Ghost of Dwight Drane

Yeah....but he pushes that button at an elite level. I find it funny/interesting. He's got a degree and is qualified, so why not.......unless he goes all Princess Bride Montoya on someone....

We can honestly say the Ruff legacy lives on. I'm amazed how old his kids are now. He was here forever! Cool gig.

I just found it interesting. I just stumbled upon it looking at other employees there. I am not a fan of overanalyzing stats anyone, but wondered if our analytics fans knew he was on the staff in that capacity. Fine with me.......and I enjoyed the story on Beamish. For those that put down some of the ideas here as "leave it to the pros"....well, here's a young kid with no league experience who took over their stats and is now a scout.

Right.....Ennis/LeCavalier/Iginla, Ott/Ribero/Hodgson, Lieno/Grigerenko/Briere, Kaleta,Larsson,Foligno............Myers/Ehrhoff, Weber/Ference, Lydman/Pysyk (McNabb,Girgensons)........you can play switcheroo with wing and center and have multiple guys on each line that can take a draw and put the young core with vets to help their game. You still would have had Ristolainen, Zadarov.....and probably Horvat, Sinkaruk, and Fucale besides.......give them all a year in juniors, see how the year goes....and in 3 years time Ennis, Hodgson, Foligno, Grigerenko, Girgensons, Larsson, McNabb, and Pysyk would have been protected by and learned the craft from some of the best in the league at one point....and now they will be ready to welcome Armia, McCabe, Ristolainen, Zadarov, Horvat, Shinkaruk, Fucale, etc.......Now we are going to have to cross our fingers the kids don't get chewed up and spit out, and that enough of them can learn on their own and be ready in a few years.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/brett-ruff/15/a54/735 Beamish now with scouting staff. Ruff analytics......page 4 of media guide http://downloads.sabres.nhl.com/other/201213MediaGuide/1213-MediaGuide-Complete.pdf

The plan was to offer to ALL of them........you would have had close to $30 million in cap room and 3 extra 1st round picks at a minimum if you moved out Vanek, Miller, Myers and Stafford at the deadline. If you try to get 1 guy to come, they see a desert. The plan was to draft a boatload of top 20 guys, have them develop for a few years with what we have as not to rush them, put the word out over the past 4 days that you were going to spend to the cap and want to contend this year, sign as many decent to good FA's as possible over 3-4 year contracts.....and you can still accomplish your goal of building a young talented core AND contend the next few years by taking advantage of a once in a lifetime scenario with the cap coming down so drastically at the same time most of the top teams are strapped, and an inflated supply of free agents hit the market through buyouts. It was the perfect storm. Does Briere want to come to Buffalo for $4 million? No. Would Briere come to Buffalo for 3 years for $14 million if Vinny was coming for 4 years at $23 million, and Ference is coming 3 years for $11, and Ribero 4 years for 24?......etc.....? You still have 10 million to go pot Iginla and Lydman. Nothing was preventing the team from taking this approach. Think small....get small.....

SO you think Buffalo is that bad that we couldn't land anyone for a 20% premium? I'm looking at the numbers coming in.....#4 defensemen like Ference and Scudari getting a little over 3. Nice 3rd line/2nd line tweeners like MacArthur getting 3.5.....Briere, Vinny, Ribero getting between 4-5.....even the big names like Clarkson and Horton getting a little over 5, granted for long term. I still don't see what the downside would have been to clean house with trades for top picks, then put that money to work over the next 3-4 years while your dozen 1st round picks from '12'-'14 develop and get eased in. If the team really is looked so down upon that they can't fetch guys for 20% more than the entire rest of the league is willing to pay....then we will never be close to hockey heaven. Oh well.

I was wondering if anyone happened to know, or was interested in the fact that Lindy Ruff's son is one of 2 guys running the Sabres Analytics department?

Blue Balls?

I like him....he's a Steady Eddie, and we have so many young pups around on the blueline that he would be a nice guy to have around. Sort of like Teppo back in the day.

He will be a Sabre. Terry has his bobblehead, and Teppo is a coach, and we need "mentors". Plus he's cheap.

I believe a fountain pen..... So we now have Vinny signed at $4.7 million for 5 and Briere at $4 million for 2. With a Buffalo premium we could have had Danny for 2 at $5, and Vinny at 5 for $5.7.......just keeping a running tally to see what we could have had if we shipped out Vanek, Miller, Myers and Stafford at the draft for another 3 top 15 picks and $29 million in cap space.........

Sweet! Tennessee also has the best selection of heavy duty fireworks that I have seen. I may or may not have loaded up the trunk passing through a few years ago. Although, if you get to light sh!t up at the base....no need for kiddy toys.

Santasiero's wouldn't be open either....... I like SFNS's take.....Darcy probably flew Danny in from Philly on a USAir puddlejumper super saver on the 4th itself...... Provolone was the correct choice of cheese however.....I'm willing to revise to A- due to speed of original response.

B+.....you had a chance to use some alliteration there......I would have gone with Pete Provolone. And WTF does Ted Black need to be there for? Does he hold up the speakerphone for Terry in Boca? I'm old school.....I'd be at Santasiero's.....

You really screwed up now....BeatleJuice is Biden's Secret Service name. And if you ain't on someone's list....you ain't livin' life, baby!

Actually, a doughnut chain on every corner is easier to remember than some French cheese........

Hecht, Ennis, Hodgson, Ehrhoff, Sekera And that comment was as much to do about Horton being Stafford-like for much of his early career.

Welcome back Nathan Horton of Florida lore.....yikes!

Huh?

I love how hundreds of people are saying GM.....and attaching their name to it. Probably 30%+....love it! How do the Sabres go with this guy with a straight face. It's the most exciting time of the hockey year sans playoffs....and nobody even can take the question seriously because it doesn't matter. I'm surprised they haven't yanked the thing down. It's not like some of us yahoos here saying it, and then apologists saying the public doesn't feel that way.....these are people giving access to their public accounts. And my favorite was "Your Mom". You knew someone would come through....

Great, Oil solidly above $100. Perfect excuse for every Sunoco owner to run outside and jack the price up a dime as people gas up for the holiday....

Or... just sign him 2 years ago for half of what Leino is making like a dozen here suggested..... (Sorry, I'm on a total recall kick)

Why are all the Italians getting whacked? This is pure bigotry. I demand an investigation into NHL practices.

Florida is great to protect assets. You keep your primary residence no matter what. Hence, OJ living there....or sorta living there....