jahnyc

Are Eichel and Reinhart still close friends? If yes, and you trade Reinhart, are the Sabres then prepared to trade Eichel after the season, because you would have to expect that he will be even unhappier than he already is with the current state of the team. I understand that Eichel does not make decisions for the team as to who to trade or keep, but trading Reinhart would have to be just another thing to push him to want to leave the Sabres.

I have watched the Sabres for more than 40 years and this could be one of the worst periods (if not the worst period) of hockey I have seen a Sabres team play. Can't even blame Hutton for any of this.

I know it is still early in the free agency period, but it is hard to not feel discouraged. Seems that not only have we not signed a player that would be a significant upgrade at a position of need, we have re-signed or signed players at above what should be their current market value. This is a bad combination and does not bode well for the upcoming season.

The Sabres way overpaid for Girgenson.

Schmaltz only would make sense if AZ retained some of the contract dollars.

I am sure that Eichel has opinions about the Sabres organization that would cause him to not be unhappy if he was traded to a major market team that was a contender for the playoffs and the Stanley Cup. He has experienced multiple coaches and GMs in his relatively short time with the Sabres, and he likely is well aware of how the potential cost cutting can impact the amount of money spent on players this offseason or even potential trades, including players he is close to, such as Reinhart. I don't think the surfacing of this rumor is without a basis in some reality. If the Sabres do not make the playoffs next season, I do think that Eichel will ask to be traded either privately or publicly. That seems somewhat inevitable at this point.

The current Sabres line-up has zero toughness. Risto is about the only physical type player that the Sabres have. Would be a mistake to trade him unless the make-up of the team changes significantly as a result of offseason trades and free agent acquisitions. I believe acquiring players with a physical presence should be a priority for the Sabres whether or not they trade Risto.

I agree the actions today feel like cost cutting measures, but didn't the Pegulas incur significant costs by firing everyone since I assume that they are still on the hook for the remaining terms of the contracts of JBot, Sexton, Taylor and the scouts? Maybe a housecleaning was in order, but this seems about the stupidest way to go about it by hiring a GM with no experience and then getting rid of all of the hockey people. What hockey people are going to want to come work for the Sabres after all of this and our recent history of firing GMs and coaches?

We have no pipeline of talent and JBott's judgment has been suspect with regard to the cap and trades. Could not even make the playoffs this year when the pool was expanded to more teams. I have no confidence in his ability to improve the team in the near or long term. I guess the housecleaning will come at the end of the next season.

I would hope before the Pegulas fire JBot that they have a plan in place and know that they have a GM replacement (and maybe President) who will be an unquestioned upgrade over what we currently have.

In terms of where we are currently, I am really concerned that improvement will not come in the near future at the forward position from Rochester or our pipeline. Do we have any forwards in Rochester that can make the Sabres next season (other than maybe Casey)? I find this situation kind of shocking considering our draft position over the last number of years, the number of picks made, and the young players acquired in trades. I also understand that we have a fair amount of cap space for next season, but that will go quickly to fill the number of spots that will be open because of departing players and the Skinner contract is going to become a significant drag on our overall cap going forward. Maybe we can trade one or more of our defenseman for some help upfront, but this has not happened to this point (and would have made more sense to have been done for the beginning of the season). We all have our views about JB's performance to date, but I do not have confidence in his ability to move the team in the right direction in the the near term or future.

On the surface, this is a very bad look. JBot has made a couple of good trades (for Skinner and Jokiharju), but the rest have been inconsequential or awful. I continue to think he is in way over his head with this part of his GM responsibilities, given that we have previously discussed his poor timing or evaluation of the market for O"Reilly and Kane and now we have this trade as another marker.

I think our pipeline is very weak, particularly at forward, which is kind of shocking given the amount of time that has been devoted to building this team after some horrible years. The reality is that we have almost no strong forward prospects in our system or as recent draft picks, other than Cozens. Something is not right with our scouting and player assessments. Our drafts are not producing prospects in the lower rounds and the players that were part of our return package in trades (Thompson, Danny O'Regan and CJ Smith) have not been good enough to play for a below average Sabres team. I am not optimistic that things will improve significantly in the near term.

I am finding it difficult to be enthusiastic about the near term prospects for this team as currently constructed. There has been some roster surgery, but probably not enough for us to expect that this team will compete for a playoff spot in a tough division. Unless Ullmark improves significantly, the goal tending is weak, our forwards are overall below average, and we don't have prospects in Rochester that we can safely say will form the nucleus of a strong team in the near future or that are ready to contribute immediately. Not the ingredients for optimism and this comes after so many seasons of really poor results.

