After finishing in dead last next season the Pegula Sabres will officially become the single worst least successful team in hockey history. They are killing this team and market to the point where it will soon become unsalvagable at which point relocation becomes inevitable. They show no ability whatsoever to learn from their mistakes. And here's a question for you: if the Pegulas were the owners of the Habs, Flyers, Leafs or really almost any market where hockey is relevant do you think they'd be getting treated better by the media in those places than they are here? Hell no, they'd be getting torn to shreds far far worse.
I get the hate. The Sabres are not successful and Pegula is the man at the top. However, it's not for a lack of effort. That's where I will put my foot down.
Sure, they have poor skills in finding a true leader at the GM spot who can steer us in the right direction. That's on them. However, they at least understand the problem are continuously try to rectify it, even if the next guy is always just as bad. I'm talking Botterill, Murrary, etc.
I always see the "cheap" comments, which again baffle me. They're still paying coaches and GM who are not even employed. Still paying players who have long since left the league. The most prominent talking point about them being "cheap" was the lack of a scouting department. But, people fail to understand the situation.
When Pegula fired Botterill, they didn't just fire Botterill, it was everything Botterill, including his scouts. Adams didn't even have a full off-season to rectify the situation. And now that he has, we already see him building it back up to where it was before (middle of the pack in terms of the total number of scouts).
Another talking point was him firing employees during the lockdown. I don't really understand this sentiment, as they weren't working, and many other owners followed suit.
He has consistently spent to the cap on terrible teams.
If anything, his problem is not spending too little, it's spending too recklessly. Cheap owners to overpay for Leino, Ehrhoff, Okposo, Skinner, and hand out 10m contracts to their star players. They go dumpster diving and trade off their top end talent, like Arizona, for futures.
We are lucky to have someone in such a minuscule market (Buffalonians truly don't grasp this), who spends their money.
It's unfortunate, he hasn't struck lightning as he has with the Bills in lucking his way into McBeane.
Our time will come. I'm grateful for everything Pegula has done. I understand that if Pegula was not here that the Sabres wouldn't be either. I'm not sure what else we could want from an owner other than to just hope and pray they find the right guys in management.
So far, I really like what I've seen from Adams. The ability to draft from the entire pool of players instead of rashly shunning countries like Russia or perilously focusing on one country or region . I like that he has been steadfast in his approach with Eichel. He seems like a guy who won't roll over, which is one of the traits I admired about Darcy. He was able to get a king's ransom for Risto and I hope that he found the same value in the Reinhart trade, though, I'm not a fan of trading for goalies.
To summarize, he's not cheap, in fact, he spends money recklessly. He is poor at finding the right GM to steer the ship. Without Pegula there is no Buffalo Sabres team. We are lucky to have, not only a team but an owner willing to spend big bucks in a minuscule market.
I believe it's just a matter of time. How much time? I don't know. There was a time for the Bills where fans were hopeless and believed no free agent would go there. The culture changed almost instantly. Hopefully, Adams is the guy. We will see. Adam's future is 100% tied to the Eichel return.