Curt

I don’t think you need to be an insider to figure out that that bonus payment might make a difference in the return. That kind of seems like a no brainer. It may or may not have been a leak from Botterill.

Yeah, I don’t know for sure when the deadline was imposed. Was the bonus deadline something that was established far in advance, or was in sprung on Botterill somewhat on short notice? I can’t say. I have confidence in neither Botterill’s trade negotion process, nor confidence that the Pegulas did not impose a last minute surprise deadline. Carolina’s offer included Elias Lindholm +, I’ve heard. That would would have been nice.

I can not think of any other reason that the trade happened on the day before the bonus was due. There are rumors, I believe from multiple teams that were willing to give a better deal after the bonus was paid. I can’t know with certainty, but the evidence seems pretty transparent that Pegula wanted the deal done before the bonus was due, at the expense of getting a better hockey trade.

I agree that Adams doesn’t have the usual GM experience, but I think it’s a little strange that so many assume he is going to be lost when it comes to making hockey decisions. The guy was an NHL player for 10+ years, has done some coaching, has done a little work for an agency, in addition to high level business/management experience. I’m sure that he knows hockey. Krueger should be able help, but he hasn’t really proven anything at the NHL level either. This is not to say that I think Adams does not need to surround himself with some more experienced people. I think that he should.

And Tim Murray has been under contract with Buffalo all this time still. I believe that his contract is up at the end of this month. I don’t think that would prevent him from taking a scout or AGM job, but he would probably be taking a pay cut.

The players aren’t getting paid if there are no games. I would think that very few people get paid if there are no games. Not a lot of people will have work to do without any games happening.

This sounds plausible. There certainly are other (successful even) owners who regularly impose themselves into the hockey decisions. Since Adams has already risen through the organization as a Pegula favorite, he should do a good enough job of managing up. Now we just need him to competently manage the hockey departments.............

In the US, even during a state of emergency, Interstate travel restrictions are not possible?

In an interview Adams mentioned possibly looking for people who could fill roles as part of both scouting and analytics. I think that in order to bridge that gap between analytics and traditional scouting, integrating the two together in player evaluations, getting people who can understand both at a high level is key. I would like to see the Sabres really lean into that organizational philosophy moving forward and I actually think there are a lot of people who could help with this who are not employed by NHL teams. Go get em Kevy!

Lol, I know right. It’s not like they called on Friday afternoon and said “Hey Jason, just a heads up, but we plan of letting you go on Tuesday morning. Its just not working out. So you can come in on Monday/Tuesday, but don’t bother doing any real work. Have a good weekend.” No, you don’t get notice before hand. You just keep working until they tell you that you are fired. I can’t see how it’s surprising that Jason was working right before he was fired.

No. It’s a test for the virus. If you test positive for it, it means the virus is in your body, you have it. An antibody test checks for antibodies that your body would have created if you had it in the past. So that would tell you if you used to have it.

I’m not saying that Taylor is a bad coach. I was just responding to someone who said we won’t get another coach as good as Taylor in Rochester anytime soon. He came to Rochester a young, inexperienced coach. He had never been a HC before. He wasn’t some hot shot rising star that “OMG, I can’t believe that we got him in Roch!” Botterill gave him his first shot as a HC and Taylor did a decent job. That’s all. Nothing special. And don’t get me wrong, I like the guy.

Absolutely. They are consistently tone deaf in how they come across with the media and fans. A PR nightmare.

Your first line is plausible for sure. But I don’t think friction between Botterill/Krueger was a major factor here. I think the review happened and one of the major takeaways was Yes, we can cut some people and replace these others who we think aren’t working well for us. Then Botterill was kind of balking at firing so many of his people. Eventually the Pegulas and Botterill could not get on the same page about how to move forward, and he was let go. Then they made all the cuts/changes that they wanted to.

My impression was that it was external, as in, from outside the organization. Where is this stuff about a disagreement between Botterill and Krueger being a main catalyst for all of this coming from???

My impression was that it was an outside consultant who came in and evaluated their organizational structure and practices. Not the NHL offices.

I thought it was an external review, no?

If Adams has such a lack of experience that it is certifiable fact that he is going to be a bad GM to start off, then there is no way in heck that any of us have enough experience to be anything other than terrible advisors.

Oh, ok. Then no one can possibly be a good GM on day one. So, yes, if you want to look at it that way, you are right. Who on their first day of a new job, at a new company is good at that job??? I agree that Adams doesn’t have the ideal experience that you would want in a GM candidate, and I agree that it’s likely that he has some learning to do. However, how could I possibly know for sure if he is going to be a good GM over the next year? I can’t know, I can suspect, but I can’t know. Adams at least should be intimately knowledgeable about the inner workings of the Buffalo Sabres. Hopefully that means he has a good plan to fix things.

There is no way that you can know this to be true. How could you possibly? Maybe he will be good, maybe he won’t, but I’m positive that none of us know for sure yet.

Yeah, sure maybe, he might. Or maybe Adams doesn’t like the price, or the term, or isn’t interested in bringing that player back at all. The fact that Botterill was negotiating with a player, doesn’t tell us anything at all about what Adams would like to do with that same player. That’s why I say, it doesn’t matter.

It’s got to be a current Sabre or college FA. I’m sure the agent will contact Adams, but it’s not as if negotiations with Botterill will be valid still. It’s back to square one, so it doesn’t really matter.

It doesn’t really matter now, does it?

I don’t know about all that. Taylor was an AHL assistant coach before he came to Rochester. He had no track record of quality. He was not a sought after commodity. He lead a pretty good Rochester team that had zero playoff success. I think we are glamorizing him a bit much because most of us like him personally.

I can only hope that this evaluation will come, as I agree that the Assistant Coaches should be heavily scrutinized. The PK was like record breaking bad. It was terrible even when Hutton was not in net.