mjd1001

I am good with keeping Risto. Yes, I have criticized him a LOT in these forums. No, I don't think he is a good 1st paring D-man. YES, if they could get a top 15 pick for him or a legit top prospect I would still trade him. But I don't NEED him gone. I think he could be a very good 2nd paring D-man (keep his minutes under 20 minutes per game.) He then could be on your 2nd team PP (or at least fill in if needed) and he can Penalty kill. You have to resign him for a few more years, but IF this was his role, I'd be ok with it.

Exactly, with a LOT of NHL experience. older and with a lot more experience than guys like Mitts or cozens

The guy might be great, and at this point just bringing in anyone with some kind of talent is better than the vast wasteland that the Sabres have had just about everywhere recently, but another Penguins guy? I don't get as upset as many on here, but at some point...are the best people to hire REALLY just from Pittsburgh? You wonder if they are doing a thorough interview process to fill these roles...or are just bringing in people they are comfortable with.

He might flourish under Granato even more than he has in the past. On the other hand, he might be worse. Granato may be a coach who focuses on giving the 'young' guys a chance in key spots, letting them get confidence on the PP when they normally wouldn't. Granato may want those younger guys to take key minutes as a way for them to develop. IF that was/is the case, that would mean Eichel would get a little less chance/less ice time in those situations than he has in the past.

Me too. It is becoming tiresome to think about and read about, yet that is what we do on forums and as fans. There are only 2 ways out of this for Eichel that make sense for the team: 1.) He stays, and he stays long term. There is a press conference/statement where he says something like " I plan on playing in Buffalo for at least the remainder of my current contract. I'm committed to the team and the city. It has been frustrating the last few years, but especially after talking to the GM and new coach, I'm as committed as ever to turning our franchise around, no matter how long it takes" Personally, I don't think that is going to happen, but that is the only way I think he can stay and have it work for the Team. 2.) he gets traded. I'm in the camp of wanting him traded...why? Because I WOULD want him to stay but only in the circumstances listed in 'option #1' above, and I just don't think that is reasonable or possible right now.

When it comes to driving....going down a road and seeing someone coming out from a parking lot or side-street wanting to turn onto the main road you are on. But instead of waiting for you to drive by.......they fail to come to a complete stop at the stop sign to make sure they are out in front of you, but it is so close you have to slow down considerably to not hit them. Then you look in your rear view mirror and see NO OTHER CARS behind you. If they just waited a few more seconds, they could have easily turned onto the main road behind you. But no..if it requires actual FULL STOP at a stop sign, most people will have none of that.

My wife is from New York City, she was there to visit family recently and said it's worse than when she lived there. On the other hand we just took a trip to Boston. It was great. The newer seaport district neighborhood felt safe at all hours of the day and night, it was amazingly clean and pretty vibrant.

They get more ice time. That is a big part of it. And 2nd, in their own end, they potentially 'own' half the ice, forward assignments are a bit different.

I really do not understand not wanting to trade him in the conference or the division. You trade him to wherever you are getting the best offer. If the Rangers, or Boston, were to give you the best offer, many of you would actually take a WORSE offer just to keep him in the other conference?

Agreed. The hiring of the coach was going to be a 'news event, but I'm really looking forward to the roster moves. Lets get to those now.

Not related to whether vaccines should or should not be mandatory but.... It appears Covid rates have stopped going down and are now rising not only in the rest of the world, but slightly in the USA as well.. -For the first time since early Spring of this year, the week-over-week number of cases in the USA is rising. -In the U.K. They had a long string (weeks) with less than 3,000 cases per day, every day. Cases have shot up in the past couple weeks and now they are back above 15,000 new cases per day for almost a week. -For most of the last 2 months, the vast majority of states (some days of reporting all 50 states) had falling cases. As of today however, 20 states have an increasing 7 day moving average of cases. -A new 'gamma' variant is spreading through Brazil. The current vaccines we have appears to be much less effective against that variant. I don't know the 'correct' solution but this thing needs to be knocked out once and for all. I hope it isn't the case, but if these small short-term trends continue.....I personally do not think this country will go back into any kind of lockdown..but I can see restrictions on large gatherings (sporting events?) start to come back this fall IF we get another huge spike in cases.

