Archie Lee

I think this is looking in the wrong place. Q: Who are the personalities setting the wrong tone? A: Pegula, Adams, and Ruff. Q: How are Pegula, Adams, and Ruff setting the wrong tone? A: They are the worst owner, GM, HC combination in the NHL. - Pegula has never made the playoffs in a full-season as an NHL owner; 14 years and counting. - Adams has not make the playoffs in 5 years as a GM. No GM in the post-expansion era (since 1967) has started his career going 0 for 5 in making the playoffs with the same team, and then gone on to have success with that team. Only one went on to eventually be known as a good GM; Don Waddell redeemed himself in Carolina. - Ruff is the oldest coach in the NHL. He finished third in the Athletic's Coach I Would Not Want to Play For poll last year. He has made the playoffs once in his last 6 seasons as a head coach, posting a .444 winning %. In the 5 of those years that his team missed the playoffs, his team's average position in goals against is 28th. There is nothing that can be done about Pegula. Let's hope he finds a way to do a better job hiring the next GM. If there is a culture issue among the players, it is related to the failures of the men in charge.

Goalies in Levi’s position get $875 to $950 deals.

Why would we pay Levi more than $900k?

And we traded Peterka for two guys making a combined 2.3 million. Reverse that trade and we are right against the cap.

Agreed. But the system isn’t Wilford’s. The system is Ruff’s.

In defense of Wilford, re: Power. Didn't a whole boatload of evidence just get posted that shows Power has actually been really good? Did Wilford decide to not spend money and assets to get Power a veteran D partner the last 3 years? The Sabres started a new rebuild when Adams fired Kreuger. The next year Granato brought in Wilford as one of his coaches. From 21-22 through 22-23, progress seemed to be reasonably good for our young defenders and team in general. Prior to 23-24, Adams completely failed to recognize the moment when the team needed to make moves that would position them as a clear playoff team. Instead, he brought in Johnson and Clifton and banked on internal growth. That year the team regressed to 84 points from the previous year's 91; but, it should be noted, the 23-24 pre-season point-projection-models, had the Sabres right around 83-86 points. I would argue that the outlier in the Granato years was not the 23-24 regression, but the surprise 91 point season of 22-23. Then, Granato is fired and Ruff is brought in and we see further regression. In Power's game. In UPL's game. In Samuelsson's game. In Quinn's game. Did Wilford start sucking (or sucking more) as an assistant? Or, did we hire a 65 year old with 3 playoff appearances in his last 11 as a head coach (2 actual winning seasons), whose recent teams have, pretty consistently if not every year, had bad defensive and goaltending metrics? I'm not saying they can't do better than Wilford. I don't wish him any ill will, but I don't spend too much time worrying about fired assistant coaches. I'm not directing this at anyone, but to the general fan view that people have of Wilford; that Wilford has become a stand-in for the failings of the Sabres to become a better defensive team, is pretty weak sauce in my view.

The part I don’t get is the “McLeod only had 53 points because he got more ice time” part. I mean, yeah, of course. He got top 6 minutes and produced legit top 6 numbers. Not elite top 6 numbers, but legit. Wouldn’t the issue be if he didn’t produce top 6 numbers? I don’t get why this is anything but a good news, “found money”, story. Maybe it isn’t sustainable, but we will see. I know this, of all the Sabre centres, the one I am least concerned with is McLeod.

I think he is a development coach.

Agree with everything but the Skinner part. It’s true they did not need to buy him out last year. But, the buyout cost this year and the next 3 years is nearly identical to what it would have been had they waited until this year to do the buyout.

With Byram, our D is still a little younger and a little less-experienced than ideal. Also, as a group they lack a bit of needed anger I remember when Appert coached Samuelsson in Rochester, he described Samuelsson as "nasty to play against". I took that to mean Samuelsson hit everything, was tough in front of the net, was liberal with use of his stick as a weapon, etc. If Samuelsson was 50% of what Appert sold him as, it would go a long way to bridging the nastiness shortage that the blueline has. That said, with Byram or a good veteran replacement, I like our D. Their issues, in my opinion, aren't from a lack of talent or courage or development. I think their issues relate to structure and system.

A few things. 1) This isn't happening. All of the Flames players noted have trade protection. It’s not likely they will be dealt to the Sabres if at all. Also, even if the Flame players were available, my guess is that Adams sees Kulich as near to untouchable. 2) Long term the trade is probably bad. While none of Byram, Kulich, or Quinn are sure things to be high-level NHL players 5 years from now, it can safely be said that Kadri, Coleman, and Andersson won’t be. So, the questions would be: Does the trade push the Sabres to being a playoff level team? And, if so, how important is it to end this horrid streak? From my perspective, it would make our roster playoff level. Kadri is better than Kulich and Coleman is better than Quinn. Andersson is not better than Byram, but we would need a replacement for Byram and Andersson would certainly be capable of riding shotgun with Dahlin for a year. Bigger picture, the trade would alter the make-up of the team and I think add much needed experience, physicality, and attitude. I think the addition of these players would make existing players better. Finally, I think ending the streak is critical and that putting it behind the franchise would do more for the future than the players given up would do. That said, how certain am I that it would be successful? Not very. And, would I have the courage to make the trade if I was the GM? Probably not.

I appreciate the fan-exercise of discussing if a particular player would be a good addition. Put me in the YES column on Kadri. If the Sabres traded Byram, Kulich, and Quinn to Calgary for Andersson, Kadri, and Coleman, I think it would make them a playoff level team. Many fans would cringe, particularly at the Kulich part of that trade, but the Sabres would still have Benson, Helenius, Östlund, Wahlberg, Ziemer, Mrtka, Strbak, Kleber, and their 2026 1st rounder. Not to mention that Norris, Thompson, McLeod, Doan, Krebs, Dahlin, Power, Kesselring, are all under team control for the foreseeable future. Kadri is 2 years younger than Marchand, who just signed a 6 year deal with Florida. Those Panthers and their failure to think about the future! It will cost them...some day. That said, Kardi is a pipe dream at the moment. He has a full NMC. There are multiple NHL teams with boatloads of cap-space. If the Flames decide to trade him and he agrees, then Kadri will have his choice of destinations amongst multiple suitors who are better positioned to appeal to him. And, this is not a city of Buffalo thing , it's a Pegula/Adams/Ruff thing.

Pronman at the Athletic has his “way too early” 2026 mock draft up today. The draft order for the mock was set using current betting lines. The Sabres draft 6th in the mock. Only Pittsburgh from the East draft earlier than the Sabres. Pretty useless info, but nonetheless an early indicator of how some view the Sabre off-season. Utah picked 17th. The Sabres took Ethan Belchatz, a RW from Windsor.

I agree, but Carolina isn't swimming in toughness, size, grit, and wankery. Yet they are consistently among the top 5-6 teams in the NHL. When they lost to the Panthers last year, there was the beginning of "Brind'Amour won't get them over the top" talk. It's crazy. They are 80% Brind'Amour. The Sabres need more of that element, but we need not worry about competing with the Panthers. For now, we just need to bridge the cap between us and Montreal, Ottawa, NJ.

This is just my opinion, but I think this speaks more to how good Dahlin is than it does to how bad the rest of the D is. Dahlin is elite. The rest of the D, mostly, would thrive or be fine in a better system. Dahlin is so good that he rises above; put him on a contender and he is maybe the best there is. It cannot be overstated, how much Dahlin's talent is being wasted.