Taro T

And the mofo's running the show don't seem to be smart enough to ask these guys who've all said they WANT to be here in the past (most of them multiple times as they've had multiple end of season interviews with coaches and management) what THEY (management) need to do to get them to continue to feel that way. IF your metric and a key factor in what players you want is a player WANTING to be a Sabre; well wtf are YOU (management and ownership) doing to KEEP these guys wanting to be here PLUS getting other players that aren't here to have the opinion that Buffalo IS a good place to play hockey and those other pleyers would wear the sweater WITH PRIDE? And the mofo's running the show don't seem to be smart enough to ask these guys who've all said they WANT to be here in the past (most of them multiple times as they've had multiple end of season interviews with coaches and management) what THEY (management) need to do to get them to continue to feel that way. IF your metric and a key factor in what players you want is a player WANTING to be a Sabre; well wtf are YOU (management and ownership) doing to KEEP these guys wanting to be here PLUS getting other players that aren't here to have the opinion that Buffalo IS a good place to play hockey and those other pleyers would wear the sweater WITH PRIDE?

Things to be hopeful about. (With the team as currently constructed; realizing there will likely be on-ice changes between now and October.) The players are all 1 year older and except for Zucker and Greenway (and, if he's back, Reimer) that is a good thing. Norris having an unusually long off-season to heal up and get stronger and Quinn having a full off-season to fully recover from his leg injuries could allow them to both actually be who they're supposed to be would they ever be healthy. UPL MIGHT have a bounce back year. (Goalies are fickle.) Levi might finally be ready. (Goalies are fickle.) Samuelsson did look better in his late season stint with Dahlin than he had in a long time. Perhaps, if he's still here, he can continue to build on that play? They'll have a REAL training camp rather than an abreviated one, so they'll actually have time to learn for a few weeks what they're supposed to be doing (and what they were supposed to have been doing) before the bullets start flying for real. We keep getting told this players really like each other and like playing for and with each other. Perhaps all the lalk this off-season of changes if things don't improve actually lights the fire under them that if they don't play with desperation they won't be playing with their buddies much longer. Didn't include any personnel changes into the above, though we can be hopeful that those changes bring additional improvement. And, because the team is young and now the players closer to being in their primes, it is possible to HOPE without it being totally unrealistic that the team stays at the relatively injury free end of the leaguewide injury reports. There is no way to go injury free, but these guys are getting to that sweet spot where they're still resilient and also strong enough to not break when losing a battle for the most part. MAYBE that's enough. Wouldn't have money on it and would still like to see several other changes, but we've kind of beaten that horse to death.

Yeah, whoever was making the logo patches in the early 80's definitely did not have fine attention to detail. Officially the logo never changed (the ones at center ice stayed consistent) but that version on the sweaters had a serious humpback and either a tail that was larger than the legs or else the lady buffalos were REALLY glad that one was around.

Well, if you flat out refuse to make any changes to the scouting or coaching departments and you know SOMETHING has to change to keep from spinning your wheels even further into the muck, then you have to swap out some key pieces if not even "core" pieces. The fear is that Adams gets competing offers and instead of evaluating them primarily on what the BIG piece coming back in any package happens to be, he ends up evaluating it on the "total value" of pieces coming back. He needs to stay focused on what the main piece coming back is because all of the ancillary pieces are essentially interchangeable. Hopefully Kekelainen and Karmanos can keep him focused on that part of the deals. Whether the sweetener is another team's 5th best or 5th best prospect or a 4th this year vs a 3rd next year; they don't friggin' matter in the grand scheme of things. Come away with the Robertson by himself rather than Petterson and a 3rd pairing D-man.

Yep.

Nah, 'cause that implies Houston actually gets a team.

My personal preference is the Houston Never Existeds.

ALL OVER the possibility of adding Robertson. Want nothing to do with Petterson. He MIGHT turn it around. But does anybody believe that if Adams is the guy that is expecting it and not, for examples's sake, a Zito that the bet will pan out?

Barrasso, Lawton, LaFontaine. (5, 1, 3) Yep. The 3 highly drafted Yanks.

Evan Rodrigues, when Eichel was hurt, was the best center on the Sabres (considering even then they typically didn't play Reinhart at C). Yes, that's a knock on how the team was assembled. But he was good enough to continue to be a piece on that team. Unfortunately he was another one that didn't fit into Kreuger's system.

