Thorner

I think Bennett was in play too

@Sabres Fan in NSim glad you’re with me, here at the end of all things

Whoever can get the most “eye rolls” for daring question it, wins

#2 overalls from 00-20 Dany Heatley* Jason Spezza Kari Lehtonen Eric Staal* Evgeni Malkin* Bobby Ryan Jordan Staal James Van Riemsdyk Drew Doughty* Victor Hedman* Tyler Seguin Gabriel Landeskog Ryan Murray Aleksander Barkov Sam Reinhart Jack Eichel Patrik Laine Nolan Patrick Andrei Svechnikov Kaapo Kakko Quinton Byfield ...I’d say the 5 guys with a * are something truly special whereas the rest are varying levels of good with which Reino fits right in on a reasonable spectrum

People should really go look at the history of #2 overall picks. Reinhart fits right in

The “IT IS GOING to be Levi and UPL!!!!!!!!” crowd has been oddly obsessed with continually hammering home the idea that things ASSUREDLY won’t shake out any other way. It’s a little funny. It’s like, SUPER SUPER important to them that people know it won’t be different No one can be disappointed in it unfolding any other way, because it’s predetermined, ok? Don’t argue with THE PLAN

Totally agree on the first bits IMO he should necessarily fail twice before getting canned. Waiting until year 4 to expect any kind of results certainty shrinks the amount of runway he has to deliver at the end, but he shouldn’t be fired if we miss the playoffs this year. Coming back the next season and again missing, like ya, you’ve missed 5 straight years and contributed 36% of our historic 14 year straight playoff drought, that’s not job well done, why should he be the GM. Missing this year just gets him on the hot seat for the following, again imo. Speaking outside my own viewpoint, zero chance he gets canned after this year if we miss.

I don’t really see a meaningful distinction between the two, in this case. Valuations includes his analysis of his prospects

The funniest thing is that we are all willing to spot the Sabres the gamble that Levi is great right out of the gate. I believe. Everybody seems to think he’s the next League great. The amount of expectation on the kid is astounding though, it just is. But even granting him that, it’s also pretty true that your backup still plays a lot, REGARDLESS, like it’s still an important position to address when in-house options would suggest it’s a FURTHER risk on top of Levi to expect UPL or Comrie to amount to being a good backup. The fact an upgrade there would provide insurance to Levi being unproven is the icing on the cake and seems to make it an obvious area for supplement - with the cap space we have I just don’t understand the extra risk ie willingly, seemingly making their own degree of difficulty harder. but in the end I agree with dudacek, not just his post above but his point that it doesn’t matter if Adams HATES the idea of setting a hard line expectation, it doesn’t even matter what he hates, he could hate winning itself but if the trajectory of improving continues you literally can’t argue it The trajectory we’ve seen. You could make a limp one that we could have improved more but like, given whet we’ve seen for over a decade... I mean really?

Again, this is sort of my point. If Kevyn *already* had a predisposition to “doing what he’s been doing”, the more the market gets inflated by teams looking to make something happen, the LESS likely KA finds that odd move that meets his exact value requirements, no?

Semantics. Not wanting them enough is functionally the same as not wanting them. Of COURSE he’s in on things, are you speaking to the board at large, or me? I’ve said countless times it’s not that he’s not interested, or doesn’t try, it’s that he doesn’t break on his valuations. That’s kinda what YOU are saying, no? It’s still a choice. If that unfolds, he couldn’t make anything happen *by choice*, because he wouldn’t break his terms. His chosen terms.

