Sure feel that way about every player. Of course they all had good teams. Do you consider Lidstrom great? He played on one of the best teams ever in the mid 90s Detroit. Doesn't make him not great nor not a franchise defenseman.
- SDSabre

Well I did say he was a Franchise Dman
Carlson is pretty high up there too.

I won't be the one to scream and yell at you that your dumb. I just don't think we should trade the 19 YO defenseman with 75 points in 128 games.
- SDSabre

The D man who is like 20th scoring on what one nhl player called a expletive team
So if we arent an expletive team hes 10th in scoring?

We could easily keep said D man trade a couple picks for a 2C

Who was St. Louis Franchise Dman
Washington is the closest with Carlson
Vegas who's there Franchise Dman
Pittsburgh who's there's
- Buff36

Vegas was an anomaly
They didn’t have a 1C either

And I’d say Pietrangelo & Letang are pretty damn good
For the sake of argument, let’s just say those guys aren’t “franchise defensemen”
If we trade Dahlin,
what defensemen do we have who are even remotely close???

It’s a horrible, horrible idea

Your right, but I would trade my #1 pick this year protected or un for the right #2 center.
- hehateme

Sure, if the right #2 center with decent term and isn't crazy $ (7/8M?) I'd trade an unprotected first. This team needs to start winning. But yeah, I still don't see how trading Dahlin will make us better long term outside of getting someone that no one is trading for Dahlin. Meaning you are not going to get the net gain on trading Dahlin that you should.

How long is the"Process" suppose to take? We are in year 9 of said "Process" i am really kinda sick of the "process" because so far the "process" is not working...Frank the PROCESS, Get real hockey players in here, not a bunch of 4 liners.
- hehateme

Yes you are right, and unless we wait and hope for Cozens or Mitts to work out, which is the process, Dahlin would net you those players every one covets.

Well I did say he was a Franchise Dman
Carlson is pretty high up there too.
- Buff36

Right. My point is that you seem to arbitrarily making that distinction. Chara is every bit as important to a great Boston team as Lidstrum was to the stacked Detroit team. Maybe I'm splitting hairs, maybe you are. Most teams that win have a 2 quality centers and 1 quality D (with a goalie getting hot, or being good)

Sure, if the right #2 center with decent term and isn't crazy $ (7/8M?) I'd trade an unprotected first. This team needs to start winning. But yeah, I still don't see how trading Dahlin will make us better long term outside of getting someone that no one is trading for Dahlin. Meaning you are not going to get the net gain on trading Dahlin that you should.
- SDSabre

if I can get a 60-70 pt center in his mid to late 20's for 7/8 mill I am doing it all day every day.

Never said he was average. Never said I would do Dahlin just for Larkin. Nobody wants to wait for this team to get better, everybody is crying we need a 2C and a Winger. Trade this person or that person to achieve that. Well he is one piece that could do that. Do I want to, of course not. But everything should be looked at that could make this TEAM better. Would it hurt us, losing Dahlin, of course. But the players brought in might make us a better TEAM, then just 1 player does.
- Buff36

Dahlin= hope

I get the frustration, and dahlin's 13 goals in more than a season and a half should be better. Or it feels like it should be better.

The connor McDavid of defense

Those type of things


I'm not trading dahlin, I'm hoping erod can be a 2c and score 35-50 points. 🙂

The D man who is like 20th scoring on what one nhl player called a expletive team
So if we arent an expletive team hes 10th in scoring?

We could easily keep said D man trade a couple picks for a 2C
- hubie

He's only gonna get better. He's still a kid.

Yes you are right, and unless we wait and hope for Cozens or Mitts to work out, which is the process, Dahlin would net you those players every one covets.
- Buff36

put "hope" in one hand and shat in the other and tell me which one your guaranteed to get.

I like this option.
- Pegullaville

I do too, but then everyone has to adhere to the process, cause Risto or Montour aren't getting you that good young 2C.

wasnt aware that its divided equally which is weird... but i would think merchandise isnt equally distributed.
- hubie

It isn't.

Would just like to say thanks to all the Sabres season ticket holders on this site. Thank you for making us an international embarrassment across the league. You transformed that arena into a morgue you pathetic losers. Except when you think it is cool to let Leafs or Habs fans take over the arena and get their chants going. Great job you little female doges! Way to make the franchise a door mat for the rest of the league.

Also, while you're at it, please stop booing every time a player like Chara touches the puck. You can't even boo right. No passion or anger, just passive agressive hey look at me, i'm a female dog! Seriously, its embarrassing.

