Archie Lee

I wouldn’t go that far. Bennett was certainly looking like a bust relative to his draft position. But, he had built a reputation as a strong playoff performer in Calgary (11 goals in 30 playoff games, while being an abrasive hard to play against wanker). Florida got him in April 2021 for a 2nd and prospect Emil Heinemen, who is now in the NHL with Montreal. At the time Bennett was headed into the last year of a bridge deal that paid him around $2.5 million. Any team could have beat that offer; Bennett did not choose Florida for the palm trees and low taxes. Different positions and styles, but like Bennett, Bowen Byram was a 4th OA pick. He is at about the same point in his career as Bennett was when traded to Florida. It looks like we will trade him. On the expected Buffalo Podcast they did their mock off-season part one, and Byram went to San Jose for Timothy Lilegren and the 30th overall pick.

All season long it looked like Oiler management had erred big-time in not keeping Holloway, McLeod, and Foegele and opting to keep Henrique and add J. Skinner, and Arvidsson. Then after looking finished early in rd 1, they rattled off a 13-2 stretch to put themselves up 1-0 in the cup final. Now though, it looks like they are running out of steam. The Oilers are still an elite team. It was said last night on here that it doesn’t seem that the Oilers have “IT”. Maybe so, but if the Oilers don’t have “IT” then the Panthers are the only team that does. Maybe the Oilers are getting sucked into the Panthers game, but watching the last few minutes last night, it seemed to me that the Oilers were doing what we would want the Sabres to do. They were sending a message that they aren’t going quietly. And, they have a lot of guys who can participate in the shenanigans. One line after the other had someone willing to drop the gloves or mix it up with the toughest of the Panthers. Maybe this is fence sitting, but I would not count the Oilers out until they are down 2 late in an elimination game. I could easily see them losing Thursday and then winning game 5 at home, putting them one road win from a game 7.

The larger issue, to me, is how complicit is Ruff? At this point I think the answer is: entirely. Either Ruff accepted the take it or leave it offer, or he has the power to make change and for some reason has chosen not to. Either way, Ruff is not the adult in the room who is going to set the organization straight.

Columbus has two firsts in this year’s draft, a prospect pool ranked at least as good as ours, and almost $40 million in real cap-space (they don’t need to move anyone to make room for additions). It will be tough for us to compete for a player like Robertson, when Dallas likely won’t be looking for a big contract back.

I think fans are just making the reasonable assumption that after missing the playoffs by one point followed by back to back years of moving further from the playoffs, that the GM has failed to make the needed moves. What moves might have made a difference is fan speculation (I’m guilty as charged). But I refuse to believe that the situation was beyond hopeless, and that no GM could have produced a better record the past two years than Adams has. Perhaps I’m wrong and this is just as good as we can reasonably expect from the Sabres.

For the Oiler’s sake, I hope Nugent-Hopkins is just getting a day of rest. If they go down Hyman and Nugent-Hopkins, that would start to be a very tough hill to climb.

Nobody is saying Adams should make bad moves.

There are lots of varying opinions, so it would be wrong for me to say that nobody wants to mortgage the future. I don’t think that is close to the general view of fans though. I was listening to the Athletic prospect show yesterday. They were podcasting from the Combine in Buffalo. At one point, they discussed how the current bottom of the league rebuilding teams like Chicago and San Jose, should manage their draft and prospect capital. The Sabres were brought up as the failed example; a franchise that over-valued picks and prospects and did not understand the need for a better balance between youth and veterans. Simply put, not all the kids will or can play. I think there are very few fans who want impulsive and unthoughtful player moves. Fans just want the GM to manage the team and its roster like a normal NHL team that is trying to win games. And if Adams has been trying to do that, then he has failed and it is time to let someone else do the job.

Adams has backed himself into a corner. By not making needed moves in years prior, he has put himself in a spot where he has to make moves to save his job. And the league knows it.

One of the philosophies of Kevyn Adams has been: don’t panic and make a desperation move. And here he is with one year left on his contract, and 5 straight years out of the playoffs overlayed on a league record 14 years of failure, and the Sabres can’t make change without trading roster players because they are up against the cap, and the league knows that he is under pressure to make bold moves. By repeatedly failing to make needed moves, Adams has backed himself into a corner.

