jahnyc

None of us know whether GMJB had better offers at different points in time or whether GMJB directly or indirectly inflated expectations, but expectations were certainly higher than what we ended up getting as a return. One question I have is why we hired another GM with no prior GM experience after GMTM. GMJB has a very good pedigree and he seems smart, but after the experience with GMTM, I would have thought that hiring a GM with GM experience would have been a priority, or at least adding a person with that type of an experience to our front office. The reason I am raising this is I wonder about the dynamics with other GMs at the trading deadline. Did GMJB have significant prior experience with this type of a situation? Does he have long-standing relationships with the other GMs? Was he involved with these types of discussions and pressures when he was with the Penguins? Even if he was heavily involved, it must be much different experiencing it as the final decision maker.

The question is how do things get fixed? We do not have much cap room for next year and there is no pipeline of talent coming from Rochester other than Ullmark and maybe Guhle. Right now, we only have one first round pick (should be top five), and it is possible we will not see this pick playing for the Sabres for at least a year or two. If you trade O'Reilly and/or Reinhart, do you get equivalent value or players that can play now? Probably not. This is going to take years to fix. We are not the Devils or the Avalanche, teams that made relatively quick turn arounds.

Trade with Winnipeg looks pretty bad now, particularly considering that we are stuck with a bad contract with Bogosian. GMTM did us no favors.

This is depressing because I think we all wanted to see a prospect that would help now or soon and a first round pick in this year's draft so that the rebuild would have some energy. This trade is of no near term help, and we just traded the winger with the most goals on the team. How is this team not worse right now and for the foreseeable future?

Just awful. This does not help in the short term and probably not in the long term. Needed a first this year and/or a prospect that could play in the NHL. Got neither. Not sure if JB was played or if he turned down better deals before today, but it shows how much GMTM overvalued Kane.

What does "no formal offers" mean? Sounds crummy, teams bottom fishing because they know we need to trade him?

The number of teams interested in Kane seems to be going down. I think the Ducks/Sharks are most likely destinations for Kane, but Philadelphia would make a lot of sense with some of their recent injuries.

Kane for Bennett (Calgary) plus more from both parties.

Spooner goes to the Rangers as well.

It just seems weird that there are a lot of new names coming up in trade discussions and yet very little out there about Kane. Maybe he has been on the market for too long. I hope it is more about waiting to see what Nash is traded for to set the market for Kane, but I am getting worried that as new and attractive supply comes into the market, the number of possible destinations for Kane dwindles. Still think the Sabres should have at least engaged in discussions about re-signing Kane. Making that public (whether the interest was genuine or not) would have helped with the optics of this situation where now it seems we do not want him under any scenario. Unfortunately, this kind of plays into the narrative that he has baggage/not a good locker room kind of guy.

I think he would have been traded long ago if there had been a decent offer. Seems like it is a tough market if you are trying to sell assets. I am expecting a 2nd round pick and medium quality prospect (not a top prospect).

Is the return for Grabner more or less than what we should be expecting for Kane? Has the market been set? Grabner has 25 goals so far this season. He is older than Kane and also a free agent after the season.

I think what frustrates me the most about this team is that post-tank (at least the first one) there are only two players from Rochester that may provide immediate upgrades in the near term (Ullmark and Guhle). I don't think Bailey, Baptiste or Fasching will develop into quality players, bottom six or otherwise. It seems that Mittelstadt may be a good one, but I have a feeling he is at least a few years away and he may need time in Rochester. On some level, I understood the tank (although I am not saying I necessarily agreed with it). The problem was that when we traded all of our assets there was nothing in terms of young players in our system that were ready to play in Buffalo. Our prospect pool was incredibly weak at that time, and all of our assets that we could trade were traded, which meant everything (and every level) had to be rebuilt. We are still paying the price for this, and some poor picks and trades has exacerbated the situation, both before and after the tank. JB has a big job in front of him and it will take time to fix.

Living in NYC, I do not get a chance to see many games played by the Sabres. I watched the game today, and they looked awful. I know that this is not news to anyone, but they looked slow and poorly coached. I have no idea whether this is about the players, the coaches or some combination of the two (most likely), but not only did the Sabres play poorly, but they were boring to watch.

Without a strong pipeline of talent in Rochester or prior draft picks ready to contribute, a team that will make the playoffs on a regular basis and compete for the Stanley Cup seems far away. Very disappointing after the tank, and I am not sure how it gets fixed until we improve our drafting. On some level, I can't believe with all of the draft picks we accumulated as part of the tank that the Sabres are not in the position of having a pipeline overflowing with talent and potential (understanding that, unfortunately, GMTM ended up trading away a lot of those picks to acquire players).

