GASabresIUFAN

I hate to say this but the lower the cap stays the harder it will be for many teams to hold on to players giving us a better opportunity to utilize our cap space to steal a needed player or 3.

Back in the day Lydman was acquired for a 4th. I think you can get a quality player for a 2nd. Zadorov went for a 3rd this summer. Nate Schmidt also went for a 3rd. Brendan Dillon went for 2 2nds. I do that deal right now. Jake Bean went for a 2nd. Bottom line is that help is available without breaking the bank draft pick wise.

I'd take Klingberg or Josh Manson. I also give Justin Braun a 1 year deal. That said, I think the more likely route is taking someone with a year or two left on their deal who a team may part with to stay cap compliant. For example someone like Orlov or even Scandella. I want the veteran leadership on the backend to mentor Dahlin, Samuelsson and Power but who can still play hockey. Admittedly these are deals are more likely this coming off-season, but there maybe one possible at the deadline.

While I agree that TM over did it in the trade department, I do believe that we are at the point where we need some help to fix holes that our prospects group isn't providing. As to enhancing the team at the deadline, I also agree that it's difficult, but not impossible. One of the hallmarks of the Crosby era in Pittsburgh is that they had a multi season approach to the trade deadline. Two examples (but there are others), Chris Kunitz was a deadline acquisition in 2009 and then played the next 8 years for the Pens and Erod went there at the deadline in 2020 and has now been a fixture in their lineup for the last 2 seasons. The RHD will be hard to come by at the deadline, but there are teams who will need cap space to make deals at the deadline and who knows what might shake loose.

I don't disagree on the 1st rd picks, but I disagree on the 2nds. It depends on what is being offered. If I can get a Toni Lydman type player who is 25 to 27, I trade a 2nd for him in a heartbeat. (DR gave a 4th for Lydman who was 27 when acquired). To me a 2nd in 2023 is a player who has a 25% chance of being an NHLer in 2-5 years from being drafted. I rather have a player then can help now. Also we are going to need 15-17 million in contracts just to get to the floor next season. Even if we sign VO for $5 mill, we'll still need 10-12. KA has to get to something for that money (not a Butcher :)). As I been saying for a year, get a goalie and one or two good stay at home D to get us to the floor. If KA weaponizes the cap space to go beyond the floor I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Tons of extra draft picks and tons of cap space. If your right, KA should have at a minimum be able to utilize the cap space to enhance the team. Since about 75% of the players lack any form of NMC/NTC, there has to be someone KA could acquire to enhance the D at the deadline or next off-season.

Boychuk was acquired when we fell under the cap floor once Eichel was traded to get us back to the floor. Again, KA has another opportunity to add talent to the roster and choose the one move that add cap $ but at a bargain real $ price (500k). To me this is more evidence of the mandate. I guess I just don't believe anything coming out of a GM's mouth. They are the politicians of the sports world. KA talks about only getting players that want to be here. Sounds great as a soundbite but is ultimately BS. UFAs go two places, places they have a chance to win or where they can get the biggest $ (or the only places willing to give them more NHL time). Until we field a good team, no big name UFA is coming here and that doesn't work anyway. The same applies to players with NMC/NTCs. (Although only 24% of NHL players have NTC/NMCs and of those 90% are limited in some fashion) We have trade capital and KA hasn't used it. My argument has always been that he should be using some of that capital to enhance the goaltending and enhance the defensive skill of the D group. @Weave - Butcher was traded here, he didn't have a choice. When he was a UDFA out of college, he refused to sign here just like Vesey. One other note. PLF should have never been hired and should have never been empowered to choose the first GM. He was about as qualified to be a team President as KA was to be a GM.

I think where you and others miss the point about wasting limited cap $ is that I believe that KA is under pretty strict purse strings this season. TP/KP have IMHO told him he can't spend much if any over the cap floor. His moves this past off-season have reflected that. My point about Butcher is that he is a terrible player who should have never been acquired at any price and it's even worse when you are operating as a cap floor team and you waste 2.8 mill on Butcher. I believe that he could have spent that money else where and received more bang for his buck. Frankly, I don't know why this is so hard to understand. When you look at the cap hits for Boychuk and Butcher, you are looking at 9 million (or 15%) of the mandated cap floor. To me that's 9 million that could have gone to real hockey players that could have made this team better. The only way this move and others are understandable is if KA was tanking. The argument that Butcher was just to get us to the cap floor but that we aren't tanking doesn't makes no sense to me. You don't bring in bad players and expect positive results. Freeman, where you and I agree is that tanking is never the right strategy and could have been avoided this season even as a cap floor team. PS: as to @LGR4GM fixation on UFAs; there are other ways to acquire talent. How about trade for someone?

