When did you go all-in for a rebuild?

[Doohicksie]

I don't believe in the total-teardown rebuild.  There are always players who carry over from season to season and it is up to the GM and front office to keep the good ones and jettison the not-so-good.  The team should be constantly being improved.  My example is Detroit.  They have made the playoffs for 24 straight years. Some years, they've won the Cup; others they've barely squeaked into the post-season and gone out in the first round.  But they are pretty consistent.  Give me that. So far all I've seen from the Sabres for the last decade has been a downward spiral and I don't think that is over yet.  Give me a call when this owner and his cronies have really done something.

 

But.... go back 24 years or more.  The Red Wings kinda sucked and they ended up with the 4th pick overall, selecting Yzerman (just after PLF incidentally).  That selection would be comparable to Reinhart - the first high pick by the new ownership.  That was in 1983.  The Wings didn't win a cup until 1997.  If you want to model your team after the Red Wings, you have to understand that it took far more than 10 years to build the club.  To sustain the club they've been lucky in that they've had a core of long-playing players - Yzerman, Lidstrom, Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Kronwall, (to mention a few) and their careers overlapped.  And because they had/have a high performing, long-lived, veteran core, they can afford to keep newer picks down on the farm until they are more than ready, then fill in a hole.  Before you can talk about how the Red Wings maintain their greatness, you have to get to that level of greatness.  It was a very long process, and they really didn't achieve anything until not only was the big club deep, but their farm system was deep as well.  If you follow that model though, the Sabres won't be expected to win the Cup for another 10-15 years.

[Taro T]

But.... go back 24 years or more.  The Red Wings kinda sucked and they ended up with the 4th pick overall, selecting Yzerman (just after PLF incidentally).  That selection would be comparable to Reinhart - the first high pick by the new ownership.  That was in 1983.  The Wings didn't win a cup until 1997.  If you want to model your team after the Red Wings, you have to understand that it took far more than 10 years to build the club.  To sustain the club they've been lucky in that they've had a core of long-playing players - Yzerman, Lidstrom, Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Kronwall, (to mention a few) and their careers overlapped.  And because they had/have a high performing, long-lived, veteran core, they can afford to keep newer picks down on the farm until they are more than ready, then fill in a hole.  Before you can talk about how the Red Wings maintain their greatness, you have to get to that level of greatness.  It was a very long process, and they really didn't achieve anything until not only was the big club deep, but their farm system was deep as well.  If you follow that model though, the Sabres won't be expected to win the Cup for another 10-15 years.

 

Since making it to the finals in 1966, the Red Wings did more than "kinda suck." ;)

 

'67 - 58

'68 - 66

'69 - 78

'70 - 95

'71 - 55

'72 - 76

'73 - 86

'74 - 68

'75 - 58

'76 - 62

'77 - 41

'78 - 78

'79 - 62

'80 - 63

'81 - 56

'82 - 54

'83 - 57

 

2 trips to the playoffs in 17 years, 1 of those 2 years they were below 0.500, only 1 playoff series victory and that was a best of 3 affair over a team located in a city that through 2 teams never won A playoff series. (And the 95 point aberation was only 3 points into a playoff spot, the East only had 1 sub-0.500 team (the Loafs - go figure :lol:) and the West only had 1 team above 0.500 (technically the Blues were not only the only team from the West above 0.500, they were the only team better than 12 games below 0.500).)

 

They didn't top 70 points his 1st 3 seasons either and the year he broke his leg they ended up w/ 40.

 

If that's "kinda sucking" I'd hate to see what you consider a team that "sucks." :o

 

:P

[Kr632]

as soon as miller was mvp of the olympics I wanted him traded and the rebuild to begin.

[SabresFanInRochester]

When Ryan Miller was traded and talked to the media on his way out. When you see a player shed a tear and love the city of Buffalo as much as he did, thats when I realized out with the old and in with the young and new

That was it for me too. When Vanek was traded, it was a shock, but I thought the pieces they received back would improve the team without having to do a full gut. But when Miller left, I saw the writing on the wall. I decided I was not going to buy another Sabres jersey until the new core was established. My jerseys: Vanek, Miller, and Myers. When Myers left, I had already conceded to the rebuild, and was just pissed that I didn't have a current jersey any more. Might be time for an Eichel though.

