Curt

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.

I don’t think the AHL record played into it all that much. I think it came down to a couple things. 1) There may not even be an AHL season, so why keep these coaches on payroll? 2) Were they developing players and turning them into useful NHLers?

This is horrific. Especially considering that parents paid large amounts of money to send these children far from home to pursue a dream. Entrusting the day to day care of their kids to responsible adults who would look after them......... I can not imagine how a parent would feel to learn, years later, that their 15, 16, 17 year old kid went through things like this. That these environments were allowed to exist is mind boggling.

This can’t be true, can it???

I think Rossi is probably more NHL ready than Byfield.

We’ve had nothing to talk about for so long that your phone autocorrected “something” to “so nothing”. I don’t know if Nightingale has connections or not. I don’t think I’ve ever really heard his name mentioned by anyone outside the organization, he has only ever worked for Buffalo, and I’m unsure about the actual quality of his work.

I don’t know. I think there are a lot of good analytics people out there who don’t work for teams.

True for current NHL people. I wonder if they would bring anyone into the scouting or analytics department who isn’t currently employed by an NHL team though?

Adams and whoever is left + hired in scouting will prepare for the draft. All of the information gathered by scouts throughout the season is still there. Scouts file their reports. They don’t take them with them when fired. The team owns them.

That all makes sense. Dudley would be a good addition. Nice to know about his contract situation. The Pegulas are a nightmare from a PR standpoint. They have zero feel for how they are perceived in any give situation.

This is definitely extreme, but I don’t feel negatively about it. The organization has been a disaster. Maybe it will be better to have a 35 person hockey department with everyone having a closely aligned vision, as opposed to a 60 person department where everyone isn’t necessarily the right fit. Im in wait and see mode.

Tom and I were talking specifically about high 1st round picks.

Huh. Is he the only one ever???

I kind of don’t know how to feel yet. Adams seems good despite his resume, but the there are a lot questions about how they are going to re build the support structure. I’m looking at a gutted house after the demo is done, but before any of the actual renovations have begun. We’ll see what happens.