Finally, enough with the sob stories about not getting money for your poopty tickets too. You're the moron that bought them and nobody feels sorry for you. Just sit in the stands and shut up. You got a highly regarded reputation of being pathetic to maintain.
- Hatboro_Swords

Good post 👍

Dahlin= hope

I get the frustration, and dahlin's 13 goals in more than a season and a half should be better. Or it feels like it should be better.

The connor McDavid of defense

Those type of things


I'm not trading dahlin, I'm hoping erod can be a 2c and score 35-50 points. 🙂
- Boss34

at 19 he is 21 ist points what more can we ask?
Oddly his assist are almost 50/50 even strength to power play
and oddly enough he has 0 OT points

It isn't.
- Lunaion

The NHL has a deal with NBC that runs through the 2020-21 season that pays over $200,000,000 annually. That’s just the USA. The Canadian TV deal is worth a whopping 5.2 billion dollars for 12 years beginning in 2014. That breaks down to approximately 500,000 annually. Divide nearly 700,000,000 dollars by 30 and that comes to over 20,000,000 per team. The salary cap per team in the NHL is 75 million. So TV revenue pays a huge chunk of the player’s salaries.

https://thesportsdaily.co...e-how-does-it-break-down/

Dahlin= hope

I get the frustration, and dahlin's 13 goals in more than a season and a half should be better. Or it feels like it should be better.

The connor McDavid of defense

Those type of things


I'm not trading dahlin, I'm hoping erod can be a 2c and score 35-50 points. 🙂
- Boss34

Boss it's fun having these discussions, watching everyone get there panties in a bunch. I just look at everything that might make us better. Cause I went to different teams posts, tried this scenario and that and I hope GM'S have a better liking of are players, because we aren't getting many phone calls if they don't

The NHL has a deal with NBC that runs through the 2020-21 season that pays over $200,000,000 annually. That’s just the USA. The Canadian TV deal is worth a whopping 5.2 billion dollars for 12 years beginning in 2014. That breaks down to approximately 500,000 annually. Divide nearly 700,000,000 dollars by 30 and that comes to over 20,000,000 per team. The salary cap per team in the NHL is 75 million. So TV revenue pays a huge chunk of the player’s salaries.

https://thesportsdaily.co...e-how-does-it-break-down/
- hubie

Those are national deals. The topic was local deals. At least I thought it was.

Those are national deals. The topic was local deals.
- Lunaion

Aren't local deals part of the revenue sharing pool too, though?

Ok... I’ve done some digging. And this may seem long but it’s not... looking at 3 teams with recent success; the blues, pens, and blackhawks, let’s look at their front office structure and see how they skin the cat vs the Sabres. Is there a lack of experience in the Sabres front office. Which is my argument as to why this team has failed year after year and will continue to do so until the structure up top changes... yes, this looks at front office and bleeds into hockey ops. Some teams just break things down differently. I’ll be happy look at another team, but I still stand by the argument. This team lacks front office experience and yes a president is needed. And no, a simple get the right coach/gm combo will fix all that’s wrong. This team lack knowledge from the top down!

I’m not sure how this will paste in, sorry if it’s jacked up...

Blues front office.
Chairman and Governor Tom Stillma
President of Hockey Operations and GM / Alternate Governor Doug Armstrong (17 years as gm)

President and CEO of Business Operations / Alternate Governor Chris Zimmerman (30 years of experience in sports, marketing, and business management.)
Position Name
Vice President, Hockey Operations Dave Taylor (winningest gm in kings history)
Assistant GM and Director of Amateur Scouting Bill Armstrong
Senior Advisor to the General Manager Al MacInnis
Senior Advisor of Amateur Scouting Larry Pleau
GM of San Antonio Rampage & Pro Scout Kevin McDonald
Head Coach Craig Berube
Assistant Coach Mike Van Ryn
Steve Ott
Marc Savard
Assistant Coach - Video Sean Ferrell
Senior Consultant, Hockey Ops / Assistant Coach Larry Robinson
Goaltending Coach David Alexander
Development Coach Glen Wesley
Dave Rogalski
Director of Player Personnel Rob DiMaio
Director of Player Development and Pro Scout Tim Taylor
Pro Scout Dave Farrish
Director of Hockey Operations Ryan Miller
Senior Director of Team Services Rich Jankowski
Director of Player Recruitment Keith Tkachuk
Hockey Video Analyst Ben Dalpe
Hockey Data Analyst Michael Perelman
Head of European Scouting Jan Vopat
Amateur Scout Tony Feltrin
Dan Ginnell
J Niemiec
Michel Picard
Timo Koskela
Part-Time Amateur Scout Jeff McKercher
Alexey Starovoytov
Stefan Elvenes
Ian MacLellan
Garrett Peters
Blair Nicholson
Rick Lanz
Part-Time Pro Scout Wayne Mundey

