GASabresIUFAN

Tell TM and Jbot that GMing is a long game. They got 3 years each. KA is on year 2 with zero progress. Both Jbot and TM made progress in year 2. Also KAs development of players is no different then Jbots so far. Picks from Europe and college were returned to their leagues but once signed they were sent to the AHL such as Olofsson, Bryson, Asplund, Laaksonen and Fitzgerald. Jbot left Nylander for years in the AHL to see if he’d harness his talent. He also signed AHL vets to field good AHL teams. The only draftees Jbot sent to the NHL after signing were Dahlin and Mitts. Mitts played decently under Housley and probably would have been fine but for RK the killer of skill players. KA will send Power directly to the NHL just like he did with Cozens. Quinn is being treated just like Nylander was except Quinn has blossomed while TM pick Nylander failed. PS Jbot was particularly patient with Ullmark and Olofsson and that paid off handsomely

I have been an advocate of the youth movement for the last two seasons. However, I have also advocated for better goaltending and for better defensive D for the last two seasons to properly support the youth movement. I believed even with the kids up front, had KA found reasonable goaltending and a couple of veteran D first D (Psysk but better) this team would be competitive. I thought the D first D would help the development of Dahlin and Bryson giving them confidence to open up their offensive games while helping to prevent scoring chances in our zone. I hoped that decent goaltending would keep every mistake from ending up in our next giving the team a chance most nights. I thought and do think that a competent GM could have accomplished that mission even with our budget constraints. However it meant making good decisions that KA isn’t capable of. Instead KA tanked the team. The sad part is I think had management adopted my approach, we’d have a decent to good team right now. This team has shown the ability to score at and when they get decent goaltending to win or nearly so. Instead of floundering and sinking to the bottom of the standings, the kids would be gaining confidence and we’d start moving toward that winning culture. Oh well.

KA’s player evaluation is also lacking. Hayden vs Murray for example. Bringing in Eakin, Bjork, Hayden, Butcher and Dell at all thinking they might be serviceable NHL players. They aren’t and weren’t KA when he acquired them. In two years all he has shown he is that he is a terrible evaluator of NHL players and has had terrible roster construction. However he has proven to be an effective yes man to the Pegulas. Jot also signed his depth players to short term deals. So far the only things KA has accomplished so far is tanking the team and cutting spending. The on ice product is no better in year two. The truth is this season is that KA purposefully tanked the team given the budget constraints from the Pegulas. That’s not ok IMHO. I don’t think it helps the franchise move forward or help build a winning culture. It’s just another wasted season and more evidence to the players the losing is ok. Spin it as a transition year if you want. Give KA a pass for his short term deals and keeping spots open for the kids next year. Hope that Tuch pulls a Drury and changes the culture with his personality. I get it. Hope springs eternal. However do you really have any confidence that KA can make the right decisions to supplement the young core and build a winning team? I think all the evidence at this juncture points against that belief.

You said that much better then I did.

It’s not just for ED anymore. As I’ve been harping on for months. You want to start turning the corner and becoming a winning franchise again, get real goaltending.

@JohnC who said bring up JJP or Quinn on a permanent basis? I said Samuelsson, Murray and R2 should have been given a legit shot at permanent roster spots that they earned last season. Instead KA blocked them through his JAG acquisitions, which is something he said he wouldn’t do. R2 and Murray are older prospects with nothing left to prove in Rochester. Samuelsson is younger but with nothing left to prove in the AHL either. We need to find out if his skating is NHL level long term and leaving him in Roch while Hagg and Butcher skate in Buffalo is a waste.

Yes. I think he hoped some of these guys would be effective depth that could be here for more then this season. I think that is why he wanted Bjork and his 2 years. I think he hoped that Hagg and Butcher were young enough to possibly benefit from a fresh start here and become bargain pickups. Caggiula was brought back as well. Also Eakin, Bjork and Butcher aren’t JAGs at JAG prices.

