SabresVet

With the franchise deteriorating from the inside out and players wanting to leave, it's going to be less than stellar results first. I suspect the mantra in 2021-22 will center around how they have a great young core of talent that needs to develop. Certainly. But the team isn't better with, most likely, Eichel and Reinhart leaving. I'm not sure that a new HC who uses his players' strengths is enough to overcome a drop in talent. The NHL is too competitive. As to Munger's point...my expectations were that these owners would get out of the way (for the most part), hire good hockey people, and the team would succeed. 10+ years later ownership hasn't improved. Everything flows from there...which is why we're doing the very Billsy circa 2006-2010 era in-house hire dance.

Owners cutting costs in the front office, the top 2 forwards on the way out, and a youth movement in process. Of course their options at HC were limited. I had hopes they would hire someone with a NHL track record, but that would probably threaten a rookie GM and ever-insulated owners who don't see how much of a cluster they are. Granato won't be the problem, because it goes up the ladder for that.

Nothing wrong with that. At the same time, hiring Granato tells me they're going with the youth movement and that's gonna require some patience from the fans. It's likely the roster will be younger, led by a first-time NHL HC, and all under the watchful eye of a first-time GM without any experience building a roster as an executive.

Any decent HC interviewee was interviewing KA to see what his plan was. DG had some results with young kids and that's nice. But teams have more film on him and results don't always carry over from one season to another. Underwhelming hire, but not surprising.

If this were a real franchise, they'd have the org structure in place beginning at the top first. But they don't. It reminds me of the Islanders during the summer Tavares was moved. Lamoriello was hired, who in turn hired Trotz and NYI made a 23 point improvement the following season despite losing their best player. It takes high organizational aptitude do turn things around. There needs to be stability above the HC level to produce a winning team and the Sabres don't have that. It doesn't help to have Adams as the GM when he's seen as the owners' pet hire who doesn't have the latitude to act as a GM should.

Long time lurker, but here goes. The torches and pitchforks out for Jack are aiming a little low. He's not perfect, but definitely not the root cause to all the dysfunction either. Management and the people who hire them impact an organization more than your best player does. To that point... Ownership's influence over personnel decisions on and off-ice makes it all but impossible to assemble a winning team. Imagine being a GM and you're told whom to re-sign, the terms of a contract and then watch as the scouting staff all but purged. What franchise can win with that level of meddling? And what decent hockey executive type would work under those conditions? Getting rid of Jack seems inevitable, but it won't repair what's wrong. Nor will recycling good or better players for younger ones that have "potential." The team is where they are because ownership doesn't have a clue and remain locked in their echo chamber.