Pimlach

The good old “it’s impossible” excuse . Which is not true.

Sure. As I pointed out to you, Washington has a POHO that was their Cup winning GM, and he has been there for over 10 years. He just brought in a bevy of NHL players to improve the roster. I’ll bet none of those guys have cap killing contracts either. He didn’t worry about blocking prospects. When your prospects earn the job they get the job. It will be interesting to see how long this team stays at a high level. He also chose to keep Ovechkin, Wilson, and Carlson from the Cup winning team to help maintain a winning standard. The opposite of tanking. Some fans here talked about the Bruins, Lighting, and Caps falling below us. It’s not happening though.

I’m with you but what does Terry say?

Picking first? Hope not. Trading your pick depends on who is there to draft and what else we can get with the pick. There will be a few big wingers that can score goals, but I’m not a draftnik and don’t know enough about the top prospects - kind of sad to be talking about this on December 15. If they want to win now (this year) then they have to improve the center spline. We don’t need more center prospects, we need better NHL players at center, some veteran help at top 6 wing, and defensive defenseman to mate with the “puck movers”. I worry about another rebuild. I don’t think Adams is the right guy. He did a few good things, but the reality for all to see is the performance on the ice is declining for two straight seasons.

Sorry Archie, the “no blockers” logic was always flawed. He didn’t have to tie up cap space to bring in experienced players and a more competitive roster. No blockers might have been fun for 3 months, but when things got serious it just perpetuated more losing, more acceptance of poor play, more excuses, more bad habits, and more softness that permeates the culture. It cost us a playoff birth two years ago - couldn’t sign a vet goalie and block Levi. Last year we had 18 year old Benson on the team, was he that much of an impact player coming out Juniors? Heck no. He still isn’t, and probably won’t be in his 3rd year either Winning teams always field the best roster they can.

Yes, yes, yes. Well you can give Lindy a pass since the staff he inherited has been around for a few years, all guys that Kevyn likes. But I wouldn’t. Play with roster below the cap for how many years now? Three or four. No blockers. Height of arrogance. Give jobs to kids that are still AHL players. Of all the wrong things Adams did, this is the worst of them.

Good (but late) evening Teammates. I took the wife out and missed the game. Just read the GDT. We were in it for awhile. They continue to pass up shots and/or miss the net. Specials team was the difference. Benson and UPL played good. Cozens fought, sounds like he didn’t fair well again. Leaves tomorrow on a B2B. They will drop 10 in a row for sure. NO WAY will that game interfere with me watching the Bills game tomorrow. I’m ignoring the Sabres for two games in a row!!!

Yes, past comical to hurtful, and from what I can tell there are many, many more fans who don’t post here who rip them too. Listen to the crowd walking out of the HSBC after a loss. Things are toxic right now. I don’t know if it’s ever been this bad. The teams poor play at home has been a problem for way too long.

This has zero to do with misspelling Cozens or Power.

First, I was responding only to the timeline that another poster laid out. Go back and read his post and my comments. Even he agreed with my response. The post said Hire a POHO and have him revaluate everything by Xmas or the end of the year, Sorry, that scenario cant and won't happen. Speed is not important, getting it right is important. Next, what POHO/GM are you going to get in here by the end of this year? Probably one that is already in the organization, that's who. Or maybe one that has never been a GM in the NHL and is willing to try (similar to the last 3 GMs that TP hired). Do you think Pegula is secretly interviewing POHOs/GMs? He isn't. Finally, which top notch head coach (and coaches) is this new GM going hire? How will that new coach fix things so quickly when the young players we have are struggling with Lindy's system that they have been learning and playing in for ~6 months? You want to talk about Washington? The Caps have Brian McClennan as their POHO, prior to that he was their GM for the past 10 years. He has been working on their roster every day for over a decade, and working on their recent rebuild (which is really more of a re-tool) for a lot longer than you think. He is entrenched in that teams fabric. He has a won a Cup with the Caps and he has a plan to retool the team with Ovechkin present, to leverage his leadership. He did not cook this up quickly overnight. The Sabres are not the Caps. The situation in Washington is not the situation in Buffalo. Washington has stability, a solid organizational culture, and respect around the league. Buffalo has none of the above. Your comparison is apples to oranges. There is one realistic change that can be made quickly that maybe could help things right now. You can remove GM Adams and replace him with with AGM Jason Karmanos. I seriously doubt Karmanos will want to go scortched earth and fire Ruff and Appert right off the bat (as suggested by the other poster), but maybe Karmanos can make a few player moves that help improve the team in time to make a serious playoff run? He knows the young players, he runs the Amerks, he has previously been part of two Cup winning teams with Pittsburgh. By my logic Karmanos has always been more qualified than his boss, Kevyn Adams. Sooner or later he will leave this mess of an organization. I agree that the Sabres have some good talent and some good pieces but its not enough, and some of us knew that going into the season. Another knock on Pegula is the lack of patience and all the turnover in Buffalo. There is no need to be reactionary, it wont help.

