And you said they were getting blown out more often now than earlier in the year. That is not the case.
I hear that. Wait until you are Dad's Cab service - time gets even tighter.
Goaltending remains the one thing they've consistently botched under Adams. A couple of the retreads have been decent enough that they're going to get people looking for them at the deadline - Pysyk and Hinostroza in particular. The long-term commitment was to not pay lip-service to developing their kids but to actually do it and sadly, that involves having a lot of NHL-level filler to take lumps while guys like Quinn and Peterka work through their initial issues instead of throwing them to the proverbial dogs.
We know what rushing players can do in terms of stunting guys who turn out (Risto, Girgensons) or straight up damaging players so they never reach the next level at all (Grigorenko, Nylander) or it delays their arrival (Mittelstadt, Thompson).
Also, to the point of mid-point in terms of cap spending... we've recently seen what it is like to have players using the Sabres as just a cash grab on their way to their next destination (Taylor Hall). Having guys on lower end deals who are on the fringes of being in the show is going to have some guys work out (Hino, Pysyk) and some who do not (Caggiula, Bjork) but it does at least mean that those who want to stay in the show are going to be far hungrier and put in more effort than the ones like Hall or Staal or Bogosian who just mail it in almost every night.
I mean, it's a bit more than 10M to work with though.
You don't sign Hinostroza (1M), Pysyk (900k), Caggiula (750k), Anderson (750k). That's 3.4M
You don't take on Butcher (2.82)
You send Eakin to the minors (+1M-ish in extra space)
So 7.22 + 10M = 17.22M in cap space to midpoint.
You also have 2x 2nds and 2x 3rds in the probably most unscoutable draft in modern NHL history, so those are all on the table, at least, IMHO.
The assets and cap space were there. And the expansion draft could have been an opportunity to improve the team as well that was floundered.
It was incredibly frustrating this summer to see the Sabres returning to the dollar bin for free agents when they had both cap space and draft capital to use to improve the team and they didn't. You could have easily assembled a .500 team, still had primary roles for the youth with entangling yourselves in regrettable contracts. Or at least you could have TRIED
The issue was that Adams refused to spend draft picks and an ownership mandate to spend as little as possible.