Archie Lee

I think on balance he makes bad decisions. Post-tear-down, the caution he has shown in making trades and signing UFAs has shown mildly positive results for individual players, but has not had a positive overall impact in the standings (quite the opposite). I think it would be flawed to expect that if he becomes more aggressive in these areas that the results would be good. His aggressive contract extensions for young players have not gone well. His aggressive pursuit of Ruff, ignoring many good alternatives, has been a disaster. There is just no reason to think a more aggressive Kevyn Adams in the areas of trading or signing UFAs, would yield positive results.

The Sabres need to move on from Kevyn Adams (and Lindy Ruff). Judging any player in the bottom-of-the-league environment that Adams has created, in this Adams’s 5th year as GM, is a flawed endeavour. At this point, if Adams stays on, the best we can hope for is that Adams accidentally stumbles into a line-up that can hang in the playoff race until the last few days of the season. He has proven himself capable of nothing more as GM. The sample size is more than large enough to draw conclusions.

Byram’s most common d-pairs this season at 5v5: Dahlin 524 min, Power 237 min, Joker 102 min. Power’s: Samuelsson 261 min, Byram 237 min, Joker 235 min, Dahlin 104. Byram is getting 1st pairing time with a legit Norris calibre d-man. Power is getting shuttled from one struggling young vet to another. I’m suspicious that our views on Power/Byram would be the opposite if their common d-pairings were also. Adams and Ruff have treated Power disgracefully.

Maybe. But by that logic, we have no chance of extending Zucker or Greenway or any player with any value. Granlund and Ceci, the players I referenced as examples, are, not unlike Zucker, 2nd and 3rd level free agents who are at a point in their careers where they might be enticed by term.

Not quite. Vesey never had a contract and wasn’t obligated to report to the Sabres. Any pending UFA that the Sabres trade for now, is ours until July 1st. At some point the organization has to have some belief in itself and in the notion that if they can get a player here then they can keep him. Or maybe not, and we just keep on with the defeatist attitude that because Jimmy Vesey had dreams of being a Manhattan Socialite that means there are no NHL players who would decide to re-sign with the Sabres.

I googled “can an injured NHL player be bought out?” and everything that comes up says no, unless the player gives permission.

This. Under Ruff, the Sabres are currently on pace to finish with 75-76 points. That’s what Granato got out of the team in his first full season, when we were still tearing down and the goalies were Tokarski and Dell and the we were using players like Wil Butcher and Andres Bjork.

Makes one wonder about the value of our analytics department. Are they not doing their jobs or just not being listened to? Cap space, especially on a team with an internal cap, has value. Remove Cozens, Quinn, Samuelsson, and Joker from our line-up and that's over $15 million in cap space (more next season, with whatever raise Quinn will get).

Yeah. Last night it worked, for the most part, because we were playing Columbus. Had we been playing a better and healthier team, it may not have gone so well. The Sabres wouldn't be the first team to play the "get a lead and then clog the neutral zone" style. There is some logic to them learning how to "grind" out points. But they don't seem built for this game. I assume Adams/Ruff imagined they would be getting more from Aube-Kubel and Lafferty and, of course, Greenway. Weird to me though that the 13 game losing streak saw McLeod largely on line 4.

You have won me over (wore me out? 😀) on the Cozens is not a centre argument. Honest question though. In 2-3 seasons when the cap is $105-$113 million, could a 20-25 goal, 45-50 point, Cozens on the wing, work for $7.1 million? It seems that 2-3 years from now, that won’t be out of line. He still could be a physical presence as a winger in a playoff lineup.

Rosen doesn’t look small out there.

I don't know that it is. But Weekes's schtick is for cryptic posts when something might be happening. This is not an endorsement. Pierre LeBrun's TSN report has the Flames (and, he says, 2/3's of the NHL ) inquiring about Cozens. I assumed people knew at least that much.

Apparently there has been some speculation about Calgary being interested in Cozens.

Agreed. 1) New GM 2) New coaching staff 3) Targeted roster surgery. No need for a grenade. A good GM will get the job done with a scalpel.

I agree. I think the ratio of “guys who stand up for their teammates” to “guys who need a teammate to stand up for them” is not what it needs to be. This is on the GM. I have been very critical of Ruff. I think his hiring was a sham and that no legit NHL contender would have had any interest; further, I think he has done a worse job than I feared. In this case though, I think he was just standing up for his team. I think he sees they have been playing better lately and does not want this to become a distraction. I would bet it was addressed internally and that it won’t take much of a transgression by Columbus to get a response. Just my view.

Totally agree. Of those three, Outlaws is the only good option (and is actually pretty good).

I largely agree with this. I think this is a case where the general lack of response that this team has to these situations, going back many years, has caused this singular case to be magnified. But this is what happens when you overlay a team that has been bad as long as the Sabres have been with them also having a reputation for being soft. It all comes back to the team the GM has built and to the reality that he is not equipped to fix it.

Watching a lot of NHL hockey, I will say that it isn’t always clear when a team will respond and when they won’t in these situations. The issue with the Sabres is less about this one situation than it is that after all this time under Adams and with much being made about changing the culture and, to a degree, the make-up of the team under Ruff, they still don’t respond in these situations in general. If you are a team that typically responds, you can plausibly point to the game situation or to nobody on the ice seeing the hit. When you are a team that doesn’t typically respond, it all just seems like more excuses. Anyway, every failure today brings me back to the same thing: this is what we have after almost 5 years of Adams as GM. There is just no reason to think that he is capable of managing the big picture needs that have to be addressed for this team to become a playoff group.

Man do I disagree with this take. I don’t always agree with @mjd1001, but I find their posts to be thoughtful and often more interesting than what you would find in the sports pages. I like the short-form stuff too. Read what you like and skip what you don’t.

I suspect the barrier with Zucker will be $$$ and term. If Zucker wanted to play for a contender he could have signed for much less with a contending team each of the last two years. If the Sabres offer something similar in AAV for 2 years, I would be surprised if Zucker leaves.

This is so true. But the right mix doesn’t just mean more capable vets. It also means less inexperienced kids. If we ever get a capable GM and they strive to actually find this balance, it will mean some kids leaving.

You could not be more wrong.

Cody Ceci played 24 Stanley Cup playoff games last season and a Stanley Cup contender believes he upgrades their defence. He is precisely the type of right shot D-man we need to play on the 2nd pair with one of our young lefties.

It is a cautionary tale. Four years ago there were fans and media members unironically suggesting Cozens could replace Eichel as captain. Last off-season Quinn and Benson were the untouchable youngsters (some thought Quinn was our best forward). None of this is to say we should trade Kulich. As fans, we are not paid for our opinions. Eventually, if we are honest, we all will have bad takes. But the GM is paid to sort the signal from the noise. It is Adams’s job to determine who to keep and who to move. He seems paralyzed by fear of a mistake.

Well, they got a 1st and 4th for Granlund and Ceci. Granlund plays C and is out producing Zucker. Maybe this is crazy, but should a team like the Sabres be in on a deal like this? Granlund and Ceci would be good veteran adds. They are UFA’s, but acquiring them now would have given the Sabres a 5 month window to get them signed. We couldn’t offer a 1st, but the Dallas 1st is likely to be in the bottom 10. We could have offered a high 2nd, a 3rd in 2026, and/or a good young player or prospect. We should be past the stage of hoarding picks and prospects. Some risk needs to be taken at some point.