Curt

For the record, it’s not just you. I definitely did a double take. I don’t know what passes for appropriate around here though.

In general, I think he is good. Positives: I like his overall philosophy of building an entire organization full of good people, top to bottom, as opposed to building an NHL hockey team and figuring that everything else would work itself out. I know people sometimes scoff at the culture stuff, but I’m of the opinion that you need quality human beings to truly excel in a team environment. I’ve liked the majority of his trades. I’ve liked the type of defensemen that he has brought in, especially recently. I mostly like the way that he has managed the cap, having Buffalo in good financial shape moving forward. Negatives: The O’Reilly trade obviously, though I have an inkling that he was given something of an ultimatum from above. Not adequately addressing scoring depth hamstrung the team last season. Goaltending is still a bit of a question mark. These will need to be sorted out moving forward. I wish that Reinhart had been locked up long term last offseason. I feel like that was a missed opportunity to get a good value contract. The Housley hiring didn’t turn out well. Although there have been a few blemishes along the way, I feel that the team is on the right track. I find myself looking forward to, rather than dreading, the next next roster move. Botterill gets a B from me.

I disagree (no biggie though). A marketer helps a company on strategy for reaching their audience, and yes writes marketing material. But if you are doing sideline reporting and interviewing people, you qualify as a journalist.

If you are going to be interviewing people or presenting information to an audience, that’s journalism. She isn’t an investigative reporter and she is working for a private company, so she will be reporting what they assign to her, but it’s still journalism. Is a news anchor a journalist? All they do is sit in a chair, read what someone hands them, and look at the camera, but it’s still journalism.

Umm, that’s what Rodrigues has been making, $650,000 the past two seasons. Their not gone. There’s also inflation, which is just something that happens.

I think Rodrigues deserves something around $2M. He can put up 25pts at ES while playing bottom-6 mins, with good defense and is a good PKer. That’s probably on a 2-3 yr deal though. I wouldn’t want to be giving him a $0.25M raise every year.

Was Miller really a lot worse than in previous seasons? What did he do worse? I didn’t really watch him at all. His TOI and offensive production was in line with the previous season.

If Vegas trades Stastny, then THEY have no 2C. They are trying to win a cup. They don’t want to enter the season with a ? at 2C. That my thinking at least.

It says that the Buffalo Sabres are not a very good team, obviously. That needs to change. I stated this in my original response. My point was to contradict your assertion that the 2016-17 Sabres were not broken. That Botterill should have been able to seamlessly continue whatever upward trajectory that the team was on. My point is that it was an 80-point (big whoop) broken team that was coming apart at the seams and that it did need to be corrected. Honestly, I think the end of that 2016-17 season was a real low point. The team disappointed, the players were openly pouting and complaining to the media. There were lots of rumors about problems in the room. Between players and coaches and GM. It was actually embarrassing. That needed to change. A team can’t function with a ***** environment like that. It didn’t even seem like a team. It actually carried through the end of the 2017-18 season a bit, but it seems a lot better now. I believe that the issue I described above is not trivial. It is the definition of a broken team. I think that correcting that was one of Botterill’s main objectives. I don’t think that can be overlooked or hand waved away when evaluating why the Sabres made the moves that they did.

I don’t know. That team basically self destructed. Rifts between coach and players. Rifts between amongst the players. It fell apart. I understand that Botterill’s Sabres need to deliver some better results, but I think that Sabres team at the end of Murray’s tenure was absolutely broken.

If Risto was significantly better than his partner, you would expect that it would work both ways. Risto’s performance would suffer and his partner’s performance would be elevated.

Crushed it for Finland at the World Juniors two years in a row, then did well for Finland at the World Championships where they also won Gold. (that’s the men’s one with lots of actual NHL players)

McCabe is..........not the problem............but not the solution either.

I don't agree. This is giving way too much weight to the Risto situation. He isn't THAT important to the future of the franchise.

What if there are no other big moves this offseason? No big trade to acquire a top-6 forward. What would everyone’s reaction be? I believe that Botterill wants to trade Risto, but what if the good deal he is looking for just doesn’t materialize this summer? What if it doesn’t materialize until mid season? I feel like Botterill is pretty patient so I could see it happening. Just curious about how everyone would handle that.

Roslovic played just 9:45 per game, 0:36 on the PP. Mittelstadt played 13:27, 1:45 on the PP. So he equaled Mitts’ production while getting only about 70% of the ice time and 33% of the PP time. Beyond that, I don’t know any more than you.

Agree to an extent, but he was supposed to help the D in Buffalo, and I would say that he does know something about being a transition D, despite his overall failings as an NHL coach. There exists a space between “Housley is a D whisperer” and “Housley doesn’t know anything at all”.

I don’t know for sure, but I think Housley was supposed to be the guy who could do this. He was the expert who could get the D straightened out. Other players on the team did a much better job of zone exits, both passing and skating, so I don’t think it was purely a coaching directive thing.

Ok ?‍♂️

It’s not just avoiding hits. It’s avoiding contact. Keeping distance. Keeping the puck safe. Marner/Pettersson use their skating and puck handling to do this. Cozens will probably end up using his length and strength more than they do. So, are you saying that you don’t think Cozens will play a more physical style of hockey, more dependent upon physical strength than Marner or Pettersson? Because that’s all I’m saying.

