mjd1001

It is the most likely scenario but from a Fan's point of view there is.. not one a few but one really big major flaw I see. If it plays out that way, Kekalainen is the new GM. Where is the exhaustive search for the new GM? Where are multiple interviews, where is the chance to see different points of view? If it does play out that way, and I think it's the most likely scenario at this point, it's another case of Terry pegula not taking any chances, going with someone he's comfortable with, rather than the best person for the job.

I know negotiations don't always work like this...but that is all the more reason to not rush to sign Tuch now to a big dollar contract. That is one way it is in HIS interest to not push for top dollar to get those 2 more years. If the Sabres sign him for 8 years at $10.5, they are dumber than any of us thought..when no one else can sign him for more than 6. Those 2 extra years he will be 36 and 37 years old. No rush to sign him to guarantee you are taking a $10m+ cap hit on a player that age....at least in my opinion. Of course, I'm one of the ones who is in no rush to sign him...and as much as I think he's the 2nd or 3rd best player on this team right now, and I LIKE him as a player, I'm not going to be heartbroken if he isn't here next year.

That has been my opinion for a while. Had a few arguments here that even in the past, the OL, WR group, basically everything on this team is, and has been in the past...at best a borderline playoff team with an 'average' qb instead of Allen. The OL thing is the one that always drove me crazy...the last couple years most people have said they are one of the top 5 in the league. I don't see it.

Yep. Sabres get an asset, Tuch gets a playoff run. Its not like it seems he is giving them a hometown discount. If they are going to have to 'pay up' for him now, they can do so in the offseason. If he wants to go someplace else, he can just not sign here anyway. If the Sabres are out of it, no reason to sign him now, trade him and see where things take you. ESPECIALLY if you have a new front office in the offseason. Terry can tell that front office how much he likes Tuch (if he does) but let it be up to the new front office. Don't sign too many people in advance and let the new front office have little/less roster options to work with.

A select few of them care about winning more than anything, but many. The rest, they care about winning but ONLY after making lots and lots more money. That must come first.

Bryam actually has almsot 23 minutes penalty killing, 4th on the team among D-men. Not a lot, but the team has allowed 2 goals in his 23 minutes on the ice short handed. When Timmons and Sameulsson are on the ice, they have allowed a total of 1 goal in 117 total minutes. https://www.naturalstattrick.com/playerteams.php?fromseason=20252026&thruseason=20252026&stype=2&sit=pk&score=all&stdoi=oi&rate=n&team=BUF&pos=D&loc=B&toi=20&gpfilt=none&fd=&td=&tgp=410&lines=single&draftteam=ALL

Putting aside the 'eye test' and looking instead at some analytics, I wanted to see who was the best/worst on the PP for the Sabres this year among forwards using some basic analytics: Basically, I looked at how many goals the team scores every minute these guys are on the ice (actual production) and then how many 'expected goals' they have per minute the guys are on the ice (how many/how good of chances they generate) Among forward, The good: -Benson: 1 team goal every 4.7 minutes PP time he is on the ice, 1' expected goal' every 5 minutes. -Zucker: 1 team goal every 6.8 minutes, 1 expected goal every 5.7 minutes -Doan: 1 team goal every 8.65 minutes PP time. 1 exptected goal every 6.6 minutes Among forwards, the "OK" -Tage: 1 team goal every 9 minutes PP time he is on the ice. 1 'expected goal' every 7 minutes Among forwards, the bad: -McLeod: 1 team goal every 28 minutes he is on the ice. 1 'expected goal' 10.6 minutes. -Tuch: 1 team goal every 19.5 minutes he is on the ice. 1 'expected goal' every 9.6 minutes -Quinn: 1 team goal every 9.9 minutes he is on the ice. 1 'expected goal' every 8.8 minutes its still 'kinda' early in the season so its not a huge sample size. but clearly the PP functions pretty well with Benson, Zucker, Doan, and Tage are on the ice....and it suffers pretty badly when McLeod, Tuch, and Quinn are out there. https://www.naturalstattrick.com/playerteams.php?fromseason=20252026&thruseason=20252026&stype=2&sit=pp&score=all&stdoi=oi&rate=n&team=BUF&pos=F&loc=B&toi=20&gpfilt=none&fd=&td=&tgp=410&lines=single&draftteam=ALL For D-men, there are only 3 with significant minutes. The "good" -Dahlin: 1 goal for every 7.9 minutes. 1 expected goal for every 7 minutes. The "not so good" -Power: 1 goal for every 14 minutes. 1 expected goal for every 9.7 minutes The "Bad" -Byram: 1 goal for every 20 minutes. 1 expected goal for every 8 minutes (BTW, if you do the reverse of this and look up how good/bad they are penatly killing, Byram gets some ice time but he is the worst there. Of all the D-men used PK, when Bryam is on the ice they allow both the most goals per minute and the most expected goals per minute. Samuelsson and Timmons are the best. Power and Dahlin in the middle)

