Taro T

So, had that call. Hoping wrong about no more real G or D help and also no real top 9 F adds beyond bringing kids up

They should've brought him back last year to be able to punt Eakin into the sun for good (minus that late December/January spell when every F was broken, but we digress). Would love to see another guy better than him brought in, but now when injuries hit they've got another actual NHLer ready to step in at 4C. And if nobody beats him out at that slot, they know they have an NHLer there and can keep Girgensons at W where he belongs and Asplund at W where he likely belongs. The only sad thing about this signing is it would seem to indicate Adams is into the stocking of the fringe portion of the roster (as if the 3 AHL tweener D signings didn't already let us know that's where he's at) when there's still room for upgrades higher up. Realistically, he'll get 30-40 games and hold his own there. Glad he's back.

If he's expecting a penny over $1MM / yr, he's nuts. He should be happy w/ his qualifying offer. He's barely earned that.

Expect there's a better chance Levi or Portillo is the guy down the stretch than either Anderson or UPL regardless of whether Comrie falters. And expect this year it's Comrie's job until one of the other 5 take it from him.

The flip side is that he WILL cost himself some bargains. The hope is that those guys that get priced way to far out of his structure (whatever that turns out to be, we still aren't at the point any of it is above the footers, they they are down & in place which is more than we can say for his predecessor & to a degree his predecessor's predecessor) either truly are core and worth that price or (more likely IMHO) aren't truly core and can be shipped out for pieces that will extend the window once it has opened (the crank is turning, but not even sure it's been cracked enough to let a drizzle in from a monsoon) or that the remaining guys are close enough to core that losing a core piece or 2 isn't truly devastating. The fear is that losing out on those bargains will force the window to close quicker than it should've which IMHO is a legit fear, but it is so far off in the future that it isn't fully factoring in (& Tampa has shown, if you're good enough at evaluating talent that it'll still be open a darn long time). Adams is definitely playing the long game and has the team entertaining enough as it builds (theoretically) to contender status that the fans won't revolt and he'll still be employed here when that long game starts to produce significant results. Gut feel is the Pegulas will give him at least until Levi arrives before he needs to be concerned for job security. And let's face it, if they aren't in the playoffs by then he should be gone & probably should've been gone sooner. 😉

Face it. Ain't no donation gonna please everybody. Not even to a hospital. Why'd you donate to pediatrics when there's breast cancer research & treatment to support? Why'd you donate to breast cancer when thoracic medicine can save so many more lives? Why'd you donate to thoracic when ... ? And IMHO a lot of the criticism they recieve is another example (like the Peace Bridge Twin Span) of people being upset with the good because they didn't get great. Overall, are we in the greater WNY Region better off for them coming on the scene back in 2011? Again, just MHO, but would say yes we are. Could it be better? Absolutely. But from out here in the cheap seats it does seem to be getting better overall. My 2 cents. YMMV.

They've been keeping their charitable donations sports related for the most part AFAIK to date. Including putting money into youth sports that hasn't been as well reported as the Penn State one was. Probably because those have been significantly smaller (again, AFAIK). Also, are the Amerks & Kin-ig-hit Hawks not "beloved institutions?" The Kin-ig-hit Hawks would be gone without the Pegulas & possibly the Amerks as well. Didn't see a lot of people lining up to keep them in Ra-cha-cha after Styres got them because they came w/ the original Kin-ig-hit Hawks that were his real prize. B. Thomas Golisano didn't make the huge donation to U of R Strong that changed the name of the pediatric center until 2002. Pretty sure you're onto something when you point out a lot of those sort of donations don't happen too early in a billionaire's life.

Don't see Adams making that long term bet on a player until at least their 3rd contract. Which, to a degree negates some of the value of having gone all in on a young team because, as you state, he isn't going to end up with that homerun true value contract at the end deal. Maybe that's by design as he tries to be a players' GM & doesn't want anyone on a deal substantially under market & if he has gentlemen's agreements with the players that they won't hold the team over a barrel later on, it might work. But he's already had Hall & Ullmark's contract statuses work against the club. So, personally, would rather see him give guys like Cozens & Power LT deals coming off their ELCs; but doubt he'll do that. So, expecting his next deal to be 2 years at fairly low price. Can't see a 4 year deal under any circumstance. Gut feel is 2, 3, or 6 years w/ almost no chance of 6. Said best guess is 2 years.

He should NOT be on the 1st pairing. When all are healthy, he should never be partnered with Dahlin unless they're playing euchre. 😉 IMHO at this point in time he is not a good partner for Power because he makes too many mistakes in his own end & more importantly he doesn't cover for his partner's mistakes there nearly well enough. Maybe he'll reduce one or both like he stopped pinching at the wrong time at the other end last year, in which case that opinion could very well change. But until he does, really would rather have Lyubushkin paired with Power because the expectation is he WILL cover Power's mistakes far better than Henri will. Expecting Granato would rather have him work through those deficiencies tied to Power's hip so expecting those of you that want Henri as the 4 will get your wish.

He SHOULD be in the 5/4 role, but he's going to be in the 4. Power will keep him seeming to be only slightly overmatched. (Much like Dahlin's growth last year made Henri seem to take more strides than he actually did. And he DID make strides last year.) Really hoping Lyubushkin settles in too well next to Power, like Samuelsson did with Dahlin, to let Granato give in to his inner "just let him learn into the role" next to Power. But not expecting it. Henri could look like a hero as the 5.

Perhaps ... 😉

Yeah, they're all in on 1 last run and then a modest (or so they hope) tank the following year.

