Buffalo Sabres have lost 11 in a row.

[fsanford]

As I said... it's lasted too long. They had brutal luck with Eichel for example.

I'm not going to speak for the last 13 years, I'm going to speak about where they are now.

The knee jerk reaction is to just trade everyone. But they've got some great young players and they should just stick it out. And their owner needs to sack up and start paying to the cap. I don't get it, he owns an NFL team. Going to the cap should be chump change for him.

They have no culture. You can draft high all you want, but you need to find guys who understand what it takes to win.

If need be give up picks to find those culture guys.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

They have no culture. You can draft high all you want, but you need to find guys who understand what it takes to win.

If need be give up picks to find those culture guys.

No.

Don’t give up picks. Don’t give up young talent. They’ve done that and it blew up in their face.

Right now their culture is giving away talent before they mature. Stop doing that.

Rebuilding doesn’t work if you’re constantly giving away what you acquire. That’s the Mike Milbury way.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

I mean, yeah, is s***s to be the Sabres, but the thread tittle could also be “The Leafs have not achieved anything with their core for 8 years”. What, really, is the difference of being ousted in the first round of the playoffs and missing it, tbh? A few home games extra for some more money to the org?

A perennial playoff team is a lot more fun to watch than a team that misses the playoffs every year. Leafs have a problem that Buffalo can only hope to have one day, let's be real. And this board has discussed the leafs playoffs failures to death so it's not like no one has mentioned it.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

As I said... it's lasted too long. They had brutal luck with Eichel for example.

I'm not going to speak for the last 13 years, I'm going to speak about where they are now.

The knee jerk reaction is to just trade everyone. But they've got some great young players and they should just stick it out. And their owner needs to sack up and start paying to the cap. I don't get it, he owns an NFL team. Going to the cap should be chump change for him.

Brutal luck in what way?

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Brutal luck in what way?

In him getting injured.

 

[fsanford]

No.

Don’t give up picks. Don’t give up young talent. They’ve done that and it blew up in their face.

Right now their culture is giving away talent before they mature. Stop doing that.

None of these guys know how to win.
That is their culture a collection of players that don't know how to win in the NHL.

You got enough young talent, now bring in the guys who can teach them what it takes to be an NHL player.

Or draft more guys and drift in hockey purgatory

 

[benfranklin]

Eichel wasn't a first overall. Also we didn't hit there. We lost the lottery and lost McDavid. Eichel is a great player and I wish we still had him, but we didn't hit on him, he was the consolation prize.


We didn't take berniers despite already having Dahlin and needing Centres. I understand logically we should take Hagens but I have less than zero faith in this management group making the right pick even at 1st overall. Plus we'll likely lose the lottery anyways.

True. Obviously 2OA. More saying they had a 1OA talent and Eichel wouldve went 1OA in nearly every other year. Eichel is a top 10 player today and has been a top 20 player or so since day 1 in the world.

Dahlin looks fine. Power looks more like an Eric Johnson 1OA.

 

[Turin]

In him getting injured.

In this case you make your own luck and don't manage the injury terribly

 

[dirtydanglez]

i dont know who the men are in the photo but i assume they are pegulas.

 

[Fearnot]

And he didn’t even have the decency to specify “big tiddy”

 

[Spargon]

I mean, yeah, is s***s to be the Sabres, but the thread tittle could also be “The Leafs have not achieved anything with their core for 8 years”. What, really, is the difference of being ousted in the first round of the playoffs and missing it, tbh? A few home games extra for some more money to the org?

Yeah perennial 100+ pt team, pretty much a lock for playoffs before the season starts. Players winning awards, totally the same as swirling the basement year after year as a punchline after thought. Also it would be one thing if the Leafs repeatedly lost in 4 or 5 games each year. But they take every series to 7 often to OT before they lose.

Not even the same realm of comparable. Buffalo is a dumpster top to bottom.

 

[John Mandalorian]

 

[StreetHawk]

No.

Don’t give up picks. Don’t give up young talent. They’ve done that and it blew up in their face.

Right now their culture is giving away talent before they mature. Stop doing that.

Rebuilding doesn’t work if you’re constantly giving away what you acquire. That’s the Mike Milbury way.

Buffalo has just run the team the way a rebuild poster here would have. Just depend on the drafted players to make the team better.
There is no way you can draft all of the positions needed for a successful team. If you take BPA philosophy of drafting, you will be missing something.
What trades have they made that were not forced upon them to improve the team?

Seems like such a gap where they went out and got someone like a ROR in 2015 to getting Byram for Mittlestadt last TDL in 2024.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

None of these guys know how to win.

Who cares? Joe Sakic joined a terrible team. So did countless other players who were drafted high. Eichel didn’t know how to win either, but he learned elsewhere after they traded him. They traded Sam Reinhart… he was able to win somewhere else. What if they just kept those guys?

Get a cheap vet who’s been around. Don’t trade away young talent.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

In this case you make your own luck and don't manage the injury terribly

There was mixed opinions on what to do. That’s terrible luck.

That doesn’t mean the Sabres handled it as well as they could’ve but…

 

[Mattilaus]

Hope so , at some point there's nothing else to be done outside of embarrass the owner publicly , I know it's a tough subject because nobody wants to see their team have an empty barn , but everybody knows buffalo fans care at least , nobody would blame them

Honestly I am not sure pegula will feel embarrassed by the leaf fans invading our arena. All he cares about is the bottom line and leaf fans pay.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Buffalo has just run the team the way a rebuild poster here would have.

