that he will learn from his mistakes or learn on the job. This is not where the team should be with its hockey leadership. After everything, you would have thought the lesson to be learned is that this team needs strong and experienced management at all levels. The Sabres have made poor decisions with their coaches and GMs, with most sharing one common characteristic: no prior experience in the position they were hired for (yes, I am generalizing and not forgetting about the prior experience of Nolan and Bylsma). Unfortunately, the trading deadline went about as poorly as you would expect for a GM with no prior experience and no other resources (i.e., no President of Hockey Operations or Assistant GMs) in a complex situation because of cap limitations and Covid issues. We have the draft approaching, and the Sabres likely will have a high pick, but we will need to depend on a scouting staff that has shrunk significantly which will impact the ability to evaluate potential picks complicated by Covid. KA could become an effective GM, but it is highly unlikely under the current circumstances. He should be moved to another position within the organization and an experienced GM and President should be hired, along with a new and experienced coach.

We retained 50% salary and included Lazar. This is all we could get? This was a really bad trade.

Not as bad as the ROR trade because we are not getting a bunch of bad players with big contracts in return, but we just traded two players for one player who is worse than either of the two we traded. This is how a bad team stays bad for the foreseeable future.

If there was no retention of salary for Hall (and there was none for Montour), then financial considerations (i.e., reducing financial obligations) was an unfortunate part of the decision making with regard to these trades.

If the trade is with Pittsburgh, the return will be poor.

Living in NYC, I have been able to watch more Sabres games this season because of the number of scheduled games against the Rangers, Islanders and the Devils. I thought Montour was a bit of a bright spot, and showcased some offensive capabilities from time to time. I know that Savard and Montour are different type of players, but amazing to me the difference in the trade return for the players considering that Savard is 30 and will be a free agent after the season as well. Also surprised that the return for Staal was better than Montour. Seems every trade the Sabres make is a trade where everyone knows that the Sabres need to trade the player (i.e., Hall, Montour, Kane and O'Reilly), which always leads to underwhelming returns. Expecting the same result for Hall. While additional draft picks are always welcome, I don't think picks after the second round are likely to move the needle for our future prospect pool, particularly since we have reduced our scouting staff significantly in a year where there is more uncertainty in the draft than almost any other recent year due to Covid and the impact it had on draft eligible players.

If a player has an expiring contract at a point in the season where there is no possibility of making the playoffs and he is unlikely to re-sign with the Sabres, he should be traded for whatever you can get. Am I missing something?

This is not a good team now, and it likely will be worse next year. Hall and Staal likely will be gone, and the bottom six will continue to be awful. The Sabres will continue to have the same needs as in recent years: a quality second and third line center and better bottom six, goaltending and coaching. Without virtually nothing in the pipeline at center or wing, I have no idea how this team will improve in the near term.