Jbot Do Something Already - 4 Saving the Playoffs Edition

[LGR4GM]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Here is a small deal that could pay big dividends.  I have always liked Joel Erickson Ek. Minn drafted him 20th overall in 2015.  He has shown flashes of bein a good NHLer.  He is big, strong, and skates well.  He also can score.  He just hasn’t clicked yet in Minn, but might flourish someplace like Buffalo where he isn’t playing behind Staal, Koivu, Coyle etc...

I wonder if Minn might trade him for Guhle and a 3rd?  

Hmm that's interesting. I haven't paid much attention to Minn. but Joel is a curious case. 

[Samson's Flow]

3 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Here is a small deal that could pay big dividends.  I have always liked Joel Erickson Ek. Minn drafted him 20th overall in 2015.  He has shown flashes of bein a good NHLer.  He is big, strong, and skates well.  He also can score.  He just hasn’t clicked yet in Minn, but might flourish someplace like Buffalo where he isn’t playing behind Staal, Koivu, Coyle etc...

I wonder if Minn might trade him for Guhle and a 3rd?  

Not getting stuck on this particular name, but I think there are a lot of low-cost lottery tickets like this out there that would allow the Sabres to get a possible solution to the center depth/middle 6 issue without hurting the future at all. This route is obviously less certain of a solution, but I think is a good compromise between 'win now' and 'build for 3 years from now'.

[Thorner]

6 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

So, a 3rd round pick for a rental? 

Completely reasonable. 

[pi2000]

"Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don't make." - Abraham Lincoln

[Thorner]

7 minutes ago, pi2000 said:

"Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don't make." - Abraham Lincoln

And look at him now, Quarterbacking the team from Indianapolis to great heights. 

[inkman]

2 minutes ago, Thorny said:

And look at him now, Quarterbacking the team from Indianapolis to great heights. 

One of my new favorite things on the interwebs

 

[LGR4GM]

5 minutes ago, inkman said:

One of my new favorite things on the interwebs

 

There's a Rasmus Dahlin one of these too. It's called General Dahlin.

Edited January 9, 2019 by LGR4GM

[Thorner]

4 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

There's a Rasmus Dahlin one of these too. It's called General Dahlin.

It's a great follow. 

[Samson's Flow]

15 hours ago, inkman said:

One of my new favorite things on the interwebs

 

Yes! For all the crap on the internet, there occasionally is a gem or two that makes it somewhat worth it.

[LGR4GM]

This was the last General Dahlin one:

 

[Weave]

1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:

This was the last General Dahlin one:

 

That is awesome.

[GASabresIUFAN]

Crazy that the team fell apart in the 3rd.  We did get some secondary scoring the last two nights, but the team still isn’t right.  Now we are out of a playoff spot and thus slide will continue if Jbot doesn’t fix the forwards.  I predicted we’d be out of a playoff spot sooner then later and that the deadline was to late in the season to wait to make a move.

Oh well, another season about to circle the drain.  

[tom webster]

But thank god we still have all those draft choices that should pay dividends in three years.

[TrueBlueGED]

55 minutes ago, tom webster said:

But thank god we still have all those draft choices that should pay dividends in three years.

Well, Tampa Bay probably thinks having a seemingly endless supply of cheap labor is a good thing. 

[PalmTreeMafia]

1 hour ago, tom webster said:

But thank god we still have all those draft choices that should pay dividends in three years.

Patience, young man. Patience. Everyone knows that you can't ever expect to finish among the top 50% of hockey teams in a season until half your active roster is filled with lottery picks and the rest with late first rounders. Everything is going according to plan. Get ready for some playoff hockey as early as April 2022! And if the puck bounces our way, we may even run into the new Seattle franchise in the 2022 Stanley Cup finals! 