Teams cannot survive on JAGs alone. Also other then Hinostroza and Pysyk, which JAG is earning his dough? Anderson is likely done for the season playing just 6 games. Caggiula has 5 points in his 18 games and is gone for a minimum of a few more weeks. Also his advanced stats are down with Eakin and Bjork. He acquired Bjork from Boston in the Hall deal, he is on the payroll for this season and next and is probably our worst forward. You complained about a few years of Sheary's contract, what about 2.5 years of Bjork? His 4 pts in 25 games is very impressive for $1.6 mill. Not only that but we gave up an effective 4th line center in Lazar to get Bjork in addition to trading Hall. Hayden isn't an NHL player. Murray outplayed him in camp and this season. Hayden should be waived, so no he hasn't come close to earning his deal either. Butcher, Eakin and Dell are a waste of 10% of our cap this season. Hagg is giving us less then he gave the Flyers. His -11 is the worst on the team and his other metrics are terrible as well. I actually had high hopes for Hagg, but sadly he hasn't come close to delivering value on his $1.6 cap hit. Spin it any way you want, but his JAGs from this season and last are terrible with the exception of Hinostroza and maybe Pysyk. Not only has he not found good players, he has only found 1 decent and maybe 1 other passable player. Here again is his list of acquisitions who have played for us in the NHL. Hall, Staal, Eakin, Bjork, Caggiula, Anderson, Dell, Subban, Tokarski, Reider, Sheahan, Tuch, Hagg, Hayden, Butcher, Irwin, Davidson, Hinostroza, Pysyk, Fogarty, Jankowski, and Wolanin. The sad part of this mess is that he promised not to block prospects with his acquisitions. Somehow Murray, Samuelsson and R2 have spent time in Rochester because of this acquisitions of guys like Caggiula, Hayden and Butcher. Had he just let the kids play instead of the vets, we'd probably have a better team.

What results did that yield? Caggiula returned and he signed Jankowski and Hayden upfront. He brought in Anderson and Dell for goaltending and added Hagg and Butcher on the defense. Which of these have made a positive impact this season? The best signings were Hinostroza and Pysyk and both have been ok, but not exactly guys one really hopes return next season. Did Karmanos and company help on the trades of Risto, Reinhart and Eichel? Hopefully, but we have yet to see anything of impact from those deals so far at the NHL level. The truth is his talent evaluation at the NHL level is crap so far.

Yep

Fire Leslie Frasier. Put in a 3rd LB already. Try to stop the run. Haven’t you learned anything?

The fans and this board certainly wanted him re-signed at any price.

Scratch Bish off the list. Great goalie. I’m sorry his career has come to an end. https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/nhl-dallas-stars-ben-bishop-career-ending-injury-1.6282802

So congrats you tied the game, but to bad. So the NHL video review room doesn't know it's own standards. Great.

He's sick of the organization and has demanded a trade.

I honestly give Jbot and KA the credit for drafting whomever they draft. I don’t discount them because they won the lottery. We have seen GMs make terrible picks even at or near the top of the draft and those mistakes can set a franchise back years. See the Nylander pick for example.

Makes one wonder if it is time to start rotating these guys in the NHL here and there to see what they can do. Honestly, I'd bring up Samuelsson right now and waive Butcher. I'd also move on from Hayden and give that job permanently to Murray.

GM's also. That's all on the Pegula's. One wonders if they had just left Regier and Ruff in place and put the same resources behind them, would we have been much better off. Admittedly Regier's drafting had been awful in his last 10 years, but was that Regier or that he had no money for real scouting under Golisano and Quinn?

If Housley and RK were terrible coaches? They were with RK being the worse of the two.

