Former NHL Scout dishes on what he sees wrong with the Sabres

[mjd1001]

52 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:

Regardless, looking at where the franchise is now with the benefit of hindsight, handing the reins to first-time GMs three straight times can’t be glossed over.
Listen, no one is complaining in South Florida about first-time NHL GM Bill Zito, nor in Vegas about first-time NHL GM Kelly McCrimmon. But in Zito’s case, he’s got former GMs Rick Dudley, Paul Fenton and Les Jackson surrounding him in his inner circle. McCrimmon has George McPhee.

 

Not only is Dudley a Buffalo Alumni, didn't he, or doesn't he still live in Niagara County?

52 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:

The temptation now for Adams, or the pressure weighing on his shoulders, will be to make a roster-altering trade to shake things up. That’s a natural reaction.

And league sources suggest he’s pretty open-minded in his conversations with other teams. A lot of different things could happen depending on what teams are willing to do.
 

But don't other league sources say he hasn't been return phone calls at all?

So who to believe? He's open minded in coversations with other teams? or not even returning calls?

Edited Monday at 07:54 PM by mjd1001

[PromoTheRobot]

9 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

Not only is Dudley a Buffalo Alumni, didn't he, or doesn't he still live in Niagara County?

But don't other league sources say he hasn't been return phone calls at all?

So who to believe? He's open minded in conversations with other teams? or not even returning calls?

Most of the information reporters get are from agents and GMs, often times to massage things their way. If Adams stopped taking your calls because your offers are a joke, why not float an unflattering rumor? It's not like anyone wouldn't believe it.

Edited Monday at 08:02 PM by PromoTheRobot

[Weave]

4 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

From Pierre Lebrun at The Athletic:

”As the Buffalo Sabres have descended into this 0-10-3 tailspin, landing them last in the NHL in points and headed toward a hard-to-fathom 14th straight season missing the playoffs, I keep thinking about the decisions ownership has made in its general manager hires.

Tim Murray was GM from January 2014 to April 2017, Jason Botterill from May 2017 to June 2020, and it’s been Kevyn Adams since then.

All three were first-time NHL GMs. That doesn’t mean they weren’t qualified. Everyone has to get their first chance at some point, and especially in the cases of Murray and Botterill, they had worked their way up the NHL scouting and front-office ranks before landing the gig.

Regardless, looking at where the franchise is now with the benefit of hindsight, handing the reins to first-time GMs three straight times can’t be glossed over.
Listen, no one is complaining in South Florida about first-time NHL GM Bill Zito, nor in Vegas about first-time NHL GM Kelly McCrimmon. But in Zito’s case, he’s got former GMs Rick Dudley, Paul Fenton and Les Jackson surrounding him in his inner circle. McCrimmon has George McPhee.

At the very least — especially with Adams, who is a very likable guy with tremendous passion for the sport — couldn’t the Sabres have brought in some sort of mentor to help him along the way? Like how Jim Rutherford is helping along first-time GM Patrik Allvin in Vancouver?

Wouldn’t it have made sense to bring in a Ray Shero or someone of that ilk to help support Adams? (Did I mention that Ken Holland is currently a free agent?). The Sabres have locked up young core players to long-term deals: Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozens, Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Mattias Samuelssonand Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. All of them would be desirable NHL commodities on their own. But as a whole, they have failed to come together consistently as a nucleus of a team resembling a playoff contender.

The temptation now for Adams, or the pressure weighing on his shoulders, will be to make a roster-altering trade to shake things up. That’s a natural reaction.

And league sources suggest he’s pretty open-minded in his conversations with other teams. A lot of different things could happen depending on what teams are willing to do.

But as we’ve seen, there’s a risk of a panic move the franchise could regret. Sam Reinhart, Brandon Montour, Jack Eichel and Ryan O’Reilly are all former Sabres who became Stanley Cup champions elsewhere. There are different reasons those players ended up out of town, sure. But it all comes back to the seemingly never-ending question of what ails the Sabres franchise. It is a damaged brand.

And also facing Adams: As difficult as it is right now, especially for an awesome fan base in Buffalo that deserves so much better, this is the worst time to make a sizeable trade when the majority of your players are depressed assets with lowered values.

The smarter move is to wait this out and more fully investigate the market in the summer, when bigger trades are easier to pull off.

And between now and then, there’s the low-hanging fruit of yet another coaching change. Maybe Lindy Ruff is shown the door to give the team the short-term bump a coaching change often brings. But firing a coach eight months after he was named to replace the last coach fired seems rather flimsy as a fix.“

It’s an interesting pattern.  Not only has this organization decided to throw young players into the fire without sufficient support of veteran players, the organization has also thrown 1st time GM’s and coaches into the fire without sufficient experienced hockey exec support.

JFC Terry.  

Edited Monday at 11:40 PM by Weave

[mjd1001]

1 hour ago, Weave said:

It’s an interesting pattern.  Not only has this organization decided to throw young players into the fire without sufficient support of veteran players, the organization has also thrown 1st time GM’s and coaches into the fire without sufficient experienced hockey exec support.

JFC Terry.  

Younger players, lack of veteran players. 1st time coaches and GM's.....one thing they all have in common is they don't cost as much $ as the alternatives.

Pegula used to be all about spending whatever it took, but something changed about 10 years ago, now he seems to want to save every dollar with this team (with a very few excpetions)

[bob_sauve28]

On 12/19/2024 at 9:02 PM, Big Guava said:

A few main points:

1) Young players being rushed to the NHL too quickly. Says the main core of the Sabres isn't even close to their potential yet.

2) Disconnect between NHL team and AHL development plan.

3) Lack of enough solid vets on the team to allow younger players to develop in AHL

https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/scouts-analysis-why-the-sabres-potential-isnt-paying-off/

So this time we should stay the course, add a vet PP specialist in off season, re-sign Zucker and maybe a stay and home defense man and do better. 

[Doohicksie]

[klos1963]

On 12/20/2024 at 6:07 AM, Big Guava said:

 

Let's be real for a second here...the NHL's business model is completely broken.

Only 6 teams actually make a profit.  That's absurd.  So effectively 26 teams either break even or lose money?

Expecting owners to pump in 30-40-50 million year after year of their own money is not a model that even makes any sense.

No NFL team loses money. Pretty sure the only reason an NBA team loses money is because they go way over the luxury tax cap trying to win a championship. MLB is similar to the NHL with the haves and have nots in terms of revenue and spending but even they have some sort of revenue sharing model.

It's absurd for the NHL to operate their business with a model where under 20% of teams make money.

Why are the players getting such a large revenue share when teams are struggling to make money?

This isn't the NFL where all player contracts are set by a salary cap based on TV revenue that essentially is free payroll for owners.

The NHL is way, way too reliant on game day activities like ticket sales, concessions and parking. That makes up 56% of NHL revenue. The NFL makes 65% of its money from National TV contracts, close to $13 Billion. Almost double what the NHL makes in total revenue from all streams.

Is it any wonder why teams are constantly moving around? They need to fix their business model..I sure as hell am not blaming an owner because he doesn't want to maximize his losses.

This is probably why they are so open to expansion. The entry fee is absurd, but it's a nice chunk of change for each owner.