BillsFan4

https://theathletic.com/1529144/2020/01/15/pronman-2019-20-midseason-nhl-prospects-ranking/ Pronman: 2019-20 midseason NHL prospects ranking (Athletic sub. required) He has Cozens as the #2 prospect outside the NHL. Trevor Zegras is ranked #1. Zegras and Cozens are the only 2 players in the “elite/high end” tier. The #3 prospect (Bowen Byram) is in the next tier down (high end). I wont lie, Zegras was my preferred pick on draft night when he was still on the board at #7. But Cozens has really grown on me and I actually think he might be a better fit on the Sabres than Zegras. Zegras is a heck of a play maker, but Cozens adds a skill set that the Sabres don’t currently have. Pronman says it came down to Zegras vs Cozens for the top spot -

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/sports/hockey/yukon-dylan-cozens.html N.H.L. Draft Pick Inspires Dreams as Big as the Yukon nice story on Dylan Cozens

I would think that Dahlin most likely ends up at #2 on this list. He has the rest of this (regular) season as a 19yr old.

He definitely had a lot on his plate, but I thought he handled it pretty well. I felt like he continued to improve all season, and I kind of like that he wasn’t babied. The Bills weren’t expected to compete for a championship this past season. It was really the first year of the “build” phase of the re-build. So why not try to develop Josh into a complete QB and force him to learn/grow, instead of running some gimmicky offense that only caters to what he already does well and doesn’t force the same type of growth? Those gimmicky offenses always get figured out. Then teams start taking away what that QB does well (Lamar in the playoffs for ex) and now that QB has to start learning how to do more of the things that he wasn’t as good at in order to adapt+overcome. So I guess I just look at it as Josh getting a head start on that process. Why not try to develop him into complete QB now instead of later? I guess you could argue that he wasn’t ready for it, but I don’t think it hurt his development at all. If anything, I feel like it helped it. Im not saying I agree with everything Daboll did or anything, and I’d like to see more of what Josh does best mixed in. But overall I’ve been pretty happy with the way Josh is developing under Daboll.

Personally, I don’t think that’s the question to be asking right now. IMO That’s like skipping from step 2 all the way to the last step. For me, the question is, is Daboll the guy to develop Josh Allen into the franchise QB we think (hope) he can be? And so far, I’d say Daboll seems to be developing Josh Allen pretty nicely. I don’t want to mess with that under the assumption someone else might do a better job. My Grandpa used to always say “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”. Until Josh Allen develops, the Bills aren’t going to be competing for championships. Yes, exactly this.

Yeah, I think it’s freaking some people out... ? (j/k)

Krueger’s been great for Ristolainen. Im so glad that he’s happy here and wants to stay. We are finally seeing start to fully live up to his potential and I’m glad it’s happening in a Sabres uniform instead of watching him get traded elsewhere and thrive.

GTFOH Giants. I’m glad the Bills denied it. There’s no reason to let Daboll interview for a lateral move unless the Bills are trying to get rid of him (which quite clearly they’re not). I want continuity for Josh and the entire offense. Daboll has been good for Allen’s development so far and there’s no reason to mess with that IMO. People like to assume a new OC would be better for Allen but the opposite could also be true. If most of us agree that Josh is developing pretty nicely so far, why do people want to mess with that? I’ve been a Bills fan (and a sports fan in general) long enough to know that the next hire isn’t always automatically better than the previous one.

?? I loved Girgensons quote. Yeah, they can definitely hire him if they want. They already hired Ron Francis as their GM months ago. It’ll all come down to what Gallant wants. If he’s content to sit back for a year then it seems like a no-brainer hire (though the pressure might be high to repeat what he did in LV). But I think he’s going to get quite a few offers this offseason (maybe sooner). I’ll be surprised if he’s not tempted by some team to get back to work sooner. It would be pretty cool to see him to go Seattle though.

Right? lol That would be awesome. But I don’t think he will last that long. If they came into the league next season I feel like it would be a lock. But they don’t start playing until 2021/22 season. I can’t imagine another tram not hiring Gallant before then, unless he decides to wait for Seattle or something (they’d have to make him a ridiculous offer I’d think). I just don't want him back in the east. I could see New Jersey going after him (if they were smart), but it could hurt them not having their long term GM in place right now. They kind of have to hire a GM first, unless they’re planning on naming Tom Fitzgerald full time GM.

Just finished listening to McCrimmon’s press conference (uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...), and yeah, it definitely seems like a hasty decision to me. He couldn’t even say exactly why Gallant was fired. Said it was a gut feeling and it’s hard to describe the reason unless you’re around teams every day. Then he even says how the team is still in the playoff mix and the bottom hasn’t fallen out to force Gallant’s firing or anything like that. He was actually touting that they’re still in the mix! Feels like change for the sake of change more than anything else. I would be left with an awful lot of questions about Kelly McCrimmon if I were a VGK fan. Deboer is going to be under almost immediate pressure to win.

