Robviously

It's the fourth or fifth biggest market in the US, and Dallas does fine. It's not a bad idea at all -- even if they just did it to stir up a rivalry with the Stars. Basically any city that isn't Vegas though...

This is turning into a crisis!!! Numbergate could tear this team apart!

Obviously a tribute to former Sabres captain Stu Barnes. Another class move by Eichel. Kid is just killing it.

I'm still wondering what Barbashev will become. That was the consensus pick from this board on day 2 of the draft last year and we went with Lemieux instead. I wish we'd have had a stronger draft after Reinhart last year.

He didn't start the Tank, but I definitely think actively choosing not to stop the Tank was his best decision. It would have been tempting as a new GM to instantly make some moves to get the team out of the basement to prove you could make them better. In terms of "moves" (i.e. trades and signings), I think O'Reilly is hands-down his best. In terms of decisions, not stopping the Tank is his best for sure.

Acquiring O'Reilly, especially at the price we did, is BY FAR Murray's best move. It's an acquisition that completely remakes our team and sets up Eichel and Reinhart for success moving forward. The contract extension is expensive but if you're a Sabres fan who lived through the Peca, Drury, and Briere debacles, it feels like a huge win.

John Shannon may be overthinking this....

Yes, but if we need to move him in a few years, it'll probably be because we're in cap trouble. And that would mean we're a good team that can't keep everyone. So in that scenario, it wouldn't be critical to max out our return. We'd just want to get fair value while clearing cap room.

Really like it. He's a solid guy for the bottom 2 pairing.

:beer: :beer: :beer:

Cool. Let me know when they approve the move of the team from Las Vegas to a market that will support an NHL team.

It worked.

THIS.

Great idea. Thanks, Leafs Fans. :doh:

Probably Hanifin. I could see Marner, Strome, or Zacha too but I'm not sure how wise that would be.

Loved Winnipeg's draft. Columbus did a great job too.

Sports Illustrated gives us an A+. http://www.si.com/nhl/2015/06/28/nhl-draft-eastern-conference-grades Unfortunately, the next two teams with the best grades are Toronto and Philly. Stupid a-holes.

According to this, http://www.draftsite.com/nhl/mock-draft/2016/ Montreal has our 2nd round pick next year (Gorges) but we have three picks in the 3rd round. Not bad. We're probably done having multiple picks in the 1st round for a while. Edit: Sabres also have Minnesota's 2nd round pick in 2017 from the Chris Stewart trade.

I'm not claiming they would have been better at all. I'm saying they were insanely good as is while under fairly terrible circumstances. And you have to be good to last 16 years anywhere in pro sports. That didn't happen by accident either. We're going in circles and I doubt we're going to convince one another so I can leave it there. (We're in the Ryan O'Reilly thread.) Have a good rest of your Sunday, my friend.

So Ruff and Regier don't deserve any recognition for taking the team on the best 10-year run in its history -- a run where we did literally everything but win a Stanley Cup? Because, why? You hated the last four years of their time here? The Connolly comparison makes no sense. I'm praising Ruff and Regier for taking the team on the most successful decade in its history with the deck stacked against them in every way (no "maybes" or "ifs" about that). You're talking about it like they accomplished nothing.

And ownership wise? The Sabres turned their back on three captains -- Peca, Drury, and Briere -- during Regier's tenure because ownership didn't want to pay them. (Along with a bunch of other guys they didn't want to pay.) One ownership group ended up in jail, leaving the team in bankruptcy and owned by the league with its future in doubt. Even before that, do people remember the pre-salary cap NHL? The Sabres couldn't afford to sign their own RFAs, let alone find help via UFA. We're pretty spoiled now. The NHL is a fairly level playing field and we have an owner who doesn't care about spending money at all. Thinking back to what Ruff and Regier did in their first 10 seasons with the deck completely stacked against them is mind-boggling here in 2015.

By this measure, basically no one in team history deserves any recognition. Are you also saying Ruff doesn't deserve recognition? Ruff/Regier had a terrible last four seasons. It doesn't wipe our their incredible first decade of work.

We made the ECF their first year and the SCF their second year, with big trades at the deadline helping both times. Four trips to the ECF, one trip to the SCF, and one Presidents Trophy in their first 10 years. People forget because of how bad the last 4 years were.

Ruff and Regier are the most successful combo in team history and it's not close. Pretty confident they're both going in.

Doubt there's a statue on the way, but now that The Tank is complete, the book is finally closed on everything Regier worked on. He'll be inducted into the Sabres Hall of Fame and Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame eventually, probably at the same time we put Ruff in.