HumanSlinky39

Yep. They have a bright future. Nice young core with Suzuki, Caufield, Hutson, Slaf, Demidov and a good compliment of vets like Anderson, Gallagher, Evans, Dvorak, Armia. They understood the assignment.

Sad thing is there was a small amount of buzz building around the Sabres after the 2022/23 season ended. Looked like an exciting young team with a lot of talent that could grow into something. Then we did nothing that summer to help the young guys and have gone backwards two straight seasons. Nobody gives a ***** about this franchise because we're totally irrelevant.

They do look good, but I've been impressed with the Habs. They're young and have been a game opponent. As we sit here going backwards, in the last 5 years the Habs have made a surprise run to the Cup Final, tore it down almost to the studs, rebuilt and returned to the playoffs. Their arrow is pointing up. We're going the other way and don't appear too eager to do anything about it.

Watching real hockey teams like the Panthers-Lightning duke it out makes me so mad.

Name him Supreme Chancellor of the Sabre Empire and put him in charge of KBC promotions, I don't care as long as he's not making hockey decisions.

I definitely had Rossi over Quinn. That's who I wanted and would still make that pick today easy. I don't remember being all that aware of Jarvis. I liked Holloway then and still do today. If I was picking today, I would take Eklund over Power, but at the time I thought Power was the right pick in a draft lacking top-end talent. So far, he has not lived up to #1 pick expectations in any way, but again, I'm inclined to give him some grace because defensemen almost always take a while to get going. Hedman wasn't anything until year 5. Pietrangelo took 4-5 years. Yeah, there's guys that jump right in like Ekblad, Doughty, Makar; but it's not unusual for them to take a while to get there. My concern is this injury is going to set him back big because he really needed this summer to work on his game and get stronger. I just don't have a really bad taste about taking him because it was a weak draft for top-end talent and he seemed to have the most potential. Will Eklund or anyone else had been better? We need another year or two to probably know. Cossa over Rosen? Sure, but he's played 1 NHL game. No idea what he's gonna be. Can't argue one way or another there. Leinonen, give me Hutson there of course; other than him it's a crap shoot. It's a good debate. With hindsight, there are several different picks any of us would have made. Bottom line in the end is Adams sucks at his job. I just don't have HUGE issues with his drafting. Or not nearly as much as everything else he's done or failed to do. But I guess when drafting appears to be your "strength" and it's really been pretty "meh" we kind of arrive in the same place.

That's fair and I don't necessarily disagree at all. Quinn hasn't lived up to a #8 pick, but his arrow was pointing up until the Achilles injury. That can be a rough injury to recover from so I think he gets a little longer runway to arrive as a result, a bit of a mulligan for this year. If he spends 2025/26 looking like the same player he was this season, then yeah. I'd be leaning towards bust. I preferred Rossi then and still do now. At this point, I'd really prefer Holloway who had a nice season for STL and looks like a good power forward, something this team needs more of. Give me Jarvis over Jack, too. But the wildcard is would Rossi/Jarvis/Holloway have become the players they are here? Would Quinn have been better in MIN/CAR/STL? As for Power, looking back, that 2021 draft sucked as far as top-end talent. There'll be some good players, but I doubt any that will produce like your typical #1 overall. Who do you take instead? Beniers? Nice rookie year, middling since. Kent Johnson is coming along in Columbus, but not at #1 overall expectations. McTavish has been okay for the Ducks, but again, not like a #1 overall. Luke Hughes? Meh. Eklund? He's progressing, but nobody had him rated that high. Guenther - same. I'm still bullish on giving Power time. Rosen, could have had Wyatt Johnson, but there's rally not much below him. Again, bad draft. In 2022, nobody really stands out below Östlund. Kulich seems like a good pick. They're still pups. You're probably right about Benson. Overall, aside from 2020 I cannot take much issue with his picks. Nobody stands out to me below who he selected. I agree aside from Peterka, his non-firsts do not look to be exactly pounding at the door. And that is where good GMs find value. He hit it out of the park with Peterka, but so far nothing else.

