I implore people to go watch Terry Pegulas last press conference for the Sabres (back in 2020).
He said he was going to go lean. He said he didn’t do a GM search because Kevyn Adams always did his other tasks well.
They didn’t do a real coaching search and hired Granato.
He installed Kim (then himself) as the president.
Besides Taylor Hall, he’s shown zero interest in spending money on the Sabres since then. If you disagree, I have two words - Ben Bishop.
Yeah, Adams is unqualified and inexperienced. Yeah, our coaching staff isn’t the best. But this is what Terry wanted. A stripped down version of the Sabres to stop the bleeding of money.
It’s on him, 100%.
Not arguing, just curious…what’s the knock about Ben Bishop? We used cap space to have him under the umbrella and then allowed him to go be a coach or something somewhere else, that’s all I remember.
Instead of paying money for real NHL talent, before NHL free agency even started we traded for Ben Bishop's contract, who had a very low cash value for the final year of his contract. We ended up paying something around 150k (since his contract was insured) for 4.9m cap hit, so we could be over the cap floor.
They're complaining because they knew he'd be LTIR with insurance paying most of the actual costs so they could artificially reach the cap floor while saving millions
While all the above is true, not clear to me the Bishop trade is/was 100% impugning to Pegula's cheapness. If, e.g., Tampa or Vegas or Toronto signed Bishop pre-draft then many observers might have praised them for buying a ticket for legal cap circumvention.
Bishop trade was done pre-draft and pre-free agency, with no foreknowledge of who may or may not have been willing to sign in BUF that offseason. I see a small fraction of it as an insurance policy for being able to be cap compliant without knowing if any fish would bite the Sabres UFA hook.
Not clear there was a bona-fide Free-agent alternative which could have been guaranteed in advance of the draft / July 1st.
Chara or Thornton going 1 more year in BUF for $10+M after all they made in their careers?
Bergeron signing max value in BUF vs. 1 last lap in BOS?
Klingberg for $10M in BUF vs. $7M in ANA? okay...maybe...maybe
Max Domi or Athanasiou or both for $6M each instead of $3M each in CHI?
Paul Stastny for a final ride in CAR for $1.5M or come to BUF for ~$7M?
or Phil Kessel ($1.5M) and Marc Staal ($750k) going to Vegas and Florida and eventually playing in a Cup Final against each other vs. signing for name your price money in BUF.
If BUF had thrown foolish money at (more) low-tier UFAs than they already did that summer (Boosh, Comrie), I'd strongly suspect we'd lambast them for that.
Remember, the "free" in free agency means they are free to sign anywhere they choose, and to entice a top talent to play a year (or more) in the burning stench of the Sabres tire fire isn't free cost, in particular if the player has made a chunk of change in his career already.
So, IMO not 100% Pegula cheapness, there's a little reality, pragmatism, and smart economy as well.