Robviously

We also ditched Lehner. Basically the three main guys TM brought in to build a winner around are gone.

I don't think "But the Oilers..." is a compelling argument. As SDS said, everyone in the league knew ROR was on his way out and apparently no one was willing to part with their top prospects for him. It's worth thinking about.

Well, he played 41 games last year on a team that finished with 94 points. We're the first team in NHL history to finish 31st so I'll go ahead and say he's a Buffalo Sabre this year unless there's an injury or he completely drops off. Also just really weird to hear there's potential this could be a good deal after hearing that literally everything we received in return for ROR was trash.

I'll save you the time -- he's terrible. We got NOTHING in return for ROR. Tage Thompson can't skate, can't shoot, holds his stick by the blade instead of the shaft for some reason, doesn't even like hockey, owns a cat, and will probably try to undo his contract so that he can go back to college. I also think he's illiterate but I can't prove that. (Yet.) He's the worst person that has ever lived.

Quiet you....we're trying to be enraged here.

LOUD NOISES!!!!!!

You can take a break. You don't have to go into every thread and crap on everything the team does just because you hate the ROR trade.

Definitely not. I posted earlier today that if there wasn't a major problem with the guy, the absolute earliest they'd even think of trading him is next summer. I think we're going to hear a lot this week about ROR's time in Buffalo that won't reflect well on him. And I don't think JB is done making moves.

I think this is just JB fronting. Same thing when he says ROR's age was a factor.

"Not one valuable piece coming back" is just weird when you consider Thompson, the 1st, and the 2nd should all be helpful long term. And I really don't get the fixation on the Blues 1st being Top 10 protected. It isn't going to happen anyway and every NHL team is specifying that when they trade a 1st now. I think JB knew he had to move ROR and got the best deal he could. We didn't get more because no one would give us more.

So you're pretty sure fans only talk about their favorite players when the team is contending? Someone should let Buffalo fans know because that hasn't been how we've been doing things for most of the past 20 years on the internet.

Yeah, I remember back in 2006-2008, when the Sabres were awesome and no one ever wanted to talk about their favorite players on that team. :doh:

I think he's about to put a C on Jack's sweater and an A on Reinhart's. All the malcontents are gone. Time for the young core to step up and lead.

When he took October, November, and December off the past two seasons? Seeing as how the Sabres are still digging themselves out of the hole Murray put them in, think it's OK to still hate him.

The one that he had two days to think about before meeting with reporters while he cleaned out his locker. Brutal.

It's worth pointing out again -- literally no one was raving about how much they loved ROR during the season. But suddenly he became the god of 2-way centers when he threw a temper tantrum on locker clean-out day. And if the guy was openly being a PITA in the room, he had to go. Enough already.

I think the timeline is affected but I don't think changing the timeline was the driver here. I think getting rid of a malcontent was the driver for this move, and JB decided he had to do it.

It's the timeline you get when the previous GM completely destroyed the franchise with ZFG.

Where is the "perpetual" 10th place finish coming from? Our long-term core is Eichel, Dahlin, Mittelstadt, and Dahlin. They'll all be in their prime starting in 3 years or so, which is when nearly every bad contract we currently have is over. Berglund will be on the books for 1 more year at under $4M AAV and Okposo will still be around another couple years at $6M. Our malcontents from last year (Kane, ROR, and Lehner) are all gone and we're adding young talents like Dahlin, Mittelstadt, Guhle, and Thompson to the roster. And we seem to have organizational depth for the first time in a decade. We should still be more fun to watch this coming year and our long-term outlook is still good.

And we still have plenty of cap space long term for our core players. Who cares about the next couple years?

Sobotka's contract is irrelevant. He's signed for two more years. He's depth and experience. Eh. Berglund has historically been very good for possession metrics and he's signed for less than $4M AAV the next four years so his contract isn't going to affect anything either. I'm glad we have him going into this season with ROR gone. Thompson should this year and be a guy who's here when we're trying to contend. And the 1st and 2nd will be handy (either via trade or if we use them) long term as well. It's not a super thrilling trade in that we didn't get one big player back in return but I think it's mostly confirmation that we needed ROR off the team.

Yes. This pretty much confirms that ROR was a problem in the room. Tage Thompson is the right age to help us this year and to be part of the team for a while. Berglund is good short term help at C. Sobotka, who knows? Hopefully we flip either SJ or STL's 1st for more help in the near term.

"Stupid! You're so stupid!!" was a childhood staple. #memories

If this trade goes sideways, It's Callaway's fault!

Bracing for what could be JB's signature move...