Confirmed with Link: Jason Botterill Hired As General Manager -- MOD WARNING #1851

[Sabretooth]

what, the nightly booing them off the ice wasn't enough?

 

[Chainshot]

what, the nightly booing them off the ice wasn't enough?

The booing was intermittent. HF rags on people endlessly. We are relentless.

 

[1point21Gigawatts]

The booing was intermittent. HF rags on people endlessly. We are relentless.

I worry if the sabres ever start winning again, none of us will know what to do.

 

[SharkInABoloTie]

I worry if the sabres ever start winning again, none of us will know what to do.

Pretty similar to how caps fans feel coming out of the second round

 

[Kyndig]

I worry if the sabres ever start winning again, none of us will know what to do.

By the time the team starts winning I think we will all be sitting in a mental institution rocking back and forth saying "Not a bad period by the Buffalo Sabres."

I think we will be close to a playoff team next season and make the playoffs the following year. Dahlin, Guhle, Pilut, and Mitts growing pains.

 

[cybresabre]

By the time the team starts winning I think we will all be sitting in a mental institution rocking back and forth saying "Not a bad period by the Buffalo Sabres."
I think we will be close to a playoff team next season and make the playoffs the following year. Dahlin, Guhle, Pilut, and Mitts growing pains.

Think of all the fun bitching we'll do by then!
"They should have rebooted coach Watson by game 10100."
"We would have made the playoffs if they had CRISPR'd the redhead out of Jack 2.0..."
"Hoverskates ruined the game."

 

[26CornerBlitz]

Jason Botterill, Sabres GM (13:26)
Sabres GM Jason Botterill chats with Greg Wyshynski about landing the #1 pick in the 2018 NHL draft, including who they may be interested in taking, if they would trade the pick and more. Plus, his thoughts on strong comments from Ryan O'Reilly.

Botterill was on ESPN Radio with Greg Wyshinski a couple of weeks ago.

5-17: Greg Wyshynski of ESPN on WGR (21:31)

 

[brian_griffin]

I see what you’re getting at. I don’t see the need for a Pominville buyout though. He’s already on the last year of his deal. If he’s bad enough pull a Moulson and send him to the minors, and let him sit if he doesn’t like it.

Bogosian has talent. Again it’s just my personality that I would avoid buyouts at all costs. I understand your motivation (to shakeup the core without trading O’Reilly).

But that notwithstanding, if you did everything else on your list besides those buyouts (and sent Pominville down to the AHL), that would be a decent change.

Also, I think you are correct about Lehner. I think he might be the biggest locker room personality cancer there is. I feel like going to work with that guy every day would be really tough.

All in all though I think O’Reilly will be dealt.

1st bolded. Asked and answered. Poms is definitely bad enough. He's an anchor on ES play in terms of his speed.

2nd bolded. Irrelevant. He's always injured.

3rd bolded. No, the motivation is to use the cap savings from the buyout to invest in low-to-mid-level UFAs to improve the overall roster talent. And your comment implies Bogosian is viewed as "core". I don't think so.

4th bolded: The moment that happens, Sabres are scouring the league for a ROR replacement. Hint: they are few and far between, and teams don't trade them without being wistful later.

 

[Jame]

So, status quo then?

No. Try reading.

 

[Reddawg]

No. Try reading.

I've been reading you railing on him for a month now.

 

[Jame]

I've been reading you railing on him for a month now.

I've railed on him for his terrible handling of the first season.
I've also said what I expect of him going forward to gain my confidence (which includes turning over the shit laden roster he put together last year, and showing the lockerroom he's committed to winning.

Trading a cornerstone player will not gain my confidence, and will certainly not gain the lockerrooms.

 

[Sabre Dance]

I've railed on him for his terrible handling of the first season.
I've also said what I expect of him going forward to gain my confidence (which includes turning over the **** laden roster he put together last year, and showing the lockerroom he's committed to winning.

Trading a cornerstone player will not gain my confidence, and will certainly not gain the lockerrooms.

Terrible handling?Like what? His signature moves so far are acquiring Scandella, drafting a #1 prospect outside the top 2 picks, and signing Jack.

