Interesting Tidbit from John Wawrow

[MISabresFan]

22 hours ago, kas23 said:

This is how the Bills run, for better or worse. For example, when the Bills hired Rex Ryan, he didn’t report to Whaley, but rather to Pegula. I believe McD is the same too. 
 

https://www.espn.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/17027/rex-ryan-will-report-directly-to-bills-owner-terry-pegula

I guess - "If ifs and buts were candy and nuts" It is a humorous way of expressing the idea that wishing for things to be different doesn't change reality.  However we don't know what is real or not becasue we do nont work there.  I am sure based on the way these two sports teams are performing - they are run the same way.

[MISabresFan]

20 hours ago, tom webster said:

I continue to read all this post about hiring a President of hockey ops, hiring experienced people etc, etc. 

 

History, however, suggests, there is no blue print. The top teams in the league now hired first time general managers, first time nhl coaches, only added POH when they needed to retain a valued assistant. Done went the experienced route. Carolina has been one of the best franchises for awhile now and is run by one of the most meddling owners in sports.

In the NFL, the Rams borrowed a page from the Sabres and gutted their scouting department and emphasize video scouting and now they have one of the most successful drafting records in the league and their front office ok we people are in high demand.

 

lol, copy the saber scouting department?  LOL wish you were my competitor!  Copy a successful team like the Sabers?  Go ahead...see you on the firing line.

21 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Is Adams in a lame duck position? One can hope.

idk, if it was true that Adams wanted Appert as coach and Terry told him to hire Lindy then there's a relationship there and that's good. Not good for Adams, but good for everyone else. The question is what is Lindy saying or asking for? I'd hope he gets to fire all his assistants and bring in his own but I suspect that's unlikely. 

Are we too young? Obviously. 

Is the whole waiting for prospects not blocking prospects thing dumb? Obviously.

Do we need veteran leaders on the roster? Obviously. 

Can we get them? Good question. 

After 13 years, it is time for a changing of the guard and everything surrounding them.

[Thorner]

3 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Seriously, someone use a reason that isn't based on Lindy Ruff nostalgia to justify him being good as a POHO or a GM. He's been marginally successful at his other NHL stops. Other than that, he's kinda mediocre at coaching. Why would he be good in a higher role? Because Adams is so bad so anything is better? 

Pretty much 

[JohnC]

3 hours ago, SwampD said:

Don’t care. Just go away. I enjoyed the Sabres more when he wasn’t the owner.

I'm with you. I'm really tired of his interminable incompetent stewardship that has lasted for a generation. He could make a tidy profit by selling the team thus enabling him to buy another aircraft carrier sized yacht. He has turned this franchise into being not only irrelevant but made it a joke franchise. He's a classic demonstration what an owner shouldn't do. He needs to find another toy to tinker with. Enough is enough of his odd ownership. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 hour ago, MISabresFan said:

LOL, yes what a great move - move a guy up to admin who has a lower point total than the last two coaches.  Makes perfect sense for this organization.

Well at least Lindy knows what a good NHL team is supposed to look like.  

[TheAud]

2 hours ago, MISabresFan said:

lol, copy the saber scouting department?  LOL wish you were my competitor!  Copy a successful team like the Sabers?  Go ahead...see you on the firing line.

At least he knows how to spell 'Sabres' correctly.

[triumph_communes]

6 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Seriously, someone use a reason that isn't based on Lindy Ruff nostalgia to justify him being good as a POHO or a GM. He's been marginally successful at his other NHL stops. Other than that, he's kinda mediocre at coaching. Why would he be good in a higher role? Because Adams is so bad so anything is better? 

The point of a POHO is to insulate management from ownership. Which we don’t have today and is the biggest problem. They don’t have the be the best hockey mind, just a barrier 

[PerreaultForever]

5 hours ago, MISabresFan said:

lol, copy the saber scouting department?  LOL wish you were my competitor!  Copy a successful team like the Sabers?  Go ahead...see you on the firing line.

After 13 years, it is time for a changing of the guard and everything surrounding them.

I'm certainly not opposed to a complete change, but power has to be given to a new person and can't stay with the owner. 

