Archie Lee

The Flyers are a team with a need for a goalie, and cap space.

Hockey is the most random of the major league sports (baseball is close). On any given night a team can get "goalied", or they can score a month's worth of lucky-bounce goals. The best teams have a base, a system, a structure, an ethos, to fall back on, that in the long-haul of a season allows them to overcome the randomness of individual shifts, periods, and games. The Sabres do not have that, and there is little reason to think or hope they are about to, because having it starts with off-ice leadership (owner, GM, coach).

I hope as a fan that I never get to the point where I’m so enamoured by a GM’s work that I would defend their every move, even when they make an obvious mistake on a player transaction. I hope the opposite is also true. I think we fans are generally too quick to want to declare winners and losers in trades. Given the ages of these players, there is a long way to go on judging this one. I was not thrilled with the trade at the time, mostly because I thought, and still think, Adams backed himself into a corner and was reacting to a negative situation of his own creation, rather than proactively making a trade to make the team better. I would not reverse the trade today though. Right now, as with the McLeod and Byram deals, I am pleased with the trade on the micro-level, but it has not proven to be very impactful on the macro-level.

https://www.nhl.com/sabres/video/kevyn-adams-4-19-23-343685944 This is Adams's season ender in 2023. Start just before the 7 minute mark. Adams makes clear that ending the drought, making the playoffs, success in the short-term, is at best a corporate stretch-target. It was the beginning of the end for Adams. The future is on hold until there is a new GM.

Sure, but goalies let in goals all the time, and players don’t need to turn the puck over. Lindy Ruff’s teams have failed to make the playoffs in 7 of his last 10 years as a HC, and over those years have consistently been at the bottom of the league in defensive and goaltending metrics. The teams he coaches simply do not play with a repeatable and sound structure that players can reliably fall back on. And here we are, dead last in the East on Thanksgiving, with a team that struggles to play with any consistency or structure. It is fair to criticize UPL as it has been a year now since he was consistently good (and for most of that year he has been bad). It’s hard for me to point the finger at individual players though. In my view, it is far more likely that UPL eventually becomes a good goalie on another NHL team (or under a different HC), than it is that the Sabres become a playoff team with Ruff as HC.

Well, the Sabres will be out of it tomorrow morning (standings-wise) regardless. The Thanksgiving thing is really just a self-evident observation that 1/4 of the way through the season there will be clear good teams and clear bad teams. Last year at Thanksgiving, Boston, The Rangers, Calgary, and Vancouver were in playoff positions. They missed, replaced by Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, and St. Louis. So, it is entirely likely there will be some changeover between now and April.

I was trying to think of when the last time was that the Sabres made a mid-season trade, not trade deadline, to acquire a veteran player with the intent that the acquired player would better help them reach their goal to either make the playoffs or advance further in the playoffs that season, than the asset given up. Thankfully there is a website that tracks all trades: https://www.nhltradetracker.com/user/trade_list_by_team/Buffalo_Sabres/1 People would have different views on what qualifies, but it's a pretty rare thing. You need to go back to the 90's and then have some debate about the merits of Geoff Sanderson for Brad May and a 3rd on Feb 4, 1998. It is such a rare thing that it is a wonder that fans, me included, spend time speculating as though such a trade might actually happen.

Eerily reminiscent of last year when every roster move was attributed to Ruff’s influence, until it all fell apart.

Do you know something I don’t?

On further consideration, I agree. I can’t see Adams making such a trade.

Garland and Sherwood have no current trade protection. Garland has a long deal that won’t age well though. Forbort (injured at present) might be a good 7th D. Other than those 3, all of their vets have trade protection or injury history (Chytyl). I think Sherwood and Forbort would be good adds (I don’t know if Forbort’s injury is long-term serious).

I guess I would ask: an excuse for who? For the players? Ok, maybe. For the coaches? Much less so. For the GM? Not a chance. The reason we have Power and Byram is to provide puck-moving depth on the backend. And up front, what does it say if we are hapless without the services of a 20 year old kid and a 33 year old journeyman (no disrespect to Benson and Zucker).

They dug themselves a big hole. They have stopped digging and have pulled themselves up to NHL .500. That is a decent 1st step. Now they need to somehow drag themselves to DeLuca .500. It would be great if they won their next 4 to get there, but even if they get there by game 70, they would have a shot to make the playoffs with a strong finish. I’m generally a glass half-full guy, but I’m skeptical that they will find the level of consistency needed to do this.

Since he was activated, UPL has been the Sabres best goalie.

That’s the Quinn we all want to see.