This is true and very real. The Krueger/Granato coaching era was not NHL level. Lindy coming in and still seeing the team struggle is heart breaking, especially because its the Sabre developed players having the most problems. Look are the guys Lindy has complimented after a game: Byram, Greenway, Mcleod, Zucker, Benson, NAK, Malenstyn, and UPL.

Typically you would look at current successful GMs who's contracts are up and that want a promotion - Buffalo will be a very hard sell in this group. Or former GMs/Execs that were successful and are still relevant. Someone posted a list of former GMs that are unemployed.

Not sure what you disagree with since I pointed out the big investment in the 3 defensemen already signed, but ok. Adams plan is most likely to extend Byram and the top four would be Dahlin, Byram, Power, Muel - that is based on the moves Adams has already made, not on what I think he should do. Teams will be interested in Byram if he asks to be traded. I double checked Muels contract, it is $4.3M for 7 years, not $5.5 which is what I initially used, so the 3 signed defensemen total $23.6M, not $25M. If Muel can stay healthy and play the game like they projected he would it was a solid signing - remember he was given this deal after 57 NHL games. I thought he looked mediocre in his first game back against the Rangers, he was standing around watching the play on the first goal, leaving Ryan Johnson out to dry.

I felt from the very beginning that we were trading a decent 2C (Mitts had a better overall game than Cozens) for another very young D-man that could leave after a full season. It was a risk and it created a big hole in the center spline that went largely unaddressed. So he has to sign Byram this off season when we already have ~$25M tied up in Dahlin, Power, and Mule. As for the hole at center - McLeod is a nice player but not a 2C. He is a decent 3C, with great speed and good face-off and PK skills, and he can spell a bit on the top 6. I think he is an RFA too, so free cap money could go toward Byram and McLeod - unless they use the magic words "I don't want to be here". Even with palm trees this situation cannot easily be fixed. But palm trees might help.

He is a defenseman who is not that good at defense right now.

Yup. Byram is looking like a good pick up too. I’ve seen enough games now to see his value.. He has carried the load for Dahlin better than Power has, and Lindy really rides him on minutes. He could not re-sign, that was always a risk. He might want more from Buffalo than from a contender. We will see.

Indeed.

I don’t think Karmanos would turn it down, but there are circumstances where it’s possible. His name comes up as a potential candidate to be a GM. In terms of trying to trade for vets, I do think Adams knows what they need and who can help. He was recently linked to pursing guys like Necas, Euhlers, Pesce. All good players. Imagine Necas in our top 6. Image Pesce playing with Power and showing him the side of the game he never had to concentrate on when coming up. Why Adams can’t or won’t seal the deal is the question. We know the NMC thing is real.

Top 6 forward (preferably a center) and a Top 4 "defensive defenseman" are the biggest needs.

Pegula will not want to pay Granato, Adams, and Ruff. The terms of Adams contract from 2020 are not known to me. If he fires Adams he will probably replace him with Karmanos. If he doesn't take it, then Forton will. (BTW - I prefer Karmanos by a large margin over Forton) This way he does the least possible work on the Sabres, for the lowest investment, and he still has people he knows in there.

