JohnC

It shouldn’t be s surprise that a long-term middling team that doesn’t do anything compelling in the offseason to change that perception doesn’t attract much scrutiny entering the season. Why bother? What the Pittsburgh Pirates are to baseball the Sabres are to the hockey world i.e. an afterthought. It’s a shame and self-inflicted.

After reading your post (same sentiment expressed by many), what I find most aggravating is the lack of urgency to make additional moves to improve. It's not to say that the deal to bring in Kesserling and Doan wasn't a good deal that improves the roster. It's just that there weren't other consequential deals. It seems to me that if KA could have added another second line player (not necessarily a star caliber player), the response/perception would have been much more positive about the roster and season prospects. I needed to see more urgency in action rather than this casual pace to upgrade the roster.

I certainly do not believe that the Sabres are a better team now than if they would have remained.

All three players that I mentioned that left have thrived in their new locations. And with respect to Jack, I have not heard of a scintilla of problems with him in Vegas. There are no "what if" games being played here. The Sabre organization under Pegula are recognized as a poorly managed franchise by everyone in the business.

My general point is that if the hockey operation was competently managed, they all would still be here. The hockey operation mishandled the Reinhart and Ullmark contract negotiations. They both would have stayed. (I believe that we both agree on that point.) However, both players ended up getting out after not getting the extension done when it could have been done. There’s no question that due to overall mismanagement we lost three good players when it could have been avoidable. That’s how I see this issue of losing players that we already had.

It’s not about one player and position. We had Eichel, Reinhart and Ullmark on the roster. Because of a lot of factors they all wanted out and got out. You don ‘t think our situation would be different if they stayed? The critical issue goes beyond particular players as it does to the overall hockey operation.

There is another issue related to this discussion of playing in the prime performance years that you are not addressing. That is players such as Tage and Dahlin are in their prime years now. And their elevated performances are being wasted with too much focusing on the future rather than the present. And don’t kid yourself not thinking that players such as Tage and Dahlin are fed up watching the playoffs from their couches instead of being on the ice.

Your guess is not my guess. I don’t think it is unfair to believe that with this current roster along with Ullmark caliber roster the Sabres should be a playoff team this season.

Although your response is well reasoned I still to a great degree disagree with your general point. It should be noted that the return for him in a deal would be minimal due to his current contract status. And it should be noted that it's very probable that a Tuch departure would hurt the team. There is a context/history here that hangs over this middling franchise i.e. a generation of not qualifying for the playoffs when nearly half the teams in the league qualify for it. It's about the now and demonstrating a sense of urgency to a rapidly diminishing fanbase. I'm not overly concerned about the back end of Tuch's next contract. Tuch is in his prime now. If he can stay within that high performance level for the first half of his extended deal, I would call it a good deal for this forlorn franchise.

There was no question that both players were ready and willing to sign here. So, what then what happened? The organization hesitated giving them the type of contract extension they would have signed at the earlier time. The organization made a decision not to do so. So both players waited it out and then ended up in better places for themselves. As I stated in a prior post, if this organization would have been more competently run, Eichel, Reinhart and Ullmark would still be here.

Most people would agree with you that he wasn't much of a leader. And that shouldn't be a surprise because he was too young and inexperienced to have the captaincy and leadership responsibilities thrust on him. That miscalculation was an organizational mistake. What Jack understood, as did Reinhart and Ullmark, is that this franchise as it was structured had little chance to succeed. He was proven to be right, as were Reinhart and Ullmark. It shouldn't be a surprise that their respective careers in three different locations thrived once they got away from this Pegula run franchise.