Now I’m getting into speculation territory. I think Ruff is at the stage/age where it appealed to him to go into a situation that was set-up. No interviews, no decisions about letting a coach go, no having to call coaches and break the news that he is “going in another direction”. It’s a variation of what you are saying.

I have no idea of what really happened, but lets assume for a moment that there was no option for change and it was a take it or leave it scenario for Ruff. This notion is typically presented in defense of Ruff: "What's Lindy supposed to do, he didn't even get to choose his own coaches". If true, I see it as an indictment of Ruff, and not a defense. It's pathetic.

This is probably in the not worth our time category. Marjala is likely, at best, to reach the level of Lawrence Pilut or Artuu Ruostalainan as a North American prospect. It does reflect a little bit though, of how playoff and championship calibre teams operate v. teams like the Sabres. The Oilers have 3 picks in the forthcoming draft (rd 3, 6, 7). The Sabres currently have 10 picks (choose your metaphor: hamster wheel? treadmill? merry go-round?). If you are the Oilers, why hold mid-round picks when you can just wait for a team like the Sabres to pass on signing a 5th rd pick who, by any reasonable measure, has significantly outperformed their draft position.

It would never happen, but the Sabres are more-well-positioned to make such a move than most other teams. Adams and Ruff are in the final years of their contracts. There have been rumors, or at least speculation, that both could move into other roles (Adams to POHO, Ruff to an advisory role). A veteran GM, Kekalainan, was recently hired as a Senior Advisor. Heck, you could make an argument that, looking ahead to the future, Adams, Ruff, and Kekalainan, would just be doing their jobs if they put there heads together and concluded that the Sabre organization would be foolish to not take a run at DeBoer. Together they could recommend speeding up the transition of Adams to POHO, Ruff to Senior Advisor, Kekalainan to GM, and hiring DeBoer as head coach. Requires someone with a vision though.

In the Robertson thread, things got a little off topic (probably me) and I referenced Ruff having the option to bring in his own coaches and that he chose not to. This has come up a few times that fans reference Ruff not being able to choose his own staff. In the Palm Trees and Taxes press conference from Dec 6, 2024, just after the 19:30 mark, Fairburn asks about the coaching staff. That is when Adams answered with "...Lindy was very, very adamant he wanted to get to know the current people..." and with "If Lindy didn't feel comfortable with the [coaches] in the room, then they wouldn't be in the room". I don't doubt that Adams endorsed Wilford, Ellis, Bales, and Appert. Also, I suppose Adams could be outright lying, and it was always the case that it was take it or leave it on the coaching staff. But it strains credulity in my opinion, that they wouldn't allow Ruff any flexibility in choosing his staff. I'm pretty down on Ruff, but it is hard for me to square that if 64 year old Lindy Ruff, with the 3rd most games coached in NHL history, a man never shy to share an opinion, wanted to bring in one or two of his own coaches, that he would not have demanded it. Further, it would be incredibly weak of Ruff to not only accept having a staff forced on him, but to also accept the GM lying about it. Anyway, I'm just posting this as a record for those who care about the coaching staff question. Again, it's at around 19:30 that it starts. Also, a warning: I don't recommend watching the entire thing again. It is incredible that we just saw Pete DeBoer, who over the last 3 years has won more regular season games than any coach in the league and the 3rd most playoff games, get fired for criticizing his goalie in a press conference, and yet Adams (0/5 for the playoffs) is still Sabre GM when 6 months ago he stood in front of the world and made clear that he is not capable of doing his job.

Plays like this happen in front of the net multiple times a game without the forward flopping on the goalie. Yet it’s now happened to Bennett 4-5 times in the playoffs. Bennett is openly mocking the NHL and its referees.

Online reporting is that DeBoer's Dallas contract pays him over $4 million annually. He is one of the 5-6 highest paid coaches in the league. He is not going to be Ruff's assistant or take a job under a GM with one year left on his contract. If we had fired Adams and hired a new and respected veteran GM (Kekalainan would perhaps qualify; Shanahan or Rob Blake more so), then I could see DeBoer being at least a possibility. As is, I would say the chances are next to zero that he would consider Buffalo at this time.

