¼ of the way thru the season. Where's your mind at?

[ZZamboni]

Where do you honestly stand?

Complete and total rebuild. Just like the one we did a few years ago. Sell, and trade EVERYTHING that isn’t Jack Eichel. And i mean literally EVERYTHING. Ice AHL fodder for a couple years to bottom out. Acquire mostly picks for future drafts. That includes firing Housley and/or Botterill immediately. No more patience. I’ve had it!

No need to totally rebuild. We have a few very nice pieces on the roster right now. And some very nice prospects coming up next year and the year after. Keep tweaking the roster. Sell off dead weight where possible. Like Bogo and Moulson.

No need to tweak the roster much. Maybe a player or two. Give the guys time to adjust to the new system and coaches. Housley should learn from the mistakes he’s making. It just may take awhile. This is growing/developing/learning pains. Nothing more.

Change nothing. Have patience for what Housley and Botterill are trying to do. It may take the entire season before we see things improve.

Click to read more...

 

[Jim Bob]

They don't need a complete rebuild, but Botts does have a lot of work on his plate to get this team into the playoffs.

And that will take time.

 

[Gabrielor]

Option 2 seems the most sensible, and my personal choice. However, if Jack and co. don’t evolve at all this season, it may have to be 1...and if you are picking option #1, I think the first guy you consider trading is Eichel.

 

[enthusiast]

The hope is that we're in the extended Melrose era of Jack's Stamkosian cycle

 

[kp2575]

I'm totally depressed and I think the future is bleak... Oh wait that isn't what you are asking.

 

[Moskau]

The hope is that we're in the extended Melrose era of Jack's Stamkosian cycle

I think we're in the Dallas Eakins period.

 

[gallagt01]

Option 2 and option 4 shouldn't be one or the other. I have patience for what Botteril and Housley are trying to build but I recognize that the core as is isn't near good enough for them to ever contend.

Basically, I'm adopting a long-term approach like the one we all adopted when the "suffering" talk first surfaced. There are no quick fixes available here. There are pieces in place and I'm going to patiently wait for more to fall in line.

That said, I'm also going to not watch regularly anymore. So maybe I'm not so patient after all.

 

[Tatanka]

My mind is on ski season.

 

[Jame]

The hope is that we're in the extended Melrose era of Jack's Stamkosian cycle

We are over 180 games in to Eichel's career.... Stamkos barely only had to survive 16 games of Melrose

 

[yahhockey]

How are the Bisons looking for 2018? lol

On paper the team should be better but in reality they stink. Maybe it takes more time to adjust to the new coach and his system or maybe the players simply aren't meshing and a retool is needed. Some of the players have enough value you may be able to flip them for a player of equal value on another time that needs a bit of a shakeup as well so it may not be a total rebuild in terms of selling and drafting but it could be a major overhaul in terms of names on the roster.

 

[haseoke39]

The seasons already irredeemable, so sit tight, evaluate, see who grows and who plateaus, start making moves at the trade deadline with a retool in mind. That is, everyone is available, but hopefully for young impact pieces and not pure futures. Emphasis on getting cheaper, free your hand to pursue RFA defense this summer in a trade.

Just guessing a little at future evaluations, ideally Kane and okposo move before July, for fiscal reasons, yeilding young picks/prospects. Ideally ROR could be the centerpiece for a young top pairing D. Ideally moulson gets bought out ( though that's pretty small savings, he's a culture cancer at this point). Ideally Scandella can hold out a little longer at his current level to keep the boat steady. Ideally lehner is gone at the deadline for futures.

Though it's really dependent on the market. This current core, this current culture, is downright toxic. You need to move for young talent, and you need to move for leadership, and frankly Jack Eichel is available in the right deal too. Risto is available for an upgrade on the backend. Reinhart is available. It doesn't need to be a tank, but it needs to be getting younger, better on the back end, more mature, and nobody has proven themselves invaluable enough to not have a price.

Housley has until the end of the year to show some growth, although I'd be loathe to dump him unless he really keeps blowing it. Botterill gets through next season at least.

Edit: well, give Housley a chance except to the extent that it really seems a specific coach is needed. If I'm botterill, I'm at least thinking about whether these Eeyore players need a Tortorella type to just flay them a little.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

I think we're in the Dallas Eakins period.

Hahaha, too perfect. We definitely need to use the "Oilers scale" going forward.

 

[Montag DP]

I don't think we need a total rebuild. But we do need to get rid of the dead weight (somehow) and get some coaches in here that aren't going to tolerate less than 100% effort and that know how to implement a competent system and disciplined play.

 

[SabresFanNorthPortFL]

Individually, they each have talent. This year the brass need to figure out who has "it," and who doesnt.

This team doesn' play cohesive, please figure out why. Last year the young guys didn' like the coach, nor the old guys. What's the problem now?????

Heaven forbid the issue is Eichel but if it is, trade him sooner, rather than spin wheels for the next five years.

This team sucks.

