jad1

Negativity? Funny, I thought terrible coaching killed success. I thought terrible trades killed success. I thought horrible free agent signings killed success. I thought that crappy player development killed success. I thought bad goaltending killed success. I never considered that the point-a- game, border-line MVP center was the reason for killing success! I guess I was judging him by his performance on the ice instead by his performance in interviews. 🤔 So the only two productive players that were able rise above the total sh##show this franchise has been the last three seasons WERE the problem! I admit I totally missed that. Maybe you're right. Maybe what this franchise needs is a couple of 20 year old prospects with a can-do attitude and a bunch of Cody Eakins! I just remember a couple of seasons ago when the team dressed 7 defensemen on a nightly basis, playing in front of blind goalie, with a 3rd line winger playing 2nd line center, under a coach who spent the previous 6 seasons in the EPL, while Jack was setting team records. Who knew that he was REALLY the reason the team was losing. I mean, c'mon Jack, why do you keep starting that blind goalie! Seriously though, we've heard this before. Kane was a negative influence. O'Reilly was a negative influence. Whatever the reason for trading those guys, it did nothing to fix the locker room. Addition by subtraction in those cases did fix the culture and it didn't fix the result on the ice. And neither of those things will be fixed when Eichel and Reinhart are traded. Eichel and Reinhart are not the problem with this team, no matter how much we arm-chair psychologists criticize them for pouting and moping while scoring a combined 140 points in a season. The problem is that this team has been completely mismanaged. Instead of bringing competent, experienced veteren managers and coaches, Pegula has brought in a slew of inexperienced sociopaths and hucksters who couldn't figure out a way to build a winning organization around productive players like Eichel and Reinhart. I apologize for the screed. I don't like arguing with fellow Sabre fans. And I hope I'm wrong and you're right, because more than anything I want our team to be relevant again. It just feels like we've been down this road before ('these current guys are no good, bring in new guys') and it hasn't worked. How can the organization fix the problem if they don't understand what the problem even is? We've seen this all before, and it makes me cynical and I hate being cynical about my favorite team.

Give him the C, it'll make it easier to trade him two years from now.

If this is the case then they might as well trade Mittlestadt, Jokiharju, and Dahlin now, because the Sabres won't be winning any time soon trading all-star caliber players for prospects, no matter how good those players might be. To be fair to the new prospects, you'll need to give them a couple of seasons to mature into legit top 6 players. That's at least two more losing seasons for the new core. I wonder how frustrated those guys will be, losing season after season.

And everything he has done has been an abject failure. Hanging onto Krueger, gutting the scouting department, signing Hall to a ridiculous deal, not addressing the goaltending situation, terrible FA signings. He even payed Taylor Hall to play for the Bruins in the playoffs. He's got one year of experience as a GM, and that experience is of managing the Sabres to the bottom of the league. Sure the Pegulas trust him, but they trusted Botterill and Murray, and they fired both those guys after only 3 years in. Adams has two years to right this ship, and he's about to trade the only consistently productive fowards this team has had the last five years for prospects who haven't even managed to be point-a-game players in the AHL. You think Pegula is going to be patient watching the Sabres bottom-out the next two seasons waiting for Adams' kids make it to the big leagues? Eichel and Reinhart didn't save Murray. Dahlin, Mittelstadt, and Cozens didn't save Botteril. Adams better figure out a way to win soon, because I doubt Terry has found religion when it comes to patience with his GM.

Because he's an inexperienced GM who doesn't understand that "culture" is something that is developed, not created, and is under the delusion that NHL GMs are given the time and space to build a team from the ground up? In other words, he's no different than the last two failed GMs who held the job before him?

That's too much finesse and risk for the Sabres who are shopping their top 2 centers. The safer bet is to role with Eichel, Reinhart, and Mittelstadt down the middle. Add a goalie, prune the defense, find a useful winger or two, let the young guys develop, and see where the team is at 30 or so games in. That plan has better odds of working than any of the trade scenarios.

Gotcha time-loop.😄 The Islanders already have a talented team. Adding Tavaras to that group would help them get by the Lightning, who win by stockpiling talent. I know that's a bit foreign and shocking to us Sabres fans, who've grown accustomed to watching the clowns in charge the last decade try to use the addition by subtraction method to build a winner. We'll win by getting rid of Miller. We'll win by getting rid of Vanek. We'll win by getting rid of Kane. We'll win by getting rid of O'Reilly. Never worked. Win totals didn't improve, and neither did the locker room. Now it's we'll win if we get rid of Eichel. We'll win if we get rid of Reinhart. We'll win if we get rid of Ristolainen. In a couple of seasons, Dahlin, Cozens, and Mittlestadt will be the culprits. It's always the same, looking for the perfect player in a imperfect world. Maybe someday the Sabres will hire a GM who is just as interested in building a team as he is in tearing it apart. The Buffalo Sabres motto has been the future is 3 years away every season for the last 10 years.

A trade involving the worst team in recent NHL history isn't going to distract from the Stanley Cup. If anything it will drive more attention to the NHL's web site, TV channel, and and radio network. Unless, of course, if the trade involves one of the two SC finalists, that would be distracting 🤔.

