BullBuchanan

I mean, if you got a loser point every game of the season, that might be good enough to get you in the playoffs. It's better than consolation.

when he's asked to play defense, he often looks like the worst player on the ice.

We have over $8M in cap space. It makes too much sense that the reason it's there is to match the offer sheet. Samuelsson is finally on the 3rd pair where he belongs. You trade Byram and you just created a hole in your top 4.

You can't say Norris is better than anybody. Until proven otherwise he's Tim Connolly 2.0. There's an extremely likely possibility that at 26, he's near the end of his career. He's had 3 years of shoulder injuries. Zucker is not definitively better than Ott. He scores more, but Ott was a more physical presence. Comparing Quinn and Girgensons is stupid, but no he isn't. Girgensons was very reliable and often the best player in our bottom 6. Doan is unknown. he might not even be an NHL level talent. Kaleta was definitely better than Danforth thus far. Benson should be in the AHL absed on production thus far. Kulich is not yet on par with Ennis who was a routine 20G scorer. Thompson + Tuch + McLeod is probably slightly better than Vanek + Stafford + Girgensons at that point int heir careers. But the rest of our group is a mess. Cool. None of that is relevant, because we have no idea who will play the most games this year. Maybe adams does a firesale in october -february like we did in 2013. All you can judge is the plan going into the year.

That's not the opening day line. The below is, which is a far stronger grouping. 2013 was also widely recognized as a teardown rebuild year, and we still had a stronger group than we have now. I actually like that whole roster makeup better than what we have now outside of Leino. Ott, Girgensons, Grigorenko and Kaleta were all very physical players with Stafford and Vanek not easy to push around either. That team had big holes and lacked a premier player in their prime like Tage is. Thomas Vanek Cody Hodgson Drew Stafford Steve Ott Tyler Ennis Ville Leino Zemgus Girgensons Mikhail Grigorenko Brian Flynn Cody McCormick Johan Larsson Patrick Kaleta

That might be the worst Sabres forward group in my lifetime. 2 legitimate top 6 players + Tim Connolly 2025 edition.

I think we're far, far from this reality. We're not the dumpster fire the Oilers were pre and post McDavid. We're not the Coyotes/Mammoth, We're not the Blackhawks we have more reason for hope near term than the Ducks and Sharks. There are a lot of bad teams in hockey right now, and we're certainly one of them, but I don't think it's anywhere near as dire as you make it seem. There's nothign wrong with the brand. We start winning some games and the "brand" will be just as good as the Bills.

The whole Ryan Johnson show just screams sunk cost at this point. This is his 7th year in the system (yea, yea, NCAA) and he's still a hopeful reserve? If he was a 3rd round pick, he'd be out of hockey.

Byram is a legit top-pairing defenseman. Why the constant rumors about trying to trade him pretty much since he got here? The defensive issues have been the 2nd and 3rd pairings which have gotten significantly better now, so I'd just keep him and see if we have a solid D with this group.

Yea, that's what the NHL needed, MORE regular season games. Glad we finally got that sorted. My favorite hockey seasons have always been the years when they had halved length seasons.

The NHL is very fluid. They can always trade someone currently in the top 4 or they can trade Mrtka after he increases his value in the minors. He probably won't be NHL ready for 3+ years anyway.

Byram or his replacement. I'm starting to think they keep him.

Samuelsson should be relegated to 3rd pair with Timmins, and Docker can be our 7th.

Reinhart-level disaster.

You think Kesslering and Doan are worth more than 1st round pick each?