OK, I definitely see palm trees.

The TNT crew focused on Benson a lot. At first someone gave Schneider big props for standing up to .... Benson. I was laughing at that. He was taking on Benson. Then the TNT crew realized, Benson is that 5'10" 170'ish pound 19 year old, and they isolated him a lot after that because he was playing hard. It was like Benson knew how pissed of his coach was, and he understands how he wants them to play. So he does it. Greenway played hard. Aube-Kubel too. The top line players played with intensity and purpose for the last 15 minutes of the game, that's about it. They wasted another good game by UPL.

Punch was better. Then Regier. Bowman as a GM was hit and miss, so was Muckler. Meehan did some creative things. Murray was the wrong guy to trust with the tear down, so he get the title of the worst.

Agree with all of it accept the timeline. It is too fast, and not realistic for the amount of work needed. He can help direct player moves/acquisitions immediately, no problem trying to improve the on ice product immediately. However, once you hire the said experience hockey mind as POHO, he needs time to evaluate everything. He will need time to fairly evaluate Adams, his entire staff (and there are some good names there), and even the coaches. He may know who he wants to replace fairly quickly, but getting the best possible replacement will be tricky. The off season will bring lots more names and options to consider. No need to be hasty hiring new FO and coaches, look for the best you get instead.

Your use of the words talent and potential are confusing. Every single player listed had first round grades (which means they had first round talent and potential) before the draft, maybe R Johnson didn't (he was picked at 31). Unfortunately, the benefit of your hindsight is not available on draft day. Besides that, the players you cite were drafted by 3 different GMs. No need for me to cover Murray and Bots picks, it is way in the past. The problem we have right now with the current GM, Kevyn Adams, and his thinking that many of these prospects will be good NHL players right away. Adams mistakes are much more about how he handled all the draft capital that he compiled from letting good players go, more than it is about who he picked in the draft. The NHL draft is not a sure thing and his picks are still very young There were years he had multiple picks, he did not trade any #1 picks prior to draft day for proven NHL talent that could help the team win and help the younger players develop in a good environment. He signed only cheap veteran JAGs and/or over the hill vets to make it easy for his prospects to make the team. -> "No Blockers" Pushing 6 rookies (or young near rookies) onto the NHL roster all in one year (the 91 point season had Power, Samuelsson, Peterka, Quinn, Cozens, Krebs all rookies or close to rookie status). How many of those 6 players are thriving today? Answer = None. Inability to bring in worthy veteran help. When he learned that he could not get impactful vets to come here he doubled down even more on his prospects. This mistake allows Benson to make the team at 18, in a year that Adams said was all about playoffs. Benson is a hard worker but he is still 19, and still growing. This season he will get us ~12 goals while being a negative player on the ice. Was the decision to keep him up at 18 smart? The TNT crew talked about Benson quite a bit. Mostly as a curiosity, since he was the most tenacious player on the team. Which is a huge indictment on Adams roster construction . Adams inherited terrible conditions that most veteran GMs would probably walk away from, his two emerging stars (Eichel, Reinhart) wanted out and he complied - "wants only players that want to be here". He has and internal cap (or he did). He has problems getting the needed veteran help - he likely knew about this ahead of time. Gretzky and the TNT crew talked about the NHL and the current trend for rebuilding teams to develop prospects in the NHL, rather than in the minors. Adams misjudged his prospects talent and the real timeline to develop it. Clearly this team is hurt by their own past (and by the decisions made by the current ownership) as impactful vets in their prime will not come here if they can avoid it. Soon the next batch of emerging stars will want out too. Some of the young players on your list will be good players in this league, and we will be pissed to see them thriving elsewhere in the league. Drafting is not the root cause of the problem. The team has not been run by a capable NHL GM since Regier was fired long ago. The front office is considered a joke. The problem is that the owner is the POHO.