 

[Sabreality]

No total rebuild. I'm frustrated we havent seen a healthy D unit yet along with slot fillers like ERod & Josefson also being injured. There are holes on the roster for sure, but help is coming in Casey, Guhle, Asplund, Pu etcetc and hopefully Nylander. I'm disappointed for sure with the play of some, but have reached indifference to this team as it stands right now until their overall health improves.

 

[Sabretooth]

Hard to vote because I don't really agree with how the choices are framed. I want and expect a lot of roster changes over the next 2-3 years. I wouldn't call it a total rebuild but calling it tweaking seems like downplaying it too much.

This is kind of my outline for what I want to / think will happen by the 2020 season (or sooner )...

Out somehow, anyhow:
Pominville, Kane (prob traded this deadline), Moulson, Pouliot, Nolan, Bogo, Gorges, Beaulieu, Tennyson, Fedun

Keep:
ROR, Jack, Okposo (forced due to contract probably), Reinhart, Risto
(if you tell me you can get out of okposo, or win trades where ROR, Reinhart, or Risto are involved, then I'm listening...)

Keep or Trade:
Girgs, Larsson, McCabe
(mid-tier culture changing hockey trades possible here?)

Maybe Keep, or trade, or walk depending:
Josefson, Scandella, Antipin, Falk, Erod,
(too many questions to know if I want them/still want them 3 years from now)

Critically evaluate:
Bailey, Baptiste, Fasching, Smith, Nelson, other prospects, etc
(Basically the prospect pile of figure out who might have it and make the rest disappear)

Promote:
Guhle, Nylander, Mittlestadt, 2017 First Round Pick, 2018 First Round Pick?, Pu?, Asplund?
(hopes and dreams, etc.)

Somehow acquire:
The other half of an NHL caliber team.

If we're not at least trending in the right direction by then, I'll be on the total rebuild train. Until then, patience, drafting, developing, and beer. lots of beer.

 

[Sabresfansince1980]

I answered the question, but my mind is actually on the draft lottery already, wondering how many teams jump ahead of Buffalo after a 2nd to last finish.

Anyway...they need to reach back and start over from where they were in the summer of 2015. Botteril has to reclaim some amount of consolation prize from the Kane/Bogo debacle and other various picks lost in the vain attempt to "accelerate" the re-build. There is Eichel, O'Reilly, Reinhart, Mittelstadt, Larsson and Girgensons as guys that are worth keeping (not necessarily untouchable), Risto and Scandella...and every other useless garbage player or vet w/ bloated contract.

If TM had done it right and stuck with the draft or prospects, we might just now be on the brink of becoming a playoff team. So if Botterill can start over and re-do from 2015 (with less assets than TM had), than we're still talking about another two years from competing. It's gonna be a while, and it's not worth watching anymore. I'll watch an actual game on live TV sometime in 2019 maybe. Until then it's youtube highlites.

 

[sincerity0]

Some really good answers.

For me, it's sitting tight, ,seeing who is going to rise to the top. Reinhart, Eichel, Risto,, ROR ,Okposo and Scandella are the likely players who are going to be here "longer" term. Okposo, mainly due to contract.

I'd really love to see Baptise, Bailey, or Fasching earn a full-time spot due to their play. We need 1 or 2 of these guys to become quality NHLers.

Guhle needs to play like a great-to-excellent AHLer for another 30-40 games. I'd love nothing more than Guhle to force Botterill to call him up permanently because of his play in Rochester. It might be a bit of a pipe-dream, but that's what we do here.

Nylander establishes himself as a great AHLer, maybe gets a call-up and performs well.

Get a haul for Kane at the deadline.

25% of the way through the season and it feels like it is over already. I don't think we need to blow up the roster. Nobody expected Botts to turn around the roster in one season. He sure as hell tried to revamp the defense as much as possible -- without making a WOW move. The Scandella trade was nice.

- Beaulieu could be a nice third liner going forward. Scandella has been solid.
- Gorges is Gorges. Thank the Hockey Gods he's gone after this year
- We need more from Antipin
- McCabe is making me nervous
- Pouliot has been a fairly pleasant surprise. If he can keep it up he will have been a nice signing.
- Eichel has a score-adjusted 5v5 Corsi of 44.1%(!!!) he NEEDS to be dominant.
- Please more goals. Anyone. Please.

 

[haseoke39]

I'll tell you what I always thought over 20 years of being a hockey fan, one of those truisms that you learn, as reliable as "a dominant period without a goal spells bad momentum," or "a hot goalie needs to get fed more work." It's that over an 82 game season, bad teams win games when they want to badly enough. Really disappointing, frequently lazy, untalented teams like the 2010-12 Sabres, e.g., always had a threshold where they were starting to get embarrassed by their recent play, and they could uncork a superlative effort that could beat most of the teams ahead of them in the standings, if only for a game. You knew it would come sooner or later, even in a bad season. After all, most other teams aren't at 100% most nights. And it would be frustrating as hell that you only got that 100% from them about 10% of the time, but they definitely had that gear where they didn't want to lose because they just couldn't stand the embarrassment.

And what seems profoundly disconnected about this team is that I don't think they have that gear. I think they're fine with being embarrassed. I think they're sinking lower and lower, when by all rights they have the talent to be much better than this, and I'm frankly shocked we're not seeing that fight-or-flight kick in, that superlative effort that is maybe too late or too infrequent to redeem them totally, but at least it kicks in often enough to know they care.

