BullBuchanan

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?

Missing #9 Benson who was the first man at the puck.

absolutely unreal if true.

for the 1 year he's here?

Jeff Skinner is a former 40 goal and routine 30 goal scorer. If having him on your team makes you unable to win, the problem is with your team, as it has been at each one of his stops. If Peterka's future is Skinner, every member of the FO should be escorted from the building for this trade.

100%. They should have built around Peterka, not traded him away. We've made every young player ont his team the scapegoat, First Cousins, now Peterka, Byram has been in trade talks since he got here, and everyone hates Quinn now. As of today, this team moved closer to the 1st overall pick in 2026 than they did the playoffs.

This has to be a joke. Adams got completely railroaded in this deal. A player who's already a legitimate star and still on the rise for these schlubs?

If it's $8-9M for 7 years, lock him up. That will be be dirt cheap by the time it's over. Even now it isn't top 32 money.

Trading Peterka should not just be a fireable offense, but a criminal one. He is EXACTLY what this team should be trying to get more of. If he was on the Bruins or the leafs he'd be a superstar. Did we learn nothing at all from getting rid of Sam Reinhart?

Statistical analysis of NHL players says their peak is at 26. If that holds true, Tage's best years are already behind him. Add in the injury and it doesn't help. He may certainly bounce back to a better player than we saw in 2023, but it's unlikely he gets close to 47 goals again. Mid 30 goals with high 60s points is probably his ceiling at this point.

It's a well known statistical fact that NHL players peak before 26. Tuch will be 31 in 3 years. He'll be far past his prime. Thompson will be 30, and looking at the same fate. Benson is just a prospect at this point with 30 points to his name. That's not helping us win a cup in the next 3 years. We need to either get someone who can score 100 points, or we need a ton of guys in the 60+ range. Florida had 4 above 70 each of the last 2 years. Vegas had 6 at 50+. We had 6 at 50+ 2 years ago, but sent two of those guys packing (Mitts, Skinner). This year we had just 4 over 50 with the top end at 59. Thompson is the only guy on the roster capable of getting up into the 90s and he may well have already peaked at nearly 27 years old. Praying that guys like Quinn and Benson will hit that level is not my preferred strategy. We shouldn't be building a team to make the last seed of the playoffs. we should be building a team to make a cup run. Otherwise, there's no point. Just tear it down and start over.

Ok. That's 3 years from now. By then Thompson will be on the back end of his prime, Tuch will be done and the entire roster will probably look different. I'd rather trade Benson in a package for a guy that can play on our top line right now and still be there 3 years from now that we replace with a guy like Helenius down the road We shouldn't be advocating for that now, but on a Stanley Cup contender, Tuch is a 2nd line player, not the 2nd best forward on the team.