Mango

Here is a bonkers stat. Before Terry bought the Sabres the franchise had the 4th highest point percentage in the NHL at .553. That’s from a teams inception until 2012. I since Terry bought the team they have had the worst point percentage from 2012 until today and have plummeted from the 4th most winning franchise to 14th. If you took the point percentage from Scotty Bowman’s 10 most successful years. Not consecutive years, just cherry picked his best 10 his point percentage would be .693. If the Sabres went on a historical Scotty Bowman run starting next October it would take the team 10 YEARS to get that point percentage back to the pre Pegula era. It is impossible for Terry to fix this franchise in the time it took him to brake it.

His son Steve still isn’t confirmed on Mayo’s staff. Curious if Bill is trying to get some language in his contract around Steve being the heir apparent.

Admittedly I haven’t heard the segment yet. But as a knee jerk that seems like an ownership issue. Like is who is willing to give up control of the culture and to whom? Like is he talking about the GM not relinquishing control of the culture to the HC? HC to OC/DC or positional coach. It has been rumored that McBeane have a“no meddling” clauses in their contracts. In recent history Danny Briere requested it to take of as Head/Pres of Hockey Ops and it was declined. This goes all the way back to Ted Black and Regier on the hockey side where Darcy and Terry were having secret meetings about prospects, trades, etc.

Terry Pegula has the ability to be one of the worst owners in American sports history. Sure, he got it right with McBeane and Allen. But as the Sabres continue to careen out of control as they continue to stretch their historical record of ineptitude for a 13th year, I have no internet in forcing Pegula’s hand to be proactive. If the NHL had a QB postion that could save a franchise in 609 days maybe we could have gotten lucky by now. But it doesn’t, it is a business management league, and he’s an embarrassment to the entire league. Terry is a smart geologist who sold portions of his business to business managers, but refuses to relinquish control of the hockey org. Why would you want Terry to do anything on his own? Keep Terry away from any business decisions.

Meh. Most aren’t good enough. They’re closer to the top of “best of the rest” than they are elite. This also kind of reminds me of when teams get ranked as “top 10”. Like 10th isn’t awesome in a 32 team league. You’re better than 2/3’s of the league. It’s not like top 10 in a field of 60 or 100. Like 9th at the Olympics is awesome at scale. But comparatively 9th behind Michael Phelps is a totally different class. In rowing if you were 0.5% off the best guy, or goal time for a workout you were a totally different class of athlete.

I would maybe remove Romo, McNaab, and McNair from greats and move them to “pretty good”.

I think we’ll see a heavy defensive draft in terms of quantity of picks. I have a sneaking suspicion that we won’t draft our first round pick at 28. We will move up for a WR or move back because we don’t have a great grade on what is left on board. One of the two first picks will be a WR. I also think we’ll take a flyer on a WR in the mid to late rounds as well. Outside of funding an OC or RT to come in and develop behind Brown/Morse I don’t know what other offense we’d take high. But we also need a couple of DE, DL depth, and a tandem of Safeties with minimal cap space.

Productive and $30M cap hit productive are two very different things.

I agree that he won’t see the end of his contract. Everybody in the building knows it. But restructuring basically guarantees we get close.. Out of pocket so keeping this simple with pre-June cuts. 2024 is the only time cutting/trading Diggs hurt us currently. Restructuring ties the teams hands and kicks the can down the road. The current situation is below. I think (ouch) a restructure ties us together until 2026. 2024: -$3M net cap 2025: $5M 2026: $15M 2027: $18M

I think it is somewhere in the middle. Through and through I think Terry thinks of himself as a hockey guy. In his hear of hearts I think he wishes he was the Jerry Jones of the NHL. But he also hates his failings. So he pulled his investments, put his yes men in place to do it his way, and if the right sale becomes available he will bite. Ultimately I think Terry Pegula is the worst owner in NHL history and I have zero faith in him to do right by a pro franchise ever. As @Low Positive said, there isn't any magic bullet in the NHL. We can't just stumble upon a franchise QB for the Sabres. If the Bills were owned by an owner like Bisciotti I would likely have some more openness to moving on from McBeane. I think they are stable in the same way Tomlin is stable in Pittsburgh. Between both them and Allen, they collectively cover for what could be historically bad ownership. Sorry I wasn't clear. I was only talking about him selling the Sabres.

Sorry for the double tap. I believe that Terry wants to unload the Sabres and unload it to somebody who keeps in Buffalo because he wants to save face. But if the Bills were to ever win a championship the team would go to the highest bidder in short order.

I don't necessarily disagree. But there have been rumors since early on that Terry has been a meddler in the team. I don't know exactly how involved he is or isn't at the moment. But I do know even the most recent rumors around senior leadership was that Briere required anti-meddling language in his contract and Terry refused. So while Terry may have taken a step back, Kevyn Adams is the yes man he put in place because he still holds to power over the team.