Seems like an overreaction to me. Yeah, they’ve lost their last 4 games, but he’s had unprecedented success with the LVK’s expansion team. They were in the Cup finals in their first season of existence! (which was only 2 years ago)

This is freaking nuts! Las Vegas has lost their minds! Gallant is about as good a coach as you can get. If we didn’t have Ralph Krueger I would be begging the Sabres to fire whoever the coach was. I love the style of play Gallant pushes. It’s basically the same thing Krueger preaches. Constant puck pressure. I don’t see this firing going over well with LV players...

Nice win tonight! They played some pretty good hockey, especially considering their opponent.

Whaattt??? ?

Paul Hamilton talked about it pre-game. At first they were hoping to avoid surgery all-together (since it would be season ending), so they had him trying to rehab it. Then when they found out that he would in fact need surgery, Tage had to continue strengthening the surrounding muscles and get more mobility back first before they could do the surgery.

I find it funny seeing Browns fans saying (about the Stefanski hire) “well, at least it wasn’t Daboll”... Looking at their resumes, Daboll has a heck of a lot more experience than Stefanski. He’s been coaching longer, has experience coaching both sides of the ball, has been a coordinator 7 years (vs. barely over 1yr for Stefanski, where he had Kubiak helping him during games and Dennison doing the game plans). Plus he has worked in multiple NFL organizations, has been around some of the best coaches in football + championship caliber programs, and has 5x Super Bowl rings and a National championship. Im not sure I’d be bragging about landing Stefanski vs Daboll if I were a Browns fan. It’s not like he was some hot head coaching candidate either (the browns are the only NFL team to ever interview him for a HC position afaik. Carolina was scheduled to interview him this year but never did)

Well, that sucks. I was really hoping to see him in Buffalo this season. He was playing some great hockey in Rochester.

Hoping the Bills deny it (assuming he’s still under contract). It would be considered a lateral move, I believe even if he’s being named DC (though I’m sure the Bills wouldn’t prohibit him from taking a play calling job). And I’m pretty sure Pegula pays more to his position coaches than the browns owners do (Bills are supposedly among the highest paying teams). Not much reason to let him leave if he’s still under contract. He’s a very good DB coach. I don't really get why he’d want to leave for Cleveland, where the coaching staffs get about 2 years on average (if they’re lucky...).

He made a rap video about his New Orleans Saints visit. AB seems to love burning bridges. Edit - no, he’s not saying ***** (a sex toy that starts with the letter D). I had to look up the lyrics to be sure... ? (it’s “Sean Payton talking ‘bout the deal though”)

https://nhl.nbcsports.com/2020/01/13/nhl-extends-buffalos-agreement-to-host-combine-through-2022/ NHL extends Buffalo’s agreement to host combine through 2022 Good! Every NHL team seems to love having it here. It’s certsinly a much better set up than what they used previously (based in a hotel lobby in Toronto iirc. Teams staying in separate hotels, prospects having to drive between hotels for meetings, etc). Unless another team offers a better solution than Buffalo, it should stay here.

I think Stefanski might get get 2 years and if things aren’t going well I could see Haslam completely cleaning house again and firing Stefanski + DePodesta too (since this was officially his hire this time) and going back to a more traditional “old school” football structure. He went the heavy analytics route in 2014/15 hiring Depodesta and Sashi Brown, gave that 2 years (but didn’t let Depodesta hire the coach he wanted), then went the complete opposite direction w/the old school Dorsey and the front office he brought in. Now another 2 years has passed and Haslam is back to the analytics centered approach with Depodesta/Stefanski. Until Haslam makes up his mind as to what he wants and actually sticks to it, the Browns will never have any sustained success (IMO).

Yes, It sounds like ownership wants to win now. https://theathletic.com/1529673/2020/01/13/who-will-replace-ray-shero-as-devils-gm-a-look-at-some-top-candidates/ (Athletic sub. required) 1Who will replace Ray Shero as Devils GM? A look at some top candidates by Craig Custance Seeing some urgency from ownership is nice and all, but IMO the Devils just aren’t ready yet. Their 2 best players are still under the age of 21. They tried to speed up the rebuild this past offseason and so far it was an epic failure. Sometimes the best thing an owner can do is have patience, stay the course and not cave to the fan pressure. I am not saying that was the case in NJ. I don’t follow them closely enough to say what type of job shero was doing. From an outsiders perspective I thought he seemed to be doing ok, but obviously NJD ownership disagrees.

I think it’s a risk for Rhule to have 2 unproven college coordinators as his first nfl coordinator hires. I thought he would at least try to hire 1 proven NFL coordinator. possibly even someone who had been an NFL HC, like McDermott did w/Frazier. McDermott prioritized putting together an experienced staff, which was a smart move IMO. I know Rhule backed out of the Jets job over some disagreement with the staff he wanted to hire. I wonder if it had something to do with him wanting to hire 2 unproven college coordinators like this?