JohnC

The Sabres have become a laughable organization where assets are frequently diminished. There's another reason why I don't want Cozens or anyone else dealt by this befuddled GM. Due to his failure as a GM he might feel the pressure to do something for the sake of giving the impression that he is acting. It's well known around the league that he is in a weak position and might be inclined to make a bad deal. I would hope that after the season there will be a new GM who is better equipped to make roster decisions. I want to make it clear that I'm not against making deals. But I sure don't want our Howdy Doody GM to be the one doing it. He's already demonstrated what he is capable of. And that is my fear. s

I'll finish responding on the Cozens discussion. There is no question that his stats are insufficient. I'm not saying otherwise. But let's not forget that in the 2022-23 season he has 31 goals, 37 assists for 68 pts. He finished with a -3. In the 2023-24 season he scored 18 goals, 29 assists for 47 points with a -4. In the international tournaments playing with and against top tier players he played very well, especially as a winger. (I believe that wing is his more suitable position.) My general point regarding him and other young players is that he is playing with a team and organization that is not very smartly run. And I believe that he and others have become inhibited in their play and development because of it. I'm confident that if he was with a better managed franchise his play would improve. My main disagreement with your usage of stats in describing his play is that it doesn't factor in the dysfunctional organization that he is playing in and stuck with. You don't have to respond because the both of us are going in circles on this topic. Although I understand what you are saying, I disagree with your general point about him as a player.

Let's look at Cozens in isolation and also representative of how this organization has handled young players. Foremost, is that many of them have been rushed to the NHL. And secondly, because there has been a dearth of experience on this roster they are playing in higher roles than they are ready to assume. With Cozens, you can see him playing with a lot of pressure that he is putting on himself. A point is that there is in general a mishandling of young players that stunts their development. Our ill-equipped GM has publicly stated that his approach was not to block the young players with veteran players. Did that approach enhance their development or did it stunt it? The expectation is that it would accelerate their development. Did it? There is no question that Levi was rushed. Would it have been better for them in general to have gotten more playing time with increased roles in the AHL? That is the normal approach for most franchises. There certainly are teams that play their highly draft players right away in the big league. But they don't do it to the extent that our flailing franchise does it. And for the most part they have more players who provide a support system for these fledging players. I'm comfortable in saying that if Cozens is traded to a competently run organization, he would be a better player for his new team compared to where he is now. The Sabres are a poorly run organization. That's not debatable. And because of that our young players get dragged down from that morass of incompetency.

You can't look at the Cozens situation in isolation. The embarrassing reality is that if he were dealt to a competently run organization he would be placed in a situation where he would be a better player. Multiply that many times over regarding most of our young players. Jack Eichel recognized it, so did Reinhard, ROR and Ullmark etc. They wanted out and got out. The substantive issue is the owner and the organization that he has created/structured. The organization is structured and staffed the way he wanted it to be. There isn't a franchise in the NHL that not only wouldn't have hired KA to be their GM, let alone allow him to be interviewed. So five years after the peculiar GM hire what is the outcome? Check the standings. To save time start at the bottom. Without wasting time arguing whether Lindy was a good hire or not what is indisputable is that the process was a sham. Without a credible coaching search Ruff was selected to be behind the bench. Again, ask yourself, what other franchise would have gone through such a fake search for such a critical job that is a big factor in a team's success? We have an incompetent owner who has destroyed the franchise and has demolished the already withering fanbase. Terry Pegula has become the NHL's version of Dan Snyder as a pro franchise owner (without the sleaze baggage). It's astounding to think how bad this franchise has been run for a generation, the length of Pegula's ownership. Stating the obvious: Incompetent owners who create a shambolic organization don't succeed.

Just to irritate you I am declaring this game a “should win” game. However, don’t hold me to it. 😊

The Sabres are relatively healthy and should be entering this game well rested, at least compared to the Predators who are playing on a back-to-back. This team finally broke the barrier of winning four games in a row. Is winning five games in a row much of an achievement? For this team, with its fragile psyche and inconsistent play, I would say yes. At this point, I'm not concerned about particular games and making the playoffs. We are at a stage where this team needs to win at a high clip simply to become a relevant team in the league. Right now this is an afterthought franchise. What's frustrating about this team is that without that devastating and season sabotaging losing streak, this team would be exactly where most of us expected us to be this season i.e. a team seriously battling for a playoff spot. "What ifs" are meaningless and get you nowhere. Just win a game that you should win against a team that is currently flailing and take the two week break on a positive note.

If Bryam doesn't sign a deal when his contract is up then the deal doesn't look so good. I'm not advocating for a retrieval of Mitts. Just that I would be open to it if the price was right. You say that the Sabres need a 1C/2C type of player. Do you see KA making such a deal? I don't. I've repeatedly stated (So I apologize for the repetition) but what is more doable and less costly of adding a 1 or 2C from the market is adding two or three Zucker like players to the forward position and adding a rugged defensive/defenseman to that blueline unit. That was doable last offseason and should be doable this offseason.

I'm with you that in a better situation Cozens would most like be a more productive player. That's one of my main criticisms for this misguided organization. There is nothing unusual about rebuilding with young players. However, unless given the support while being subjected to a tough rebuilding process, the young players aren't going to develop as well as they should. Right now, Cozens and Samuelsson are the targets of scorn by many here. If both players ended up on a more competently run franchise, they would not necessarily flourish but would not be struggling so much. It's too late this season but in the offseason the front office needs to focus on adding a few good veteran players rather than dispatching some of our young players that were counted on to be part of the roster.