[TrueBlueGED]

I don't believe in the total-teardown rebuild.  There are always players who carry over from season to season and it is up to the GM and front office to keep the good ones and jettison the not-so-good.  The team should be constantly being improved.  My example is Detroit.  They have made the playoffs for 24 straight years. Some years, they've won the Cup; others they've barely squeaked into the post-season and gone out in the first round.  But they are pretty consistent.  Give me that. So far all I've seen from the Sabres for the last decade has been a downward spiral and I don't think that is over yet.  Give me a call when this owner and his cronies have really done something.

 

Let me know when the Sabres fall backwards into a top-5 defenseman all-time in round 3, and hall of fame centers in rounds 5 and 6 in consecutive years, because of league-wide scouting inefficiencies that no longer exist.

[Doohicksie]

Since making it to the finals in 1966, the Red Wings did more than "kinda suck." ;)

You looked backward from '83. I was only looking from '83 on. Yes, they continued to suck for a while. It's kind of important to keep this in mind when people mention "following the the Detroit model." It sure didn't happen overnight. And frankly Yzerman could have bombed out after the injury and no one would have heard of him (other than being a flash in the pan), and the Wings might never have ascended, or would have taken even longer to get there.

[3putt]

When Leino was the best we could hope for in UFA

[Huckleberry]

Actually the day they fired Ruff

 

That and the pominville trade made me all for it.

[Kruppstahl]

The date that stands out for me is January 16, 2012.  That's "rock bottom" for me.  

 

We played in Detroit and got smoked 5-0.

The Sabres were completely out-classed and lifeless.  Detroit took their foot off the gas pedal in the 3rd period out of mercy.

 

After that game, everyone around the league was wondering what was going on in Buffalo and why the coach or the GM or both were not fired, as our problems had been ongoing for a long time at that point.  

 

It has been pretty obvious this franchise needed a complete gutting and enema for quite a long time now.

 

I wish Pegula had cleaned house the day after his new ownership press conference, but what is done is done.

 

Thank God most of that crap is well behind us now.

[Drunkard]

The date that stands out for me is January 16, 2012.  That's "rock bottom" for me.  

 

We played in Detroit and got smoked 5-0.

The Sabres were completely out-classed and lifeless.  Detroit took their foot off the gas pedal in the 3rd period out of mercy.

 

After that game, everyone around the league was wondering what was going on in Buffalo and why the coach or the GM or both were not fired, as our problems had been ongoing for a long time at that point.  

 

It has been pretty obvious this franchise needed a complete gutting and enema for quite a long time now.

 

I wish Pegula had cleaned house the day after his new ownership press conference, but what is done is done.

 

Thank God most of that crap is well behind us now.

It's easy to say that now with the benefit of hindsight but there's really no way that was possible. When Pegula took over the team they were in the midst of a pretty good run and were challenging for the playoffs (which we made), all with our best center at the time, Derek Roy, being out with an injury and the possibility of getting him back for the playoffs. The team was playing better and everyone was excited about Daddy Warbucks coming to town with all his money and how things would change with our new rich owner. Buffalo was a small market team but with a flush new owner we would be a small market team with big budget financing.

 

There's no way we enter a massive rebuild as soon as he gets to town after that. With the purchase of the Sabres, the speech about the new primary objective, the purchase of the Amerks, and the fancy new locker room they had no choice but to go for broke and try to build on what was already here with some high dollar free agent acquisitions. Just be happy that once they realized the plan wouldn't work without top centers that they agreed to scrap it and rebuild from scratch. Having Galchenyuk and MacKinnon would be great, but that's water under the bridge and I'm happy to have Eichel and Reinhart cemented as the centers of our top 2 lines for the next decade.