GASabresIUFAN

I said in the off-season we needed two good veteran stay at home D to pair with our offensive D. Instead we got Butcher, Pysyk and Hagg. Hagg and Pysyk are ok in that role but DG has them playing together and the rest of the D is getting destroyed of late. Dahlin needs a defensive first partner. Why is this so hard for our management to figure this out.

Anderson is hurt

We all happy about the Tokarski/Dell goalie tandem?

DG is partially to blame for some of the struggles of late. We have two D who are generally stay at home players. DG has them playing together instead of giving a couple of our more offensive D a supportive partner. Also he has buried R2 with two terrible hockey players in Hayden and Bjork. With Mitts and VO out, R2 needs to be playing higher in the lineup and with more talented players. Cozens needs to be moved to wing with R2 as his center. It's time for KA also to be more proactive. He needs to buy Jankowski's contract and bring him up if Mitts is out long-term. Once Samuelsson is healthy he needs to be in Buffalo. I might try Asplund Thompson Hinostroza Skinner R2 Cozens Girgensons Jankowski KO Bjork Eakin Caggiula Admittedly it's not great, but it's workable.

By the way we have seen this script before in 2015. Hopefully we have learned our lesson. Hopefully. This time however we at least have some better prospects in the system.

Krebs is a playmaker. Look at his Junior stats it’s almost 2-1 assists to goals. He maybe the purest playmaker in our system. He is a high-end playmaker with great vision and the ability to execute any number of tricky passes that can catch defenses, McKeen's Hockey 2019 I haven’t seen him enough to know if he is soft or not.

Honestly Asplund and Thompson are earning bigger roles.

Most embarrassing loss in the McBeane era.

Honestly, DG's usage of R2 is as bad so far as RK's use of Skinner. Move him to wing and play him with other decently skilled players. Otherwise you are wasting his talents. Thompson looks great really. I've always like Bryson and now you are seeing why I didn't understand the acquisition of Butcher. What is Butcher giving us that Bryson is giving but better? Asplund matured last year and is our best forward so far. Cozens needs to be sent down and Jankowski recalled. Dahlin needs a real defensive D partner.

So Chicago’s reward for the sex sandal will be Shane Wright. That makes sense.

You mean the Mike Foligno hole.

Look who he has been paired with. He is an excellent talent but he can’t do it alone. He needs a capable D partner and until Jokiharju returns he won’t have one.

But the trade changed nothing. Tuch is injured and Krebs will be in Rochester. Lines are the same until Mitts returns.

We need to make quicker decisions w the puck.

Please excuse me, but this whole season has been post Eichel.

Why is R2 playing with meatheads like Caggiula and Hayden.

Have we seen enough from Caggiula, Bjork, Hinostorza and Hayden?

Who would want any of our JAGs?

Worst period of hockey since DG took over. Terrible.

I care because it’s part of running an organization intelligently. One of the reasons we have so often failed is that we spent money stupidly. Getting a 6 mill cap hit for only 500k (insurance covering the rest) is good business and shows a competent approach to running the franchise. I have been very vocal on how poorly KA has done, but honestly his decisions of late with the help of his new management team have been vastly improved and this is just the latest example. I was also impressed with how he discussed how he utilized his team to help execute the Jack trade.

I dug further into thus deal. This is actual a steal for the Sabres $ wise. We get a $6 mil cap hit for only $1.25 mill in real $. This explains why we didn’t get a pick for taking on the contract assuming the NYI already paid his 2.75 signing bonus. I was annoyed earlier when I thought we were paying $6 mill in real $ to take on this contract.

Regardless we still don’t need the contract

Why? The team is at 61.5 according to capfriendly without the ghost of Boychuk. It better be a decent draft pick.

Now he can go gamble with his buddy Evander Kane.

The Sabres traded Jack (and a 3rd in 2023) for Tuch (18th overall 2014) who is an established middle 6 forward, Krebs (17th overall in 2019), a 1st in 2022 (top 10 protected) and a 2nd in 2023. We also saved $25.25 mill in $ and cap over this year and the next 4. (Jack’s 10 - Tuch’s 4.75) The Sabres trade ROR for Thompson (26th overall in 2016), 1st in 2019 (Johnson 31st overall), a 2nd in 2021 (traded to LV for Colin Miller) plus two depth forward (Berglund and Sobatka). The $ were $40 mill (5 years @ 8mill) to St Louis with Buffalo taking back $22.4 in 7 for Sobatka (2 yrs @ 3.5) and 15.4 for Berglund (4 yrs @ 3.85). Fortunately for Buffalo Berglund went awol and we voided his contract saving most of the $15.4. The Sabres acquired ROR and McGinn for Grigorenko (12th in 2012), Zadorov (16th in 2013), Compher (38th in 2013) and the 31st overall in 2015 (Roy) Honestly this deal looks very similar to what we gave up to get ROR, except Tuch is better then Grigorenko and Krebs is a better prospects then Zadorov was at that time. The 1st in 2022 should be of similar quality to Compher and hopefully better.