[LGR4GM]

19 minutes ago, Marchand'sNose said:

Patience, young man. Patience. Everyone knows that you can't ever expect to finish among the top 50% of hockey teams in a season until half your active roster is filled with lottery picks and the rest with late first rounders. Everything is going according to plan. Get ready for some playoff hockey as early as April 2022! And if the puck bounces our way, we may even run into the new Seattle franchise in the 2022 Stanley Cup finals! 

Nah let's do it your way... gut the prospect pool add 2 players, screw up our cap, and compete for 2 whole years! Wow! Or better yet let's trade firsts and get robin Lehner, he's amazing. 

We tried it the way you've advocated. It was dumb then and it's dumb now. The Sabres aren't going anywhere until they fix their prospect pool. They had all the picks in 2015 to do it right and they traded them. Doing the same thing over is foolish. Especially when our drafting department seems slightly smarter than most. 

Yea it might be another year but better then screwing it up again. 

[MakeSabresGrr8Again]

10 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Nah let's do it your way... gut the prospect pool add 2 players, screw up our cap, and compete for 2 whole years! Wow! Or better yet let's trade firsts and get robin Lehner, he's amazing. 

We tried it the way you've advocated. It was dumb then and it's dumb now. The Sabres aren't going anywhere until they fix their prospect pool. They had all the picks in 2015 to do it right and they traded them. Doing the same thing over is foolish. Especially when our drafting department seems slightly smarter than most. 

Yea it might be another year but better then screwing it up again. 

The way things are looking we have a better shot at a lottery pick....only about 5pts away now.

I would love to see us finish with the 11th pick and STL with the 10th pick. Then we win one of the lottery picks which would push STL to the 11th spot and we get their pick also.

We end up picking in the top 3, 11th, and SJ pick.

[rickshaw]

I believe JB has to pull the trigger on some kind of deal. Possibly something under the radar will help but I think it may be time to try and move a player like Sam. I think a big move may be the play here.  I don't get to watch many games so I'll leave it to the experts who watch them regularly, but what is it we need most? Defense? Offence? Both? What is realistic? 

The team is now out of the playoffs and this west coast trip could bury them if they don't pick up points. We all know it's not how many points out you are, per se, it's how many teams you have to leap frog. The NHL and its sometimes 3 point games make it that much more difficult to get in when there are too many teams between you and the last playoff spot. 

 

[PalmTreeMafia]

39 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Nah let's do it your way... gut the prospect pool add 2 players, screw up our cap, and compete for 2 whole years! Wow! Or better yet let's trade firsts and get robin Lehner, he's amazing. 

We tried it the way you've advocated. It was dumb then and it's dumb now. The Sabres aren't going anywhere until they fix their prospect pool. They had all the picks in 2015 to do it right and they traded them. Doing the same thing over is foolish. Especially when our drafting department seems slightly smarter than most. 

Yea it might be another year but better then screwing it up again. 

Careful there, pal...

"My way" isn't the Tim Murray way either. I don't advocate reckless trading and incoherent roster construction.

In fact, I don't advocate touching any of our first round draft picks unless the return includes a long-term top-6 forward.

We don't have to sell the farm to get what this roster needs to make the playoffs this season: at minimum, 1-2 forward/center rentals who can help slot the rest of our forwards into their more appropriate lineup positions.

I think it's very important that our young team gets playoff experience and establishes a winning culture ASAP, and I also find it deeply disturbing how so many of you don't think this is important.

[Pimlach]

55 minutes ago, MakeSabresGrr8Again said:

The way things are looking we have a better shot at a lottery pick....only about 5pts away now.

I would love to see us finish with the 11th pick and STL with the 10th pick. Then we win one of the lottery picks which would push STL to the 11th spot and we get their pick also.

We end up picking in the top 3, 11th, and SJ pick.

We are only one point from 8th with a game in hand.  Why not “love” to see us make the playoffs?   What does Montreal and NYI have to make you think we can take 7 or 8?  

[Pimlach]

53 minutes ago, Marchand'sNose said:

Careful there, pal...

"My way" isn't the Tim Murray way either. I don't advocate reckless trading and incoherent roster construction.