[7+6=13]

On 3/16/2025 at 10:22 PM, JohnC said:

You may not know who to primarily blame but I do know: It's the owner. He has made all the critical hires and has structured the organization the way he wants it to be. The team has not made the playoffs since he became the owner. And because of his long-term mismanagement the fanbase has dramatically been eroded.  Some issues are tough to figure out. This is not one of them, at least for me. You can keep looking but I've found the person most responsible for badly damaging this franchise. He can hide behind his silent act but he can't run away from the record. This is an easy issue to score.  

Definitely an opinion and a widely shared one.  I don't think you or anyone needs to look further.  Of course the organization has been set up the way he wants it, he owns the team and can do what he wants. However he has had the organization set up multiple different ways.  

There's also been many good players that have come through this organization and may even be on the team now. We don't win.  

I'm not saying I know for sure Pegula isn't the problem. I am saying I know for sure we've been largely unable to attract top free agents in my lifetime. 

I'm not a historian of the Sabres, so I can't support this with stats.  I feel like the majority of me being a fan - we've had to draft good players, gotten players in trades that became better than projected and historically had excellent goal tenders.  

I liked the idea of building through the draft with KA. But I think we're stuck and I don't think it's anyone's fault.  No great players besides maybe Dahlin have emerged.  

[spndnchz]

He’s always a “stirring the pot” guy. I like him with a grain of salt 

[Doohicksie]

On 3/16/2025 at 6:28 PM, shrader said:

Now we need to start pitching an angle where Ruff tanked the season to get Adams out of the way.

[Doohicksie]

On 3/16/2025 at 9:20 PM, PerreaultForever said:

I wonder if Lindy has been frustrated by a situation where he has no veteran call up possibilities. As a coach what power does he have to sit a Quinn (as an example) if that just means calling up a Rosen to replace him? The lack of internal competition for roster spots has to make the life of a coach near impossible. 

If you have a seasoned veteran sitting in the AHL ready to be called up, all it means he's had more seasons to prove that he's not NHL level than someone like Rosen.

[JohnC]

19 hours ago, erickompositör72 said:

Lindy Ruff in a higher role would serve one purpose (and well, IMO):

People around the league respect Lindy. He has relationships around the league. That in itself could be one big missing piece of our puzzle.

There comes a time when instead of looking back for solutions one should look forward. What our nostalgic thinking owner should start doing is evolve from his old mode of thinking of yesteryear and look forward to today's version of the NHL. If he hasn't learned from his mounting bad decisions over the past generation, then he's too stuck in the past to ever learn. This tiresome silent owner is too insular to consult with a variety of outside sources to get a more objective evaluation of his franchise and organization. This owner can hide behind his silence but what he can't hide is his team's record. It's embarrassing. A generation of failure in a cap system designed for the down teams to have advantages over the up teams is an absurdity. It's a level of ridiculousness beyond anyone's imagination. 

[GoPuckYourself]

21 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

How? They don’t even do real searches to interview outside candidates for positions.

 

By accident

[erickompositör72]

1 hour ago, JohnC said:

There comes a time when instead of looking back for solutions one should look forward. What our nostalgic thinking owner should start doing is evolve from his old mode of thinking of yesteryear and look forward to today's version of the NHL. If he hasn't learned from his mounting bad decisions over the past generation, then he's too stuck in the past to ever learn. This tiresome silent owner is too insular to consult with a variety of outside sources to get a more objective evaluation of his franchise and organization. This owner can hide behind his silence but what he can't hide is his team's record. It's embarrassing. A generation of failure in a cap system designed for the down teams to have advantages over the up teams is an absurdity. It's a level of ridiculousness beyond anyone's imagination. 

You're absolutely correct, in principle. Unfortunately, I have far less confidence in any attempt TP would make to "look forward" that I would in him making Lindy part of upper management.

And as much sense as what you say makes, I find that type of change incredibly unlikely. Lindy is actually here right now.

Edited Tuesday at 02:41 PM by erickompositör72

[PerreaultForever]

7 hours ago, Doohicksie said:

If you have a seasoned veteran sitting in the AHL ready to be called up, all it means he's had more seasons to prove that he's not NHL level than someone like Rosen.

I don't think that's true. I would call that depth. Having guys who are flawed in one area or just not quite NHL regular. You also need veterans in the AHL to teach the kids how to be pros before they even get the call up. Consider the Washington plan. 

[Jorcus]

On 3/16/2025 at 10:20 PM, PerreaultForever said:

I wonder if Lindy has been frustrated by a situation where he has no veteran call up possibilities. As a coach what power does he have to sit a Quinn (as an example) if that just means calling up a Rosen to replace him? The lack of internal competition for roster spots has to make the life of a coach near impossible. 

