Kevin Allen: With Krueger now gone, time to fire some players in Buffalo Adams needs to do in Buffalo what Zito did in Florida

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The fact that you want to extend Risto makes me question everything else you said. I don't hate him, but he needs and wants a change, he gets too many (tough) minutes for his quality, bad instincts with the puck, and makes too much.

Trading those players for picks and prospects is like paving over a dilapidated bridge and telling everyone how shiny and new it is.

Until you actually address the failing infrastructure (lack of scouting, president of hockey operations, real hockey experience and knowledge at upper levels) then it will continue to crumble and fail.

I'm not saying those trades won't help, but the underlying issues are so much worse.

Trading those players for picks and prospects is like paving over a dilapidated bridge and telling everyone how shiny and new it is.

Until you actually address the failing infrastructure (lack of scouting, president of hockey operations, real hockey experience and knowledge at upper levels) then it will continue to crumble and fail.

I'm not saying those trades won't help, but the underlying issues are so much worse.
- ElbowingPenalty

100% correct.

Wait, you want to rebuild half the roster but you want to keep Eichle Risto, McCabe Dahlin, Skinner, Sam and Couzins.

With the exception of Dylan Cousins every one of these players represents the rotten core of this team. Jack Eichle is the furthest thing from a Captain in the NHL. He is not a leader in any sense of the word. He's a heck of a talented hockey player, and if he can play somewhere where he doesn't have to be the face of the team he will net 100+ points every year. His trade value is still at maximum and now is the time to move him. We already have another 1C in Dylan Cousins. What we get back from Jack could rebuild a franchise by itself.

Sam has been productive and earns his money, but he's another follower who can't pick up his teammates. He's not worth the money he will command after this contract.

Agreed Skinner is immovable.

The three defenseman are tricky. Risto and McCabe are/were having their best NHL seasons respectively. Dahlin looks horrible, certainly nothing like his rookie year. I don't need to ship them all out, but they need to be better and consistent. And, if I get a good offer on any of them, I wouldn't hesitate to sell.

And more. You have to change leadership on the Business and Operations side as well. Sales, Marketing, Production, Facilities, etc. Lots of people in that organization with political agendas. Toxic culture.

Wait, you want to rebuild half the roster but you want to keep Eichle Risto, McCabe Dahlin, Skinner, Sam and Couzins.

With the exception of Dylan Cousins every one of these players represents the rotten core of this team. Jack Eichle is the furthest thing from a Captain in the NHL. He is not a leader in any sense of the word. He's a heck of a talented hockey player, and if he can play somewhere where he doesn't have to be the face of the team he will net 100+ points every year. His trade value is still at maximum and now is the time to move him. We already have another 1C in Dylan Cousins. What we get back from Jack could rebuild a franchise by itself.

Sam has been productive and earns his money, but he's another follower who can't pick up his teammates. He's not worth the money he will command after this contract.

Agreed Skinner is immovable.

The three defenseman are tricky. Risto and McCabe are/were having their best NHL seasons respectively. Dahlin looks horrible, certainly nothing like his rookie year. I don't need to ship them all out, but they need to be better and consistent. And, if I get a good offer on any of them, I wouldn't hesitate to sell.
- lacaprup

Eichel to LA is the easiest trade before the TDL. It may be wise to hold on to him till summer as more teams will be able to bid for his services. However, trading him now may give more hope to a fanbase in desperate need of hope. It more than likely would be a cost savings move for ownership also.

I hope the Flyers management is reading this.....

So basically your plan is to keep the rotten core, trade some UFAs, get new goalies, and roll over the bottom half of your roster. Isn't that what they did in places like Anaheim, San Jose, etc...How did that work? You keep referencing Florida, but their problem wasn't a cancerous culture at the top, but mostly related to coaching and depth, which Zito addressed.

If you really want to fix Buffalo you have to do a full purge. It starts with an experienced President, which you did note. That individual brings in a GM and rebuilds hockey ops, including an actual scouting staff. But then you need to address Eichel. Time to move on. You need a new leader. His perceived value is high. So exploit that. Let's say Minnesota offers Dumba (who they can't protect), along with say Rossi, a 1st, a couple 2nds. You take it. That transforms your locker room. Dumba gives Dahlin a solid partner. You build up front around Cozens, Rossi, Quinn. You've stockpiled a 1st, a couple 2nds, more picks from Hall, Staal, Risto, etc...Not every team needs a bonafide 1C. The Blues won a Cup with O'Reilly. Vegas is a strong contender without a superstar 1C. So this idea that Eichel at $10M must be held at all costs is pretty narrow-minded. Also, it's Dahlin, not Dahlen.

What 'qualified/established' presidential type guy, GM, or coach would sign up to be in Buffalo, knowing they'll be looking for another job in 2-3 years with raised questions about their capabilities as a result of working in Buffalo?

Adams is a PR guy that is GM by default. Botterill and Murray were both viewed as saviors in Buffalo and proved to be Asst GM type material at best.

And since Ruff, the list of coaches has been less than accomplished (other than Bylsma) and proved to be nothing more than Asst coaches at the NHL level.

The talk of being able to get coaches like Gallant, Boudreau or Julien into Buffalo is amusing.

The owner(s) will need to spend big money to get qualified management into town and they've proven they'd prefer to go the cheap route in order to ensure they can keep their yacht.

Looks to me that their soul focus is the Bills as they have the greatest potential to make them $$.

Everywhere Hall goes, failure follows. Coincidence?? No.

Rutherford? Yuck. He got lucky with inheriting great core pieces that were hungry. By the time he was done Pittsburgh was a dumpster fire with terrible contracts and terrible players. The LAST thing Buffalo needs is Rutherford.

