Daily Faceoff - 10 Worst Moves During the Drought

[GASabresIUFAN]

Happy reading.  The most painful is the drafting, I’d add the 2nd rd picks are even worse than the failed 1st rounders.  15 2nd rd picks and only 2 good players in JJP and Compher and both were traded away.  UPL and Samuelsson have been more bad than good by a wide margin and the rest from Hurley to Leinonen are busts or soon will be.  Hard to build a team this way.

Edited yesterday at 06:58 PM by GASabresIUFAN

[SwampD]

For me, trading away Reinhart was the biggest WTF by these arrogant dopes. Drill another well my a$$.

[Thorny]

Awful ordering. The McNabb trade worse than ROR is a farce and the Kane trade was far closer to a great big heap of nothingness than our very worst trade. The jets got nothing from it either. The build didn’t fail because we lost a 1st round pick 

they don’t even take issue with the players - their take away is it tried to “win too quickly.” After all we’ve seen, for that to be the takeaway is high comedy. Our issue has been the exact opposite 

Edited yesterday at 07:40 PM by Thorny

[Trettioåtta]

I thought Eichel did request a trade before the surgery palava happened? And that was part of the issue, and why they were relcutant to let him have the surgery

[Thorny]

2 minutes ago, Trettioåtta said:

I thought Eichel did request a trade before the surgery palava happened? And that was part of the issue, and why they were relcutant to let him have the surgery

Yes he did ask for a trade before the injury. He asked for a trade in 2020 upon hearing of the Adams plan to long form rebuild in line with EEE

[Doohickie]

1 hour ago, SwampD said:

For me, trading away Reinhart was the biggest WTF by these arrogant dopes. Drill another well my a$$.

Unfortunately the die was cast when in his first summer as GM Kevyn didn't lock him up long term and only signed him to a bridge.

[thewookie1]

Was unsure where to put this:

Found out today the Sabres built a 1mil sauna in the locker room for Eichel during that scramble to placate Eichel.

Was honestly not surprised 

[Eleven]

There is ONE worst move.  There are not ten.  The move was naming Eichel captain instead of O'Reilly.  Everything else, even including goaltending, flows from that.

Once seasoned hockey players saw that the team was in the hands of a fool, it was over.

[Taro T]

6 minutes ago, Eleven said:

There is ONE worst move.  There are not ten.  The move was naming Eichel captain instead of O'Reilly.  Everything else, even including goaltending, flows from that.

Once seasoned hockey players saw that the team was in the hands of a fool, it was over.

Close.  The one WORST move of the drought was the decision that there would be "suffering."  It ALL rolls down from there.

[GASabresIUFAN]

The worst move wasn't the decision to tank, but Pegula's decision to bring in un-proven talent to run the team without having a experienced professional to guide the raw GM's.  All of the issues stem from 3 rookie GMs with Adams being the worst of the bunch and that is saying something.  

[inkman]

 

[Taro T]

24 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

The worst move wasn't the decision to tank, but Pegula's decision to bring in un-proven talent to run the team without having a experienced professional to guide the raw GM's.  All of the issues stem from 3 rookie GMs with Adams being the worst of the bunch and that is saying something.  

You forget, the tank began with an EXTREMELY experienced GM.  And he got canned shortly into the tank because he put an absolutely unwatchable product on the ice.

[GASabresIUFAN]

4 minutes ago, Taro T said:

You forget, the tank began with an EXTREMELY experienced GM.  And he got canned shortly into the tank because he put an absolutely unwatchable product on the ice.

.... and 3 inexperienced GMs later the product is still unwatchable.  How does the rebuild go if someone like Dale Talon had been hired to replace Regier instead of the 3 stooges?  

[LGR4GM]

Ralph Krueger on the list because that killed any chance of winning with Eichel and Reinhart. I'm not clicking on some nonsense that even lists Kane in the top 10. Sounds lazy. 

[Indabuff]

ROR trade was so bad imo.  

I ain't sayin I'm a genius, but 2+2 is on my mind. 

[spndnchz]

ROR Would’ve made no difference either way the team was set up imo

[PerreaultForever]

I'm trying to think of a list of 10 good moves they made and all I can come up with is the Risto trade and maybe trading for McLeod. 

[steveoath]

3 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

I'm trying to think of a list of 10 good moves they made and all I can come up with is the Risto trade and maybe trading for McLeod. 

Bringing back royal blue?

[JohnC]

15 hours ago, SwampD said:

For me, trading away Reinhart was the biggest WTF by these arrogant dopes. Drill another well my a$$.

Not signing him when his contract was running out and he was willing to sign an extension was a clear sign that being fiscally tight was how this franchise was going to be operated. 

[Pimlach]

There are so many reasons for the losing.  To me this kind of disfunction starts at the top - Terry and Kim were way over their heads and never trusted anyone qualified to run the team.  They tanked and built a confusing and bloated organization right from the start, they hired bad GMs, then they leaned it down too far and continued to hire unqualified people in key positions.   The player trades, the drafts, the poor contracts, the losing - it’s  all a result of what has happening at the top. 

PS EDIT:  I should not say never trusted.  They did hire Black, LaFontaine, Murray, Patrick, Batista, etc., during the tank years.   This proved to be a bloated and dysfunctional organization, led by Terry.  

Edited 5 hours ago by Pimlach

[JohnC]

13 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

There are so many reasons for the losing.  To me this kind of disfunction starts at the top - Terry and Kim were way over their heads and never trusted anyone qualified to run the team.  They tanked and built a confusing and bloated organization right from the start, they hired bad GMs, then they leaned it down too far and continued to hire unqualified people in key positions.   The player trades,  the drafts, the poor contracts, the losing - it’s  all a result of what has happening at the top. 

What's so dismaying about this owner is the unwillingness to have serious hockey people run the franchise. For the most part, he has clung to second-rate organizational structure staffed by many second-rate hockey people. There is an ingrained stubbornness to TP that is hard to penetrate. The hiring of KA to be his GM was bad enough. But keeping him in that position after 6 yrs is beyond odd. 

Most people are willing to give some forbearance to a new owner in the learning-curve phase after buying the team. However, when you are in your 15th year of ownership and still haven't demonstrated a much better understanding of the business you bought into, then how much can there be left?

Is adding Jarmo to the staff a good sign that he is willing to get away from his insular approach to ownership? I'm not sure because I don't know how much influence he or even Karmonos has. It's become such a drag to watch this same self-sabotaging behavior continue to exist within this failed franchise. 

[JP51]

Couple of honorable mentions... 

I personally hated trading away Zadorov... we could use his nasty

Not signing Ullmark I also think was a major screw up

Clearly the biggest after the Eichel mismanagement was not hiring a tenured experienced GM after Murray and  Botterill both failed...  instead we got a guy whose claim to fame was re doing the bathrooms in KBA...  which is impossible to believe until you realized they hired a Soccer executive from England to coach the team...  and of course listening to Phyliss Housely preach to the team about "getting to the tough places" was interesting as well... 

 

 

[Carmel Corn]

I know these are all player moves, but my vote for worst move was to hire GMKA.

[SabreFinn]

The sort of journalism I really dislike. 

[Demoted]

What year did Pegula buy the Sabres?