Will the Buffalo Sabres ever fix what's broken?

[TageGod]

Still too young. Need to move picks, prospects, and some roster players for more established players. Need a true top 6 C to compliment Thompson and a #2/4 D to compliment Power or Byram (One needs to go).

 

[benfranklin]

Still too young. Need to move picks, prospects, and some roster players for more established players. Need a true top 6 C to compliment Thompson and a #2/4 D to compliment Power or Byram (One needs to go).

Screams Mittlestadt for Byram.

 

[TheFinalWord]

Lucic destroyed the organization with one hit. Nov 2011 he smoked Miller. The year before, Buffalo was in the playoffs. Since then, they've missed every year. We just saw the same thing happen again with Tage.

There are teams with an identity (Boston is a great example, despite them falling this year), and there are teams that don't seem to have one (like Buffalo). IMO, they need to get more heart-and-soul guys that will drag the team along with them. They have and have had plenty of talent. Once they make it once, they'll probably make it 10 years straight, but they've got to find an identity. I think they really need multiple guys, or at least one guy that they'll all follow into battle. The talent is there.

 

[TageGod]

Screams Mittlestadt for Byram.

Exactly, full circle trade. 2C for Byram, for 2C.

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

Dunno. Ask the Florida Panthers. One minute they were hot garbage in a perpetual rebuild for 15 years, the next, they made a trade or two, and made the finals and won the cup. Things can change on a dime if the right moves are made. They've always had the foundation, just missing a few things to put it all together.

Well, it's not that simple. Plus, they had turned a corner much earlier than that. But ownership decided to step in and become GM and coach of the team.
The team actually rose up the standings from the bottom in 2014 - 2015. And won the division in 2015 - 2016. Then, ownership stepped in and derailed that (actually during that division winning season, big reason why they lost in the first round that year). When ownership saw how they screwed that up, they stepped back. After that it took several years to build back up to where they were headed before.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

All men are still mortals, even owners. The problem will disappear from this earth, his body become frack fuel for future generations.

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

Ownership has always been a clear problem. Lack of focus/direction hurt a lot as well.

For instance, they did the thing in the summer of 2015 everyone keeps saying they didn't and should have done, which is they got very aggressive. This was a bizarre decision considering they really tore the team down to its studs. So it's going to be pretty difficult to ductape a team together.

*Before 2014-15 ended, they traded a 1st round pick and other things to bring in Evander Kane and Zach Bogosian.
*Traded the Islander 1st for Robin Lehner/David Legwand*
*Traded Zadorov, Grigorenko, Compher and a 2nd for O'Reilly and McGinn and then flipped McGinn for a 3rd
*Traded a 3rd to Nashville for Jim Vesey's rights (never signed, became a UFA a couple months later)

O'Reilly, despite being unanimously praised as an acquisition here, was a bit of an odd choice considering they had just drafted Sam Reinhart and Jack Eichel with back to back 2nd overalls, presumably to be their franchise building blocks. O'Reilly is a good example of how a "young" forward (24 at the time) isn't actually that young when you zoom out, as he was 4.5 years older than Reinhart and 5.5 years older than Eichel, so they weren't all ever really on quite the same timeline.

They also didn't really have any actual solution or plan at the time for their defense. It seemingly rested on the shoulders of a 20 year old former eighth overall pick from a couple years prior (Ristolainen). They signed Cody Franson for whatever reason.

They did improve a lot with these moves... like a lot. Unfortunately though, not enough to make any real noise... and at a time they probably should have still been in the tank and in the running for Auston Matthews, which didn't occur because that's what happens when you're mediocre.

It played itself out, with no defense they were back in the basement a couple years later and it was first O'Reilly out, then Reinhart, then Eichel who all went to win Cups on their new teams, showing they weren't really "the problem" as far as talent goes... and full rebuild the rebuild.

There's nothing wrong with tearing a team down to its studs and just going full tank/pick accumulation, but you should stick to it and not just decide that actually you don't want to do that anymore and start just filling holes form wherever. That is the worst way to do it

I agree with this. And I've said this before. I think this is where this whole thing went off the rails.