BillsFan4

Yeah, probably. Went a little overboard making my point I guess... lol But there was an actual quote from Ernie Accorsi shortly after the trade where he said something like that. It was something to the effect of "trading for a QB like Eli doesn't really ever happen and you only get a chance to trade for a QB like him maybe once in a lifetime, so I couldn't pass it up". I just read it in an article (from 2004) yesterday, but of course now I can't find the article anywhere (and I just cleared my browser history this morning...).

I would absolutely LOVE Rick Dudley as team president or even GM. Paul Fenton would also be good though. Both Dudley and Fenton would be amazing. We did try to get Rick Dudley last time though, and he decided to stay in Montreal. They even gave him a raise (and a promotion?) too, because they didn't want him going anywhere. Maybe things have changed in the past few years, who knows. We can hope, right? He does still have a house here IIRC.

Oh wow, I guess he didn't take a dive. It was legit. The replay I saw didn't show niskanin in it. It was the clip they showed on NBC after the game, where they paused it just as Ovi was tapping Kadri on the arm, and then it showed what looked like Kadri taking a ridiculous dive. I stand corrected though. Kadri has definitely taken some dives (or at least 1 that I seen) earlier in this series though, and with the type of player he is, I can see why a lot of people immediately assumed it was a dive.

I agree with much of what you are saying. As far as not having a plan - From most accounts, it seems like Tolbert was brought in to be one of "McDermott's guys". He's been with SM in Carolina for years, and McDermott loves his personality and work ethic. He's one of those guys a new coach brings in too help establish the new culture he's trying to bring with him. It's very common. A single, $1M signing should not prevent most teams from tendering a guy at a certain level. But our cap has been so mismanaged that it probably does here, which seems pretty ridiculous when you think about it, especially for a 7-9 team that hasn't sniffed the playoffs in forever.

What?! That's not how you scout a QB! Watching entire games. Ha. You watch a bunch of highlight videos, duh.

I think the circumstances of that trade have to be taken into account. I don't think it's beside the point at all. Eli saying after he was picked that he would literally quit playing football and go into a career in Law is the reason the trade happened. The Chargers had no choice. Period. That matters. If they had a choice, they keep Eli and that trade doesn't happen at all. Eli was looked at as a can't miss, only comes along very rarely type of QB before the draft. The Chargers wanted him badly, which is why they drafted him even though he had been saying for months that he wouldn't play for them even if they drafted him. If Trubisky was looked at as anywhere even close to an Eli Manning level prospect, he'd go 1st overall and there'd be no talk of the Browns trading that pick or passing up on drafting him. As far as the Eagles - again, as I said in my original post, time will tell. We have to wait and see. Wentz looked good for a few games, and then struggled pretty badly for much of the rest of the season. And Goff looked absolutely horrible. They both have a Long way to go yet to ever be worth the price.

As I said in my original post, I don't consider Eli a trade up. The Chargers picked him 1st overall and the Giants drafted Rivers 4th overall, then they were traded for each other afterwards. So that's a draft day trade IMO, not technically a trade up. Plus, that trade never happens if Eli doesn't absolutely refuse to play for SD (he said after he was drafted that he was planning to pursue a career in Law instead of football) and it also doesn't happen if the Giants didn't have Philip Rivers to trade to San Diego. So that's a pretty unique scenario, and one that isn't likely to be repeated.

Anyone see that ridiculous dive by Kadri tonight? The one where Ovechkin barely taps him on the arm and he like flails his whole body, falls to the ice and grabs his leg/ankle (which wasn't even touched)? That's at least the 2nd (or 3rd) dive like that I've seen from Kadri this playoff series, where he barely gets touched and acts like someone just shot him or something. The guys should have been an actor. He may have missed his calling there... lol.

