Archie Lee

Quinn for Marchment would be exactly that type of move. Every team in the league that wants to make the playoffs (and has the cap space) would take Marchment over Quinn for the coming season.

Frondell’s interesting in that most who rate him highly acknowledge your concerns. Yet he is still rated as high as #3. It seems he is seen as a safe pick. I haven’t seen him play. Is he Lundell with a shot?

The Sabres currently have 15 forwards whose skill, contract, or developmental progress, puts them in the NHL or at an NHL calibre for next season (Thompson, Norris, Benson, Peterka, Mcleod, Tuch, Zucker, Kulich, Greenway, Quinn, Malenstyn, Krebs, Lafferty, Kozak, Rosen). The Sabres don’t have the roster spots or the cap space to just move out Byram and some picks and prospects for upgrades. Sure, they can dump 4th liners like Lafferty or Krebs or Malenstyn, but their salaries are such that dumping them only makes room for comparably paid players. We don’t have the cap space to add another Zucker or Greenway unless we move out a comparable contract. We could move an overpaid D-man like Clifton, but we want D upgrades which would mean paying more for the new D-man than we are paying Clifton. To summarize, we can’t keep every young NHL player (except for Byram) AND add multiple quality veteran talents. Change will mean some good young players (Quinn, Peterka, Byram being the most likely), will need to be moved. Otherwise, it’s just mostly status quo. This is the reality of our roster situation.

The top 5 aren’t falling to us. Frondell likely goes top 5-7 too, I think. After those 6, I can find traits and upside in your 6-13 (and Mrtka) that would leave me feeling good if we drafted any of them. Cheers for the work!

Obviously the series is far from over, but it is interesting to watch how the moment can draw performance out of players. Kapanan, Podkolzin, Walman, Klingberg, Connor Brown. All available to any team for peanuts (or less). All laying it on the line.

Any discussion on Rossi and the Sabres, should include a discussion on who he would replace at centre. Norris makes little sense. While there are question marks on the durability of Norris, the concept of his two-way game means Rossi is not an upgrade. McLeod also makes no sense. McLeod is the ideal 3C who can play up in the line-up, kill penalties and match-up with the opposition’s top line. Kulich…is where Rossi is an upgrade (maybe). Rossi is 31 months older than Kulich, and is coming off a 60 point season, and is the playmaking centre the Sabres don’t have. Rossi (assuming he has another level of offence to come), Norris (healthy), McLeod, and Krebs, could be a pretty solid centre spine. Still real young though. I wonder about a Peterka/Kulich for Rossi/Ohgren trade. I think Minny would need to add. It doesn’t help in the grit or experience categories. I think I would pass on my own idea.

In a vacuum, I would be excited for a Robertson acquisition. I’m not sure it would be a slam-dunk though. Robertson’s production and defensive metrics have been produced while playing almost exclusively with one of the best two-way centres in the NHL (Hintz), on one of the league’s top 5 teams, under elite head coaches (Bowness, then DeBoer). I would not go so far as to say he is fully a product of his environment (clearly he is talented), but we might be trading for a 70 point winger whose great two-way metrics were driven by his centre and team structure.

I may be wrong, but I think Peterka holds far more value than Norris. Peterka, I think, is viewed as a potential star scoring winger (he is practically that already). Norris would be viewed as a huge injury risk with an enormous contract.

Agreed. The Sabres started last season with a top 6 of: Peterka / Thompson / Tuch Benson / Cozens / Quinn It is not that any of those players were not NHL ready, it is that 4 of them were 23 and under. Then, when the first injury happened, we called up 20 year old Kulich. And Krebs was our 4th line C. And Byram and Power were in our top 4 D. And Levi was our back-up goalie. Most of these guys were ready for a role. All of them on the roster, in key positions, at the same time, was not a plan for success. It was a GM in over his head.

Jarmo doesn't thrill me. But I could actually see this scenario playing out with one change: I don't think Jarmo accepts Appert as his HC. I think Adams likes Appert, and I think Appert is seen as a potential replacement for Ruff, but I don't think it's an etched in stone thing. If we see Jarmo ascend to GM, I think he picks his own coach. I actually think that Lindy Ruff would be the sort of coach that Kekalainan would hire (which is not a positive for me).

