Brawndo

Evolving Hockey defense percentiles for his first full three seasons at 13th, 34th and finally 78th during his first year with Ruff. I was ok with the Ruff Hiring as his teams usually see a bounce his first season, that certainly did not happen with the Sabres. It also stopped Adams from hiring His First Choice in Seth Appert. Now I hope we get a completely new coaching staff in 2026-27.

I believe there are a couple reasons the league has not stepped in. First there is a general sense of sympathy towards the Pegulas for what Kim is going through. The league had to clean up two situations with Ownership of Ottawa and Arizona needing to change hands Getting the new CBA done. There probably is an overall reluctance by the other owners to strip a franchise from a fellow owner as they would not want the same thing happening to them. I imagine the decreased revenue coming from the Buffalo Market is a bone of contention for the other owners, there probably will be a strong suggestion about hiring someone with experience into the GM role, Hello Jarmo, and spending to the cap coming in the next season or two

Not a fan of Terry at all so I have no reason to defend him, but you are correct this did not happen

I am going to disagree on the cap situation, that one is all Terry. Matthew Fairburn mentioned that the Sabres have had almost 60 million dollars in unused cap space over the past five years and only cap dump the Sabres have taken on was Ben Bishop to get to the floor. They are one of the franchises that receives revenue sharing and yet they never retained or acted as a third team broker to retain salary. How do you think the owners of the teams that pay into revenue sharing feel when their organizations are performing salary cap gymnastics in a flat cap world while the Sabres are sitting on unused space. Adams is complicit in the fact he is still willing to do this entering his sixth season as only two teams have made the playoffs in the past decade that were in the bottom ten for spending. Sean Monahan and Calgary’s First was offered to the Sabres as a cap dump, something that Adams actually wanted to do, but was ultimately told no. Instead Montreal ended up with two firsts for their trouble. I understand that GMs have to check with their owners about potential moves, but could you imagine Jim Nill or Joe Sakic calling their respective owners to ask about trading Henry Jokiharju for a 4th at the TDL?

What’s weak sauce is this organization not demonstrating that it is serious about winning. The fact that GMKA is entering his sixth season despite the regression and failure to make the playoffs, coupled with the fact that Wilford, Bales and Ellis are entering their fifth seasons. Competent organizations make changes to their coaching staffs all the time, Colorado hired Dave Hasktol earlier this week. Sabres Fans cannot even receive that simple change. Wilford is a symptom of a much larger problem that starts with the owner. The reason I singled out Wilford is there was a candidate they reached out to about replacing him with who ultimately turned them down. This is another serious concern about the organization they seemingly focus on one potential solution, if that doesn’t work they do not pivot. The organization feels there is an opportunity to improve, but decides to stay with the status quo after the only candidate turns them down. Could you imagine Power in a competent defense system with numbers he is putting up?

Zito

There may have been one or two people that would have been acceptable for the allocation of additional resources for the coaching staff. One was not interested. This has been a GMKA Talking Point since Power signed his ELC, no action though I would trade for Liligren from San Jose. One of the common trade proposals for Byram before the draft was Liligren and 30th overall. San Jose does have Edmonton’s First this year

They give recommendations on all sorts of moves, the issue is they are not followed unlike the Panthers. Analytics is the reason Florida gets players such as Forsling, Verhaeghe and Mikkola at bargain basement prices. Jarmo is a fan of analytics, so hopefully this bodes well for the future

There is runway left with him to develop. The organization has not put him in position to succeed. An ECHL Level coach in Wilford, taking until this offseason to potentially find him a partner.

For Funsies here is Dahlin’s

Evolving Hockey is cited as a source for The Athletic Player Cards. Here is the data from EV’s Website as well as Hockey Viz.

The Panthers have over 40 people listed in their front office/hockey ops department. The Sabres have approximately 24 including Jarmo and Staal. The Panthers front office is considered one of the most progressive when it comes to analytics, Jeff Marek reported on the What Chaos Podcast that Bill Zito will not make a move without checking with Sunny Mehta, Director of Analytics for the Panthers, first. Adams has an excellent Analytics Department lead by Sam Ventura, which he does not to listen to it as much as he should. . Which is a shame because Ryan McLeod is the result of when he does.

Even if he thought of it would he have been allowed? He went from zero playoff rounds to four in one season, he needs to pace himself

The price has the potential to be ugly Helenius perhaps

Matt Dumba traded to Pittsburgh

This one is for Darth

Jarmo’s probably thinking if I had made more trades with Buffalo, I still would be the GM in Columbus

Byram has the ability to take a two year award which would make him an UFA at the end of this contract

Per Friedman

Alex Meruelo was the league’s worst owner. Ryan Smith probably thought it was a good idea to keep as much of the Hockey Operations Department intact based on the fact the sale and move of the franchise happening as quickly as it did, coupled with the fact Smith had zero experience with the NHL. Smith did give Armstrong permission to spend last offseason and the team did have a 12 point improvement in standings ultimately missing by 8 points compared to 21 the season before Bill Armstrong Team’s have showed improvement every season over the past three seasons, unlike the Sabres who have regressed in the standings since missing the playoffs by two points