Pimlach

Byram has to move all his stuff back to Buffalo.

POHO is a title that comes with more money and more authority. Not all GMs are POHO's.

I agree. I take it you won’t be having Adams over for dinner anytime soon?

No doubt the early days of Adams tenure was under very tight financial constraints. The discussion was focused on the past few seasons and his inability to do enough to improve the 91 point roster.

He is 22 and should not be making $8.35M - that is a problem, especially with the general fan base perception of him. I agree that the Sabres gave him too much to swallow, and too fast - along with Cozens, he is another example of "no blockers" and big contracts that have gone wrong. Expectations heaped on a kid that are beyond reasonable. What is worse is that Power gets no top cover. Now they bring in 25 year old Kesselring (only 152 NHL games) to support 22 year old Power (242 NHL games). I like Kesselring, but I don't see the legitimate execution of a plan from the Sabres FO. Maybe a whole bunch of players will step up, grow up faster, and end this dam drought? It will take that and a goalie to emerge from the group of three.

It bothers me a little bit. Terry needs to inject something new into the organization, especially at the top of hockey operations. Shanny's results as an exec may be mixed, but he is a HoF player and well connected throughout the league. Buffalo is said to be a place players don't want to go to, stated by their own GM. If Shanny is calling the owner to talk about a position then invite him down to the yacht and talk. Maybe he can help? Maybe he knows others that can help? Maybe he can attract help? I am skeptical that this ever even happened.

I was just told this past week by some people close to the Sabres that Adams runs the hockey operations and the "run it by Terry" stuff is pretty much always met with an "ok" and that this practice is not so unusual in todays NHL. The draft picks, the "no blockers", ignoring of the goaltending, the lack of big trades, the poor roster construction - its all Adams, even the cap situation is Adams saving cap space for his prospects/trades. That is what I am hearing right now. The insiders were making it clear that Adams record is on him and if he were better at his job the team would have improved by now. Terry is not stopping the notion of improvement, but he wants to be informed of what is happening, same as he is with the Bills. Adams keeps him in the loop and listens to him, therefore he can fulfill his contract and then we shall see what happens. Terry has McBeane with the Bills, and they are quite good at their job, and keep him informed too. Terry just cannot figure out the NHL. If he really said this to Shanny, and if he closed that door so quickly, it confirms that he is lost in the NHL world.

I would agree with this but Lindy was apparently not a fan of Jokiharju. Probably because he no one on defense that was physical other than Dahlin and Clifton. There is the concept of Samuelsson which is wanning with each year. I see data showing that Kesselring and Timmins were not big hitters, they better bring something to improve the defense.

But Zito might have made better moves to build a team. It’s reasonable to think that Zito would have done better, he is better. Zito would have had a very nice Core with Eichel and Reinhart.

Overall scuffles and even arguments are very rare. Sounds like you have a good routine.

I play golf. I’ve only seen a few tussles and it always seems to be younger guys and it’s happens just like this. I try not to golf on weekends and holidays - that time is for the working men and younger guys. I prefer week days, it’s less crowded and filled with old guys who say things like “it good to be on the right side of the grass” or “everyday is Saturday”. 😂 Some younger guys make golf a ritual - many drink a lot while playing, smoke cigars and sometimes weed, and if they are not serious golfers they tend to be the impatient ones who challenge others.

And that would be me. My wife and brothers ask me all the time why I care about them. It goes back to the AHL Bisons, 1966, the Aud, and a Pepsi with pop corn from the old fashion poppers.

Talking to lots of Sabres fans in Buffalo, young and old. There is almost ZERO excitement for the team and the upcoming season. The players brought in are not moving the needle with Sabres fans, many of which have become only casual fans. Go Bills! is the word.

OK. Just remember that the season the Sabres had 91 points Linus won the Vezina Trophy. (49 games, 40 wins and only 6 losses, 1.89 GAA, 0.938 SV Pct.) The Sabres played with 3 goalies (UPL, Anderson, Comrie) and then played Levi 7 games at the end of the season. Certainly Linus would not have the same numbers playing with Buffalo but it is reasonable to assume the Sabres would have had at least 2 more points with Ullmark in the lineup.

OK and Yes. And in the end the Sabres made the same offer and he left. There really is nothing to disagree with. It happened. Why he left is pretty clear - a low ball offer, and as he said himself he was ready for a change. The offer to Linus was botched, probably because he was thinking that Levi could play immediately. The offer to Muel was botched, the kid played only 57 games or something like that. The offer to Cozens was botched and it put undo pressure on him. The offer to Power was also botched. Tage's offer paid off. Dahlin's was a pretty much a no brainer and set by were he stands among his peers.

You may correct on the timeline, but in the end the Sabres made the same offer, and Ullmark chose the Bruins, and then after the fact he said he needed a change. The order is only significant because we lost him do to very poor work by the GM.

