Mango

I assume you are joking. But the two guys who run this thing both worked with the Americans at one point or another. https://afpanalytics.com/staff/

I really dislike reddit for most big 4 sports talk. It stinks. The other day I mentioned something about Adams being over his head and it came with a barrage of downvotes and "You just don't get it man. We are acquiring so much talent". I think I took some PTSD on that post. Ha

Are there any affiliation between AFP and the Sabres/Amerks orgs? They are based outside of Rochester. Curious if this is Pegula/Adams laying the ground work on spinning this whole thing. EDIT: Both listed staff members on their website worked with the Amerks at one point. One as an intern and then "tax and analytics dept" the other as an assistant. The other as part of hockey ops. Video and data collection. https://afpanalytics.com/staff/

Do we need another goaltender? Yes But as of right now is goaltending high on my list of what is holding this current season back? No, not at all really. Wildly enough goaltending is not in my top 3 things I would address with this team at the moment. Currently the holistic roster construction from prospect to big club is a mess. We don't have anybody to fill any of the actual needs of this team. Most of our forwards don't have a 200 foot game. And even the ones that are only good in the offensive zone all seem to have the yips. Defensive responsibilities by everybody at every position are embarrassing. The power play.... Yes we need another goalie. Yes Adams totally botched this position group. But it is wild that in a depth chart of FO gaffe's and inventory of the 23-24 season goaltending isn't among the "greatest hits" for failures.

We extended Tage at a similar age? Over the last 365 days Mitts has been the outright better player. What about Tuch? UPL is 4 months older? Also if a 25 year old player is "too old" to see this thing through in year 4 of this FO, WTF ARE WE DOING!!!!!! Another couple of seasons of this and the Kevyn Adams era alone will make the big board for longest ever (active or not) playoff draughts in NHL history). Where does the runway end? This is bonkers. A 25 year old is too old to go through the growing pains with this team. Jesus Christ. This team is doomed. EDIT: To be clear, it seems like we may be on similar pages here in this not making a ton of sense. Without seeing the return, I highly dislike moving on from Mitts. I am more responding to comments I have seen here and elsewhere cosigning "we aren't supposed to be good"

Why does it feel like this could be a real conversation with Kevyn Adam's?

Worth noting, we aren't allowed to win 3 games in a row this season. It is in the script. This one was out of our hands.

No idea why JJP tried to bring that puck up, letting the D adjust.

Unsure if you’re arguing with me or agreeing with me. Fairly certain we’re on the same side on this one. The OP I was responding to leaned hard into the “wah, women cry, they should stay home”. So I tried to address this as agendered humans under the assumption that sexism is of little concern to them. But yes, I totally agree with you.

Ras could have 3 here so far. Minimum.

Nobody cares about the check. The issue is that the other team took it upon themselves to yell at her all game because they didn’t want a woman in their league. Based on her resume she’s dedicated most of her life to this game, and is part of an athletic department that houses one of the premier men’s teams in the country. This isn’t about a woman. This is about a hockey professional being treated like crap by a couple of shirty (likely drunk) hobbyists. The problem is the people on the other team, not the person treated like poop.

I think some of the vibe here is that there are women who play hockey and that there are hockey players who are men, and the two are different. They are not. This woman has basically dedicated a good portion of her life and becoming a hockey professional. So maybe she is more of a hockey player than the bar league men are who played HS JV and picked it up again at 35. This one sounds like it crossed a line and is about far more than contact along the boards.

Some of the early Pegula years were uninspiring. I thought we might be in for a tough sled once Terry said something like "nobody has a monopoly on hockey IQ" when asked about secret meetings between him and Darcy behind Ted Blacks back. Like WTF is a Team President for if you are going to flip them off like that. Then there was the company wide presentation of "Maintain Family Lifestyle". Like people took screen shots on their phones. This was a slide that Kim Pegula presented to the Sabres org. Insane. We hired a soccer executive to coach during that time like he was some sort of John Wooden. Then we cut the scouting department. So what does that span? 8 years? That is my least favorite. This iteration of the org is the one I am by far the most disappointed in. I thought that even a broken clock is right twice a day (see the Bills), and maybe we were on the up and up. But we aren't. We aren't. It came crashing down this season when I realized we have a GM that 31 other owners in the NHL would not have hired to do the job, and the biggest thing in holding this team back is roster construction and leadership in the FO/org.

