Archie Lee

https://www.nhl.com/sabres/video/kevyn-adams-4-19-23-343685944 This is Adams's season ender in 2023. Start just before the 7 minute mark. Adams makes clear that ending the drought, making the playoffs, success in the short-term, is at best a corporate stretch-target. It was the beginning of the end for Adams. The future is on hold until there is a new GM.

Sure, but goalies let in goals all the time, and players don’t need to turn the puck over. Lindy Ruff’s teams have failed to make the playoffs in 7 of his last 10 years as a HC, and over those years have consistently been at the bottom of the league in defensive and goaltending metrics. The teams he coaches simply do not play with a repeatable and sound structure that players can reliably fall back on. And here we are, dead last in the East on Thanksgiving, with a team that struggles to play with any consistency or structure. It is fair to criticize UPL as it has been a year now since he was consistently good (and for most of that year he has been bad). It’s hard for me to point the finger at individual players though. In my view, it is far more likely that UPL eventually becomes a good goalie on another NHL team (or under a different HC), than it is that the Sabres become a playoff team with Ruff as HC.

Well, the Sabres will be out of it tomorrow morning (standings-wise) regardless. The Thanksgiving thing is really just a self-evident observation that 1/4 of the way through the season there will be clear good teams and clear bad teams. Last year at Thanksgiving, Boston, The Rangers, Calgary, and Vancouver were in playoff positions. They missed, replaced by Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, and St. Louis. So, it is entirely likely there will be some changeover between now and April.

I was trying to think of when the last time was that the Sabres made a mid-season trade, not trade deadline, to acquire a veteran player with the intent that the acquired player would better help them reach their goal to either make the playoffs or advance further in the playoffs that season, than the asset given up. Thankfully there is a website that tracks all trades: https://www.nhltradetracker.com/user/trade_list_by_team/Buffalo_Sabres/1 People would have different views on what qualifies, but it's a pretty rare thing. You need to go back to the 90's and then have some debate about the merits of Geoff Sanderson for Brad May and a 3rd on Feb 4, 1998. It is such a rare thing that it is a wonder that fans, me included, spend time speculating as though such a trade might actually happen.

Eerily reminiscent of last year when every roster move was attributed to Ruff’s influence, until it all fell apart.

Do you know something I don’t?

On further consideration, I agree. I can’t see Adams making such a trade.

Garland and Sherwood have no current trade protection. Garland has a long deal that won’t age well though. Forbort (injured at present) might be a good 7th D. Other than those 3, all of their vets have trade protection or injury history (Chytyl). I think Sherwood and Forbort would be good adds (I don’t know if Forbort’s injury is long-term serious).

I guess I would ask: an excuse for who? For the players? Ok, maybe. For the coaches? Much less so. For the GM? Not a chance. The reason we have Power and Byram is to provide puck-moving depth on the backend. And up front, what does it say if we are hapless without the services of a 20 year old kid and a 33 year old journeyman (no disrespect to Benson and Zucker).

They dug themselves a big hole. They have stopped digging and have pulled themselves up to NHL .500. That is a decent 1st step. Now they need to somehow drag themselves to DeLuca .500. It would be great if they won their next 4 to get there, but even if they get there by game 70, they would have a shot to make the playoffs with a strong finish. I’m generally a glass half-full guy, but I’m skeptical that they will find the level of consistency needed to do this.

Since he was activated, UPL has been the Sabres best goalie.

That’s the Quinn we all want to see.

If you look at his Elite Prospects page, pre-draft year he posted good numbers as a younger goalie. This, plus his size, are likely what had him as a higher rated goalie prospect in his draft year. He was ok last year in the Swedish 2nd league. The Sabres are moving heaven and earth to make sure Levi doesn’t get a sniff of the NHL this season. Leinonen is two full years (plus a month) younger than Levi, which means he is likely 2-3 full seasons away from being thought of for the NHL. Clearly there are reasons to be skeptical of his NHL potential, but there is still lots of runway. He should probably be in Europe or the ECHL this year though.

What did Lyon do to lose Ruff’s confidence? He certainly had a bad stretch, but why the complete removal from the rotation?

I agree that this seems like the most logical rationale for what Pegula is doing. It is perhaps a contradiction though, that they are spending to the cap this year, and were willing to give substantial two-year extensions to players like Zucker and Greenway and a one-way deal to a player like Georgiev. I'm sure that Georgiev, who Pegula may soon be paying to play in the KHL, makes as much or more than what Ellis and Wilford make combined. It is difficult to understand why Pegula pinches pennies in one area but not in others. The reality is that no NHL team fires an entire front office or coaching staff mid-season. It is also pretty rare for a GM to get fired mid-season. Those sort of truly transformational changes, happen in the off-season. What is incomprehensible to me, is that they don't replace Ruff on an interim basis with Leone or even (gag) Appert. Backfilling an AHL coach or NHL assistant for 3/4 of a season would cost less than what Pegula is paying Curtis Leschsysheynshyynsn. And, you never know, it might work. Mid-season coaching changes have positive impacts quite often. A fresh voice and outlook at the helm combined with getting healthy and, perhaps, a good trade, might position the team to get on an actual roll before it is too late. Loyalty to Ruff for doing Pegula and Adams a solid and taking this job on a two-year contract, might be preventing them from throwing Ruff under the bus. All of which just adds more to the already mountainous evidence that the Sabres are just not run like a normal NHL team. Finally, one last frightening thought: there is no requirement for an organization to announce that the GM's contract has been extended.