Your statement seems to ignore the $8 mill KA spent on Hall and the 2 years 4.5 mill he wasted on Eakin. Jbot also brought in a bunch of JAGs at similar prices his first year like Pouliot, Wilson, Josefson, and Nolan. He also brought in effective players like Scandella and Pominville. KA is paying Vinnie and Pysyk more then 750K. I also wrote in the off-season that Vinnie should be one of our targets this past off-season. As to Miller and Sheary. I didn't like the Miller deal at all. I wrote then that he was "Baloo 2" I wrote that he was defensively challenged and that the deal only made sense if Jbot was trading Risto. He didn't. I wouldn't have made this deal and it's a primary reason I loath the Butcher trade. He is just a worse LHD version of Miller. I don't see any value in bringing in defensively challenged D on a young team that needs to prevent goals and needs improved in zone D play. As to Sheary, it was a very reasonable gamble. He gave us 34 points in a secondary role in year one and then he got Ralph Kruegered in year 2. The price was a conditional 4th round pick. This acquisition was also in year two of Jbot's tenure to add forward depth to an organization that lacked forward depth from TM. So far Jbot teams have been better then the crap KA has foisted upon us. We had 62 pts year 1, 76 year 2, and 68 in 69 games year 3. So far KA has given us 56 pts in his first 82 games. I fully understand why people think Jbot failed at building a competitive NHL roster. He did. He never replaced ROR and I can't remember how many threads I started imploring him to find a 2C. Sadly the 2C we needed was already on the roster in Reinhart. Despite that fact, his teams actually improved in each of his three years as GM. Not enough to satisfy anyone, but they did improve. However so far KA's NHL roster decisions have been worse. He took a team the earned 1 pt per game, and turned it into the worst team in the NHL despite spending to the cap and getting the hottest UFA that off-season in Hall. That's a hell of a legacy. The best thing anyone can say about his deals is that they aren't long-term deals. Great, but I have zero confidence is his ability to evaluate NHL talent and the teams needs going forward despite having a virtual clean slate to work with. He hasn't even been able to figure out in two seasons that an NHL team actually needs goaltending or that you don't add defensively challenged D to a team that is already defensively challenged. The truth is that the best thing to say about Jbot is that he drafted well and KA looks to have done the same. I wonder if your going to give KA the same credit (or lack thereof) for drafting Power that you do for Jbot's drafting of Dahlin. Can we call Power KA's "blind man pick?"

KA has done alot and nearly all of it terrible at the NHL level. Like Jbot, his drafting is his saving grace so far, but not one of his draftees has yet to suit up for the Sabres.

Actually RK only coached 50% of the last season. KA brought in Hall, Eakin, Staal and Rieder to help enhance the returning roster. Those decisions are on KA. He failed to improve the goaltending or the defense and that is also on KA. RK is the worst NHL coach I have ever seen and that includes Ron Rolston, but KA is the GM and the enhanced roster he created was awful. Sorry he doesn't get a pass just because RK was the coach. Also the Sabres weren't that much worse in the first 25 games last season at 6-15-4 despite being on a 0-7-2 losing streak at that time. The Sabres are 1-8-1 in their last 10 and are currently on a 5 game losing streak.

In 81 games as GM KA's Sabres are 23-48-10 for 56 pts.

Dylan Cozens? Bryson? UPL? Aren't they Jbot's players on the roster as well? Aren't key prospects R2, Portillo, Samuelsson, Johnson, and Laaksonen Jbot's as well? We can make the same conclusions about KA already. 39 players played for the Sabres in KA's first year. Of the 10 players he brought in, only 4 remain (Tokarki, Bjork, Caggiula and Eakin), two of which were late season acquisitions, and none will be here beyond this season. 17 returnees from last year's Sabres have skated for the team this season and 19 are out of the organization completely. Of these 17 returnees, KA will likely move on from many of them this year at the deadline or in the off-season. Of the 11 guys he brought in for this season, 2 are already gone and nearly all the rest will be gone by year's end. I doubt any of Butcher, Hagg, Hayden, Subban, Dell, Anderson, or Jankowski remain here beyond this season. I think only Hinostroza and Pysyk have a chance to remain and that is tenuous at best. So far not a single KA acquisition has made a lasting positive impact on the team. Many of them have contributed nothing and many more have been downright awful such as Staal, Hall, Hayden, Dell, Subban, Eakin, Bjork, and Butcher. Hopefully Tuch comes back healthy and makes a positive difference. You may not like it, but the core of this team going forward is going to be Jbot's prospects and young acquisitions. Thompson, Cozens, Samuelsson, Joki, Mitts, Johnson, Dahlin, and Bryson all look like core pieces and possibly Laaksonen, UPL and Portillo as well. I don't disagree that Jbot's roster building wasn't great, but his legacy on this team will be here for years to come.

No , that isn’t correct. KA could have extended Ullmark the season before (KA 1st off-season) and that is what Thorny and I were discussing. People seem to forget that this last off-season was KA’s second in charge. Both Ullmark and Reinhart were given 1 year deals that first off-season. Ullmark was coming off a very credible 2.69 w a .915 and KA decided that wasn’t worth a long-term deal. Had he given him a reasonable 3 or 4 year deal then, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in now. Had he also signed Reinhart to a multi-year extension, he might have received an even better trade this past off-season or had his No.1 center. Again, penny wise and pound foolish.