I could not be more down on the Adams/Ruff combo. I think it is the worst combo in the East and maybe in the league. It is hard for me to find anything Sabre-related to be hopeful about. But, I did find the article to paint a bit of a good news / bad news scenario. The good news, is that I didn't read anything in the article that made me think a good GM could not thrive under Pegula. I don't see anything here that supports Pegula is forcing Adams to make bad decisions. Pegula, to me, just wants to be involved, kept in the loop, and listened to. He didn't force Adams to trade Eichel and Reinhart. He didn't force Adams to sign Cozens, Samuelsson, Power, and UPL to long-term deals. He didn't force Adams to extend Jokiharju at $3 million or sign Lafferty at $2 million. He approved these things, but he wasn't the driving force behind them. A capable and qualified GM with good leadership skills, would make better decisions and have no trouble convincing Pegula to support his plan. Pegula's big flaw, is that he has failed, repeatedly, to identify the right person for the GM position and, after 2 big misses, he compounded the mistake by insulating himself from outside opinion. The bad news is pretty bad though. That Pegula is stubbornly sticking with Adams is not good. With each year that passes without the Sabres getting it right, they drift further from credibility. Their reputation (the franchise, the brand, Pegula's) just becomes more and more damaged. There is zero reason to think they are on a path to getting it right this year. I know I'm drawing an arbitrary line here, but since 2020-2021, Adams is 0-5 for the playoffs, Ruff is 1-4, and Kekalainan is 0-4. This is not the group of men that any serious professional sports franchise would entrust with ending a 14 year playoff drought. I think success can happen under Pegula. Not with this group of men in key roles though.

On Reinhart and Eichel finishing top 5 in the Selke voting (along with Ullmark's Vezina and O'Reilly's Conn Smythe). What more evidence is needed of the general incompetence of the Pegula-era? Since the Regier firing, the franchise has been rudderless. No plan, no leadership, and a lack of skill and aptitude in the most crucial GM position, has led to the squandering of valuable assets. As of now, there is no reason to think this is over. On Maurice's record in Florida. The year prior to Maurice taking over, the Panthers won the President's Trophy under (mostly) Andrew Brunette. In 2022-23, Maurice was one Sabre win (and two end of season Pittsburgh losses to bottom of the standing Chicago and Columbus) from missing the playoffs in his first season as Panther coach. If instead of the Panthers sneaking in and going on a long run to the finals, had they missed the playoffs one year after finishing 1st overall, who knows what Panther ownership does in the spring of 2023. Had Adam been more proactive at the 2023 deadline, the Sabres might have stopped the Florida juggernaut before it ever got traction.

My view is the Bills are bordering on great because of Josh Allen. Had they not found Allen, then Beane and McDermott would have prioritized bringing in a veteran QB who would have helped them be a good, if not elite, team. Of course, Pegula might have fired them after a couple of 10-7 WC seasons, but I think the Bills have been in good hands with Beane and McDermott.

“Career suicide” is a strong term. I think this is similar to the Ruff hire. Kekalainen, like Ruff, I think is well respected in the hockey community, but not necessarily highly regarded for his recent work. If things get worse here rather than better, it certainly isn’t going to help Kekalainan get a new GM job (well, maybe in Buffalo). It’s also similar to the Ruff hire in that, like last off-season with Ruff, you can expect that every perceived “good” move made by the Sabres this summer will be touted as having “Kekalainan’s influence all over it”. That is, as with Ruff, until those moves don’t work, in which case it will be all Adams’s fault and Kekalainan will get the “how could he have known it was this bad” pass.

Thanks for this. I get it, Karmanos and the analytics team were not in place in 2020. I remember being very excited when they announced "Buffalo selects from the Ottawa 67's...", thinking it would be Rossi, and then being very disappointed when it was actually Quinn. I can't remember the exact statistic, but there was something about Rossi's draft year scoring level that historically has always translated into a star-level player. But, it was less than a year ago that a pretty common view among fans on this board was that Quinn was nearly untouchable. So, I'm not sure we have the final outcome of this just yet.

And Housley.

Sure, but I was asking why some in our front office would have a bias against Rossi when they drafted Savoie and Benson. It doesn’t seem that our front office is averse to drafting smaller players. That we passed on Rossi for Quinn, setting aside our individual opinions on whether that was a good decision, doesn’t mean they didn’t like Rossi (necessarily).

Why did they pass on him? Was it just that they saw Quinn as a better prospect, or were there perceived flaws in Rossi’s game? The same front office drafted Savoie and Benson.

I used to have a boss who would respond to me describing how I felt about something by saying, "That's great Archie, but what do you think about it." He wasn't my favorite person to work for. If I was making an analogy to coaching, I would say that Kekalainan is to being an NHL GM as Dave Hakstol is to being an NHL head coach, or vice versa. Kekalainan was a GM for longer than Hakstol was a head coach (11 years to 7 years), but GM's tend to get a longer leash. Both made the playoffs about 1/2 the time and had minor success once they got there. Ultimately, neither could find consistent success. I won't try to tell anyone how they should feel or think about this (or anything), but I'll ask this question: How would you feel about the Sabres adding Dave Hakstol to Ralph Krueger's coaching staff? I think, that I would feel like it is better to add some NHL head coaching experience to the staff rather that just having Steve Smith and Don Granato, but ultimately Ralph Krueger is still the head coach (not good). As for Hakstol then being a natural replacement for Krueger, well he would have been an upgrade, but Hakstol would not have been my first choice to be the Sabres' head coach.

