GM For A Day: The Lindy Part Deux Edition

His end-of-year press conference coupled with his new hire of old boss Lindy Ruff has put the focus squarely on him as GM and leader of the franchise.  And being in that focus, he needs to produce.  He’s going to have to be active, make some bold moves, and break the Drought.  If he does so, he’ll be given considerably more leash.  Maybe another 2-3 years?  More?  So without further adieu, let’s get into it!

First off, I’m putting in place my new coaching staff.

HIRE:  Lindy Ruff as HC.  As Eminen once said, “Guess who’s back, back again…”.  For those of you who are of an older vintage, Peter Townshend once said “Meet the new boss…same as the old boss…”  I’m not especially enthusiastic about the hire, but that step has already been taken.  Ruff is a bit of a mixed bag, he’s had some success and some failures.  He’s been around the block – something Adams indicated he wanted – and has coached some young teams, including his most recent stop in Newark.  So there’s some potential synergy with past jobs and his new gig.

HIRE:  Joel Ward, Marty Wilford, Ryan Mougenel, Dustin Brown as ACs.  I’m naming Joel Ward, currently an Assistant in Vegas, as my ‘Associate Coach.’  Essentially, that means he’s the HC-in-waiting.  He’s been successful at the AHL level and now has some time behind an NHL bench coaching the defending champions.  Next, I’m bringing Ryan Mougenel in to handle the forwards.  He’s the current HC for the Providence Bruins, has been very successful there with one of the best records in the entire AHL during his 3 year tenure as HC.  He’s stuck behind Jim Montgomery and hasn’t had an NHL job before…so he might jump at this.  The Sabres elected to keep Marty Wilford around, and that’s not a bad thing…he helped to coach a huge improvement in both the overall team defense and the PK.  He’ll be there to coach the D.   And last but not least, I would love to bring aboard Dustin Brown as the 4^th AC, the ‘eye in the sky’ gig that Peca reportedly turned down when offered.  Sure, he’s a novice, but who better to instill in these guys what it takes.  Captained 2 Cup winners, played 1300 games, 100 playoff games, and I’ve heard conflicting reports that he moved either to BFLO or back home to Ithaca.  If the former, this gig can be right down the street!  This is a young, hungry group of guys to whom can pass on a lot of knowledge.

Now we’ve got our coaches in place, we start looking at the roster.  And all of that leads up to the Draft.

The night before the Draft, we make a small deal:

TRADE:  BFLO 2024 4^th, 2025 5^th -> WIN Alex Iafallo.  At the Draft, BFLO adds another guy who ‘wants to be here.’  Iafallo grew up in the Southtowns and played for the Regals.  He’s got one more year at $4M on his deal.  He can play either wing, has some strength to his game, is a consummate hustler, and will get to come home to play for the coach he almost certainly watched growing up.  A solid bottom 6 addition.

DRAFT: 

1#12:  Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, RW, SWE:  High-pace, aggressive, scoring PF.  

2#11:  Raoul Boilard, C, QMJHL:  Super-skilled, strong C with a ton of upside. 

3#11:  Tomas Lavoie, RHD, QMJHL:  Big, physical shut-down D with a great 1^st pass.  

4#12 (PHI):  Caleb Heil, G, USHL:  Quick, athletic netminder with a long development arc.

6#11:  Ondrej Becher, C/W, WHL **:  Super-skilled, playmaking forward.  

7#11: David Green, LHD, OJHL:  Steady, smart do-it-all D man off to the NCAA.  

7#28 (FLA): Roman Shokhorin, LHD, RUS:  Towering 6’4 D Man with a lot of potential.  

Then we get to the start of the League Year and Free Agency.  Here comes the Boom.

BUYOUT:  Jeff Skinner.  This is a staple of my GM FAD’s as long as he’s under contract.  First off, let me be clear:  I don’t hate Jeff Skinner.  He’s obviously had a wonderful career.  He’s a productive scorer, probably finishes his career with 400 goals.  That’s amazing.  A strong forechecker, a likeable guy, an agitator.  All good qualities.  But there’s just too much not good and the Sabres don’t have the team to insulate a player like Skinner enough to prevent him from hurting the team.  I keep hearing ‘he can learn to play defense.’  Can he?  He’s played 1000 games!  How much longer until the light goes on?  So, I’m prepared to take my medicine and move on.  Will such a move do horrible damage to the Salary Cap?  No.  Is it manageable?  Yes, with some judicious moves.  And honestly, Adams isn’t worried about 3 years from now.  He’s worried about tomorrow.  This just seems like a no-brainer to me.

RE-SIGN:  Ukko Pekka Luukkonen -> 3 years @ $3.95M.  One of the foundational pieces.  If UPL can play at 75% of what he played at this season, he’s still a legitimate #1 goalie in the NHL.  If he can replicate last season…all the better.  But goalies are voodoo.  And it’s possible – no one wants to hear this – that he could regress sharply next season.  Or he could take another step and be the new Thatcher Demko.  No one really knows.  So rather than extend him for 5-6 years, I’m going to play it safe and go with 3 and see where things are when that deal expires.  It’s possible Levi passes him in that span of time, or that UPL locks himself into being a Top 5 goalie in the NHL.  Either way, it gives me time.  I can wait to let him figure it out, and I have insurance behind him.

SIGN: Tyler Toffoli -> 2 years @ $5.75M.  The big one.  Now, Toffoli isn’t a first-line kind of player, and in some cases, not even a second line player.  But he’s got just about everything I want.  He’s a goal scorer to offset the departure of Skinner.  He’s won 2 Cups.  Dangerous on special teams.  Can play either wing, and on just about any line.  Not only that but had one of his most productive seasons playing for Lindy Ruff in Jersey, and played with Dustin Brown in LA when they won Cups together.  Knows Quinn and Power from playing on Team Canada at the World Championships together.  Would give the Sabres 3 legitimate scoring lines, something Lindy mentioned more than once during his introductory presser.

RE-SIGN:  Henri Jokiharju -> 2 years @ $3.8M.   Now, to be clear, this is a stop-gap.  I want to avoid Arbitration, but I don’t want to set him up to walk into UFA.  Like many folks, I was impressed with Joker’s performance this past season.  He definitely looked the part.  But I’ve essentially got to decide between he and Byram.  So I’m going to keep him around for this year…and then see what the market looks like for him in the 2025 off-season.  Moving him will also eliminate the escalation in Skinner’s buyout Cap hit (next year, Skinner’s Cap Hit goes up by $3M, and moving Joker for RyJo would save about #3M).  He’s a very good player, but I’ve only got so many spots and so many dollars to hand out.