The Housley hire is just as much ownership, but Housley was the favorite from the start for most people.

 

[Jame]

It's like this.... here's last year's opening night roster.... it was a disaster.... Botts can fix a ton of this without a single trade or free agent. He's already started....

Kane-Eichel-Pominville
Pouliot-ROR-Okposo
Girgs-Reinhart-Griffith
Nolan-Larsson-Josefson
Moulson

Beaulieu-Risto
Tennyson-Scandella
McCabe-Antipin
Gorges-Bogo

Lehner
Johnson

Is that not enough of turnover/shakeup in one full year?

Here's another snap shot in early January....

Girgs-Eichel-Reinhart
Kane-ROR-Okposo
Pouliot-Erod-Pominville
Nolan-Larsson-Josefson
Wilson

Scandella-Risto
McCabe-Bogo
Beaulieu-Falk
Gorges-Antipin

Post Trade Deadline with Eichel Returned

Girgs-Eichel-Pominville
Wilson-ROR-Reinhart
Nolan-Erod-Okposo
Pouliot-Larsson-Baptiste
Josefson-Cruiscuolo-Bailey

Scandella-Risto
Guhle-Nelson
Gorges-Antipin
Beaulieu-Falk

All this takes is a couple buyouts and letting all the crap disappear in free agency..... AND.....The players we ALREADY know are coming to replace these guys:

Dahlin, Mittelstadt, Guhle, Olofsson.... that's a massive injection of speed and skill....

f***ing fill it in with some good solid NHLers.... and all of the sudden you have a competent roster with a ton of upside

EDIT: Well... i f***ed that up.. Fixed

 

[Jame]

Terrible handling?Like what? His signature moves so far are acquiring Scandella, drafting a #1 prospect outside the top 2 picks, and signing Jack.

The Housley hire is just as much ownership, but Housley was the favorite from the start for most people.

This has been covered ad nauseum. If you don't know what it's in reference to, that's on you.

 

[Gabrielor]

Botts can fix you mean? Murray ain’t fixing shit.

 

[Sabre Dance]

This has been covered ad nauseum. If you don't know what it's in reference to, that's on you.

Ok. I just don't see how you can be critical of a GM that has yet to really have a chance to build his roster.

Trading O'Reilly would obviously open him up for criticism.

 

[joshjull]

I've railed on him for his terrible handling of the first season.
I've also said what I expect of him going forward to gain my confidence (which includes turning over the **** laden roster he put together last year, and showing the lockerroom he's committed to winning.

Trading a cornerstone player will not gain my confidence, and will certainly not gain the lockerrooms.

Love that you think you have the slightest clue how the lockerroom would feel about or react to a ROR trade.

 

[Jame]

Love that you think you have the slightest clue how the lockerroom would feel about or react to a ROR trade.

:yawn:
I love your love

 

[Jame]

Ok. I just don't see how you can be critical of a GM that has yet to really have a chance to build his roster.

Trading O'Reilly would obviously open him up for criticism.

f*** that.... He had all year.

He signed absolute garbage free agents last year, and when it became obvious that a roster with shit like Moulson, Griffith, Pouliot, Tennyson, Nolan, Falk, Pominville, Josefson, etc all playing on it... would be a disaster.... he proceeded to do f*** all, and flushed a season along with a lockerroom down the toilet.

 

[Sabre Dance]

**** that.... He had all year.

He signed absolute garbage free agents last year, and when it became obvious that a roster with **** like Moulson, Griffith, Pouliot, Tennyson, Nolan, Falk, Pominville, Josefson, etc all playing on it... would be a disaster.... he proceeded to do **** all, and flushed a season along with a lockerroom down the toilet.

He did as much as he could without disrupting the core or trading top assets. Im not sure what you wanted him to do? The season wasn't a waste. It was a success. We won the lottery.

Let's be realistic. It was a roster with many bad contracts and leadership issues when Botterill arrived. That wasn't getting fixed in 1 off season.

 

[Jame]

He did as much as he could without disrupting the core or trading top assets.

He absolutely did not.

