Marvin

😭 Ted Darling and Rick Jenneret were where I learnt what hockey should sound like. I can hear them in my head when I am at a game. He deserves better than the wretched product he's been announcing this past decade.

If true, it smells like Eichel, Reinhart, and Ristolainen are all going out the door. Honestly, I have some sympathy for those three. The ownership has been mercurial, alternating between what it wants, who it likes, etc. Management has been chaotic. The GMs had different philosophies, misused their assets, and refused to work with what they had. The coaching has been terrible overall. Roster construction has been terrible. The Pegulas deserve this. And with ticket sales tanking, they deserve it. I really think the Sabres could be on the verge of a huge jump in the standings, but they need to hire the right coach. For the first time since 2012-3, they actually can ice a competent NHL roster next season without the changes that typically come in an off-season. Then they need to fix the management and hockey departments. As I have said for the 9 years since The Tank became official policy, God, this sucks.

"Staying the course", in my case, involves adding 2-3 defencemen to mentor the youth, swapping out 2-3 forwards to get some variety of styles in the forward ranks, and 2 reliable goaltenders, whether Ullmark is one or not. I personally would pick another coach. I expect Eichel's presence to be a huge bonus. That is 4-8 players I want to change before next season. But I don't want a complete teardown.

That's fair. Thanks. I think that he, like a lot of other players over the years, developed some really bad habits. Whether due to the players intended to mentor him, bad character, young-and-dumb, or whatever, I have seen some of the issues you mention. I personally think he's been doing better this year after XHCRK left and been put at centre. That could be a mirage due to the recency effect. It also because Eichel isn't there to bail him out in the attacking zone.

That's the risk of a big deal. He seems to not be coasting, which is a plus. Why do you doubt his character and motivation?

I understand that we should not and do not want to inflate what IHCDG has done, but denigrating it and downplaying strikes me as disingenuous. At the very least, he has the team performing at minimal NHL competence. The team generates more scoring chances, but it also yields more scoring chances. The line-up has been missing its #1 forward, #1 defenceman, and #1 goaltender for both coaches at various times. Compare the quality of the competition for the coaches. Usually, the team seems to start slowly and improves as the game goes on -- which is the reverse of usual trend under XHCRK. IMHO, the players are more comfortable in their roles than before. But they still lose more often than not -- but their optics are better. There are things to like and things not to like.

This is why I want the Sabres' off-season shopping list to include 2-3 sage, veteran, positionally sound, defencive defencemen. I see a lot of promise in the youth, but I also see what Harry Neale calls "cranial vapour-locks" due to the lack of experience. I personally think they are more likely to be overlooked in FA and that teams will value them less than a younger piece somewhere else. These are the kind of boring hockey trades which could markedly improve the team and develop the talent simultaneously.

I want the best guy out there. If that's Granato, then that's fine. As a matter of honour and principle if nothing else, I would interview him at the very least. Let us understand what he has done. The team went from embarrassingly sloppy to a basic level of NHL competence. I would like to think that any passable coach could do that. What Granato has done which I want in the next coach, whoever he be, is to continue to develop the youngsters. We must hire a good coach (preferably a great coach) who can continually help the youngsters improve. For the first time in a decade, the youth shows a lot of promise. I want that talent developed.

I really, really don't want to trade Reinhart. But I don't know if the Sabres can pay his market value.

Anyone have game theory software to use? Seriously, though, assuming Eichel and Reinhart are here next year with Cozens, we can expect Mittlestadt and his linemates to get favourable match-ups late in games because teams need to defend 2 tough lines in front of them. I might go longer term with him, Asplund, Reinhart, and whomever we put on their wings. Consider that before the offseason, we have at least the following line-up (I gave Cozens two bodyguards so that he can just work on his game): Ruotsalainen-Eichel-Bjork Skinner-Reinhart-Olofsson Asplund-Mittlestadt-Thompson Girgensons-Cozens-Okposo I personally would swap out some of the wings for players with different skills (diligent checking and responsible defence, to name 2). That would give us 3 legitimate 2-way lines with at least moderately dangerous scoring threats. IMHO, that 4th line will eat most other 4th lines for lunch and may check many top lines into oblivion. Thus, I want key guys signed for some term at decent prices while the cap is flat.

Yes. I am saying that I like having a lot of picks in this draft. Keep the highest and see what you can do with the other picks.

In general, if you are worse at something than your peers, you need more chances at it in order to get the same total aggregate results. This is the year where luck will matter more than usual throughout the draft, so there should be more variance in quality of players picked than usual. That means a bad scouting team will want more picks this year to find more guys who fell through the cracks.

True, but then again, I like reading what people who disagree with me think. Even if I don't change my mind, I still probably learnt something. Also, I think it is useful to know what the reaction to different ideas would be. It is why I am so verbose when I try to explain my position and its disadvantages.

Let us hope that our hires from now until FA are sound in scouting, management, and probably coaching as well. Even if not... Unlike other teams, I am not looking for ultra-dynamic defencemen for our youngsters. I am looking for types who are analogous to Darryl Shannon / James Patrick when we got them. Based on what I have seen, teams are more willing to move them for more potential or more dynamic players. And they are unlikely to be signed the first day of FA as well. I would move Ristolainen for an older but sound defencive defenceman who is less valuable to the other team than he would be for us and a middling pick. Then I would try to use that pick and one of the surfeit of others we have to pick up a similar defenceman. That gives me, I hope, 2 reliable, sage defencemen. In FA, I figure there will be at least one Steve Montador type out there. Might I have to pay them $500k more than other teams? Probably. I expect to get 1 or 2 guys this way. Maybe there is a Tim Horton who wants to be paid for the practises, but will play the games for free. I expect this nets use 2-3 guys for the youngsters to learn from and help cover up their mistakes. Ideally, that would give me 3 veterans with my 5 youngsters, which make this team 8 deep with NHL-level and NHL-ready defencemen. After 2005-6, that is my requirement for any season.

