apuszczalowski

Because the players want out and won't re-sign, this front office has said that they don't want players here who don't want to be here. Players know they will be moved if they say they want out.

While the rest of the league works trying to sign players to improve their rosters, Buffalos front office spend their deals working the phone to improve their AHL roster. They are aware July 1st was the opening for the NHL Free Agents?

I think Hall was a failure because he didn't seem to come here willingly, and it felt like he was just here to get a paycheck and not work hard. That deal always seemed like the Sabres making an offer to him when others weren't willing to, and him coming here to cash a check until he could be moved somewhere else. I never got the impression he really wanted to be here

It's because the plan every season is to have the young kids progress and get better to take over the team. They never want to upgrade over the potential of one of their prospects. It's always about not blocking someone from coming up, and then when they come up it's about making sure they get time and minutes. There is no urgency to get better now because that's always viewed as potentially throwing the franchise into some downward spiral that they can never get out of, when meanwhile every other team in the league seems to be able to navigate through this.

To be fair, who doesn't play great against the Sabres?

Of course he likes the roster as it is, they always say that. The key to it is him saying they look to get better IF IT MAKES SENSE, of course in his opinion there won't be any moves that make Sense to him.......

Let's face it, they weren't going out to get someone to replace UPL or Levi. The best they were going to do was get a new backup that might be able to fill in a bit more of UPL faulters and Levi stays in Rochester. I don't see Lyons as a downgrade from Reimer, but I also don't see him as much of an upgrade unless Reimer was a huge veteran mento in the lockeroom.

The visiting teams fans taking over the arena will be cheering to see the Sabres backup goalie?

Most likely he will get one decent player at a need position, but not nearly the value that anyone else would have expected them to be able to get for a player like Byram

Welfare Christmas is back in Buffalo! As everyone else is opening up and showing off their shiney new players, we sit here with our new socks and underwear telling ourselves our gifts are better and more practical...... At least they didn't overpay for player 'X'! In a few years they won't be as good and it would end up blocking player 'Y' from coming up, gotta make sure the franchises finances staying in good standings because everyone knows the real champions are the ones that have balanced books over some big silver cup! Is he really that bad that he couldn't crack a spot at the bottom of this lineup?

Would have rather seen them make the move the Sharks made for Ned from the Pens. But Lyon isn't a horrible choice for a cheap backup

It isn't really unique, the Bills before Pegula had many saying they couldn't compete financially and until Josh they couldn't compete on the field. The Sabres used to be able to attract and sign good players, but the sabotaged themselves tanking to be horrible and win the McDavid sweepstakes. Its more about having ownership and management willing to do what it takes to compete and find great players. Vegas isn't great just because of their location, they are how they are because they were given a solid base to start from and are willing to bend the rules and spend to do what it takes to win. The Sabres do not have that, they won't work the rules to their advantage and do what it takes to get better. They would rather hope that they have hit on all their prospects and will just one day put it all together and be great

More likely the Sabres are the ones doing some crazy spending of FAs to compensate of the lack of playoffs and sign a bunch of mediocre players to big deals so their PR team can go into overdrive trying to convince everyone they struck Gold. KA would probably stay away from signing RFAs because it would cost them precious picks and would risk someone potentially doing it to one of his precious prospects....

If KA has to be a recruiter, then I can see why people have a defeatist attitude. " Well we can offer you a fair contract that will allow you to play hockey in Buffalo. But I have to tell you we might not be an attractive place to play since there's no palm trees". I just picture him as Eyesore from Winnie the Pooh sitting their talking to potential FAs

Not true He has a plan, it's to let the kids develop into superstars which will make them a cup dynasty for the next decade. It's why they won't sign anyone to a deal that would potentially make them better and block one of the precious prospects....