Robviously

I've never thought of it that way, but it takes stones to start a process that will definitely help the team even if it costs you your job before the rewards are realized.

Someone accidentally barfed up a bunch of gray/silver on it, along with some inexplicable vertical piping and armpit stains though. :( Dat logo tho...

Not sure how much more room we have for long-term "core" guys with Eichel, Reinhart, Kane, O'Reilly, Zemgus, Ennis, Risto, Bogo, Pysyk, and McCabe already here. At least for this summer. Signing two of the UFAs you listed would solidify us on the blue line and add some older guys to the young core. I'm guessing Sekera will want a long-term deal that we probably can't do, but some combo of Oduya, Beauchemin, Martin would be awesome.

A great player and *the captain of our team*. It's insane how that went down in retrospect but that was life before the salary cap. He sat out the entire 2000-2001 season (another thing that happened back then) before we finally traded him for Connolly and Pyatt. (And how much different is 2006 if Connolly is never concussed?) If you think about the three captains we lost under Regier -- Peca, Drury, and Briere -- all because ownership never wanted to pay anyone, it's amazing how long it took for everything to fall apart.

It was definitely time. And the timing actually worked out well. Had we fired him in summer 2013, I really doubt the new GM (*any* new GM) would have come in and explicitly worked to tear everything down hoping we'd finish 30th each of the next two seasons. We gave it one last go with Pegula's money (Leino, Ehrhoff, Regehr) and it didn't work. I'm glad Regier's last moves as GM were to start nuking every single thing about the roster to set us up for later. And I'm glad Murray came in and got it. It would have been tempting to come in as a new GM and make moves to improve now versus later.

One of the WGR guys made a great point over the weekend that the team is finally at a place where they won't have to rush guys to the NHL anymore. We can give Baptiste, Bailey, Fasching, etc., two full years in Rochester to develop before we ever need them to step in. Compare that to how we rushed Grigorenko to the NHL right after we drafted him.

He did. Turning Grosek into Dumont and Gilmour is still one of the most inexplicable accomplishments I can think of for an NHL GM. Getting either one of those guys for Grosek would have been a steal. He also stole Gratton from Tampa to load us up for a run that year and then flipped him for Briere a couple years later. He was the best GM Buffalo could have ever asked for in the pre-salary cap era. He doesn't have Murray's strengths but what he was able to do with a small-market, cash-strapped team was close to witchcraft. I'm happy Murray is here to finish the rebuild but it's silly to pretend Regier wasn't a good GM for a very long time.

Actually, the Rigas family. Regier was torn up about the whole thing, especially if anyone remembers the press conference when the trade was finally announced. If the Sabres trade for Gratton, Dumont, and Gilmour at the deadline, and then suddenly decide to pay Peca, do we make the SCF that year? Probably. That team was so close.

More than that, there was some thought on this board 1-2 years ago that we were trading for too many prospects and picks. At some point we were going to need to get actual players. That's what this is (finally). All the prospects and picks were currency, and we finally spent it after stockpiling for years. You can thank Suffering and The Tank for that. We were miserable for years to get to this point. Everyone wants to be the guy at the beach with a six-pack but no one wants to do crunches every morning.

Analysis of O'Reilly and McGinn from the writers at Mile High Hockey: http://www.diebytheblade.com/2015/6/28/8858255/buffalo-sabres-trade-analysis-ryan-oreilly-jamie-mcginn-avalanche Kinda feel like we just un-did the Michael Peca trade from 15 years ago.

I feel like we already have an O'Reilly logo and a jingle.

No idea what the Bruins were thinking, especially when they ultimately used their 1st round picks on Zboril, Debrusk, and Senshyn. Getting Carlo in the 2nd round helps though. In terms of who was drafted, I love what Winnipeg did: Connor, Roslovic, and Harkins. And as much as I hate to say this, Toronto did pretty well with Marner, Dermott, and Bracco (along with Korostelev in the 7th round, who seems like he has a ton of potential). The stupid Flyers may have done pretty well too with Provorov and Konecny.

We stocked up on assets to use them. Some of the guys we drafted with extra picks are part of the future moving forward (Girgensons) and others were moved for other players (Zadarov, Compher). And now the Sabres are in way better shape than they were before the rebuild started. This is the reason we wanted a rebuild.

If they flip-flopped where the block of black is on the sleeve and where the block of red is on the sleeve, it wouldn't look half bad. The black is so weird and out of place at the top of the sleeves where it is.

Nothing would make me happier than if the Sabres had a chance to draft this lazy Russian head case with a ton of potential at the start of the 6th round.

Why is Nikita Korostelev still available? Trade for an extra pick and scoop him up.

Took William Borgen -- a high school defenseman going to St. Cloud State this fall. OK, I have taking high school players but I think the strategy is to tuck him away in college for ~3 years before we need to sign him. Second 6'2" defenseman in a row so at least we're reloading on the blue line.

Just a reminder that when teams are busy holding on for dear life trying to contain Eichel, we'll still have Samson Reinhart taking the game over.

Not surprising.

http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=63250 Sounds like low-risk, medium-reward. We need prospects on D so makes sense.

I'd be thrilled to have him back for our 3rd pairing, especially to make up for the hitting that Zadarov brought.

Would love it if we traded up to get Paul Bittner.

Not "great" but certainly good. If he was somehow coming back to us in either of the trades we made today, we'd be going nuts right now.

Imagine using this same methodology to describe Mark Pysyk.

Played 71 games last year, +11, 175 hits. Not too shabby.