Archie Lee

I’m by no means saying it would work out fine, but I don’t think Karmanos would simply carry on with the Adams plan. I don’t think the management structure is as flat as you suggest. I don’t doubt Adams seeks and relies on feedback, but I think he ultimately makes the call. Karmanos worked for years under Jim Rutherford, a man not afraid to make a deal. I don’t think things would be the same. Better? Who knows. I don’t think it can be definitively said that it would be pretty much the same though. I would be shocked if Karmanos doesn’t have a mental list by now, of things he would do differently.

In fairness, Miller appears to be a next level wanker. And Pettersson is not speaking in his first language. It comes across as Pettersson not having a commitment to winning, but it could just be him trying to diplomatically say: Miller is a (insert preferred expletive). I have concerns about Pettersson. That he personally doesn’t like JT Miller, is not one of my concerns.

Incredible that they get a D and not an F. This was a playoff year, per the GM (in his 5th year, none in the playoffs). And we are in dead last in the East.

I’m basically done holding the players at fault. I don’t mean that on an individual basis they are no longer to be held accountable for their play. A bad play, game, effort, etc., should be called out. But, in the big picture this is so obviously not a player issue. The players may collectively lack what it takes to be a playoff team due to a combination of talent, experience, and roster construction, but that isn’t on the players, that’s on management. The situation that the Sabres find themselves in, falls on Pegula. It is unfathomable to me that he could attend the Sabre and Bill games this past weekend and not recognize that in one case he has found two people to run the team who are near the top of their professions and that has been enormous to the Bills’s success. And, in the other case the primary issue is that he has repeatedly failed to put the same quality of talent in the GM and HC roles, and indeed has repeatedly hired below average talents. That this continues, is simply bizarre.

Rasmussen was mentioned also, so it may have been Kasper and Rasmussen for Cozens and maybe a second piece. I’m not sure what I think of that. On the one hand I see the logic. Would this then send a healthy Kulich back to Rochester? Or Kasper to Rochester? The frustrating part is that the Sabres need to get to the point where they are trading the two pieces for one. Cozens and a prospect for a player who is better than Cozens makes a lot of sense. Cozens for a bottom six forward and a prospect, feels like the Mitts trade where we are kicking the can down the road (I say that fully acknowledging that Kasper may turn out to be a better player than Cozens).

That was a very deep draft. Arizona made a mistake probably, but I’m not sure I would call D. Strome a bust, let alone an “all-time bust”. He took a long time to develop, but has put together a few good years in a row and in on an 80 pt pace. He’s the leading scorer on a team tied for 1st overall in the standings. If anything, he’s a further example of how patience with young players is important.* *For clarity, patience doesn’t mean hoarding picks and prospects and then rushing some to the NHL to play on an under-supported losing team. It is ok to judiciously move-on from some prospects, particularly when your pool is deep, in order to improve your NHL team.

That was one of the few years where the Sabres were a cap team, or close to it. We had some forward injuries as I recall. On the same day that we traded Scandella for a 4th, we also traded a 4th to Calgary for Michael Frolik. We needed to move Scandella for the cap space.

I'm not sure. I just don't see anything in the last decade of Ruff's career that supports he is a good defensive coach. As I said in a different thread, perhaps Granato just understood his roster and better knew the way they would need to play to be successful? Isn't that what a coach is supposed to do? We are pacing for 5 points behind the 21-22 Sabres of Bjork, Hagg, Hayden, Hinostroza, Tokarski, and Dell. Granato squeezed more wins out of that lemon than anyone could reasonably expect. Ruff, by all measures normally applicable, has done an objectively horrible job.

Zucker has been a mercenary the past 2 seasons (and I type that with no disrespect). If we offered him a 2 x $4.5, I think he would take it. There is lots of season left for things to go good or bad. If he is traded at the deadline and doesn't thrive on a contender, he may not get the same deal in free agency. I don't think we re-sign him though. Unless we trade a young player, Zucker and Greenway's money is going to Byram, McLeod, Peterka and Quinn (and to the additional $3 million in cap allotted to the Skinner buyout in 2025-26).

