GASabresIUFAN

I loath the Leafs, but I’m not happy they were eliminated. The Sam Bennett cheap shot to the Leafs goalie changed the complexion of the series. The lack of a penalty or a suspension was further proof of the joke that is the NHL league office and the refs that work for them. For once I almost feel bad for Leafs nation. Almost

LOL. Yep, it seems that way. After all it's the Sabres way. Trade Eichel, trade Reinhart, might as well trade JJP. Let's trade all the good players our system develops and allow them to win Cups elsewhere. Dumping another good young forward is the height of stupidity. Why not trade/waive/catapult our bad defensemen and goaltending and use the saved cap space to fix the real problems with this team. Put Power, Byram, UPL, Samuelsson, and Clifton on the block and see what you can get. That's over 25 mill in cap liability right there. Dump most of those players and bring in a solid goaltender to play with Levi and find 2-3 defensive D and this team will become a playoff team next season.

Kevyn Adams - Manager of Harborside Arena. Ryan O’Reilly - Zamboni driver

Lou’s first piece of advice to Terry will be to fire Adams and bring in a real GM.

That's correct. Even if you "shift" Samuelsson's and Clifton's money to Byram, you still have to allocate cap for their replacements.

I think it means they are average at best, but mostly below average. What are their numbers away from Dahlin. JBD at 60% is adequate. Having one good defenseman (Dahlin), 1 adequate one (JBD) and the rest below average or worse is not a recipe for success. The team stats, as I mentioned above, show that this team is below average defensively. The number 5 on 5 in SA, SCA,HDCA have been consistently bad the last 3 years regardless of goaltending. Bad goaltending just makes a bad problem worse.

They aren't adequate defensively.

The defense is terrible and the goaltending is just as bad if not worse. We allowed the 8th most high danger chance against last season (763), 3rd most the season before (793), and the 4th most in 22/23 (881). So while this improved it's still in the bottom 3rd of the league and coupled with bad goaltending, is it any wonder this team hasn't progressed? No add we allowed the 4th most shots against and the 11 most Scoring chances against and you have more evidence of an inept defense. Now add a terrible Penalty Killing (only 76.3%). I have more hope for a rebound in UPL or Levi taking over than I have in the defense as constituted. I'm ok with running back Dahlin, one of Power (of Byram) and seeing what JBD is, but after that the rest need to go.

Do you think they would actually be interested in a quitter?

Slava Kozlov and Doug Gilmour - Directors of the Alumni Association.

Don't you mean Berglund. His motto is if you don't like how things are going, then quit and move to Sweden.

How about Doug Gilmour?

I forgot Zagrapan.

He was recently spotted having dinner in a Moscow restaurant with Brett Heisten, Denis Tsygurov, David Cooper, Jozef Cierny and Dennis Pearson. Joel Savage was supposed to attend, but got stuck in customs.

Sardarian is in college. Sardarian transferred to Michigan Tech from U of NH and exploded offensively with 11g 24a in 35 games to lead all tech forwards. Poltapov is in Russia. Blossomed in the KHL with 17g 23a for 40 pts in 68 games. 3 pts in 6 playoff games. Has extended his contract through 26/27. I don't expect him to ever play for the Sabres. Neuchev and Kisakov are Amerks forwards. Kisakov honestly looks like he's done as a Sabres prospect with 3g 1a in just 13 games in his 3rd Amerks season. Neuchev was better with 7g 15a for 22 pts in 39 games, but was injured during the season. Played 57 games last season. Not sure if he has a future with the Amerks. Komarov and Novikov are Amerks D. Both had solid seasons and should be back in Rochester next season and remain in the Sabres plans. Novikov had similar 2nd Amerks season as the first and was a team leading +28. Should be in the Sabres long-term plans. 1 a in 3 playoff games so far. Komarov had 2g 18a in 69 games with a +7. Solid Rookie campaign and he is playing in the playoffs.

You said you wanted change.

... and there was much rejoicing!

Updated for Brian Galivan the new "director of performance."

What happened to the Montour trade? I wouldn’t have made that deal either. Nor would I have acquired Stillman, I would have extended Ullmark and Reinhart to long-term deals instead of letting Ullmark walk and the Reinhart trade. I wouldn’t have traded Mitts for Byram since he was a redundant asset. I would have kept Robinson over trading for Malenstyn. The Norris trade is a complete unknown. I wouldn’t have signed Hall for 8 mill nor would I have given him such a deal with a full NMC. We got so little for Hall because of Adam’s terrible contract construction. The Eichel mess is not something I’m sure about. I like Tuch and the other assets were ok given the circumstances. Ultimately, Ristolainen, Greenway, and McLeod are the only deals I’ve made for sure. Also Zucker is his only good FA signing.

@dudacek none of this info changes the facts that none of our D are good defensively away from Dahlin. As I’ve stated many times, I’d trade Power and keep Byram. I think Byram is the better player who at least makes an effort defensively and is willing to be physical. Power makes no effort defensively and will never be a physical player. I have also stated that there was no way the Sabres would or could keep both Byram and Power. Now that a Byram trade is more likely, I think we are kind of beating a dead horse. The Sabres have to fix the defensive skills of our D group and moving on from Byram is the first step, whether we agree with Adams or not. The next steps are sending our other D failures, Clifton and Samuelsson, packing as well.

Why did you leave off Power's 34 EV points? Your post is further proof that one of Byram or Power is redundant. Dahlin is the 1st PP and Byram or Power on the 2nd. However, neither of these guys is able to carry a D pairing successfully on their own. Keep one and trade the other and then use that opportunity to get the "survivor" a real smart defensively responsible partner. It wouldn't hurt to get Dahlin one as well so that we can free him up to be even more dominate offensively.

Ain’t that the friggin truth. Amen brother!

Current Roster (players under contract) Forwards (10) Norris, Thompson, Zucker, Tuch, Greenway, Krebs, Lafferty, Malenstyn, Benson & Kulich (Cap Cost 35.23) Defense (5) Dahlin, Power, Samuelsson, Clifton & Byrson (Cap Cost 27.869) Goalies (1) UPL (Cap cost 4.75) Dead Cap (1) Skinner (Cap Cost 4.444) Total Cap 16 players (72.293) RFAs: JJP, McLeod, Quinn, Kozak, Byram, JBD, R Johnson, Brannstrom, and Levi Relevant Trade deadline moves A) Traded Cozens for Norris and Bernard-Docker B) Re-signed Greenway and Zucker Offseason changes, moves and retentions 1) retaining the services of both Ruff and Adams (and Appert) 2) Fired the strength and conditioning coach Ed Gannon & Replaced him with Brian Galivan. And there was much rejoicing! 3) Hired Eric Staal as a special asst to Adams 4) Rumored to be trading Byram and possibly Quinn this summer 5) Rumored that Karmanos and Ventura will leave the organization after the Amerks season ends. 6) Rumored to be adding a senior executive for the hockey dept.

Karmanos leaving makes sense. Adams is staying and Karmanos needs to find a better opportunity than staying in a dead end job with the Sabres. For me it’s going to boil down to the roster decisions made this offseason. The alleged first change (Byram) was obvious and telegraphed when Adams said he needs to find Power a partner. It just a question of time until it happens. The question is what happens after that deal gets done.

This is a meaningless move by the Sabres. It’s just a job for a buddy of Adams and former star player who is looking to learn about being in NHL management. Why he’d want to learn in the 2nd worst organization in pro sports I have no idea. (The NY Jets are the worst organization in pro sports).