BillsFan4

Yeah I really haven’t closely followed any draft prospects this year. I just started reading up on prospects this weekend and watching some highlight videos. I've seen numerous comparisons to Corey Perry and the Tkachuk’s. for ex: https://www.tsn.ca/draftcentre/video/craig-s-list-who-are-the-nhl-comparables-for-top-four-players~3061629 but I really don’t have my own opinion on him yet. I don’t want to bother getting excited about any top 5 prospects until I know where the Sabres end up picking. lol Martone is definitely less appealing to me if he’s more like Tuch than Tkachuk. There’s a number of guys in that top 5/6/7 that look really intriguing though. my short list as of now (with very little info…) would probably be: Frondell, McQueen, Martone and Misa obviously. Hagens looks like a good player but I don’t know that I’d want the Sabres to take another smaller player like him.

I am not rooting for losses but I also really don’t GAF about meaningless wins right now either. Strong finishes to lost Sabres seasons have never carried over into next season. After this total $*** show of a year I want that top 5 pick. Especially this year where there are pretty clear tiers in the draft and some players at the top that would fill huge needs for Buffalo. Picks 1+2, then picks 3-5/6. And there’s a few players at the top the Sabres could really use. They have some nice talent in their pipeline but no players I would call truly elite game changers. https://www.nhl.com/news/mock-2025-nhl-draft-plenty-of-debate-following-number-1-pick The Sabres currently hold the #4 pick. But they are in a cluster of teams that are all within 2-3 points of each other. They could still easily fall into the pick 8-9 range, which would just piss me off after having suffered through this whole crap season. I really want Misa but that ain’t happening unless they win the lottery for pick #2. But give me Martone at 4/5 and I’m thrilled. He’s described as similar to Tkachuk. There’s also a couple bigger (over 6’) hard nosed guys that look like they could be legit #1 centers, which is something Buffalo doesn’t have in their system right now.

I agree the roster is a jumbled mess, but I don’t think it’s from changing coaches. The roster really hasn’t changed all that much in recent years, outside of the bottom 6. This is the roster that our (incompetent) GM built on purpose. This is Adams rebuild in year 5. It’s filled with players he drafted, traded for and/or paid big money to. He’s talked about how this is the roster he would want for game 7 of a Stanley cup final. After Granato was fired, he even talked about how he was promised roster upgrades that never came. Personally, I’d like to see them start fresh with a new team president, GM and coaching staff. But I could live with Lindy being back if it meant a new GM would be taking over! 😂 (as long as it’s not another Pegula yes man). I’d still prefer a new coach, but I also don’t think coaching is anywhere near their #1 issue.

Are you? I’ve been disappointed with Lindy so far. I really haven’t been overly impressed with his coaching. I’m not a fan of his man-on-man defensive zone system and it seems like most players are regressing under him, except for Krebs and a couple veterans (Zucker, Greenway, Tuch. Also Dahlin but he’s going to be good no matter who his coach is, as will Tuch). He just seems like a bad fit for this roster. The problem is, if he decides to step away there’s almost zero chance the Sabres hire another veteran coach. Adams would just promote Seth Appert and I have absolutely no interest in seeing that happen. Especially with how good Rochester has been this year with a new coach, and how bad Buffalo’s PP has been under his tutelage this season.

RE: The new strength and conditioning coaches - Will Greenberg, who has been with the Bills as an asst. strength & conditioning coach since 2017, was named head S&C coach. https://pro-football-history.com/coach/11248/will-greenberg-bio and Barry Rubin was named senior strength & conditioning coach. He was most recently the head S&C coach for the Chiefs from 2013-2022, and before that he was head S&C coach for the eagles and packers. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Rubin_(American_football)

Reports are that $8.4M can be up to $10M (not sure of the incentives)

He fell out of favor a while ago. They tried to trade him this past offseason but couldn’t find any takers. I could also see him doing well in Boston.

At least it happened early in the offseason so the Bills can pursue other options full force and not hold out hope for a Garrett trade.

That’s a nice return for Coyle. I actually think Mittelstadt could do well in Boston. I think their style of play fits him better than Colorado. Mitts seemed to struggle this year with the speed and pace of play that Colorado plays with. I think the system Boston plays could fit him better, and their defensive structure should benefit him as well. nice low risk addition by Boston. between this deal and the Toronto deal they did pretty well at the deadline. Trading Marchand to Florida for a conditional 2nd was a bit of a surprise though! I guess they must not have been too interested in re-signing him and wanted to get an asset before he’s UFA at year’s end.