In 2021-22, Don Granato coached a team that had the following players play 40+ games: Rasmus Asplund (80), Cody Eakin (69), Mark Pysyk (68), Jacob Bryson at age 23 (73), Vinnie Hinostroza (62), Anders Bjork (58), John Hayden (55), Robert Hagg (48), Peyton Krebs at age 20 (48), Samuelsson at age 21 (42). The goalies were Anderson and Tokarski and when they couldn't go, and they frequently couldn't, in went Aaron Dell, Malcolm Subban, Michael Houser, and a 22 year old UPL. The leading scorer was Thompson who finished with 38 goals and 68 points, which is his exact pace for this season. Tuch would only play 50 games after the Eichel trade. That team finished with 75 points, or 5 more than we are pacing for this year. Then the team only got younger, but improved to 91 points. Then they slipped to 84 and Granato took the fall. Ruff gets lots of excuses: He didn't have goaltending in Dallas and NJ. The current roster is too young (it is). He needs to erase all the harm that Granato did. Maybe Granato just better knew his roster. Maybe Adams changed direction after last season and decided he wanted a team that committed more to D and somehow concluded that the answer was hiring Ruff, a coach whose recent history involves him coaching teams to mostly really bad defensive outcomes. Telling the media about the importance of defense, and calling out your top two centres, and yelling in practice, and publicly acknowledging an admittedly embarrassing performance, is something I guess, but it's not coaching. This isn't on Ruff (though, objectively, he has been awful), and it isn't on Marty Wolford, and it isn't on Matt Ellis, and it sure isn't on Don Granato. Kevyn Adams did an ok job on the teardown. That was always going to be the easiest part. Since April of 2023 though, he has shown repeatedly and to consistent disastrous results, that he is not the GM to move this team to the next stage. The sooner Pegula figures this out the better. Hopefully, him being in Buffalo this weekend drives home the contrast between the Sabres and the Bills. The Sabres don't need another rebuild. They don't need a major roster overhaul where half the team is shipped out. What they need is a competent GM who can build a playoff caliber roster and a head coach who is capable of coaching that roster to its strengths. There is no mystery. It's not rocket surgery, Terry.

The Sabres have the youngest team in the league. They have not constructed a roster with any players known as defensive stalwarts (maybe Greenway, who is injured). And they selected a HC who in his last decade as a head coach, back to Dallas, has consistently iced among the league’s worst defensive teams. I think they could play better defensively with a better coach. I think a Ruff team could play better defensively if better constructed and more experienced. The current combination was never going to be good defensively.

It only makes sense to me if the Sabres have determined they won’t get enough out of Cozens to warrant his salary. Then a trade for a useful and lower paid middle-six player (Compher, Copp) and a prospect maybe makes sense. I’m not saying I like it But I can see the logic. This would especially be true if we have an internal cap and the gap in salary between Cozens and a player like Compher, allows us to keep Zucker.

On Rosen, it might be that he is not in the NHL because he is with an org that has a lot of young forwards on the NHL team and that has no need for his ELC. Had he been drafted closer to his consensus draft position, then maybe he is with an org that is closer to the cap, has fewer prospects, and needs his ELC. Perhaps then he is playing on a 3rd line with a couple of solid vets and generating acceptable stats. Rosen only got into one game so far this year. Last year he played 7. These are his most common linemates: Olofsson, Jost, Biro. That’s how we support our 1st rd, 20 year old call-up.

There were seasons (yr 2 with Eichel, yr 1 with Krueger, this year), where it seemed the outward intent was to win. They have never got to the place where they did the combination of the right things (planning, coaching, roster construction), where winning was realistic. Perhaps that’s the point. It shows just how bad our management (starting with the owner) has been. Had we just had average level competency in management, we likely at least fluke a spot, kind of like the Caps did last year. Heck, we almost grabbed a spot by fluke 2 years ago, with a GM who has since proven he does not know how to construct a playoff calibre roster.

I agree. It is entirely possible that it creeps up to where it has been the last two years. One thing though is that it is both WC1 and WC2 that are currently on pace for 86 points. In 23-24 on this date, WC 1 and 2 were on pace for 94 and 94 points respectively. In 22-23 on this date, the pace was 98 and 97. It could also slide back a bit. The more teams that stay in the race for a longer period, will suppress point totals I think.

There was an article, in the Atlantic I think, where Montreal GM Kent Hughes was sounding a lot like Botterill after the 10 game win streak in 2018 and like Adams in 2022-23. Rather than embracing his team's surge, he was cautioning against being too aggressive too soon. Though, he also referenced trying to learn from the mistakes made by Buffalo after 22-23 and Detroit after 23-24. He seemed resigned to accepting that it wasn't quite their year yet, but also wanting to make sure they don't slide backwards.

My mistake.

Leinonen is currently in D+3 and is having a solid year in SWE-1, which, unless I'm mistaken, would be similar to the ECHL. In Luukkonen's D+3 he was having a similar year in the ECHL. Cossa and Wallstedt are both late birthdays. By birth year, their D+2 is equal to Leinonen's D+3 (this can be hard to judge, they were drafted a year before Lainonen, but were born two years earlier; they are both 14 months older than Leinonen). Neither has come close to establishing themselves as NHL players yet. In his D+2 Cossa was having a similar ECHL season to Leinonen's current season in SWE-1. Wallstedt, now in D+4, appeared to be on a trajectory to the NHL by now, but has posted terrible #'s in the AHL (I'm not sure if he was injured for a period). The Sabres have been pretty steadfast under Adams in picking their BPA. Leinonen appears to be the one acknowledged exception where they felt they wanted a goalie, identified the kid who they thought was the best in class, and decided they were taking him at #41 as they did not think he would be there at #74. It is hard for me to conclude right now, that this was a draft-day mistake. There are only 2 players picked after Leinonen who have established themselves as NHL players, and pretty much every NHL team passed on them as well.

