PerreaultForever

I remember way back when they were bought by the Knox's around 1980 if I remember correctly they were certainly committed to making them a winner and they were generally a very good team in the 1980s. Of course the Sabres were a better team as well so that sort of thing always goes hand in hand. I think the idea is right though. You have to teach team first and hard work ethic and winning culture and all that stuff at every stage so you can't neglect the farm. Right now I think the cupboard WAS so bare Rochester became a "least of our concerns" kind of thing and it'll only improve as the Sabres improve and they have young perhaps NHL ready players who simply have no roster spot (yet) so they will stay down there longer. When you have that both teams should be winning. When we get to that point, I think the GM needs to make sure he has added that smattering of depth veterans to fill out that Rochester roster so that they are really competitive. So ya, let's bring back the '80s, only this time no mullets 🙂

I read Bjorkstrand had another of those 10 team no trade contracts. I suspect these are what's holding up any number of these type of moves and probably limiting Adams ability to make a similar move. Buffalo, along with most of the other crap teams with cap room, are probably all on no trade lists.

Exactly what I've been saying they can and should do. This is a great pick up for Seattle. There are still some other teams with cap troubles. Hopefully he's talking to at least some of them and we do something similar.

Florida's now over too. Probably try to dump Hornqvist?

This is very true, and will be one of the big problems on a team filled with young players maturing at or around the same time. They won't be able to work with entry level and bridge deals forever. It's a good dilemma though. If we have too many players that need to be paid, it might also mean that the team is finally pretty good.

That could be true. He's probably looking for term/security too and I imagine most teams look at him and think one good year on a Crosby team doesn't warrant term. He will likely get lost in the shuffle and have to settle for a lot less.

I suspect they will try to unload Zucker. Nobody seems to want E-Rod.

It seems to me that people are so starved for any shining light they're willing to back the brinks truck up to anybody who shows them any glimmer at all. Thompson, a year ago almost everybody proclaiming him a bust and repeating over and over how JBot got fleeced in the ROR trade. Now, after ONE good season pay him like a top flight NHL star. Just ridiculous. He has to prove it. I read above wanting to pay Cozens like Cirelli as a comparable. How has he done anything remotely close to what Cirelli has done??? Somebody already wanted to start dumping money at Power when he hasn't even played a season. You're all looking to get Skinner'd.

Nobody.

Unless it's somebody like Anaheim (or Buffalo) this might be the understatement of the year. There aren't any good teams with anywhere near the cap space they'd need. If I was KA I'd also be calling Boston. Try to get Carlo off of them so they can have Pasternak signing room. Or, if they want to throw us some nice sweeteners take one of their underperforming players like Craig Smith for a year. They have a bunch of players who will be UFAs in another year.

Remember what a depleted and non existent D core he inherited though? Sure, he went crazy and just tried to find as many bodies as he could hoping one or two would stick but Murray basically left us with no D at all. We have 2 first overall D picks now. In a few years D might actually be a strength. Go figure.

Banff, yes, absolutely. been there many times. The entire park area that runs along the border of the two provinces is spectacular. Calgary has grown but it's mostly all suburban sprawl. There's really very little to do there, especially in the winter. I think I know the pedestrian area you're talking about and it's pretty much the only one. maybe I'm too hard on it, but it's just nothing close to what Vancouver is. Thinking of his brother, Ottawa's a much nicer city too. If you had to rank Canadian cities with hockey teams for desirable living it would be 1. Vancouver, 2. Toronto, 3. Montreal, 4. Ottawa 5. Calgary 6. Edmonton 7. Winnipeg. Unless you were French, then you might want Montreal first and Ottawa second. Toronto arguably has more culture and activities/events than Vancouver, but the climate, scenery and proximity to the mountains and such puts Vancouver on top imo.

You are right about the first one. Every Canadian city has more media scrutiny than U.S. cities (outside of maybe the big old markets like NY and Boston) and definite fan pressure to deliver. The bar is generally set quite high in comparison to most U.S. cities. Well I live in BC so by your phrasing I guess that is "heaven on earth" . I worked in Alberta when I was young. Hated it. Still find Calgary a very boring city. Big sprawling suburbs but really nothing interesting there unless you enjoy a mediocre zoo. Cold as hell in the winter. Just dismal trapped in ice and snow with nothing to do (so they watch hockey). Cow town too. Sort of like Texas North which isn't for me, might be for some people. Yes, the Rockies are close, but a guy like MT can vacation in Banff any time he wants from anywhere so I doubt he'd be all in on the 1-2 hour busy highway pilgrimage average Calgarians have to trek on weekends. idk, it could be as simple as he sees the team falling without Johnny Hockey to play with him so he figures now's as good a time as any to exit and grab a payday.

They're Americans and likely want to play in U.S. cities. Calgary, imo, kinda sucks as a place to live. That might be all there is to it, nothing more. So they don't really hate Calgary, they would just rather be somewhere else and they have the power to do it so why not? It's how the CBA works now.

It would truly be great if it was in fact Comrie, but I doubt it. I'd like it to be Cozens, but it might take another year on top of this one for the real "breakout". Dahlin might be even better, but incrementally, not really a breakout. Tuch is already what Tuch is, and that's good enough. So let's be hopeful and say Mitts. It would certainly elevate us higher than I expect.

I think he definitely is worth it. He makes players around him better and makes the team better. Opens up space, draws attention, gets the dirty work done. Yes, he most definitely is at his best combined with a playmaker, and that's exactly what he and whatever team he goes to needs. #3. Is possible but I doubt it. No more certain than it was that Johnny Goudreau would end up in Philly. Actually, it's possible MT ends up in Columbus too.

