JohnRobertEichel

I'll address your points in order: 1. No, I don't buy into that explanation at all. JB should have been simultaneously improving the big club while also improving the lower tiers of talent. He doesn't need to do the latter first before addressing the former. He couldn't have found better alternatives to Girgensons and Larsson at any point during these past two miserable seasons? Both have been with the Sabres for 6 seasons (and Casey for 4). How much more time is needed to evaluate these players? 2. Okposo and Bogosian could have been traded for other salary cap burdens on other teams in "change-of-scenery" situations that could potentially benefit all involved in such trades. My issue with these two has always been less about their ridiculous contracts and more about the "A" each wears on their jersey. Both have been a part of the older veteran leadership group for the past three seasons in which the Sabres have horribly underachieved and managed to get two coaches fired. Neither did anything to elevate or motivate the rest of the team when difficult times arose. We quickly got rid of O'Reilly for being so dejected at the end of last season, so why not these two losers? 3. The main issue with keeping Pominville would be him taking up a roster spot better reserved for one of our many young forward prospects. And if it's veteran depth we want, why not someone else from one of the 30 other teams in the league? Preferably somone with a known history of quality leadership? Pominville has been associated with underachieving teams for his entire career. Nice player, solid career, but he does nothing to improve the losing culture here in Buffalo. Look, I'm not losing sleep over JB's individual decisions to potentially extend Pominville, Girgensons, and Larsson or keep Bogosian, Okposo, and Nelson. You could make a case for a positive on-ice contribution from each one of these players. Even I have done this in the past for some of these guys. But collectively, these decisions represent greater problems with JB's tenure as GM: he's too slow to make decisions, doesn't seem to have a coherent plan on what kind of team he wants to build here, and doesn't know how to fix the diseased locker room culture that persists post-O'Reilly/Kane/Lehner.

Very troubling, but it makes sense given everything we know about this GM for the past 25 months. For whatever reason he is having a very difficult time letting go of the proven dead weight from the two previous failed regimes. At this point I've resigned myself to the idea that Girgensons, Larsson, Bogosian, Okposo, and Nelson will all be on the 2019-20 roster along with Pominville on another triumphant quest to land a top 3 lottery pick.

I wasn't arguing that the D doesn't need upgrades. My point was that the remaining cap space should be allocated toward increasing the talent at the top-6 forward positions first before getting to the problems with the talent on D. The reasoning is that the problems last year on defense could have conceivably had more to do with Housley coaching issues than with the raw talent. No one can make that case with the forwards, however. There are only 3 legitimate top-6 forward talents on the roster and in the entire Sabres development system right now (Eichel, Skinner, Reinhart) with a 4th still a year or two away (Mitts).

Assuming we keep Ristolainen and re-sign McCabe, there's no urgent need to address defense this summer. That $12-14 million you cite needs to go to the far greater needs of a 2C and a top-6 winger.

This seems like irrational fear that is not supported by the cap numbers. Remember that all of the non-Okposo roster garbage (Sobotka, Sheary, Hunwick, Scandella, and Bogosian) comes off the books next summer (about $18 million in total). There will be enough money for Reinhart next summer, Dahlin the summer after, Mittelstadt at some point, and the C2 and top-6 winger we desperately need now.

This is unbelievably depressing. I hate Boston as much as anyone, but St. Louis winning their first cup with O'Reilly playing a major role is just a giant slap to my face.

By trading for some other team's salary cap albatross in order to give all involved players a new change of scenery. Buying them out or relegating them to the minors may also be alternate emergency options. The point is that both need to go if our dead-man-walking GM ever intends to change the losing culture on this roster. Okposo and Bogosian have been with the team for the past 3 seasons in which the franchise has been underachieving. They represent the veteran leadership of this club and have done a pretty miserable job of "leading." Bogo is still a capable NHL 3rd pair D and Okposo a capable NHL 4th line wing, so both will have some minimal value to another club with a strong leadership core intact...but clearly not to this one any longer.

If your off-season plan includes Bogosian or Okposo on the 2019-20 roster, then you need to discard this plan immediately and try again.

That's exactly what I was referring to. Of all 15 teams in the Western Conference, the Blues would be the most galling to your average Sabres fan because we gave them the #2C we desperately needed this season in exchange for a bunch of trash (Berglund, Sobotka, draft bust Thompson) and a couple irrelevant draft picks in the scheme of things. The Sabres don't really have any rivals in the West.

Aside from a St. Louis vs. Toronto finals scenario, is St. Louis vs. Boston pretty much the worst case for a typical Sabres fan?

He better do a lot more than try this off-season. JBot seems to be all about player development and building a winning organization super slowly from the ground up. But if he doesn't fill the glaring roster holes (#2 center, top-6 winger at bare minimum) in Buffalo NOW and this team has a 2019-20 season similar to the past 2 (or doesn't make the playoffs within the next 2 seasons), he'll find himself fired.

