dudacek

@GASabresIUFAN That was a properly lawyerly reply. Are Quinn, Power, Peterka, Krebs and Samuelsson in situations where they can excel? Could the same be said for Mitts, Tage and Nylander the majority of the time under Botterill? A yes or no will suffice 😁

Exactly. This is the bet Adams has made and the decision we can't really judge him on until we see where Mitts/Tage/Dahlin/Jokiharju/Cozens/Power/Quinn/Krebs etcetera are in the next year or two. This board is definitely coming from a place of 10 years of failures resulting from the exact process Adams has chosen to adapt. No one can blame us for being skeptical of the idea that he can do it better. However, with the exception of Dahlin, the hockey department and the roster are coming from the perspective of - at the most - two years of this. Close to half of next year's team will not have been exposed to it all. Adams is betting they will survive.

My point is — and maybe this more a response to @GASabresIUFAN than you — is that if you are trying to a) reserve spots on next year's team for top prospects and the Eichel return b) maximize the amount of cap space you have to supplement them and C) hang on to the futures in your asset pool, you've really shrunk the pool of viable options available to you on this year's team.

Fair or not, Botterill was handed a pair of foundational centres. Adams was given one and asked to trade him. Mitts, Thompson and Nylander have been handled dramatically differently than Quinn, Krebs, Samuelsson and Peterka. The latter are playing in leagues where they can dominate. The former were all put in situations where they were in over their heads.

@Thorny This is the team we have been watching: Skinner Thompson Olofsson Girgensons Cozens Okposo Hinostroza Eakin Bjork Caggiula Hayden Asplund Ruotsalainen Dahlin Jokiharju Bryson Miller Hagg Pysyk Butcher Tokarski/Anderson/Dell This is team I think Adams is building for as soon as next year Skinner Thompson Olofsson Girgensons Cozens Okposo ??? Mittelstadt Tuch Quinn Krebs Peterka Asplund Dahlin Jokiharju Power ??? Samuelsson Bryson ??? Lukkonnen ??? At least half the team will be different. That’s a team that he is counting on to compete. That’s the team I will be judging him on.

I should have clarified with a “minus the goaltending” this is a much more competitive team. As always, you’re welcome to disagree. The bold is not an opinion I hold, or have ever expressed. I’m sure you know this, but not everyone will and you did quote my post.

Any confidence? Yes, some. I am big fan of his choices with young players — both who he has targeted and how he has developed them so far. I think he has made one egregious error so far — his handling of Ullmark and his replacement, but generally speaking our team is better then last year, with considerably less talent. I think he has been smart with his contracts, the types of personalities he has acquired, the front office decisions he has made and the culture he has chosen to emphasize. I think he has chosen the right path. I'm OK with more short-term pain for long-term gain. A franchise as downtrodden as ours cannot be fixed overnight. I also think that he has proven absolutely nothing yet. The team has to continue to improve. Just like Jason Botterill, I'm not going to have strong opinions on Adams until I see whether the seeds he is planting blossom or whither on the vine. GMing is a long game.

I don't, but is seems @GASabresIUFAN might.

And I'm not arguing that. His roster building skills are showing in the standings. Just pointing out that roster building and player evaluation are not the same thing. Flipping Alex Nylander for Henri Jokiharju is excellent player evaluation. Running a D corps with Henri, Bogo, Risto, Miller and Montour is bad roster building.

Hoped, sure. Counted on, no way. Probably pointless to argue what defines a JAG in a league that budgets nearly $3-4 million per roster space (23 players, $82 million cap), but it seems like the crux of this discussion is that I believe Adams regarded most of the players he has acquired as short-term roster filler and you don't. I can't ignore how many players Adams has acquired who are on expiring deals. He's made a significant commitment to exactly two players: Tuch and Dahlin. Everyone else has been either cheap.or short-term. Most of them have been both.

Like I said, JAGs at JAG prices. Do you think that Adams intended any of the expiring contracts on the Sabres this year to be anything other than one-year roster filler?