This all seems like what I envision this means. Ultimately, we still don't know how well Adams has drafted because it takes years to flesh that out. Early returns are decent enough. We can get a decent feel from his first rounders: 2020 #8 Jack Quinn - A lot are ready to give up on him, I'm not there yet. Achilles injuries are a mother to recover from, particularly for a skater. How much has that affected his production? I like his offensive game for the most part, has a good shot. Not sold he will ever be more than below average defensively and weak on the boards. You can live with that if you have guys around him to mitigate it and he's producing offensively. I see his ceiling as a middle-six winger with a 30 goal/60 point ceiling. Floor is Olofsson. 2021 #1 Owen Power - The potential is vast, but so far the production is middling. Defensemen take longer to cook, so I'm not panicked by his glaring flaws like many others. He needs help with his development to get to that ceiling. Otherwise he will end up just another puck-moving soft blue liner. 2021 #14 Isak Rosen - Still growing as a player, he's been solid for the Amerks the last two years, but I've barely noticed him on the ice in his 15 games with the Sabres. He seems redundant to Quinn. I wouldn't mind seeing him as a trade chip if the value is there. 2022 #9 Matt Savoie - He netted Ryan McLeod who I thought was fantastic this season. 20 goals, 53 points and can fit anywhere from 2C-4C who is one of the fastest skaters in the league, a solid defender, and excellent on the PK. McLeod should be here for a long time and be a really good player for us. That's good value for a #9 pick. 2022 #16 Noah Östlund - Only 8 games, but I thought he acquitted himself well starting out on the 4th line. Seems to have good hockey sense and plays a responsible game. Not sure he'll ever be much of a scorer, but I could see him becoming a reliable middle-6 forward in a year or two. I have no real concerns about this pick at this point. 2022 #28 Jiri Kulich - I like Kulich. I think he has the makings of a 2C down the road with a solid 2-way game. He alternated between excitingly noticeable and invisible in his first full year, which is to be expected. He's a part of the future. 2023 #13 Zach Benson - Our little ball of mischief. Got thrown to the wolves as a kid and though the stats don't stand out, he gives his all every shift and if his offensive game grows to match his effort his ceiling is very high. Could end up our Marchand a couple years down the road. 2024 #14 Konsta Helenius - Way too early to have much of an opinion here. Peterka was a homerun in round 2. He's the kind of guy you hope you find there. Other than him, we haven't got much return from any other Adams non-1st rounders yet. I guess this is all to say, to this point, it's hard to really grade out Adams' drafting. His first rounders seem to be coming along just fine, just lacking significant production at this point. Quinn, Kulich, and Benson have shown flashes but still have some strides to make in assorted areas. Power has been somewhat disappointing, but again, most defensemen take a while to find their footing. Rosen, Östlund are wildcards because they've barely played. Helenius is just getting started and is a few years off. Savoie got you McCleod. Aside from Peterka, we don't know how he's doing later. We're still probably 2-3 years from knowing how effective he is drafting, but at least so far he doesn't appear to be a disaster. Where he has been a disaster is building a functional roster. If he's drafting, I don't have a huge issue. But he clearly lacks the gravitas to do the rest: Manage the cap - We don't know how much them spending under the cap has been a KA thing or a TP mandate. But his contract decisions have been spotty. TNT looks like it could be a steal, signing him when he did was the smart move. But he also handed out bad deals to Samuelsson, Cozens, and looking like maybe UPL. May have pulled the trigger early on power, too, but we don't know for sure yet. Go to league meetings - Is this the guy we want as the face of the franchise in these situations? A good GM needs to be able to be confident and command respect. I see him seriously lacking in both of those areas. The "taxes" and "palm trees" diatribe will always stick with me. That's weak excuse-mongering. I don't want excuse-mongering from the guy making decisions. Coaching decisions - He inherited Raaaalph and made the right call firing him when he did. I cannot fault him for Granato. Granato ultimately wasn't overly successful, but he did a nice job developing some of our younger guys. Hring Lindy was a mistake in my opinion and a lazy move. His roster of assistant coaches has consistently been among the worst in the league. It looks like he's married to Appert as Lindy's successor and that's a bad idea and more nepotism *****. Really don't want him making the next hire.

I can buy that; but is that really a change? Or at least enough of one to effect real change on the ice? Lindy says "I need X, Y, and Z", Adams still has to go out and do the shopping. You hand a cheapskate a shopping list saying you need these groceries and expect quality ingredients handed to you, but all the moron did was buy day old bread and store-brand garbage.

