Jason Botterill, end of season presser 2019/2020

[LGR4GM]

Starts at the 7:30 mark. Not sure why they left so much dead air at the beginning. Oh and it starts with a hell of a question. 

 

[LGR4GM]

"At forward we are still currently a work in progress." He then specifically mentions Tage, Casey, and Dylan as forwards to develop. 

... yea no *****. 

[LGR4GM]

hahaha, Botterill says "casey went down to rochester with the right attitude" don't we have casey saying he specifically didn't go with the right attitude and it took him a little bit because he was upset about being demoted?

[LGR4GM]

Reinhart had another strong season and is dedicated (paraphrase)

Dahlin, "we think the world of him"

Says basically that contract talks have to wait because of the cap uncertainty. 

[LGR4GM]

Mentions bringing up young players through the system constantly to actually be a good team. Only young forwards he has mentioned at all were Cozens, Thompson, and Mitts. Probably because there are not others outside of that we can rely on for NHL minutes. 

Claims they played well in most of the games directly after the trade deadline. Says PK must be better. Claims they showed the pp can be top 10. Special teams is a huge area that needs improvement. 

[LGR4GM]

Mentions several times they will have flexibility from a contract standpoint. Then references free agency, trades, and looking at what is available. 

Pick won't be moved before the lottery and then he will assess the market. Will look at and be open to considering moving that 1st round pick. 

Edited May 27, 2020 by LGR4GM

[LGR4GM]

What do you make of Jeff Skinner's season:

"There's a disappointment when a goal scorer isn't scorer goals... jeff skinner works hard... on and off the ice.. He had a pretty good October... we felt he had a lot of chances this year... jeff is kinda a streaky goal scorer... gives up hope the production will come back next year" 

[LGR4GM]

Suggests that the 7 teams missing the playoffs will have some type of option in the fall to get players going before the rest of the teams. Judging by he said, December is the most likely return for Sabres hockey. 

Talks about Jason Nightengale and that he trusts him. They get a bunch of information from places. Thinks they do a good job of blended analytics and scouting together. 

[Stoner]

First of all the Zoom presser is way better than the in-person. Seeing the questioner's face and actually hearing the question help. Background viewing has definite entertainment value.

Harrington offered up two pretty big softballs, although pointed in nature, and I think Botterill whiffed on both of them. Or maybe told the truth, and we should be all the more depressed. What is the team's identity/when will the Sabres join the NHL? When will it stop always being about the future, when will the present arrive? A: Developing young players in Rochester/"puck movers"; You always have to have a pipeline of good young players, we won't trade first round picks, we surround the youth with depth players, veteran players, players who've won, citing Skinner, Johansson and Simmonds.

I want eyes on Eichel, perhaps insert a team of mental health professionals in full PPE. I don't see how his head isn't eventually going to explode.

Edited May 27, 2020 by PASabreFan

[That Aud Smell]

13 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

I want eyes on Eichel, perhaps insert a team of mental health professionals in full PPE. I don't see how his head isn't eventually going to explode.

I know I am repeating myself, but: His absence from the first slate of team-facilitated interviews struck me as a dark, dark sign.

[Brawndo]

31 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Suggests that the 7 teams missing the playoffs will have some type of option in the fall to get players going before the rest of the teams. Judging by he said, December is the most likely return for Sabres hockey. 

Talks about Jason Nightengale and that he trusts him. They get a bunch of information from places. Thinks they do a good job of blended analytics and scouting together. 

Probably should not have furloughed him then.

[dudacek]

3 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

I know I am repeating myself, but: His absence from the first slate of team-facilitated interviews struck me as a dark, dark sign.

He hasn’t gone under.

Duff and Marty had him on Sabres.com a few weeks back talking classic rock. He’s made a couple COVID donations. He stayed in Buffalo and seemed to be in good spirits.

[Drag0nDan]

1 minute ago, That Aud Smell said:

I know I am repeating myself, but: His absence from the first slate of team-facilitated interviews struck me as a dark, dark sign.

He's not going anywhere.

[Stoner]

46 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Mentions several times they will have flexibility from a contract standpoint. Then references free agency, trades, and looking at what is available. 

Pick won't be moved before the lottery and then he will assess the market. Will look at and be open to considering moving that 1st round pick. 

I think your characterization of Jason's answer about moving the first round pick is a little off. The key phrase I heard was, "at least consider" moving the puck. Given his earlier answer to Harrington's question, IMHO they are not moving that pick.