No. Not the right kind of talent. We don't have any gifted forward playmakers on the current roster. Maybe Krebs will ultimate be such a player on the PP, but he isn't there yet. Mitts is our best option right now and he is injured.

This fantasy view of KA's tenure so far is really amazing. Giving him a free pass for year 1 is simply wrong. He signed Hall, gave him $8 mill and a NTC thereby destroying his trade value when the plan failed and using up our cap space to help in other areas. He signed Eakin for 2 years. He acquired Staal. He failed to replace Hutton. He failed to extend Ullmark (and McCabe for that matter). He doesn't get a free pass for these mistakes. They are on him. Again, whether you call it a development year or a tank, the result is the same. KA built a team to lose. To me that's a tank. If it makes you feel better call it something else call it something else. The results are the same. How many seasons now have Dahlin, Mitts, Thompson, Asplund, and Jokiharju seen without a commitment to building a winning team. How many seasons are they witnessing where the top end players are sent packing and are they replaced with dumpster fires Eakin, Hayden, Caggilua, Bjork, Butcher, Rieder, and Sheahan? The sad part of all this is that we could have had a reasonable team for similar cap $. We have spent nearly $4.5 on our parade of terrible goaltending. We are spending 2.8 on Butcher and another 3.8 on Miller. We also added $ 6 mill in cap on Boychuk's deal. That's 17 mill in wasted cap that could have been spent on quality veteran players and still kept us as or near the cap floor. For example: Had we simply retained McCabe ($4) and Ullmark ($5) traded Miller for whatever but still signed say Anderson and Pysyk, we'd have a much much better team. Obviously McCabe and Ullmark wanted out, but I wonder if KA had offered to extended them mid-season last year whether one or both would have stayed. I guess this is why I want KA fired. No vision. It isn't the team W-L record, because that is a by product of his decisions. It's the fact of his saying he wanted to build a winning culture and then doing the exact opposite. To me building a winning culture doesn't start after one more bottom feeding year, it starts the day you say it. I look at KA's decision making and wonder what he is thinking. He knows the goaltending stinks for 2 years and instead of making it better he makes it worse. He also knows the in zone defense is awful, yet he spends precious cap $ on the worst in zone D in the NHL named Butcher. The only reasonable explanation for those decisions is purposefully building a team to lose. I'm against such strategies and any GM who employ them.

I've never said KA was trying to win this year. I've said 1000 times he's tanking. I said the moment he failed to sign Ullmark he went full on tank. I've said that had he acquired good goaltending and 2 solid veteran stay at home D, we could have had a good season without much more in cost then we are spending now helping the team move toward a winning culture. Instead he tanked and continues to instill a losing culture where management fails to support a team showing effort.

LOL, LMAO. This wasn't a strategy, it was mandatory cost containment issued to him by TP/KP. Nice spin though. Slow cook prospect development strategy has been in place since Jbot was GM. Fitzgerald, UPL, Laaksonen, Murray, Bryson, Asplund, Borgen, even VO, these are all guys Jbot or TM acquired that Jbot allowed to develop slowly in Europe or CHL or in Rochester. It was Jbot who sent UPL to the CHL and then placed him in the ECHL and then Rochester. It was Jbot who signed Murray and placed him Rochester. Nice try. PS Even Mitts and Thompson were sent down to get their games straight and that has made a huge difference. As to the future picks, that is a lottery. We've tried that strategy before and failed. Maybe KA's crew will get it right, maybe. However, he had 2 first and 2 seconds and 3/4 of those picks are struggling post draft. Not a ringing endorsement for his Russia centric analytic approach. He seemed to make better draft decisions in his first draft with the team Jbot had in place when he took Quinn and JJP.

The biggest issue with the forwards is the lack of a dynamic player like a Eichel or Reinhart. Mitts is the closest and he is hurt. Maybe Quinn if allowed to remain in Buffalo. Just watch the team in overtime. They don't possess the puck and the few time they do they don't create. Maybe tanking for Wright is the right decision if it works out.

He has strengthened the front office but with Zero results so far. As you pointed out our top picks outside Power are struggling from last years draft. His two teams are a disaster. He has completely failed to improve the goaltending. His D group as you also pointed out is also terrible. Yes he did pretty well dumping the old core. Now what? More picks and prospects at the deadline? Yippee! At least the kids will come and play. My real hope is that we see some hockey trades at the deadline if possible. Use our cap space if possible to get the veteran D we need at the deadline. Maybe a real goaltender shakes loose. He should view this deadline as a jump start on next season. Do I think KA has the skills to make this happen? No, but there is always hopium. Maybe some other idiot will pay a first for Miller. (I doubt it). Maybe our jacking up Hagg’s PK time will help get him traded for something decent. My greatest hope is KA is promoted before the deadline and Karmanos is placed in charge.

