GASabresIUFAN

You are assuming that Pegula’s yes man is a lame duck.

He is probably going to trade for Tyler Myers. Can't get bigger then him.

Shouldn’t the thread title be updated to reflect the Sabres claiming Reimer?

Talk about someone who needs a fresh start and whose price is decreasing by the game. With Samuelsson out for a significant period (months?), we need help now. Bryson and Gilbert aren't reliable and Joki sucks. Rutta can still play and can handle 2nd pair minutes. He averaged almost 20 a game last season and is at 18 this year. Remember this is Adams we are talking about. He loves the shop the clearance bin.

Which is why I wrote that he hasn't made a blockbuster since the teardown. That said, the Eichel trade is a blockbuster regardless of circumstances.

The Eichel trade? He hasn't made a blockbuster since the teardown, although some might say Mitts for Byram was a significant albeit stupid trade.

With UPL out with an injury. This is Levi's time to shine. When is Houser being recalled?

I understand this sentiment, but, assuming Adams can actually complete a deal, the deal would look like the McLeod deal (prospects and picks for an NHL player). One cheaper player I've always had an interest in SJ's Jan Rutta. He is 34 and on the last year of his current deal at 2.75 (cap). He is (was?) an excellent stay at home D and has no trade protection. He'd be a good vet to help teach the kids how to play in their zone. He is still playing about 18 minutes a night.

As Adams works the phones, what are the odds he actually completes a big trade? First of all, "big" trades are nearly impossible to complete. Second, what part of the team is Adams trying to fix or improve? Let's assume his priority is getting top 4 D help. Who is trading us such a defenseman? There are only a handful of teams that are truly out of the playoff chase already. Even if one of these handful of teams have a D we'd want, how many of these kind of D don't have NMC/NTCs? How many would wave such a clause to come to Buffalo? Adams can burn the phones all he wants, but it takes two to tango and in this case, the so many players with NMC/NTCs clauses, it now takes 3 to tango. I'd give Adams a 2% chance of actually completing a significant deal before the Xmas.

GM Howdy Doody thinks trading for Riley Stillman is a big move. I doubt Adams has it in him to make a gutsy “big” move. In order for him to make a move, he’d have to understand what is wrong with his roster and then be willing to do what’s necessary to fix the problem. He doesn’t understand that his team can’t or is unwilling to play defense.

The Sabres are still terrible defensively. This is completely on Adams. The team 20% of the way through the season are 27th in GA. They are on pace to allow 272 goals. Only one team in the last 5 full NHL seasons made the playoffs allowing more than 270 goals and that was the Fla Panthers (273 GA), but they scored 290. As others have pointed out, Dahlin is our best defensive D. Power and Byram, our other alleged “top” D, are terrible in our zone. Power has zero physicality to his game. He literally won’t even try to knock someone off the puck. Byram has no idea how to cover forwards while playing defense and is KA’s big acquisition on defense. The rest are replacement level players. We can’t win this way. I understand that Ruff, Adams, and Pegula want to play an uptempo style, but we don’t have the horses to play this way. At some point the Sabres are actually going to have to stop teams from scoring.

😱😭

Marty Biron

Proving that lightning does strike twice?

Why would Utah make that deal? You’ll be lucky to get a 4th for a benched player on a big longterm contract.

It’s going to take years to figure out an equilibrium for the leagues under the new rules. I think this is long overdue and was gong to happen once NIL ended the “amateur” notion in the NCAA. My hope is that kids play in the CHL and then jump to college once they’re 20. The CHL has great tradition and I hate to see it die. I also hope that more schools will create D1 hockey programs, especially down here. My son-in-law is the coach of U of Tenn’s D1 club team and I’d love to see everything he built there evolve into D1 NCAA.

Officially only 5. That’s what made the giveaways so noticeable.

I remember seeing Doug Henning at Studio Arena many many years ago.

I didn't get to see the game, just the highlights. It look like some good board work in the O-Zone resulting in goals by Sabres driving to the net. It also looks like the Sabres are a better team with Benson on the ice and Joki and Mule off of it. Lots of good stats from this game except 2. 21 giveaways is a terrible number and only 17 hits. I do like that they blocked 21 shots. 2-0 in the last 2 with 11 goals for and only 2 against. UPL looking good in both according to some articles on the games. 1 game under NHL 500 and a solid road win to boot.

Great game tonight. Maybe the best 3rd period we played this season. Now they have to build on it. Best game Byram played as a Sabre. Zucker may end up being Adams best acquisition. He has helped these kids grow up. Bryson and Gilbert out playing Joki and Samuelsson is still a bad look for Adams.

Joker has been so bad (and Samuelsson), Lindy benched them in favor of Bryson and Gilbert. If anyone is getting traded, it's one of these two (Joki and Samuelsson), but Samuelsson's contract is untradeable at this point. Byram did have his best game as a Sabre tonight. It was a pleasant surprise. Hopefully he can build from there.

So we are supposed to wait until the season is out of reach before making changes? The sooner we make changes the better. Adam’s can’t be trusted to fix the roster. Therefore he must be the first to go to begin fixing this mess. As to Ruff not having GM experience, at least he been in the NHL and around good GMs for decades. Adams had zero experience in the NHL after he retired as a player. Ruff and Karmanos could make a very effective duo. They know what to do unlike Adams.

Someone named Lindy Ruff is already in the building. Might as well give him a shot or promote Karmanos. I think both would be more decisive and make better decisions. Both are experienced NHL hockey people.

lol, waiting until next year has really worked for the last 13 years. What’s a 14th year of failure?

I wrote the day he was hired that he was in over his head and was just a yes man. I hated the moves in year 1 such as signing Hall and not extending Ullmark longer. It wasn’t really surprising that the team imploded. I did agree with the general plan in year 2 to draft and develop to build the team properly after the implosion. I thought he did a good job of getting assets for the old core, although those trades are not aging well. Overall I think he and his staff have drafted pretty well but even that is cooling some. However the ultimate issue with Adams is his failure to fix his roster issues. He never adequately replaced Ullmark. He has never found proper partners for Power and Dahlin or acquired anyone who is actually good at defense. He also hasn’t found a coach to help the power play or completed a single trade that upgrade his top 6 forwards or top 4 D without subtracting from another area of the roster. His biggest move since the tear down is Mitts for Byram and this has been an unmitigated failure so far. Byram has been our worst D so far and Mitts is lighting it up as the 2C in Colorado. Maybe the best symbol of the Adams era is the buyout of Skinner and most of the savings remains unspent. The Adams era in a nutshell: Roster he inherited vs the guys he has basically replaced them with. Out - Ullmark, Eichel, Reinhart, Montour, Mitts, and Skinner In - Levi, Krebs, Tuch, Clifton, McLeod, and Zucker. Talk about downgrading the roster. Adams makes TM look competent. He needs to go now.