Penguins Front office
Mario Lemieux Co-Owner/Chairman (clearly Mario knows hockey)
Ron Burkle Co-Owne
David Morehouse Chief Executive Officer & Presiden (team president since 2007)
Kevin Acklin Senior Vice President and General Counse
Name Position
Jim Rutherford Executive Vice President and General Manager (26 years as a gm)
Jason Karmanos Assistant General Manager
Mike Sullivan Head Coach
Sergei Gonchar Assistant Coach
Jacques Martin Assistant Coach
Mark Recchi Assistant Coach
Mike Buckley Goaltending Coach
Andy Saucier Video Coach
Madison Nikkel Assistant Video Coach
Scott Young Director, Player Development
Tom Kostopoulos Player Development Coach
Andy Chiodo Goaltending Development Coach
Matt Cullen Player Development
Ty Hennes Skills Development Professional
Jason Seidling Director, Team Operations
Sam Ventura

Blackhawks front office
W. Rockwell "Rocky" Wirtz Chairman
John F. McDonough President & CEO (13 years as president, 24 years as president of the Cubs)
Jay Blunk Executive Vice President
Stan Bowman Senior Vice President/General Manager
Al MacIsaac Senior Vice President, Hockey Operations
Norm Maciver Assistant General Manage
Mark Kelley Vice President, Amateur Scouting
Scotty Bowman Senior Advisor, Hockey Operations (I mean come on, it’s Scotty freaking Bowman)
Mark Bernard Vice President, Hockey Operations/Team Affiliates
Ryan Stewart Vice President, Pro Scouting
Tony Ommen Vice President, Team Services
Mark Eaton Director, Player Development
Pierre Gauthier Director, Player Personnel
Ron Anderson Director, Player Recruitment
Barry Smith Director, Player Evaluation
Mats Hallin Director, European Scouting
Brian Higgins Director, Team Security
Ian Gentile Senior Manager, Player Development
Kyle Davidson Assistant to the General Manager
Mary DeBartolo Coordinator, Research & Development/Hockey Analytics
Danny Tranchida Team Services Assistant
Mike Doneghey Head USA Scout
Darrell May Head Western Canada Scout
Alex Brooks Head Pro Scout
Jim McKellar Head Eastern Canada Scout
Rob Facca Amateur Scout
Colin Fraser Amateur Scout
Peter Nevin Amateur Scout
Alexandre Rouleau Amateur Scout
Niklas Blomgren Head European Amateur Scout
Dan Ellis Goaltending Scout
Karel Pavlik European Amateur Scout
Mikko Luoma European Amateur Scout
Andrei Nikolishin Russia Amateur Scout
Peter Sundstrom European Pro Scout
Derek Booth Pro Scout
Wade Brookbank Pro Scout
Gord Donnelly Pro Scout
Greg Hawgood Pro Scout
Richard Kromm Pro Scout
Steve Leach Pro Scout
Don Lever Pro Scout
Mike MacPherson Pro Scout
Michael Mottau Pro Scout
Allan Power Pro Scout
Anatoly Semenov Pro Scout
Tom Younghans Pro Scout
Rick Comley Player Recruitment
Hudson Chodos Scouting Manager
Andrew Contis Hockey Analytics/Video Analyst
Nick Anderson Assistant General Manager, Rockford IceHog