The Tuch contract situation is not an unusual situation. All teams confront the issue of giving a long-term contract to a high yield player in his prime recognizing that the player will be less productive on the backside of the contract. There's nothing novel about that situation that happens in all pro sports. What a well-run franchise does in advance is having a plan to replace the player if it comes down to that. That's not where this stolid organization is currently at. A season-long contract issue for a core player is not going to help this struggling franchise move forward. It will be a distraction for a team that needs its full attention to compete for a playoff spot. In contract negotiations, sometimes the organization has more leverage than the player; and sometimes the player has more leverage. In my view, the player has more leverage in this case. If that's the case, then the organization has to accept that reality and be more willing to accommodate in the negotiation. The Sabres have been out of the playoffs for a generation. That's a disgrace and a tribute to its systemic ineptitude. This deal needs to get done sooner rather than later. My position is not to get too fixated about the value of the backside of the contract and be more focused on the present. A Sabre team minus Tuch is a demonstrably lesser team. When you have earned your way to be recognized as a clown organization your focus of attention should be on the now.

If the Sabres could now get Ullmark quality netminding for a season, the Sabres would most likely be a playoff team this year. We are now in a precarious situation with our goalie situation because of the lack of foresight by this myopic organization. Just think where this franchise would be if we retained Eichel, Reinhart and Ullmark compared to where we have been and are now? What’s obvious to all is that an unstable franchise is not an appealing place to play for or attract other players.

Reinhardt would have stayed if given an extension when his contract situation allowed for it.

You were responding to the question of what situation was the franchise in, also relating to the Tuch issue. You may be in a fantasy land but most of us are reacting to the harsh reality of the state of affairs of this franchise.

A generation of not making the playoffs when nearly half the teams qualify.

Clearly, the projection didn’t materialize. The type of player he was in the AHL didn’t end up being transferable to the higher league. Starring in the AHL doesn’t always mean that the lower league star will be a higher league star. That’s a regular occurrence.

JJP wanted out. He didn’t want to be here and I’m not so sure that the HC wanted to keep him. The GM traded him for Kesserling and Doan. JJP immediately signed an extension with his new team which he wasn’t going to do with the Sabres. In my view, it was a fair deal for both organization.

I, and most others agree, that he is not a lock down defenseman. He's a third pairing caliber of player who can also be a good PK player.

It just seems to me that regardless what his style of play is he appears to be the type of player who will always be plagued with injuries. I want to be wrong on this issue. But the record indicates otherwise.

Adams miscalculating on anything is not only not a surprise but should be expected. The silent owner with the big boat made a peculiar GM hire. The resulting performance by the GM shouldn't be a surprise. I agree with you that Samuelsson is a third pairing caliber of player. And assuming that he is healthy (big assumption) that is where he will be playing.

You make an excellent presentation on the relativity of the cap now and in the near future as it relates to Tuch's contract. However, in my view, the bigger issue is the implications of not getting a deal done for this particular faltering franchise compared to other more normal franchises that are in a better position to absorb a loss of such a player. The Sabres are a franchise that has less credibility than most other franchises with the fans, its own players and around the league. Not getting a deal done, even when the player has a lot of leverage, would be devastating. The organization needs to get a deal done sooner rather than later because having this issue linger throughout the season will cause more distractions when it needs more focus on the season on hand.

We disagree on what was expected from Samuelsson associated with his style of play. On the other hand, I agree with you that even if he altered his game to being more physical, it certainly doesn't appear that he could handle the rigors of that style of play. I haven't given up on Samuelsson. But it does seem that he is in the category of a pro athlete whose career is always going to be plagued/marred with injuries. It's a shame.

We have a different perception on Samuelsson's style of play. I never considered his game predicated on a hard-nosed and rugged style of play. However, while acknowledging how I perceive how these two players play, that is not to say that they shouldn't put more effort on the physical side of the game.

If you are referring to Power and Samuelsson, neither one of them were claimed to be physical presences. Their games were never predicated on ruggedness and physicality. It's just the opposite. Their games were always described in terms associated with skating and puck movement. The type of players that many want these big fellows to be will never materialize because it's not who they are as players now and will ever be. In the spectrum scale with physicality on one end and finesse on the other end, the marker will lean more towards finesse.