jad1

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.

I guess tell the Leafs to suck it?

I was responding to a post speculating if Josh Allen was the most beloved sports star in Buffalo history. There was a question if Kelly and the Super Bowl era Bills were more revered. Point was no matter how high a player is placed on a pedestal, he can be knocked down by the same fans who put him there. And Allen's play last season did more to shut down his haters than his fans did.

Look up the 'Bickering Bills.' In 1989, Kelly got injured and missed 5 games. Reich lead the Bills to wins in 4 of them. Kelly also singled out Howard Ballard's missed block as the cause of his injury. There was no internet, but th radio call-in shows went nuts claiming Kelly was a lousy leader and that he should be traded for draft picks, letting Reich take over as QB. The next season Kelly and the Bills made it to their first Super Bowl. Wait for Josh to have a multiple interception game this season, and I'll guarantee that there will be more fans than you would imagine screaming for "Trubinsky" to take over at QB.

Adams hasn't done many things right since he took the job, so him being scary wrong is definitely a possibility. If he actually makes this idiotic trade, it better not be for prospects, because he won't be here when those prospects are ready to contribute. Based on the history of his predecessors, he's got maybe two more seasons to show significant improvement before his owners lose patience.

Shows you what a great player Eichel is. He was able to excel under the worst coach (and GM) in franchise history.

The Sabres were middling between the Drury/Briere exodus and the tank. Nobody was happy with it. The Canadiens aren't a role model, they're a cautionary tale.

Montreal? Really? Montreal has basically been a non-factor since they traded Roy. The Sabres have more overall success than the Canadiens over the last 25 years. Happy they beat the Leafs and hope they win this series, but if the divisions weren't re-aligned due the pandemic, Montreal would not have made the playoffs. Montreal is a role model if you want to be a middling franchise decade after decade.

That's it, and it's on Adams as the GM to set the direction and vision for the team. And if at this point, he's not ready to do that, that's fine. He deserves some time to figure this out. At the same time, though, don't put this on the players not wanting to be here, while you're unwilling to share you thoughts about the direction of the team. That's bush league.

The line that bugs me is about wanting guys who want to be here. What does 'here,' at this point in time, mean? Does it mean being part of the general organization and city, and acknowledge the fan base? That's cool I guess. Other than that, this is a team with an inexperienced GM who has fired the previous coach, hasn't committed to the interim coach, fired a large part of the scouting staff (but MIGHT hire more), bombed his first attempt at free agency (and indicates he won't do that again), couldn't manage to move the needle with his trades. Oh, and he hired one of his best friends to be assistant GM. So instead of calling out players who don't want to be here, maybe the GM who failed in his first season should put in the work and define what 'here' is going to look like next season.

Cozens definitely should spend some time in Rochester next season. The other two I was referring to were Turcotte and Byfield, if they are part of an Eichel trade, as the thread suggests. Mitts should be the 3rd line center next season. If by some miracle these moronic trades don't happen, the Sabres center spine would consist of Eichel, Reinhart, and Mittlestadt. Cozens, who despite the promise his game has shown, only had 12 points in 40 games this year, could spend part of the season developing his game as the 1C for the Amerks.

If Reinhart is also moved, next year's centers would be Mittelstadt, Cozens, Turcotte, and Byfield. One of those guys is probably best slotted as the 3rd line center and the other 3 should spend time in the AHL next season. So, next couple of seasons, suffering, yadda, yadda, yadda...

Reinhart this season: 40 points. LaFreniere and Kakko combined: 38 points. Neither are near the point-a-game player that Eichel is (yet). Will they ever be as good as Eichel and Reinhart? Maybe, it's a gamble. Question is do you really want to trade a player like Eichel on a gamble.

"Leadership" would have saved him! 😜

Unfortunatley, it's not trending in that direction right now.