I personally think it's perfect. It looks as bland and irrelevant as the Sabres franchise has looked for the past 48 seasons.

I'm not strongly opposed to keeping Girgensons as a 4th line LW, occasional 3rd liner, and emergency center. I also don't think it's fair to say we need to get rid of him simply because he's been around a losing culture for a long time (what about Jack Eichel, for example, who has been a big part of the team for the entirety of the past 3 seasons in which the Sabres have horribly underachieved?). But here's the thing: we have too many other candidates more suited for the 3rd and 4th lines next season (Rodrigues, Olofsson, Sheary, Smith, Mittelstadt, Larsson, Wilson, Asplund, Sobotka, Okposo, Thompson, Nylander...I just named 12 others for only 6 active spots). Krueger will probably also insist on a couple new additions from outside the organization. I just don't see it working out for Girgensons here any longer because of the numbers game for roster spots.

But there was a purpose: it contributed heavily to Dany's mental breakdown knowing that Jon is the rightful heir to the throne, especially given his popularity in Westeros and the fact that this secret was leaked. For those viewers paying careful attention since the beginning, Dany "breaking bad" was always the most logical conclusion to the story. The personality traits required to be a great conquerer aren't the same as those needed to be a great ruler. The fans upset with what happened to Dany's character fall into two basic categories: social justice warrior feminist types infatuated with the idea of any strong female leader regardless of that female's specific character details (see: Hillary Clinton voters circa 2016), and horny males blinded to Dany's faults because she's hot and they want to ***** her (see: Sarah Palin voters circa 2008). I will give all the Dany fans this, however: the plot, the dialogue, and the character development definitely suffered once the show's writers got ahead of Martin's books and once they forced themselves to rush the series to completion for the final 13 episodes. So Dany's complete character arc did come off a bit incongruous and disjointed toward the end. By the way, this show is getting absolutely MASSACRED on the internet! There's a petition with well over 1 million signatures demanding a do-over for the final season. And check out the imdb ratings for the final 3 episodes, compared to the previous 70.

Makes sense. In the absence of good writing these last two seasons, you might as well just throw in more dragons. And show more titties too.

My opinion: SDS wins the whole thing next episode, GASabresIUFAN comes in second during the final episode, followed closely by dudacek for third place. No one else gets all 3 of their people killed.

This is unreal, no? It's like the Buffalo Sabres fanbase has truly entered Hockey Hell. And so now who gets to win the Cup? Is it Kane's team? How about O'Reilly's team? Or how about Skinner's former team and the guys who stole the Cup from us in 2006? Or how about another annoying Boston team winning a championship?

You are certainly free to cheer for whomever you like, but I'm hearing that this Dallas vs. St. Louis Game 7 outcome could mean a 1st round draft position swing from the late twenties to the late teens. That's significant enough for me to root for Dallas.

Aren't we supposed to be rooting for the Stars tonight because of the better potential draft position?

This. I'm still hoping it will be addressed in these last three episodes. But if it isn't, that's just some really terrible storytelling right there. I assume at least Martin planned to have an explanation for the Night King?

Touche! Sort of.... I was referring to third round picks in general. But for third round RB's, yes apparently they are normally expected to contribute right away. Nevertheless, I stand by my claim that McCoy will not be traded. I appreciate the research though!

The Bills have over $70 million of cap space in 2020 with 50 players signed, and that's not even including any of the potential $30+ million 2019 rollover cap. The $6 million additional rollover cap gained from getting rid of McCoy this year is COMPLETELY NEGLIGIBLE. McCoy is a future Hall of Famer ready to redeem himself after one bad season, a season in which he was surrounded by perhaps the most atrocious collection of pass catchers, offensive linemen, and QB performances in Bills history. The 2019 Bills will feature a run-heavy offense, and McCoy helps the 2019 Bills win now, which is simply more important than having $6 million extra to spend in 2020. It's only a crowded backfield right now while everyone is healthy. Yeldon isn't actually that good, and the 2019 free agent market supported this argument. If Singletary shows any ability to catch out of the backfield, Yeldon is gone. And yes, it's actually fairly common for 3rd round picks to start their rookie seasons inactive on rosters that are healthy and full of depth like the 2019 Bills. Look it up.

Why?! Are the Bills hurting for cap space this season or something? Do we really need another 2020 6th round pick so badly? Are we really going to get rid of the main guy who recruited Gore? Are we confident enough that injuries won't happen at the RB position this year? Here's my prediction at RB/FB: we keep 4 active on the roster (McCoy, Gore, Perry, DiMarco), Singletary inactive, Yeldon cut. By the way, the Bills are having an amazing draft so far and a very impressive off-season overall! The one glaring roster need is starting DE opposite Hughes, but I suspect we either go Ansah or a Clowney trade to resolve this issue.

Truth.

Yes, 8 times before: 1961, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1975, 1976, and 1994. Also, the original Buffalo NFL team played on it from 1921-1924 and the AAFC Bills played on it in 1948.