[The ROR trade sucked thread]

On 5/22/2019 at 9:35 AM, Formerly Allan in MD said:

It wasn't a trade; it was a giveaway.  Botterill has to go quite some distance to compensate for this travesty.

It was a horrible trade of epic proportions. I said so at the time. It wasn't that I disagreed with trading him, but the return was pathetic. The Blues unloaded two overpaid mediocre veterans who were proven to be inadequate in St. Louis and a mediocre prospect who had little future there. The Sabres needed to get a premium young prospect or two (at a minimum) along with some premium picks and they didn't. Congrats to Botterill for helping to build a winner.... in St. Louis!!!

 

What makes a champion is winning these type of trades and so far Botterill has failed miserably. Congrats to ROR for winning the Conn Smythe. 

Watching ex-Sabres doing well around the league makes me ill. Management wins championships by building a worthy team and hiring top coaches. The Sabres have failed. Hopefully, in the future this will change.

 

[Per Botterill: Sabres have relieved Phil Housley of his Coaching Duties]

On the bright side, a really good coach can turn around a team in a short time. Look at Trotz and the Islanders as an example. Botterill can still redeem himself with a good hire. He should be feeling the heat for some really bad deals though. His record is poor to this point, but he has one last chance to save himself with a good head coach, smart free agent moves, and a very good draft. There are a lot of ex-Sabres doing well around the league with smart coaching.

[Recent Pegula press conf 3/26]

1 hour ago, ddaryl said:

There is no case left to keep Phil

 

The team has quit on him and he hasn't made many, if any, smart coaching decisions. This team is clearly better than their record IMO so Phil must go

I never saw a compelling case to hire Phil in the first place. The evidence suggests that he is not producing results. Objectively, every team could use more talent, but this coach doesn't seem to be very close to maximizing the talent available. I think the excuses being used to keep this coach are very weak. The record suggests that he is not up to the job.

[Grading the Pegulas thus far]

They kept both teams in Buffalo. I give them big credit for that reality. However, they have failed miserably running the teams. Look at the cumulative performance of both teams since they took over. Piss poor!