A lot of this is mechanics. You make your decisions with the final roster cut down and then if you have players that have to clear waivers you are kind of stuck with what you have until post trade deadline. To replace Quinn you have to do something with him. Then if you bring up a veteran Amerk you have to keep him or waive him. Sure it's frustrating for the coach to keep playing guys who don't produce. If your GM is not going to help the situation it gets worse. They keep bringing up Kozak and Rosen because they can clear waivers. Or GM is scared of losing anyone or getting ripped off so there were very few moves. I think Rousek would have helped this team more than Kozak because he is a good puck distributor. He would have to clear waivers so we get Kozak. I mean if we lose Rousek then we lose him. I don't see a plan for him anyway. 

When thinking about setting up the team in the summer having rotational parts are important. I don't think we started the year with anyone that could go back to the Amerks. Kulich got up due to injuries. Well Benson could go to Jr's but they were not going to do that. The competition takes place in the summer. After that you are patching holes. I think it comes down to dealing with you problems via trade or replacement as opposed to waking a player up with competition. If it ain't working you just have to move on.    

[xzy89c1]

On 3/17/2025 at 12:25 PM, SwampD said:

Do you actually know something, or just speculating?

told people he lost 300 million on sabres. This was before COVID so a lot more now. Buffalo does not have corporations to support NHL team where the Gate amounts are key. Buffalo gate is around 400k while big cities it is over 2 million. No TV deal to even things out like in NFL.

If he sells, odds are team moves. 

[LGR4GM]

3 minutes ago, xzy89c1 said:

told people he lost 300 million on sabres. This was before COVID so a lot more now. Buffalo does not have corporations to support NHL team where the Gate amounts are key. Buffalo gate is around 400k while big cities it is over 2 million. No TV deal to even things out like in NFL.

If he sells, odds are team moves. 

Really, Got a link to that?

Also he'd still be up about 500 million+ on the Sabres then. 

[Thorner]

1 minute ago, LGR4GM said:

Really, Got a link to that?

Also he'd still be up about 500 million+ on the Sabres then. 

 

[LGR4GM]

Seriously, I'd love to read up on him saying it. Even if it was just something reported and not a public comment.

[xzy89c1]

10 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Really, Got a link to that?

Also he'd still be up about 500 million+ on the Sabres then. 

If you know someone in the league you can get the gate amounts. Published once a week to the teams. Same person who shares the gate amounts told me about Pegula...

[Dr. Who]

18 minutes ago, xzy89c1 said:

told people he lost 300 million on sabres. This was before COVID so a lot more now. Buffalo does not have corporations to support NHL team where the Gate amounts are key. Buffalo gate is around 400k while big cities it is over 2 million. No TV deal to even things out like in NFL.

If he sells, odds are team moves. 

You know what really hurts the gate? Not making the playoffs for 14 years in a row.

[LGR4GM]

7 minutes ago, xzy89c1 said:

If you know someone in the league you can get the gate amounts. Published once a week to the teams. Same person who shares the gate amounts told me about Pegula...

That's equivalent to Pegs losing roughly 30 million every year for a decade. Considering Buffalo didn't have issues selling out especially in 2015-2018, seems questionable with revenue sharing, ticket sales, and TV deals. Considering the guy built and maintains a 100 million dollar yacht... idk seems flimsy.

[thewookie1]

10 minutes ago, xzy89c1 said:

If you know someone in the league you can get the gate amounts. Published once a week to the teams. Same person who shares the gate amounts told me about Pegula...

While he likely takes a hit every year, I highly doubt he’s any worse off because of it. The team’s value has inexplicably increased since he bought them and optics wise selling the team without locking it in Buffalo forever more would make for terrible optics for the Bills owner. 
 

Another benefit we do have is the NHL’s dislike for moving teams; they kept us around 5 years without an owner and we just saw what it took for Arizona to move.

The biggest money grubber in the league is Jeremy Jacobs who happens to be from here and quite literally gave the Knox’s dibs on the team. I highly doubt he’d be a promoter for moving the team.

Lastly we do have the advantage of being close to Toronto without being Canadian which means monetary value is higher as a given. Plus it prevents anyone from moving in on the Leafs monopoly since we have a mutual interest in blocking any 2nd Toronto team.