Tre White deleted all his Viking stuff... Damn that's cold
- gordong

Can we nickname him Booger?
- dadeadhead

There are a minority of players with NTCs and NMCs. Not all players with those clauses would reject Buffalo. So yes, you need to re-sign and promote some, but trading should be option 1 and FA should be 2.
- TheSabresTaco

I did the math a week or so ago. It's something like 174 players with any kind of clause in the league. Roughly 5.5 players per each 23 man roster.

Some of those contracts are good players, some are Okposo.

So roughly 75% of the league has no clauses

Hoping he’s better than John Gilmour. But maybe you’re right, pointless in 11 is pretty underwhelming. Perhaps the vaunted defensive depth is a bit of a mirage.
- PrinceChill

He's NHL caliber, he's simply over rated. These (frank)ing calls that a UDFA is fully cooked and 'he is what he is' is (frank)ing dingdong sauce. The guy needs to improve to earn a fulltime spot here, and it's here for the taking this coming fall. I'm certain he's better than Gilmour.

- homiedclown

Jack Conklin is the most important player for the Bills to sign. If they traded for Diggs, i wouldn't hate it, but building the line will make Josh Allen better a lot faster than Diggs. Conklin does that and it isn't even close. Dooooo it.

3ER says Deja Runyan all over again. Yall know my track record when it comes to Bills and NFL by now. You're welcome for it.

I’d really like to know wtf is going on there. It’s inexcusable on Ralph’s part. He’s supposed to put his players in a position to succeed. I have no idea what his issue with skinner is! Have you even heard anyone from the media inquire about it?
- Gr8daygo

A few days ago Howard Simon asked Krueger about trying to get Skinner going, and coach gave the usual vague gotta find a way to get Skins going kinda answer.
Then Simon asked point blank, why not try Skinner with Jack. A lot of fans have brought this up. He's had success with him before and whats going on now, trying to spread out the scoring, is not cutting it.

Krueger said, you are entitled to your opinion, and so are the fans. Now f off.

Already is.

19 goals last 82 games.

7 years left at 9 mil a year!!! He’s only gonna get worse too
- Fattony1187

ok

ok
- TheSabresTaco

I think he will be fine but that's just me

Trade a 3rd for oj Howard
- gerbe75pts

I dont want to sound like i think its a bad idea cause i like them
but i actually do trust beane to draft.

A few days ago Howard Simon asked Krueger about trying to get Skinner going, and coach gave the usual vague gotta find a way to get Skins going kinda answer.
Then Simon asked point blank, why not try Skinner with Jack. A lot of fans have brought this up. He's had success with him before and whats going on now, trying to spread out the scoring, is not cutting it.

Krueger said, you are entitled to your opinion, and so are the fans. Now f off.
- LandlordTom

He and Botts have held strong on this long term approach, even after it failed with Mitts they wont deviate. Doesnt that give them bad synergy?

Nearly three weeks ago, after the second of three grievous losses to the Ottawa Senators this season, Sabres coach Ralph Krueger tried to disarm a storm of questioning about his team's utter no-show coming off the All-Star break.

These nights happen, Krueger tried to reason. The buy-in from the players remains and the bounce-back will happen.

"If one game throws everything off kilter, we don't have much of a foundation," Krueger said defiantly.

But sometimes over the course of a six-month, 82-game season, certain games and certain days have a lot more significance than others. That game was one, foreshadowing the disappointment of the season's key homestand.

Tuesday night's abomination against the Senators in Canadian Tire Centre was another. It was a brutal day for the team and an even worse one for General Manager Jason Botterill, who might not have the breathing room to squirm through too many more of them.

TSN had a camera often pointed at Botterill watching in the press box and the strain on the GM was obvious as his team frittered away a 2-0 lead and suffered a 7-4 defeat. The "GM cam" has long been a staple of Canadian hockey television, used much more for celebration after key playoff wins.

But what the camera found this time – mined for Western New York fans on Twitter by Nashville-based record label manager and Sabres GIF maker extraordinaire Ben Mathewson – was a portrait of a GM who has to feel his time slipping away.

There was Botterill in his chair doing what folks in baseball call the "hangdog" with his head after one play. A nonblinking Botterill fidgeting with his iPhone, a pained Botterill looking at a replay monitor with hands over mouth, a cross-armed Botterill doing a second hangdog looking in the other direction.

And finally, in the GIF for all recent Sabres seasons, we see a disgusted Botterill standing at the back of his booth, spiking a set of papers into a nearby garbage can and dropping back into his chair. Assistant coach Mike Bales doesn't flinch at the spike, stoically sitting next to Botterill while rolling up a headset wire to prepare for the trip downstairs to the dressing room.

The displays of frustration from Botterill are magnified, only because we could see them, because they were not behind closed doors.

The NHL trade deadline is Monday and Botterill has to do something significant here. His golden boy status as the NHL's next great GM-in-waiting has long since been frittered away, the glow of the 2016 and 2017 Stanley Cups won with Pittsburgh rendered meaningless.

Botterill has spent months with an unbalanced roster featuring too many defensemen and not enough quality forwards. The whole hockey world knows he has to fix that imbalance, but what happened Tuesday? Defensemen got traded around the league and now Botterill has seemingly fewer options with which to work.

San Jose sent Brenden Dillon to Washington for a second-round pick and a conditional third-rounder; Ottawa sent Dylan DeMelo to Winnipeg for a third-rounder; and Montreal sent old friend Marco Scandella to St. Louis for a second-rounder and a conditional fourth. And more blueline buzz is that 2014 Stanley Cup hero Alec Martinez is on the verge of getting dealt from Los Angeles to Vegas.

