Archie Lee

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

Agreed. But the system isn’t Wilford’s. The system is Ruff’s.

In defense of Wilford, re: Power. Didn't a whole boatload of evidence just get posted that shows Power has actually been really good? Did Wilford decide to not spend money and assets to get Power a veteran D partner the last 3 years? The Sabres started a new rebuild when Adams fired Kreuger. The next year Granato brought in Wilford as one of his coaches. From 21-22 through 22-23, progress seemed to be reasonably good for our young defenders and team in general. Prior to 23-24, Adams completely failed to recognize the moment when the team needed to make moves that would position them as a clear playoff team. Instead, he brought in Johnson and Clifton and banked on internal growth. That year the team regressed to 84 points from the previous year's 91; but, it should be noted, the 23-24 pre-season point-projection-models, had the Sabres right around 83-86 points. I would argue that the outlier in the Granato years was not the 23-24 regression, but the surprise 91 point season of 22-23. Then, Granato is fired and Ruff is brought in and we see further regression. In Power's game. In UPL's game. In Samuelsson's game. In Quinn's game. Did Wilford start sucking (or sucking more) as an assistant? Or, did we hire a 65 year old with 3 playoff appearances in his last 11 as a head coach (2 actual winning seasons), whose recent teams have, pretty consistently if not every year, had bad defensive and goaltending metrics? I'm not saying they can't do better than Wilford. I don't wish him any ill will, but I don't spend too much time worrying about fired assistant coaches. I'm not directing this at anyone, but to the general fan view that people have of Wilford; that Wilford has become a stand-in for the failings of the Sabres to become a better defensive team, is pretty weak sauce in my view.

The part I don’t get is the “McLeod only had 53 points because he got more ice time” part. I mean, yeah, of course. He got top 6 minutes and produced legit top 6 numbers. Not elite top 6 numbers, but legit. Wouldn’t the issue be if he didn’t produce top 6 numbers? I don’t get why this is anything but a good news, “found money”, story. Maybe it isn’t sustainable, but we will see. I know this, of all the Sabre centres, the one I am least concerned with is McLeod.

I think he is a development coach.

Agree with everything but the Skinner part. It’s true they did not need to buy him out last year. But, the buyout cost this year and the next 3 years is nearly identical to what it would have been had they waited until this year to do the buyout.

With Byram, our D is still a little younger and a little less-experienced than ideal. Also, as a group they lack a bit of needed anger I remember when Appert coached Samuelsson in Rochester, he described Samuelsson as "nasty to play against". I took that to mean Samuelsson hit everything, was tough in front of the net, was liberal with use of his stick as a weapon, etc. If Samuelsson was 50% of what Appert sold him as, it would go a long way to bridging the nastiness shortage that the blueline has. That said, with Byram or a good veteran replacement, I like our D. Their issues, in my opinion, aren't from a lack of talent or courage or development. I think their issues relate to structure and system.

A few things. 1) This isn't happening. All of the Flames players noted have trade protection. It’s not likely they will be dealt to the Sabres if at all. Also, even if the Flame players were available, my guess is that Adams sees Kulich as near to untouchable. 2) Long term the trade is probably bad. While none of Byram, Kulich, or Quinn are sure things to be high-level NHL players 5 years from now, it can safely be said that Kadri, Coleman, and Andersson won’t be. So, the questions would be: Does the trade push the Sabres to being a playoff level team? And, if so, how important is it to end this horrid streak? From my perspective, it would make our roster playoff level. Kadri is better than Kulich and Coleman is better than Quinn. Andersson is not better than Byram, but we would need a replacement for Byram and Andersson would certainly be capable of riding shotgun with Dahlin for a year. Bigger picture, the trade would alter the make-up of the team and I think add much needed experience, physicality, and attitude. I think the addition of these players would make existing players better. Finally, I think ending the streak is critical and that putting it behind the franchise would do more for the future than the players given up would do. That said, how certain am I that it would be successful? Not very. And, would I have the courage to make the trade if I was the GM? Probably not.

I appreciate the fan-exercise of discussing if a particular player would be a good addition. Put me in the YES column on Kadri. If the Sabres traded Byram, Kulich, and Quinn to Calgary for Andersson, Kadri, and Coleman, I think it would make them a playoff level team. Many fans would cringe, particularly at the Kulich part of that trade, but the Sabres would still have Benson, Helenius, Östlund, Wahlberg, Ziemer, Mrtka, Strbak, Kleber, and their 2026 1st rounder. Not to mention that Norris, Thompson, McLeod, Doan, Krebs, Dahlin, Power, Kesselring, are all under team control for the foreseeable future. Kadri is 2 years younger than Marchand, who just signed a 6 year deal with Florida. Those Panthers and their failure to think about the future! It will cost them...some day. That said, Kardi is a pipe dream at the moment. He has a full NMC. There are multiple NHL teams with boatloads of cap-space. If the Flames decide to trade him and he agrees, then Kadri will have his choice of destinations amongst multiple suitors who are better positioned to appeal to him. And, this is not a city of Buffalo thing , it's a Pegula/Adams/Ruff thing.