Why do you think that?

Not making a move that is available is in some respects comparable to making a bad move because it is not seizing an opportunity that is available. It's like a surgeon telling a bereaved widow whose husband died on the operating table that I did everything right except I didn't do such and such when I could have. The primary reason that he hasn't been as aggressive in adding to the roster is that he has misjudged the talent on the roster and made a poor analysis of his roster with respect to how it is constructed. I'm not going to cut this inadequate GM much slack because when you are in your fifth year as a GM and your team has been out of the playoffs for nearly a generation, I would expect that he would demonstrate more urgency to improve the team. Being lackluster in a competitive field is a recipe for falling short, again and again.

We had a guy at work who regularly came up with bereavement excuses to get off work. His family must have been miraculously sanctified because both his father and mother died twice. He was so notorious for his absurd lying to get off work that it became a joke. Sometimes these work derelicts forget that they are supposed to come to work for the purposes of working instead of evading.

I am a harsh critic of KA. However, getting Zucker and Greenway have both been quality deals. If he can add two-three similar types of players, this roster would be so much better constructed and in general better.

What do you have against broken tables? What do you call someone who is willing to break his back diving on a table to get a yuk from a drunken crowd? Fat and stupid!

Will you please stop with the Power harangue! He's not going anywhere, and you very well know that. I recommend that you target your venom toward the many other valid targets on the team and staff. With respect to Cozens, I would move him to wing and try to come up with another player to center for him.

The owner has screwed up this franchise. The KA hire was an absurdity beyond anyone's imagination. The irony is that by hiring an unfit GM who would bend a knee to his desires, he ended up losing even more money because he created a product that a growing population of consumers would not tolerate paying for. Our billionaire saved a penny only to lose a dollar $$$. Simply stupid. It doesn't matter whether the Reinhart situation was related to Samuelsson's contract situation. In isolation, not signing Reinhart to a long-term deal when they had the opportunity to do so was a gross miscalculation that was on a malfeasance level.

Whether Samuelsson is on the team or not we still need that muscular defensive/defenseman. I'm not saying I'm high on him but I'm not also saying that I'm done with him. If the turns out to be a solid third pair player, then I find that acceptable.

I understand your well reasoned positon but I'm not aligned with your thinking. My worry is that this inept organization, out of frustration, tears down too much instead of bringing in support players to better balance out this roster. This tear down to build up mentality has to stop. It has kept us stuck in the muck of mediocrity.

The issue isn't whether there is interest in him or not. The issue for the Sabres is what is his value on the market. It seems to me that because of his injury history and inconsistent play that right now the return wouldn't be much. As I stated in prior posts, I would rather keep him and hope that he can play more consistently. I'm with @mjd1001 on his assessment that he is a third pairing caliber defenseman who also is a capable PKer.

There is no question that this is an incomplete roster where the coach has to contend with a roster overloaded with developing and not fully mature players. That's why I have been a constant critic of the GM. I strongly believe that with a few more veteran players to undergird our young roster, this team would be so much better equipped to handle the last periods when play tightens up. Would another Greenway and Zucker type players make a difference? I believe so. My belief is that our GM misread his own roster. He over-rated what he had on hand and assumed some of his young players would make the next developmental leap. Some did and some did not.

Granato was the right coach to follow Krueger. It's still an open question for me whether Ruff is the right replacement for Granato. In my view, Granato's strength is in developing young players. But that stage of development for young players on this team is over with where now it is about seriously competing to win right now. The Granato firing was a reasonable action to take at the time.

I'm a Zucker advocate. He's been our GM's best value pickups during his tenure. We need more Zucker's added to this roster. As far as the Mitts issue, I brought it up regarding how his trade would be assessed if Byram decides to pursue free agency. And regarding to Mitts. although it took some time for him to develop, lest not forget that at the end of his tenure here he became one of our best wall players.

I'm not as harsh in my assessment of Samuelsson as many others are. If he can stay healthy and become a good third pairing player, then he has utility. He also has value when needed he can move up to the higher pairing as the complementary player when called upon. And as you point out, he is a good on the PK. A big part of the frustration about him is his fragility. Can he become more durable? I'm not sure??? Candidly, I expected more from him this season, as I did with Cozens and Quinn.

I would take him back but what would the exchange entail? If we did get him back I would make him our 2 or 3C and put Cozens on the wing where I think he is more suited. I am getting to like Byram more and more. But what happens if, as the cap goes up, he decides to play out his contract and seek a better situation for himself? Then the Mitts trade would turn out to be another boondoggle for our GM.

The laying back in the third period really bothered me last night. The strategy and mindset seemed to be let's just hang on and gut it out. It worked last night but it is a fraught strategy to take too often. I attribute this passive strategy to not having enough veterans to be on the ice to deal with the end of game pressure.

The owner hired an unqualified GM with the intention that he would save him money by keeping the costs down. So what does his inexplicable hire do? He gives out bad contracts. The problematic issue regarding the Samuelsson contract is its length. I agree with you that Samuelsson is turning out to be a third pair defenseman. And what is evident is that the GM's miscalculation with this contract rebounds to hurt him because it's an outsized contract that makes his trade market value less appealing. Right now, I would prefer to keep him and hope that he will become a good third pairing player. What's making that less likely is the durability issue.