jahnyc

I am sure that internally the team was something of a mess last year and in years prior. Chad Johnson seemed to allude to it and you get a sense that there were a number of frustrated players, not just about the losing part of it. If this is the case, it is not just the players that need to step up, but Housley and the assistant coaches as well. I would be surprised if trading O'Reilly solves the problems that may have affected this team's performance. Have a feeling that is why we also heard that Risto could be available at the right price. I hope some of the guys that we have brought in through trades will help as role models/mentors and add some additional maturity to the locker room. We also need to hope that some of the younger players mature into team leaders. I would love to see immediate improvement, but I have a feeling this is going to be a long process and JBot is taking a long view of things (i.e., the three first round picks acquired for next year).

One current prospect. Three draft picks for Kane and ROR, none of whom we likely will see playing for the Sabres for four plus years, assuming that we draft well.

Trading Kane and O'Reilly for one current borderline prospect is a poor result.

Just seems very strange to me that JBot would take on contracts for players that no one else would want when trying to rebuild. All of these players (Hunwick, Sobotka, Pominville and Berglund) cannot be in our long term plans, yet account for more than $15 million of our cap. JBot has received very little in return for agreeing to take on these salary obligations. Add in Bogo and Okoposo for another $11 million in cap and you have a total of six players with about $26 million in space that are untraceable. I am really worried that JBot is in way over his head.

We have assumed the contracts of Hunwick, Sobotka and Berglund. Salary cap space is at a premium in the NHL, and we are taking on contracts for marginal and older players. Separate and apart from the O'Reilly trade, which did not yield significant enough value to justify assuming the contracts of Sobotka and Berglund, why are we doing this? If it was one year thing, maybe it is okay, but we are now stuck with Berglund (30 years old) for another four years!

Just an awful trade. Could have picked up similar depth in free agency as Sobotka and Berglund at a lower price and a shorter term. I really do not understand taking on these obligation for players 30+. Makes no sense to me. Overall, I think this trade was a complete failure because we did not get a top prospect. Would have been okay to forego either or both of the 1st and the 2nd round picks for a player that would have been added to our young talent and could have grown with them over time. We may not see these draft picks (and the ones received from San Jose) break into the lineup (assuming they work out, which is not a given at all) for four or more years. Not impressed with JBot at all. In the trades for Kane and O'Reilly, we have received one marginal NHL prospect that may or may not be playing in Buffalo next season (Thompson). That is a poor return for assets.

This is awful. Taking on long-term salary from under performers and not getting a true prospect back. JBot is in over his head and just wasted one of our only real assets.

FWIW, that Eklund guy says something in the works with the Islanders.

Where are our toys? Feels like a big lump of coal so far in free agency (I know it is only the first day). Some of these guys could have helped us. Not to state the obvious, but maybe we are a tough sell because of the last place finish? Was hoping for some improvement at the forward position.

I think some of the moves will pay off for the longer term and I certainly see improvement with the depth in our prospect pool, but I do not see a lot of immediate help from what JBot has done so far. Really no upgrades at this point unless Mittelstadt and Dahlin can make an immediate impact. We will see about Sheary, but he is not a replacement for Kane. Not sure about Hutton and Ullmark has not been tested at the NHL level, so I am not convinced our situation in goal will be much better than last year. We will see.

I bet Risto will be the focus for a near term trade (Edmonton?). Wouldn't do this either. Sabres should make work what they have and add rather than subtract quality players. Was hoping for at least a couple of upgrades in free agency.

Agree with all of this except about moving him as the right move. By the way, shouldn't the GM and HC have a significant role in making this work going forward? A good HC should pull the team together and handle the personalities. If Housley has been unable to do this, then maybe he is not the right coach for this team.

Kind of feeling like the Kane situation where they almost need to trade him now. For Kane, it made some sense since he was going to be a free agent. With O'Reilly, it does not, and only serves to hurt our negotiating position. May not be great for him to stay with Sabres after all of the trade rumors since you would think it could hurt him as a leader/role model in the locker room if there is a sense that management wanted to trade him, particularly if there were already players who he had issues with. I don't think this is being handled well by management and I think he is a player that should not be traded, absent reasons that none of us seem to know.

Seems pretty clear that the Sabres have a strong desire to trade O'Reilly. At this point, with all of the constant chatter, I think it would be hard for him and the team for him not to be traded since the optics of all of this could diminish his standing in the locker room if he were to return (with a sense that it would be inevitable that he would be traded at some point if not now). Must be some underlying reasons for this situation, but I continue to believe that this is a big mistake. Hard to find quality centers with some leadership ability and he is not old. Are we really ready to say that this is Jack's team? Does he have the maturity and leadership abilities at this point of his career?

I have had a feeling for some time that JBott covets Brady Tkachuk and he would trade O'Reilly to get him. Put me in the camp of those who think it would be a mistake to trade O'Reilly.

Who or what is Johnson criticizing? Is it the defensive system, is it the players (i.e., lack of talent or poor attitude), or poor coaching? Would have been helpful to have more specifics around what he is trying to communicate.

It sure does, particularly since we were not trying to be the last place team this season but managed to do it anyway. This was not a planned tank season, and what is unfortunate (among other things) is that the NHL draft lottery penalizes a team like the Sabres that did not intend to finish in last place. This team is bad, and they deserve the first pick in the draft based on their poor performance this season.

I expect that Kane will play well and hard for the Sharks. He is free agent after this season, which should be enough motivation, but it also must be energizing for him to be playing on a playoff bound team. .

None of us know whether GMJB had better offers at different points in time or whether GMJB directly or indirectly inflated expectations, but expectations were certainly higher than what we ended up getting as a return. One question I have is why we hired another GM with no prior GM experience after GMTM. GMJB has a very good pedigree and he seems smart, but after the experience with GMTM, I would have thought that hiring a GM with GM experience would have been a priority, or at least adding a person with that type of an experience to our front office. The reason I am raising this is I wonder about the dynamics with other GMs at the trading deadline. Did GMJB have significant prior experience with this type of a situation? Does he have long-standing relationships with the other GMs? Was he involved with these types of discussions and pressures when he was with the Penguins? Even if he was heavily involved, it must be much different experiencing it as the final decision maker.

The question is how do things get fixed? We do not have much cap room for next year and there is no pipeline of talent coming from Rochester other than Ullmark and maybe Guhle. Right now, we only have one first round pick (should be top five), and it is possible we will not see this pick playing for the Sabres for at least a year or two. If you trade O'Reilly and/or Reinhart, do you get equivalent value or players that can play now? Probably not. This is going to take years to fix. We are not the Devils or the Avalanche, teams that made relatively quick turn arounds.

Trade with Winnipeg looks pretty bad now, particularly considering that we are stuck with a bad contract with Bogosian. GMTM did us no favors.

This is depressing because I think we all wanted to see a prospect that would help now or soon and a first round pick in this year's draft so that the rebuild would have some energy. This trade is of no near term help, and we just traded the winger with the most goals on the team. How is this team not worse right now and for the foreseeable future?

Just awful. This does not help in the short term and probably not in the long term. Needed a first this year and/or a prospect that could play in the NHL. Got neither. Not sure if JB was played or if he turned down better deals before today, but it shows how much GMTM overvalued Kane.

What does "no formal offers" mean? Sounds crummy, teams bottom fishing because they know we need to trade him?

The number of teams interested in Kane seems to be going down. I think the Ducks/Sharks are most likely destinations for Kane, but Philadelphia would make a lot of sense with some of their recent injuries.