Archie Lee

I was hoping we would put in a claim for Stecher. Right shot, 31 year old veteran, D, makes under $800k, has been a stabilizer for some young players, including Power at the World’s back before Power was drafted. Hard to imagine he would not have been a better depth piece than Geertsen, who despite the Sabres having catastrophic levels of man-games lost, can’t get into a game.

There is still lots on this team to be excited about from a player talent standpoint. Thompson played at a level we don’t quite see enough, but I think we got a sense of what playoff-Thompson would look like. I also really liked the way Ellis battled in net, Kozak with the painful shot block, Krebs running over Sandin-Pelika, McLeod’s speed, Sammuelsson, ot heroics aside, looks like a player well worth his contract. At the risk of being unnecessarily negative after a rare positive performance and outcome, all the same issues were present and led to the 4-1 deficit. It wasn’t structure or system or coach-imposed accountability, that dug them out of the 3 goal deficit. The players clearly still have pride and some commitment to one another. I think there is a team here that could get on a roll, with the right couple of changes.

I recall reading that Lehner was grateful for the support Botterill showed, even after Lehner was no longer with the Sabres.

With so many real things to be critical of Sabre management for, I guess I just struggle with finding reasons to be critical of the things they got right. I mean, we want them to consider the opinions of their development staff, right?

There is lots to be critical of Sabres management for. But, Zach Benson was a top 10 ranked pick. He was on every team’s radar. I’m sure the Sabres got some extra looks with Savoie being on the same team, but it was completely consistent with their draft history under Adams for them to take Benson where they did.

I agree that changes, even big player changes, should be on the table. Maybe I quoted the wrong part of your post and should have included where you stated you are "ready for another multi-year teardown run by a new front office". I understand that some fans enjoy the rebuild process (I can get behind a good rebuild), but I can't imagine selling it to the larger fanbase at this point.

I’m with you up until “Entire roster up for auction”. Just my opinion, but it would be some kind of next level negligent mismanagement to “blow-up” a team that is the 2nd youngest in the NHL by age, and the least experienced by games played. If that happens, the NHL should immediately confiscate the keys to the franchise from Pegula. I get your larger point though. I enjoyed watching, for the most part, the 2021-2022 Sabres, who finished with 75 points. That was Granato’s first full year. There were definitely some very rough spots through that season, but generally they were a young developing team that played with energy and heart and with some genuine joy for the game. That is long gone. But we don’t need blow-up the roster, we need to bring in a new GM and Head Coach who start stacking competent moves on top of competent moves (some player movement will be part of that, of course). The energy, heart, and joy will follow, once you have people in charge doing things right.

Interesting to me, to see Dave Hakstol (two-time NHL HC, with 3 playoff seasons) as an assistant behind the Colorado bench. Hakstol did not coach last year after being fired by the Kraken. The Avalanche, coming off a one hundred point season, decided to upgrade their coaching staff. It’s not any one thing and it certainly isn’t the players in general. It’s the cumulative effect of dozens of poor decisions and choices that put the Sabres where they are. Competence is the only path out.

Leone also said last year that he believes winning and development go together. I'm paraphrasing, but essentially he expressed the idea that the best environment for developing players is one where they are winning. When he said it, I was a little taken aback as it seemed (much like this comment on Levi) to not exactly be the company line.

To me it says business as usual. Why would the GM be watching the AHL team if he thought his job was in jeopardy? Seems like he still has his eyes on the future. I’m not endorsing Adams, but I don’t see this as a sign of incoming changes.

I think last night was a microcosmic example of what it has been like to play goal on a Lindy Ruff coached team for the last 10-11 years of his time as a HC. You can only hold the team in for so long. Eventually the breakdowns and lack of structure will wear the goalie down. That Ruff was brought in to bring structure and accountability to the on-ice portion of the organization, is clear evidence that Pegula/Adams do not know what they are doing.

On a somewhat related note, the league average save % so far this season is .896. The Sabres goalies are at .908, so they are greatly outperforming league average (thanks mostly to Lyon). Despite this, the Sabres are currently playing to a 76 point pace and are last in the East. The Bruins are 10-7 with a team save % of .893. So, go figure. Also, since Lindy Ruff left Buffalo, in his 9 seasons as a head coach prior to this year, his goalies out-performed league average in save % on only one occasion, that was 22/23 when the Devils had a great year and Ruff was a coach of the year nominee. They under-performed league average in all other years, most of them dramatically; his teams have been bottom 3 league-wide in 5 of those 8 seasons. This perhaps is meaningless. But, I would probably bet on our goaltending performance getting worse as this season continues, which is a bit frightening considering where we already are in the standings.

Lehner out-performed the league average in save %, by around .0075 in his first two seasons. In the 3rd season when he was at .908, league average was .912. That was year one of Housley and the season that caused O'Reilly to lose his love of the game, so I'll cut Lehner some slack. UPL's good season was similar to Lehner's two good years. In 23-24 UPL outplayed the league average save % by .007 (.910 to .0903). I'm beginning to lose patience with UPL. It doesn't surprise me though that Adams, who has struggled to nail down goaltending over now 6 seasons, and who is so indecisive that he has 7 goalies in the system who are playing pro-hockey in North America with 6 of them being under contract beyond this season, is not anxious to move on from the goalie he gave a big contract to. Something needs to give though. Ratzlaff and Leinonen need playing time and would both ideally be in the AHL next season. Frankly, the goaltending situation is a microcosm of the larger roster. I was looking at PuckPedia earlier today and I defy anyone to look at the players we hold the rights to beyond this season (under contract or pending RFA) and try to sort out what might even resemble an actual plan. Ray Ferrero still said it best a year or so ago (not quite a direct quote at this point): The Sabres are just a collection of stuff.

To Seattle for Kappo Kakko and a 1st (Seattle has their own and Tampa’s). Seattle wants to get back in the playoffs so they trade for the better player. It’s cap neutral this year for Seattle, and they have space to extend Tuch. Sabres try to thread the needle by getting a good younger, but lesser, player who is under contract for two additional seasons, along with the futures. Kakko’s contract means the Sabres can extend Benson, Doan, Kesselring and still have space to add a significant player through trade or free agency. Kakko has no trade protection.

Based on current standings, the Sabres will need to play at around a .612 points % the rest of the way to get to the playoffs. Only 7 teams in the NHL have played at that level through the first month of the season, so the likelihood that the Sabres will over five months seems, well, pretty low. I guess we should always make room for competency. If the Sabres make the playoffs it will mean that between now and the end of the season they will have leapt over 8 Eastern Conference teams. That simply won’t happen by accident. It will only happen through an unexpected infusion of competence and decisiveness by Adams, that leads them out of the mess of this season (never mind the 14 prior years, this season alone is turning into the sort of embarrassment that might cause a better franchise to publicly apologize to its fanbase). Put another way, if you are concerned that Adams will have his job as GM saved by a Sabre run to the playoffs this season, you need not worry. Now, there may be reason to worry that his job is simply not in jeopardy.