dudacek

Pretty sure Ullmark was the only instance we know for sure Adams declined to pay the price. The Murray deal was killed by Murray not Adams, and rumours of the Gibson deal suggest the same. We also just saw Adams overpay for Greenway, paying the price to get him now, when Minny still had use for him, as opposed to later, when they would be forced by the cap to trade him and he may have been available for less. Bill Guerin made it pretty clear Adams stepped up to make that deal happen, and Greenway’s agent’s comments today to Marty and Duffer seem to support that. I don’t there is any kind of track record established that he’s strictly a budget shopper.

No, actually, I think Im more aligned with your way of thinking, that an overpay is OK under the circumstance if it gets us closer to our goal. It’s more the degree of overpay I was reacting to. The market dictates a top-of-the-line proven goalie is worth, at the most, 2/3s of what’s being offered. And that’s on top of the fact Hart is demonstrably far more projection than top-of-the-line goalie. Make your overpay a little closer to market, or save it for a better bet, like a Saros. I look at at Perreault’s offer as kinda like offering 2 firsts for Casey Mittlestadt because you loved him as a prospect and he seems to be coming into his own this year. It’s not inconceivable he could turn into a 60-point scorer and justify the price, but wouldn’t you be better off using those assets to buy a Sam Reinhart or a Bo Horvat? Or get a Anthony Beauvillier for a 2nd?

You guys are insane. Never mind how good he is or not, doesnt anyone pay attention to the market?

Giving up 2 firsts and a 2nd would make him the most expensive goalie ever acquired this century -and by the degree of a 1st round pick at minimum. More than Ryan Miller, more than Roberto Luongo, more than anyone. Not a bad return for a guy with a career .905 save percentage.

Prefer Demko, but Hart’s contract status works and his talent an upgrade. Would not give up this year’s first for him.

And when they aren’t burying guys, they think they aren’t using their size. Greenway looked pretty powerful in every battle I saw him in.

Had a moment last night watching our 2nd unit PP that floored me: Mitts was the most experienced player on the ice, at 24, with 261 NHL games under his belt. Krebs: just turned 22, 119 games Quinn: 21, 61 games Peterka: just turned 21, 64 games Power: 20, 71 games And we’ve got 22-year-old Dahlin and 21-year-old Cozens on the 1st unit. The youngest guy on the Leafs PP was Matthews, who is 14 months older than Mittelstadt.

This is what I shake my head at: Since when is 54 points to 75 points to 88ish points over two years slow? It’s significant, real, measurable improvement.

Intriguing column from former Canuck and Devil employee Rachel Doerrie on how things really work inside NHL organizations. https://thehockeynews.com/news/when-an-nhl-gm-becomes-a-dartboard

Tommers was fighting so hard to get through the blanket they were trying to put on him tonight. He’s not a guy who shuts down when the competition ratchets up. He’s still learning how to beat tough defence, but he’s got the mental toughness to make it happen. Jokiharju with another outstanding game: 4 hits +2, 27 minutes. It feels like Sabrespace only notices him when something doesn’t work and takes for granted what he does well.

Dudley was hard to replace

Yes, in June everyone knew the six best Sabres would all simultaneously have career years, so the brain trust ignored all the fantastic goalies lining up to come to Buffalo and targeted the most milquetoast goalie they could find in order to not raise expectations too much. That’s certainly what I would have done under the same circumstances. Who wouldn’t?

Can’t remember the last winger this franchise has had who combines size, strength, skill, character and likability the way Alex Tuch does. I was surprised but a little skeptical of how good he was last spring. But he’s been all that and a lot more this season. He’s far better than I ever thought he could be. My god, did Adams ever make a 5-star meal out of the ***** sandwich that was the Eichel situation.

The very nature of the type of game Granato wants to play screams for an athletic goalie who excels at making saves in high danger situations as opposed to a shot-blocking systems goalie who excels at not making mistakes. (Fights the urge to check and see if anybody has left Northeastern in the past hour.)

Oh he’s under contract and definitely will be in the mix. He’s also shown in the past that he can be better than his performance this year has shown. It’s just the idea that someone who has performed to the level he has this year might not be targeted for an upgrade that makes people twitchy. At least people who care about making the playoffs.

The book on him as a Sabre might be unfinished, but it’s not unknown. In his 17 games he has not proven himself to be an NHL caliber goalie. He has done no more to suggest he should get a shot to carry the load next year than Dustin Tokarski did last year.

I had a goal for this season of not getting too invested in what I called “Armchair GMing” - “why aren’t they doing this? They need more of that” and simply try to enjoy the games in and of themselves as entertainment and focus on appreciating the things that I like. Stepped back from posting as much for a long stretch to help myself with the process. Can’t say I’ve always been successful, but I’ve tried, and for the most part this team has given me the most fun of any Sabres team in years. It’s interesting to me that we’ve used almost the identical phrase to describe what seem to be exactly the opposite approaches. In retrospect your phrasing is better. In answer to your question: for me, results of the whole matter now, but they matter less than improvement from the pieces. At some point those items are going to trade places, but I don’t think that was ever going to be this year.

This is painfully cynical and the fact that many of you seem to buy into it as a major motivating factor in the decision-making process makes me sad.

I don’t look down on this at all and am sorry if my posting has come across that way.

I think one of the Sabres major miscalculations this season was in the aptitude of Jacob Bryson. the contract they gave him suggests they were expecting a lot more than the sub-Kale Clague like performance they got.

Putting all your eggs into a rookie goalie who has never played an NHL game is an exercise in job security?

I know you don't believe anything we see they players actually say or do, but don't you don't think the team has a pretty good sense of whether Dahlin wants to be here or not?

I haven’t seen anything that leads me to believe Greenway’s IQ is questionable at all. On the contrary, he usually seems to be on the right side of the puck defensively and he seems to make safe decisions with and without it offensively. Are you referring more to a lack of creativity, perhaps?

FInally? It just seems to be the right call right now.

My point was simply that Adams thought Comrie could supply capable goaltending this year. To me the fact that he hasn't even been NHL calibre means Adams poorly read his ability. @LGR4GMdisagrees.