GASabresIUFAN

There is one big difference. Tage has real talent while Stillman not so much. When your hope for him is that he becomes Lyubushkin, that's not really the result we are looking for.

I would have been thrilled with trading Bloom for 1) A similar D prospect for our pipeline - sort of a smaller version of Nylander for Jokiharju 2) A 24-year-old D with term or control who is a proven upgrade on Bryson and Clague and would force them down the depth chart. Someone like Schenn or Jensen or whomever. Sadly this is not Stillman. Stillman is an 8. Only to be used in an emergency. Stillman only plays in the top 6 on bad hockey NHL teams and that isn't us. He is no better than Fitz who we waived. Why trade for the same garbage we gave away for free?

Come to think of it, I would as well. He'd become this team's Toni Lydman.

@dudacek and @Thorny of your list of teams that are going to regret their actions this week, I think the Rags and Leafs are two that will regret it. Bos is having a surprise season their top forwards, Bergeron, Marchand and Krejci, are very close to the end of their careers. They are trying to strike while the iron is hot. TB also. They've won their Cups are trying to squeeze the last juice out of the orange. The NYR I don't understand. They are a young team built now, but also for the next decade. They are going to regret losing so much capital. I do love watching Tor flail away. They are so desperate to make a run they'll do anything and "sadly" I doubt it helps.

I don't think anyone, including myself, really wants short-term rentals unless they come dirt cheap. I want Jordan Greenway for example because he has two years left on his deal. Vejmelka is another perfect bridge upgrade. Chychrun on the higher end as well. One of the things I admired about Pitt back in the early part of their run was that used to use the trade deadline to fix long-term holes on their roster. Guys like Kunitz arrived in Pitt at the deadline and then stayed another 8 years. With the right transactions, KA can do this for us as well. However that means added a Chychrun not a Stillman.

Except the family wasn't starving for food, they were starving for quality food. It was starving for a decent top 6 D to play in front of Bryson and Clague. In your example, KA traded a crate of TP for a crate of processed beanie weenies, instead of getting the healthy food they actually needed.

KA knew who is homegrown core was this past off-season. He extended Samuelsson long-term and had 2 1st overall players in his top3 in Dahlin and Power. Dahlin at 22 was his most experienced D entering the season and he knew or should have known that a veteran presence was needed on the D. He got one for the goalies in Anderson and had 2 (Z and KO) for the forwards. Why not also get one for the D? Instead we received the physical but positionally challenged Lyubushkin who had less NHL experience than Dahlin.

He is Fitz 2.0. KA wanted another physical D in his organization and overpaid for one, especially when you consider Luke Schenn, a significantly better player on the same team, who went for a similar value. KA is hoping that the terrible positioning he displayed the last two seasons is correctable in our system. Sadly our system hasn't cured Bush or Fitz of similar issues. They don't and Stillman doesn't have the hockey IQ to overcome his poor instincts. I watched many Van games this season watching Schenn to see if the turnaround I saw in TB continued on a mediocre team (it did). What I saw of Stillman made me cringe and his advanced stats match the eye test. I hope and pray DG and co can fix Stillman and turn him into a viable 3rd pairing guy or tough 7 that DG is comfortable throwing out there 18 minutes a night if needed and everyone can say I told you so. However, to me this is KA betting on a long-shot to win the Triple Crown.

If he was excess inventory why give him a contract early? If you had excess inventory why draft another 400 forwards the following draft, when you had a D inventory of 1? If he had traded Bloom for a D prospect I'd have been thrilled. If he had received good value for Bloom, I'd also would have been thrilled, but instead, he got someone who likely will be waived next season, just Fitz was this season. That feels like a move that was completely unnecessary and a waste. I'm also not the only one who believes this. I'm just the one who is most vocal about it.

Yet that is what he just did in the Stillman trade, except there was no short-term gain. Also these problems aren't new. These were the same issue from last season and were addressed with the poor acquisitions of Comire and Lyubushkin (and Clague) and now Stillman. You say he is playing the long developmental game. Ok that's easy on the forwards. We have 1600, but we have only 1 legit D prospect at this point. How does one prospect will 4 holes in your D group?

