Seattle Expansion Thread

[Marvin]

19 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

I never get this logic about the tank. A tank doesn't create a mindset of losing that endures. You get rid of everybody and get a superstar and you have only one direction to go and that's up. Toronto tanked successfully. Ottawa looks to have done it now. The problem is never the tank, it's how you draft and what you do after the tank that matters. We drafted for crap and traded poorly and signed the wrong FAs. bad management simple as that. Rookie GMs given blank slates and cocking it all up. 

A team made up of young inexperienced players cannot, by definition have a mindset of being a loser. They learn to lose on that team. They came here winners. We broke them.  

Sure it does.  Every time someone did something that made the team win, the GM traded them.  According to Zemgus, Larry, Risto, and others, whenever they made a good play, the players on the bench joked, "what are you trying to do, get yourself traded?"  That mentally becomes, "if I am here, I am a failure."

We need Larry, Zemgus, Risto, McCabe, Sam, and anyone else from the tank teams out of the organisation pronto.  That attitude is just visible when the team faces adversity.  The two times they dug themselves out of it, GMJB undermined them by not helping, whence it affects everyone else like Jack, Jeff, Rasmus, and the rest who were on those teams.

That stink stays on the team until all these players are gone or the GM gets lucky multiple times in ONE off-season: this one.  Otherwise, we are doomed.

Addendum: you are correct: we broke them.

Edited October 11, 2020 by Marvin, Sabres Fan
Thought a bit longer.

[French Collection]

Signed some Hall guy, need Oates next.

[Wyldnwoody44]

3 hours ago, French Collection said:

Signed some Hall guy, need Oates next.

 

[Andrew Amerk]

18 minutes ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

 

Why does Oates have a guitar, while Hull has...what even is that?

[Brawndo]

 

[Taro T]

15 minutes ago, Andrew Amerk said:

Why does Oates have a guitar, while Hull has...what even is that?

Because Oates was a studio guitarist & blondie was the singer.

And the thing Hull is holding is a microphone stand.

[SDS]

5 hours ago, Marvin, Sabres Fan said:

Sure it does.  Every time someone did something that made the team win, the GM traded them.  According to Zemgus, Larry, Risto, and others, whenever they made a good play, the players on the bench joked, "what are you trying to do, get yourself traded?"  That mentally becomes, "if I am here, I am a failure."

We need Larry, Zemgus, Risto, McCabe, Sam, and anyone else from the tank teams out of the organisation pronto.  That attitude is just visible when the team faces adversity.  The two times they dug themselves out of it, GMJB undermined them by not helping, whence it affects everyone else like Jack, Jeff, Rasmus, and the rest who were on those teams.

That stink stays on the team until all these players are gone or the GM gets lucky multiple times in ONE off-season: this one.  Otherwise, we are doomed.

Addendum: you are correct: we broke them.

I don’t recall those quotes. Where did you hear that from?

[DarthEbriate]

It's feeling less like a JBot team tonight.

[Wyldnwoody44]

47 minutes ago, Andrew Amerk said:

Why does Oates have a guitar, while Hull has...what even is that?

Idk haha, I just have this saved on my phone for when the correct moment to post arises 

[North Buffalo]

So if Adams can turn into the Bean the witch as they call him at TBD then I think the Sabres may have found their long term GM.  Wonder if they are taking a page out of the Bills finding guys that can fit... and if they do great resign, if not short term contracts with no long term cap issues.

Edited October 12, 2020 by North Buffalo

[Taro T]

7 hours ago, North Buffalo said:

So if Adams can turning into the Bean the witch as they call him at TBD then I think the Sabres may have found their long term GM.  Wonder if they are taking a page out of the Bills finding guys that can fit... and if they do great resign, if not short term contracts with no long term cap issues.

Considering there's only been 12 - 3 year deal signed this off season, they definitely are.  Whether that's due to philosophy (like in Beane's case) or a nod to the reality of not knowing what the market will be next season & figuring it's better to have flexibility & a possibility of having to overspend next year to replace guys that can walk rather than to have THEIR guys locked up but no way to afford them all, remains to be seen.

Edited October 12, 2020 by Taro T
Forgot Baby Giraffe's 3 year deal. D'oh!

[Wyldnwoody44]

[Gabrielor]

So far.

 

Staal trade: A

Draft day-1: C

Draft day-2: A (it's all the Peterka trade-up / pick)

UFA Day-1 + Girgensons deal: F

Hall signing: A+++

RFA's SO FAR: A (Reinhart, Olofsson, and Ullmark are very important contracts, and could swing this to an F easily)

[Marvin]

On 10/11/2020 at 11:48 PM, SDS said:

I don’t recall those quotes. Where did you hear that from?

I remember them in an interview after The Stank Season.  I can not find the references.  But my wife and I remember them distinctly.  We wondered what Moulson, Gionta, Ennis, Foligno, Myers, et al. had thought of this.  Should I find the quote, I will follow this up.

