Taro T

A few items Adams said that caught this kid's attention. Mentioned they need to find a partner for Power. Also mentioned the shake up of the D was to see if Samuelsson could regain his 'top 4 level of play' or something to that effect. He projects the roster will be close to the cap next year 1 way or another. Adams was very noncommittal as to whether Byram would be back. Personally expect this is because if Samuelsson can be effective as Dahlin's partner over the final 20 or so games (or however long they keep the experiment going before giving up on it once again) then Byram is going to get traded this off-season either for a piece to improve the top 6F's and a package will go out for that guy to play with Owen or he'll be directly traded for that partner for Power. If Samuelsson CAN'T get back to what he was about 3 years ago, expecting they do re-sign Byram to give Dahlin a partner he's comfortable with and they either try again in FA to find that 4D or they get one in a package. Wouldn't be at all surprised to see Peterka part of that package trying to fix the D (too much smoke yesterday to believe there weren't some embers there). And am not expecting much of any other moves in the off-season as raises to guys coming off ELCs and bridges up the overall spend. Would really like to see at least 1 more good vet F come in, but haven't looked at how the rest is going to have them situated against the cap. (And with that said, likely will see people again sometime in April.)

There is ONE item that is earning Ruff a pass on this debacle of a season. The team almost always scores the 1st goal. They're ready to play. That wasn't the case the previous few years. The HC sets the tone. The assistants install the X's and O's. This team hasn't been able to figure out who is the X and who is the O in their own end since at least Krueger's tenure (and THAT team had no idea how to play beyond its own blue line). Every single AC (w/ the possible exception of Bales but would lean towards canning him too) should be gone. If Adams could get Gallant to take over as HC, then sure, can Lindy too. The fact this team is so young falls on Adams. The fact this team still doesn't execute effective systems is on the coaching staff. Again, the HC (or somebody, am expecting it's the HC, maybe it's somebody else) typically motivates them well enough to get out to a lead. And then the other team settles in and the wheels fall off. And being too young with no clue how to adjust within game explain away a large portion of that. Add a veteran partner for Power (will have something to say about that in the Adams presser thread) and add another Zucker ideally or at least another Greenway and fix the mf coaching staff and then let's see what they can do. Those changes might be enough to get them to a point they don't need to roll box cars 10 times in a row to make the dance.

The issue with trading for futures at this point is 2 fold: 1. The kids need to learn how to be pros at this level and there are precious few guys that have been around / have been a part of a winner at this level that sending the few they have out the door quite possibly lengthens that learning curve even more - so is the SLIGHTLY better player they end up with or slightly better fit to where the holes on this roster exist worth the increase in the learning curve on how to be a pro at this level? And 2. Does anybody fully expect that Adams will be able to work a 2 moving part trade to the Sabres net advantage at this point in time? Both of those make a trade for futures at this moment "no bueno" IMHO.

Sadly, that does seem to be SOP at 1 Seymour Knox III Plaza.

Which is so maddeningly frustrating. He let the Bills players earn about $12MM worth of bonuses in the last RS game of the year. And he sat on Skinner's $6MM the entire year. Were he to have been willing to weaponize some of the crazy amounts of cap space he's thrown away every year of the Adams era the Sabres could be sitting on easily the deepest prospect / pick pool and they'd be in a spot to make about 4 McLeod for a reasonably highly rated prospect deals which would improve the current team (read next year's club, this season is done) and they'd still have a deep prospect pool. It's beyond time to give the team more than a lottery ticket's chance of coming through into the playoffs and relevancy. The Bills are a team NFL players want to be a part of; the Bandits are a team NLLers want to play for; the Sabres are the J-E-S-T jest Jest JEST of the NHL.

Presuming your question is Sabres specific. With the possible exceptions of Jokiharju, Greenway, &/or Zucker could see the Sabres go the entire deadline with no moves other than something that might bolster Ra-cha-cha's chance of winning the Calder. Would figure Jokiharju going out the door at ~50%, Greenway ~15%, and Zucker ~8%. Making a true NHL hockey trade ~5% (with Cozens making up 80% of that and Samuelsson the bulk of the rest of it). Doing anything else <1%.

