Darryl Shannon's +/-

He's 30, I think the organizational plan is to be in the top 2 of the draft next year. By the time we're totally ready to contend, it will probably be about the time Kesler is hanging em up. I know the counterpoint to this is that we can attempt a rebuild like the Kings - go crazy and bring in established veteran help in the offseason. I just don't think that is the path Murray and company want to go.

That Marty Erat really gets around.....

Agreed....this broadcast team seems quite solid.

Disagree....if you agree to do something, you can still be viewed as a quitter if you don't complete or give a complete effort. If I decide that I hate my boss and need to leave, there is a graceful way to leave, and an abrupt way. LaFontaine, at least from what I can tell, chose an abrupt way to leave. So much so that the Isles tried to scrub him from their history.

Haha....I laughed. You very well might have sources, but to the people like me with zero connections - I think you can easily see the hesitation to go all in and say that this is clearly a Pegula problem. Especially with Pat's complete lack of a resume to prove him as a reliable person.

Isn't it entirely possible that he was a horrible person behind closed doors and a prince in front of the camera? I find it curious that an owner who has been blamed for being too slow to pull the trigger got rid of Pat in about three months. It's not as if LaFontaine has a gigantic resume where you can say he is a stable employee who is a great team player, right? The thing making me laugh....do you know how hard it must be to be fired from a high level executive job in 3 months? It's pretty obvious that it was either a huge disagreement on his role and power, or he was such a distraction at the corporate level that they had to can him.

The thing gnawing at me is this.....obviously getting in front of the cameras and saying all is well, there was no power struggle whatsoever has not worked. If they told what we believe is closer to the truth, would it look better? Is it really that difficult to say something along the lines of, "In the past few weeks, Pat and the rest of the leadership team had different opinions in terms of decision making abilities. After trying to mediate this for a few weeks, we found it best to move forward without Pat in the role of president, but we wish him all the best in his future endeavors." Any probing questions could be deflected saying that we want to keep this in house. Right? I hate the current path because it's as if the braintrust thinks that we are all dumb enough to believe the spin. But let's be serious. There will be more trades, the team will have huge turnover. We will all move on and continue watching because we don't pay money or post on this message board for a management team. All this does is make us skeptical every time they speak.

Damage. Control.

Wow....if that's the case, what were they talking about?

Not after he leads them to the conference finals....haha. Oddly enough, now that I think of it, if we are worried about slotting for the pick, we would want them to lose in the conference finals.

Furthermore....there is nothing wrong with trading him and making a run with a big contract on July 1

Agreed.....it's impossible to truly know what's going on until the dust settles. And that assumes we'll actually know what went on here. If it was personnel issues, it just speaks to us creating a management structure that obviously didn't work. My frustration out of this thing has nothing to do with the party at fault (we don't know who it is), more that we look like one of the dumbest organizations in hockey. Dirty laundry is being aired in a very public, very embarrassing way.

No - my ideal would be to have a management team that is able to work together without petty squabbles. Patrick is as good as gone too, especially if he believes that Pat was wronged. So now we have a GM who has been said by many to be severely lacking in the people skills department. We've spent the past 3 months or so talking about how the culture shift has been fantastic. I think that this destroys that, and our culture is in the hands of Murray. I also hate that we just hired this guy and have something this divisive this quickly. I think it speaks to us not planning well in the least. Let's assume the issue was over Ted Nolan. This really wasn't handled in the interview process? I just think that it makes the entire organization look pathetic.

Our "braintrust" will be dissolved by the end of the year. No way Patrick stays around if he thinks LaFontaine was wronged. Seems to me that we just took about five steps backwards. So what if Murray won a power struggle, for all the talk about culture that we've had since Darcy's departure, do you really want to celebrate having a guy around who destroyed our entire management structure within the first month and a half of being here? It makes it look like the entire team has zero plan. Which is great.

Knowing zero details, I think the person who looks bad out of this is LaFontaine. This is now twice that he's up and run away from front office jobs before even settling in to get comfortable. I do think that Nolan is in big trouble though....

My opinion is that we see the playoffs in 2-3 years, and this huge stockpile of draftpicks will help us add pieces when we want to pull the trigger. I love the idea of trading Halak and Stewart and continuing our fun. In addition, we have huge salary cap flexibility. I'd be very interested to see if we can help teams by taking on a bad contract or two for next season too. Murray must be in heaven, he has low expectations at the moment, wealth in future assets, and an owner who is willing to help the team. Don't discount eating 1.75M - that may have been the piece that made the conditional draft pick so sweet.

I like the trade if only for the fact that it frees up Murray to be able to spend more time trying to spin Moulson and others. If we waited till deadline day, there would be too many moving parts.

The first instinct I have is that Myers' name being put out there is meant to get GM's on the phone. When they don't want to drive away in a 57, maybe they'll be willing to take a 10?

It may be unpopular, but given where the Sabres are currently, I don't want them touching Kesler. A center who is about to turn 30 is not what this team needs at the moment, especially if you'd have to spend big to land him.

Agreed....defensemen with an offensive pedigree are very prized during this time of year. Almost too much to be honest. Leopold was worth two 2nd round picks, and isn't in the same class as #10.

More points for Stafford and Moulson are a good thing.....

I do love that kicking a guy out of practice who doesn't belong in the ECHL skill wise makes news though....haha. God, I can't wait for the trade deadline and then the draft.

Since the team is full of 4th line talent, I assume it wasn't skill related. I'm betting he took exception to Scott laughing about it, or not hustling, or something similar. Regardless of what it was, any time a coach is angry enough to kick someone out of practice, it does get the attention of others. If reports are true, Scott was not pleased, which is probably exactly what Nolan wants. This is a crucial time for Nolan and the team. Odds are that the team will lose 5ish players come deadline day. If Ott and Miller are gone and usually provide structure, discipline and professionalism, someone will need to fill that void. If we are lacking in veteran leadership for the rest of the year, Nolan may have to be the bad cop more often.

I've never understood the glorification of the bad loser. What's so hard about giving every ounce of yourself for the 60 (or more) minutes of play, but then being an adult after the fact?

I just don't see it.....if LaFontaine really runs the operations side of the house, and he fought this long to get Nolan back into the game, I'm doubting his first hire would be a guy who would can Nolan (or in this case, I guess it's fail to extend him) without a fair shot being given to prove himself. Add in that next year, it doesn't really matter who coaches the team. My guess is the "interim" tag remaining is an illusion that Murray has rights to make this decision going into this offseason. But there's no way to know until this fall.....