I am starting to think that the return for Kane may not be what some seem to be expecting. All potentially interested teams know that the Sabres made no attempt to re-sign him with an expiring contract. He may be a pure rental player, and he has slumped recently. I am surprised that the Sabres moved him off of Eichel's line. Would have made sense to me to keep Kane there until a trade was consummated so that his numbers would be as strong as possible. I also would have thought the Sabres would have least engaged with Kane's agent about re-signing him whether or not they were serious about it to help with the optics of his situation.

This really is the bottom line. We had a lot of picks in the draft, many of which were towards the top of the round, and we have very little to show for it. Very disappointing.

Which players on the Sabres have no movement provisions in their contracts? I think the only player that will be attractive to other teams is Kane. They may be able to trade Sam, but they probably will not get much in return. O'Reilly, Okposo and Bogo have contracts that do not match their current play. I doubt they can be traded. Not sure there are any other players on the Sabres that would be interesting to other teams other than maybe Chad Johnson as a back-up.

What i find depressing is the lack of a pipeline of talent in Rochester after the tank. Other than maybe Guhle, there do not seem to be many prospects that are sure things, which probably means that significant improvement by the Sabres may be years away. I also think the team misses the gritty play of Foligno, although it is hard for me to assess how well Scandella is playing to really make a judgment about this trade. JBot's other acquisition on defense, Beaulieu, is not playing well.

I don't think the overall talent is particularly strong and the pipeline should be be more developed and promising at this point. The team tanked and does not have as much to show for it as they should. GMTM traded away a lot of picks and players and I don't think the returns were as significant as they could have been. So now we have a poorly constructed team with young players that are not developing (Reinhart), veteran players that already seem to be in decline (Reilly and Okposo), and players with bad contracts (Moulson, Bogo and Okposo). The season is just starting, so there is hope that things will improve, but I am not feeling optimistic. We have Jack, and that is foundation type player, but we need more talent and will have salary cap constraints in the future.

Trading a first round pick for Lehner was a terrible trade.

The defense is weak after McCabe and Risto and some of the young players are not developing (Girgs, Foligno and Ennis) or not at the pace that we would have expected (Reinhart). While there has been some progress, the rebuild by GMTM is very disappointing at this point. I would have expected more with the resources he had available in terms of draft picks and salary cap. Of course, maybe now I have better understanding of GMTM's reaction when he lost out on the first pick overall and the opportunity to select McDavid. McDavid was the building block this team needed after all of the pain of the tank.

Poor drafting in my response. I meant that the process of tanking decimated our level of overall talent, not that GMTM has decimated our talent with his efforts.

For me, it is not whether GMTM won the trade for Kane, but more about was this the best use of assets or where there there other alternatives that would have produced better results. I also think that GMTM has undervalued draft picks in the trades that he has made (e.g., two second round picks for Fasching) and traded away too many of these assets. Acquiring Lehner was fine, but using a first round pick to do it? Were there commensurate free agent options or other trades that could have been made for less value? In his trades, GMTM has used many of the draft picks that had been accumulated in the process of the team tanking over a number of years. Because of the process of tanking, our pipeline of talent and overall talent was completely decimated. I was looking forward to the rebuilding of our talent by using the draft picks that we had accumulated. I thought that was one of the primary reasons that we had hired GMTM (his ability to draft players). I get it that it is too early to tell with many of our recently drafted players, but I am feeling disappointed about where we are currently because I do not see the pipeline of talent that I would have expected at this point.

Seem to be a lot of problems, including the lack of development from many of our young players and, in some cases, regression. Foligno, Girgenson, Reinhart and Ennis have been disappointments. Reinhart is not playing like a #2 overall draft pick. They are young players and things can change, but it is concerning. I also get it that injuries have been a problem, so maybe this is not an entirely fair assessment, particularly with regard to Ennis, but I was expecting more from these players and others, such as Larsson, Fasching and Carrier. I also do not have a lot of confidence in our pipeline of talent. I would have thought that we would have better prospects at this point. I do not see much on defense now, and other than Guhle, is there much in our system? GMTM had a lot of picks to play with and he made some trades, some of which (i.e., Kane) have not worked out. I just don't have a lot of confidence in our rebuild. Maybe we started as such a depleted level of talent we all underestimated the time and work it was going to take to replenish the talent level, but I don't like where we are now.