So lets take this at face value. Lindy is in charge of the roster making him the de-facto GM. That means one of 2 things - Adams is keeping the GM title as a figurehead (what purpose does that serve exactly?) or he's being reassigned within the organization. Option two would lead me to believe it's some sort of title promotion because what GM has ever accepted a demotion? Even if this hypothetical promotion is largely symbolic, what kind of message does that send throughout the organization? That failure in one job just leads to you getting advanced? "Accountability" was the buzzword last summer, that is an action completely devoid of accountability. And Lindy as GM? What experience does he have as a personnel guy? And lets dispel with the notion that Lindy is some infallible legend of the game. He was a good coach his first go-round with the Sabres. Had some great seasons, won a lot of games. But ZERO cups. And since he left Buffalo the first time? He's coached 9 seasons (4 in DAL, 4 in NJ, and now 1 back in Buffalo); in those nine years he's logged a respectable (not great) .531 points %, and made the playoffs 3/9 years. Again, what experience does he have as a personnel guy? Want an experienced guy like that as a POHO in an advisory role? Sure, fine. But making the calls on the roster AND coaching? Come on, man. WTF are we doing? My familiar refrain - this is not a serious hockey organization.

The Oilers are something else with their back to the wall.

Cozens is playing a good game. Wish we got this version of him more frequently.

Cozens shorties makes it 2-0 Sens almost midway through the third

Yep. Sad but true. Anybody hoping for significant changes/upgrades is just going to be disappointed. We're just going to be fed a diet of "youngest team in hockey" again and they'll tout the 12-7-1 finish as "progress." Adams will sign a bottom 6 forward or two and maybe another redundant bottom-pairing defenseman and call it good. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The *****?

His defense on that overtime goal was woeful and all too familiar.

Fair points. I still don't get what Detroit is doing. Yzerman has done a solid job drafting and made a couple nice signings/trades with DeBrincat and Kane, but most of his FA signings have been terrible and his inaction in-season has torpedoed multiple seasons where they could/should have made the playoffs. Apparently 6 years of failure gets you fired anywhere but Detroit and Buffalo. Re: Edmonton - Winning there shouldn't be hard when you have 2 of the best players in the world. He failed to get them a goalie. He handed out some awful contracts that has limited what they've been able to put around McDavid/Draisaitl (guys like Conner Brown/Arvidsson/Henrique/Skinner, Jeff). If he was brought in as a POHO and his power was limited to consulting, fine. I just wouldn't want him having too much influence on roster decisions. He has won, so I guess it wouldn't be a bad thing having him around in a limited role.

I don't know, but I'm not paid to make these decisions. I just know that Holland didn't leave his last two stops in a great position. He wrecked Detroit (not that I mind that), and didn't do enough in EDM and has left them without a goalie and a number of bad contracts.

Pass on Holland. He torpedoed the Red Wings on his way out and they still haven't totally recovered. Couldn't win a cup with McDavid +Draisaitl and handed out numerous bad contracts in EDM (Darnell Nurse? Oofta). Also failed to get them a goalie that's any better than "average." Granted, they got close last year, but close is no cigar.

He's going to be 83 right after the season starts and what did he do on Long Island that would make anybody want him? I would hope if we are GM shopping we could do better. But maybe not.

7 x 7.5 seems right. His upside looks like a ppg or near ppg player who eventually becomes an acceptable defender. I'd say his floor going forward is 20-25 goals and 50-55 points.

I've only been able to watch the Habs/Caps game on Monday. That game was really physical. Can't speak to the others, but I really enjoyed that game. For most of the game, the Caps looked much bigger/stronger than the Habs and it looked like they were gonna boat race them. But the Habs kept fighting and eventually forced OT. I don't like their chances in that series at all, but MTL is a well coached team with a roster that doesn't get rattled and plays well together. They did their rebuild right and should have a bright future.

Yeah. I've been saying (and I don't think I'm alone) that this organization isn't going anywhere until we get a clean sweep of the operations/coaching side. The culture sucks? Well, yeah. They haven't made the playoffs in 14 years and are moving in the wrong direction. The way things sound, if any changes are coming it's going to just be some musical chairs with the current power structure. How does shifting around the people responsible for the culture, the flawed roster, and the pitiful coaching change anything? The organization needs an enema, and it sounds like they're just preparing to pop some Pepto. No sweeping changes = a 15th year of no playoffs and each year you spin your wheels, you're shortening the runway for this current core (and it's a talented core, it just needs some help) to win anything.

This business side will suck as long as the on ice product sucks. Good luck, Jake.