The answer for this team is Brian Burke as president of hockey ops and it will never happen. He's absolute blowhard but made some good moves with Leafs. Best part is he despises Toronto now. Burke immediately takes all the abuse from media/fans but isn't scared to call out his team. He'll stand up to Pegulas but his off-ice reputation would kill any chance.
Jason Botterill Discussion Part 5
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VaporTrail
Registered User
- Mar 2, 2011
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I'm really feeling uneasy and uncomfortable with Botterill still at the helm...never felt like this with any other GM.
Fezzy126
Rebuilding...
- May 10, 2017
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It's the unending and building vitriol from the past decade. If you need a pick me up, just remember that Chia won a cup, Benning has constructed a 1st place team, and Cheveldayoff even built stanley cup contender by literally doing nothing for most of his tenure, so all hope is not lost. Hell, even Darcy built two stanley cup teams.
Buffaloed
webmaster
People used to talk derisively about Golisano's goal of making the Sabres financially viable. But that's tangible and falls within the context of Golisano's experience. Measurable objectives were set including improving the product on the ice to achieve that end. Even after losing Drury/Briere, Golisano's team still made the playoffs. We'd be better off with an owner who was a ruthless capitalist than one who thinks he's the Candy Man.
Aladyyn
they praying for the death of a rockstar
Winnipeg was good for like a season and a half under Chevy, not exactly an example to strive towards.
Buffaloed
webmaster
I'd take just about anyone who has successful experience building a team. Give them a 10 year $100 million contract and an ownership stake, and leave them alone. Bob Clarke and Dean Lombardi are a couple others I like. I want them to groom a successor and they could become a consultant after 6 years.
Sansbacon
Registered User
Stole this from the Avs GDT; thought it would fit painfully in here:
1point21Gigawatts
hell's a gigawatt?
There was an awful lot of jubilation and optimism when Tpegs bought the team because finally we could shed the shackles of Big Tom Golisano's purse strings. Hindsight plays a huge role for sure and i would almost gladly welcome Golisano back at this point because you're right that the team made the playoffs more regularly under his ownership (even if they weren't serious contenders).
Dubi Doo
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- Aug 27, 2008
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Pretty sure the only current contracts Bott's didn't personally sign are Risto, Bogo, and Okposo.
- Jul 25, 2016
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Okay. Go to the PSE website and look at the first page. It lists the assets under PSE management. In addition to the Sabres Bills Amerks Bandits (all teams) they list the Harborcenter, Marriot, some lodge in the Adirondacks, and their country music label. What do country music artists and running a hockey team have in common? Nothing that I can tell. Further they list the arenas and hotels. Are you running a real estate organization ( which in fairness is similar to their gas leasing background) or are you running sports franchises with the goal of winning championships?
The point is that the Pegulas are making money off this debacle. The lower bowl of opposing fans are there via the secondary market. The Pegs made their money on the primary market and Leafs fans buy hot dogs too.
MLSE owns a bunch of properties as well but the Maple Leafs Hockey Club has a distinct structure of management and subject matter experts distinct from the rest of the organization. There isn’t a structure within the Sabres that can act independently in the best interest of the franchise. The management must go up the ladder to a group of people with competing motivations that lack the knowledge to effectively evaluate what’s best for the hockey team. I also think this will come back to haunt the Bills but that is somewhat mitigated by the guaranteed revenue generated by their tv contract and the the no gurantee contract (your mistakes do not have as long an effect.).
I sort of feel bad for Bobblehead in that as an inexperienced gm, he was put in a position of not having an organizational focus on winning as opposed to meeting some arbitrary performance goals that fit into the PSE business model. But he should have done his homework before signing on.
I no longer live in WNY but get back enough to see the changes that have taken place. While laudable, they are not in line with the sentiment that Terry uttered so many years ago: “From here on out the sole purpose of the Buffalo Sabres is to win Stanley Cups.” It looks more like they are the Sears Anchor tenant in their urban mall.
1point21Gigawatts
hell's a gigawatt?
I will give credit to Botts and the Eichel signing. Felt like an overpayment at the time, but it's a deal when you look at some of the other players in his tier and age group. That's about it. All of his other signings have serious flaws.
And I get how the hate on post-injury Okposo and post-conception Bogosian is easy to do. But there is 40% of the cap taken up by the filler Botterill keeps bringing in. And this summer is all about "let him put his stamp on the team"? f*** no. He already has put his stamp on the team and it's dog shit. Expensive, uninspired, unmotivated dog shit.
jc17
Registered User
- Jun 14, 2013
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I disagree. I think it's more ignorance.
And the reason they don't address the fans is because they have no answers, not because they think they're above it.
- Aug 19, 2005
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I'm just gonna go ahead and give credit for the Eichel contract to the Pegulas, who pushed and prodded their lackey GM into signing the budding young superstar probably a year earlier than Botterill would have liked (given his penchant for long evaluations).
itwasaforwardpass
I'll be the hyena
- Mar 4, 2017
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Jim Carr's Rug
Registered User
They felt comfortable enough to hire a GM who could afford to learn on the job.
Whether that's ignorance or arrogance, it doesn't much matter. The failure was in self assessment. The organization was not in position to hire someone who could make a few rookie mistakes. There was no room to absorb additional mistakes without compounding errors.
They needed to right the ship immediately in 2017. Instead, they hired a ship-captain with no experience sailing this type of vessel and no experience sailing in rough waters the organization occupied at the time.
The owners were out of touch with the organization's reality and were likely asking the wrong questions to their perspective GM hires.
We have owners learning on the job hiring managers learning on the job.
Buffaloed
webmaster
There's a lot of complaining about hiring ex-Sabres, but have you ever noticed that other teams groom and hire great ex-players, eg Sakic, Neely, Yzerman, that have a backbone to play an integral role in the organization? These are guys that will stand up to ownership and will tell them if something isn't right. The Sabres hire ex-players that made a career of going along to get along.
They're coming close to owning the team for a decade at this point. It isn't ignorance.
Given the cap usage and facilities, I see no reason to think Botts has been handcuffed.
It's possible that he is getting some kind of blowback from the PSE group, but up to now we haven't seen anything that shows he has been interfered with.
Edit: don't get me wrong, everything in your post was excellent work.
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- Jul 25, 2016
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Did you listen to the interview yesterday? He has zero independence. Consulting on hockey related matters with owners who have no clue about hockey seems like a handcuff to me.
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