I’d wager that the more we see the Ottawas the Red Wings of the division employ “go for it, win now” strategies ie more splashy/significant additions from the outside, the *more* we adhere to the draft and dev strategy and the more we actively avoid other options. Ie the market is even more served/cornered by those teams leaving KA no option in his mind than to retreat further into his chosen pathway Ie it’ll always be an anti-arms race with Kevyn. The more teams “beef up” the more inclined he’d be to stand pat

And Malkin has lined up as the Pens 2C for a couple decades. Malkin a 2C? poor argument is poor

Really like both

Love it - we’ll either be good, or if we aren’t we couldn’t have done anything about it anyway. One day this will be every thread. Plan is the plan and what happens is the plan and there’s no sense debating anything cause we know the plan Yes. There are no options. Anything to the contrary is simply, as you say, whining. I think that’s the board’s big trick of the last year- convincing everyone that if you question one iota of anything you are simply, again, to use your words, crying promo was on my ass for pointing out a single solitary negative play in a *prospects game*. Even then, any comment that wasn’t simply shining had to be pointed out, and squashed for fear of breaking trend. Not everyone will agree, but I do honestly feel the temperament of the board is one that suggests a “buy in, or get out” attitude. Even as a (I guess I’m a vet, now?) long time poster, I’m finding it’s becoming a grating squeeze where there’s pressure at the seams to fall in line. That’s the vibe

So Quinn fell. Knew that one was a reach 😉

Wait, dudacek is just going to “like” this and not give the usual, appropriate correction, presumably because a he’s not a Sabre anymore? Reinhart is a 1 RW, by the stats, full stop. I’d sure love a 67 point 3rd line wing Finished 10th in points last year for right wingers league wide. sOliD 2/3 rWeR

I do see what I’d term “glaring” questions because once again: the questions are obvious. Every aspect of the team last season that wasn’t up to snuff (goalies, etc) were issues we had been pointing out the entire offseason previous to it. This offseason appears much the same: if we fail this coming year, it’ll be for the reasons we can already see, areas that have gone noticeably unaddressed, where we are sitting here saying, “ok, let’s see if the results bear out the decision to stand pat.”

It’s a fair point

So would you consider it an abject failure on Adams’ part if VO lines up in our starting 12 to start the season? Because you are making an awfully good case for why we shouldn’t be rostering him if we care about our success at evens this season Also why would we consider Mittelstadt Quinn’s replacement? Didn’t he already get more minutes?

Dead Reckoning was so damn good It’s the best film in the franchise, for me

Well why would any GM acquire a goalie they thought was inferior for the role to someone they had? I took it more to be, we aren’t going to get a guy if he’s not ENOUGH better, which is where the wiggle room comes in. Like how we’ve been supposedly close on a few things but not quite there

Why does it make me feel we are going to run 11-7 till Quinn is back? Is that the plan? Considering all the D, too? The 3rd scoring line invariably seems to amount to a spare parts line if we are seeking to maximize the top 6 + checking line Skinner - Thompson - Tuch Mittelstadt - Cozens - Peterka Girgensons - Krebs - Okposo Greenway/Jost swap into line periodically on a rotational basis during games? VO scratch? Samuelsson - Dahlin Power - Clifton Lyubushkin - Jokiharju Johnson or Stillman dressed as 7, subbing in to keep things fresh, other scratched? 3 goalies, one scratched makes 23

Wouldn’t surprise me if Adams felt the/a depth F could be added more in the neighbourhood of training camp, considering the required/desired aptitude of said addition, and their likely confidence in the matter after reasonably successful signings like Jost. on his checklist he undoubtedly has top 4 d add and depth d add checked off. And while I definitely think he’s open to/been open to a goalie add, I feel like the answer as to whether Adams might overpay by value somewhat to achieve “his man” is probably a resounding “no”- thought that might shift given state of roster/expectations. If the goalie box goes unchecked, I think Adams is more than content to pride himself on holding to his hard line evaluations and is confident what we have in house is not so inferior to what’s available so as to make any kind of (what he’d determine to be an) overpay worth it

Does it leave much room for discussion if any disagreement with something the GM has done is deemed as the poster being “mad”? If the idea is KA has laid out what he’s going to do, so any disagreement is pointless, I’d wager that’s a pretty big block on healthy debate