Archie Lee

The Sabres’s roster is basically Anaheim with Rasmus Dahlin. Take Dahlin out with an injury and layer on the expectation of playoffs, and you get a team that looks like the Sabres. They are collapsing under the weight of unreasonable* expectations. * For clarity, I mean it is unreasonable to expect this roster of players to make the playoffs. It is NOT unreasonable to expect the GM to have assembled a playoff calibre roster at this stage of his tenure.

People thought similar things about Reinhart. Not that I think Benson will be that good. Like Reinhart, who was a year older (by birth year) when we drafted him, Benson should have gone back to junior. Reinhart played 4 years in junior including his 19 yr old season, which Benson would be in now. That Benson can hold his own in the NHL is a terrible reason for him to play here. It is a leading example of our GM’s failures.

For sure he could use better linemates, as could Quinn, Kulich and Cozens. Drop any of them on the Dallas Stars or Florida Panthers and they are doing just fine and nobody is arguing that they are holding those teams back. Put 8-9 players in this category on the same team and you are the Anaheim Ducks or Chicago Blackhawks. Put 8-9 players in this category on the same team and add playoff expectations to the mix, and you have the Buffalo Sabres.

Agreed, though I would have no hesitation in including Benson. I have nothing against Benson. I just don’t see that he is the sure thing you see him as (much like I did not think that Quinn was on verge of being a play-driving, 80 point, top 20 NHL winger). I like Benson a lot, I just don’t see him as untouchable. Further, I believe strongly that his presence on the roster the last two years has been a big factor in our demise. Not his play or personality (he’s fine and on balance has held his own in the NHL). But simply the notion that 15 months ago our GM thought adding an 18 year old was part of the solution. The 23-24 off-season of complacency that led to the addition of an 18 year old to our roster, led to the degradation of whatever winning culture they had developed by the end of 22-23. That’s not on Benson obviously. The Sabres are uniquely positioned. They have the youngest roster and one of the best prospect pools in the NHL. They have not one but two former 1st overall d-men who are among the most offensively gifted players at their position in the NHL. They have a legit 40 goal, potentially 50 goal, player in Thompson. They have multiple legit ready to win pieces. And incredibly, the current GM has been so bad at his job going back to May 2023 that we will be picking in the top 5 again. Imagine what a committed owner, a competent GM, and a legit NHL coaching staff could do with this combination of assets. Will we ever find out?

Yep. Not every move Sens management has made has worked, but they make an obvious attempt not just to make slight upgrades on the edges of the roster but to support t their young players by addressing critical needs (see goaltending). Adams is content to upgrade the 4th line.

If the only move is something like Petterson and Desharnais for Cozens and Byram, I don’t think it moves the needle for me. Pettersson is the best player in the trade I think, but we aren’t getting appreciably better (ie: playoffs next year) until we decide to support our core with players ready to play and win in the NHL. If we are still running out a group of not-fully-ready for-prime-time-kids, we are just going to be under-supporting Pettersson instead of Cozens and Byram. And we have seen how that goes.

The players who need support are the ones we have committed to. Thompson, Cozens, Tuch (likely), Peterka (likely), Dahlin, Power, Samuelsson, Byram (likely), and UPL. I’m not opposed to moving one or two in a hockey trade. But we need more McLeods and Zuckers and Greenways and Cliftons and not more Quinns and Kulichs and Bensons. We have lots of prospects and we will be drafting at the top of the draft again. It’s time to move off of some of our youngest players and off of some of our prospects and support the good NHL players we have. It’s actually well past time. This is not an indictment of ours kids and prospects, it’s an indictment of our owner and GM.

I think there is a scenario where you can have a contending team that includes a core of Thompson, Cozens, Tuch, Dahlin, Power, and Luukkonen. While the Sabre have done a poor job supporting there other young players, it is this core who they have failed the lost. This core was ready last year and instead of supporting them with meaningful veteran additions Adams was complacent and neglectful. It is not too late to add to this group and help them win. It will take some courage to move on from 2-4 younger players in order to support the core they had already committed to.

