I'm not a huge fan of the grandstanding on behalf of a team that intentionally lost for 2 straight seasons. I don't blame the fans for still liking their team - I would do the same thing - but I wouldn't be defending the toughness and honour of a franchise that actively tried to lose every single game last year. Maybe wait 3-5 years before you can do that.

One of my good friends is a die-hard Sabres fan, and I understand the rationale of rebuilding through the best possible draft picks, but trading every goalie who made more than 20 saves in a game last year was pretty embarrassing. Even Edmonton didn't make it that obvious.

I'm not a huge fan of the grandstanding on behalf of a team that intentionally lost for 2 straight seasons. I don't blame the fans for still liking their team - I would do the same thing - but I wouldn't be defending the toughness and honour of a franchise that actively tried to lose every single game last year. Maybe wait 3-5 years before you can do that.

One of my good friends is a die-hard Sabres fan, and I understand the rationale of rebuilding through the best possible draft picks, but trading every goalie who made more than 20 saves in a game last year was pretty embarrassing. Even Edmonton didn't make it that obvious.
- JyrkiLumme

Buffalo was dead last WITH those powerhouse goalies (also known as pending UFAs) at the trade deadline. Sending them packing and getting assets for them was not strictly to be bad - since they already were, but it got them additional pieces for the rebuild rather than just be expiring contracts.

Edit:

On top of that, Lindback was a .924 Save % player with the Sabres after acquired, better than both goalies that were traded away, so that argument pretty much holds no water

I'm not a huge fan of the grandstanding on behalf of a team that intentionally lost for 2 straight seasons. I don't blame the fans for still liking their team - I would do the same thing - but I wouldn't be defending the toughness and honour of a franchise that actively tried to lose every single game last year. Maybe wait 3-5 years before you can do that.

One of my good friends is a die-hard Sabres fan, and I understand the rationale of rebuilding through the best possible draft picks, but trading every goalie who made more than 20 saves in a game last year was pretty embarrassing. Even Edmonton didn't make it that obvious.
- JyrkiLumme

So trading your UFAs whIle in last place is embarrassing? Noted. I'm guessing you are going to be calling out a lot of embarrassing teams around the trade deadline. At least the sabres didn't trade established NHLers with term for draft picks like Arizona and Edmonton both did. Heck, Arizona shut guys down on IR for months after they were healthy. So let's be realistic here. All buffalo did is trade their UFA contracts as all bottom of the league teams do every year. Myers was the only one with term left, who brought back Bogosian rather than just draft picks and prospects.

Buffalo was dead last WITH those powerhouse goalies (also known as pending UFAs) at the trade deadline. Sending them packing and getting assets for them was not strictly to be bad - since they already were, but it got them additional pieces for the rebuild rather than just be expiring contracts.

Edit:

On top of that, Lindback was a .924 Save % player with the Sabres after acquired, better than both goalies that were traded away, so that argument pretty much holds no water
- stashu

You can call it whatever you want - when you actively avoid icing a competitive roster, that's the same as trying to throw games.

In the week leading up to the February 11th trade that sent Enroth to Dallas for Lindback, Enroth played 4 of 5 games, posting a save percentage of .923 or higher in all of them. Neuvirth played the other game, posting a .905. Anders Lindback was sporting an .875 save percentage and had been demoted to the AHL. He was objectively the worst backup in the league last year before being demoted.

Following that trade, Buffalo started running with Neuvirth since he was the only serviceable goalie left, and he started posting excellent numbers, playing the next 8 games consecutively. At that point, he was dealt to the Islanders for Chad Johnson, who was sporting an .889 save percentage and was widely regarded as a trainwreck after a strong season in Boston the year before.

The impression that I got was that any time a goalie put together a decent run, Nolan would use them heavily and Murray would get antsy about winning too many games. He'd then trade them for the worst goalie available.

Trading UFAs is fine, every team that's losing does it, but when you don't bother trying to get an NHL-calibre goalie it makes it appear that you're trying to lose.