The Islanders make the Finals (last and/or this season) with Tavares on their roster.

If the Sabres are delaying a move that they believe will improve their team because they don't want to take attention from teams playing for the Cup, well then there is truly no hope for them. They have become a doormat franchise. Could you imagine, "we had an agreement that we believed was a good one in place, but while we were waiting for the Finals to finish, our trading partner got cold feet and nixed the deal. But good thing we didn't distract from the finals. Go Lightning!" That would be even worse than paying Taylor Hall to play in the playoffs for one of your most hated rivals.

Blockbuster day? Sure if you consider the apocalyptic end of the franchise to be a blockbuster. 😄

New goal song? Awesome! Can't wait to hear it once every three games!

All of this is speculation from reporters, so you need to take it with a grain of salt. Adams could be doing well at hiding his hand and may be leaning toward keeping Eichel. So who knows of Dreger is right or not. But, let's not fool ourselves, trading Eichel, despite what has played out for other franchises, does not bode well for the Sabres. Maybe three or four years from now, fans will be able to claim the Sabres won an Eichel trade, but those years between wil be crushing for this franchise. And I don't buy the TP crap in the O'Reilly trade. For all his faults, Pegula has never balked at paying a player. And he has williingly thrown away more than $7M on fired GMs and coaches. Botterill wanted a different skill set at center than O'Reilly possessed, that's why he drafted Mittlestadt. Botterill liked the return fro the Blues and his MBA brain was happy with avoiding the bonus. That deal was all Botterill. And yes Hall had a NMC, it was the one Adams gave him. So good job Kev at making the best of a bad situation (that you created).

The Islanders had Lou Lamoriello and and Barry Trotz to help them through the loss of Taveres. The Sabres have Adams and hopes and prayers. Not to be too hard on Adams, but absolutely nothing this guy has done has worked. His trades, FA signings, player development, choices on goaltending, support of Kreuger, draft picks, all of it has been at best suspect, and at worst terrible. And now Dreger reports that the Eichel trade is a forgone conclusion. If that's true, it means that Adams is no longer waiting for an offer that can't be refused, he's now going to take what he can get, amid the reports of a shrinking number of potential trading partners. This is the same path that Botterill took in trading O'Reilly, and the same path that Adams took trading Hall. I'm a Sabres fan through and through, and will stick with this team win or lose. But at some point, the wishful thinking and prospect porn needs to take a break, and someone has to figure out how the Sabres are going to replace 130+ points in the lineup if Eichel and Reinhart are traded. That's the definition of dark times, because if they don't start winning in the next couple of seasons (which requires winning the Eichel and Reinhart trades), Dahlin, Mittlestadt and Cozens will be the next of the 'rotten' core who need to be traded, because they are to accustomed to the 'culture of losing.' Of course, Adams will be long gone by then, replaced by the next inexperienced clown hired by Terry. And the cycle continues. Dark times indeed.

Only a very bad or a very inexperienced GM would hire Tocchet as coach. Good thing Adams is neither one of those! 🙄

Yes.

I'm a proud Sabres fan and enjoy being a member of its community of supporters, but after reading these comments I really believe that the team's ineptitude has given us Stockholm syndrome.

No. Eichel, like every athlete, lives in the moment. At this moment, Eichel seems most concerned with getting healthy and getting back on the ice. All the rest is speculation and projection from the fans and media.

That's closer, but still not great.

To be clear, Detroit was one of the biggest spenders in the pre-cap NHL, and used that money to pay big salaries as a means to win championships. Detroit's success as a big-spending team was one if the factors that drove the league to a salary cap. And Hasek wasn't the first Sabre to bail from that team. Peca held out the season before, and the inability of the Rigas (who had bigger issues at the time) to pay its talent was one of the factors that drove Hasek to say he wanted out. That was followed by the Rigas' downfall and the Sabres were driven into bankruptcy. When we talk about bad owners I often wonder what would have happened if Pegula was the Sabres owner during that uncapped era. Would he have paid Peca? Would he have paid Hasek? What would that team looked like with a few more seasons of Peca and Hasek, playing under Ruff while all three were at their peak? We'll never know, because the owner couldn't pay the price for a couple more seasons of two of the biggest stars in franchise history.

Why not? He'd could be another 25 goal scorer that we eventually run out of town because of his off-ice "antics."

Nowhere near as good a Eichel, Reinhart, and Mittelstadt though. This team isn't going to get better losing a Eichel and/or Reinhart trade. The best course of action is to repair the bridges with these guys and continue the team's rebuild through their draft. Adams has given every indication, though, that he's not smart enough to realize this, and the team will continue its decent into irrelevance.

Botterill wins the draft lottery and then trades O'Reilly. Adams: "Wait until they get a load of me"

It's a victory, but it's a pyrrhic victory. We won this battle, but the cost was another bad season, with guys we were excited about drafting 5 years ago now on the trading block. A team that continually competes in the draft lottery isn't making progress. If the Sabres haven't crossed that threshold, they're pretty darn close. Anyway, still doesn't mean we're not excited about Powers or Benier (see what I did there? 😉)

Maybe we should start 15 threads about what would be your desired package for Dahlin.