Weave

I cannot imagine there is much that can be done. The horses to run that game just aren't here, and Dalton Smith is not NHL level. I think their best bet is to let sleeping dogs lie. Stick with a speed game, keep your head up and counter attack. The only thing they can't do is shy away. If they do that they lose. Badly.

This is all in the context of your plan to trade Linus and try to woo him back next season. And it applied to the other vets we currently have as well. You want to put the stink of Loser on these kids to finish out the season, that’s a sure fire way to do it. With Linus hurt again you may get your chance to see how foolish that idea is.

*looks at Sabres scoring stats* Sure, why not?

On October 11th you were "completely shocked and completely thrilled. A gusty move and completely worth the risk". Seriously revisionist history here.

We bought 2/3 season of Hall. It cost Pegula a ton of money for that 2/3 season, but I really don't give a *****. It's not my money and it was a much bigger swing than any other player we might have signed instead. And after we got tired of his lack of effect on the game we moved him for a scratch off ticket. So, Pegula bought a handful of goals and a scratch off ticket for more money than I'll ever see. Meh. For a fan it is a found scratch off ticket. It's not like he was a player we developed and sunk time into and had a future with us. It's a freebie pick for a mercenary as far as I am concerned. Having said all that, ***** you trade deadline day. I'm sick and tired of watching the team I root for get worse every damned season at this time.

The problem with this approach is, who is replacing all of these guys you want to ship out? Next man standing? You are correct in that the folks you wanted moved for scratch offs are not fueling the limited success we have seen, but the next guys up to replace them are not even NHLers. They will get caved in every game and we go back to Team Morose. And that is the worst possible environment to put these kids in to prepare for next season. You don't need more proof that this doesn't work. You've actually watched it live for the last 7 seasons. At least the vets we have aren't getting caved in. It's a much more positive developmental environment.

No. That mindset is what got us here and separates us from teams that successfully rebuild/reload on the fly. I’ll add, it was a lost season that ended with a very young team figuring out how win that immediately proceeded our last good run. If the team took the sell everyone not nailed down approach that season would those kids have figured out what winning tastes like in time before contracts ended that fun?

For the last decade, yes.

Every time I see this name my head goes to Kajagoogoo. I hated the 80s. Now I hate this guy.

Hall and Lazar combine for 4pts.

Any team that traded for a Sabre is out.

Has any GM ever said they wanted to build a deliberate, careful team?

Whether you liked the tank or not is immaterial. The TankFruit represent sunk costs either way. Making decisions based on what you went through to get them is always bad policy. It's like turning down a 3rd rd pick for Montour because you gave up a first 2 seasons ago. In Jack or Sam's case it would be poor decision making to not trade either one because you tanked for them. You make the decision based on the return, not based on what you went through to get them. The tank is a fully worthless contributor to the math.

KAs hands were at least partially tied so sez the Twitters. “Hall didn't go into details, but said his no-move clause "definitely helped make me a Bruin." Boston is where he wanted to go.”

Don’t know a damned thing about Bjork. But I’m nearly 100% certain we are a worse team today than we were yesterday..... for the 10th season in a row. Lets establish that winning culture. Boston gets it, Buffalo doesn’t. And the fanbase accepts it as inevitable and acceptable.

This time of the season had made me twitchy for 10 seasons now. For 10 seasons we’ve ended the season with a less good team than we started with, all for some low percentage chances at a player 3-4 years from now. And all 10 seasons we haven’t been good enough to afford to get worse. I get your complaints.

I get that. I’d also rather have Irwin a healthy scratch for the remainder of the season than have the 3rd round pick, but that wasn’t the context of my post. Some posters cannot seem to grasp that a player with less than 2 dozen games left on hos contract is worth alot less than the same player with 2 yrs remaining on that contract and want to blame the GM for it.

Play to win the rest of the season, even if it means we don't get a return for Ullmark. We cannot afford to continue to allow losing to be acceptable to yet another generation of young players. Yet another price to be paid for the decisions that led us here.

We gave up a 1 and a prospect when he had 2 seasons remaining on his contract. We got a 3 because he has 15 games remaining on his contract. Why is this so hard?

Did this happen? I don't recall this being discussed here.

Pshaw

IMO it’s about even. You can’t develop well in the environment the team created.

I don’t know. He’s not exactly lighting it up on a better team. He might just be done. He’s no Kozlov.

3 per year is statistically unrealistic and unsustainable.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree lol