Archie Lee

Move out Quinn and they have over $8 million in space to add a legit veteran top-6 forward.

UPL has to be better. He can’t let his confidence and technique slip so easily if he wants to be a good NHL goalie. But… When Ruff got to Dallas, his goalie was Kari Lehtonen. Lehtonen’s career save % was .912. Without Ruff it was .914. With Ruff .908. One season post-Ruff .912. (Note: league wide, save %’s were higher then). When Ruff got to Jersey, his goalie was Mackenzie Blackwood. Career save % .906. Without Ruff .909. With Ruff .889. Post-Ruff .905. UPL career .898. Without Ruff .904. With Ruff .887. Maybe a coincidence. But we might need to see UPL with a different coach and/or team to know how good he is.

I agree with your point that these are not kids. It remains for me though, that they are collectively young and inexperienced. Individually, any of them could fit in and play their role on a playoff/contending team. What is unclear is if they are talented enough to overcome* their collective youth and inexperience. *They also will likely need to overcome that they will not be playing within a sound, easily repeatable, defensive structure. I acknowledge that Ruff knows more about coaching hockey than I could learn in a dozen lifetimes, and also that he has not been blessed with having the most talented teams to coach since he left Buffalo. But it is undeniable that his teams have been bad defensively on a pretty consistent basis. Our D will not be playing in a system that demands structure and accountability and that is repeatable night after night, like the systems of a Cassidy, DeBoer, Maurice, or Brind’Amour.

Seems like a supremely talented individual who needs an organization that gives him the right linemates and puts him in a position to be successful doing what he does well.

Since Lindy Ruff was fired as Sabre head coach in 2012, here is where his teams have finished in expected goals against all situations and goals against above expected all situations (source is MoneyPuck, the 1st # is expected goals against and the 2nd # is goals against above expected; 1 is the best, 30-32 is the worst). 2013-14 Dallas: 25 / 7 2014-15 Dallas: 23 / 29 2015-16 Dallas: 20 / 23 2016-17 Dallas: 29 / 20 2020-21 Jersey: 27 / 27 2021-22 Jersey: 15 / 31 2022-23 Jersey: 3 / 14 2023-24 Jersey: 23 / 27 2024-25 Buffalo: 28 / 25 Averages: 21st in expected goals against and 22nd in goals against above expected. This is the guy that Pegula and Adams were so sure would bring structure and defensive focus to a group of young players craving to be held accountable, that they eschewed an actual coaching search and just hired him. We are learning, I think, that there is more to defense, structure, and accountability than just yelling at players to manage the puck better. The good news, I guess, is that that there are two big outliers. We can hope that some combination of our goalies does for the Sabres what the Dallas goalies did in 2013-14 and they far out-play the defense in front of them. Or, we can hope that we somehow just play most of the season in the other team's end, like Jersey did in 22-23. Goaltending absolutely needs to be better. Under Ruff, goalies typically need to have near heroic performances to overcome what happens in front of them.

It is interesting. There are two approaches one could take to these details, both quite reasonable. 1.) We are sleeping a bit on Doan. He is far from a throw-in. He has the potential to be a force in the middle-six as soon as this year and may have much higher upside than fans are generally crediting for. And/Or 2.) We are probably higher on Kulich than the rest of the league is. The idea that he is a near untouchable piece is a bit absurd. The way to get better is to do what Utah did and trade two pretty good players with upside for a player who has already figured it out. We should have packaged Kulich in a deal for the better player, rather than deal the better player for a couple of guys with upside.

The Sabres could be better next year than they were this past year, for many reasons. It’s not likely they will be better because they got rid of Peterka.

You can’t add good players without trading good players. If there is a flaw in my idea, it’s that Quinn and Samuelsson are not likely viewed as being good players by the rest of the league.

No it wouldn’t. It would be a mistake to trade them for nothing or give them away. But trading them for veterans who help us get over this streak and into the playoffs would be a win. A huge win. I’m not suggesting they be traded for junk.

The Sabres will have $5 million in cap space, give or take a bit, after Timmins is signed. Take the salaries of Kulich, Quinn, and Samuelsson and they could have $14 million in space. Imagine replacing those 3 players with two veteran middle 6 forwards and a veteran 3rd pair d-man who make a combined $12-14 million. The Sabres would still be younger than average. They would still have a better than average prospect pool.

I so agree with this. I will eventually watch this one, on a day when I’ve run out of other things that interest me to watch or listen to. But I can’t get myself to do so now. Just seeing the Jarmo quote about taming the Tiger, makes me cringe. It’s this year’s Lindy Ruff will influence the roster canard. I’m not sure if they are dumb or they think we are dumb (likely both, I guess). They needed a veteran former GM with a less than mediocre track record to come in and tell them that it is easier to get a player like Benson to stop taking bad penalties than it is to get a player like Quinn to go to the front of the net? Oh boy.