Agreed. I’m not close to writing off Quinn, but he is not playing like someone who can help us win hockey games. I believe that we should have moved one of Quinn/Benson and one of Kulich/Rosen in the off-season for veteran talent. We still should, though I think Quinn and Kulich likely have diminished value (certainly Quinn does). There is no reason to believe this group will be good enough to collectively play roles on a playoff team as soon as next year. In fairness to Quinn, he is playing in about the worst possible environment for a young player who is struggling with his game and his confidence. We have put all of these young players in a position that no other team does. The other teams that are down where we are (in the standings and in average age), are just looking for progression. We have put our kids in a position where they are expected to carry the weight of a 13 year playoff drought and rescue the fortunes of a failing (failed?) franchise. It has proven to be a little much.

I'm not giving up on any of them either. Dahlin, when healthy, is elite. I know there are still moments and stretches that leave us scratching our heads, but at his best his play is sublime. Good management teams (starting with ownership), build championships around players like Dahlin. It can still be done. Power is an elite offensive defenseman. He is on pace for a 54 point season. Do you want to know something shocking? Owen Power is tied for 2nd in the NHL for even strength points for D-men. He is tied with Quinn Hughes at 22 points, 1 point behind Cale Makar. That's not the shocking part. The shocking part is 33 games into this season, Owen Power does not have a single power-play point. Not one. His lack of production on the PP in part comes from being behind Dahlin and splitting remaining time with Byram. The other factor is that the Sabre PP is awful. It is not on the players and it is certainly not on Power. Yes, he needs to find a way to better utilize his size in the D-zone, along the boards, and in front of the net, and he simply needs to become more aware on that side of the puck. But, I doubt that the rest of the NHL looks at Power and sees a defensively weak player who can't be coached to be better. They see a kid who is an NHL top 5-10 offensive talent from the blue-line, whose ceiling has not come close to having been tapped. Byram? See Power, but not quite the same level. Byram is 9th in the league for even strength points for a D-man and has 1 PP point. His potential likewise remains largely untapped. The issue, and this goes back to mismanagement by Adams, may simply be that having 3 left-shot D-men with similar primary skill sets is not how you build a blue-line for the NHL. Moving one (Byram would be the obvious choice), should be an option when it comes to remaking the roster.

The Sabres had enough talent to finish with 91 and 84 points the last two years. That's not anything to celebrate, but in aggregate those totals were neither a gross over or under achievement, in my opinion. I believe strongly that what we are seeing today (12 straight losses, on pace for 64 points) is the accumulated sum of GM/ownership complacency, malpractice, and neglect. Only 2 off-seasons ago (2023) the word was that the Sabres were starting to come off of some player's no-trade-clauses. By not being aggressively proactive the past two off-seasons, Adams has set this franchise back yet again. The young players on this team are not ready and the veterans have now lost hope. For the players, it isn't a lack of effort it is a lack of oxygen. On the positive side, I think we are still in the window where it is very fixable (not for this season, obviously). A fire-sale is not needed and nor is a massive overhaul. Adams made an enormous strategic error going into this season with the youngest roster in the league. We had 6 forwards 23 and under on the ice last night (Krebs, Cozens, Peterka, Quinn, Benson, Kulich). Plus Power and Byram on defence. Plus Rosen, Kozak, Johnson, and Levi as first call-ups at their positions. This is as talented of a 23 and under group as there is in the league. But, it is simply not the roster of an NHL playoff team. It wasn't in July 2024 and there is zero reason to think it will be in July 2025. The path is still there. I'm not advocating for the trade of any particular aged 23 and under player. But we simply have too many to be a successful NHL team. Right now, Adams is failing both his veterans and his youngsters by somehow creating an environment where neither can reasonably be expected to thrive. He is the man who created this. He is not the man to fix it.