All of the above bolded is true in my opinion. There is no amount of 'finesse' that can fix this. No one or 2 moves. No returning injured players. None of that is going to turn this team into a team that is dangerous in any way in the playoffs. I have been patient with this management group and Adams. I have thought their defense is young and d-men take longer to develop than forwards so it may take a few years. I have thought they young guys (Dahlin, Thompson, Tuch) are now just 'in their prime' and they are ready to carry the team. I thought that UPL had it in him to be the goaltender he was 2 years ago and last year was just a bad year. I thought that the young guys in Rochester would progress slightly faster than they have. All of those things COULD have been true, but they don't look like they are. I had patience through 3-4 years of this front office, I was losing patience last year..but in year 6, its just too long. Changes should have been made 1-2 years ago and they weren't. I was OK with waiting a bit longer but if even "I" have waited this long and nothing has changed, well, something does need to be done now. Its long enough (even for me, one of the more patient people on this forum) Clean out the entire front office NOW, so anyone new coming in can have their (hopefully) accelerated evaluation period and then they can start making roster change. If you wait until the offseason to make changes, then the new Front office will have the excuse they need 1 more year to 'evaluate' the team, then changes might not be made quickly, and we are just putting up with the same thing for longer.

Some of us agree 100%. He is more interested in having poeple around him that make him comfortable. That won't offend him. That will take the arrows from the press and fans when things go badly. With the Sabres, its almost as if he wants to be coddled. Winning? Sure that would be great, but it has to be done his way.

Best players on the ice last night for the Sabres with regard to expected goals for vs expected goals against: -Malenstyn -Krebs -Östlund -Samuelsson -McLeod -Dahlin -Thompson All those guys were on the positive side of things (more expected goals for than against). The rest of the team was negative Who were the worst guys? -Bryam -Rosen -Greenway -Quinn -Tuch All those guys were negative, DEEP into the negative territory (below 35 when 50 is 'neutral') Quinn and Rosen also 'backed it up' by being a -2 on the night (tied for worst among forwards) and Byram was tied for the worst on the team at -3 (with his most-of-the-night partner Timmons)

Last night was one of the worst games Byram played as a Sabre. After you get rid of Quinn (last night was back to a typical mistake-ridden, lazy game by him) and Greenway (he's plain and simple a below average forward in almost every way other than penalty killing), Bryam would be the next one I'd move if any other team has interest.

This team can still make the playoffs. They aren't that far out of it. They are getting (hopefully) some injured players back. But I'm very close to this being the earliest in the season that I stop watching the game on a regular basis...why? They aren't likely to make the playoffs, but even if the do, it shouldn't be so hard. Its not fun watching a team trudge through the mud, shoot themselves in the foot (use whatever analogy you want) so often.

I think why you need to make the full scale changes you say, and why they need to be done now, has a lot to do with a situation like Tuch. Unless the owner wants him here no matter what, then you want to make your front office changes BEFORE deciding what to do with him. What if you bring in a new guy, and this guy doesn't want 10% of the cap tied up in an aging winger for the next 7 or 8 years? Yeah, its one contract, but you sign Tuch long term, and that is one more thing you are saddling the new guy/new front office with. If you want to get the best new GM/new front office here, its going to be tough. One thing you can offer them is as much freedom with the roster as possible. You DON'T want to have a freshly signed, 30 year old winger to a huge contract as a welcoming gift to that person because the owner, or the 'last guy' wanted him. Of course every single day that goes by, the Tuch decision gets closer and more difficult. Which is exactly why you need to purge this front office NOW, not wait to the end of the year when a lot of contracts are up so it saves Pegula a bit of money. And if Dahlin and Thompson want out, they want out. There are 16 teams that make the playoff every year with the 2 of them. The idea behind another new rebuild with a new front office is to become one of those 16 that make the playoffs (and eventuall more than that). Its not a requirement to do that. As much as I think both of them can be really good, overall it isn't fun watching this team play, even with them on it.

I don't care about the standings. Year after year after year, to get to the playoffs you need about 95 points. Worry about playing to that level (or better), the rest of the teams above you will sort themselves out. 85 points by April 1st. Again, it doesn't really matter to me at all where they are in the standings now, who is ahead of them, how far ahead they are...if you can get to 85 points by April 1st. After that you have 7 regular season games left. Sure, I'd love MORE than 85 points, but you will still be 'in it' and close enough that those last games in April will decide your season.

As per my post above, I just want him off the team. Is there a chance he could find his game and turn into a good goalie for someone else? Sure. There's also a chance that never happens. And right now I think the team benefits going forward having one less goaltender on it, that being UPL. If you give him away with no return at all except having an extra roster spot, I'm okay with it. I wouldn't consider that being taken to the cleaners. Not moving him, having him play games where he's below average, having three goaltenders on the roster, paying him the couple percent of cap space that you're paying him..... Everyday that continues, I consider that being taken to the cleaners.