Drag0nDan

We signed taylor hall as a result of eichel essentially asking them to do something or he was going public with a trade request. After his injury and subsequent flame out by hall, he still wanted to be traded. He wanted the ADR surgery, and i think adams was opposed simply because he didn't want him to further damage his value. They tried rehab and it didn't work - if he had made any commitment to the franchise at that point i'm sure he would've been allowed to get whatever surgery he wanted. Then Eichel went public with the whole - they wont let me get surgery debacle.

He was literally breaking other players on the team when he played with them - i think he had to go.

Ruff is on a 2 year deal as well, so I kind of always assumed it was a 2 year plan. If it works and the team can make it to the playoffs in year 2, adams gets another couple of years to build and ruff maybe moves into the front office somewhere. If it doesn't work, then they have a fresh balance sheet and both are gone along with hopefully a bunch of other coaches and front office folks.

Jokiharju is a UFA so he's gone. I'd be open to moving on from pretty much everyone but Dahlin. Power's 22 so i'd also say its tough to give up on him - and elite puck movers are harder to come by. Byram was the swap from mittelstadt but he's a RFA and definitely valuable to teams around the league. If you can get out of samuelsson's contract, do it. He's an absolute JAG and i see no reason to be committed to someone like him long-term. Seen enough bryson, jokiharju and clifton too. Scouts and GM's have watched him play enough to know... there's a reason he's available.

So that'd be tuch, jjp, quinn, benson, zucker, greenway? Right now anyway.

HAHAHAHA i know the stats don't say who "won", but this guy gets absolutely smashed every time he fights!

There really is no shortage of random defenseman to include. I've seen enough of joker, samuelsson, bryson, clifton... lets see some new faces back there.

Yeah, i think this is pretty much roughly the price for a 20G scoring winger.

The shooting % is a bit higher though. They haven't really done much to inspire our trust though.

That's another issue entirely - so many L-NTC's on the type of deals that Buffalo would need to be bringing on. So you're looking at a player who had their RFA years bought out, which is unlikely as most teams that signed these guys did so with the plan to keep them in the fold.

The problem is the cap and years he has on his deal. Any acquiring team is committing to 5 years and 35M for him - and beyond that they're adding a 7M cap hit for this season. Any acquiring contender is going to have to send bad money back to stay under the cap. The majority of deadline deals are somewhat short term in thought - you're building to win this season - while in the offseason you are remaking your team.

The length and size is also hugely beneficial on the PK. Not going to blow anyone away on the stat sheet, but he's got some heart which this team is mostly lacking so i don't have any issue bringing him back. From a physical standpoint, he's pretty much the closest thing the team has to an enforcer.

Is a shortage of 3rd round picks really whats damning this franchise though?

Makes sense - they've had overlap at both coach and GM since Regier left. It's one of the many reason's this team is in the red every year. Nolan fired - Bring on Bylsma - at least 1 year paying both. Fire Bylsma after 2 years - Bring on Housley - At least 1 year paying both Fire Housley after 2 years- Bring on Krueger - at least 1 year paying both Fire Krueger 1 year and change (i think he had a 5 year deal too) - Bring on Granato Fire Granato (extended in 2022-2023, so he's paid through 2024-2025) - Bring on Lindy So in 2023-2024 we were paying Krueger and Granato. This year they pay Granato and Lindy. Pretty much every year post tank since Regier and Lindy left, they've been paying coaches not to coach.

I just think you limit your suitors if you do it at the deadline just due to the nature of where a lot of teams currently sit against the salary cap. It also means you likely get some trash contracts coming back. I understand the sentiment of getting rid of him, and i also know he's not going to be boosting his value the rest of the way.

Adams will likely be fired. He was hired in 2020... extended in 2022 so i assume his deal was probably up either this year or next year. He's probably among the lowest paid GM's in the league. He needs to be fired as soon as possible if you're going to do it. I think they avoid any major deadline deals this year other than expiring contracts going out - Greenway, Zucker, Jokiharju, Bryson, Aube-Kubel. If you're going to move one of your young players - Cozens, JJP, Quinn, Power, Byram - new GM has to do it, and while i think deadline value is probably higher, i don't trust the current management to get good value out of it.

They tried that rebuild on the fly thing with Kane. I don't think it was necessarily a bad idea? I just was never a big fan of the player or the price they paid to acquire him. Neither him nor Bogo had the leadership acumen, especially at the age they were brought in.

I always think - at least tage is underpaid for pretty much the same time so it balances out a little bit. Like if Tage got 10M AAV, and Cozens was at 4M it wouldn't feel like such a huge waste of money. I'm just not sure where to go with the player, he's never been a good shooter, his passing is so-so, and his on-ice vision has cratered. Him and Quinn are roughly the same age... but there's 2 extra seasons worth of games for Cozens that just suggests that this is just who he is. With Quinn, he seems small and lost out there (like he doesn't feel confident on where he needs to be). But he is a solid shooter, seems to be a fairly good skater, which is something to build around. He's had some injuries as well that seem to have stunted his development. I'm not sure what you can build from cozens other than a bottom 6 winger, which is not a good use of 49 million.

Watching last night, i tried to really watch cozens when he was on the ice and man... He is really rough. He's sloppy in puck battles. Never has a plan it seems. Consistently trying to pass pucks through the other team. It's a real drag. The entire line he plays with seems to be unable to ever find any space. Even when he makes a nice play on the backcheck - he turns it over on the breakout. It's just a really chaotic (mostly bad) experience watching him right now.

The stink of this franchise is absolutely rancid. I think from top to bottom no one wants to work with us unless they're fleecing us for a future star player. Agents probably hate us because of our inept management. Players don't want to play here because of plenty of reasons - Weather, Taxes, oh and we're always terrible. Stadium is soulless. It's like you will be the worst version of yourself when you play here and no one knows why. At this point? I think some heads need to roll beyond adams. I'd probably come in with the eye of - if it's challenging to attract players, how do i attract talent outside the players, and how do i improve my sales pitch to players? Scouting - Where are we succeeding and failing? Who's doing it better? Do we just poach scouts? Need to make a BIG leap in improvement here. Analytics - Big stink was made about this - is further investment needed for this to make an actual tangible on-ice impact? Development - Why do highly touted players always seem to fail here? Training staff - Youngest team in the NHL. Fast and soft, injured constantly across the board. Facilities - look around the league and see what you need to do to get in the top 10 because this is important to players.

I think they need to really evaluate why a player would want to play here. We are and have been bad for so long that the reputation around the league is incredibly poor, and hard to improve. So many players have clauses in their contract to protect them from essentially being traded... here. NYS income tax definitely doesn't help, even if the cost of living in buffalo essentially counters the tax savings in Florida or Nevada. The stadium's a heartless empty feeling dump. Training facilities are not impressive. Obviously Josh Allen's a big part of the bills success, i don't think that can be questioned. But pre-Allen, the team spent a lot of money on new training facilities, new recovery tools, and just generally on "the team". It became a destination specifically for "football players". Talking up the nightlife of a city, or weather, or whatever - you're always going to lose that battle in buffalo. But if you say to the players - you're coming here to work, and be a better hockey player - that message can resonate to the right players.

Interesting to think - make the same deal with cozens instead of mittelstadt. Wonder how that would fit with players they have here right now.

Even watching loose pucks it seems like the pucks bouncing around in our zone directly onto the opponents sticks.

The bruins won 65 games and had a 3 game losing streak at one point in the season. You just can't let this keep going. A win gets the monkey off your back, but they need to play better across the board. Pucks need to start going in the net, the power play needs some urgency, and vets need to step up.