Buffalo Sabres and NHL 2024-2025

[Gregg]

On 6/13/2025 at 11:57 AM, May Day 10 said:

I dont think Quebec city, Hartford, or any nonsense like that is getting a team anytime soon.

 

Need corporate money, population, television market.  

 

Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, all probably guaranteed as the next 3.  After that, probably something like indy or KC.  

 

I honestly don't know why the league would give Atlanta a 3rd shot. Houston and KC (IMHO) should be next in line if the league wants expansion.

[BillsFan4]

I truly can’t believe the Sabres still haven’t made a single assistant coaching change (not counting the S&C coach…). I really thought at bare minimum they’d change out an assistant or two. Every assistant except Appert has been here for multiple years of team regression at this point.

 

WTF have any of these assistants even done to keep their jobs?

 

- The PK and overall team defense were bad yet again under Wilford, and I see little progress from guys like Power, Samuelsson, etc. yet Marty Wilford appears to be back. What defenseman has he helped develop or improve in Buffalo?

- The PP was terrible, yet Appert seems to be gaining more power in the org.

- They haven’t really developed a goalie the entire time Mike Bales has been here (except for maybe 1/2 a season of UPL playing well) and goaltending has been a yearly issue since Ullmark left but Bales seems safe once again.

 

I don’t get it. Are their standards for winning really that low? Is it an internal budget thing? Or can they just not get any decent assistant coaches to come here (seeing as Ruff is in the last year of his deal now)? 

[coloradobillsfan]

1 hour ago, Gregg said:

Houston and KC (IMHO) should be next in line if the league wants expansion.

 

When I lived in KC, I got absolutely zero impression they desired an NHL team or even cared about the sport.  Yes it was a while ago, but I watched the '99 Finals at a popular sports bar on a tiny tv in the corner with no sound.  There was not a single other patron in the bar observing the game.  

[Gregg]

2 minutes ago, coloradobillsfan said:

 

When I lived in KC, I got absolutely zero impression they desired an NHL team or even cared about the sport.  Yes it was a while ago, but I watched the '99 Finals at a popular sports bar on a tiny tv in the corner with no sound.  There was not a single other patron in the bar observing the game.  

 

With the way they support the Chiefs I figured hockey might do well there. It seems like a good sports town. It's definitely a great sports town when it comes to football.

[May Day 10]

1 minute ago, Gregg said:

 

With the way they support the Chiefs I figured hockey might do well there. It seems like a good sports town. It's definitely a great sports town when it comes to football.

 

I think it could be appealing to the NHL in that it is a sports town with no NBA competition locally.

 

The arena was new but that was almost 20 years ago and I would think a new owner would want to/need to put some money into it.  The district by the arena is cool.  

 

It all kind of rides on having an owner there though who wants to spend that kind of money on an NHL team.  Cities don't buy teams and the NHL doesn't give them away.  

[Mike in Horseheads]

11 hours ago, Gregg said:

 

With the way they support the Chiefs I figured hockey might do well there. It seems like a good sports town. It's definitely a great sports town when it comes to football.

I don't know, they didn't support the NHL and NBA before, also really don't support the Royals MLB team. 

[Gregg]

10 hours ago, Mike in Horseheads said:

I don't know, they didn't support the NHL and NBA before, also really don't support the Royals MLB team. 

 

The Royals are like the AL's version of the Pirates. Most of the time it seems like they are going through another miserable season. No fanbase in any sport will put up with that year after year. Look at Buffalo as an example. While it has a reputation as a football mad city, it is also a great hockey market. You would never know that looking at the Sabres attendance in recent years. Fans are fed up with Terry running the team into the ground. 

[Gregg]

The hockey fan in me would love to see game 7 but I think the Panthers will Cup tonight.

[rusty shackleford]

6 hours ago, Gregg said:

The hockey fan in me would love to see game 7 but I think the Panthers will Cup tonight.

Win it tonight, keep the cup home… USA USA 

[DapperCam]

Oilers remind me of the Bills. Multiple deep runs, totally dependent on an elite player. Don't have the supporting cast in place to get it done.

[BillsPride12]

6 minutes ago, DapperCam said:

Oilers remind me of the Bills. Multiple deep runs, totally dependent on an elite player. Don't have the supporting cast in place to get it done.

Never thought of that comparison before but that is a pretty good one.  The longer this series has gone on it's clear Florida is the much deeper team

[rusty shackleford]

There it is sam reinhart with a hat trick in the Stanley  cup finals… why can’t we hang on to guys like these 🤷‍♂️

Edited 11 hours ago by rusty shackleford

[BADOLBILZ]

25 minutes ago, DapperCam said:

Oilers remind me of the Bills. Multiple deep runs, totally dependent on an elite player. Don't have the supporting cast in place to get it done.

 

 

Nah.   The Oilers are looking more like the 90's SB losing Bills.  They have plenty of talent.   McDavid is not alone.   They just haven't played well in the finals and gotten their a$$ handed to them by the tougher team.

 

The current Bills are more like the Marty Schottenheimer/Norv Turner Chargers teams.   Excellent records, high rankings statistically but always underperform on both sides of the ball in the divisional/CG rounds when they are playing the other AFC contenders.

[Draconator]

And just how many fans will show up at a Panther's Stanley Cup parade this year?

[QCity]

Florida is so well coached, positionally sound, and they play perfect structured hockey. The better team won, it's as simple as that.

[Mike in Horseheads]

4 hours ago, rusty shackleford said:

There it is sam reinhart with a hat trick in the Stanley  cup finals… why can’t we hang on to guys like these 🤷‍♂️

To make matters worse he ended up with 4 goals. 

[BillsFan4]

Players traded by Buffalo have been huge parts of teams that won 4 of the last 7 Stanley Cups (I don’t count Bogosian as a big part of Tampa’s Cup).

If STL doesn’t trade for ROR they don’t win the Cup in 2019 (ROR won the conn smythe that year). Vegas likely doesn’t win the cup without Eichel (Conn smythe runner up in 2023), and Reinhart has been a key part of Florida’s back to back Cups. Brandon Montour was also a big part of Florida’s first cup win last year.

 

Has any other single NHL team contributed more to the success of other teams in the league than Buffalo?

 

It feels like the Sabres are just a developmental feeder team for real NHL clubs.

😢

[BillsFan4]

9 hours ago, QCity said:

Florida is so well coached, positionally sound, and they play perfect structured hockey. The better team won, it's as simple as that.

Bill Zito has done such an incredible job turning that team into a powerhouse.

He had a vision for that team and executed it perfectly.

Think about the guts it took to make some of the moves he did at the time he made them…

 

Coming off a president’s trophy in 2021-22 he moved on from the coach that had just led them to their best regular season in franchise history (58-18-6) and traded his leading scorer + top pairing defenseman (weegar was #1 in minutes played by defenseman for Florida in ‘21/22) because he thought the team needed an identity change to go deep in the playoffs.

 

And to think, the Sabres interviewed Bill Zito before they hired Jason Botterill.

Oof. lol