[Stoner]

I just feel very strongly that Jason's replies to Harrington's questions are so telling and get to the heart of the matter (maybe it's even what's really wrong with Dad). Mike's questions were fair, not flame-throwers by any means, but at the heart of them, they should have been extremely offensive to the GM. They implied you're not an NHL team, that you don't care about winning. The answers were a bunch of heartless mush. That there was no passionate blowback on Mike's assertions is a discouraging — you might not care what I thought of it, but imagine the players' reactions. "You're wrong, Mike. We sure as hell are an NHL team and we're going to be one next season. It's about winning, it always is and always should be."

I suspect the players hear this constant drumbeat from Botterill and Pegula ("hey, only one team gets to win the Cup") and become so dispirited and demoralized it's hard to function as a professional athlete whose very nature is to want to win, period.

[LGR4GM]

 

[Marvin]

Thank you to all those who gave me a preview.  He should run for political office because he spun failures like they were successes.

Both @PASabreFan and @LGR4GM really cut through the malarkey I heard.  He kept mentioning the same young forwards for next year.  He chose to ignore the assertions that the team has not been a real NHL team for his tenure.

If this keeps up, I will need to change my uname to "Marvin" and have Stephen Moore's voice as my avatar saying, "I think you ought to know that I am feeling very depressed."

⛳

Edited May 27, 2020 by E4 ... Ke2
Adding golf jpeg

[LGR4GM]

There will be more interviews. Eichel, Reinhart, Skinner, Ristolainen tomorrow. Krueger Friday.

 

[Randall Flagg]

Thankful for the summaries and discussion, gonna watch it now. 

[LabattBlue]

6 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

What do you make of Jeff Skinner's season:

"There's a disappointment when a goal scorer isn't scorer goals... jeff skinner works hard... on and off the ice.. He had a pretty good October... we felt he had a lot of chances this year... jeff is kinda a streaky goal scorer... gives up hope the production will come back next year" 

There should have been a follow up question...

Why did it appear that Krueger didn’t care for Skinner at all?  Is there a difference of opinion between the GM and the HC?

[Randall Flagg]

I started transcribing this but got sloppier as time went on, because I don't have enough time to keep pausing/rewinding. Just wrote main ideas by the end. 

Q: You have a team with very little identity/passion, fans have lost their patience, please tell us in a big picture view, what is your plan? what kind of team are you trying to build, what has to change for you to join this league again? 

A: I think ... a key focus for us is to get players developing within our organization, within Rochester, understanding how to win in Rochester and come up to the NHL... I think we tried to improve our development at the goaltending position...on the defense, I think it's a team we've tried to look at the standpoint of a lot of puck-movers, guys who can skate well, we brought that in, you look at the development of Rasmus Dahlin and Jokiharju, we feel very happy about our defense and where it is right now and where it's going, our forwards are still a work in progress. It was great to see our star players such as Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart, have solid years and continue their development, but for us to make another step to be into the playoff mix, it's going to be imperative that we find more scorers in our group here, and have the development of young players such as Casey Mittelstadt, Tage Thompson, and Dylan Cozens. 

Says the fans are passionate, they understand it's a strong market, when we perform well they've supported us, we understand the difficulty that it is to compete in the NHL day in and day out. Cites 8th in the league in home wins. Important to keep that moving forward in the next couple of years, but improve the road record. 

How are you looking at this offseason?
A: Biggest thing to know is where the cap is going to be. We've put orselves in a good position with flexibility, but will be difficult to sign players until we know the cap. We think this pause will be challenging to keeep players sharp for our young players, but it's a great opportunity for them to get yoked.  Imperative we take advantage of this time. 

How disappointed are you in being so close to the playoffs when you had been ready to go play MTL and possibly jump them for the spot? 

A: We should have won more games before that, it's our own fault. Biggest disappointment is that I felt our group really enjoyed being together, challenging each other. Compliments Ralph's communication over the last few months and on the season in general. sux that 50th anniversary season had to be cut short.  Played well in the 5-6 games leading up to the pause but didn't get the results we wanted. Have to get results at the end of the day. 

Q: Where do you feel you've come up short in your time here, what do you need to address from a GM's perspective? 

A: We have to do a better job at creating more offense through our 4 lines, having more depth scoring. I have to give Ralph the ability to change different lines up, have more depth. I will always support and believe in our young players in the system here, excited Tage is gonna be back, Casey went down with the riht attitude, opportunity for him to get stronger. Couple extra months prep for Cozens. I'm going to continue to believe in these young players, that these players will help us get over the hump and give us depth. But it'll also be something we look at through UFA/trades to add forward to our mix. 

