Archie Lee

Ellis has definitely earned the starter's net to see if he can run with it. Lyon's great start to the year should not be overlooked. UPL has not been consistent. But, since the ot loss in Toronto: Ellis: 3 GP, .907sv%, -1.03 GSAx Lyon: 5 GP, .878sv%, -2.38 GSAx UPL: 3 GP, .900sv%, -0.48 GSAx

A win tonight and they have stopped the bleeding, and positioned themselves to stay in the race if they can just have a stretch of modest, DeLuca .500 level play.

I largely agree. But, the Sabres could also get a head coach and staff that do a better job of putting their players in a position to be successful.

I've been a UPL supporter, but even I don't think it is possible to be "taken to the cleaners" on a UPL trade right now. The combination of his play over the past 12 months and his contract mean if you could move him for future considerations you are getting out of what currently looks like a bad contract. Of course, UPL could find his game on another team with a better coaching staff and D structure. Samuelsson's contract looked bad 2 months ago.

Just some added context. Per Dobber lines, at 5v5 Byram has played 104 minutes this year with Dahlin and Power 28. Byram has played 6 minutes with Bryson and Power 23.

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.