Thorny

Too much smoke and mirrors: you can’t just act like you account for Mittelstadt’s lost production by accounting for his goal total. It’s fundamentally flawed and I just keep seeing it

Aubrey-Kubel lol

It’s been time for a while. The time for development is long past. You said last offseason the time was now. Reason Adams is on the hot seat is because this is his mulligan

Not even McDavid

We talk about how everything’s about the Sabres making the playoffs but realistically they’d have a ways to go beyond that, that we talk relatively little about simply because it hasn’t been on the table. But the Sabres are in need of a top 6 addition WHILE keeping the on roster talent we have. It would absolutely be fine to have Benson pencilled in on line 3. He’s 19. It’s ok if a guy with 53 career points, Quinn, is slotted on line 3. its like we’ve forgotten how real teams work. Not to mention, this is all hypothetical: dollars to donuts someone WILL be hurt: we aren’t really even moving benson or Quinn to L3 we are simply now an injury away from the top 6 player necessarily being a questionable Zucker. Or Krebs, instead of that player being in the top 6 now. We have room for TWO top 6 additions, and Quinn, and Benson And Kovalchuk Benson is a better all round 200 foot player than Tuch right now? Thompson? I don’t think so Neither is Jack Quinn. Don’t they actually have to commit the body of work? Thompson and Tuch are our best forwards

lol. what is this, politics? The prospect people eventually turn on their own anointed selections? the pool is only “overrated” if you are in the business of incorrectly hyping up prospects unreflective of actual league wide success rates before moving on to the next slew of drafts you need to sell No more overrated than prospects and picks as assets league wide

There’s only one

The last post about McLeod was 8 hours ago. Would you rather just an empty thread? By all means, post something about. McLeod that sparks discussion

Exactly, there’s mounds of evidence they struggled in this area. And people just continually continually leave out the fact Jack suited up for the 2021 season, injured. AFTER the shite all hit the fan. Do we think he wasn’t giving it his all? That he was lying outright when he told Friedman he was on board with Adams’ “go for it”? I don’t care if you think it’s right or wrong, whether Adams was right to ditch a quicker reset because of the disastrous result of Hall year. My point is merely that it was a choice, and one side of the choice reasonably means Jack stays. Again, he backed down from his “welcoming” of a trade in 2021 w/Hall

“Adams did nothing to stop it. But it was inevitable and cast in stone. So he couldn’t have. What could Adams have even done, anyways?” Good grief. By all means continue moving the goalposts. “Would welcome.” Ok. So he didn’t demand a trade outright until he got wind of Adams’ plan to rebuild: my point stands. (and, that’s the final months of Botterill’s tenure during which Adams was already appointed by Pegula to spy, sorry, evaluate the team, correct? And Eichel was having dinners with Terry you said, right? It would defy logic to think Jack wasn’t aware of the specific writing on the wall that a rebuild was on the way during the last months of Botterill) Also, “cast in stone” is patently absurd. Since when is it not the responsibility of a GM to convince a player, especially your FRANCHISE player that you tanked for, to stay on board when he’s merely “open” to other opportunities? Give me a break. All the reports we’ve heard of Adams’ negotiations falling through, we know his ability to sell the destination is questionable at best. There’s no reason to act like your franchise player HAD to be moved, nm to the tune of a 5 year (at least) rebuild, because he said he’d “welcome” moving (ALL Sabres would literally say this) and you said “oh ok bye.” - - - *convince him to stay by avoiding this stupid LT plan, instead of initiating it.* We already know the plan failed; 5 years to make the playoffs is a poor plan, if we even make it next year. This wasn’t the correct course Jack agreed to stay, did he not? When they “went” for it? So we already KNOW he was open to being convinced! The sticking point has always been that Adams used the failed Covid season as evidence we needed this build. Well, he was wrong, his build didn’t work in a reasonably timely manner I’ll take the 4 years of failure sample size over 21 games of an injured JE

No, you are right, that’s definitely true. That’s my mistake. I removed it. I think I meant to X your post that said it was all Pegula. You are right, it’s both

Done to appease a Jack Eichel who said he wanted out if they followed through on their plan to rebuild Adams wanted to rebuild upon taking the job. Eichel didn’t like it. He was right: I don’t like it either

Not being rhetorical at all, the questions generally fascinate me. It’s anecdotal I guess but being the youngest team in the 5th year of a plan seems inane to me . No idea how to look it up but I’d be surprised if it’s anything but uncommon for a successful build to take that form I mean the fact we haven’t made the playoffs yet 4 years in already proves it

People hate Occam’s razor, eh? Adams expressed his desire to rebuild upon being hired. This triggered Jack’s request. We know this because Jack stated in on tv in as many words to Elliot Friedman. They briefly rescinded that and “went for it” with Hall, before using the colossal failure of that shortened season as evidence for why their initial desire to rebuild was the correct one

Jack is on record saying he asked for a trade because Adams said he wanted to rebuild. Adams idea to rebuild came first. You can call Jack an outright liar but, it fits with what you are saying and I see no reason to take that tact especially because no one in the org has ever denied it

I keep telling people, if you believe in the necessity of a long form rebuild you’ve simply been sold and fallen for a myth Job security based strategy Those who can’t do, preach

It’s nice to be able to go into the season fully confident in goaltending. Ok maybe not fully confident but I’m comfortable with its standing for the first time in Adams’ tenure this is a big factor on the positive side re: making the dance

At what point in the process do you think they realized that by the mechanics of their plan they’d be icing the youngest roster in the nhl 5 years into said plan? Was it a conscious choice? The intended result? Was it made upon conception? Was it accidental? Or do they just not deem it relevant despite the overarching data? I think you are correct, I was hoping for different without delving in too deep but considering how much younger we are than EVERYONE it would have been difficult to alter that just this offseason. They’ve been headed in this direction for a good long while

This would be very disappointing. The youngest team in the league doesn’t make the playoffs. It’s not even close, either: only one team is even within a year. it’s not like it’s binding, but there’s a demonstrable reason these trends exist so definitively and it’s one we’d need to break if these age projections are true stacking a 7 year rebuild by choice at the tail end of 9 years missing the playoffs is one of the most strikingly bad decisions in the history of the sport lol. Imagine being the *youngest team in the league, by choice* FIVE years into a build plan.

What would you predict if you had to put it in writing in a national publication?

I don’t think we are poor there as I like DC but the Detroit comp does nothing for the argument lol Detroit is poor there

Home depot has a nice sale on weed-whackers

The existence of T. cheveldae always implied the existence of T. chevedayoff https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=954

“The trade is one for one”