Im not sure what you wanted him to do?

He should have gotten rid of the crap before the season started (Moulson, Gorges, etc.... )

He should've signed better UFAs (Boyle, Vanek, Winnik, etc)

The season wasn't a waste. It was a success. We won the lottery.

At least we won Dahlin.... that alone makes destroying the lockerroom worthwhile....

Let's be realistic. It was a roster with many bad contracts and leadership issues when Botterill arrived. That wasn't getting fixed in 1 off season.

Let's be realistic. Botts was an unqualified hire.

 

[Sabre Dance]

At least we won Dahlin.... that alone makes destroying the lockerroom worthwhile....



Let's be realistic. Botts was an unqualified hire.

I won't comment on who he should have signed because I don't think any of those players change much, maybe a few more points.

Destroying the locker room comment is interesting. Did I miss something? How did he destroy the locker room? I thought that was the biggest issue prior to Botterill.

I like experience when hiring GM's and coaches, so I won't argue. I think he gets this year though before we can fairly criticize him.

 

[Icicle]

Newsflash. Botts can execute a major shakeup strategy without trading ROR or Risto.


Buyout Pommer: former franchise captain, top 9 minute forward

Buyout Bogo: Alternate Captain, big lockerroom personality

Do not Qualify Lehner: 3 year starter, big lockeroom personality

Let numerous low level free agents walk: Pouliot, Josefson, Falk, Nolan, Gorges, etc

Allow high skill prospects (Mitts, Dahlin, Nylander, Guhle, etc) to take spots from low end RFAs (Griffith, Bailey, Baptiste, Nelson, etc)

Trade mid-low level young NHLers (McCabe, Girgs, Larsson, etc) for new mid-low level young NHLers.

And sign some quality free agents

Botts can execute a major shakeup without moving a cornerstone piece.

I consider 3/4 of what you said as a bare minimum expectation I have for him, given most of those are painfully obvious moves. Semantics.

 

[Icicle]

**** that.... He had all year.

He signed absolute garbage free agents last year, and when it became obvious that a roster with **** like Moulson, Griffith, Pouliot, Tennyson, Nolan, Falk, Pominville, Josefson, etc all playing on it... would be a disaster.... he proceeded to do **** all, and flushed a season along with a lockerroom down the toilet.

Last year wasn't salvageable without spending oodles of assets. He probably realized, like we all did, by November, the season was a lost cause and tanking for Dahlin was the most economical option. Now we have Dahlin.

If he made improvements mid-season, we would've had to lose assets (draft picks and prospects) to get anyone to take our trash, and realistically he'd only get halfway. If we were a playoff team that was a couple moves away from President's trophy, that's one thing, but this was a bad team that was struggling to learn a system that had Reinhart and ROR and Okposo playing like TOTAL TRASH all through December, so given the information at the time, his patience I'd argue was in fact his best option. A 5th for Wilson was a low consequence move to keep underperforming Rochester players down on the winning team.

You are all-in on blaming Botterill for not fixing things mid-season, but that assumes there were moves he could've made to right the ship then. Yes, we all see obvious paths forward next year, most of which involve not re-signing the players whose contracts naturally ran their course already. That was Botterill's doing-- acquiring players all on short-term basis so he can re-tool if necessary. He didn't trade away any core pieces except Folingo->Scandella, and nobody thinks that's a bad move. His patience, as opposed to the over-confident over-spending that Murray espoused, is a welcome addition. Cause let's be honest, the over-confident over-spending is why we're in this mess in the first place.


You should bring your assessment of Botterill into the land of reality. Until you can come up with a plan of trades to be done last November to make last year a playoff team, your criticism of Botterill is simply bullshit.


I would consider the movement of a core piece, that Botterill didn't dive right into, the minimum of a 'major shake-up'. And given last year, it's not unwarranted. But it's a mixed bag whether it's needed, or whether the support deck chairs just get shuffled and a summer of not piss-poor training like we have to assume many players had last year doesn't repeat itself.

 

[Tatanka]

Tanking for Dahlin or Svetch was not an option as there was no guarantee that finishing last would get either.