It seems like a lot of people are ruling out Jack going to certain teams because they don't have the prospects to send back. Just remember it doesn't have to be only two teams involved. A multi-team trade is certainly more complicated and less likely to happen, but who's not to say Jack can't go to Columbus, Buffalo gets one piece back from Columbus... Columbus sends another piece to a third team, and the third team sends another piece back to Buffalo or something like that. That could also be why a trade is taking longer, there might be more moving parts than we know.

I want Granato to be named coach. With that said, a lot of his 'success' at the end of the year....is it really success? -He got better results than Krueger, that is for sure, and he did it with a depleted and young roster. -But Reinhart was on a streak where he got something like 13 goals in 13 games at one point. Had he NOT been that hot, just how good would this team have looked? -Also, its not like they had a winning record with him. Not even after the winless streak was over till the end of the year did they have a winning record. Again, I want Granato to be named head coach. But I also know that if he is....this team is likely to still struggle for wins under him (as they would under anyone) for at least the first quarter or third of next season. Without Reinhart or a healthy Jack, that is for sure in my mind.

There is an issue on this board that you can just chalk up to people being different. -There are some of us who want the Sabres to do a 'proper rebuild' strip it down to the studs and take your time. No shortcuts. People like that enjoy the rebuild..they enjoy the team getting a little bit better year after year. -there are others of us who just want the team to win. No waiting, no long rebuilds. Get a baseline of young players (a core) but then add to it players that will allow you to win now. Other teams do it, why not the sabres? Of course, many people may say they are in the middle but almost everyone leans toward one side of the other. Most of the arguments I read on this board are between people who fall into one of the two categories above.

That is the one issue with the 'if you don't get what you want just don't trade him' theory. If you don't get the offer you want and decide to hold on to him, what then? The situation you bring up will probably occur. If Adams/management really wants Jack out of here, but you don't move him...doesn't that derail the plans you have for what you envision as your 'new' leadership core? Will guys like Dahlin, Cozens, Mitts...will they really take control of the team and talk in the locker room if Jack is still here (especially if it is a disgruntled Jack?) The only other option is, you need to have a conversation with Eichel SOMETHING like this: "Jack, you are under contract for a while here. You are a big part of this team but not the ONLY part of this team that matters. You might be the best player on this team now, but we aren't making decisions that revolve around you...we ARE making decisions where you are a key part of the team but everything doesn't run through you. You will be treated (and payed) like one of the best players on this team, no more, no less." If you want out of Buffalo, you have to get on the ice, put up numbers, be a great teammate to your current teammates and be a 'good soldier'. It'll make it easier for us to trade you" I'm not sure if that conversation happened already or not....or maybe it happened in previous years and Jack is beyond it at this point.

I don't know specifics on him, but I can relay some information from a good friend of mine who is a huge Coyotes fan: 1.) the Roster wasn't the greatest, but the fanbase wanted to see more of an improvement from the team under him. From the middle point of his first year to the end on Arizona, they were consistently a few games above or below .500, no real improvement. 2.) The team seem to be guilty of 'sloppy' play under him. They would frequently make 'simple' mistakes and would not learn from them. 3.) He would roll his lines seemingly based on a schedule. Even with down by a goal or 2 in the third, the 2nd and 3rd line would seemingly get almost as much ice-time as the first line. His hottest/best players on the forward lines would not get 22-23 minute per game on a regular basis like on other teams. 4.) They never really were good on special teams. Through his entire time, they were average on the Penalty Kill, and had a below average PP. Worse, the PK and PP would seem to be at their worst when they needed it most (close games). 5.) They didn't control play well under him. I know at one point last year, my friend told me since Tocchet took over, the Coyotes were outshot by a larger margin than even the Sabres. 6.) A lack of development of their talent pool/draft picks under Tocchet. Not many of their high draft picks turned into what fans expected. I'm not how much of that is actually true, again this is what I heard from a friend who is a big Coyotes fan and watches their games as much as possible. And of course, how much of that is on the coach/coaching staff vs the overall talent of the players?