Maybe, but given how many teams have serious cap issues, I think it maybe easier then you think. For example maybe Wash wants to move on from Orlov to save 5.1 cap hit for 22-23? Maybe we can re-acquire Marco Scandella? Maybe Calgary will trade Tanev who is already 32 and has 2 more years at 4.5 mill. Also they don't necessarily have to be Right handed, they could be guys who are comfortable playing on the right side, like Orlov. Don't forget we are going to need to add about 15 mill in cap hits to get to next year's cap floor. PS, I forgot, some UFAs are looking the best money to help give them financial security.

Who said UFA? Lydman was acquired in trade. We have a million draft picks, a ton of forward prospects and $30 mill in cap space next season. Using some combo of these assets to bring in a player or two should be more then feasible.

Why is this a surprise. It's why I have been begging KA to get 2 veteran stay at home D to anchor a very young group since last off-season. Pysyk isn't good enough. Back in the day DR brought in Lydman and Numminen to supplement a young core of Kalinin, Campbell, and Tallinder. The team also had defensive slatwart in McKee. We have none of those type of players right now. As I wrote in your other D thread, only Dahlin (1 pair) and Jokiharju (3rd pair) belong on a good NHL team. We have no idea yet what Power, Samuelsson or Johnson will ultimately bring next season or when they'll reach their potential. Bring in two veteran and capable D will make all the difference in mentoring the kids and shoring up the D zone play. Until that's taken care of the goaltending will continue to suffer and we'll continue to lose the possession battle.

As to the original posts' question; there is a lack of talent on this roster. It's pretty obvious when watching the OT today against Det. I'm not sure we touched the puck.

Just finished watching the replay. Total choke in the last 8 minutes. Krebs isn’t ready for the NHL. Just not physically strong enough and makes some pretty bad decisions with the puck. This team lacks a dynamic forward. I don’t think we even touched the puck in OT. Maybe Mitts is that guy if he gets healthy. Maybe. I thought Samuelsson played a solid game, as did Dell.

The most valuable player we might make available at the deadline is Hinostroza. Cheap contract and adds speed and secondary scoring. I can see us getting a second for him. Pysyk should attract interest if made available. The biggest splash move would be trading Olofsson. We’d get a first for him, but I doubt he’ll get traded at the deadline. I think management wants to see where the extension talks go before they consider trading him this off-sesson. Other then Miller, Pysyk, Hagg, Hinostroza and Olofsson (if made available) I don’t see anyone with much value. I also don’t think Girgensons or KO will be made available. I believe KA and DG likes their leadership in the lockerroom.

If KA gets a first for Miller I’ll take back every bad thing I’ve ever said about him. He’ll be lucky to get a 3rd. The guy is a train wreck in the D zone.

You assume correctly. As to an update, I’ll probably do one soon. The World Jrs getting cancelled didn’t help. I did discuss previously a few guys making surprise impacts like Bloom, Cedarqvist and Constantini. Also I’ve been disappointed that Rosen and the 2 second rd Russians haven’t made a dent in the SHL or KHL.

Are you seeing the beginnings of a winning culture where developing players are rewarded? I’m not. Quinn and Samuelsson remain in Rochester. Eakin, Butcher and Hayden among others remain in the lineup. This roster was designed to fail and it has. We traded away or lost every valuable asset and replaced them with garbage. It’s called a tank. Which young player is new to this lineup this season that didn’t play a substantial role last year? None. Fitz, Quinn, JJP, and Murray have played some, but all have been sent down. Krebs will also be sent down soon. Samuelsson hasn’t even been given an opportunity. Hard to build a winning culture when you spend to the cap floor, fill the roster with JAGs, don’t promote the kids full time who have earned the opportunity and don’t surround the kids with the tools to succeed with like adequate goaltending. KA was also very clear about getting more assets for the organization, and like Jbot and TM before him, the tank is part of that strategy. The Sabres are 28th in win %. 28th in goals against, 28th in goal differential, and 26th in goals for. This is a terrible hockey team, and just like Eichel and Reinhart, this new batch of kids is learning to lose. Hopefully, the first change coming that Peters mentioned is that KA is booted out of the GM chair.

And what was the results of those decisions? They contained costs but created a terrible product, alienated their costumers who are no longer coming to the stadium or spending on the team. The Sabres are an NHL low in attendance at 8600 per game or 45% of capacity. This is a year over year drop of 50%. They averaged over 17000 fans last year. This is a huge drop in revenue in a league still reliant on gate receipts.

Dear Belacheat, Do you remember when your team could make an opponent punt?