Drag0nDan

I just think you limit your suitors if you do it at the deadline just due to the nature of where a lot of teams currently sit against the salary cap. It also means you likely get some trash contracts coming back. I understand the sentiment of getting rid of him, and i also know he's not going to be boosting his value the rest of the way.

Adams will likely be fired. He was hired in 2020... extended in 2022 so i assume his deal was probably up either this year or next year. He's probably among the lowest paid GM's in the league. He needs to be fired as soon as possible if you're going to do it. I think they avoid any major deadline deals this year other than expiring contracts going out - Greenway, Zucker, Jokiharju, Bryson, Aube-Kubel. If you're going to move one of your young players - Cozens, JJP, Quinn, Power, Byram - new GM has to do it, and while i think deadline value is probably higher, i don't trust the current management to get good value out of it.

They tried that rebuild on the fly thing with Kane. I don't think it was necessarily a bad idea? I just was never a big fan of the player or the price they paid to acquire him. Neither him nor Bogo had the leadership acumen, especially at the age they were brought in.

I always think - at least tage is underpaid for pretty much the same time so it balances out a little bit. Like if Tage got 10M AAV, and Cozens was at 4M it wouldn't feel like such a huge waste of money. I'm just not sure where to go with the player, he's never been a good shooter, his passing is so-so, and his on-ice vision has cratered. Him and Quinn are roughly the same age... but there's 2 extra seasons worth of games for Cozens that just suggests that this is just who he is. With Quinn, he seems small and lost out there (like he doesn't feel confident on where he needs to be). But he is a solid shooter, seems to be a fairly good skater, which is something to build around. He's had some injuries as well that seem to have stunted his development. I'm not sure what you can build from cozens other than a bottom 6 winger, which is not a good use of 49 million.

Watching last night, i tried to really watch cozens when he was on the ice and man... He is really rough. He's sloppy in puck battles. Never has a plan it seems. Consistently trying to pass pucks through the other team. It's a real drag. The entire line he plays with seems to be unable to ever find any space. Even when he makes a nice play on the backcheck - he turns it over on the breakout. It's just a really chaotic (mostly bad) experience watching him right now.

The stink of this franchise is absolutely rancid. I think from top to bottom no one wants to work with us unless they're fleecing us for a future star player. Agents probably hate us because of our inept management. Players don't want to play here because of plenty of reasons - Weather, Taxes, oh and we're always terrible. Stadium is soulless. It's like you will be the worst version of yourself when you play here and no one knows why. At this point? I think some heads need to roll beyond adams. I'd probably come in with the eye of - if it's challenging to attract players, how do i attract talent outside the players, and how do i improve my sales pitch to players? Scouting - Where are we succeeding and failing? Who's doing it better? Do we just poach scouts? Need to make a BIG leap in improvement here. Analytics - Big stink was made about this - is further investment needed for this to make an actual tangible on-ice impact? Development - Why do highly touted players always seem to fail here? Training staff - Youngest team in the NHL. Fast and soft, injured constantly across the board. Facilities - look around the league and see what you need to do to get in the top 10 because this is important to players.

I think they need to really evaluate why a player would want to play here. We are and have been bad for so long that the reputation around the league is incredibly poor, and hard to improve. So many players have clauses in their contract to protect them from essentially being traded... here. NYS income tax definitely doesn't help, even if the cost of living in buffalo essentially counters the tax savings in Florida or Nevada. The stadium's a heartless empty feeling dump. Training facilities are not impressive. Obviously Josh Allen's a big part of the bills success, i don't think that can be questioned. But pre-Allen, the team spent a lot of money on new training facilities, new recovery tools, and just generally on "the team". It became a destination specifically for "football players". Talking up the nightlife of a city, or weather, or whatever - you're always going to lose that battle in buffalo. But if you say to the players - you're coming here to work, and be a better hockey player - that message can resonate to the right players.

Interesting to think - make the same deal with cozens instead of mittelstadt. Wonder how that would fit with players they have here right now.

Even watching loose pucks it seems like the pucks bouncing around in our zone directly onto the opponents sticks.

The bruins won 65 games and had a 3 game losing streak at one point in the season. You just can't let this keep going. A win gets the monkey off your back, but they need to play better across the board. Pucks need to start going in the net, the power play needs some urgency, and vets need to step up.

Hopefully we can avoid the slow 20-something game start that seems to plague this team in recent seasons.

Curious to see what the board thinks for this season outside of Buffalo in the playoff picture. Lots of player movement, as well as a number of coaching changes.

Which is fine to have it in your back pocket, but getting hurt in like october affected him pretty much the entire season.

I'd personally like to see him more active between the blue lines in 5x5, and tying up those high slot follow-ups that have given buffalo problems. The only time i like to attack a PP is if they have a guy like olofsson who can get swallowed up on the wall and doesn't have a ton of confidence. Which... teams did to us pretty consistently last year.

Yeah, blocking a shot on a PK IIRC which just seems like not the best use of his abilities.

yeah i didn't look so.. i'm good there. Seems like a waste of money.

He's clearly not completely washed if he's putting up ice time for playoff teams. At the same time... i know the effort level I'm going to get is pretty low so is this just weaponizing a little cap space?

Pretty much where I'm at... there shouldn't be much of a priority to keep him, or find him ice time. He can certainly earn it, but much of what i've seen is the same. He's played 200 NHL games, so it's not as if there isn't a sample size. He's not fast or quick, effort is there but he's not particularly effective in a checking role, not particularly effective on draws, doesn't kill penalties, and his shooting and shot selection is pretty terrible. Mittelstadt wasn't a great shooter, but other elements of his game improved, especially his ability to take the puck away and keep puck possession.

I guess it would have been a better explanation for the skinner buyout?

Quinn getting hurt opened up a spot for Benson as well.

Mono was the most annoying illness. You're contagious like the entire time you present symptoms, you're tired the entire time, and food tastes bad. Even once he's feeling better and well enough to work out and play, you have to keep him away from the locker room even longer.

Mitts never found the net enough for me to want to put him as a top 6 center (0 20-goal seasons in his career). Good player between the blue lines, i thought he was a proper back checker as a center, quick decisions in traffic. He was also one of the only guys who would skate the puck out of the zone with a level of consistency. But he wasn't particularly fleet of foot, and you don't usually get faster than you are at 25. Decent shooting percentage but 102 shots in 62 games is just... too low for a center in a top 6. Didn't hate the player, but to pay him 6M or whatever is tough when his points are going to be somewhat line dependent. I don't think McLeod is an upgrade, but I think he's what they're looking for in a 3rd line center - win draws, play in any situation if needed, take pucks away, etc.

My issue with KO and Girgs wasn't their defense, it was that they were incapable as a unit of providing any level of real offensive pressure. Chip, chase, change - maybe get a high slot shot off the dump. Being a faster unit can potentially put some more pressure on the defense of teams we play, that can result in neutral zone turnovers, penalties, etc.

I personally think it's Levi's net by the end of this season for us to make the playoffs. But Quinn and JJP taking a step would be huge. Tage and Cozens getting shots from better areas will help them get some of that scoring touch back.