Official Jason Karmanos Hired as Sabres Associate GM

[Kruppstahl]

1 hour ago, klos1963 said:

so the 'no salary cap' on scouting and other things he said about the purpose of the team is to win championships was just BS?

Harold Ballard is not the ownership comparison we want.

Not sure how closely you have been paying attention, but the "if I need more money, I will dig another well" era of Pegual ownership ended at least 2 years ago.

The fracking business is down, covid is killing the NHL, and Pegula threw lots of money away in a very foolish manner during the first several years of his ownership.

It's more than obvious he has tightened things up financially.

Have you been to the building in the last few years?  It's rather rundown and poorly kept up.

I was surprised to see that Pegula actually fired Ralph Krueger, knowing he'd have to eat the contract money.  But then again, he didn't replace him with a real coach, did he?  Not yet at least.  Probably wants to avoid having to pay 2 HCs at least for this year, so he can simply eat the K for next year alone.

There is an entire thread dedicated to the financial tightness of Pegula over at HFboards on the Sabres page.

Go read it and enlighten yourself.

 

 

[Curt]

1 hour ago, klos1963 said:

so the 'no salary cap' on scouting and other things he said about the purpose of the team is to win championships was just BS?

Harold Ballard is not the ownership comparison we want.

The Sabres had the largest scouting department in the league for about 10 years.

[LGR4GM]

19 minutes ago, Let's Go B-Lo said:

You can scout all day, if the people pulling the trigger are morons it's wasted effort. Biggest scouting staff in hockey, to totally ignore the CHL. Brilliant.

In the last 3 years we have drafted the most risky prospects outside of round 1. The lowest probability prospects went to Buffalo. What this means is that the Sabres outside of the first round picked players in his model that fit the "low probability" of becoming an NHL player criteria. That makes perfect sense and is a reason I have HATED their drafting. Sure Portillo and JJ might be good but that's pretty much it. 

 

[ubkev]

I keep reading this thread title as 'Jim Rockford' and I just want James Garner resurrected in a gold firebird to run our team. 

Edited March 30, 2021 by ubkev

[Palm Trees And Taxes]

6 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

In the last 3 years we have drafted the most risky prospects outside of round 1. The lowest probability prospects went to Buffalo. What this means is that the Sabres outside of the first round picked players in his model that fit the "low probability" of becoming an NHL player criteria. That makes perfect sense and is a reason I have HATED their drafting. Sure Portillo and JJ might be good but that's pretty much it. 

 

 

THIS is dead on.

Also sending mid round picks for gems like Michael Frolik and Wayne Simmonds and having a deficit of those mid round picks have really hurt this a lot more then most realize.

 

Edited March 30, 2021 by Ruff Around The Edges

[DarthEbriate]

34 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

In the last 3 years we have drafted the most risky prospects outside of round 1. The lowest probability prospects went to Buffalo. What this means is that the Sabres outside of the first round picked players in his model that fit the "low probability" of becoming an NHL player criteria. That makes perfect sense and is a reason I have HATED their drafting. Sure Portillo and JJ might be good but that's pretty much it.

Sigh. Upside is all well and good, but it only helps the franchise if, you know... they ever play in the NHL or AHL. And when we do get a 'tweener we let them go: the Hagens, Malones, and Schallers (though he was a college FA I think) of the world. Or we have them in the AHL and let them walk (Blackwell). Sure -- they're JAGs... but they're minimum cost JAGs, rather than trading for Vesey, or signing UFAs like Eakin or Josefson.

28 minutes ago, Ruff Around The Edges said:

THIS is dead on.

Also sending mid round picks for gems like Michael Frolik and Wayne Simmonds and having a deficit of those mid round picks have really hurt this a lot more then most realize.

Don't forget the mind-numbing JBot trade of the 2018 draft. Moving the first pick of the 6th round (156) to Toronto for their 2019 6th (177) -- so we traded a year back and 20 picks down. Then, JBot packaged that low 6th and our 7th to move up to the 5th (143) to take Filip Cederqvist. And the reason we had to trade UP to pick a guy in the 5th round who... yeah, jury is still out -- he seems fine in lower-tier Swedish hockey, and hasn't done anything in his SHL stints (thanks Interwebs!)...  is because we had previously traded our 2019 5th (129) to Detroit for Scott Wilson in an unrelated deal so that HCDDB would have a Penguin around to fill out the bottom line. Which... wasn't a bad trade at the time. But still. It's just this wild loop-de-loop "we're still in the same place" with this team.

[JoeSchmoe]

5 hours ago, Kruppstahl said:

Not sure how closely you have been paying attention, but the "if I need more money, I will dig another well" era of Pegual ownership ended at least 2 years ago.

The fracking business is down, covid is killing the NHL, and Pegula threw lots of money away in a very foolish manner during the first several years of his ownership.

It's more than obvious he has tightened things up financially.

Have you been to the building in the last few years?  It's rather rundown and poorly kept up.

I was surprised to see that Pegula actually fired Ralph Krueger, knowing he'd have to eat the contract money.  But then again, he didn't replace him with a real coach, did he?  Not yet at least.  Probably wants to avoid having to pay 2 HCs at least for this year, so he can simply eat the K for next year alone.

There is an entire thread dedicated to the financial tightness of Pegula over at HFboards on the Sabres page.

Go read it and enlighten yourself.

 

 

Gas and oil are on their way back up. Hopefully that will help pay off Kim's yacht.

[nfreeman]

8 hours ago, Kruppstahl said:

Not sure how closely you have been paying attention, but the "if I need more money, I will dig another well" era of Pegual ownership ended at least 2 years ago.

The fracking business is down, covid is killing the NHL, and Pegula threw lots of money away in a very foolish manner during the first several years of his ownership.