Sorry to be the Debbie Downer, but there are a couple of reasons for why this really doesn't move the needle for me. First, Kevyn Adams is still the GM. If Adams were fired (or promoted) and Kekalainen was being brought in as the new GM or as an advisor to Karmanos, I would be somewhat happy; that would be almost solely from the perspective of: this can't be worse than Adams. As is, this amounts to Adams getting a chance at a reset. In the shoot-out era (no more ties), Pierre Dorian is the only GM to have a job longer than Adams while producing a worse points %. Adams is bad at being a GM and bringing in someone to advise him in year 6, is not a solution. I'm not excited about Adams potentially getting a mulligan. Second, Kekalainen had had, at best, mediocre results in his time as a GM. He has a .471 winning %. He missed the playoffs his last 4 years in Columbus. He recently hired Mike Babcock; not the 2015 version of Mike Babcock, but the 2023 version, who everyone knew was a world-class wanker. As an advisor, it may not be the worst thing (aside from who he is advising). As a First-In-Line-To-The GM-Position, it's at best a big meh for me. There will be those who see Kekalainen as GM as a big step up (he did make the playoffs 5 of 10 seasons in Columbus); but I think every time you hire a GM or HC you should be trying for a home-run. Each new hire in those positions is a chance to find The Guy who defines your franchise for years. Kekalainen is almost certainly not going to be our Jim Nill, or Bill Zito, or Doug Armstrong. So, as Senior Advisor? Sure, but the big issue remains who he will be advising. And as a potential future GM? I guess he probably can't be worse.

On the Sabres goaltending, I think Levi needs to be viewed as the "Ace in the Hole". We don't know yet if Levi is (or will ever be) ready to be an NHL goalie, but there remains potential there. If he starts the season in Rochester, he gives the Sabres a potential 3rd starting goalie option, in the event things go south with the two goalies who start the year in he NHL. My preference, therefore, is to bring in a veteran who can at least physically withstand playing 40-45 games, to pair with UPL. Nedeljkovic with the Pens could be a trade target (I'm still on the Bryan Rust train as a vet forward add, so maybe we could pry both away from the Pens for the right combo of young players). Alex Lyon is a UFA. Demko is the obvious trade target if we wanted to add a starter (though his health might be an issue). The Canucks have committed long-term to Lankinen and, I think, they like Silvos. Of course, I think the single thing we could do to improve our defensive results and our goals against, and actually to move us to the playoffs, would be to replace Lindy Ruff with a better head coach. I think we are generally significantly underestimating how Ruff's system/structure (or lack of system/structure) negatively impacts goaltenders. I honestly don't think any goalie we could realistically bring in, will do well.

Oettinger has no trade protection for another year. I think we would need to take back Dumba or Lyubushkin. In the end, I don't think DeBoer was saying anything that isn't obviously true. Stuart Skinner outplayed Jake Oettinger two years in a row. I don't think that means anything for the long-term. If there is some kind or irreparable rift, then coaches (even really good coaches) are far more replaceable than elite goalies. A GM like Jim Nill won't have any trouble identifying the best young coach; and if that coach doesn't work out they will fire him and move on, quickly. What Jim Nill won't do is bring back Ken Hitchcock after an "exhaustive head coaching search". Yes, I just used a thread about our goaltending and a side discussion about Dallas/DeBoer/Oettinger, to again take a shot at Kevyn Adams.

On Domingue, I'm not sure if you were being serious, but his .926 last season was for only one game played in the NHL.

In 2021 the Panthers and Oilers both lost in round one. Since then, they have been the best playoff teams in the NHL. The Panthers have won 11 of 13 playoff series, going 45-27. The Oilers have won 9 of 12 playoff series, going 41-28. I don't think there is a lot to choose between the two teams. Both play excellent D. The Panthers maybe have a truculence edge, but the Oilers are not short in that area (Perry, Kane, Frederic, Nurse). The stars on these teams won't be intimidated. Bobrovsky probably gives the Panthers the edge in goal. And then there is McDavid. Should be great.

My best guess is that Adams, who himself has one year left based on most reporting, has no authority to extend Karmanos. I would bet that the vast majority of the higher profile contract employees in the front office and coaching staff, are heading into their last season under contract. Front offices and coaching staffs, don’t get more lame-duck than this.