Q: Fans are rightfully frustrated, why should they be confident in our team's direction with so little improvement year by year? 

A: the younger players. We showed it. Cited the freaking 10 game win streak, and then our start this year. Disappointing to come home from Sweden with a tough trip, liked the December after that, then the games before the TDL. 

~Jason, all teams, even bad ones, can string four good stretches of hockey together, 10 games or fewer, over the course of two years. This is not evidence that you just need to wait for Tage to get stronger and we're fine

Excited to play those hard games in Feb/March and see where it would go. The group has shown glimpses that we can be a very strong team. But it's imperative we add more depth and improve our young players into legit NHL players. Our fan base would be excited about our young players, and that we showed those glimpses that we need to show over 82 games.

Q: Two seasons with big collapses. How would you categorize the leadership, what more do those leaders need to do to help get over the hump of these collapses?

A: The biggest growth you see every day on the ice with Jack, his 2 way game against other team's top players and handling those matchups. As he continues to grow as a captain, learns how to handle different situations, he's grown from that standpoint. It has to be a group effort though, important we continue to have players coming up in the system willing to speak up and talk, and to have strong communication with the coaches. That's why we got Wayne Simmonds. Core guys are open to ideas and understanding what they have to improve, interacting with all staff for these improvements. That's why we tried to bring in players with rings and experience in the playoffs. (Simmonds, Sheary etc)

Q: Interest in Samson long term deal? What about Dahlin?

A: Both are TBD as far as salary cap/arbitration/timelines are up in the air. Obv staying in communication with them. Sam had strong season, dedicated to off ice training and self improvement. Think the world of Dahlin, PP QB skillz, better at defense this year, one of the guys we need to bulk up in this free time. 

Q: Goaltending - are Ullmark and Hutton your goalies? wanna add a veteran?

A: Continue to evaluate into the summer. Linus was good at ES, stepped up when injuries hit the team in January. Cites the last game. Carter's game slipped after Sweden, something we have to look at, getting more consistency from him. Two years in a row he's fallen off in the second half.

Q: You've been a cap team (over this year), given loss of revenue have you received any new financial mandates from ownership?

A: We're all dealing with unprecedented times, affecting a lot of different things, had to make hard decisions in the organization already. In my communication with them so far is, is there a situation where staff members can help out in different areas? Difficult to try and predict what future entails. Have to look at a lot of different scenarios. Like our contract flexibility with players so we can react to the salary cap flexibility. 

Q: You have a core of a lot of guys who have played a lot of games with no playoffs. When is the future? When is it about today? 

A: In the salary cap world, you have to always have young players coming through your system. But the fact that we traded for Jeff Skinner, or Wayne Simmonds, we understand there's a balance. We're not gonna trade 5 first rounders, but when there's an opportunity to help our team out we try to do that. Johansson as another example. We always want to make sure we have a pipeline of young players, but we're excited about the core guys and have to surround em with enough depth. 

Q: What themes have come up with the players, where they think things went wrong?

A: They were excited to play at home, have all those alumni, the white jerseys, having pride in front of our own fans. That shone through this year, which they were excited about. They understood the struggles coming back from Sweden, a lot of them were still trying to figure things out, disappointment playing well in those games post TDL but not getting the results. We are happy we play well but need to get the results. Our PK has to be better next year. PP was good, no reason it shouldn't be in top 10 overall. Need special teams improvement next year.

Q: How do you balance patience, knowing that you believe in your plan, vs the urgency of knowing that this fan base hasn't tasted success for quite some time, some of it not your doing, some of it does fall on you? (Wawrow bending over backwards) 

A: Not surprised our passionate fans want to see a winner on the ice. We understand that. We talk about development of young players. We aren't building towards 3-4 years down the road, we want them to help core players right away. We try to bring in players that want to be here, want to be part of the community, seeing what KO/Skinner/Eich have done in the community. They are ingrained here, want to be here, and show a winner to our community. It gets us excited. Blah blah trades/UFA to support these guys blah

Q: Pegulas mentioned that your job security might not be popular. How much pressure you feel?

A: There's always pressure with this position. I know how hard players/coaches are working, I want them to have success on the ice. My responsibility won't change, have to build the organization to be strong at all levels. I think we're on the path to doing that, it has to continue to grow across the offseason. We put ourselves in a position to have a stronger team for next year. 