It's more than obvious he has tightened things up financially.

Have you been to the building in the last few years?  It's rather rundown and poorly kept up.

I was surprised to see that Pegula actually fired Ralph Krueger, knowing he'd have to eat the contract money.  But then again, he didn't replace him with a real coach, did he?  Not yet at least.  Probably wants to avoid having to pay 2 HCs at least for this year, so he can simply eat the K for next year alone.

There is an entire thread dedicated to the financial tightness of Pegula over at HFboards on the Sabres page.

Go read it and enlighten yourself.

 

 

I think it's more accurate to say that it ended a bit less than 1 year ago, when TP decided to cut spending in light of the covid shutdown.  Before that point, the Sabres had a heavily staffed front office, a highly compensated HC and spent to the cap every year.  (It's also worth noting that even during the covid lean period, the Sabres spent to the cap this year.)

If they hire the 2 guys that are the subject of this thread and staff up the scouting the department, and spend to the cap again next year -- all of which sound reasonably likely -- the cost-cutting era will probably be dead and gone, although they probably won't return to the lavish spending of yesteryear that you noted.

[LabattBlue]

3 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

I think it's more accurate to say that it ended a bit less than 1 year ago, when TP decided to cut spending in light of the covid shutdown.  Before that point, the Sabres had a heavily staffed front office, a highly compensated HC and spent to the cap every year.  (It's also worth noting that even during the covid lean period, the Sabres spent to the cap this year.)

If they hire the 2 guys that are the subject of this thread and staff up the scouting the department, and spend to the cap again next year -- all of which sound reasonably likely -- the cost-cutting era will probably be dead and gone, although they probably won't return to the lavish spending of yesteryear that you noted.

...and in the meantime we have endured another dreadful season of Pegula era hockey. 

[nfreeman]

Just now, LabattBlue said:

...and in the meantime we have endured another dreadful season of Pegula era hockey. 

Very true, but my point was simply that it wasn't because of cheapness.

He's been choosing the wrong guys to run the team.  It's not for lack of trying.

 

[kas23]

Excellent. This is entirely fixable. Someone get on the horn with Kevyn and tell him we don’t want the “low probability” picks, but the “high probability” ones instead. 

[Hoss]

14 hours ago, That Aud Smell said:

Was poorly worded. Our attention spans are the reason news has evolved the way it is but a lot of societal factors have gone into decreasing attention spans across the board.

[Weave]

13 minutes ago, Hoss said:

Was poorly worded. Our attention spans are the reason news has evolved the way it is but a lot of societal factors have gone into decreasing attention spans across the board.

Too long, didn’t read

[klos1963]

9 hours ago, SDS said:

Dude. He was a brand new owner and that was 10 years ago. For better or worse, life has changed.

definitely for worse.

[klos1963]

45 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

Very true, but my point was simply that it wasn't because of cheapness.

He's been choosing the wrong guys to run the team.  It's not for lack of trying.

 

He's just doing a crappy job of running the team.  He's still a billionaire.

[Curt]

29 minutes ago, kas23 said:

Excellent. This is entirely fixable. Someone get on the horn with Kevyn and tell him we don’t want the “low probability” picks, but the “high probability” ones instead. 

Unbelievable that no one thought of this.

[SDS]

5 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

In the last 3 years we have drafted the most risky prospects outside of round 1. The lowest probability prospects went to Buffalo. What this means is that the Sabres outside of the first round picked players in his model that fit the "low probability" of becoming an NHL player criteria. That makes perfect sense and is a reason I have HATED their drafting. Sure Portillo and JJ might be good but that's pretty much it. 

 

The only way to know if this has any value would be to see these lists, see who is marked as high probability and see who is marked as low probability and see if you have the predicted bimodal distribution. 

[Curt]

8 minutes ago, SDS said:

The only way to know if this has any value would be to see these lists, see who is marked as high probability and see who is marked as low probability and see if you have the predicted bimodal distribution. 

Cut it out with this smarty pants talk.  Someone said it and I agree, that’s all the proof I need to see.    😉

Edited March 31, 2021 by Curt

[Broken Ankles]

5 hours ago, ubkev said:

I keep reading this thread title as 'Jim Rockford' and I just want James Garner resurrected in a gold firebird to run our team. 

 

[Claude Balls]

The silence is killing me!!!

[bunomatic]

Just now, Claude Balls said:

The silence is killing me!!!

The tinnitus is killing me!!!

[Claude Balls]

Just now, bunomatic said:

The tinnitus is killing me!!!

Ugh, tell me about it. I have it bad as a result of playing guitar for many bands in my younger days. I hate it!!!

[bunomatic]

1 minute ago, Claude Balls said:

Ugh, tell me about it. I have it bad as a result of playing guitar for many bands in my younger days. I hate it!!!

Yeah drives me nuts. Worked in a pulp mill for 14 years. Wore ear protection but...?

[LGR4GM]

1 hour ago, SDS said:

The only way to know if this has any value would be to see these lists, see who is marked as high probability and see who is marked as low probability and see if you have the predicted bimodal distribution. 

Send a message to the guy. I'm sure he'd discuss it. 

53 minutes ago, Curt said:

Cut it out with this smarty pants talk.  Someone said it and I agree, that’s all the proof I need to see.    😉

Considering the teams his model teams highly have good prospect pools... yea. 

[Doohicksie]

7 minutes ago, Claude Balls said:

Ugh, tell me about it. I have it bad as a result of playing guitar for many bands in my younger days. I hate it!!!

I grew up in the runway path for Buffalo Airport.  Repeated jet blasts daily for years.

Tinnitus has been around for years.  Most of the time I can ignore it.  I hear it tonight though.  In stereo.