Taro T

He was. Personally, will run with the Housley effect takes longer to take hold but ultimately overtakes the positive effects of others around him. 😉

He might've played for the Pens; remember him and Danny Grant being 2 key pieces of the No Stars.

He slots as a 4th liner on a playoff team AT the age of 19. His is a really interesting case, because as @dudacek mentioned, he is a true outlier in being a non-high skill offensive guy playing in the NHL at the age of 18. Personally, expect his ceiling will be somewhere in the top 6, but the fact he's a capable bottom 6 guy at this age without prototypical size nor an overwhelming shot nor skating ability bodes well for his future. And if it takes until he's 22 or 24 to become that top 6 guy; it isn't that big of a deal. That's when most guys start getting their 1st real tastes of the NHL.

Why does it have to be an either or? Why can't it be a NEITHER and instead actually get a competent (at a minimum) or excellent GM?

The team never had O'Reilly AND Dahlin. Winning the lottery in '18 gave Botterill "flexibility" in how he could retool the team. As @Pimlach stated, Murray never could build a cohesive team because he didn't give 2 rat's bippies about the chemistry of a cohesive team. He saw the players as horses that you could just put into the stall and have them perform. He couldn't care less about anything other than their physical attributes. He didn't care that Bogosian and Kane were jerks that would not be good leaders for very young players. He didn't care that Lehner had some psychological issues that would be exacerbated should he be out of the lineup for a long time due to injuries. He apparently did nothing to help smooth over the owners' frustrations at his brand new established toy getting drunk and crashing his truck into a donut shop as pretty much his very first action after signing a big LT contract. Murray was gone by then, but when that player started publicly discussing how he'd lost his love of hockey; that pretty much sealed the deal that he'd be gone now that his new GM had this newly found flexibility. After he couldn't get the coach he wanted to land, he chose a coach that micromanaged the game and gave players 8 whiteboards worth of stuff to be thinking about in game every game. JUST the thing young players need when trying to adjust to the speed of the NHL game vs NCAA or juniors. So, yeah, Murray took big swings. But again, he never saw the players as people and thusly he was never going to build a winner. Though had the team not changed directions 2-3 times since; they almost definitely would've made the playoffs by now once or twice. Oh, boy, the Sabres could've been the current version of the Aisles. (Yeah, it's better than what WE have; but not exactly even remotely ideal.) But is THAT, or what Botterill built, in any way shape or form something we should "much rather have?" No. They're all giving us #### sandwiches. Personally, would much rather have none of the above.

The *'s mean the stat improved/decreased in actual count but decreased/improved in overall rank. (e.g., fewer total shots blocked but moved from 27th in the league up to 24th in the league.)

Here's to hoping. But expect that's a role he'd probably keep a hand in if he does bump up to PoHO (or whatever title). New GM'll work out the deal with another GM for trades and choosing who should be the 23 on the roster (w/ input from Ruff for the latter); but could see Adams still being a key principle in contracts.

Ruff's answers about UPL suggest that at a minimum Wilford is Dead Man Walking. Ruff's pointing out that the PP got better, and was significantly refocused to movement down the season, seems to indicate that Appert will be back. (Mother trucker.) Ruff also mentioned he thought Kulich was very good defensively as the 1C. Didn't focus on his play there for long stretches, but did focus on him more in the last week and especially the last 2 games; and he was SERIOUSLY overmatched and out of his element going up against the other team's top lines. Will admit he seemed to be better at it earlier in the year. But teams at the end simply started having guys fly past him and Juri was having issues getting into their way. VERY disappointed in Ruff's answers. Knew we wouldn't get anything useful out of Adams' answers.

His answer at the time they did trade for Byram was that he was brought in to be Dahlin's partner. He's also been pretty consistent since about saying he needs to find a partner for Power. At the B&GI w/ STHers after Ruff was brought in, Ruff said he expected Dahlin to play with multiple partners, but he mentioned Power and Samuelsson specifically. And this year, after Muel wasn't ready for top line duty, they ended up with Dahlin & Byram as a pair for a significant chunk of the season. Around the trade deadline, they started moving Byram around and never paired him back w/ Dahilin for any significant time. Adams was also evasive about what sort of contract he's looking to sign Byram to. Personally, am expecting the answers about Byram today were about the fact that there's a really good chance that Byram gets traded.

What if they're both at it?

So, you're saying he's average.

No Michael Peca fired announcement? 😞

Umm, pre-Bobby Orr for the former; the mid-80's and the mid-00's for the latter. Personally, don't really want the Pens in the true basement again. They always seem to find a generational player or 2 when they're actually down there.