Yeah, Cozens has speed, but that doesn’t mean that he plays like Marner. He isn’t going to be elusive like those guys. He isn’t going to be skating around dangling, keeping guys away with dazzling puck handling. I think he’ll be a bit more straight forward, so he will probably need to outmuscle guys at times.

This is true, though I think it matters what type of game you play. Marner and Pettersson use their elite skill level to avoid contact for the most part, I don’t think Cozens is going to be playing like that. With that said, he is ready when he is ready. He seems pretty strong already, so he may be able to play even if he hasn’t filled out all the way.

CONTINUATION FROM JOKIHARJU-NYLANDER TRADE THREAD I’m definitely not insistent that he needs to be traded. However, it seems to me that the likelihood that he is traded is high. This is based upon rumors that he is being shopped and the fact that the team has brought in 3 NHL quality RD (“replacements”) in the past 6 months. This is the source of much of the incessant interest and speculation about trading Risto. He has always had his detractors, but it’s reached a fever pitch because a trade looks to be imminent. I don’t think it’s very productive or interesting to just go back in forth with “Risto sux, get rid of him”, “No, he is good, the team would miss him” type of discussions. I would rather see his actual skill set discussed with more nuance than that. I think we are capable of it as a group. Personally, I see Risto as a #4/#5 type of guy at 5 on 5. He could probably do ok paired with a better player on a 2nd pair, and if you can use him in a somewhat sheltered role, I think the results would be good. I think that he can be used heavily on both the PP and PK though and do well there. He has the offensive skills in the OZone to really help a PP and I think his size, length, and strength can help a PK in front of the net and in the corners. I think these qualities are his strengths as a player. I think his weaknesses as a player are mostly when he has the puck on his stick in the defensive and neutral zone. I think he does a bad job of making passes to move the puck out of the Dzone with possession, too often defaulting to just throwing it off the glass and out. I also feel like he could take advantage of open ice more often to skate the puck up into the neutral zone and put more pressure on the opponents. In a nutshell, I see a player who is pretty good at the point once the puck is in the offensive zone and is pretty good at defending with his size low in the Dzone, but who struggles to actually get the puck out of the Dzone and into the Ozone. He is definitely a player who has uses, but one who also has definite flaws. Someone who has a place in the NHL but not someone who you should be considering a “core” piece of someone to really build around. I don’t think Buffalo would miss him much on the PP or 5 on 5, as I feel that other players have been brought in who can mostly replace what he does there. I think they may miss him on the PK and in certain 5 on 5 matchups where he can really use his physicality. If there are other GM’s out there who see in Risto someone they want to build around, I think there could be trade possibilities that are good for Buffalo. Edit: Sorry for the novel, but I think that’s it’s necessary to get a little deeper into things in order to have a real discussion. Also, I’m going to repost this in the Risto thread, anyone who wants to discuss this in more detail can head over there.

I’m definitely not insistent that he needs to be traded. However, it seems to me that the likelihood that he is traded is high. This is based upon rumors that he is being shopped and the fact that the team has brought in 3 NHL quality RD (“replacements”) in the past 6 months. This is the source of much of the incessant interest and speculation about trading Risto. He has always had his detractors, but it’s reached a fever pitch because a trade looks to be imminent. I don’t think it’s very productive or interesting to just go back in forth with “Risto sux, get rid of him”, “No, he is good, the team would miss him” type of discussions. I would rather see his actual skill set discussed with more nuance than that. I think we are capable of it as a group. Personally, I see Risto as a #4/#5 type of guy at 5 on 5. He could probably do ok paired with a better player on a 2nd pair, and if you can use him in a somewhat sheltered role, I think the results would be good. I think that he can be used heavily on both the PP and PK though and do well there. He has the offensive skills in the OZone to really help a PP and I think his size, length, and strength can help a PK in front of the net and in the corners. I think these qualities are his strengths as a player. I think his weaknesses as a player are mostly when he has the puck on his stick in the defensive and neutral zone. I think he does a bad job of making passes to move the puck out of the Dzone with possession, too often defaulting to just throwing it off the glass and out. I also feel like he could take advantage of open ice more often to skate the puck up into the neutral zone and put more pressure on the opponents. In a nutshell, I see a player who is pretty good at the point once the puck is in the offensive zone and is pretty good at defending with his size low in the Dzone, but who struggles to actually get the puck out of the Dzone and into the Ozone. He is definitely a player who has uses, but one who also has definite flaws. Someone who has a place in the NHL but not someone who you should be considering a “core” piece of someone to really build around. I don’t think Buffalo would miss him much on the PP or 5 on 5, as I feel that other players have been brought in who can mostly replace what he does there. I think they may miss him on the PK and in certain 5 on 5 matchups where he can really use his physicality. If there are other GM’s out there who see in Risto someone they want to build around, I think there could be trade possibilities that are good for Buffalo. Edit: Sorry for the novel, but I think that’s it’s necessary to get a little deeper into things in order to have a real discussion. Also, I’m going to repost this in the Risto thread, anyone who wants to discuss this in more detail can head over there.

Some people here think Risto is good. Other people here think Risto is bad. Perhaps there GMs who think he is good. Perhaps one of those GMs would like to trade a good player for Risto. The whole idea revolves around the concept that there are differing opinions on how good Risto is. Hope this helped.