nfreeman

Oh goody. More crusade.

This is nuts. The other owners, and therefore the league, are not going to require TP to hire/not hire anyone.

This is a common canard. Buffalo is far from the NHL's "best market." We have strong NHL ratings as a percentage of the local population, not in absolute numbers. The number of people watching NHL games in WNY isn't enough to move the needle for the TV networks, advertisers or anyone else who matters.

This seems right to me, although I suppose it's possible that they've decided on the Providence coach and are just waiting until Providence's season ends to make the move. It seems logical to me that TP has decided that the season is a lost cause, Eichel and Ullmark are injured and perhaps gone for the year, there is almost no revenue, and he should just wait until the offseason before starting to spend money on the organization again. If that's the case, it seems like short-term thinking that will prejudice his ability to attract the kind of people he needs to right the ship, but I guess we'll see. What a freaking debacle.

Well, of course there's a fair amount of hope. I also think though that KA seems like a pretty sharp guy who has been part of the NHL in a variety of roles for a substantial period of time. Also, the law of averages hopefully will work in our favor such that after a string of duds the next guy they hire will have the goods. We'll see.

No. KA will pick the right coach and we will finally build a solid team starting next season.

The Bills are just a high-quality organization at this point. Halle-freakin-lujah.

Serious question: Team A offers a low 1st (say, the 25th pick) for Hall. Team B offers a 6th-round pick and a lousy, overpaid veteran whose contract expires this summer for Hall and Okposo. Which offer should the Sabres take? As a reminder, KO has 2 more seasons after this one at $6MM per season. (For the record, no one is taking Skinner, so we're only talking about KO.)

I feel your pain gentlemen. All I can say is I think TP is going to keep trying until he finds the right guys to run the team, and as long as I think he’s trying I will continue to be fine with him owning the team. Having said that, I really don’t want a college coach to take over for RK, and I would like to see some growth in KA’s management team so it’s clear they aren’t running on a shoestring budget.

I think @Eleven’s point though is that perhaps it’s not inexcusable, as many here seem to think, that TP hasn’t found those 2 guys yet, and that TP had tried and is almost certainly going to keep trying to do so, which is a reason to cut TP some slack.

I too do not dislike any of the choices, as I wouldn’t dislike anyone just for incompetence, and there is nothing to indicate anything worse than that. However, since the question asks for “least favorite,” I’ll go with TM and JB, as they IMHO inflicted the most damage on the franchise.

I don’t think one can describe one’s own question as “profound.”

It's gotta be young vets (so not Cozens) who are top-6 forwards or top-4 defensemen and who have fire in the belly and understand that practice makes perfect. Neither Briere nor Drury was a fighter, but both played hard and determined, conducted themselves like pros and were incredibly clutch.

These injuries probably mean that he wasn't mailing it in this season when he was playing. He still might want/demand a trade, but at least he wasn't trying to force his way out by dogging it like PLD did in Columbus. Still: what a train wreck of a season, innit?

Well, this thread has taken a turn.

I have no idea who this guy is, but:

Well, you guys are right although I think we’re splitting hairs a bit here. Flagg is more accurate in the bolder than I was. But wariness in accepting the recommendations of the network is wariness of the network itself and is, I’m guessing, the reason TP would go for a college coach over a guy like Boudreau. That is an idea. I’d rather this guy than a college coach, but I’d prefer Boudreau either way.

Yikes. So maybe surgery on his spine? Good luck Jack and get well soon. No rush -- we'll be ready for you whenever you return.

Thanks. I was thinking of Hakstol on the Flyers, who didn't last. I also realized that Quinn was hired in the same offseason as Jim Montgomery, an NCAA coach who was hired by Dallas and also didn't last.

I agree with most of this, but I don't think the motivation would be cash. I think to get a star college coach to join this train wreck of a team, the Sabres will have to pay pretty close to what they are paying RK, which I think is in the top 30% or so of what NHL coaches are getting. As I mentioned in a different thread, I think if they hire an NCAA coach, it's largely due to wariness about hiring from the old-boy NHL network. I think TP feels like he tried that with TM, DDB and JB, and it failed each time.

I hate to say it, but a college coach would be consistent with TP's reported wariness about hiring from the old-boy NHL network. And waiting for the NCAA season to end would explain why RK hasn't been canned yet. And it would be consistent with Paul Hamilton's recent theorizing, which might be based on sourced info. Does anyone know of an NCAA coach being hired as an NHL HC and succeeding? I think one was hired within the past 3 or 4 years but it didn't go well, but I don't recall the specifics and could be completely mistaken. I suppose it could work, but I'd much rather hire Boudreau.

Ladies and Gents, I don't think it's happening this season.

From Vogl in the Athletic today: That sounds reasonably likely to have originated from sources inside the organ-eye-zation.

Well, I think we have no choice but to conclude that RK is here for the rest of the season. Best case: - Eichel sits out however long is needed for him to get back to 100% and looks great upon his return. - KA gets reasonably good value at the deadline for Staal, Montour and the other pending UFAs. - KA does not panic-trade Eichel or Reino. - Between now and the summer, KA hires Rutherford or someone similar as senior adviser and builds out his staff with high-quality AGMs and scouts. - KA, with his bolstered management team, brings in Boudreau, Brind'Amour or other established winner as HC early in the offseason. - The 2021 NHL draft is postponed until 2022 (which I've read is pretty likely as there hasn't been enough junior hockey this season to evaluate the prospects), so the Sabres aren't rushed into bad drafting/trading decisions. Oh boy that's alotta moves they need to make correctly.

But they could fire RK and have Matt Ellis or other interim coach run things while they have those discussions with those candidates. I am growing increasingly concerned that this is a cost control measure -- i.e. they don't want to spend the $5MM or so it would cost to hire someone like Boudreau and his staff for the remainder of this season. What a freaking debacle.