Thorny

We only want associate to the GMs who want to be here

No, you avoid the D man because thinking you know with anything close to a certainty that an 18 year old kid is going to end up better than this other 18 year old kid ranked almost equally as a prospect, in several years down the line, is utter hubris, devoid of any semblance of logic. You avoid the D to avoid trading power for pennies on the dollar. The prospect/player immediately loses value once you “drive them off the lot” - Power is in the midst of his development curve, let’s sell low and time travel back the process and keep those expectations low! Said no one. Josh Allen to Manuel isn’t an analogous comp and your use of it proves my argument. The fact you are not only equating that ridiculous of a gap to the two, but forecasting it as a certainty renders your argument null pass: Folie à Deux

At the end of the day, it’s very likely Power continues to develop in a meaningful way, due to several strong indicators like draft pedigree, raw attribute, usual aging curves, usual aging curves for D men SPECIFICALLY, and what we know of how the overall sabres environment affects young players. Draft pedigree alone is reason enough for me to advocate for him. Yakupov is the exception not the rule. For all the frivolous, shot-in-the-dark, poor mathemical-odds avenues the sabres management continually pin their hopes on time and time again, I will happily, happily settle for resting on the odds of a first overall pick figuring it out. I can live with that bet, particularly relatively

Adams is answerable for the price of eggs

You don’t draft another D number one. Going LHD 3 straight times at #1 is absurd and a diluting of value. There are always exceptions to the rule: what if we finish last next year and top ranked prospect is a lhd again. Take him? Where’s the line? There’s a line. Unless Schaefer is literally Orr or Makar, take the elite F with little gap. Maximize the value. You are trying to build a team - the presence of two 1s already on D allows us to allocate high value pick resources elsewhere - Byram at 3 overall looks good next to Dahlin, sure, and EVERYONE at any slot looks good next to Dahlin - that’s the point of a talent like Dahlin re: avenue to team building. If Schaefer is NOT Makar, taking him just sets back the timeline yet again to the detriment of the ENTIRE roster (remember how one player can’t elevate a team? Pushing back timeline for one guy is nonsensical) if we are dealing out, say, Power as a repercussion. We are going to sell him at an early stage of development for pennies on the dollar. So you get a great prospect in Schaefer and some beans, likely Or you keep Power, keep the timeline intact, understand your role as an organization in developing these players *and* reaping the benefits, have a dman probably not far off Schaefer, or at least anything he is in the near future, AND a swell F prospect instead of whatever the pennies on the dollar trade would have been that other GMs would know Adams is FORCED to make to balance the roster we want to saddle Adams willingly with the added difficulty of finding a trade? pass

They HAVE to salvage this with Dahlin. Might be the only player on the roster I still have a legit connection to. The lottery win in 2018 literally represents maybe the only truly joyous Sabres moment in a decade. Cannot afford to let him slip by

Season ticket renewal szn, right?

Well, you are allowed to trade injured players. So I’d hazard to say if he was dealing with something we knew it. And that they played him anyways.. ya I imagine that happens. Doesn’t seem very smart

You should fret less. We aren’t cursed. Things can and will be fixed

Associate to the GM

Eichel had played 83% of the games available to him when we dealt him Norris had played 59% when we acquired him It’s not so much “whatever we do” as it’s “we do dumb things” Not saying Norris is a dumb trade but the math is already mathing here

What I was talking about, though. “If Norris stays healthy” analysis of the trade missed the mark to extent of near irrelevancy A functional aspect of the trade is that the player WE got only plays sometimes. That’s the trade

Health concerns you say?

Ya there’s definitely a line, wanted to say this yesterday and I forgot as an exercise, how would we feel if Adams lived in Pittsburgh? That’s what I thought I’m sure there’s a level of employee we wouldn’t care / it wouldn’t matter but I don’t think it arises at assistant GM

“We will trade you this summer.”

6 original series films a good place to start imo

It’s not the most successful at all he’s one year away from equaling Botterill and Murray’s portions of the drought COMBINED. The drought was nearly 40% shorter when Adams started Re: Adams The line must be drawn here! THIS far! NO FURTHER!

“A second agent explained that Buffalo isn't a city players are openly avoiding. But that's not to say there aren't challenges.” Incredibly damaging to Adams. Especially in light of going up to the podium as listing off all his excuses. a loser

So a guy for the first pairing, and a guy in the mould of one of the best defencemen to play for the sabres ever. and then i woke up power continuing to substantially develop after the nearly past his prime age of…22 is within the realm of the living. And then some

On a bridge and staple him to Dahlin, sure. But he’s bad away from Dahlin. Dunno what having those two has to do with ditching Power - we already need help on D. He can anchor a second pair with a proper partner

Get him a proper partner first on a non disfunctional team Or live or regret it Wookie’s worst nightmare

The rub is that Adams *does* have authority to make decisions - because Terry trusts Adams. That’s the underplayed aspect I’ve been saying all along - of course he wants his voice heard, but he doesn’t need to force Adams to do things: he hired Adams specifically because he liked what he was going to do - and how he operates. The Marek segment illustrated this - that Adams is the one declining experience being added to the fold. He’s in charge. It comes to the same issue in that the better candidates are seemingly unavailable to us, but it’s that Terry wouldn’t hire them at all, not that he’d egregiously interfere after they are hired. Adams has rope because Terry trusts him.

Sounds much more like it’s Adams resistant to adding experience Adams is calling the shots. Terry demands to be heard but the point that’s underplayed is he TRUSTS Adams. People say that and then are flippantly like “oh and he orders him around.” Enough - he’s a grown man. He doesn’t have to order him around because he trusts his (awful) judgment They’ve known eachother and worked together for 13 years they said