The Buffalo Sabres will never have a President of Hockey Ops again after telling Brendan Shanahan no

The Buffalo Sabres will never have a President of Hockey Ops again after telling Brendan Shanahan no

Brendan Shanahan may have offered his services to the Buffalo Sabres and they may have said no. Some things to learn from a report from Andrew Peters and also a free agent that is still available that I’ve got my eye on. That’s coming up here on Locked on Sabres. Your Locked On Sabres, your daily podcast on the Buffalo Sabres, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What is up everybody and welcome into today’s edition of the Locked On Sabers podcast and thanks for making us your first listen every day. We’re free and available wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for checking us out, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. You can watch us on YouTube where you can like and subscribe the show there. You can also sign up for our Locked on Sabers text club if you’re not already a part of that. You can sign up by going to joinsubttex.com/lockedonabs. Today’s episode is presented by FanDuel Sportsbook. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. It’s a beautiful, beautiful July day here in Buffalo. The weather is hot, but we’re going to talk some hockey. Stay inside, stay cool, and we’ll talk about what’s going on on the ice. There are a couple of things I wanted to get to on today’s show as we are kind of in the thick of the off season here in the this is the beginning of the slow time. So, hey, I I know that like football is going to be on the brain very soon for a lot of Buffalo sports fans and there’s going to be training camp coming up, but one thing that I actually do like about the summer while talking about the Sabres, it can be more positive than during the year because I do like to not with every show, but a couple of shows here and there throughout the summer kind of let’s do some nostalgia, you know? let’s let’s do some nostalgia. And when you do nostalgia, it’s going to be positive feelings for the most part. Whereas, you know, many of these years where we’re living in the season, um those seasons are typically not going very well. So, it’s very easy to be, you know, down on a lot of what’s going on with the Buffalo Sabres. cuz any that might be a little bit of the vibe of today’s show, but not just with this uh this blurb I want to talk about at the beginning of the show with Shanahan and president of hockey operations, but there is a free agent available that I want to talk about for a minute today that I’ve liked for a long time, Jack Rosavik. And we’ll look through real quick like the remaining list of free agents. I saw a top 10 free agents available. Um, and I want to go through that just for a little bit. And then also a video I saw of Zack Benson working out in the offseason on the ice working hard and where I think he might be almost a I don’t know good things and bad things from this very short video. It was like a two-minute long video that I saw of Zack Benson. But good news is he’s at least you know working hard in the offseason. Checking on Tage maybe a little bit too, you know, just scouring around social media seeing what some of the Sabres guys are up to. But we should definitely start today’s show with what was said by Andrew Peters on the After the Whistle podcast late this week. Wanted to get to that right away because it’s not there’s a surprising element of it, there’s a notsing element of it, and there’s a confirmation element of it. the if you did not hear what Andrew had to say, he said that somebody that he trusts told him that either Brendan Shanahan or somebody that works for Brendan Shanahan reached out to the Buffalo Sabres and offered his services to be the team’s president of hockey operations. Shanahan, who has been in that role with the Toronto Maple Leafs for years, right? And I’m sure he’s currently doesn’t have that job anywhere. And if he would like it, if he would like to have that role again, then you look around the league and you look at a list of teams and like, okay, who could really use a president of hockey operations? And if I were Brendan Shanahan, uh, the Sabres would be one of the first teams that I would probably reach out to as well, feeling like, oh, they need a guy. They need a they need a you know true hockey man relationships in the sport to kind of come in there and be a professional at the top of the organization. That is probably the surprising part of it though still is any idea that Brendan Shanahan who’s a Hall of Fame player who is a longtime executive in the NHL now I mean he had been running the Toronto Maple Leafs for a decade before that of course a department of player safety so he had done that in the NHL office but he had been at the top of a team for a long time. Um he by the way did discuss with the New York Islanders a role in their organization. Um but that did not end up coming to fruition. So Shanahan offering his services to the Sabres. Still a little bit surprising though, right? Like somebody of that caliber that is interested in Buffalo. Not just Buffalo, but the Sabres. Well, apparently he did. The unsurprising element of