sabrefanday1

At the end of the day we are talking about a generational player who put up some really good numbers on a pretty-bad team and clearly the very notion of giving him away for anything less then a major haul is absurd. Having said that, it is obvious that Jack don;t want to be here and it is also obvious KA don't want him here either. This surgery is tricky as we are talking about what may be career ending. There is no way any team is going to take a flyer on Jack until they know he wil play again, and up to his full potential. Thus, this may drag on for some time. Not a good situation for either, but I do think the Pegulas are embarrassing themselves by how they are running the ship. Dump Sam then look to dump Jack? Great way to build a team. One thing for sure is no one is going to want to come play for Buffalo knowing that if you want to win you are criticized and basically called a "cancer". This truly is a really bad thing all-the-way around...

agreed or the only chance Buffalo may get to have one too! Crazy to trade away talent such as Sam and/or Jack. I really hoped they'd just re-sign Sam and get Jack healthy and back playing and with proper NHL goal tending (which we still do not have) they may have been a pretty good team. Now there is no hope of that in the near future (if ever).

Think there is little doubt KA would move Jack in a heartbeat if he was offered anything that he thought he could justify to the fans. Other teams have to be cautious not only of Jack's health but also they need to wonder if maybe he is a cancer or not a good "team" player. And like a divorce, nice things are said and all but truth be told the separation it will only get worse and nastier between the team and Jack. he clearly wants out and they clearly wish to move him but obviously they can;t give him away (although they came close with Sam). Risto was a complete fluke as Philly made a terrible trade and gave far too much which makes KA look like a genius, In reality I figured he'd get like maybe a 2nd or 3rd for Risto.

I tend to agree with you. Far too early to make any judgement and no doubt the eventual trading of Jack will really tells us more. A this point the team is nowhere as good as it was when he took it over and I thought with a few tweaks and some good NHL goaltending we would have had a good chance of making the playoffs. Now? We are not even close. We have given away Sam and while return for Risto was good (poor Philly management) he and Jake were our only real physical d-men. We also lost Linus another guy we drafted and developed for nothing so while the negatives, and subtractions from the team are glaring and obvious, the additions and improvements are, well are there any real improvements thus far? We seem to be weaker in virtually every position now. We can only hope that the young guys really step up but can we expect anything more from them then what we saw last year? No question the young guys played wel but at the end we were still losing and losing game after game will not help any of the young guys in the long run.

Not so...GMKA's failure to get NHL goal tending last year and this year is a major disappointment. As well, we are still woefully weak at center and he has done nothing to address that either.

I too have been a Sabre fan from day one and have seen some really good times and have been heartbroken when we were so damn close to winning a cup. I have watched the French Connection and still have a authentic #18 Danny Gare team sweater. I loved this team and even up to the years with Briere and Drury and of course that bogus goal by Brett Hull to win the cup that...you get the picture. Anyways,m having played and coached hockey most my life, there is no doubt winning is contagious, just as losing is too. Winning spawns momentum and confidence, and this team oozed that years ago. It certainly seems that since the Pegulas took over thing shave really gone downhill. I know there is a big push for them to sell but then again one needs to be careful what they wish for...new owners might want to move the team and once a team is gone (as in Quebec) it is real hard to get a new franchise. I see a big part of the problem as the continuous changing of management as the biggest problem as each new GM wants to make this his team, and moves out the previous regime's players and bring in his own players. Thus we move Sam who without any doubt should have been re-signed. It is absolutely absurd to tank to get guys like Sam then let him walk. We drafted and developed Linus, McCabe, Risto etc and then just let them walk away. No wonder no one wants to play here. Once you get any good they let you walk and don;t re--sign you yet sign over-priced guys like Skinner & Okposo. I I am like Perraultforever...I am tired of the losing and I get that we are free to leave and not follow the team but after almost a lifetime of following them I just want them to win and be competitive again. Clearly that is not happening any time soon. I would have been more then happy to enter this season with Granato coaching and with Sam and yes even Risto who I liked. If we could get a healthy Jack back and added a actualy NHL goalie aI thought we'd be very competitive. No hope now that's for sure...at least not for this year

not for $750K??? Apparently it is for $825K per...