Mr. Pegula, Thank you for staying the fork away from the Bills. The greatest Bills era in 30 years is directly because you stay the hell away from the team. Now please take 6 giant leaps back from the Sabres. Thanks!

We should. I don't think we will lose anybody on offense. The more I spend time with it the more I spend time with this roster after the season is wrapped, I think we devote a good portion of the draft to defense. I think we likely keep Diggs, we just have an immediate need at the outside, plus some depth. I expect a WR in the 1st and/or second. But after that I think we likely go hard at safety and pass rusher help in the top 3-4 rounds. After that it is likely depth at both OL and DL.

Right, I read that part. I also read the part about new-age feces in regards to a dude who was raised by a WW2 vet and the part about not condoning the idea of a kid picking his own team, sport, interests, etc. I am addressing what you said in totality. Not picking this sentence and ignoring that sentence. You bookended your response with two similar sentiments. The point of the hockey story is that that dad also thinks he is teaching his kid life the same life lessons, tough love, and anti-new-aged parenting whatever. But in reality he is just being a wiener. He is just too close to see it for himself. Ditto

Oh totally. I assumed that the single tweet posted with this quote was in response to all the Diggs talk after this game. I might have missed the mark on that one. If Diggs was in the pooper, or on the trade block, or being measured for a bronze statue outside the stadium, this is the response that would be given.

If Diggs woke up tomorrow and was about as talented as fat Kelvin Benjamin, Brandon Beane would still back his guy at his EOY presser.

One thing that always irked me is that Pegula hasn't upgraded the field conditions since buying the team 10 years ago. It isn't just that we have turf, it is also that the turf at the Ralph forking sucks. It was installed in 2011 and was the 29th ranked field in the league in 2015. Absolutely brutal. We have Josh Allen, who has said "I prefer grass". McDermott has said the same thing. And in the 6-7 years they have been here Pegula hasn't made any attempt to upgrade it to grass or even a better synthetic surface. And on the flip side we have the Patriots. Brady said "I prefer grass" and Bob Kraft replaced it during the bye week. https://www.si.com/nfl/2015/09/29/nfl-stadium-turf-grass-rankings

I don't think it is new-age parenting at all. I heard a story the other day of a guy at a stick and puck with his kid. Maybe around 10-12 years old. Dad was riding him hard, yelling at him. Slashed his stick out of his hands a couple times. Eventually tossed his kids stick across the ice. Now sports are great, hockey is awesome, and learning to commit to your team and your craft is an important lesson to be learned. But it is also OK not to ride your kid under some thinly veiled moral superiority. Can these things not be taught to a kid who wants to play volleyball or mock trial? Can't a kid learn the benefits of fandom by rooting for a different team and a different sport? Or do we have to force kids to root for the Bills because....toughness or whatever?

The Bills still use those spinning brooms to clear the field in the snow. They were on the field in some of the pictures during clean up. They toss the rubber everywhere, and it needs to be regraded. My tinfoil hat says that even though the game was delayed the storm ultimately knocked out Bernard, Benford, and Spector due to field conditions.

The first thing I’d address is why it isn’t fun for him anymore. Is it his heartbreak/emotion? Is it your expectations/sadness? Is it the yelling at the TV? Solve this and you likely solve the fandom issue. I remember being a kid and reenacting plays with my dad in the living room. Or being very low single digits and my dad pointing out that Bruce Smith was tough he never wore a shirt no matter how could it was, and at halftime we ran around the snowy backyard in the snow in shorts and a t-shirt. The late 80’s and early 90’s had a lot of success and a lot of heartbreak. A lot like this era and Bills football. There’s ways to make the fandom fun even with the peaks and valleys.

I think the league wanted/needs the Bills to win this playoff matchup to keep the hype high otherwise it risks flaming out for the causal viewer. The Taylor Swift aspect changes something for the league. But in general they’ll want a back and forth at some point.

I like this a lot. But one thing I will add. I think any change to Allen's cap number includes an extension.

Now that a day or two has passed, can we talk about getting Jason Kelce his own permanent box going forward? (Assuming he retires) Is there a more famous Buffalo guy than him. Crushing beers, bowling ball shots, shirtless, helping little kids meet their hero’s.

I’ve been wanting to take a step back from the cap ledge for a few seasons just to give us more flexibility. I disliked Diggs restructure after his schtick to end last season and OTA’s. I thought Von was a huge risk when we signed him and his restructure was bonkers. Of course it made some room to sign other players. But every time we do this we need to make bigger decisions a year or two down the line. It’s certainly a cost v reward that is catching up to us.