it, but it’s still something to learn from, I think, a little bit, is Peter says that whoever he was talking to told him that basically what Shanahan received back was basically a thanks but no thanks. We’re good because Terry Pigula is the president of hockey operations or that’s that’s what how he sees himself. We don’t need a president of hockey operations because I’m the president of hockey operations coming from Terry Pagula. Now, is this really news? I mean, it’s news that Shanahan would have been interested. Is it news that Terry sees himself as that role that he is in that role? Maybe not by title, but owner and he, you know, cuz what really is the structure of a president of hockey operations? It is to be the boss for the general manager to kind of direct the organization in the way that you would like to. You report to the owner and the GM reports to you. And we know that Kevin Adams is a Pigoula guy. So, putting somebody in between Pigula and Kevin Adams, I never would have believed that they would have actually done that. It wouldn’t make sense to the structure of the organization considering who the GM is right now. That doesn’t mean that it’s smart or that it’s a good idea, but it’s very clear Terry wants to be the the guy above the coach and the guy above the general manager. It’s the same way the structure of the Bills works. And it’s the way that I would imagine as long as he’s the owner, and this is kind of the takeaway that I have from this is that as long as Terry Pagula owns this team, they will never have a president of hockey operations again. They will never have that person. They had it in Pat Laaf Fontaine and that was very short-lived and we don’t fully know how that unfolded and why it was so immediate and brief that he got out of there and the two sides split. But direction of the franchise and who’s really in charge here, I mean that would make a lot of sense. Also, from what we hear in little bits and pieces from Terry Pagula, whether it’s in the Beyond Blue and Gold series or whether it’s just from rumors or from reports, is that he he wants his voice heard on this team. He grew up a Saber fan. I think he might consider himself I I wonder what he would say in this honest moment. Um cuz in my mind I still kind of consider him to think of himself as a hockey guy. Um not a football guy. And maybe that’s part of the thing that can get them in trouble. But I don’t know like how many how long do you have to be serving in the role of if you see yourself as the director of hockey operations, how many times you have to miss the playoffs in a row before you might think to yourself, man, I might just not be cut out to be the next man above the GM. I should put somebody in between that knows what he’s doing. And if you haven’t realized that in 14 years, I’m not sure you ever will. So, I think for the long-term future, if you’re ever wondering about who could serve in that role, president of hockey operations, don’t wonder about it. It’s a waste of time. It’s not going to happen. Unless and I I’ll I’ll leave a little bit of room for because him and Adams are kind of tied at the hip. It seems that if we have another really really poor year, uh that Adams would get kicked up to that president of hockey operations role. Um but anyways, I I don’t think that part of it is that surprising. The Shanahan part would be surprising. And very quickly, just for my take on it, I I do wish they would do it. I I wish Shanahan was not perfect with Toronto, right? And the Shana plan and everything that went down in Toronto, like he made a lot of mistakes and that team did not win. That team did not win the way they should have given the talent that they had. So this isn’t like burn the arena down because they could. they let Brandon Shanahan go, but I absolutely would have preferred him to be in charge of the organization and it would have given the Sabres an element of credibility and that is the thing I am just dying for with them is any form of credibility and Brendan Shanahan running your hockey department I think would have would have given the Buffalo Sabres that. But they don’t want it and they want to pass on it. So, all right. No Shanahan for the Buffalo Sabres. When we come back, a free agent that is still available. And if you think, oh, there could still be some names out there other than the one name I’m going to give you. I’m going to I got a list of the top 10 remaining UFAs, and you’re going to really realize how how quickly the NHL offseason really goes. It is like a few days of free agency, and then there is nothing left. and I’ll show that off a little bit when we come back here on Locked on Sabers. Today’s episode of the Locked On Sabers podcast is presented by Indeed. You just realized that your business needed to hire somebody yesterday. So, how can you find amazing candidates fast? Well, that’s easy. Just use Indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed’s all you need. Stop struggling to get your job post seen on other sites. Indeed, sponsored jobs puts your post at the top of the page and that’ll help you reach the right candidates a lot faster. If you ever been in that spot where you need the right hire, like yesterday, the pressure