The situation with Risto feels a bit too similar to the situations with Kane and O'Reilly. Sabres will be trading the player and we get our hopes up for a significant return. Unfortunately, it did not happen with Kane or O'Reilly, and I doubt it will with Risto. It just seems that when a team is openly shopping a player for an extended period and the player does not want to play for the team, the prospect of getting a decent return for the player is negatively impacted and diminishes the longer the situation continues.

We seem to be at around the cap assuming we sign the rest of our restricted free agents. How are we going to be helpful to teams that need to shed salaries (i.e., players) to create space if we are currently at around the cap?

I would like to know whether the Sabres are pursuing Gardiner. If yes, do we think he is he waiting out the situation with Marner to see if the Leafs have cap space to sign him?

I think many of us are tired of being patient. I also understand that we do not have a choice, but this rebuild has taken a long time and seems to still have a long way to go. Would give us some hope if we could acquire some decent free agents, but I get that they may not want to play for the Sabres for any number of reasons, including our inability to improve and make the playoffs. As we have seen, making trades can help or hurt, and same with free agent signings. What this team should have by this point is a strong pipeline of young talent. Until that happens, and is clear to all of us, the Sabres will continue to struggle.

I am a bit concerned about the Risto situation because it feels similar to the pre-trade situation with O'Reilly. Player expresses frustration with team situation and losing, not clear if player wants to continue with Sabres, lots of buzz that player is being heavily shopped and the sense of some pressure in terms of timing to make trade (in the case of Risto, this may be because of the start of free agency and the team wanting to know what the needs are post-trade). This seems to be a recipe for another potential disaster. With a new coach, wouldn't it make more sense to see if Risto can be a part of the needed improvement in the team's overall performance? If it still is not working, Risto always can be traded at a later time, including before the trade deadline this upcoming season.

I think he really fumbled those questions about Risto. Seems possible that RIsto did ask out of Buffalo based on his response and he did not really address the first question.

I do think it is weak. I also understand that certain recent picks, such as Dahlin and Mittelstadt, are already playing for the Sabres, which may contribute to my perception of the pipeline, but I do not see a lot of sure fire quality NHL players in the group. For example, if you look at the Amerks, which is an obvious source for near-term potential talent for the Sabres, Nylander and Asplund had relatively disappointing seasons last year (or at least seasons that do not suggest that they are ready to be in the lineup for the Sabres). Not sure how the Sabres view O"Regan and Smith, but I don't believe they are viewed as potential top six forwards. Olofsson will get his shot with the Sabres next year, but he may be the only addition at forward. I think we need to see better results from young players with the Amerks to feel more confident about the pipeline in the near-term.

More than a fair point and true that the previous wave of prospects failed to make an impact. I just don't have a lot of confidence that Nylander, Pilut and Thompson, even if they make the team out of camp, will be quality players in the near term (and maybe the long term as well).

I don't want to seem overly negative, but given the long period of this rebuild, it is disappointing that our prospect pool is not much stronger at this point. The only prospect with a likelihood to contribute to the Sabres this season is Olofsson. In some ways, this may not be a fair assessment of the overall situation, since many of the current Sabres, such as Dahlin and Mittelstadt, were recent draft picks and can could be considered prospects, but I do think our prospect pool should be stronger and deeper after years of finishing near or at the bottom of the standings. Another unpopular view is that some of our recent top picks have been mild or significant disappointments given where they were drafted. I think Reinhart is playing pretty well, but at times I feel like we should be expecting more from a second overall pick in the draft. I am not sure if Nylander will develop, and I have no idea what kind of player Mittelstadt will become. If this assessment is accurate, I don't think it is all on the specific players. There are other variables and considerations, including the quality of teammates, coaching and mentoring, that play role in the development of players, but, at a minimum, if the Sabres are going to have success in the future, we need to hit on our draft picks in the top 10 of the draft.

Other than Risto and maybe McCabe, and excluding our "core" players (Jack, Skinner, Dahlin, Montour and Reinhart), we just don't have many assets that are attractive to other teams for a trade. I don't think it is reasonable to expect Bogo, Okposo, Girgs, Larsson, Sobotka, Scandella or even Nylander to be tradable at this point. These may be some of the players that we would like to see traded, but the possibility of receiving any real value for them seems small.

So who did he want if he was trying to move up?