Q: Are you dead set on making the 1st pick? Would you consider moving it to add depth down the middle? 

A: Have to see what happens in the lotto, and what's available in the trade market. We have been very open, it's something we'll at least consider.

Q: What's your opinion of the structure of the draft lotto?

A: We're glad we have the same odds as we did under the old scenario. 

Q: What's up with Skinner yo 

A: There's certainly disappointment when a goal scorer is not scoring goals, especially someone passionate about his trade who works so hard like Jeff. He actually had a pretty good start of the year from a goal scoring standpoint. What gives us confidence is that his chance production was still there. The production should come back next year 

Q: Where did you see Jack's growth? 

A: He took a lot more detail into the 2-way game, it allowed him to create more offense. Jack's communication helped Olofsson develop, Jack's knowledge base is building and he's passing it along to other players. Open dialogue between the coach and the players

boring question about draft timelines

 

Edited May 28, 2020 by Randall Flagg

[Thorner]

7 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Reinhart had another strong season and is dedicated (paraphrase)

Dahlin, "we think the world of him"

Says basically that contract talks have to wait because of the cap uncertainty. 

He also referenced arbitration. 

Does anyone doubt we are trading Reinhart, because Botterill specifically brought us to a situation where Reinhart is going to walk himself to UFA by simply electing for arbitration twice? 

He’s absolutely botching Reinhart’s situation here. 

7 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Mentions bringing up young players through the system constantly to actually be a good team. Only young forwards he has mentioned at all were Cozens, Thompson, and Mitts. Probably because there are not others outside of that we can rely on for NHL minutes. 

Claims they played well in most of the games directly after the trade deadline. Says PK must be better. Claims they showed the pp can be top 10. Special teams is a huge area that needs improvement. 

We lost 6 of 7 with absolutely brutal metrics lmao 

Edited May 28, 2020 by Thorny

[Thorner]

7 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

First of all the Zoom presser is way better than the in-person. Seeing the questioner's face and actually hearing the question help. Background viewing has definite entertainment value.

Harrington offered up two pretty big softballs, although pointed in nature, and I think Botterill whiffed on both of them. Or maybe told the truth, and we should be all the more depressed. What is the team's identity/when will the Sabres join the NHL? When will it stop always being about the future, when will the present arrive? A: Developing young players in Rochester/"puck movers"; You always have to have a pipeline of good young players, we won't trade first round picks, we surround the youth with depth players, veteran players, players who've won, citing Skinner, Johansson and Simmonds.

I want eyes on Eichel, perhaps insert a team of mental health professionals in full PPE. I don't see how his head isn't eventually going to explode.

Ok, 3 years in, when do we start developing forward talent in Rochester, Jason? I can’t seem to find any..

7 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

I think your characterization of Jason's answer about moving the first round pick is a little off. The key phrase I heard was, "at least consider" moving the puck. Given his earlier answer to Harrington's question, IMHO they are not moving that pick.

Why the hell would Jason Botterill ever voluntarily shift the timeline/expectation that far willingly forward? The pick has a built in wait window. We are making the pick lol 

Your follow up paragraph, I’ve been preaching for some time now that there’s no way this team starts winning until they actually make winning now the prioritized focus. They are stuck. 

All Jason Botterill is wired to do is attempt to extend his timeline for as long as humanely possible. It’ll only ever be about the future with him, never the present. 

Edited May 28, 2020 by Thorny

[Marvin]

7 minutes ago, Thorny said:

He also referenced arbitration. 

Does anyone doubt we are trading Reinhart, because Botterill specifically brought us to a situation where Reinhart is going to walk himself to UFA by simply electing for arbitration twice? 

He’s absolutely botching Reinhart’s situation here. 

If he offers Reinhart a Skinner contract, I think Reinhart stays.  Less than that?  Decreases to 0% at $1.5M less than Skinner.

[Thorner]

4 minutes ago, Marvin, Sabres Fan said:

If he offers Reinhart a Skinner contract, I think Reinhart stays.  Less than that?  Decreases to 0% at $1.5M less than Skinner.

He’s gone lol. Reinhart is going to look at what Skinner makes, at his age, for his production...it’s just a comedy of errors. 

- - -

The coming season isn't about whether or not Botterill can luck into a winning record, it's about whether the organization can withstand one more year of his ineptitude. The long term ramifications of what Botterill can add on to his already dreary body of work is extremely worrisome. 

Edited May 28, 2020 by Thorny