PerreaultForever

I've been watching Cozens lately to try to figure him out. I think ultimately his decision making is too slow. Whether he's hesitating out of a lack of confidence or he just thinks slow is hard to say but when he gets the puck he doesn't react and act instinctively, there's delays and pauses and it allows him to be defended easily. I think he could thrive on a slower more structured type of team but he might just be incapable of playing well in this sort of up tempo type of thing we seem to want to do in Buffalo. the cliche "not a good fit" would seem to apply. So unless we change our style (unlikely) it's probably best to trade him.

Pegula hockey. Lots of offense. Open ice. Fast skating. Minimal physical contact. Exactly what Pegula has been building. and we still lost.

Well clearly Buffalo could never have been in on Rantenen and he'd never sign long term here even if we did cough up the cash but it's also clear that the Necas deal might have been possible earlier as Carolina obviously feels like they aren't going to want to sign him for what he will want either. If Adams was a good GM I think he could have made a Necas deal in the off season.

This might backfire on the Canes. Seems quite a bit like their move for Guentzel last year. Rantanen is going to want a LOT of money to sign long term. Pity about Necas to Colorado. I was hoping he'd end up in Boston somehow with Pasternak and Zacha for an all Czech line one day.

Heck of a wild trade if this happens. Would have thought Chicago would get more there but wait for the final version.

This is kind of true, and it's definitely what happened, but I don't think it was by design. I think the "plan" (likely discussed and agreed to by Pegula and Kevyn and whoever else was allowed in the room) was simple in their minds. They decided it is difficult if not impossible to get good players to come here, there are too many no trade clauses, so we will make a lot of draft picks and grow our own team with players who have to be here because of draft rules and they will evolve into a good team in time since we are clever drafters. That is the naive and stupid plan and that is what they did and this is what we get.

Well yes, a team this bad should not have a payroll that high, that's fair enough. The Cozens contract seemed right in with a league trend of rewarding young players early. The drop off after the one good year is what makes one wonder. Playing poorly to get traded? idk. Wouldn't doubt it. The Power contract was absurd for a player of his age and experience. They definitely are clueless that's for sure.

This is silly. They are nowhere near the cap and won't be. The UFAs are almost certainly not coming back. The team will still be the youngest in the league again.

A perfect example of how a too young team loses a winnable game. Boy was the PP a sloppy affair. Just horrible ,

Well that's the narrative, and I guess he does have to import his palm trees if he comes here but my point would be we toss away better players and overpay replacements and there's no improvement. You could just grab one off the waiver wire and be no worse off, maybe better off and oh ya, have some extra cash to overpay a top 6 Zucker type or a steady D man but Sabres be Sabres.

I will be sure I am dead and I am in hell if the Sabres get the overall first pick and (as it looks like today) a left shot D man is the consensus top pick in the draft. Just win some f'n games, entertain a little, sell at the deadline, fire Adams, and Terry, maybe he gets to retire in Florida and hug a Superbowl trophy for the rest of his days while he gets to frak baby frak and he lets somebody else run this damn thing. otherwise it's all just a bad joke that never ends.

He made a lot of mistakes along the way. I guess you could argue he now has the experience and maybe if you give Adams 5 more years he will be an experienced GM too 🙂 Columbus looks like they have drafted well over the last 5 or so years but the difference would be roster construction. They have a more diverse array of types of players and thus they have a more complete roster. Not to mention a guy like Olivier who I would argue we have needed, because he allows the youth to play bigger and braver. Helps with team development and in the locker room. Let's not forget they are doing it despite losing their star veteran forward as well.

Probably true, which is why Adams needs to go before these decisions come up. He has firm belief in his own guys and will likely reward them for projected ceilings and we will be stuck with these guys either elevating or more bottom league finishes. I want a guy in there who just looks at their performance so far and doesn't give a crap if he hurts their feelings.

Well if all you are expecting is a JAG why pay him 2 million a year? Why aren't you just grabbing some shmuck off the waiver wire. Tons of players better than him making less have been available. It makes no sense. They expected a 4th line upgrade and they got a downgrade.

Get worried. I saw him ranked as high as 6th. There are a number of fairly big centers in the top 10. Desnoyers is one of them as @LGR4GM said above. If we draft Eklund I might just have to find another team.

Not yet, and if they unload Cozens for prospects/picks and go with Kulich and then idk Helenius or whoever they stay low and keep riding those ELCs but if they pay Byram like Power or even a little less you are eating up a heck of a lot of money on a defense that can't defend. Proportionally higher amount than most teams I think.

Bruins definitely looked like a team on the way out tonight and Columbus looked like what we wish the Sabres were.

How much money you going to spend on D? These big time puck movers with the scoring stats want more cash than the stay at home types. Flash gets cash but it doesn't keep the puck out of your net. This is why a well constructed roster has 2 of them. One for each PP unit. If you try to have more, your defense suffers and so does your cap.

Because you need to play defense. That's why it's called defense. You want all puck movers fine, have them, that's what Terry wants. Enjoy last place.

One of Byram, Power, Dahlin needs to be traded. Dahlin likely no and he's the best of the three so the return would be the best by far. Power is younger and bigger with more upside so it's likely Byram but 3 top level offensive defenseman on a team is one too many.

Just to be devil's advocate, so we get even younger, again? I agree that Kulich is this year's pleasant surprise (as he's ahead of his timeline) and Kozak might become a decent bottom 6 guy so a great pick but really the failing is in how useless Lafferty has been not how decent Kozak has played. It's all relative. The bottom line reconstruction has been a complete failure. Fourth line this year is a downgrade from Girgs-Krebs-Kyle not the promised improvement. Krebs might be playing his way into 3C. More suited to 4C imo but he has built his face off game and 2 way game and is a reasonable role player now. In many ways Krebs is the new Girgensens. Expectation of being a scoring center ending up as a solid bottom role player with a bit of grit. So Girgs out Krebs in we are younger but not better. Kulich is very promising but he needs to work on his defensive game still (like many of them) and he could use some more muscle and size. I expect him to eventually be a 2 or 3C but it is a mistake to rush him. We always rush them and it almost always bites us. Get more veterans and have these guys push those veterans out if they are able to. Develop them properly.

Not sure what you mean. How does his next contract affect his waiver status? He hasn't earned any sort of one way big money deal. True, but I see him as a rental. I doubt he is here next year unless we back up the Brinks truck.

Adams has to try to stop trying to make him the number one goalie. He needs 2-3 full years in Rochester much like Calgary developed Wolfe. They should have played Reimer and they should get a better veteran #2 to back up UPL next year. End the blocking nonsense and start developing people properly.

Kulich is the lone bright spot on the season. I feel smug because he was the Sabres draft pick I liked the best that year but regardless of that, I'm glad he looks good. You can see Ruff thinks the same as he is using him in moments you would think were normally reserved for veterans. He looks like the real deal. I think the Vancouver goal where they just circled and circled and the Sabres moved in tighter and tighter and it just seemed to go on forever until they scored was an example of the worst of what this team is. Just horrendous D, but they came back so what can you do. It was nice to come back and win a game for a change (even if it did look like another collapse in the final minutes until the clock ran out).

So then it was the league's way of saying we have to suspend you 3 games but it's not really 3 games. Your team will be fine for at least one of them. Guess we might see Skinner then 🙂