How would you retool this team this summer?

[PerreaultForever]

3 hours ago, JohnC said:

It would take a creative and bold GM to accomplish your wish list. KA is our GM. He is cautious and not very imaginative with how he operates. What you are expecting is beyond his capacity. That's how I see it. 

Not what I'm expecting. If you go back to where I first posted it you will see I said it's not going to happen. No chance. 

It was put out there as dream of what would be possible for a good GM with the assets and cap room Adams has. If you look at the Sabres objectively they have a luxury position to make moves compared to other teams. Other teams have no prospects to trade if they've been all in for years, no or few picks, few desirable players to unload without damaging their rosters and often little to no cap space. or one or more of those issues. Sabres have cap room and a treasure chest full. NOT getting it done takes an extreme amount of ineptitude. 

and that ineptitude is what I expect. 

11 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

It's a fun roster, but I don't think it remains cap-compliant given the Buffalo Tax that Adams/Pegula have caused for this team through their decade of ineptitude. They have $91.056M cap space to work with after the Skinner buyout (90.3 if Samuelsson is also bought out).

To join Buffalo, Bennett needs low 1C money and term (7x$8M) for his one career payday -- on the worst of non-contenders. Likewise, Marchand is not taking some discount here... so 2x$7M+. To ensure getting the Rangers to drop Cuylle means going over the 7.1M threshold and that 1st,2nd,3rd trio. At least $6M for the Top 4 RHD and $5M for the goalie (minor $ increase from UPL, who'd have to be traded). I may be a bit low with the UFA estimates.

It definitely requires bridging JJP and McLeod, and probably sacrifices Tuch long-term for just a couple seasons of end-career Marchand.

I'm not doing the math but remember you would shed Norris and Byram. Other teams get these things done. Teams with taxes too. 

[PerreaultForever]

13 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

I hedge my bets

We are the Murphy's Law of the NHL. With how our luck goes either via injury or the like we'll end up within 1 pt of a spot but end up 10th from the bottom. Then proceed to win the lottery.

Also I don't trust Cuylle to be a great player worth that risk; he reminds me way to much of Jeannot who had 1 20 goal year and looked like a super player only to fall off a cliff

 

Keeping Tuch is a priority

I mentioned Cuylle because Rags have cap issues and he's there as an RFA they might not think worth keeping if he got offer sheeted. I see him as a 20 goal guy with an edge. Power forward. Not Jeannot. A thing we are lacking in though. 

I disagree with this "we are unlucky" narrative. Sabres make their own bad luck with bad decisions. Injury stats are boosted by trading for injury prone players. Zucker, Greenway, Norris all had injury issues before they ever came here. 

[thewookie1]

4 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

I mentioned Cuylle because Rags have cap issues and he's there as an RFA they might not think worth keeping if he got offer sheeted. I see him as a 20 goal guy with an edge. Power forward. Not Jeannot. A thing we are lacking in though. 

I disagree with this "we are unlucky" narrative. Sabres make their own bad luck with bad decisions. Injury stats are boosted by trading for injury prone players. Zucker, Greenway, Norris all had injury issues before they ever came here. 

As a whole our teams have always been unlucky

[PerreaultForever]

1 hour ago, thewookie1 said:

As a whole our teams have always been unlucky

disagree. You make your own luck. No season has been lost because of bad luck. It's been bad decisions by management and bad rosters. 

[JohnC]

7 hours ago, thewookie1 said:

As a whole our teams have always been unlucky

As a whole our organization has been inept. The caliber of ownership a franchise has permeates throughout the organization. When you live by excuses you fail by them. A generation of failure is a generation of failure. The record can’t be explained away by making lame excuses. 

[thewookie1]

6 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

disagree. You make your own luck. No season has been lost because of bad luck. It's been bad decisions by management and bad rosters. 

51 minutes ago, JohnC said:

As a whole our organization has been inept. The caliber of ownership a franchise has permeates throughout the organization. When you live by excuses you fail by them. A generation of failure is a generation of failure. The record can’t be explained away by making lame excuses. 

I’m not just talking recently or even the Pegula era; I mean as a whole. This city genuinely seems to have bad luck.

 

For me, the 2026 1st is a hedge against complete darkness. 
 

1. I don’t trust Adams to make a good enough team to feel confident we’d make the playoffs.

2. Our 1st being owned by another team only to win the Lottery is far too possible and Buffalo-y not to have happen.

[LGR4GM]

There's very few things I'd let our 2026 first leave for. Our 2025 first though... that's a different story. 

[JohnC]

23 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

I’m not just talking recently or even the Pegula era; I mean as a whole. This city genuinely seems to have bad luck.

 

For me, the 2026 1st is a hedge against complete darkness. 
 

1. I don’t trust Adams to make a good enough team to feel confident we’d make the playoffs.

2. Our 1st being owned by another team only to win the Lottery is far too possible and Buffalo-y not to have happen.

I understand your point but still don't accept it. The main reason is that all franchises in all sports contend with unexpected challenges. It's an inescapable part of sports and life. Over time, things should level out. Good organizations overcome unexpected adversities (what you call bad luck) while mediocre organizations succumb to them. 

Needless to say, I don't have much confidence in KA. But the person who should be the most scorned here is the obtuse owner who not only stunningly installed this ill-equipped congenial fellow into a position he was not prepared to handle but weirdly has kept him in the position after inadequately doing the job for half a decade. No other organization and owner would have kept a GM on the job so long except for the Sabre owner.

Again, it's not a question of luck. It's an issue of pervasive incompetency. Not only am I sad to say that but also, I'm no longer tolerant of this ever-present foolishness. 

[thewookie1]

2 minutes ago, JohnC said:

I understand your point but still don't accept it. The main reason is that all franchises in all sports contend with unexpected challenges. It's an inescapable part of sports and life. Over time, things should level out. Good organizations overcome unexpected adversities (what you call bad luck) while mediocre organizations succumb to them. 

Needless to say, I don't have much confidence in KA. But the person who should be the most scorned here is the obtuse owner who not only stunningly installed this ill-equipped congenial fellow into a position he was not prepared to handle but weirdly has kept him in the position after inadequately doing the job for half a decade. No other organization and owner would have kept a GM on the job so long except for the Sabre owner.

Again, it's not a question of luck. It's an issue of pervasive incompetency. Not only am I sad to say that but also, I'm no longer tolerant of this ever-present foolishness. 

In the end even if I trusted the GM and the owner fully I still wouldn't make a move with the 26' 1st. You have to play smart from both a short term and long term angle. Even if we had made the playoffs 10 of the last 14 I would be cautious with this 1st.

[JohnC]

3 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

In the end even if I trusted the GM and the owner fully I still wouldn't make a move with the 26' 1st. You have to play smart from both a short term and long term angle. Even if we had made the playoffs 10 of the last 14 I would be cautious with this 1st.

I don't disagree with you that you need to be cautious about giving up high future picks. You make calculated judgments balancing the present with the future. It's a case by case situation. Would I give up a future first for a young player such as a Kulich type talent who could play for you right away? Yes. And I would be less reluctant to do so if I had depth in my prospect pool. Do I trust KA to make a good judgment? No. 

[LGR4GM]

Trades of unprotected 1sts are rare.