In fact, I don't advocate touching any of our first round draft picks unless the return includes a long-term top-6 forward.

We don't have to sell the farm to get what this roster needs to make the playoffs this season: at minimum, 1-2 forward/center rentals who can help slot the rest of our forwards into their more appropriate lineup positions.

I think it's very important that our young team gets playoff experience and establishes a winning culture ASAP, and I also find it deeply disturbing how so many of you don't think this is important.

 How do we do that and keep our prospects and draft choices?   What teams will trade what good rental players for the likes of Pommer, Okposso, Scandella, Beaulieu?  I read about all these theoretical trades on this forum where other teams GMs give up good players for a pile of lesser players, except that just won’t happen.  Every GM wants a prospect and/or a draft pick, especially from us since we have them.  

We are establishing a winning culture RIGHT NOW.   It’s happenning   We own the longest win streak of the season.  We are 1 point out of eight with one game in hand.  The team is learning and they don’t looked to be panicking.  Eichel, Skinner,  Rienhart, Risto, and Bogo are having the best years of their careers.  We can build around them.   We are playing five rookies in Dahlin, Pilut, Mitts, Tage (almost), and Uhlmark.  We can build on them too.  

Oh, our AHL team is one of the top in their league  too.  

I think JBot would make a trade if he could improve the team for the long run but he will not give up prospect and first rounders for rentals   

 

[French Collection]

I'm not in favour of mortgaging the future to "maybe" make the playoffs.

We may make the playoffs with what we have. 

Something we could use may shake loose at the trade deadline. HNIC was reporting a buyer's market this year as teams do not want to overpay.

[MakeSabresGrr8Again]

30 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

We are only one point from 8th with a game in hand.  Why not “love” to see us make the playoffs?   What does Montreal and NYI have to make you think we can take 7 or 8?  

First off it was just a worst case scenario of missing the playoffs and screwing with the Blues. 

2ndly...I'd like to make the playoffs just as much as anyone else. Just don't think it would be productive though. Sure it might help with confidence for some of the guys but that's about it. A top 3 player in the draft could possibly help more for the long run. I'm not as confident about a 20th pick and a 1st rd and out. 

JBot is the only one who can change my thoughts on that by making some very creative moves. This team as it stands not only doesn't deserve to be in the playoffs but won't win if they get lucky enough to make it. 

[tom webster]

3 hours ago, TrueBlueGED said:

Well, Tampa Bay probably thinks having a seemingly endless supply of cheap labor is a good thing. 

 

19 minutes ago, MakeSabresGrr8Again said:

First off it was just a worst case scenario of missing the playoffs and screwing with the Blues. 

2ndly...I'd like to make the playoffs just as much as anyone else. Just don't think it would be productive though. Sure it might help with confidence for some of the guys but that's about it. A top 3 player in the draft could possibly help more for the long run. I'm not as confident about a 20th pick and a 1st rd and out. 

JBot is the only one who can change my thoughts on that by making some very creative moves. This team as it stands not only doesn't deserve to be in the playoffs but won't win if they get lucky enough to make it. 

Tampa also not afraid to trade first round picks and a lot of their cheap talent comes in form of undrafted free agents and lower picks.

[erickompositör72]

29 minutes ago, MakeSabresGrr8Again said:

First off it was just a worst case scenario of missing the playoffs and screwing with the Blues. 

2ndly...I'd like to make the playoffs just as much as anyone else. Just don't think it would be productive though. Sure it might help with confidence for some of the guys but that's about it. A top 3 player in the draft could possibly help more for the long run. I'm not as confident about a 20th pick and a 1st rd and out. 

JBot is the only one who can change my thoughts on that by making some very creative moves. This team as it stands not only doesn't deserve to be in the playoffs but won't win if they get lucky enough to make it. 

How do you advocate Housley and Botterill make this happen? Tell the players to lose? Find the worst line combinations possible?