Teams looking for blueline help are filling their needs while the Sabres are still holding their bag. Botterill had sent Scandella to the Habs last month for a fourth-round pick, just so he could flip the pick to Calgary to get Michael Frolik. And let's not forget that Frolik cost $4.3 million to Scandella's $4 million and he has exactly one goal, that into an empty net.

Repeating again: You took Frolik for $4.3 million instead of re-signing Jason Pominville – who can actually score goals – for around a million?

Botterill is getting properly roasted in hockey circles for the Habs getting a second for Scandella when he only got a fourth, but in fairness, some circumstances changed. Specifically, the Blues had a sudden and unexpected need on defense when veteran Jay Bouwmeester had his cardiac episode on the bench last week in Anaheim. And Montreal retained 50% of Scandella's salary, a $2 million hit on its cap.

But that doesn't change the optics of the situation. St. Louis had a need and GM Doug Armstrong filled it in a week. Botterill has spent three years with lousy forwards, lousy defense and subpar goaltending. And let's not forget the way Armstrong fleeced him for Ryan O'Reilly.

Botterill sold off Scandella – who was playing much better this season than last year – far too soon and got far less for him. Riddle me this: Why would you trade Scandella then when you could have waived Zach Bogosian weeks ago?

The Sabres were stuck with Bogosian after last season because he wasn't healthy following hip surgeries. But once he got back on the ice and showed the same kind of inconsistent play he's shown here for years, he should have been gone. When he actually demanded a trade because Krueger dared to healthy scratch him one time, Bogosian should have been sent packing the next day.

Instead, Botterill & Co. sold low on Scandella, a serviceable defenseman who had value because two teams have traded for him in the last two months, and kept Bogosian far too long when anyone watching this team knew that was a bad idea.

It's not hard to find Botterill apologists out there, within the team and outside it. What's he supposed to do is the prevailing question. It's simple: He's supposed to show he has some semblance of an idea how to build a roster. After three years, there's zero indication of that.

Botterill's best three forwards (Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart and Victor Olofsson) were drafted by Tim Murray. Rasmus Ristolainen was drafted by Darcy Regier. Botterill got Rasmus Dahlin only because his first team was a 62-point disaster and the Sabres won the lottery. He overpaid Jeff Skinner to the point the contract could rank among the worst in recent NHL history, although the player bears the bulk of the responsibility for not having a goal since Dec. 2 even if Krueger's stubborn take on line assignments is a major factor.

You'd like to think Dylan Cozens and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen are going to be standouts, but that's what everyone thought about Casey Mittelstadt two years ago, too. Even if those picks work out, will Botterill be around to see them come to fruition?

Terry and Kim Pegula remain silent on Botterill and on the struggles of the 50th anniversary season on and off the ice. It was telling that when rookie vice president of business administration Kevyn Adams spoke to The News last week on ownership's behalf, he said, "I think at the appropriate time Terry and Kim will talk."

It's certainly going to be appropriate for the Pegulas to answer for this entire mess. At length. Why not say something to the fans right now? That's because they know there will be dark music to be faced if they have to make yet another change at general manager after the season.

Harrington

He and Botts have held strong on this long term approach, even after it failed with Mitts they wont deviate. Doesnt that give them bad synergy?
- washedup20

Not sure about synergy but our ju-ju is all messed up.


(Cue the Bloomberg jokes in 3, 2,1...)

Harrington
- jcragcrumple

my fav part of that article, and its pretty unanswerable.

But that doesn't change the optics of the situation. St. Louis had a need and GM Doug Armstrong filled it in a week. Botterill has spent three years with lousy forwards, lousy defense and subpar goaltending. And let's not forget the way Armstrong fleeced him for Ryan O'Reilly.

It's not hard to find Botterill apologists out there, within the team and outside it. What's he supposed to do is the prevailing question. It's simple: He's supposed to show he has some semblance of an idea how to build a roster. After three years, there's zero indication of that.

Everyone doing okay

Everyone doing okay
- BINGO!

No we all have both feet on the ledge and really only need a small push at this point.

Yikes

Everyone doing okay
- BINGO!

Your mom goes to college.

Your mom goes to college.
- BeadyEyedDouche

Good for her I'm glad she's getting an education.

A few days ago Howard Simon asked Krueger about trying to get Skinner going, and coach gave the usual vague gotta find a way to get Skins going kinda answer.
Then Simon asked point blank, why not try Skinner with Jack. A lot of fans have brought this up. He's had success with him before and whats going on now, trying to spread out the scoring, is not cutting it.

Krueger said, you are entitled to your opinion, and so are the fans. Now f off.
- LandlordTom

Cool. Pegula might tell him to do the same in about 7-8 weeks.

Krueger really said Now f off ?

If true please fire him to

And yet he's played with Evan Rodrigues, Curtis Lazar, Marcus Johansson and one of two other perennial all-stars as his center.

Put him with Eichel, like he was last year, and if he still has 11 goals, then we can give Flaccoville all the credit he incessantly begs for on an hourly basis on here.
- Powerslave

😀😀😀🙂

WOuldnt mind snagging Anthony Mcfarland out of Maryland in say the 4/5
even though everyone hates his dad
- hubie

Good call.

Sabres drafted Brendan lemieux even though everyone hated his dad. 🙂

Krueger really said Now f off ?

If true please fire him to
- gerbe75pts

We tell you to F off every day.

Krueger really said Now f off ?

If true please fire him to
- gerbe75pts

No, I think he said something along the lines of, "great suggestion Howard, but we're going to put that idea on the fridge for everyone to see"