Robviously

Boeser was one of the board favorites in the months leading up to that draft too. Imagine him playing with Eichel for at least the next 8 seasons.

Totally agree. But you need a good GM to architect the team. Whether you want to rebuild (trade right now for the future), draft, trade future assets for immediate ones, free agency, etc., it all depends on having someone who knows what they're doing. There isn't one absolute strategy that works but you need someone smart no matter what you're attempting. That's why it's weird to bring up the Oilers/Coyotes/Sabres as 'proof' of anything. Those teams have had objectively terrible leaders at the helm. And before we attempted a full rebuild with the Tank, we tried other strategies that also failed. What was the constant there?

I'm too busy letting the Devils and the Avalanche know that you can't turn the team around quickly when you finish at the bottom of the league. Just because the Sabres, Oilers, and Coyotes have wildly incompetent leadership, that doesn't invalidate the strategy and rationale of rebuilding or the fact that you can turn your team around in 1 season with some smart moves and a little luck. Are we really supposed to base all of our beliefs on team strategy around what happens when your GM is worthless?

Just keep clearing out the dead weight. We have a bunch of players I'm basically not excited about ever playing a game for us again with Bogo, Girgensons, Larsson, etc. I'm excited about Ullmark, Guhle, and Smith joining the team next year. Maybe Mittelstadt. Hopefully Borgen. Maybe one of the other prospects we'll sign and even Nylander if he can get his head straight. Plus whoever we trade for. We need speed and guys that can pass and move the puck up the ice. It's amazing how much different the whole team looked when Guhle played that one game. Or even what Antipin added last night.

Someone tell the Devils and Avalanche. I was cheering for them to win this year but they squandered the first two thirds of the season. I'm not really that excited about them suddenly giving a crap for the last 30 games and finishing 25th overall versus 30th. I'm at least somewhat excited about them adding a blue chip prospect in June, and making moves to be competitive next year.

He's a no-brainer for Sabres HOF. I would have loved to see what he could do on Eichel's wing this year. Honestly, maybe even next year as a FA depending on how many guys we ship out.

Anything to get rid of this guy.

Murray's "accelerated rebuild" didn't surround Jack with much of a team. We can't skate and we can't pass. I'd be thrilled with another top-5 pick this year to give us another cornerstone player to build around.

Wasn't the Instagram story a clip of Eichel trash-talking O'Reilly in some way? I'm not looking for a WWE thing but the non-acknowledgement in the clip last night was pretty conspicuous. Like even if ROR was sucking wind, Eichel would have patted him on the shoulder or done some sort of acknowledgement right? Definitely not excited if those two aren't getting along. We don't have another #2 center on the team and the center prospects we do have are still years away (Mittelstadt, Asplund, Pu, Davidsson).

So how much should we read into the fact that the Sabres best stretch of the season has had nothing to do with Kane or Bogosian? And, similarly, how much should we read into Eichel and O'Reilly going out of their way not to fist bump after the 2nd period? Encouraged by the recent efforts but still a lot of work for Botterill to do to rebuild this team.

Zadina would also fit what you're looking for up front. So would Wahlstrom. I feel a few years younger today because I'm suddenly worried the Sabres will be just good enough the rest of the season to play themselves out of a top-5 pick again this June.

WOW

Not stupid at all. The announcing is part of the fun.

And the 2018 Jack Adams Award goes to......bag skates.

What a shift!

The roster deserved to be nuked. Is everyone forgetting how much we hated the teams we had in the years leading up to the Tank? We were terrible to start every season and then there'd we'd string together some meaningless wins to end the season. Exactly 0% of the end of season momentum would carry into the following season and we'd be out of the playoffs again. And again and again. Those teams were awful, and awful to watch. We lost nothing by destroying them to Tank. And the year after the Tank we had 81 points, so basically no lingering effects from that disaster of a season. It's just that the team Murray built also sucked, and we're still trying to fix that. Tearing down and rebuilding works in pretty much every sport. The Astros and Cubs won the last 2 World Series. They weren't *trying* to lose but trading all your assets for future assets is basically the same thing. You're giving up everything right now to get a lot more later. Inter-temporal trades work.

Someone let the Blackhawks and Penguins know.

I still don't know who we're lamenting. Gaustad? Roy? Ott? Miller? Vanek? Aside from the magical Tyler Myers rookie season, the team has been miserable to watch since Black Sunday. And letting the team bottom out and rebuilding is a fine strategy. it sucks that we hired maybe the worst person possible to make it happen, but it's still the best way to go from perennial loser to contender.

Other than Drury and Briere (over 10 years ago) who is the pending FA that you wish we'd have re-signed instead of trading away?

This isn't going to go away in less than 4 hours....

Yeah, Zemgus! Drive that trade value up!!!

That looked bad in real time. Now I'm thinking his helmet just popped off?

We named the dog Indiana!

Best Case: Calgary, Vegas, Islanders Worst Case: Pitt Probably: Pitt :(

Good Lord.....