Except for saying loudly, "supercaligragilisticexpialidocious", I was not really precocious. (Yes, they made me look up "precocious" too when I barely knew the alphabet.) I merely seemed like it because of my "tiger parents." My parents were that precocious and expected us to be polyglots like they were. I spent more time trying to figure out how to spell the words than I did learning their definition and how to use them. Although I am hardly dumb, I am more well-educated and learned than smart. There is a good reason why I have been in therapy for 30 years and likely will be for the rest of my life.

If you want to shake up the core, you should begin with Ristolainen. He was badly harmed by not getting a year or two in Rochester to improve his hockey sense. I think his experiences here will have him bolt if he is here through his UFA, so I would trade him in the off-season. He was effectively set-up to fail in Buffalo and his career never recovered. Look at how Johann Larsson and Zemgus Girgensons had to re-invent themselves after being similarly harmed. IMHO, as the Sabres are constructed now, they need a couple of older and wiser heads on the D. Think Darryl Shannon or James Patrick. There is a lot of NHL-ready youth whom I want to have mentored properly before they get harmed like Ristolainen was. (Take a look at Nikita Zadorov's trajectory for an eerily similar result.) We who think we should move him must understand that he will probably be put into a better position to succeed on his new team and is likely to perform much better than he did here. "I told you so," is something which we are likely to hear a lot of for a few years. IMHO, there is no chance that Seattle takes Ristolainen if he is unprotected. Defencemen who are as effective he is cost less and many will be exposed. The few who are in his price range and are likely to be exposed are better than he is. Heck, as an expansion GM, if I had to choose either Ristolainen or Miller from the Sabres, I would take Miller and not have any second thoughts. Aside: we who are more numbers driven should understand why we sometimes look stoooooopid. The non-hockey people at fivethirtyeight.com have Jack Eichel as one of the worst players in the league based on underperformance this season, as if his neck injury had nothing to do with it.

True story: My parent required us to look up the words ourselves to learn how they were spelled and learn their meaning; we were not allowed to ask my parents what a word was and what it meant unless we could not find it. We had an unabridged American Heritage, so this was a rare occurrence. As the oldest, it was my job to explain to the other kids what we heard. There is a Daffy Duck - Porky Pig - The Dawg cartoon where The Dawg feigns crying to deceive Daffy into allowing himself to be caught. Daffy asks him something like, "why the copious efflux of lacrimal fluid?" I had to figure out how to spell copious, efflux, and lacrimal *and* to learn what they meant. I was 8.

No. It says that Byfield and Turcotte meet their needs and Eichel does not. Why are you making this so hard?

I hope it is not protection like criminal organizations give. 😉

Sorry. That's how I talk. That's how my wife talks. That is how my siblings and cousins all talk. That's how my friends talk. If we are going to interact civilly on this board, you will need to get used to it. Put simply: remember all the social outcasts from school. Now think of the one person who was even beyond their pale. That is I.

Sure you can. They did not have to *like* the trade; they just have to view is as acceptable. I didn't ask the impossible. I have seen a few proposals for Eichel and for Reinhart which had grudging acceptance from a majority on both sides. There were even a couple which I actually liked. I am asking you to find them and bring them here in another thread for evaluation. BTW, there is no way are you getting Byfield AND Turcotte without taking a long-term, crippling cap-dump and sending something juicy with Eichel. Their window isn't now. And that is one hint: what team can use these guys *now* to become a legitimate contender AND has NHLers or NHL-ready players whom we might like? Another hint is to ask what team is like the Sabres where we could make a Hawerchuk or LaFontaine trade to shake up the cores?

Whatever their flaws, I think it is churlish bordering on slander to view Eichel, Reinhart, and Ristolainen as slackers and prima-donnas. For the first time since 2012-13, I think we actually have 6 defencemen AND 12 forwards who are better than borderline NHLers when healthy. Seriously, if the team were healthy, the line-up wouldn't have at least one guy whose presence on the Sabres main roster would make me wince. Raise an eyebrow? Sure. And even at their worst under Granato, I haven't laughed once at something the players did on the ice that was monumentally incompetent. No team since 2012-3 has done that for me. Rolston had a rebuilding team. Nolan had a super-tanker. Bylsma never had a fully competent defence. Housley had 1 or 2 lines of forwards who got caved in nightly. Krueger had at least 3 dubious forwards. Only Rolston and Nolan had consistent goaltending. None of Eichel, Reinhart, Ristolainen, McCabe, Girgensons, and Okposo have played on a team with clear NHL-level competence at every position on the roster. Sure, they might need a change of scenery, but many of the problems here were not their fault.

Let us turn this around. Construct a plausible trade with another team which you would accept and a majority of posters here would find acceptable. I trust the overall evaluation of the fairness of a potential trade here. Your limitations are: 1. Use the threads on other hockey boards as examples of your trade's expected return. 2. You are not to exceed the best offer on all the boards which is acceptable to a majority of fans of your trade partner on those boards. 3. A majority of Sabres fans who have access to that board think the trade is acceptable. Good luck. Until you and others do this and give me multiple possibilities, I can not take anyone's desire to just trade Eichel willy-nilly seriously because we could be staring at 15 years of a rebuild when everyone else wants out.

I have a hockey book which analysed what the worst teams all time have in common and what causes massive one-season drop-offs. One common, but not universal, theme was injuries to the goaltenders. I personally would put in Houser once. Why not?

That may be, but, say, $6M is a helluvalot more palatable.