Or hopefully how badly they don't. (Hey, it's dream big day.)

Watched that game this AM. Other than the players names being different, seemed very much a replay of Tuesday night's game in Buffalo. They played well enough to have scored enough to win, but couldn't beat a hot goalie and when they did have the goalie out of position found ways to not get a shot onto net. The good guy's goalie played very well, but was outplayed by the TO goalie. Wonder if in the 2nd row of the 200's on the red line, there was an annoying Canucklehead kid and his dad both wearing TO jammies with grandpa along for the ride yammering how he'd really like to see OT all while the kid screams at a frequency just barely audible to non-dogs "Rochester you suck" over and over and over?

They can ask for Levi; but he likely isn't ready to be a starter (and personally don't see Korpisalo as a starter) and they're already shaving ~$4MM/yr off their goaltending battery by having UPL rather than Swayman; so UPL would likely be more of what they'd look for (MHO ymmv). And Buffalo would likely want/need some good low cost player(s) included to make the Cap work for them if Levi goes out the door leaving the Sabres with over $12MM in goalie cost (at least until UPL gets traded in a separate trade).

Am interested in Ruff's take on the season and how to move forward. Not nearly as interested in Adams' takes, though unless @Brawndo is right (and when isn't he?) he'll be the one making the moves to try to right the ship. Ruff was a straight shooter at the B&GI's. Expecting he'll be one again. Adams will say this is unacceptable and he himself has to be better and the whole organization needs to be better. He'll say he's willing to do anything at all to make things better. Though we have 5 years of history showing that there are things he ISN'T willing to do (he wasn't willing to weaponize cap space, which he will no longer have nearly as much as in the past; and he wasn't willing to use an offer sheet on an RFA; not expecting either of those to change). But would love to have Adams say that his role is changing. So, guess there is something to see if he'll say.

Wonder if, considering how both played this past season and with where the B's are in their retooling, they'd be open to a swap. Obviously other pieces would be included to get it to what both teams consider fair value; but they've been surprisingly willing to swap out goalies, even with rivals, in the past. Personally, would say that'd be the next piece of the dream scenario.

Sooooo close to (a realistic version of) a dream scenario working out. Add Appert and call it a wrap. On to new personnel and evaluating the players.

The same reason why they aren't sitting on at a minimum 4 extra 2nd round picks for being the intermediary in some Cap complying deadline day trades and off-season (other team) Cap dump trades. Likely they'd had better capital returned out of those moves were the owner and GM willing; and wouldn't it be great to have had an extra Savoie or 2 to convert into another McLeod or an extra 2nd rounder or 2 to land an extra Malenstyn without affecting their existing pipeline in any way shape or form. Oh well, what might've been.

Danke. And he's already into/through that 5-8 week of being shut down. Were they going to go the surgery route would hope they'd've already done it by now. So give him the typical month or so beyond that which players typically take off to get over the ordinary aches and pains of 7 months and 82 (or 50ish) games and come back fully healthy. At least until the next injury keeps him out for 15-30. Regardless of whether he actually can play a full 82, it'd be foolhardy for the Sabres to assume he'll play at least 75. He's not Mark Stone (doesn't seem to be nearly the player Stone is, though Norris is good), but the Sabres should be treating him like their very own Mark Stone.

No. Next year's presumptive starter can not currently be in house. It MIGHT work, running it back, but after 14 years (5 of which is owned by the current GM) they CAN'T be building a team that MIGHT make the playoffs if ONLY at least 8 of these 10 things all happen. Have said somewhere here (probably in the Reimer thread) that am OK with Reimer being back IF they've brought in a legit starter and he's clearly the backup. Am OK with keeping UPL and Levi both in system, provided they've brought somebody else in that those 2 will have to actually beat out to grab the starter's role.

You may already know this, if so, apologies for the repeated info, but back before Covid struck, the Sabres were having a design firm work up concepts for a MAJOR reworking of the MMArena. So, that pivot is more of a turning back towards where they wanted to be anyway.

Could see UPL being worth a legit return. He's shown glimpses of being really good and there's a lot of GMs and coaches that believe they're smart enough to get him to maintain a level of play where he was at in January '24.

Seems like something that shouldn't be chronic. Was hoping that his injury was something that rest would allow to heal. With no details about it, would expect it fits that bill. Hoping they're smart enough to plan the roster as if he isn't available, so that when he is available they're that much better that what they'd planned. Doubt they are, but at this point of the off-season, hope springs eternal.