It's incredible the negative impact that complacency has had on this team. I legitimately feel sorry for the players. I was bitter, at the time, when O'Reilly and Eichel wanted out. Today, I would not begrudge any of our players for publicly stating they don't want to be a part of this any longer.

I don't know. It could it be that our kids are struggling in large part because they are surrounded by too many other kids? Pluck a random 23 and under kid from our roster and put him on Dallas or Florida or Vegas or Washington and I suspect they are not struggling to the same degree? Maybe some, but not all. I'm not about to argue that Granato should have been kept, but it hard for me to square the circle that he was so bad as a coach that over the last two years combined he got this team to within 1 win of DeLuca .500, while Ruff is so good but can't coach the bad habits out of them. In defense of Ruff. This year's team is actually constructed worse. Not directed at you at all, but somewhere between July and today, we went from Ruff's fingerprints being all over the roster changes to this being all on Adams. It is mostly on Adams (and Pegula) to be sure, but clearly Ruff is not the coach who is going to positively reshape our culture.

Yeah. That’s it. Nothing else to learn. Looks great out there

Utter nonsense.

He should sue Adams for not sending him back to junior last year and again this year. He could be captaining team Canada and a W team on its way to a championship run. He could be one of the best junior players in the world and a player we would all look forward to watching in the next couple of years and a coveted asset. But he is just another struggling young Sabre.

True. You generally don’t fault a goalie for goals on odd man rushes, but Luukkonen has and can make saves on those and they do impact games. This is not on him. I don’t blame any player for this. The players are lost and defeated. The owner and GM are guilty of malpractice and should be ashamed.

You could see tonight his confidence is gone. Slow reactions, not getting to his proper depths.

I guess you are right. We could be selling before Christmas.

I’m skeptical, but it would fit in with the mounting evidence of an internal cap. For the Sabres to bring in a player, money will have to go out.

I'm not saying Granato did the most amazing job or anything. But he definitely got the team to over-achieve slightly in 21-22 and by quite a bit in 22-23. Last year, the Sabres finished about where the models projected them to finish (83-56 points) based on talent and experience. This year we are grossly underachieving. We don't have a playoff roster, but we should not be a sub-70 point team and a legit contender for the 1st O/A pick, either. There is more to this than Ruff to be sure. I really do think that it has now fully sunk in for the core players on this team that they are not good enough on their own and they are not getting any help from ownership or management. Ruff isn't a great coach though, in my view. There are reasons for why he has never been high on the list as an option for contending teams. We would not have been worse off with Granato, in hindsight. I would prefer Todd Nelson; there is recent precedent for poaching another organization's AHL coach mid-season.

I think you are right. This is why when O’Reilly lost his love for the game and when Eichel asked for a trade, Pegula didn’t look in the mirror, but rather thought “get these ungrateful punks out of here”.

The Fenway group being interested in the Bruins makes lots of sense. Delaware North having interest in the Sabres makes some sense to me. Pegula getting the Penguins in the deal is the tough part for me to wrap my head around. The NHL will remember how awful things were in Pittsburgh pre-Lemieux and again pre-Crosby. Letting one of the league’s current worst owners take over that market doesn’t seem like a great idea.

By being cheap Pegula is ensuring that his biggest potential revenue stream is significantly under-maximized. I did the math on what Pegula spending $8 million more on Sabres salaries would be relative to his net worth, and it would be like a family buying a couch. Not a really nice couch either. This would be like a couch from the Brick (perfectly fine…no disrespect to the Brick, where I have bought some things over the years). And all the couch gets a family is a place to sit, it doesn’t open up potential revenue streams.

I’m ready to try Cozens on wing. I stand by my view though that he would be a better centre with better wingers. I would like to see him get 6-10 games with Tuch and Zucker as his wingers. It’s not a crazy expectation for a “playoff” team to give its young 7 million $ centre, a couple of capable and experienced wingers. Of course, it would leave Thompson playing with the kids, so not likely to be a net positive for anyone but Cozens.