PalmTreeMafia

He has made 2 already: ROR and Housley. This is a very critical off-season for JBot. He needs to aggressively improve the team now. And by "team" I am referring to the Buffalo Sabres, not just the Rochester Amerks.

I think he meant to type JBot instead of Eichel.

We lost the trade.

My prediction is that the top 6 picked will be Hughes, Kakko, Byram, Turcotte, Zegras, and Cozens. This would leave Boldy, Dach, Krebs, Podkolzin, and Caufield available at #7. Of those 5, I'm guessing the Sabres go wth Caufield to be the long-term answer at RW1 with Eichel and Skinner.

Nylander has played 165 games over 3 seasons in the AHL. He's about 4 months younger than Tage and about 9 months older than Mitts. The time is right for him to be a full-time Sabre. Give him a shot at 1st line RW with Eichel and Skinner just to see what happens. If nothing good, drop him down to a 3rd line with fellow underachieving 1st round picks, Tage and Mitts. Either way, it's time to see what he can do in the NHL.

1. I'm not even going to bother listing specific 4th line alternatives to Girgensons and Larsson. If you think those two were the best JB could do these past two years in terms of on-ice production, off-ice leadership, and cap hit... 2. So maybe part of the problem with Okposo and Bogosian in the locker room was that neither ever really felt as dejected as O'Reilly? Seems like too many guys on the Sabres were okay enough with losing. I already said how to get rid of these two: trade our trash for someone else's trash. Change of scenery for both parties. No valuable prospects or high picks need to be included from either side. 3. I just don't see the value of keeping Pominville here any longer, and it has little to do with cap number or contract length or even the roster spot at this point. As a vet, he has already shown here in Buffalo (twice, really) to be incapable of motivating younger players around him. Find someone else who maybe can. 4. If you know JB's clearly stated plan, can you just reiterate it for me here real quick? Is it: build a team that's fast and skilled but physically weak and mentally even weaker? Is it: continue to make no effort to fill glaring roster holes with the big club so to accumulate lottery picks? Is it: focus on player development in Rochester so that these players will be able to carry the Sabres to their first playoff appearance since 2011 about 5 years from now? Is it: completely bomb with your first choice of a head coach hire so to set the stage for RK? Is it: trade away one of the best two-way centers in the game so to secure the next Ales Kotalik? It's very depressing to see the contortions fellow Sabres fans are making to justify Botterill. I know it sucks to think that Pegula possibly made yet ANOTHER terrible GM hire, but so far it's looking like that's a distinct possibility, so let's at least type candidly about it on an internet message board. The positive news (IMO) is that there is still time this summer to make a successful course correction. The Skinner trade and re-signing was solid. The Amerks are looking healthy. There is nothing objectionable to RK or the past two drafts at the moment. There is a decent core of young talent in place. But for the love of God, JB needs to be aggressive this summer and find two top-6 forwards, move out the roster dead weight, and have a successful 2019 draft. His job depends on it. If the Sabres can't even get back to the Bylsma level of 78-81 points this season, JB might not be given a 4th year. If the Sabres don't make the playoffs by April 2021, no way does he stick around beyond that point.

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?