I think the culture of this team is rotten somehow, and I wouldn't be sad or surprised to see the Sabres make a half-dozen trades that they lose on value, only to improve in the standings just because they shake the loser culture up and get some f***ing regular talentless try-hards like you see make the playoffs every damn year from somewhere around the league.

We're not f***ing asking for the world here. A .500 hockey team is not a ten-year project. You put together the normal amount of pride with a couple of above average talented players at maybe half the key positions on your roster, you're there. You could blow this team up and probably get there accidentally. It's not an impossible task, but somebody's gotta look this sick, self-pitying f***ing roster in its hollow eyes and trade 2-3 golden boys and kick 4-5 comfortable bastards in the dainty nuts and bring in some fourth line asshole who wants to be in the league badly enough that he'll fight his own guys in practice and some journeyman stay-at-home D who has no business being in the league if he doesn't sell out to block shots and just start a religious revival. Someone in this organization needs to start taking pulses, or applying the paddles.

 

[rbochan]

It's been 7 years rebuilding.

I've unsubscribed to all the Sabres spam I get in my inbox. I won't be buying tickets or merchandise, nor will I be watching any more games. Pegula has destroyed what was once endeared.
I'm done with this shit show.

 

[stokes84]

Keep Jack, Sam, and Risto. Build depth through the draft by trading our older vets with value. We need to build our draft cache back up. Basically, we are forced to long game this now.

 

[OkimLom]

Keep Jack, Sam, and Risto. Build depth through the draft by trading our older vets with value. We need to build our draft cache back up. Basically, we are forced to long game this now.

Like our fanbase has the patience for that...

 

[MayDay]

Given that we're less than two months into the new regime, I am in the "sit tight" camp.

Yes, the rebuild has been long, and yes, this year's team has been horrid.

But Botts and Housley literally just got here, and they deserve a reasonable amount of time to turn this thing around. I want to see this full season + offseason play out and then see where we are.

By all means, trade (if possible) or cut-bait with some of the useless veterans and tradeable pieces, but it's not necessary to tear down the core of this team (Jack, Sam, ROR, Risto) and start over from scratch. We have some nice pieces on their way (Guhle, Nylander, Mittlestadt) and I want to wait and see what else Botts can add given some time.

 

[joshjull]

I really hope some of you ranting and raving weren't advocates of the tank. There were no guarantees and a good chance it would take time to crawl out of it. I get the impression many of the tank advocates expected it to work it perfectly and things would flip immediately to contender in 1-2 years after drafting at the top. Now that it hasn't the world is ending and everyone sucks. Be careful what you wish for.

 

[Jame]

I'll tell you what I always thought over 20 years of being a hockey fan, one of those truisms that you learn, as reliable as "a dominant period without a goal spells bad momentum," or "a hot goalie needs to get fed more work." It's that over an 82 game season, bad teams win games when they want to badly enough. Really disappointing, frequently lazy, untalented teams like the 2010-12 Sabres, e.g., always had a threshold where they were starting to get embarrassed by their recent play, and they could uncork a superlative effort that could beat most of the teams ahead of them in the standings, if only for a game. You knew it would come sooner or later, even in a bad season. After all, most other teams aren't at 100% most nights. And it would be frustrating as hell that you only got that 100% from them about 10% of the time, but they definitely had that gear where they didn't want to lose because they just couldn't stand the embarrassment.

And what seems profoundly disconnected about this team is that I don't think they have that gear. I think they're fine with being embarrassed. I think they're sinking lower and lower, when by all rights they have the talent to be much better than this, and I'm frankly shocked we're not seeing that fight-or-flight kick in, that superlative effort that is maybe too late or too infrequent to redeem them totally, but at least it kicks in often enough to know they care.

I think the culture of this team is rotten somehow, and I wouldn't be sad or surprised to see the Sabres make a half-dozen trades that they lose on value, only to improve in the standings just because they shake the loser culture up and get some ****ing regular talentless try-hards like you see make the playoffs every damn year from somewhere around the league.

We're not ****ing asking for the world here. A .500 hockey team is not a ten-year project. You put together the normal amount of pride with a couple of above average talented players at maybe half the key positions on your roster, you're there. You could blow this team up and probably get there accidentally. It's not an impossible task, but somebody's gotta look this sick, self-pitying ****ing roster in its hollow eyes and trade 2-3 golden boys and kick 4-5 comfortable bastards in the dainty nuts and bring in some fourth line ******* who wants to be in the league badly enough that he'll fight his own guys in practice and some journeyman stay-at-home D who has no business being in the league if he doesn't sell out to block shots and just start a religious revival. Someone in this organization needs to start taking pulses, or applying the paddles.

I agree.... but there is an extra layer to our problem....the core of the rot.... is our 80 million franchise player. That's a much bigger problem to deal with.

I'd love to see a bunch of crusty vets come in and kick the snot out of Eichel for the next 2 years.

Next offseason... sign every vet trying to hang on, that gets cut after their PTO with a contender lol