To a degree. Still expect that having a true top 4 veteran D-man who is preferrably stay at home or at minimum a solid 2 way guy to play with Power would do wonders for the unit overall. Getting 1 more Zucker preferrably or even another Greenway for the top 6 would be 2nd on this kid's list. Why are ANY of the coaches not named Ruff (and possibly Bales) still employed. What have ANY of them done to improve the output of this (or any other recent) Sabres roster?

80's. Pretty sure PART of the issue is with revenue sharing, both the owners and especially the players have a significant incentive to want to increase immediate revenues at the expense of using the broadcast availabilty to not just increase revenues today but to build a loyal future customer base that will lead to increased revenues in the future as well. Players careers are short and roughly every extra $1,400 in league revenues is an extra $ in every player's pocket.

Umm, violation of the Logan Act. Not saying they should be prosecuted for it, but that is what legitimate charge would/could be brought.

Yes, there were claims that Housley was a D coaching genius, but it NEVER made any sense. That D that Nashville had was absolutely stacked and they were great before Housley ever showed up. He didn't make them any better than they'd already been. He also had nothing to do with Rinne and Saros being absolute studs. Claiming he was a genius was akin to saying Adam Gase was one because Peyton Manning liked him and played well when he was his OC. Sure, people said it, but they were oh so very wrong.

Depends on whether you do the early bird renewal every year or not. If you do, it's ballpark a 5% increase (just like every other year) taking out the fact that they're selling 44 games (41 RS, 3 exhibitions w/ barely 50% NHLers playing) vs 43 (40/3) last year. Don't know if it'll be worth renewing but they were better this season about promoting the perks of being a STHer. Expecting that'll be the case again next year. Again, not sure that'd be enough to flip the switch from no to yes for anyone else.

Would be very surprised if the Sabres make more than just a small move along the fringes of the roster. They have more prospects than they know what to do with and absolutely don't need to get any younger so it isn't likely they'll be sellers. They'd need to win about 20 of their last 25 games to have any shot at the playoffs and that ain't happening so they aren't going to be buying a rental. Really don't see Adams going anywhere this offseason so don't see him being in desperation mode, again leaning towards them not buying a rental. Maybe there's a real hockey trade to be made like the Byram for Mittelstadt deal last year a smidge before the deadline, but can't see a team looking to trade a 1 for 1 guy that is on the same timeline as what we'd be sending out and can't see a point to getting the younger guy AGAIN so don't see that happening either. Used to be one of the funnest days of the year. Not even sure will even be spot checking in for updates on what happened that day. We really are in purgatory, aren't we?

Htf do the cockroaches always survive? Like that Ruff has them ready to play from the get go almost always. Hate that the same schmucks that couldn't teach X's and O's the past 2 years (once by choice and once by ummm not choice) were brought back this past season. Would really like to see some serious up & comers brought onto the staff and absolutely hate the idea of Appert being the heir apparent. Back to the thread. Expecting very minimal changes in the roster before October. If Levi has to clear waivers, Reimer is definitely gone. Could see Jokiharju leaving as they try to find a true vet with either stay at home or 2 way pedigree to take the 4th D role. Not expecting any changes at F providing Zucker and Greenway are willing to come back. Would really like to see at least one more Zucker/Greenway brought in to help teach the youth how adults play hockey in the best league in the world. Wouldn't be surprised if we don't even get that. 100% expect Adams and Ruff both back.

How ####ing hard is it to go with the obvious: the Utah Fighting Mormons (Mormen?). Either that or play off the Jazz with the Utah Punk Rock. They could use that same logo that was proposed for the Hockey Club. 😉

Pretty sure we're reacting to the expectation that the guy assembling the roster may be considering him a 1C; as he currently is this team's 1C.