It feels like 30% of the league has changed teams already. Last season we had 27 trades from 2/14 to 3/20 starting with the Toffoli trade. 18 deals were made in the last week before Deadline Day. We had another 30 deals on Deadline Day. This season we'd already had 32 deals from 1/30 to today starting with Horvat to the NYI, with 22 just in the last few days.

Oh well.

My bad it was @French Collection who brought up Matt Irwin and that is who I originally responded to.

This is where the arguments fail. No one is asking KA to accelerate the plan. All I and others are asking for is for KA to fix obvious holes in the roster. That doesn't mean spending our pipeline, but what it does mean is making smart deals for guys like Marino to shepherd a young D group and gives decent play. DR did this with Teppo and then with Lydman to go with homegrown Kalinin, Campbell, Tallinder and McKee.

The irony of the store's name was not lost on me either.

Ovie may be the only player left on the team at this rate. Can they send us Jensen?

Sadly, yes. https://www.nhl.com/sabres/video/girlfriends-visit-local-boutique/t-277443402/c-15569235

You didn't like the ladies' shopping video on Sabres.com?

I didn't bring up Irwin, you did. I also didn't say acquire Irwin, I just said he is currently better than Bryson or Clague and how sad that is because Irwin stinks.

I disagree. There have been numerous posts here that the guys (like Clague and Bryson) are still young and they'll get better. There was even a post today saying that Joki still has a chance to become Lydman, despite him getting caved again last night. They say all this is going to happen just be patient. They say waiting who knows how many years for Levi to save our goaltending is the right plan. People keep posting about a young team's inconsistency and to just be patient. I'm sorry that just doesn't hold water any longer. While I haven't said in over a year that Adams is doing a terrible job. As I noted earlier, I have stated since the off-season that we have a playoff-caliber team with the right tweaks on Defense and in goal. I have stated he has made mistakes in his decision-making on D and in goal. Stillman is just the latest, and the facts support my argument. However, I have also praised him when he made good decisions as well. Just look at the NJ Devils. They were exactly where we were last year. Their GM made the right tweaks on defense and in goal and they are now one of the best teams in the NHL. Ultimately it's KA's job to actually fix these problems and I mean really fix them. No more Pysyks, no more Comries, no more Stillmans. He has built a playoff-caliber offense, it's past time to give that offense the defense to win consistently. Things change and a good plan changes with it.

So you say, but the facts support my argument. You can take it as negative, but sometimes the truth hurts. For example, the Sabres are 5-21-3 when scoring 3 or less (1-13-1 at home). Our GAA last season was 3.5 and this year it's 3.51. Our save % was .894 last year and .893 this year. No improvement. Our PK was 76.42 last season and is worse this season at 72.35. This despite adding Power, Lyubhskin, Clague, and Comrie and moving on from Miller, Hagg, Pysyk, Tokarski and Butcher. Something clearly isn't working and it's not being negative to point of the truth. However, I'm not negative. I've been saying since last off-season that this is a playoff team with the right tweaks on defense and in goal. Since he got the tweaks wrong in the off-season, why is it wrong to ask for him to correct the course and fix the known problems?

Interesting stat from Mike Harrington The Sabres are 5-21-3 when scoring 3 goals or less. 1-13-1 at home when scoring 3 goals or less. Quote from Harrington on twitter "not enough D, not enough saves."

Anyone have the players on Chad's list from ExpectedBuffalo?

Don't need him in the top 4. We need him or someone like him to be an upgrade over Bryson, Clague, and Stillman

...and now back to the regularly scheduled topic. Greenway is still out there and we could certainly use his size and physical game. I'd rather have him in the lineup over Vinnie. He's also locked up for two more years, was coached by DG in the USNTDP, and should fit well with our group. https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/tradecentre/tsn-hockey-s-trade-bait-list-1.203546 Here is TSN's updated list of available players. Also, CBJ maybe trying to move Quick to a playoff contender. I'm going to throw a D name out there we haven't discussed, but might make a good 3rd pair complement to Bush and is an RFA at the season's end. What about Dante Fabbro from Nashville? Any interest? I don't know enough about his advanced stats, but when I've seen him play I think he's a decent player with good puck skills.