WHY? Totally get why the Eulers might want to do that. Fail to see what the benefit to the Sabres is.

His only other leverage would be to publicly state "I don't want to be a Sabre anymore" to test Adams' "we only want guys that want to be here" rhetoric. And even Adams can't be so stupid as to Larry Quinn himself into a move. ("We will match ANY offer Thomas Vanek receives." Idjit.)

David ####ing Clarkson was tradable. EVERYBODY is tradable. The contract will lower the value of the return. But he's not a guy that doesn't belong in the NHL. And don't discount the "the Sabres have no idea how to use anybody" factor being figured in on how much value he'd bring to another team.

And Zito already has the "he'll never live up to that full contract" Bobrovsky deal as a counter example. Through year 7, they sure seem to be regretting that one. Not.

And the biggest reason to have not liked the Bryram for Mittelstadt trade at the time was he was ~21 years old when he was brought in. He's now actually finally close to his prime and SHOULD be ready to start putting it all together like most high pedigree D do around his current age. Once again we'll have suffered through the growing pains and let somebody else reap the rewards of having him in the window you actually want him in.

This. So much this.

Personally, am expecting the next results of the next 30 days or so worth of wheeling and dealing to be significantly underwhelming and also expect to dislike the net effect of all the moves. (But will likely talk myself into believing it isn't that bad by the time October 5 or so rolls around. 😢 ) But, if, at the end of that span either the top 6 F's and G are better on paper than they were today or the top 4D and G are better on paper than they are today; will have to consider that a win. Don't have a lot of hope all 3 will be better on paper a month from now. And have 0 hope the coaching will be better then than now.

Depends on the details of how it the protection was worded. Oftentimes the team trading the pick away has the option of deciding whether to send the pick that meets the protection criterion or the following season's pick unprotected. And they'd have to let the 'Nucks know by a certain date which pick they're getting, so they can't wait until the pick is on the clock to tell Vancouver it's yours, have fun with it. 😉 But it might've been written that if it's top 13 it automatically remains with the Rags.

As already replied, as it happens to turn out, if one of the Sabres best players goes out and an even better player comes back, well guess we MIGHT be able to have nice things. (Of course, if Robertson did come back in a Peterka trade, no doubt at the last team practice before opening night Quinn will lose an edge in the warm up skate crashing into an unexpecting Robertson which causes his knee to blow out. All while Peterka becomes a 50 goal scorer while wearing flourescent green. So, guess we really can't have nice things.)

Well, yes. People keep making it out that you have to get rid of one of Power or Byram because with them there are 3 offensive D-men on the team while wanting 2 Offensive, 2 2-way, and 2 Defensive D-men COMPLETELY overlooking the fact that Dahlin IS the team's best DEFENSIVE defenseman. He is the DEFINITION of a 2 way defenseman. Keep the "big 3" D-men; bring in another top 4 guy (ideally someone that allows Dahlin to fully unleash his offensive game; but if that doesn't work out, his offensive game is still pretty darn good when paired with Byram) and if Bernard-Docker plays well enough to also effectively be a top 4 guy, well then you've actually got a good thing in having 5 guys that can all be top 4 with one able to eat up 25+ minutes a night and 2 others able to eat up over 22 minutes per night. Your 6 can be darn near anyone at that point: Clifton, one of the Ra-cha-cha kids, a FA you pick up off the street for a particular usage (PK, toughness, whatever), or even the undersized Bryson (NOT this kid's preference btw by any stretch of the imagination) and it doesn't really matter. He won't get enough ice time to have HIS weaknesses fully exposed. If both Samuelsson's and Clifton's contracts are gone, you CAN afford all 3 of the "big 3." Whether Dahlin is paired with Byram or you're giving him a more defensive partner and letting Byram and Power run the 2A and 2B pairings; it SHOULD work. And ideally having Kekaliainen in the room saying WTF are you weakening this part of the team that was already weak might cause somebody with decision making authority to ask that same question. And IF Byram going out the door ends up being the grease that gets Robertson IN the door, well, then there is a logic to weakening this part of the team that was already weak as there can be other opportunities to bolster it.

Yep. 😄

Need significant improvements in both areas for the other changes to have a legit shot at being enough to get them where they need to be.

Has any Penn State player actually been ranked this high?

So, you're saying he'd fit right in? 😉

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make THIS happen!!!!!!!!!