Athletic fan poll: front-office confidence rankings

[dudacek]

 

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6562358/2025/08/20/nhl-front-office-confidence-rankings-2025/

Edited Wednesday at 03:36 PM by dudacek

[Pimlach]

D meant poor but passing when I went to school.  Essentially you did not learn the material adequately, but they were pushing you along.  

 

The Sabres current front office gets an F (fail).  So does the one before that, and the one before that.  

Ranking them 32nd out of 32 is correct.  

[Taro T]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

 

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6562358/2025/08/20/nhl-front-office-confidence-rankings-2025/

Seems about right.

Get how those outside this fanbase could give them a little credit for draft and develop.  But absolutely no idea how they can say there are 6 teams that manage the cap worse than the Sabres.  Leaving millions in cap space every year to vaporize into the ether every time the RS comes to a close is NOT good cap management.  It's actually amazingly bad cap management.

[DarthEbriate]

Really can't see how they managed to get a D- when F was right there.

21 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Seems about right.

Get how those outside this fanbase could give them a little credit for draft and develop.  But absolutely no idea how they can say there are 6 teams that manage the cap worse than the Sabres.  Leaving millions in cap space every year to vaporize into the ether every time the RS comes to a close is NOT good cap management.  It's actually amazingly bad cap management.

They've weaponized all that cap space once -- for 211th overall (Linus Sjodin) and to acquire Ben Bishop's contract to get to the cap floor. Once.

[JohnC]

This grading is an example of grade inflation. When you fail for a generation and continue to do what you have been doing then you have demonstrated your obtuseness and magnified it with the character flaw of stubbornness. 

[Doohickie]

[Carmel Corn]

I wish they could do a secret and confidential polling of the players to get their grades of this putrid FO.

[JP51]

Quite honestly, D- is as close as you can get to F... but in all seriousness if any team ever got an F how is it not the team with the longest period of abject failure in the history of the league... I believe someone mentioned grade inflation...  I am having visions of Smithers cutting this article out of TP's NYT... 

Edited Wednesday at 07:15 PM by JP51

[LGR4GM]

1 hour ago, JohnC said:

This grading is an example of grade inflation. When you fail for a generation and continue to do what you have been doing then you have demonstrated your obtuseness and magnified it with the character flaw of stubbornness. 

How? They are 32nd in every category the fans of the team voted on except drafting. 

[DarthEbriate]

21 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

How? They are 32nd in every category the fans of the team voted on except drafting. 

They'd better have a good (relatively) draft grade. They've drafted in the top ten in 11 of the previous 13 seasons.

[JohnC]

30 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

How? They are 32nd in every category the fans of the team voted on except drafting. 

They deserved Fs instead of Ds in the individual categories. The grades were higher than I would have given.

[Taro T]

45 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

How? They are 32nd in every category the fans of the team voted on except drafting. 

As @JohnC said, the grades themselves were inflated.  There was/is a very strong argment that they should've received failing grades, not the lowest possible grade they could get and still pass.

[Night Train]

Is that a report card from reform school ? 

LOL

[LGR4GM]

3 hours ago, Taro T said:

As @JohnC said, the grades themselves were inflated.  There was/is a very strong argment that they should've received failing grades, not the lowest possible grade they could get and still pass.

The survey was basically 1-4, that's how they get a D. This nonsense about passing isn't tethered to anything. It's not a school grade. 

Y'all have lost your minds.

They literally received the lowest grade possible on this scale... how tf is that "inflation"?

Edited Wednesday at 11:41 PM by LGR4GM

[Taro T]

8 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

The survey was basically 1-4, that's how they get a D. This nonsense about passing isn't tethered to anything. It's not a school grade. 

Y'all have lost your minds.

They literally received the lowest grade possible on this scale... how tf is that "inflation"?

No, the survey was apparently 1-5.  1 - 5 goes F, D, C, B, A.   At least when non-English majors are setting up the scale.  This one was clearly set up by English majors or some other mathphobes.  In some categories a C- was a 3.0 and in others a C was a 2.8.  In one, a B- is a 3.2 and a C+ is a 3.5.  If the rules to Calvinball could be converted to math, we're witnessing it.  😉 

And they didn't "receive the lowest grade possible on this scale."  That apparently would've been a 1.0.  They received a 2.0.  Which was the lowest grade of the 32 rated team front offices, but it was not the lowest grade possible on the scale.

[LGR4GM]

6 minutes ago, Taro T said:

No, the survey was apparently 1-5.  1 - 5 goes F, D, C, B, A.   At least when non-English majors are setting up the scale.  This one was clearly set up by English majors or some other mathphobes.  In some categories a C- was a 3.0 and in others a C was a 2.8.  In one, a B- is a 3.2 and a C+ is a 3.5.  If the rules to Calvinball could be converted to math, we're witnessing it.  😉 

And they didn't "receive the lowest grade possible on this scale."  That apparently would've been a 1.0.  They received a 2.0.  Which was the lowest grade of the 32 rated team front offices, but it was not the lowest grade possible on the scale.

So we agree, they didn't have their grade inflated. 

[Taro T]

14 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

So we agree, they didn't have their grade inflated. 

No.

[Eleven]

3 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

The survey was basically 1-4, that's how they get a D. This nonsense about passing isn't tethered to anything. It's not a school grade. 

Y'all have lost your minds.

They literally received the lowest grade possible on this scale... how tf is that "inflation"?

Would you pull it together, please?  People are demanding Fs, not Cs.

[LGR4GM]

3 hours ago, Eleven said:

Would you pull it together, please?  People are demanding Fs, not Cs.

I'm just so confused by the outrage over converting a likert scale to meaningless grades when it still shows we finished 32nd almost universally. 

[Flashsabre]

They have worked long and hard for those rankings.  Thank God everyone on staff got another year.🤢

[Demoted]

On 8/20/2025 at 11:36 AM, dudacek said:

 

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6562358/2025/08/20/nhl-front-office-confidence-rankings-2025/

How is it not all F's? FAKE POLL!!!

[SwampD]

On 8/20/2025 at 1:49 PM, DarthEbriate said:

Really can't see how they managed to get a D- when F was right there.

They've weaponized all that cap space once -- for 211th overall (Linus Sjodin) and to acquire Ben Bishop's contract to get to the cap floor. Once.

Don’t forget about taking on a retired Johnny Boychuk’s contract for future considerations,… JFC.

[DarthEbriate]

22 hours ago, SwampD said:

Don’t forget about taking on a retired Johnny Boychuk’s contract for future considerations,… JFC.

D'oh! Twice. Boychuk and Bishop.

[JP51]

On 8/21/2025 at 2:34 AM, LGR4GM said:

I'm just so confused by the outrage over converting a likert scale to meaningless grades when it still shows we finished 32nd almost universally. 

I think the 32nd is reflective, nor am I outraged.. but in the end... if any team were to get a failing grade how could it not be the Buffalo Sabres after 14 seasons of abject failure on just about every front... so I could care less what the grade is as long as they are 32/32 but its almost like F doesnt exist... like what do you have to do to be considered a failure ...