Sabres front office.
EXECUTIVE
Owner/CEO Terry Pegula (no sports background)
Owner/President Kim Pegula (no sports background)
General Manager Jason Botterill (asst gm in 2009)
Sr. VP of Business Administration Kevyn Adams
EVP & General Counsel Gregg Brandon
EVP of Creative Services Frank Cravotta
EVP of Finance Chuck LaMattina
EVP of Media & Content Mark Preisler
EVP, PSE Ron Raccuia
Executive Assistant
General Manager Jason Botterill
Assistant General Manager/Rochester Americans General Manager Randy Sexton (1993 Ottawa gm, panthers gm, pens director of amateur scouting)
Assistant General Manager Steve Greeley
Vice President of Hockey Administration Mark Jakubowski
Director of Amateur Scouting Ryan Jankowski
Assistant Director of Amateur Scouting Jeff Crisp
Head of Collegiate Scouting Jerry Forton
Amateur Scout Cory Banika
Amateur Scout Steve Cocker
Amateur Scout Kevin Devine
Amateur Scout Austin Dunne
Amateur Scout Mark Ferner
Amateur Scout Marcus Fingal
Amateur Scout Scott Halpenny
Amateur Scout Randy Hansch
Amateur Scout Frank Musil
Amateur Scout Teemu Numminen
Amateur Scout Tom O'Connor
Amateur Scout Ron Pyette
Amateur Scout Rob Riley
Amateur Scout Matt Tiesling
Amateur Scout Magnus Welin
Pro Scout Graham Beamish
Pro Scout Jeremiah Crowe
Pro Scout John Van Boxmeer
Director of Analytics Jason Nightingale
Head of Hockey Department IT Kyle Kiebzak
Coordinator of Team Services Cole Burkhalter
Coordinator of Hockey Administration Brett Ruff
Executive Assistant Terri O'Brie
- Gr8daygo

St Louis
*up until us GIFTING them ROR,
they were a yearly disappointment

Pittsburgh
-very arguable that they should’ve had more success than they’ve had considering no team in the league has been able to come close to matching Crosby-Malkin
In my lifetime, the only better 1-2 punch i can think of was Gretzky-Messier

Chicago
-had a great run that i think we’d all be thrilled with (same with Pitt too though)
But even all that experience hasn’t been able to help them reboot their team into the perennial contender it was


Yes, we want the Sabres to get to the level of these teams
BUT THE POINT I’M MAKING
Is that even with all that structure, and all that success, and all that experience....
u can still list tons of coaching changes & bad signings/contracts, & bad trades, & sh!tty draft picks, etc etc etc

Just putting more ppl in place doesn’t assure us of anything
Especially if they’re just retreads with as much of a history of FAILURE & MISTAKES as they’ve had success

Did it work when we had Bowman?
Muckler? Bylsma?

Idk what you’re trying to say with your post,
but there’s no clear cut answer that will automatically FIX things here

Those are national deals. The topic was local deals.
- Lunaion

well im not going to argue with you if what your saying is saying im right... right?

Just don't, you are really barking up the wrong tree here. I came here upset that I spend 3800 on season tickets and when I purchase a fountain pop there are no franking straws, good for them for changing to paper straws, maybe someone should of planned ahead? I don't think it was too much to ask for.

Also is this not the place to display my displeasure.. or should I just drink the koolaid? you tell me, you seem to have all the answers.
- hehateme

This is a really great post.

Point sent, no name calling.

It would nice to have a new jumbo tron.
I get the straw though.

Vegas was an anomaly
They didn’t have a 1C either

And I’d say Pietrangelo & Letang are pretty damn good
For the sake of argument, let’s just say those guys aren’t “franchise defensemen”
If we trade Dahlin,
what defensemen do we have who are even remotely close???

It’s a horrible, horrible idea
- jdfitz77

Wait, now he is a franchise DMan? I thought he was generational? Wake me up when he does something worth a damn to make me think he is even a #1 D Man in the league. Typical over exaggeration hoping to be relevant some day. Auston Matthews scored 4 goals in his first game ever. I would've thought a "Generational" DMan would do something noticeable by now. Dahlin has done nothing other than look flashy every now and then. It would be nice if decided to start doing something meaningful in a game some time soon. That's my take.

Hey man, I'm on here to let you know I just got offered free season tickets next year, but you know what, i'm not going to take them. F that. I feel it is necessary to let the board know I'm above free tickets even though I live in Buffalo.
- Hatboro_Swords

What a bunch of BS

Were u at the protest?

Aren't local deals part of the revenue sharing pool too, though?
- buffalofan19

Sure, but that's just a small portion from the top 10 teams.

Just don't, you are really barking up the wrong tree here. I came here upset that I spend 3800 on season tickets and when I purchase a fountain pop there are no franking straws, good for them for changing to paper straws, maybe someone should of planned ahead? I don't think it was too much to ask for.

Also is this not the place to display my displeasure.. or should I just drink the koolaid? you tell me, you seem to have all the answers.
- hehateme

And what good does displaying your displeasure do?

Maybe u should’ve been at the protest

Also... u spent $3800 and are complaining about a straw 😂😂😂