I would have thought the flat mgmt structure ended when Krueger left. It seemed with Adams and Granato, that it was a pretty standard GM/HC dynamic and a typical hierarchy. Ruff’s stature and his reported relationship with Pegula, probably means things have now changed back a bit. I don’t have any evidence, but the last couple of times that Adams has been asked in a press conference about Ruff’s presence and influence, I’ve sensed less than whole-hearted enthusiasm on Adams’s part. I don't think Ruff was Adams’s pick. I realize that for many fans (most?), Pegula wanting Ruff saved us from Adams’s choice of Appert. But it all just speaks to a very messed up situation. More and more it is just obvious that Pegula got lucky with the Bills and that our only real hope is that he gets lucky when he picks the next Sabre GM.

I guess Montreal getting in last year is evidence to support it could happen. Also, the Sabres missing by a point 2 years ago is similarly evidence that it is possible. Adams continues to try to accomplish the unlikely though. The hockey DB page lists a player's age at the start of training camp as their age for that season (at least it seems that is what they do). Connor Timmins is the oldest of our d-men who are likely to be the 6 roster players for game one (injuries aside). He will be listed on the Sabres 25-26 roster page on the hockey DB site, as being in his age 26 season. Dahlin, Samuelsson, and Kesslering will be in their age 25 years. Byram 24. Power 22. Looking back at the last 5 years, the only playoff team with a D that young is the 20-21 Avalanche. They of course, had elite level forward talent. Obviously our defenseman as individuals, are all capable of helping a team into the playoffs. Byram and Timmins were on that Avalanche team. I don't understand what Adams has against bringing in additional veteran players though. He certainly is not acting like a GM who is under any pressure from the owner to get in the playoffs any time soon.

I’m an unabashed Krebs fan. I think he will be a Yanni Gourde / Alex Killorn middle-6 glue player for a really good NHL team one day.

Love it. Put them together and if it works like it did last year, don't spend a second worrying about whether Bryam would work with a different partner.

I personally don't think the Sabres have a depth issue at forward. Certainly not like they did two off-seasons ago, when Quinn was injured. That year they went into camp with a hole in the forward group that they intended to fill with the rookie who had the best camp. It ended up being Benson. This year, there is no spot being left open for the highest performing 18-20 year old in camp. There isn't even a spot open for Rosen, who at 22 and having been a scoring leader in the AHL, should be in-line for a middle-6 opportunity on a line with actual NHL players. I would have no great issue if we traded a 3rd or Rosen or Kozak or the like for Chinakhov; I wouldn't myself, but if it happens it won't register for me as material to the goal of Playoffs-2026. It just isn't what the Sabres need. I think, to become a playoff team, we need to trade some combination of Kulich, Quinn, a prospect, a high draft pick, for Necas or Rossi or McTavish, who would upgrade our top 6.

Honestly, I’m not sure that would get us Rust. I like all three players. But I think that would be like getting McTavish for a 2nd and two 3rds. Or maybe two 2nds and a 3rd. The two young roster forwards that we have with real trade value, are probably Kulich and Benson. If we are upgrading at centre, which we should be trying to do, then Kulich should be on the table in my view.

I watched a lot of Jake Leschyshyn’s junior career. He tore his ACL in his draft year. He would have been a much higher pick without the injury, I think. Not that this was ever a direct comparison, but he was definitely seen as a Drury-type of two-way centre with leadership skills. Obviously it hasn’t worked out though. I think he can be a good vet for the Amerks.

Quinn is the only forward that Columbus would plausibly want, that makes sense to me, from the Sabres perspective. I’m not opposed to trading Quinn at all, but I don’t think a “change of scenery” trade makes a lot of sense here. Also, while I’ve nothing against Chinakhov (I mostly just know him as the guy Jarmo took the big reach on), he doesn’t seem like a missing piece for the Sabres.

Curtis's son.

Connor is gonna get paid. Do you think the Jets are going to risk him walking like Ehlers? And Sabre fans, how do you feel about 30 year old Alex Tuch at $10 x 8? My guess is that Adams assumed the Sabres would be a playoff team the last two years and he would be extending Peterka and Quinn on big deals, trading Tuch for futures, and getting ready to promote Rosen.

I think this is looking in the wrong place. Q: Who are the personalities setting the wrong tone? A: Pegula, Adams, and Ruff. Q: How are Pegula, Adams, and Ruff setting the wrong tone? A: They are the worst owner, GM, HC combination in the NHL. - Pegula has never made the playoffs in a full-season as an NHL owner; 14 years and counting. - Adams has not make the playoffs in 5 years as a GM. No GM in the post-expansion era (since 1967) has started his career going 0 for 5 in making the playoffs with the same team, and then gone on to have success with that team. Only one went on to eventually be known as a good GM; Don Waddell redeemed himself in Carolina. - Ruff is the oldest coach in the NHL. He finished third in the Athletic's Coach I Would Not Want to Play For poll last year. He has made the playoffs once in his last 6 seasons as a head coach, posting a .444 winning %. In the 5 of those years that his team missed the playoffs, his team's average position in goals against is 28th. There is nothing that can be done about Pegula. Let's hope he finds a way to do a better job hiring the next GM. If there is a culture issue among the players, it is related to the failures of the men in charge.

Goalies in Levi’s position get $875 to $950 deals.

Why would we pay Levi more than $900k?

And we traded Peterka for two guys making a combined 2.3 million. Reverse that trade and we are right against the cap.