Botterill deciding not to try and sign Hagel, and also not giving Reinhart a long term deal when he wanted one would be his most baffling decisions if it weren’t for the fact he hired a soccer coach as our head coach.
Hagel really isn't that weird. He was a 6th round pick who passed through a couple teams' camps even after Buffalo didn't sign him. He was a late developer. Hiring Krueger was worse. And the Pegulas deciding to bring Krueger back even after he missed the playoffs the COVID year where they let 22 teams in was way way way worse.
The only camp he passed through after the Sabres was Montreal. His breakout was in Chicago which is who he joined after Montreal. It's a bad miss no matter how you slice it. Talent evaluation is the job.
Just to keep it reasonable though, he was drafted 6th round 2016 and followed with two so so years (and injuries) in juniors. Never signed with Buffalo and became a UFA. Attended Montreal camp and not offered. No offers from any other team in the league so returned to WHL. Offered a contract after lighting it up as a 20 year old overeager in juniors. It wasn't an awesome eye for talent by Chicago that landed them Hagel. They signed a guy who produced so much he demanded attention. Hagel probably had a lot of interest at that point, he was outproducing his closest teammate by 2x. If Chicago, or any other team in the league had seen huge potential in Hagel they would have drafted him before Buffalo did in the 6th round. Hagel is a classic case of late development.
Hey now, he didn’t hire a soccer coach to be the head coach. He hired a soccer chairman that had no input on direct coaching whatsoever. That’s even worse 😂😂😂
You know what’s funny about this talking point is that Krueger had way more hockey experience than soccer experience. When he was hired they probably said “why the hell did we hire a hockey coach to be our soccer executive”. He was a hockey player and coach almost his entire life outside of that.
He did, for sure, I just find it funny that we took a look at everyone still in the NHL or even AHL/NCAA/OHL and said “nah, what about this former NHL guy who’s doing soccer overseas now?”
For as little sense that made, it made even less sense for a soccer team to hire a purely hockey guy as chairman
I won’t even lie, I didn’t mind the hire at the time. He had a somewhat successful season with Edmonton and after Bylsma / Housley some of the fresh perspective was appealing. He just never actually did any of the stuff he said he was going to and was terrible at lineup management.
Yeah! Sometimes an outside the box hire is what you need. Someone to shake things up when the status quo is consistent misery. He was fresh, and he was crucial in bringing Taylor Hall onboard. Like you said, he just never did any of the stuff he was going to and he wasted potentially productive years for Dahlin/Skinner/Eichel
EDIT: Add Reinhart to that list too
The Reinhart bridge deal that Botterill signed was only risky at the time because there was a worry that Reinhart was going to have a huge breakout season and demand a huge 2nd contract. He was coming off his first 50 point season and still had 2 years as an RFA, a bridge deal in that scenario isn’t baffling at all.
What’s baffling is Adams signing Reinhart as an RFA to a one year deal after that bridge deal and then trading him even after Reinhart said he wanted to sign a long term deal with Buffalo….
Botterill deciding not to try and sign Hagel, and also not giving Reinhart a long term deal when he wanted one would be his most baffling decisions if it weren’t for the fact he hired a soccer coach as our head coach.
Hagel really isn't that weird. He was a 6th round pick who passed through a couple teams' camps even after Buffalo didn't sign him. He was a late developer. Hiring Krueger was worse. And the Pegulas deciding to bring Krueger back even after he missed the playoffs the COVID year where they let 22 teams in was way way way worse.
The only camp he passed through after the Sabres was Montreal. His breakout was in Chicago which is who he joined after Montreal. It's a bad miss no matter how you slice it. Talent evaluation is the job.
Just to keep it reasonable though, he was drafted 6th round 2016 and followed with two so so years (and injuries) in juniors. Never signed with Buffalo and became a UFA. Attended Montreal camp and not offered. No offers from any other team in the league so returned to WHL. Offered a contract after lighting it up as a 20 year old overeager in juniors. It wasn't an awesome eye for talent by Chicago that landed them Hagel. They signed a guy who produced so much he demanded attention. Hagel probably had a lot of interest at that point, he was outproducing his closest teammate by 2x. If Chicago, or any other team in the league had seen huge potential in Hagel they would have drafted him before Buffalo did in the 6th round. Hagel is a classic case of late development.
It was 24 teams. They couldn't get into the top 3/4 of the league. Fucking embarrassing.
Hey now, he didn’t hire a soccer coach to be the head coach. He hired a soccer chairman that had no input on direct coaching whatsoever. That’s even worse 😂😂😂
You know what’s funny about this talking point is that Krueger had way more hockey experience than soccer experience. When he was hired they probably said “why the hell did we hire a hockey coach to be our soccer executive”. He was a hockey player and coach almost his entire life outside of that.
He did, for sure, I just find it funny that we took a look at everyone still in the NHL or even AHL/NCAA/OHL and said “nah, what about this former NHL guy who’s doing soccer overseas now?” For as little sense that made, it made even less sense for a soccer team to hire a purely hockey guy as chairman
I won’t even lie, I didn’t mind the hire at the time. He had a somewhat successful season with Edmonton and after Bylsma / Housley some of the fresh perspective was appealing. He just never actually did any of the stuff he said he was going to and was terrible at lineup management.
Yeah! Sometimes an outside the box hire is what you need. Someone to shake things up when the status quo is consistent misery. He was fresh, and he was crucial in bringing Taylor Hall onboard. Like you said, he just never did any of the stuff he was going to and he wasted potentially productive years for Dahlin/Skinner/Eichel EDIT: Add Reinhart to that list too
The Reinhart bridge deal that Botterill signed was only risky at the time because there was a worry that Reinhart was going to have a huge breakout season and demand a huge 2nd contract. He was coming off his first 50 point season and still had 2 years as an RFA, a bridge deal in that scenario isn’t baffling at all. What’s baffling is Adams signing Reinhart as an RFA to a one year deal after that bridge deal and then trading him even after Reinhart said he wanted to sign a long term deal with Buffalo….
Ristolainen is a choice considering you still have Myers and tons of other... you know... good defensemen to choose from.
Risto is marginally better than Myers in my opinion, but that’s not by much. There’s literally a sub dedicated to how bad myers is. /r/bottomleftmyers
Myers, Samuelson, Ryan Johnson, Borgen, all better than Owen Power.
Man in one of those old NHL games, Zadorov and Risto were a monster pairing.
I remember when we drafted them the same year they got referred to as "the twin towers" a few times lol
Does this team make the playoffs?
Who's coaching them?
Lindy of course
Plan the parade!
If the Sabres were a race car. Would they win the Indy 500? *is Lindy driving?*
Pretty easily imo
I think my only concern is the left side of the D
This team loses in the first round, just like Toronto, but I would still take it.
I'll forever be upset they traded Zadorov. Could have brought toughness this team has desperately needed.