No, not when he was an UFA. Good question @JohnC. Adams acquired Devon Levi and a #1 pick (which became Kulich) for Sam Reinhart, a guy that Boterill did not extend beyond 1 year. Adams traded RFA Reinhart because his plan was to rebuild with players that "want to be here". Adams had his goalie in Devon Levi. It was just four days after the Reinhart trade (Levi Acquisition) that they lost Ullmark in free agency when he went to Boston for the same offer that the Sabres made. There was much turmoil between the Boterill firing and the Adams hiring - Kruger was gone, the Sabres FO and scouting departments were blown up, layoffs impacted long time Sabres rank and file employees, and the Eichel injury and the eventual trade was an on going saga. If Ullmark was going to remain a Sabre then it probably would have been Boterill that extended him, but Bots was gone the year prior. Why do I think that? Because Adams is partial to Levi, the guy he traded Reinhart away for, and Adams thought Levi could jump in and be an NHL goalie. No Blockers were his big thing back then. So during his rebuild Adams let Ullmark go and brought in such goaltending stalwarts as Dustin Tokarski, Aaron Dell, Michael Houser, Craig Anderson, Malcom Subban, Eric Comrie, James Reimer and now Alec Lyon - all with the thought of not blocking Devon Levi from taking the reigns. This season we have UPL, Lyon, and Levi vying for 2 NHL spots. Can Levi vindicate Adams by emerging as good NHL goalie and a true #1?

He is keeping the team here. I know, it’s a low bar. He is winning with the Bills. So there is that.

Quite a few do. I saw the Jays play a MLB game in Buffalo. That was fun. Someday I want to see the Sabres win an NHL game in Buffalo. I have a huge losing streak going. It’s over 10 years. Last season I watched them blow a lead to the Kings in an early season game. I started my boycott that night.

Many GMs start out as scouts, or coaching, or both. Adams was mostly business administration prior to becoming GM. Which is why him having no advisors until this season was a curious decision that probably hurt him.

True. True again. hmmm, yes but really depressing. I want you all to be wrong.

Restaurants and bars were heavily hurt for a while, he had the means to ride it out but chose not to. Probably a good move. Covid didn’t devastate the NFL Buffalo Bills and its massive TV revenue, and Covid didn’t not adversely affect any natural gas businesses (if he was still involved in them). The acquisition of the big boat did seem to change things though. It seemed odd to hear a family worth ~$6B publicly talking about about “maintaining the family lifestyle” while putting the Sabres into EEE cost cutting.

Woke up to four pages of this. Anything I can say or think has probably been said. Two more years of Byram at ~$7M when you have Power at $8.3M and Dahlin at $11M is not a great situation for a lot of reasons. On the other hand I don’t trust Adams to acquire futures and then flip them with any success. It’s not something he has shown us he can do.

Good summary. Generous IMO but very comprehensive. Lyon was a good move given what was out there. We have to hope for a UPL recovery and that UPL/Lyon are a decent 1A/1B. Otherwise we bring up Levi. My view is Peterka was better than Quinn, we lost Peterka and kept Quinn. Another really good player that we developed is gone and it is hard to be happy about it or about the return. Right now, unless a top 6 F is obtained, Quinn may end up top 6. This does not improve the top 6 and it is the exact kind of gamble that Adams makes every off season. The goal of improving the top 6 will most likely not be met, Adams still has time but so far the top 6 looks worse and a key goal is not met. Peterka for Kesselring and Doan is key. Peterka will play on the top line in Utah and he will score goals. Kesselring has yet to show he is a shut down defenseman, which was another key goal of the off season. Our management loves puck movers. I like Kesselring but where he fits and if he is the guy to help Power is TBD. Doan is someone I am high on (and I must disclose that I really liked the way his father played so I have a bias). Owen Power is a big key to the season. It is time for him to grow up and play better defense. Either he does it on his own or he gets help from Kesselring or Timmins but it has to happen, especially if Byram gets traded. Timmins for Clifton plus a 2nd was hard to get excited about. I am not going to ooohh and aaahh at Adams for managing the potential offer sheet stuff, it is an expectation that a GM knows the rules and can do that simple arithmetic. We shall see what Timmins gets for a salary and if he is any better than what we have. Adding Danforth/Timmins/Doan plus deleting Lafferty should improve the fringes of the roster but this team finished with only 79 points so that alone is not enough and the top line players need to be better. It goes without saying that the Sabres will need good health and big years out of Tage, Dahlin, Tuch, Power, and Norris to compete. So are they better? Nothing they did moves the needle very much but if everything aligns then they are slightly better. How they react to Lindy and his staff will be a telling factor. Lindy's first season back was a disappointment and no coaching changes seems wrong to me.