IF Dahlin & Samuelsson can keep up their play down the stretch, expect we'll see the Sabres get 50 starts out of Comrie with the majority of them quality. If that pairing is still relied on as 1st pairing but are the Dahlin-Jokiharju we've seen, expect we'll be getting Anderson quality from him. Would really still like to see at least 1 more legit NHL D-man & them figure out the shutdown C, but the hopium says he can do it.

There's 1 team you missed on that template front & that's Carolina - both the early '00's & this latest iteration. Both got a pretty good core together but didn't have goaltending & then got reasonable/good goaltending and more or less came out of nowhere after stockpiling some talent. Still lean towards Adams doesn't go after established goalies because this team isn't quite ready to make a true push for a championship, so he's willing to pick up another Savoie/Quinn type player next year if Comrie isn't ready to be the man & if he is good enough to shock the world then he's good with that too. Last year showed that he has assembled a resilient group - they never turned on each other when things were bleak around January & they even bounced back and played good & entertaining hockey down the stretch. Expect the mental side hasn't changed regardless of whether Comrie's up to the challenge & because of that we'll see a GM get a 4th year in the job for the 1st time since Regier did it at the turn of the century. Really can't recall a time the team had as many well regarded prospects; had Regier not kept Rolston we'd've possibly seen it back around '15 but he still hadn't rebuilt the scouting department, so don't know if he'd've gotten the full bang for his buck. (And, the comment about Rolston was that he was so out of his element that he got Regier canned with him; had Darcy hired a competent coach he might've survived the "suffering" but by not even looking for a competent coach he made the organization a laughing stock & paid the price with his career.) Adams is definitely assembling a group of kids & letting them grow together. Hopefully Levi's the real deal; if he is, these kids will become special. But really hoping Comrie's special too, because Levi is still likely 2 years away.

Truth be told, another C, another D, & another G are all needed. Expect we'll probably see the C that grabs the 4C role brought in but expect the ship has sailed on the other 2. They seem to prefer Asplund & Girgensons at W & expect 1 of Cozens, Mittelstadt, & Krebs to also play W which makes a big shiny hole in the roster for that 12th F. Hope that it would be a higher talent C come in so then they could run 3 scoring lines with a scoring checking line comprised of Cozens, Okposo, & either Girgensons or Asplund on the left side, but doubt that comes to pass. And to those saying we really don't need to be worrying about how to fit a 12th NHLer into this roster, have been on THAT band wagon for a long while. Hoping Adams is there too.

My expectation is that he'll be a better NHLer than AHLer, but his ceiling is Biron at absolute best and it more likely tops out at Hutton at most or maybe Johnson. He seems to need the structure of the NHL to find a comfort level even though the shots are tougher. He got better at not letting every shot just under the crossbar go in which indicates he's more comfortable with the hips post surgery. Expect he'll get a few games in the NHL when Anderson can't go, but he'll break again before really getting going. Hoping that's too pessimistic, but doubt it is. Also expect Subban to look better in Ra-cha-cha than him, but him to get the opportunity of the callup. Didn't vote because the above didn't really seem an option.

Is it OK if I let you know tomorrow? Was volunteering at a conference last week & just brought our son back home to hit law school. Need 1 actual good night's sleep before committing. (If you need an answer today, would have to say 'out.')

Maybe Cuomo sold the service centers to a private vendor, but really doubt it. Each state that's part of the EZ-Pass system runs their own system. Each has its own 800 #'s and website. And, last time called because a tag wasn't working right the call center was located in 718 area code (foreigners or southerners AREN'T going to fake THAT accent). Granted that was about 4 years ago, but would be very surprised if Cuomo or Hochul privatized it.

Really believe that the PP goal anomaly has been locked in people's heads and that haven't been able to see his growth beyond PP specialist for whatever reason. People forget that when Reinhart showed that he was a goal scoring C, that it was Olofsson feeding him on the majority of those goals. They also forget, as you mentioned, that he looked really good in October before getting injured and again in April when he was finally healthy. Choose Mitts as most likely to breakout, but it easily could be Vic; and the rationale for both is they were both playing very good hockey at the end of Granato's 1st year and both were playing very well until breaking last year. Had they not broken, both likely would've already broken out.

Which may be possible. And if that's the reason he wants to hit FA in a year, kind of hoping he ends up in TO or Filly. Let them maintain their oligopoly on weakminded keepers. 😉

Yepper.

Only 12 teams that he can be traded to unless he waives that clause and only in the age 36 & 37 years. How many of 2030's & 2031's Yotes & Sabres do you expect he'd be willing to waive for? Treliving is worrying about today figuring that contract will be the next guy's problem. Wouldn't be surprised if the owner said OK because he doesn't want to be giving the McDavid led Eulers a free pass ahead of them in years 1-3 of the deal and will worry about beating McDavid in years 4+ when they get there.

Will stand by the opinion that if Calgary was willing to seriously overpay then Huberdeau was willing to stay. IMHO, $10.5MM cap hit for 8 years, NONE of which he'll be in his 20's is an overpay. YMMV.

Just a reminder, in Junior Varada had 2 seasons in the mid 80 point range in the relatively low scoring WHL and was scoring at nearly a point per game and nearly 0.5 gpg in his rookie AHL year and then put up 30 goals in 48 games before being brought up for good. Varada was supposed to be a Varada that could play in the top 6. Just sayin`.

IMHO, the best scenario for him would be to pencil him into the AHL with an agreement w/ his Czechia team to send him back towards the end of November if he isn't adapting. But will trust the Sabres development team to make the right call on which option will be best for him. Nice to be able to say that & actually fully believe it.