Eh, we heard similar stuff last year - that they were in discussions with the Browns about trading up for Wentz and how much they loved him etc. BTW Who said this? If this is actually true, I hope we don't trade up for Trubisky. Trade up's into the top 10 for a QB have almost never worked out. There was a good write up on it at Buffalo Rumblings just the other day. I believe Mike Vick was about the only successful trade up into the top 10, and that was before mobile QBs were popular in the NFL. That trade may not even happen today. Other than that, there's no success story to point to that I could think of unless Goff or Wentz work out (I don't think Eli counts because it was t a trade up and he demanded the trade, otherwise it never happens). How can you trade up into the top 5 for (and go All In on) a QB who started a total of 13 college games, and not until his senior year? If they do it, they better be damn sure about him and it better work out for sure, otherwise whoever's idea it was is definitely toast, not to mention it setting the Bills back years.

This is good news. Antipin had a fantastic playoff run, was name MVP defenseman. He had a darn good regular season too, by all accounts. He is still pretty young (26?), is a LHD and Buffalo needs blue line help desperately. So I definitely hope this does still get done.

Honest question - why does it seem like many Bills fans are so thoroughly convinced the Browns are going to blow us out of the water just because they have a bunch of draft picks? The Browns have had plenty of extra draft picks in the past and it led to nothing. They also had a bunch of draft picks last year, and I really wasn't overly impressed with many of them. Maybe they improve this season, I don't know. The Browns could very well end up being good/great. But they have to actually hit on a majority of their draft picks first, which is far from a sure thing (especially with the Browns and Haslam meddling).

Sorry if I don't take everything La Canfora says as gospel... If the Browns actually draft Trubisky #1 overall, I will completely agree with the OP. But until then, I am taking this as just more untrue garbage being spewed on Twitter (a very common thing these days).

You repeat this all the time, but I just don't see it. He wasn't like that in Philly or Carolina IMO. His defense in Philly was aggressive. His defense in Carolina was aggressive in attacking the ball and creating turn overs (his defense was top 5 in interceptions 3 of the last 4 years). He's a Jim Johnson disciple, who was as aggressive as they come. McDermott himself said he will be aggressive. So can we wait until he coaches a few games and see if he actually shows a "bland, boring, play not to lose" style before labeling him with it? Because as of now I haven't seen it in his career. And FYI Keeping Tyrod does not prove it. It proves that he wants to try and win right away, that's all. Also, playing a more simple defensive scheme that allows players to play fast and not have to overthink doesn't mean "boring, play not to lose" either.

LOL! Great movie (and book).

We don't yet know if the run blocking scheme will be completely/drastically changed yet either. Is it possible that he wouldn't fit as well into a new run blocking scheme and be unable to repeat last season's performance anyway? I'd say yes.

I think we can also put to bed the rumors of Pegula hiring Dan Bylsma. He specifically said that he didn't have much involvement in hiring the GM or the coach and he really regrets that. So I think it's safe to say that Bylsma was indeed a Tim Murray hire. (and we all know Murray was a LaFontaine hire, obviously).

Absolutely agree. They drool all over Cleveland's "rebuild", but Buffalo tanked... Can't have it both ways, like Pegula said. If Buffalo tanked, Cleveland absolutely tanked. They released a ton of good players last year. Funny thing is there were some Buffalo News writer(s) calling for the Sabres to rebuild/tank before it happened, and then when it does happen they change their tune and criticize it. You know, I still blame the Buffalo News to this day about a lot of the terrible, negative publicity the Sabres rebuild/tank got. So many things became a national headline/punchline because of stories written by TBN that would get picked up by the national media. IMO that was one of the main differences between the Sabres "tank" and Toronto's "rebuild". Both teams tanked, but Toronto's media was on board and did nothing but praise it and Buffalo's media did nothing but slam it. I think the Buffalo News was definitely a factor in turning the Sabres rebuild into such a big story at times.

I really hope they don't limit the GM search to candidates with experience as a GM. That takes a LOT of good candidates out of the picture immediately IMO. I really hope he meant someone with experience in a president type role or that someone who's been an asst. GM for quite a while under a great GM or something like that. There's a number of really really good asst. GMs waiting for their first shot IMO. I just don't think it's good to limit your search so much right off the bat like that. I also hope it's not Dean Lombardi. I think he's a bit out of touch with where the current NHL game is/has been headed. And yeah, those Character comments were a bit damning of Tim Murray, and Dan Bylsma (but I definitely took it as more of a shot at a Tim Murray). I also said yesterday that Terry Pegula didn't hire Tim Murray, and now we know that he definitely didn't hire Dan Bylsma either (as was speculated by some), and that was a factor. Pegula hired LaFontaine. He never planned on having Tim Murray run the whole organization. Now we will get a better idea of Pegula's vision for the Sabres... I was also very glad to see him address that "Eichel, coach killer" narrative right off the bat. I was really hoping he'd do that. I hate seeing Eichel taking so much blame for this.