Buffalo got the best player in the deal. Norris is the better player right now. He is a legit #2 C on most NHL teams. He will likely be our #1 C for now. He is a very good 2 way center (and an actual true center, unlike cozens). Great on both the PP and PK. He’s got a killer shot/1-timer. He gives the Sabres another dangerous shooter on the opposite wall as Tage on the PP. That could be huge. The Sabres PP is so insanely predictable - feed Tage 1-timers. Every team knows it. Now we have another guy with a deadly shot to play on the opposite side. The only real question mark is his health. He’s had some shoulder injuries and had shoulder surgery but he seems to be better after the surgery. He’s been healthy so far this year and has looked good + more physical so I assume his shoulder is feeling good. (Knock on wood…). I think Sabres fans like the concept of Dylan Cozens more than Cozens the actual player. I’ve never been as high on him as some Sabres fans. Cozens has not been very good for Buffalo. He drags down everyone he plays with. You can see it in all the stats and analytics. Really, he had like 1/2 of one good season for Buffalo back in 2022/23 - a year where the entire f-ing roster had huge career years that none have replicated. It was when Granato was telling them not to even worry about defense. Just go out-score the other team. They were playing a wide open style that maybe caught teams off guard a bit. But then teams started clogging up the neutral zone and disrupting Buffalo’s rushing attack and they have struggled ever since. I also think Cozens has tried to change his style of play too much from what made him effective in 2022. and I think he’s way in his own head or something. You can literally see him thinking on the ice at times. I don’t know if it was the big contract that got in his head, or that concussion he took getting his butt kicked. Or just bad coaching, trying to make him something he’s not (or a combo of all 3…). I think he can still end up being a good player if he gets back to what made him successful years ago. But I’m not sure it was happening in Buffalo. I think a fresh start may do him good. I think long term Cozens is a winger, or maybe a #3 C if he’s able to stick at C. But I see him as more of a top 6 RW. I was hoping the Sabres could package Cozens in a bigger deal to land a big fish. But I don’t know that Cozens value was all that high. If Norris can stay healthy, he’s going to be a good player for Buffalo. And he’s a much more finished product vs Cozens. Much higher floor and still a similar ceiling IMO. Again, the only real question is health.

they are also worse than they were last year. 2 straight years of regression. But don’t worry, Kevyn Adams says the answer is in the room… lol. A “win now” year and literally the only move he’s made is claiming Reimer back off waivers. He's just sat on his hands and watched this “team” he built completely collapse, to the point where the culture seems to be turning toxic again from all the losing. He did the same thing last year - sat on his hands all year while his team struggled. Then threw Granato under the bus at year’s end (the same guy Adams said a month prior was a huge part of the Sabres future) without ever even trying a shake up trade or anything substantial to help the roster/Granato. Granato said he was promised there would be improvements made to the team for last year but it never happened. I won’t be at all surprised to see some Buffalo players request a trade this offseason, or at the very least refuse to sign long term (like Tuch). Especially if Adams isn’t fired. I can’t imagine the players have much confidence in him. This is the roster he iced 5 years into the job. I’d argue it’s worse than the roster he took over back in 2020. sorry, I know I am overly negative on the Sabres. I just can’t help it anymore. I wish I could get myself to walk away completely.

😂

That was such a great game! So fun to watch. It reminded me why I used to love hockey so much before the Sabres killed my passion for the sport. lol Team Canada truly has an insane amount of talent. The speed that McDavid, MacKinnon and Makar can attack with is crazy to watch.

I do think Buffalo’s o-line would have done better against the chiefs D-line but I still think the eagles would win. I felt like the Bills would lose to the eagles even before they lost to the chiefs in the AFC championship. I was actually kind of thankful Buffalo wasn’t in the Super Bowl when I was watching it last night. A(nother) Super Bowl loss would have been even more painful than the afc championship loss.

Well, as much as it hurt losing in the AFC championship, I think it would hurt even more getting our ass kicked by Philly in the Super Bowl… lol and I do think the eagles would’ve probably kicked the Bills ass too. I felt that way after watching them play Washington before we lost to KC. They’re peaking at the perfect time.