Trading away young talent is not what a rebuilding poster would advocate. It’s what Mike Milbury would do.

More quick fixes will lead to the same results. By all means, add some cheap vets. But don’t start trading young players and prospects.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Buffalo has been the youngest team in the NHL for 3 straight seasons. Prior to that they were 28th, 26th, 29th, 30th, 24th, 24th, 28th, 27th, 27th in terms of age dating back to 2013-14.

They've essentially been "get young, stay young". Obviously young players back in 2013-14 are not young anymore (mind blowing stuff I know, a 21 year old that season is 32 now). What you don't want to have happen is that you become essentially a Minor League team for the rest of the NHL, which is something that a rebuilding team runs the risk of if they don't identify and locate a core and get them locked in to grow together.

 

[StreetHawk]

Buffalo has been the youngest team in the NHL for 3 straight seasons. Prior to that they were 28th, 26th, 29th, 30th, 24th, 24th, 28th, 27th, 27th in terms of age dating back to 2013-14.

They've essentially been "get young, stay young". Obviously young players back in 2013-14 are not young anymore (mind blowing stuff I know, a 21 year old that season is 32 now). What you don't want to have happen is that you become essentially a Minor League team for the rest of the NHL, which is something that a rebuilding team runs the risk of if they don't identify and locate a core and get them locked in to grow together.

They failed to supplement young talent with some better players. They had to reboot since ROR, Reinhart, Eichel asked out. So where is the support for Dahlin, Power, Tuch, Thompson, Cozens, etc?

 

[fsanford]

Who cares? Joe Sakic joined a terrible team. So did countless other players who were drafted high. Eichel didn’t know how to win either, but he learned elsewhere after they traded him. They traded Sam Reinhart… he was able to win somewhere else. What if they just kept those guys?

Get a cheap vet who’s been around. Don’t trade away young talent.

Eichel went to a franchise that had success.
Reinhart same thing. If they kept those guys how would they learn how to win with Sabres

You are subscribing to the same blue print of before. Keep draft picks. Somehow this bunch after years of sucking will magically start winning by adding more guys with no experience. Culture appears out of nowhere.

You got talent now trade DRAFT PICKs to get QUALITY veteran talent from winning organizations. Even if you have to slightly overpay

Tap into places like Carolina, Dallas, Tampa, Vegas, Bruins, etc.

A lot teams who take that next step get talent through the draft but then reach a point where they bring in quality guys with experience and winning pedigree.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Eichel went to a franchise that had success.
Reinhart same thing. If they kept those guys how would they learn how to win with Sabres

And if they’d stayed they would’ve had success together.

You are subscribing to the same blue print of before. Keep draft picks. Somehow this bunch after years of sucking will magically start winning by adding more guys with no experience. Culture appears out of nowhere.

No I’m not. The blueprint from before was to let guys like Eichel and Reinhart go. I’m advocating the opposite. Hang onto your young talent.

You got talent now trade DRAFT PICKs to get QUALITY veteran talent from winning organizations.

No.

Get cheap bets for that. Why the hell would you give away young talent that you can develop and get their best years cheap for trading for established older expensive players?

Tap into places like Carolina, Dallas, Tampa, Vegas, Bruins, etc.

A lot teams who take that next step get talent through the draft but then bring in quality guys with experience.

Thats the Mike Milbury way. It doesn’t work.

 

[Dust]

There was mixed opinions on what to do. That’s terrible luck.

That doesn’t mean the Sabres handled it as well as they could’ve but…

They managed to alienate their best player by not listening to his wishes. The injury might have been unlucky, the way they handled it was idiotic.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

They managed to alienate their best player by not listening to his wishes. The injury might have been unlucky, the way they handled it was idiotic.

Fair enough. I’m not saying they haven’t screwed up. But they had some rotten luck and I don’t think repeating old mistakes is how you fix things.

 

[BB79]

Man, I sure am glad Pegula talked to the team before the game in Montreal. Made all the difference in the world.

Fire Pegula.

 

[fsanford]

And if they’d stayed they would’ve had success together.



No I’m not. The blueprint from before was to let guys like Eichel and Reinhart go. I’m advocating the opposite. Hang onto your young talent.

No.

Get cheap bets for that. Why the hell would you give away young talent that you can develop and get their best years cheap for trading for established older expensive players?

Thats the Mike Milbury way. It doesn’t work.

The blueprint has pretty much been we hope guys who have never won in the NHL will figure out how to win. After awhile it doesn't work so they reset it again. Because value draft picks sooo much they don't bring in high quality veterans to help those guys they drafted before. You are promoting the same process. Except somehow these guys we keep they will figure out how to win.

So I have a good friend who is a coach on a staff of professional sports team. This team was bad for many years. One of the first thing they talked about as a staff is they needed to change culture.

They dumped/traded some "hot" prospects and kept others. They then blended it with some culture building free agents. And traded some picks for other. Team is now a regular playoff contender

Good GM's and coaches understand high drafting alone will not equal wins. You draft high cuz of 1 of 2 things

The team is poor at identifying talent, or your team lacks those guys who know what it takes to win games. And perhaps it can be a bit of both.

That said the owner is a big part of Sabres problem more so than most franchises so they have to overcome that too. Maybe he doesn't want to pay for quality veterans to help his young players