is on and every day without the right person can be a setback. That’s exactly when Indeed sponsored jobs comes in handy. They make sure that your post is seen by the right candidates right now. And right now, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 sponsored job credit. Just go to indeed.com/lockedon right now. Support our show by saying that you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need. Back here on the Lockdown Savers podcast, we are in the very very late stages of free agency. Very little has uh has to come out of what’s left here. But um we’re still waiting on the Bob Byum trade/arbitration date should be at the end of July. So we got a couple of weeks probably until we get anything on that front. Although of course we could get a trade at any point in time. So UFAs that are still available if you saw it Jeff Skinner signing yesterday with the San Jose Sharks. One year $3 million. A little bit funny because Jeff Skinner I saw the joke being made. Skinner got a taste of the playoffs finally in his NHL career and said, “Ah, not for me.” And he goes to San Jose. But I really think that’s that’s the right call for him. I mean, I know, you know, if you’ve played so little in the postseason, 1,078 NHL games, five playoff games to this point. Um, you would have thought, yeah, go to another contender. He wants ice time. He wants a roll. and last year 12 minutes a night with Edmonton. You know, maybe he wants something closer to the 16, 17 minutes a night he was getting in Buffalo. So, he goes to San Jose. And I think that will probably work for him because the Sharks are going to give him what he needs. Jeff Skinner will produce for you if you put him with a good center. And the Sharks don’t have good wingers, so they’re going to probably have him in the top six to begin the year. And I expect him to score 20 goals playing with centers like that. um even though he’s going to be 33. Actually, he is 33. So, Skinner signs. So, he’s off the table. Not the Sabres. We’re going to bring him back. How thin the group is. So, from 10 down, Luke Fox of Sports Nets, top 10 remaining unrestricted free agents just to show off how thin this group is. Alex Georgiev, not interested to the Sabres because they have a goalie already. Yan Ruda, 34y old defenseman, no thank you. Uh Michael Carone, left winger, fourthliner, no thank you. Joel Kiver Kiverenta, formerly of Colorado. He is actually a pretty good bottom six player, but the Sabres have enough of those, so we’re good. Uh Luke Cunnan, nope. Good on that front. That’s a that’s a midage center that has shown I saw a report there was some interest to him from multiple clubs, but nobody was referenced. Um number five, Max Patcheri, veteran player, 36 years old. I actually kind of feel like Patarretti is a potential break glass in case of emergency. I don’t want to say top six though. Forward for the Buffalo Sabres. Maybe they would wouldn’t add another forward because at that point it’s what are we really doing here? 36-year-old Max Patcher ready. It just kind of feels like though a signing they would make. He is a big name. He’s way over the hill. He’s got very little left to give. I mean, last two seasons combined playing 84 games, nine goals and 36 points. He did turn it on in the postseason a little bit for Toronto last year, eight points in 11 games, but that’s not enough to make me interested in him at all. Left winger. That’s the only reason I bring him up because he’s number five in this list and he plays the position the Sabres weak right now, which is left wing. Uh, number four, Ilia Samsonov. Sabres don’t need a goalender. Number three, Matt Grizzlick. We talked about him a month ago when we talked about defenseman ideas for the Sabres. I think he was like the worst idea for them and it’s not surprising to me he is still unsigned. And then the top two, I like number one, but here’s number two. Number two is uh Victor Olivesson. Victor Olison. And I do wonder a little bit. I think it would kind of be embarrassing, but you need a left winger. You need a goal scorer to replace JJ Purka. I mean, I I’m not going to tell you this is a good idea. I’m just saying his name is out there. He had a really good season in Vegas. Um, very good advance numbers. Very good advance numbers. He scored 15 goals in 56 games. He dealt with some injury. So, you know, above a 20 goal pace playing if he had played 82 games. Um, it just would feel like such a backwards move to bring him back when it was so bad for him in that final season with the Buffalo Sabres. The year before was great, 28 goals, but that 23 24 season was pretty darn bad for Victor Olivesson. So, not going down that road. The name I wanted to mention here quickly and if you’ve listened to me for years, this is a player that I’ve always kind of been infatuated with. He’s not amazing, but I’ve always liked this player. I think he has always been a pretty good offensive player. I think defensively he doesn’t quite fit what the Sabres are looking for this off seasonason of the tougher to play against, you know, responsible in their own end. Jack Rosik is a player that I’ve liked for a long time. I think he’s a good depth scorer on a good team and I think