Totally, totally disagree with direct respect to my initial post. You would be inappropriate to judge Adams as a terrible GM because of a situation he was forced to deal with. If he makes a bad deal, it's on him. If he makes the best deal he can based on the options presented to him, but those options are not what the fan base would have wanted, then it's not on him.

Well that's my whole point. Miss directed or misplaced, a lot of people put it not on the sabers as a whole but they put it on one particular person and there's a good chance the person they're putting it on might not be the correct person to place it on.

That is one of the reasons that I get so frustrated with the ROR trade when brought up on this board. There are so many people who just want to say the GM made a bad trade or the trade was bad because the savers didn't know what they were doing most signs point to that not being the fact. We will never know for sure 100%, but it really looks like ownership didn't want to pay that bonus so the general manager and the scouting department were told to get the best trade they could where the sabers wouldn't have to pay out that bonus. That changes the calculus of the trade and that's on the owner, not on the team scouts or management. With O'Reilly, you could have gotten a better package had you paid that bonus.... With Jack, you might be getting a worse package because of his injury.

I think Adams is in a no-win situation with the Eichel trade, at least with the fan base. Many posters on this board are banging the drum to get multiple top prospects or picks and if they can't get it now to hold out for it until you do. Yet some stories seem to say Adams is asking for that and other teams are dropping out left and right. The reality is Eichel may want out and the sabres may want him out for reasons we don't know of, but the return that many expect simply may not be there. If Adams doesn't trade Eichel soon after everything that's gone down, a segment of the fan base will be upset with him for waiting too long to trade him. On the other hand if he does trade them and doesn't get a huge return, a different segment of the fan base will be showing up at the arena with torches and pitchforks.

Nothing at all about what I had to say. Let me try again. People are posting that they EXPECT a return on Eichel that is likely MUCH greater than he will get. People are posting that if you don't get that return, just hold onto him and wait until you DO get that return they want (which may never happen no matter how long you wait. When the Sabres trade Eichel, they will likely get a return that is less than what certain people on here say they want, thus giving them further, additional, reason to complain about something that was likely never going to be what they wanted in the first place.

I agree with you. A HEALTHY Jack Eichel might get you one of those top prospects, but he isn't. Any other team trading for him might be trading for damaged goods. If by some chance the Sabres get one of the leagues top prospects, great. But many on this forum are setting themselves up to be disappointed....or at the very least setting up an expectation (by themself, not by others) to be able to complain about the return when it happens.

The reason I'd want Ulmark is that I think he's an above average goalie. It would be hard to find another goalie better than him. You want to sign or find a higher quality backup for this year I'm fine with that.

I really was getting comfortable with Ulmark. I'd like to see the Sabres sign him to a 4 year deal. Ideally, Year 1 Ulmark starts, UPL in roch. Year 2 Ulmark Starts, UPL backups. Year 3 maybe a split of time, and year 4, If UPL is the stud we think, he is your starter and Ulmark takes a bit of a backseat. If UPL is not ready/not good, you have Ulmark start for all 4 years. I'd overplay Ulmark SLIGHTLY on a 4 year deal if you could make that happen.

You are just wrong. You may not like Granato as a head coach, and maybe he will not turn out to be a good one, but you are 100% wrong in saying they have a similar background. Granatos coaching experience at the pro level, AHL, NHL assistant, ECHL.....there is a ton of experience that were Rolston had very little. Granato coached many years in the USHL, the East Coast league, and then was coach of the year in the AHL with 5 years of coaching in the AHL, and then additional experience in the AHL with Chicago later in his career. Granato also had stints as an assistant coach in the NHL with the Blues, Blackhawks, and of course the Sabres. Granato pro coaching experience up to potentially named coach of Sabres this summer: 210 games head coach in the ECHL, 480 games as head coach in the AHL, parts of 5 seasons assistant in the NHL with 3 different teams, and head coach of the sabres taking over for Krueger and doing better. Rolston pro coaching experience up to being named coach of the Sabres: 152 games head coach in the AHL. That is a HUGE difference.