1- your take on Olofsson is absurd- and I’ll just leave it at that, bc i can already tell u won’t listen to reason with him

2- thinking Ryan Johnson is our 4th best defenseman when he hasn’t even played an NHL game yet is absurd as well- hell, he’s barely even played in the AHL !!!

There's no doubt in my mind the organization already knows this but simply doesn't have it in them to do it. Granato is a "players" coach and Adams is a people pleaser. There was literally no reason to pay their 4th line what they did. None of them would have gotten that much on the open market, but they insisted on keeping them happy. Zero chance anyone on the market was offering Erik Johnson coming off a career worst season at 36 years old that kind of money. They couldn't even stomach firing totally unqualified assistants after a year where their penalty kill sank them.

It's a pattern they've repeated ever since both of them took their respective jobs and it's not going to change any time soon. I've nitpicked at a lot of stuff they have or haven't done on the margins but the truth is most of it can be traced back to what I described. They're too scared to make the big trade, and they're too nice to rock the boat.

Fitz/sabretooth9, saying they won't "listen to reason" because he doesn't agree with your take doesn't make them unreasonable. In fact, saying that too someone is itself unreasonable. Your takes are not the only reasonable takes when it comes to the state of the team.

i'll listen to reason and i'm still very much a casual fan but we played our best hockey without him last season and my guess is that if there was any kind of market for him for a legitimate asset in the offseason we would have traded him. we overpaid him when we were looking to get to the floor, that number is not palatable for a contender, and he doesn't fit the timeline for rebuilding teams, like us. i'm also guessing there's a chance he clears waivers at his full number and he can still contribute when needed. and saying ryan johnson is our 4th best defenseman is more of a critique on who else we currently have. i think ryan johnson is our best option to be the stay at home defenseman to power like samuelsson is for dahlin.

I'd let Johnson develop in the AHL for at least a few months but agree he would be our 4th best D even now. I'd really like to reward guys who have stuck with the organization for a few years and haven't been given NHL opportunities. Biro, Murray, Rousek are all good options for 4th line rotation.



Ultimately its the Pegula's money they are spending on 1 year deals to UFAs. We still have 9.5 mil of cap space, its not like those deals to Z, Okie, and EJ cap-strapped us. Why wouldn't you want to reward the longest tenured Sabre and your captain with paying them a little more than they would get on the market? As to EJ, again its not like his contract AAV is killing our cap situation. We could have paid him 7 mil and still been okay. I agree that it appears Kevyn and Donny are very cautious and not inclined to big shakeups, however the team is still building, we are not yet contending. A team doesn't need dramatic moves while they build, they just need to keep improving. When you are a contender and you are up against some issues, then maybe its time for a shakeup. Next year should be the first season where the Sabres are locked in as contenders for the playoffs. I think of them as fringe playoffs this year

These aren't mutually exclusive paths though. You obviously can't trade or sign your way to contender status, but the opposite extreme is true as well. You can't only draft and develop your way to the next level, even if you are the best drafting team. The variability in pick success rate and development curve is too big to reliably expect it to be the only thing that carries the team.

Also, said it a bunch of times over the summer and got nothing but vitrol back but this team was never going to spend to the NHL salary cap. So they made the decision to spend what they had on those guys mentioned above rather than take risks in other areas. The idea that they have 9.5 mil in cap and thats going to lead to a move that eats up that cap space in season is extremely unlikely barring a really bad kane contract (which would just be more of the same).

This year should have been the year they tried to be a bonafide playoff team. They were in a good position to take advantage of core players in their prime not yet making big money. Even without factoring the cap, a players prime in todays NHL is actually much younger than the assumption from years ago suggesting it was late 20s.

It also feels like broken record status. Last TDL it was all "we werent expected to be good, wait until the summer" Nothing happens in the summer and here in fall "we weren't expecting to be a legit playoff team yet, wait until next summer."

It seems like more and more fans are just conditioning themselves to expect less and less to cope with what's going on instead of channeling that into pushing back against an ownership and management team that appears unmotivated to do what it takes to turn the team into a legit contender.

Still, you’re overstating what Ryan Johnson is at the current moment. I’ve got hopes for him too, but he needs development

And Olofsson wasn’t traded bc Quinn got hurt
Is he good at defense? No, obviously not
But there’s plenty of coaches around the league who have players like this & figure out how to get their scoring without having them hurt the team.
I’m sorry this will sound so harsh, but waiving him is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen on this site.
1- he’s not “that” bad
2- goal scorers are assets, & we have room to hold Cap & get a good return for him

i don't agree that olofsson wasn't traded because quinn was hurt. adams was trying to trade him and couldn't and it's also his agent's job to try and get him moved somewhere he will play consistently and set up his next contract. that didn't work either. now, i'll give you that maybe adams didn't get a green light from pegula to retain salary but that seems unlikely. if savoie didn't get hurt at development camp he might have been gone already. i also don't agree that he's not that bad. he's a 5 on 5 black hole who makes as much as alex tuch. if he was passable that would be something, but he is dragging down peterka and cozens. part of our issue is we can't keep him on our 4th line and play him limited minutes with PP time. that's the best case scenario for him. we can't do that because we have too many locked in 4th line players. he's not going to play regularly over girgensons or okposo. if we're in it to win hockey games, i'd keep olofsson over okposo and waive okposo. we're not doing that either. and again, he makes too much money to be a 4th liner on a contender and rebuilding teams are not going to want to give up a significant asset for a 28 year old winger who's a UFA. so we have to try and keep him in the top 9 when he's in the lineup. our roster is better without him and the rest of the league seems to know it too.

Agree trades/moves will need to be made in the next year or so to address our teams' needs. We have a plethora of forward prospects some of which can and should be dealt to acquire a better blueliner for the top 4 than Jokiharju and a really steady goalie (just examples). I just don't buy the idea that the team won't spend to cap when they seem perfectly comfortable handing out big money to the core players. To me it appears they hold that cap space in order to lock up more of their core moving forward instead of signing UFAs to multi-year deals that would ultimately hurt their future and shorten their window. You kind of have to be a broken record as a Sabres fan, they have missed playoffs 11 years in a row. "There's always next year" is basically a mantra and used as a coping mechanism haha.

I hope somehow, some way, we trade or pick up in FA Tanev, either this year or next summer.

Sorry, but i can’t disagree with you more

Your read on Granato is perfect.
Kevyn Adams was a disaster (poor trades and worse FA signings) until Jason Karmanos was added to the staff.
So many people forgot how bad he was and only see the work of Karmanos.
Adams is not only a crowd pleaser, but he is willing to do Pegulas' dirty work.
Pegula wanted to cut staff, Botterill could not fire the people to who he promised future jobs, so he was abruptly let go.
Let's hope the Sabres add the correct vets, Johnson and Cliftton do not appear to be the ideal additionis, but Greenway for a second is certainly looking good so far this year.
Who would have wanted to add during the off season?
And, who is Fitz/sabretooth9?