Around the NHL 2026 Offseason Edition

[shrader]

2 hours ago, Brawndo said:

Narrator: He did indeed prove them wrong 

 

 

Oh no, a kid chasing the hockey dream had to stay in another town for two summers. Damn near every player in major junior relocating a couple times. It’s a shame he had to put in some serious work to get where he is. 

[#freejame]

3 hours ago, thewookie1 said:

I guess Botts was even more of an idiot than we already knew. Did Hagel real dirty there.

If GMTM were our GM for another year Hagel would have been signed. GMJB had no attachment to him so it was see ya later. The real moral of the story is don’t call your boss a *****. 

[PerreaultForever]

3 hours ago, #freejame said:

If GMTM were our GM for another year Hagel would have been signed. GMJB had no attachment to him so it was see ya later. The real moral of the story is don’t call your boss a *****. 

You don't know that. Murray might have made the same move or even traded him for some piece of garbage like he wasted so many picks. There's no question Sabres blew it on Hagel, we all know that, and maybe the organization was crappy and didn't treat some kids right in general but to suggest Murray was in any way better than JBot is ridiculous. 

JBot hasn't done anything impressive in Seattle so far but if you've noticed, despite the league being a total boys club that rehires almost everybody fired at some point, Murray ain't working.

[#freejame]

6 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

You don't know that. Murray might have made the same move or even traded him for some piece of garbage like he wasted so many picks. There's no question Sabres blew it on Hagel, we all know that, and maybe the organization was crappy and didn't treat some kids right in general but to suggest Murray was in any way better than JBot is ridiculous. 

JBot hasn't done anything impressive in Seattle so far but if you've noticed, despite the league being a total boys club that rehires almost everybody fired at some point, Murray ain't working.

I’m not suggesting (with that post) that Murray was better I’m saying new GMs come in with zero attachment to late round picks and don’t make much effort in getting to know them.  You’re right, maybe he wouldn’t have signed him. But I’m pretty sure there’s been quotes here in the past indicating Murray liked him. 

[shrader]

And if we signed him, he never would have developed. Our player development wasn’t doing a thing in that era. He needed to move on and have that fire lit under his ass. 
 

edit: And let’s not forget that he re-entered the draft and the entire league passed on him. 

Edited August 6 by shrader

[mjd1001]

Penguins sign Ville Koivunen to an 8 year, $32 million dollar ($4m per year) deal.

I'm not sure why.  I don't know much about him so I looked around, and I still don't know why.

The good:  He made the All-NHL rookie team last year.

The bad (or at least middling):  He was a mid-2nd round pick. He's already 23 years old. Not a huge physical forward (6'0, 184 lbs). In his NHL career, he has 47 games played, 2 goals, 12 assists, is a -10, and has a 3.9% shooting percentage. He's a winger, and his NHL edge metrics say his shot speed is in the bottom half of the leage, his skating speed is below average.

I don't think he's a defensive specialist, maybe he is?  

[SabreFinn]

19 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

Penguins sign Ville Koivunen to an 8 year, $32 million dollar ($4m per year) deal.

I'm not sure why.  I don't know much about him so I looked around, and I still don't know why.

The good:  He made the All-NHL rookie team last year.

The bad (or at least middling):  He was a mid-2nd round pick. He's already 23 years old. Not a huge physical forward (6'0, 184 lbs). In his NHL career, he has 47 games played, 2 goals, 12 assists, is a -10, and has a 3.9% shooting percentage. He's a winger, and his NHL edge metrics say his shot speed is in the bottom half of the leage, his skating speed is below average.

I don't think he's a defensive specialist, maybe he is?  

No, he is not a defensive specialist either.  The contract makes no sence at all, there were even some rumors that Liiga team Kärpät, that has been struggling a couple of seasons, tried to get him to come back home. Only thing I can understand from this is that a rebuild is coming soon and they think he is a player that can help them during that. 

[PromoTheRobot]

 

[PromoTheRobot]

 

[Eleven]

19 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

I'm a little surprised that SJ and Anaheim are in there, but otherwise, there's nothing astonishing about this.  The Sabres don't have a small market, but the TV deal ends at the border, unfortunately.

[SabreFinn]

1 hour ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

This can be seen as a bad excuse for Jarmo, his coach hirings the last seasons there was a result of this, the money he was allowed to spend on coaches did not attract good enough persons within the coaching profile Jarmo prefer.

[PromoTheRobot]

4 minutes ago, SabreFinn said:

This can be seen as a bad excuse for Jarmo, his coach hirings the last seasons there was a result of this, the money he was allowed to spend on coaches did not attract good enough persons within the coaching profile Jarmo prefer.

Last year was the transition from the moribund drought team to the playoff team. I expect revenue to be quite a bit better this year, but we'll never be at the top.

[Taro T]

37 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Last year was the transition from the moribund drought team to the playoff team. I expect revenue to be quite a bit better this year, but we'll never be at the top.