Up here in Ontario at Casino Rama where I worked for 16 years before my heart attack and where we attend concerts all the time, they have "meet & greet" with many of the bands. They could do the same thing here. We use to drive down a lot to see Sabre games but with how the team is these days even after it al opens up again no way we'd bother until they have at least a chance of winning again on a regular basis. I think the team needs to get out into the community as they are having difficulty selling tickets now compared to a few years back. When they had Briere & Drury etc, we went to a bunch of games. They use to be so exciting, win or lose.

many teams have tried the "let's get a goon" thing (including us in years past) but it does not seem to stop these guys like Wilson and Marchand from doing whatever they please. I have to admit though we could really use someone like these two (not a goon that is of no help but someone who can agitate and play as well).

either way Jake was a great guy, great competitor and will be missed (as will Sam of course)

true but Wilson plays far more then Reeves and Wilson plays on one of their top lines and gets more ice time. I cannot see Reeves out there as much so no I doubt he will have any effect on Wilson (except when he is on the ice at the same time of course...that's a no-brainer) but then if Reeves takes a bunch of penalties that only helps Washington so again Wilson will be helping his team.

As much as we hate to admit it Wilson is a good hockey player. He is one dirty SOB as well. I can't see Reeves having any effect whatsoever on how Wilson plays. Should be interesting though to see how it all plays out. Wilson seems to get away with crap by the NHL so I guess teams have to do something themselves.

strange that KA doesn't look at exGMJBotto and see that trading (or basically giving away) players who "don't want to be here" as in the ROR case clearly did not pan out well and yet he does the same thing with Sam and probably soon with Jack. Not sure why they confuse "wanting to win" with "not wanting to be here" although of course we don't win much these days. Either way I think this is a tank to get a player to build KA's team around (he wants to build this team from scratch as does most GM's) thus he moves out key players not of his doing.

agreed and boy is that scary...this is a complete disaster in the Titanic mode

or wearing 8 inch heels

Why can't he even fight? I was hoping he could at least do that somewhat half-decently

Maybe so but Tage sure does have a good lookin' wife (married this past weekend apparently)...

so does anybody really think or believe that the terrible culture that is being developed whereby we do not re-sign our own drafted and developed players such as Sam, Linus & Jake is going to sit well with the younger guys? Who the hell wants to and will want to down the road play here? As soon as you get anywhere in your career and if you are quiet good players like these three I mentioned you get rewarded by not getting re-signed and shown the door? The losing last and next year will deflate anybody (players and us included). Doing what they are doing now will either ruin the young players career or they will follow suit and ask to be traded ASAP.

totally agree that free agency is absurd with absolutely crazy contracts being given out. Having said that I really just wanted to sign OUR players (Sam especially) and to keep the status quo for next year with a re-signed Sam and a healthy (hopefully) Jack and see what they could do (we did need goal tending for sure) . I thought things were looking positive with DG and the young guys playing well but now all hope is pretty-much lost. GMKA has turned this team into a even more comedy routine (I thought exGMJBotto was bad...). I can hardly wait for the return for Jack...

so Sam stated last week that he actually wanted to be here and to sign a new contract but we dumped him but now we get the guy that did not want to be here 3 years ago and chose NewJersey over us when exGMJBotto was all hot-to-trot for this guy? Yikes great addition to the team haha

so now does anybody out there actually think or believe they are NOT tanking yet again? Mind you Arizona will give us a run for the money for sure but once we clear out Jack for a bag of hockey pucks and some stunning "prospects" we can rest assured we will finish dead last yet again. Well done KA...

Maybe we can trade for Hutton from Arizona...

so it is free-agent frenzy day and we are all here to try and make it sound like the big announcement of signing some guy we have never heard of with a name we can't pronounce is a "decent" signing? Boy we sure are the laughing stock of the NHL. We give away Sam then sign this guy? I can't help but wonder how management and the Pegulas can't be embarrassed...

and who would blame poor RJ for giving up and retiring...I wanted so bad to win a cup (or even make the playoffs) for him before he retires.

Yep we all want to get bigger and tougher to play against and they keep adding smurfs...