Pronman at the Athletic has his “way too early” 2026 mock draft up today. The draft order for the mock was set using current betting lines. The Sabres draft 6th in the mock. Only Pittsburgh from the East draft earlier than the Sabres. Pretty useless info, but nonetheless an early indicator of how some view the Sabre off-season. Utah picked 17th. The Sabres took Ethan Belchatz, a RW from Windsor.

I agree, but Carolina isn't swimming in toughness, size, grit, and wankery. Yet they are consistently among the top 5-6 teams in the NHL. When they lost to the Panthers last year, there was the beginning of "Brind'Amour won't get them over the top" talk. It's crazy. They are 80% Brind'Amour. The Sabres need more of that element, but we need not worry about competing with the Panthers. For now, we just need to bridge the cap between us and Montreal, Ottawa, NJ.

This is just my opinion, but I think this speaks more to how good Dahlin is than it does to how bad the rest of the D is. Dahlin is elite. The rest of the D, mostly, would thrive or be fine in a better system. Dahlin is so good that he rises above; put him on a contender and he is maybe the best there is. It cannot be overstated, how much Dahlin's talent is being wasted.

No team got "Panthered" in the playoffs, more than the Hurricanes. It's interesting to me that they have not made any significant attempt to address the grit-gap between then and Florida (Miller perhaps does this to a minor degree). To me, it speaks to the reality that there really are not that many players in the Tkachuk, Bennett, Marchand mold. It's easy to say that a team needs players like that, but how many of them are there? Somehow, 31 NHL GMs fell asleep and let Zito acquire 3 of them.

I wholly agree with your first paragraph on Timmons, and partially on your JBD comments. On Timmons, there is nothing to be upset with management about him going to arbitration. The Sabres knew he was eligible and I'm certain they have a good idea what the potential ranges are for an award, if it gets that far. At worst he is awarded a bit more than what the Sabres would prefer, but nothing that messes with the salary structure. On JBD, I agree that it was obvious that it was never the case that JBD was the cost of the 2nd rd pick. Where I disagree a bit, is that I think it was fair for Sabre fans to look at that trade in its totality and to assume that the Sabres saw some added value with JBD. Post-trade, rightly or wrongly, pretty much the entire hockey world thought Ottawa was getting the better player or, at least, the player with the better upside. So, Sabre fans can be forgiven for not understanding why we were getting back an older player, who has a history of significant injuries, and who makes more money, and who has less long-term upside, AND we were adding the 2nd rd pick. That JBD was a youngish, former 1st rd R-shot D, seemed to offset the loss of the 2nd rounder at least a bit. That JBD then played fairly well and was praised by Adams at year-end, just makes the decision to not qualify him seem even more odd. Further, if the Sabres end up extending Byram and Timmons at a conservative $10 Million combined, that will leave them with a full roster and almost $4 million in cap space. An extra $500-600k on an AAV for JBD, was not going to be impactful.

Ahhh Ruff. Remember the stretch prior to the 13 game losing streak when Thompson was injured and McLeod played in the top 6 and the team went 4-1 including 3 wins in California. And then Thompson returned and Ruff put McLeod on the 4th line.

I recognize you are speculating. Power at $8.35 million in the sheltered Jason Woolley role, would be...something. If this is the sort of combinations and usage that Ruff is looking at, then I think they would be better to package Byram and a forward for a big upgrade upfront, and put Power with Dahlin, and play Zac Jones with Timmins. Jones is more analogous to Woolley than Power is, I think. Or sign Byram and trade Power in the package for the big forward upgrade. The Rangers tried hard to make Zac Jones and Schneider a thing. We might be sleeping on him a bit as an option for the 3rd pair. Of course, Woolley's value was that he was a better PP option than any of the top-4 at the time. That won't be the case for anyone like Jones in our current lineup. Byram and Norris for Pettersson and Forbort would be very risky, but I'm not sure if it would be more risky than Norris at $7.95 million + Byram at whatever a long-term extension would cost. EDIT: I keep forgetting that Pettersson now has a full NMC; so we can scratch him as being an option for the Sabres for the foreseeable future (to the relief of many!).