The bolded parts are things I'm not in full agreement on. Everyone is JJ and Quinn, JJ and Quinn, they're just going to slot them in there and watch them compete for the Calder. Neither imo is proven NHL ready. As for Girgs and KO, I get the sentimentality, but imo neither is here a year from now. Or if they are they're basically irrelevant and we will still be crap. I'm not "giving up" on Mitts and Krebs but neither has shown me they are solid NHL players either. I think they all need to brought in slowly, working their way up, possibly up and down from Rochester, and not just thrown to the wolves in a sink or swim way. They all need time and development like Thompson did and so in the interim you need to balance the roster with solid veteran players. I can't go through every possible move, there were far too many options, either free agents like Burakovsky (just an example which someone can dump on and show some stat how he's not good at whatever and so on, so emphasis on just an example) or taking JVR for a year for that Philly 2024 pick rather than demanding their 2023 (another example) or trading for Talbot or another good goalie, or any other number of possibles as we have a ton of cap room. You know really, I just want to start winning NOW. I'm so sick and tired of waiting on this team and being disappointed. I am well aware Rick is retired, but I just want to feel the way I felt at these moments again and I want it now not years from now. Just watch and remember, I have nothing more to add to this thread.

Tage breaks out at the age of 23. Dylan is 21. Just saying. I still believe Cozens would make a better winger rather than center so maybe Granato needs to reverse the Thompson move here and put Dylan on the wing. But we shall see. I still think he will be better, just a question of is it this year or next.

lol, I'm not going to get worked up over it but I also have nothing more to add. We shall see. I will be quite happy to be wrong.

You know the funny thing about that is most people say "the majority of people are idiots" and so if they are idiots saying everyone's an idiot does that mean actually everybody's smart? 🙂 Sports are escapism and entertainment, bouncyball included. None of it is important, hockey's just not as popular (outside of Canada where it rules).

Yes, the daughters in Ottawa (I think they are the owners if I heard right) are definitely willing to spend money again and they want to win now. They feel many of the kids (like Sanderson) are ready and their additions were timed for that. To the end of the season or last 1/3 I don't disagree that we were better, but it was a low bar. I called it the Tuch factor last year and I still truly believe he helped change the locker room and the on ice performance. That top line certainly came together from an offensive point of view. What makes me skeptical about it though was the 5-0 losses to Boston and Tampa where both teams schooled us and made us look like children. Those teams wanted points at that time and had their way with us easily. Made me see some gaping holes in our game, holes that haven't been filled. We shall see. Boston's a bit of a mess and will have a depleted roster for the first half of the season at least. Toronto's goaltending is suspect. Pittsburgh and Washington are even older and nearing too old. Moving up is possible, and I think that's part of why those teams made big moves. I wish we'd done the same. Everything is on the kids improving a lot. I'm just not sure that's a realistic hope.

You might think I get "irritated" with those ideas but what I find even more annoying is Sabres apologists who make me think they might even be organizational plants. or maybe you are new to the team as a fan? Any fan who has been here for decades is simply tired of waiting for "next year" or at least they should be. There is something to be said for an overall draft and build slowly philosophy, but that doesn't mean it has to be the only thing you do and moments can be seized and you can plug holes and balance your cap spending (veteran contracts that expire when young player contracts potentially need to be given out). You can move forward faster. You should keep in mind, if you have been around here for a few years that I was one of the first people here to say trade the big 3, tear it down and start over. I received scorn, derision and ridicule for saying the very things KA is being applauded for having done, I was just a man ahead of my time. I feel good now knowing I was right, even if I got the negativity and not the praise. KA can have the praise, I just want a winning team. To your point about drafting, we simply don't know that yet. It MIGHT be better, but we won't know until a few years from now. If Tage is our leading scorer, Cozens is our team captain and UPL is our starting goalie suddenly JBot doesn't look like a moron after all does he? KA's drafting can't be assessed yet. get back to me in 2 years for a real evaluation. I simply feel opportunities to move incrementally forward are being passed up. We can use the cap space. We could have signed key pieces. Brought in a proven goalie. Things could and still can be done so that we do not have to wait as long. I'm just fed up with wait for "next year"

Biggest change, if I remember correctly, was they started to use the stretch pass in the same way Toronto does. Not to perfection yet, but improved. The D moves the puck well and they did make good passes through center ice, the biggest missing aspect imo was a failure to use the drop pass after entering the offensive zone. Too many times tried to take it behind the net or force the play forward rather than carrying it in and dropping it back to a D man moving up behind. maybe a confidence thing for young players as you screw up that play and you're giving it to them for a quick counter. Considering we now have several offensively capable D men it's play that needs to be developed and used more.

What you say about Lalonde is possible, but by all accounts he's a pretty good coach so Yzerman probably knew what he was doing there. Point taken though, it's an uncertainty. I'm still not convinced Granato can get this team to play defense. They can definitely score more, but can they learn to stop the other teams from scoring? It's not ALL on the goalies so that's an uncertainty too imo. Ottawa will likely play DeBrincat with Giroux so two vets, I'm sure they will figure each other out pretty quickly. With goalies it's always hard to say. The bolded sentence may in fact be true.

I pretty much went into it with the 3 teams being equal. I mean we finished 2 points apart. So that's the season ending rosters. The argument hinges on how much you believe in our kids being ready right now and in whether or not you think the end of season wins were a real representation of where we are. So the Sabres are better IF the kids leap forward, Ottawa is better if the players they picked up play like they've played in the past. The latter seems the safer bet.