At one point this season, Adams was asked about this during a press conference (I think it was the infamous Palm Trees and Taxes presser). He stated that Ruff was free to make changes to the coaching staff but decided to go with the existing coaches to see how it worked out (I'm paraphrasing). Many people dismissed this as Adams lying. I just can't personally imagine that if Ruff (Sabre legend, savior hand picked by Adams/Pegula, 3rd most coached games in NHL history) went to Adams and Pegula and said I need to bring in my guy or guys, that they would quibble over the $600-$700k that it would take to payout the contract of Wilford or Ellis. Why would Ruff let Adams lie and lay the blame on him for the lack of staff changes?

I should clarify that DeBoer would get to change assistants, just like Ruff can but has chosen not to.

Yep. We would have a better chance of making the playoffs if we rolled back the roster with DeBoer as coach, than with changes and Ruff.

I would love to add Robertson, but I actually think we are a year late on such a big addition. Last year was the year to move two of Benson, Quinn, Peterka, our 1st rd pick for a Robertson or an extended Necas or Ehlers. We had the assets and the cap room to make the move last year. Now we have the assets but we no longer have the cap room. Acquiring such a player now means moving out equivalent or projected-equivalent salary. So adding Robertson would mean moving Peterka or moving two of Tuch, Greenway, Zucker, & McLeod. Or Samuelsson and Clifton, but replacing them with two very low-level contracts. It can be done, but it probably means multiple trades instead of one trade. Dallas would probably love to add Peterka in a Robertson deal, but if Peterka wants a $7 million AAV, it won't work for the same reasons that Robertson no longer works. Also, there are multiple teams with just as many good tradeable assets and far more cap flexibility; I think we will be beaten to the punch on players like Robertson by teams like Carolina, Columbus, Anaheim, and San Jose. We need to add some veterans to change our make-up. The vets that I would target are in the Demko, Nedeljkovic, Ferrero, Ceci, Rust, and Keifer Sherwood category. Peterka and Byram appear to be the big assets moving out. I think a skilled GM could add the veterans we need to change the make-up and direction of our team while not overly depleting our prospect depth.

In my view, this is how the rest of the league would see their order (highest to lowest): 1.) Peterka (68 points as a 22/23 year old; he is a potential elite 90 point winger) 2.) Kulich (gets the edge on Benson because he can play centre, is bigger, faster, and has an elite shot)\ 3.) Benson 4.) Helenius (potential centre) 5.) Östlund (potential centre) 6.) Quinn (trending down) 7.) Rosen (trending down) If I was going to tier them it would be: 1.) Peterka 2.) Kulich, Benson, Helenius 3.) Östlund, Quinn, Rosen

I like Quinn and still think he can be a player. I don’t see him as anything but a throw in here. If we trade 9OA, Kulich, and Östlund for Robertson, then we need to be really sure it will get us in the playoffs and that Robertson will extend. I’m not sure. I think the reason Robertson is available is because Dallas wants to contend for a Cup and they think he is at least a full tier below Rantanen as an overall player. What about Benson + 9OA? If we value Benson more than the other assets, then that is what Dallas might want.

Incredibly, Detroit included a late 2nd rd pick (Tampa’s) to get San Jose to take Walman last off-season. San Jose then traded Walman for a conditional 1st in 2026. Nice work Mike Grier.

On the puck over the glass thing, I agree with those who think it is a stiff penalty for what is now something that only happens by accident. I also agree that it is a bit absurd to watch players get away with physically assaulting the opposition, and then there is a penalty for an accidental stick stuck in the skates, or a puck over the glass. I've thought for some time that the NHL should experiment in pre-season with 60 second penalties for the non-violent "accidental" infractions. That would probably be too far "out of the box" in itself, but I would actually go a step further. I would experiment with the powerplay team starting the powerplay with possession. You could have a small semi-circle on the walls in the offensive zones and the start of a PP (just the start) would begin similar to an inbound pass in basketball. This would make the shorter PP's still critical as the defending team would not simply be able to kill the first 15 seconds with a face-off win and an icing. It's a little out there, I know.