[Curt]

On 10/11/2020 at 6:47 PM, Marvin, Sabres Fan said:

Sure it does.  Every time someone did something that made the team win, the GM traded them.  According to Zemgus, Larry, Risto, and others, whenever they made a good play, the players on the bench joked, "what are you trying to do, get yourself traded?"  That mentally becomes, "if I am here, I am a failure."

We need Larry, Zemgus, Risto, McCabe, Sam, and anyone else from the tank teams out of the organisation pronto.  That attitude is just visible when the team faces adversity.  The two times they dug themselves out of it, GMJB undermined them by not helping, whence it affects everyone else like Jack, Jeff, Rasmus, and the rest who were on those teams.

That stink stays on the team until all these players are gone or the GM gets lucky multiple times in ONE off-season: this one.  Otherwise, we are doomed.

Addendum: you are correct: we broke them.

Just a note:  McCabe and Reinhart were not on the tank teams.  They played a few games each but combined for only 18 games played during the 2013-14 and 14-15 seasons.  I doubt that was enough to break them.

Girgensons and Risto are the only Sabres who were actually members of the tank teams.

[matter2003]

Welcome to the Adams Administration!

 

 

[Cal Naughton Jr]

What has he done since Sunday?

[bunomatic]

6 hours ago, Cal Naughton Jr said:

What has he done since Sunday?

I know ,what a waster. Kidding..

you’re good Kev take your time buddy. You got this.

[Zamboni]

Updated OP 👍🏼
 

If there are any moves, hires, trades, signings etc... that I missed, please let me know. 

[Zamboni]

Updated OP 👍🏼

[Zamboni]

Updated OP 👍🏼
 

Adams is getting players signed to fair deals. Nothing is outrageous. Girgensons is slightly high, but not ridiculous.

[thewookie1]

Anyone else notice a strange trend with the Buffalo GMs this past decade?

Tim Murray was supposed to be draft savant able to adjust yet he was rather rigid in who he wanted and seemed to want to trade his extra high picks at every opportunity.

Botterill was supposed to be a cap guru with team cohesion skills who could make us competitive while our prospects worked their way up; instead he weakened our team and did anything but run the cap well while heavily relying on his youngsters.

Adams thus far, outsider who shouldn't do well at all and likely in over his head and yet he's done a better job with cap manipulation and seems to be actually building a roster.

Its weird how Adams has so far done we wanted from Botts and Botts seemed to follow what we expected from Murray.

[dudacek]

You want to tick all the boxes obviously, but if I had to choose, as a leader, I’ll always take a smart flexible thinker who understands people over an experienced specialized “expert” lacking those skills, so long as the former has a baseline skillset and understanding of your industry, which Adams did.

That’s not to say Adams has accomplished a single thing yet, except on paper.

Let’s play some hockey first.

[Taro T]

27 minutes ago, dudacek said:

You want to tick all the boxes obviously, but if I had to choose, as a leader, I’ll always take a smart flexible thinker who understands people over an experienced specialized “expert” lacking those skills, so long as the former has a baseline skillset and understanding of your industry, which Adams did.

That’s not to say Adams has accomplished a single thing yet, except on paper.

Let’s play some hockey first.

On paper, w/ the exception of fixing the GT which my expectation is it still gets accomplished, he has addressed all the roster To Do items (some significantly better than others):

1. Upgrade 2C - check

2.  Upgrade GT - Still Outstanding

3.  Bring in top 6 W - Massive check

4.  Upgrade PK - need to see result to 2 above, but through Eakin, Reiter, & to a degree Hall, it has been addressed & likely upgraded

5.  Get better option at 3C than Johansson - check

6.  Improve depth at LHD - check, though not impressively 

7.  Re-sign the RFA's - check (minus Kahun, but not sure where he fits here post Hall signing)

8.  Re-sign UFA's that Krueger wants - addressed & likely check (depends on whether he wanted Larsson back, but doubt Larry wanted to be back)

9.  Improve PP units - check

10.  Restock Ra-cha-cha - started, still work in progress.

11.  Don't squander future assets for all this - check

12.  Don't squander cap space unnecessarily - IMHO check. (Hall's cap hit, converting Johansson's cap hit to Staal's, getting the arbitration eligible guys in at the very bottom of the expected salary ranges, & getting deth guys @ league minimum/ near league minimum deals in total offset possible over payment to Thompson & over payment to Girgensons)

 

Will it result in playoffs?  Who knows.  But, he clearly had a plan and had the wherewithal to execute it.  He's earned, IMHO, a modicum of slack.  Hopefully Krueger, staff, & players demonstrate he deserves it and more.

 

Edited October 29, 2020 by Taro T

[Sabre fan]

GMKA seems to be doing extactly what Carolina does by slowing making solid moves and good signings. Nothing too flashy but really good hockey sense; been a while since we saw any of that around Sabreland! I trust he knew DK wanted far too much money and cut him free even though we all. including GMKA I am sure, wanted him back. Been a while since I trusted a GM as well. Good stuff Mr. Adams