GASabresIUFAN

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.

We went from a max cap team to a minimum cap team in one off-season and now have the lowest payroll in the NHL. We traded away every high priced player that had any market value. We then failed to sign Ullmark (He signed at around 5pm with) and then at 5:30 pm that day he acquired Butcher for 2.8 and a 5th, signed Anderson (9:30 pm) and then Dell the following day the total of those contracts getting us to the floor. Even @LGR4GM agrees that Butcher was acquired just to get us to the cap floor. Of course, by the time Ullmark walked nearly every other goalie with decent talent had already been signed or acquired by trade. In fact, Comrie, Andersen, Halak, Elliott, Bernier, Holtby, Brossoit, Grubauer, Jones, and Rittich all signed FA deals while KA attempted to re-sign Ullmark. Also goaltenders like Hill (acquired for a prospect and a 2nd) , Kruemper, MAF (acquired for a prospect), Nedjelkovic (for a 3rd), Vanacek (for a 2nd), and Spenser Martin ( Future Considerations) all changed teams as well. Hill, Nedjelkovic and Vanecek went for very reasonable prices and wouldn't have hurt our rebuild at all. Jack was later traded and we acquired Boychuk's contract to get back to the floor. While Anderson may still have been signed, I'm pretty confident Butcher and Dell would not have been acquired had Ullmark stayed. Management knew this would be a losing season on the ice and at the box office and did almost everything possible to minimize cost this. Of course there is any internal cap this season. The real question is will there be one next season as well.

He also could have re-signed Ullmark then as well and chose not to.

Let me see if I can explain the Butcher thing. 1) He is a terrible player. Good offensive skills, but a complete train wreck in his own zone and should have never been acquired. With Hagg, Dahlin and Bryson already here and Samuelsson waiting he was a completely unnecessary acquisition at LHD. If KA wanted additional depth at LHD to keep Samuelsson in Rochester, cheaper and better defensive players were and are available. 2) The team has an internal cap of 60-65 mill this season. That means that ever $ under the cap needs to be allocated smartly. Placing 5% of that cap in who amounts to your 4th LHD again makes no sense. 3) With Ullmark bolting, this money should have been allocated to a goalie instead of a worthless D. It's a similar decision to signing Hall last year. Yes he was a splash signing, but a position of strength last year (LW). His huge cap hit left no money to upgrade the goaltending. In both season getting help in goal was a higher priority then adding another LW or another LHD this season. Yes it got us to the cap, but as we saw with the Boychuk move, that was easily possible another way. It's no surprise that KA's best decisions have all come since Karmanos joined the organization, but ultimately KA still has the general manager title and his handling of the goaltending that last two seasons is mindbogglingly horrible. This current losing streak is not on DG or the players. It solely rest on KA and his decision in goal.

@brawndo. What a bunch of excuses for incompetence. Of course a rebuilding team can pay a 2nd for a 2 year goalie. That acquired goalie is also an asset and can be traded later. Wash paid a 2nd for 25 year old goalie in Vanacek. Det paid a 3rd for Nedjelkovic. Good deals were available and KA ignored them time and again to stick with Hutton and later his “plan”. Those two goalies could have stabilized the position and given us the goalie of the future and not just a 2 year bridge. Other trades were likely available. I’m sorry but paying 2.8 mill for flawed player to acquire a 5th round pick is just plain stupid, especially for a team on a budget and with a boat full of D prospects and greater needs like goaltending or D first defensemen. He was never going to get another pick for Butcher because he can’t play defense at all. He makes Miller look competent. Goaltending was this teams top priority the past two off-seasons and our incompetent GM couldn’t see past our injury riddled but good goalie in Ullmark. At best KA had to get a good backup for Ullmark’s inevitable injury. He also should have realized that Ullmark was going to explore other options especially when the Sabres were about to go through another rebuild. Every other veteran wanted off the sinking ship why would Ullmark want to stay if he had a choice? KA should have had a plan B and didn’t and that is the bottomline. He alone is responsible for the goaltending issues for the last two years. He honestly should be fired for that failure alone. No one thinks that Karmanos or the other hires weren’t good. The truth is they should be in charge, not KA. He literally needs to be removed from the NHL roster decision making for the good of the franchise.

So how do you solve the attendance problem? Winning or at the very least putting a product on the ice that has a chance of winning each night. We can do that right now with some real goaltending.

….. For love in all the wrong places.

Here is one of my biggest frustrations with the lack of goaltending. Hockey is hard and all players, especially young ones, make mistakes. Without decent goaltending those mistakes end up in your own net. This harms the development of the young players. They end up playings scared and that leads to more mistakes and ultimately a loss of confidence. We are seeing that right now across the lineup, especially on guys like Dahlin, who carries so much expectations. He is afraid to make a mistake instead of allowing his talent to show through.

Yes. He said as much when he discussed the signings of Anderson and Dell. If he truly believed it is a problem he’d have found better solutions then keeping Hutton, signing Dell and Anderson and acquiring Subban. Subban was only acquired to replace injured or ill players, not to upgrade the position.

It was a tank from the onset.

That's the problem. All this was foreseeable. I wrote about it in the off-season as did so many others. If we could see it as fans on a message board, then why couldn't Sabres management? If they did see it, why did they do it anyway unless it was to tank the franchise again. If the plan was to tank, then their stated goal to build a new culture was BS.

Doesn't have a choice. Anderson, Tokarski and Subban are sick or hurt and Dell is just awful. Why hasn't Dell been waived already?

Honestly, it's based on what happened in Carolina while trying to rebuild without adequate goaltending. He has seen that problem first hand and I hope wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

What has UPL done to make the above stated plan a reasonable one? Nothing. UPL was 36th in save % last season in the AHL and he's 40th this season. You say that plan was not to invest significantly in the position on the faint hope UPL proves ready sooner then later. The funny thing is that they are wasting decent money already on the position with nearly zero return. Subban, Anderson and Dell alone are costing 2.35 million. Add the foolish contract to Butcher (2.8) and we could have invested $5 mill in real goaltending and not spent a single $ more then we are currently spending with likely better results in goal and on defense. So you say now that the plan is to keep putting band-aids on the problem until UPL finally proves ready. In essence continue to waste more money on bad goaltending. How does this make any sense? So what do they do when UPL gets shelled again in his next callup?

No one said retain Ullmark at all costs. Keeping Ullmark was about keeping adequate goaltending as the kids developed. Others could have done that just as well and that is the point. It was the right move for KA to try to keep him and he was right to bolt. KA should have known that was a likely (even probable) outcome and had an adequate substitute when Ullmark bolted. He didn't and that is why we are here. Tanking is a very different plan then keeping Ullmark. Try to spin it any way you want, but as I illustrated above the difference between adequate goaltending for this team and not is night and day. It's not the defense, it's the goaltending and the stats clearly bare that out. Putting decent goalies in and this team wins, putting Tokarski, Dell, JJ, Hutton and Subban in and you are tanking the team's chances for success. Also relying on a 40 year old goalie to anchor the team was simply stupid as I also illustrated above. Only 3 have ever played 50% of a season and only one, the greatest goaltender of all time in Hasek, did it well.