And those guesstimates at revenues and profits were from/for year 14 of the drought.  Not year 1 of the reentering relevancy era.

[PerreaultForever]

7 hours ago, #freejame said:

I’m not suggesting (with that post) that Murray was better I’m saying new GMs come in with zero attachment to late round picks and don’t make much effort in getting to know them.  You’re right, maybe he wouldn’t have signed him. But I’m pretty sure there’s been quotes here in the past indicating Murray liked him. 

That's true. Holds for veterans too. eg. Adams traded for Byram but Jarmo had zero attachment and ditched him early to avoid the free agency issue. Probably same for Tuch. No attachment. Similarly he'll probably never want to give up Rudolph. 

Sabres just blew it on Hagel. Things appear better now though and hopefully they won't repeat that sort of mistake again. 

[SabresFan69420]

18 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

That's true. Holds for veterans too. eg. Adams traded for Byram but Jarmo had zero attachment and ditched him early to avoid the free agency issue. Probably same for Tuch. No attachment. Similarly he'll probably never want to give up Rudolph. 

Sabres just blew it on Hagel. Things appear better now though and hopefully they won't repeat that sort of mistake again. 

I think Byram and Tuch were on their way out regardless but I agree Jarmo's much lesser attachment to them both made his decisions easy. I shudder thinking about what the contract offers from KA would have been for Byram and Tuch simply due to the amount of weight/value he put on "says he wants to be here"

[PromoTheRobot]

34 minutes ago, SabresFan69420 said:

I think Byram and Tuch were on their way out regardless but I agree Jarmo's much lesser attachment to them both made his decisions easy. I shudder thinking about what the contract offers from KA would have been for Byram and Tuch simply due to the amount of weight/value he put on "says he wants to be here"

No need to worry about that because Byram was not staying here anyway. He showed that when he only signed for 2 years with Adams. And seriously, when had Adams overpaid anyone? Aren't we the 7th most contract efficient team?

[Flashsabre]

https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/article/penguins-sign-koivunen-to-eight-year-32m-deal/
 

The guy has hardly played in the NHL. Could turn out great for the Pens and Koivunen will be kicking himself or it could go the opposite way.

[PerreaultForever]

4 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

No need to worry about that because Byram was not staying here anyway. He showed that when he only signed for 2 years with Adams. And seriously, when had Adams overpaid anyone? Aren't we the 7th most contract efficient team?

Greenway. Zucker. Clifton. I could go on. He overpaid lots of guys. 

[dudacek]

19 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/article/penguins-sign-koivunen-to-eight-year-32m-deal/
 

The guy has hardly played in the NHL. Could turn out great for the Pens and Koivunen will be kicking himself or it could go the opposite way.

Reminiscent of the Samuelsson deal.

[LGR4GM]

On 8/6/2026 at 12:24 PM, PromoTheRobot said:

 

A lot of evidence that the incorporation of the analytics team into the amateur scouting process was a the reason Buffalo's drafting suddenly starts improving in 2022. 

[LGR4GM]

22 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

That's true. Holds for veterans too. eg. Adams traded for Byram but Jarmo had zero attachment and ditched him early to avoid the free agency issue. Probably same for Tuch. No attachment. Similarly he'll probably never want to give up Rudolph. 

Sabres just blew it on Hagel. Things appear better now though and hopefully they won't repeat that sort of mistake again. 

Jason Botterill blew it. 

[PerreaultForever]

46 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Jason Botterill blew it. 

That's a convenient distinction. They go out of their way to present themselves as a "team" with many minds involved. It's nice to just blame an old fired GM but the organization as a whole failed. 

There's a long list of organizational failures over the years. All the fired GMs are part of that. The owner is part of that. Many others are part of that. Hagel is just one in a long list. 

[PromoTheRobot]

18 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Greenway. Zucker. Clifton. I could go on. He overpaid lots of guys. 

I was taking about big contacts, not splitting hairs over a mil or two. Cozens was one deal that didn't pan out. But you have to look at the full picture.

[dudacek]

53 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

I was taking about big contacts, not splitting hairs over a mil or two. Cozens was one deal that didn't pan out. But you have to look at the full picture.

Buffalo has yet to reap the rewards, but there is nothing wrong with the Cozens deal. 

Zucker provided great value. Greenway and Clifton didn't live up to their deals, but as you say, they were hardly backbreakers.

 

1 hour ago, PerreaultForever said:

That's a convenient distinction. They go out of their way to present themselves as a "team" with many minds involved. It's nice to just blame an old fired GM but the organization as a whole failed. 

There's a long list of organizational failures over the years. All the fired GMs are part of that. The owner is part of that. Many others are part of that. Hagel is just one in a long list. 

Other than Terry, is there anyone else in the current organization even remotely connected to the Hagel decision?

 

[PromoTheRobot]

19 minutes ago, dudacek said:

 

Other than Terry, is there anyone else in the current organization even remotely connected to the Hagel decision?

 

Give us a minute. We'll invent something.