The hiring of Krueger was really the final tipping point of the Sabres long-term fiasco of mismanagement - the owners constantly hiring people who made terrible decisions for the rest of the organization to suffer through. It can't be understated how terrible Krueger was as an HC and how he threw a blanket on a young roster in transition, in order to squeeze out low scoring games with low-event hockey, desperate to justify himself at the cost of developing talent. Skinner didn't need developing but he was one of the few vets that could produce...if Krueger only let him play to his established strengths.
Just know that those couple seasons skewed everything about the players on those rosters. He pushed Eichel to the point of wanting to escape, stunted Dahlin's development, killed any optimism in the locker room, and pushed the owners to fire Botterill and start over yet again. Only thing he did right was hire Granato as asst coach, which has turned out well after KA made him HC.