Here are a couple of things in defense of Luukkonen. 1.) Per MoneyPuck, Luukkonen's goals save below expected were nearly identical to that of Saros and Swayman. Both have larger track records than Luukkonen, but the connection is that those are both considered to be good goalies who posted bad #'s on bad teams. Maybe that is what Luukkonen also was last year. 2.) At his best Luukkonen is a blocker; he is a positional goalie who uses his size and lets the puck come to him and who has the athleticism to make some highlight reel saves when needed. At his worst, he is chasing the game; that is when you see him 4 feet out of his crease to the left or the right of, or behind, the net. To me, it was obvious that there was a point last season where he was being shelled night after night and where he lost confidence and over-compensated by reverting to bad habits (chasing the puck). Is that always going to be his issue? Or, can he reset in the off-season and as he matures find a way to simply play the game that he is best at? I don't know. I think he would thrive under certain coaches and in certain structures. I don't think Ruff is the right coach. Although Ruff spoke at the end of the year of being unable to blame Luukkonen until he could get the team to do a better job with puck management, I am skeptical that Ruff is a coach who can do that.

I'm pretty negative on where the Sabres are at. Here is my attempt at some optimism, with a side of serious negativity, topped with a healthy serving of "I've been wrong before". NHL teams spending $5-$8 million below the cap, might not be a sign of mailing-it-in, like it has been in past years. This is a year where the increase in the cap has left some teams without enough good players to sign. There may be multiple good teams - expected playoff teams - that will spend $89-$91 million this year and will carry a lot of space for trade deadline additions. So, the Sabres coming in at $90 million, or thereabouts, shouldn't in itself be viewed as meaning they aren't icing a wild-card level team. The Sabres have 3 players who, if they stay healthy over most of the season, should keep them from being among the league's very worst teams. Dahlin is a legit top 10 (top 5, I think) NHL defenseman. Thompson and Tuch are legit 1st line NHL wingers. Thompson is among the best goal-scorers in hockey. Tuch is among the league's best two-way wingers. They both can drive their own lines, making our lack of having clear top-6 centres a little less of an issue (still an issue though, to be certain). The Sabres have many young players who might be poised to take a step forward in Benson, Quinn, Kulich, Doan, Power, and Byram (for now). While they have some good veterans (Zucker, Greenway, McLeod, Danforth, a healthy Norris), this is an area where I think they could still use 2-3 additions. Swap in Fowler and Rust for Byram and Quinn (not straight up), and I think the Sabres could be a better team if not more talented. UPL is a year removed from playing like a legit NHL starter. I think this team could make a WC position, provided I am very wrong on one very important person: Lindy Ruff. This is how down I am on Lindy Ruff: If I could, right now, replace Adams or Ruff, I would choose Ruff. And it isn't close. I think that when you change a head coach you look to bring in a person who creates a positive culture change and breathes new life into a dressing room. I think Ruff did the opposite of that. I think, at this stage of his career, he is neither a system coach nor is he a culture/vibes coach. I think his time has past. I think that as bad as things were a year ago with the roster, the issues were magnified by having a below average tactician as an NHL head coach, who also lacks the ability to relate to today's players. I think Ruff's hiring set the team back. That said, I have been very wrong before. If I'm very wrong on Ruff, then I think there could be reason for some optimism.

I appreciate the optimism, but from my angle he holds almost no cards. He's a 6th year GM who has never made the playoffs and who has at present assembled a team and staff that will be predicted to make the playoffs in 25-26 by nobody except the most optimistic of Sabre fans (I mean no disrespect to optimistic Sabre fans as I was one just 14 months ago). And the big thing he has accomplished this off-season is to protect the Sabres against a potential offer-sheet on a player who, let's be honest, nobody is 100% certain is actually good (at least in the $7-9 million AAV context).

I think this is true. I don't think they are as down on Samuelsson as the fanbase is. If Byram is dealt and a top 4D does not come back, then I think the top-4 is likely just Dahlin, Power, Kesselring, and Samuelsson, in some configuration.

The goaltending argument is letting Adams and Ruff off the hook in my view. It’s putting the outcome of the season on an unpredictable variable: Is this the year they get better than average goaltending (they did in 23-24 and it didn’t get them in). As though roster construction, experience, talent, coaching, special teams, culture, etc., are inconsequential in their impacts on the final result.

I'll reserve judgment. For now, I see a GM whose off-season has been dictated to him by a couple of young players who don't want to be here. I don't see a GM who is proactively working a plan to take his team into the playoffs.

I think it is just that 9 million isn't what it used to be. It's July 4th and there are 19 teams with $5 million in cap space and 14 with $10 million. And many of those teams have no notable RFA's left to sign. I don't think he will get $9, but the floating of $9 maybe gets him $8 - $8.5.

General question, not directed specifically to you: Why should a fan believe that Danforth and Doan are different than Lafferty, Aube-Kubel, and Malenstyn?

Fowler has a 4 team trade list. My guess is that the Sabres are not one of the 4 teams he would accept a trade to. The Sabres would need a D back I think. And the Blues would need to shed some space to extend Byram. Would Broberg be a good partner for Dahlin? Broberg and Neighbors for Byram and…