Everywhere Hall goesm failure follows. Coincidence?? No.
- CupOnBroadSt.

I never understood this ''negative'' perception people have of Hall, the Oilers were a tanking mess and Hall was a one-man show on a team of underachieving first rounders with no stable veteran support.

New Jersey was in a rebuild phase following years of making the playoffs and never amounted to anything because contrary to the Oilers they had underachieving veterans .

He did what needed to be done in Arizona, got them to the playoffs (and that franchise as a whole has many moral and ethical questions with what just surfaced).

He decided in a questionable career move to go to Buffalo, because Ralf Krueger was a coach he was fond of in Edmonton, as Ek would say , he wanted to be the man, but the team as a whole is fundamentally flawed and never was trully ready to compete despite having a pretty awesome first line on paper.

He decided in a questionable career move to go to Buffalo, because Ralf Krueger was a coach he was fond of in Edmonton, as Ek would say , he wanted to be the man, but the team as a whole is fundamentally flawed and never was trully ready to compete despite having a pretty awesome first line on paper.
- Alexzanki

I think Hall's decision was more based on riding shotgun to Eichel and that this would help boost his prospects for a bigger and longer contract.

The fact that the 2 have had zero chemistry and that Eichel is having down year all but proves that Hall doesn't drive a line has pretty much destroyed any of Hall's plans to getting a bigger and better deal.

Trading those players for picks and prospects is like paving over a dilapidated bridge and telling everyone how shiny and new it is.

Until you actually address the failing infrastructure (lack of scouting, president of hockey operations, real hockey experience and knowledge at upper levels) then it will continue to crumble and fail.

I'm not saying those trades won't help, but the underlying issues are so much worse.
- ElbowingPenalty

totally agree. Build a successful infrastructure, not just changing 1 person.

I agree that rutherford changed the roster and it yielded 2 cups. but he also gets so laser focused on a player and thats it. i.e. zucker, kapanen. Everyone knew it and he over paid. he also over values people he likes signing them to both term and $$ (jack johnson, brandon tanev). All of those decisions add up to having zero cap space. He was always in a win now mode because he wasnt going to be around when there was no draft picks and no farm system any longer. This yr the pens have a 2nd round pick, a 5th and three 7th round picks. they traded bjugstad for a conditional 7th round pick AND paid $2M of his salary for him to go to MN. Really? Tom Wilson also should pay rent for the time he is in GMJRs head.

Then there is how he treated Horny. Signed him to a NTC and then traded him to FL without asking him to waive it. Without so much as even calling him to ask. Once Horny was told of the trade they informed him that he didnt have to approve the trade in reality as rutherford would waive him and FL would just pick him up as his NTC would be voided via waiver. Kinda poopty. Sends a message that your word isnt valid.

Skinner's scoring drought - after a decade of being one of the top scorers in the NHL - coincides exactly with the hiring of and weird usage by the soccer coach. I think it's a tad early to both declare him untradeable and/or part of the furniture.

I agree that rutherford changed the roster and it yielded 2 cups. but he also gets so laser focused on a player and thats it. i.e. zucker, kapanen. Everyone knew it and he over paid. he also over values people he likes signing them to both term and $$ (jack johnson, brandon tanev). All of those decisions add up to having zero cap space. He was always in a win now mode because he wasnt going to be around when there was no draft picks and no farm system any longer. This yr the pens have a 2nd round pick, a 5th and three 7th round picks. they traded bjugstad for a conditional 7th round pick AND paid $2M of his salary for him to go to MN. Really? Tom Wilson also should pay rent for the time he is in GMJRs head.

Then there is how he treated Horny. Signed him to a NTC and then traded him to FL without asking him to waive it. Without so much as even calling him to ask. Once Horny was told of the trade they informed him that he didnt have to approve the trade in reality as rutherford would waive him and FL would just pick him up as his NTC would be voided via waiver. Kinda poopty. Sends a message that your word isnt valid.
- i'mjustafan

Its a business. They aren't there to make friends and hold each others hands.

Solid contender for the Sabres blogger contest.

I hope the Flyers management is reading this.....
- Nh_kong

EK is the Flyers Management, He's in his lab right now mixing up a couple of trades for Philly to make/ Dream of

Hirer a good experienced coach and trade Eichel as he will bring back the best return from any team foolish enough to trade for him.

EK is the Flyers Management, He's in his lab right now mixing up a couple of trades for Philly to make/ Dream of
- Sharks77

He's been talking about publishing the rumour chart for like 4 days now. Maybe there are some last minute revisions. For example, perhaps the 5th place Flyers are NOT the front-runner for Ekholm? Or maybe the 6th place Flames won't have the most lucrative offer for Taylor Hall? Usually, teams that are actually legit contenders make moves like these. Or maybe teams like Tampa that needed LTIR to manouvre around the cap aren't front-runners to acquire Jeff Skinner. at $9M for 6+ years. But I'm just a fan.

To Buffalo: Sean Monahan, Connor Zary, Sam Bennet, 1st Round pick 2021

To Calgary: Jack Eichel

I definitely think an older guy would take the President of hockey ops job in buffalo. Sign a four year deal knowing that you'll likely get canned after 18-24 months and then for the next two years you're sitting pretty making a few mil a year to do nothing. meant to be a joke but seems like the most likely thing to happen.

really though, their last three GMs came as rookies to the job at the NHL level. The past three coaches have been questionable. Krueger was out of hockey for half a decade, Bylsma was on a downward trend in Pitt with great teams, and Housley was a first time HC (though he does seem like an excellent assistant coach running the d unit).

Might be time to look at the carousel in both those categories. Gallant, Boudreau, guys who've had teams turn it on or around in a hurry wherever they go. I would think they have to try that now