Some may think I’m splitting hairs here, but I’d say it’s his ability to bring in good players that has been lacking. The truth is that based on the contracts he has handed out, and the assets given up for the players he has acquired, his evaluation has been pretty solid. He’s acquired JAGs at JAG prices. I’d say Anderson, Hinostroza, Caggiula, Pysyk have certainly earned their contracts. Hagg and Hayden are within reason for what they bring. Eakin, Dell and Butcher have been misses, but aren’t anchors. Asplund and Thompson have been good deals. Tuch, Mitts and Joki are TBD. None of them except, obviously, Tuch, have cost much in assets.

But you know that it’s not a given. And that it’s harder to sustain when you aren’t good enough, and when you don’t trust your goalie.

I’m sticking with my earlier opinion: the Sabres arent talented enough, but work hard enough to be competitive when they get goaltending.

Peca is one of my all-time favourites. Was just trying to point out how much the game has changed.

Ah the ‘90s. That hit was so ridiculously late. And the announcers don’t even notice.

Just to clarify, you want Granato or Okposo to unleash a rant in front of a camera or a microphone about the offside call?

Gary says it’s up to the players. https://www.vancouverislandfreedaily.com/sports/bettman-nhl-continues-to-have-real-concerns-regarding-olympic-participation/

Obviously, best case scenario for a Sabre fan is that UPL is up for good and provides Buffalo with solid goaltending for the rest of the year. Because I don’t believe he (or the Sabres) are advanced enough for that to happen, I hope Subban is back today and UPL gets sent down. Success in 2 NHL games is exactly what he needs to boost his confidence for a good run on a good team in Rochester, which could set up him up in a place where the next time he gets called up, he gets called up for good. Being asked to carry the Sabres now is not going to be good for him mentally.

Glad to see people are finally starting to pay attention to the liability Olofsson has become to our offence. He can’t shoot right now. And he’s blowing the opportunities Tage and Dahlin and even Skinner - especially on the PP - are giving him because of it. Maybe it’s time to take him off the top line and reunite him with Asplund, whose offence has also completely dried up. They both played their best hockey of the year together. Not sure who would replace him with Skinner and Thompson, because he still thinks the game better than any other winger in this team, but he really needs to get healthy.

UPL made all the saves he had to make, and a number that he didn’t. Yes he could have done a better job with the rebound on goal #2, but close to the body off a quick wrister blocker side is not the easiest shot to direct. More to the point, he looked like an NHL goalie is supposed to look: big, solid and in control. Again. Pleasant surprise. Given his skittishness over this calendar year, and fact we were playing the Rangers, I fully expected him to be lit up like a Christmas tree.

Certainly that’s what Adams believes and it’s working down there. Just wanted to point out that the Amerks just won their fifth in a row and are in 7th in the AHL (13/6/0), 1st in goals for. They’ve played league-best 17/1/2 Utica 6 times already, handing them 2 of their 3 losses. They’ve won their last two without leading scoring Jack Quinn and their #1 goalie UPL. Their #2 goalie, Dell, is with the Sabres, as are top six forwards Murray and Jankowski. They are also missing top 4 defenders Davidson and Schuldt, as well as speedy rookie winger Linus Weissbach. Their best defenceman, Matthias Samuelsson, has also missed time. Veteran forward Andrew Oglevie and rookie winger Lukas Rousek have been out all season. They’ve battled CoVId, that saw games postponed and their coach quarantined. That’s a lot of adversity through a 1/4 season and they haven’t really missed a beat.

That’s a great question. Probably? I think we can agree that the majority of the hockey world ranked Dahlin as the guy and would have been shocked if Botterill had picked anyone else. Hindsight so far has shown it wasn’t the slam dunk we thought. I think we can also agree that Power was the consensus #1, just not as highly thought of, or as much of a slam dunk as Dahlin was. Time has yet to give us much perspective. What do you think?

I think you're right about the disagreement. That said I agree with you. It's not that last year doesn't count, but I don't think he fully started being a GM the way Punch was the GM, or Scotty was the GM until Krueger was fired.

One thing Adams has done significantly better than Botterill is that he has tended to invest $750,000 and no assets into one-year contracts for his JAGs like Hinostroza and Pysyk, rather than $10 million and picks into long-term deals for JAGs like Sheary and Miller. Seriously @GASabresIUFAN, how can you get upset by Butcher and ignore that?