I think this shows that it takes a long time to find out how well a team drafted. Olofsson, Borgen, Hagel and UPL did not become full-time NHL players until D+5 or D+6. The oldest players you note on the Adams list are in D+4. I think that our current batch of prospects, in general, suffer more from our pool being over-crowded, than from individual lack of progress. Going back to 2020, I see 10-14 of our current prospects (not yet NHL players) who still have a legit chance to make it. And that doesn't count for an Olofsson-like prospect emerging as they really can't be predicted. Also, you missed Benson.

By points %, Montreal and Columbus are tied for WC1 and WC2. They are on pace for 85.936 points each. Those two things are incredible to consider. 1.) Half way through the season it is Montreal and Columbus who have, for now, emerged as the leaders in the WC race. Incredible. 2.) The pace for either WC spot is 86 points. Incredible. Both might also be referred to as embarrassing and shameful. The Sabres are almost certainly not making it. We are dead last. There is no indication we are prepared to do anything to make ourselves better, aside from continuing to horde draft picks, acquire more prospects, waste millions of $ in cap space, and generally continue on the dithering path of extreme patience driven by misguided frugality and the fear of making a mistake. But I digress. So...this comment is more about the race for the WC spots among all of the bottom 10 teams in the East, than it is about the Sabres specifically: If I was a GM, coach, or player, on one of the 8 Eastern teams currently below a WC position, I would find Montreal and Columbus being in WC 1 and WC2, and the 86 point pace that they are on, to be comforting. Neither Montreal or Columbus seems positioned to sustain their current hot streaks. Neither is likely to make a big splashy trade for a player who pushes them to greater heights this season. It is possible that both of them, or two other teams in the WC race, stay or get hot for a longer period and that the race is over by the trade deadline, but none of the teams in the race seem built to sustain, say, a .675, winning % over 25-30 games. 85-87 points just might do it this year.

I agree. I would like to keep Zucker and Greenway and add another player that fits age and skill wise somewhere in the Greenway-McLeod-Zucker universe. But where do they play? Those are middle-6 players, maybe top-6 on occasion. We have Thompson, Tuck, Peterka, Cozens, Benson, Quinn, and now Kulich. None are, strictly speaking, 4th line suitable for a variety of reasons. I’m not demanding you play GM, but this is the dilemma. Getting more experienced and, presumably, better in the short-term, means one or two players need to go. Who goes and to whom and for what?

UPL was mostly good up to the streak. He has been mostly good since the streak. Like the entire team, we can’t just take the streak out of his season and pretend it didn’t happen. Yes, he could have played better during the streak and helped squeeze out a few points that kept us in the race. No, he was not the reason we sucked for 13 straight losses. My view is that he is a legit #1. I’m not worried about our starting goalie.

Working somewhat in the favor of all the teams scuffling along in the East, is that there are only 6 teams having a good season. With Boston collapsing, WC1 is currently on pace for 86 points and WC2, currently Ottawa, in on pace for 84. I’m by no means suggesting that will hold, but there is no single team, let alone two teams, obviously poised for a big surge in points. 24-14-2 would get the Sabres to 87 points. For me, it isn’t so much that it is in any way likely that the Sabres will or can get there. What’s frustrating is the lack of clear willingness to prioritize it. None of the scuffling teams in the East are better positioned by cap space and assets, to make a move than are the Sabres. And yet…

Maybe there is something to the Granato thing. I don’t see it though. As I pointed out earlier, in his combined stops in Dallas and NJ and now this year in Buffalo, Ruff’s teams have consistently been among the worst for goals against (averaging something like 5th or 6th from the bottom in GA over those years). There just isn’t a lot of evidence that Ruff coaches anything that resembles the sort of structured defensive system that people think. If he does, then there is certainly no evidence that he gets his teams to play it consistently well. I’m not carrying water for Granato here. I just think Ruff’s age, experience, and rougher around the edge exterior, give the impression that he is a hard-nosed defensive tactician, when evidence does not support this.

Good win. UPL was great. We got a couple bounces. Quinn can shoot. McLeod needs to stay off line 4. Kozak looks like a bottom 6 NHL player for us. Still no excuse for Adams to sit on his hands and watch 13 games go by without a win.