I think something that has to be taken into account - The Pegula's did not hire Tim Murray. They hired Pat LaFontaine to run the team, and Lafontaine hired Tim Murray. Murray was never technically hired to run the whole team. He was hired because he was considered a very good scout, which is why Lafontaine supposedly picked him. He was supposed to help lafontaine scout and evaluate talent. Pegula never originally planned on having Murray run everything.

Maybe. If he does decide to leave school this year, a new GM will have no time to even try to get him signed. But maybe he will also see some opportunity here now. The new GM won't be tied to Lehner like Murray was. ,an I sure hope we get him signed though. I still think he could be our future franchise goaltender.

One thing that o wonder about - what does this do to the expansion draft possibilities? George McPhee was said to owe Tim Murray a favor (for that Klesla contract/trade deal). Murray said McPhee remembered this and Murray has told him the player(s) he didn't want to lose. Now that is probably out the window. I could see Linus Ullmark gone (hope not!) now. Hopefully the new GM can swing a deal though. Also, I wonder what it does to our chances of landing a good defenseman from a team with too many to protect for expansion. I'm sure Murray was putting in ground work all season, maybe longer. Deals take quite a while to make in the NHL, and a new GM won't really have any time to set things up like that before the expansion draft in June. And I wonder if the Sabres will still be able to sign that Antikpin from the KHL. He was said to have a deal in place with Buffalo. I hope it still goes through...

Agreed. He did it to himself trying to speed up the rebuild too much. I think he would have had more time had he not traded away so many assets to speed up the timeline. He even said "give me 2 drafts" and "I don't think a rebuild needs to take 5 years". Had he just been patient and stock piled assets instead of burning through them like a drunken sailor, he might still have a job right now. The Sabres weren't ready to take the next step yet. The Sabres were on track to have the almost the most draft picks in history. We could have been something very special (we still can). We could have been a dynasty. Just that 2015 draft alone could have set the Sabres up for a decade. When you look at the players we could have had with those 1st and 2nd round picks traded away... I mean, you have to obviously hit on the draft picks, but Regier had us set up so well for that 2015 draft. That was one of the deepest drafts in a LONG time. 2016 is looking fantastic too. Oh well, no point in all the "coulda, shoulda, woulda"...

I hear you and that was one of my first thoughts as well - I wonder what this does for the draft. But when you look back at that 2014 draft, it was as weak as everyone said it was leading up to the draft. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_NHL_Entry_Draft It's not like Murray really missed out on some great players or something. I guess you can debate if he picked the right guy at #2, but that's still TBD anyway.

Well, I guess the rumors were right... I heard (from a guy who has a family member that works for the Sabres) that Bylsma was less than 50/50 to come back and that Murray was already on the hot seat (as I posted a couple pages back, but I didn't actually fully believe it about Murray). Bylsma is no shock at all. He was toast when all that stuff came out about the players (and especially Eichel) not wanting to play for him. But Murray was a bit of a shocker. He also did it to himself IMO. He tried to speed up the rebuild too much, and his trades were not very good. Way too many assets given up. That 2015 draft alone could have set the Sabres up for a decade. Sucks that Murray didn't get to finish the job though and now we're going to change visions in the middle of the rebuild (for the 2nd time!), after burning through all those assets. But at least he won't get to waste anymore of our assets. Pegula HAS TO get this next hire right. He has to. Honestly, IMO he screwed up when he fired Regier. Not that I think Regier was a good GM and should still be here, but I just think he should have let Regier finish the tear down and tank, let him stockpile a ton of assets (as he was great at getting big trade returns) and then get rid of him when it was time to take the next step. I just feel like the Sabres really could have been a dynasty, been something very special. Maybe I'm putting too much stock into draft picks, I don't know, but the Sabrs were on pace to have more draft picks than almost any team in history.