It isn’t fun being a Buffalo Sabres fan right now. Actually, it hasn’t been much fun for almost 15 years. Sure, franchises go through ups and downs, good seasons and bad, but this season, Sabres management has reached a new level of ineptitude and a blatant lack of caring. They know the ship is on fire. Yet each season, they’ve only made minor moves, running back a roster that failed horrifically the season before.
Fans have only one move left: boycott the team until they see major organizational changes.
Sabres Management Has to Go
It doesn’t matter if there is one diamond in the rough who seems like they know their job. The Sabres management group has been so thoroughly poisoned that all of them must go. It should have happened years ago, but fans kept showing up.
General manager Kevyn Adams has to go. He is a sycophant for owner Terry Pegula, and no one in hockey operations has any real authority because of Pegula, which is a major problem had has been for years. You don’t get named the worst ownership in the NHL without making some stupendously bad decisions, like buying out Jeff Skinner’s contract and then doing nothing with the available cap space.
Unfortunately, there are no real candidates to replace Adams. Any GM with chops is going to stay as far away from the Sabres franchise as possible, especially knowing that Pegula will be very hands-on (coincidentally, he’s hands-off with the Buffalo Bills, and they have both stability and success).
There has been talk of an internal cap that is significantly lower than the league salary cap. However, the Bills are a clear example that a franchise can make a ton of money with a talented and successful roster. Why handcuff the Sabres with a shoestring budget that will prohibit them from getting better?
The Sabres have been in the bottom six of player spending since 2020. Unless a team knows how to develop prospects fantastically well, they have to spend on established players. The Sabres don’t do that, and it’s prevented them from having any real success.
Let the Sabres’ Next Coach Hire His Staff
What’s most maddening is how the management group has handled their coaching staff. When Lindy Ruff was hired (again), he was not allowed to bring in his own assistants. Instead, he’s had to deal with assistants who have been forced on him, like Seth Appert.
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Why hire an experienced head coach if you’re going to handcuff his decisions? Loyalty is fine, but not when it’s to people who have no track record of success. It then becomes toxic loyalty that hinders a franchise’s ability to develop.
Ruff isn’t the reason the team is failing. He’s just another cog in a broken machine. There is only so much he can do with a poorly constructed roster that has glaring holes and no room to fix them.
Sabres Must Tear Down the Roster
While the real world doesn’t work like EA Sports’ NHL game, that’s the approach the Sabres need to take. Gut the roster completely and start again because everyone has been poisoned by management’s indifference.
Get picks and prospects, and forget about random veterans whose “experience” comes from playing in the bottom six for 10 years. A new management team – hopefully, without Pegula being involved in day-to-day operations – needs to show that they’re invested in their young players and will let them develop.
It will hurt fans to see players like Alex Tuch and Rasmus Dahlin traded, but it will benefit the franchise in the long run. They probably don’t want to play for a club with no direction; no one does. It’s why the Sabres can’t trade for big-ticket players or sign them in free agency.
The only thing to do is to gut the team, show fans that there is at least some semblance of a plan in place, and start again. Getting the most out of trading players of that calibre will be tough; it will likely mean a mid-late first-round pick and/or B+ prospects in return. It also requires hitting on those picks and developing prospects, something the Sabres have not done well.
Slight changes won’t fix anything. Even drafting Gavin McKenna would ultimately mean nothing without major changes from the top. He could pull an Eric Lindros, and no one in Buffalo would be surprised.
There is No Hope if Fans Continue to Support the Sabres
Most of all, none of these changes will happen if fans still show up to games, buy merchandise and support the team. Until enough people decide that enough is enough and tank ticket sales and ratings, nothing will ever change.
Buffalo is a desirable place to play – the Bills are a clear example – but the Sabres organization is so poorly run and so toxic that no one worthwhile will ever join the club. Stop supporting a franchise that continues to willingly Sideshow Bob itself on rake after rake after rake. Until we see real change, there is no point in being frustrated anymore because giving your heart to the team is an exercise in masochism.