On top of that I don’t like his roster construction. I don’t trust him to do anything. I hope we sit tight and get a real hockey Gm or POHO in here before we start moving pieces that could actually be valuable. That said we’ll trade Mitts for 8 5’9 centers in the ECHL with great hands.

Honestly I’d rather MSG play the Rochester games. But yes, I’ll keep watching. You win this one Terry.

Very fair point. A better way of putting it is that almost immediately since Quinn came back he was one of our best and well rounded wingers. I think it would be a huge mistake for anybody to put Quinn on the trade block or plan on moving on from him in the near future. Would I give him the Power deal right now? Nope, nope, nope. But if he wanted to sign Sammy's deal at @4.2M x 7 years I would very seriously consider it. Even if he is permanently bitten by the injury bug, I think that is a valuable and tradeable contract. That would make him something like the 50th highest paid RW in the league today. That will only drop given the cap increases. This almost always works on XBox, sooo maybe trust me please.

I would hope it is obvious to everybody in the org that JJP and Quinn are on pace to be our best wingers and maybe our best forwards on the roster.

There are a lot of moving parts. Just in terms of guys we should lock into place the next 3 years in particular order Center Mitts and Thompson Wing JJP, Quinn, Tuch, Benson, Greenway I think Cozens is a bit of the key for who goes where and what we do after that. We don't have enough quality centers. His 23-24 season is a hype train running on fumes. He either needs to get it together or we need to try him on the wing. The issue with him on the wing is that he would be one of the highest paid RW in the league (11th). So if he isn't lights out there either his contract needs to go away. All this is wild speculation of his future, but it is an honest inventory of where he is today and where he needs to be tomorrow in order for this team to take a leap. I would quickly unload whatever I could from Skinners contract. Edit: This team could use an Adam Lowry clone or two. And in that scenario I like Robinson on this team.

If Levi can help the Amerks win the Calder Cup, I think that benefits both orgs, Levi himself, and a number of prospects.

At the moment I don't see Cozens value at C. The only success he has had this year has been being carried by JJP and Quinn. His 200 foot game stinks, and he is probably our worst forward in our own end outside of Skinner. Move him to the wing hopefully we can extract some value there.

Is Ruff a world beater? No. Is Ruff firmly in the "Hall of Very Good"? Absolutely For the same reasons I am pro McBeane I would be pro this move. Terry Pegula is an adminsative disaster who I have zero faith in ever making two good decisions back to back. I have said it a 100 times, he continues to hire yes men so he can meddle. It starts with Jerry Forton, whose brother in-law is the business man behind Pegula's empire, being on the bench early in Terry's ownership and progresses to Kevyn Adams. If Ruff can come in and make us the 6th seed year after year for eternity, sign me up, because as a business org we are the worst team in hockey for the last 13 years without him.

This is fair. I agree. JJP-Kulich/Krebs-Cozens it is.

There is a 92% chance we miss the playoffs. This season is all but done. Cozens has been abysmal at center. His only good moments are when JJP/Quinn are playing lights out. I am open to using Quinns injury to move Cozens over to the wing and giving Krebs/Kulich a go at C. Kulich aside, I wouldn't mind seeing JJP-Mitts-Cozens.

First and foremost his NHL game isn't great. Second, he needs some more playing time. The kid needs some work physically and mentally. His speech about how transcendent his 3 AHL games were to his NHL career showed me he isn't seeing the forest for the trees. 3 AHL games don't permanently change your NHL game. The fact that he thinks it did was a bit of a red flag for me. The sky is the limit for the kid. The best thing for the Sabres is to nail his progression so they get the most out of his peak as soon as possible. Hanging him out to dry behind a terrible defense because he is better than Comrie is the solution to bad coaching and bad mangement. But it isn't the best solution for taking a kid out of college and making him a tier 1 NHL starting goaltender.

Darcy Regier and Lindy Ruff is the best pairing Pegula has ever had with the Sabres. The team was right to move on. It’s insane they haven’t been able to hire anybody better for either role in 10 years. I wonder if Lindy has enough trust from Pegula to be POHO and get the rumored “no meddling” clause?