he just proved that he was that last year in Carolina. playing under 14 minutes a night, playing often on a third line. He scored 22 goals for that’s the second time in his career that he has scored 20 or more goals and the I think it’s the second time in four years that he’s able to do been able to do that. He’s just a player though that nobody ever seems to value that much. Like he’s always available in the trade market. He’s always the last free agent to sign. And I I kind of get that, right? Like what is the market? This is Oliv. What is the market for a one-dimensional finisher that’s not an elite finisher? You know, like he’s okay. He’s pretty good. He might give you 10 goals, though, and then he’s pretty much useless to you. But he might give you 20. And for that, the Sabres, I think, could use some goalc scoring options in their forward ranks. If it didn’t work out, you sign him to a one-year one million dollar deal. It’s not going to cost you much money at all. and the player if it doesn’t work out gets waved or you just move on and no harm no foul. His last year though for Carolina would make me intrigued to see if he could play in my top six at the beginning of the year because desperate times call for desper desperate measures and I think he could be a better idea than Jack Quinn or Zack Benson to play in your top six. The only thing hiccup with this is he’s a right shot center. He has played wing in his career. Um, but he is not somebody that I ever would think about playing on that left wing hole for the Sabres. So, somebody would have to go to their off wing, which listen, there are a lot of guys in the league that are capable of doing that. I’m not sure Rosovvich would be the guy you do that with. Maybe Tuck would go to his offside. You would tr you would go with a higherend player doing that. So, you’d have to figure out the lineup portion of it. He also would give you some center depth, right, in your top six. Um, if Josh Norris gets hurt, which is very likely to happen at some point in time if Yuri Kik doesn’t take a step forward, um, he would give you another center option in your ranks. But a this player is a pretty good finisher. Pretty good finisher, pretty good creator. I watched a video of all of his goals from last season and they’re all either a wrist shot from the faceoff circle that beats the goalie clean and there are a lot of those which kind of points to he’s then a pretty good finisher. 12% shooting percentage guy for his career. Last year was almost at 16% so you might expect that to come down a little bit. Um but Rosovic has always been a good finisher around the net as well. A lot of his goals around the net. Uh not a lot of power play time. So again, top six desperate times call for desperate measures idea with some center depth on top of it for no cost at all and for me no downside. So he is the number one available UFA still according to uh Luke Fox of Sportsnet. And again, there’s some good advanced numbers offensively more so than defensively. And that’s a player that I feel like I would like to see the Sabres sign because I just don’t see I don’t see what the downside would be. And maybe you get maybe you get a Jason Zucker season out of him. Maybe you get a 20goal campaign from Rosavic and you look smart because you did another one-year, you know, short shortterm deal that doesn’t have a lot of downside to it. That’s the only UFA that I see still available that is any of any interest to me for the Buffalo Sabres. One guy and I that’s my best job of selling it. It’s not something that I would be in love with for the Sabres, but I would I would like it if they were going to try to go down that road. When we come back, I saw a video of Zack Benson working out this off seasonason. I want to talk about him for a minute when we come back here on Locked on Sabres. Today’s edition of the Locked on Sabres is presented by FanDuel Sportsbook. Summer sports are in full swing. Whether you are all about baseball under the lights or golf, we got another major coming up this week. Can’t wait for that. Or high stakes soccer action. By the way, this month is NFL preseason, so you got that coming, too. FanDuel is the best way to make every game more exciting. You You’re already watching the action. Why not make it a little more thrilling? With FanDuel, you can get in on the game while your friends are getting sunburned on the beach. I’ve been using FanDuel a lot looking at some of these tennis tournaments lately, especially I mean Wimbledon mostly, obviously. uh some of these golf tournaments. The Scottish Open is always fun to watch on this front and all these daily promotions. You get these odds boosts are great. It’s easy to use, fast to pay out, makes even regular season games feel like mustwatch events. So whether I am playing a or placing a same game parlay or watching a bet ride into the ninth inning, FanDuel makes it feel like I’m part of the action. If you’re new to FanDuel, new customers can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. So, open the FanDuel app today or visit fanuel.com today to get started. Wrapping things up here in the Lockdown Sabres podcast. Sabres are in their off season. two things I’ve seen on social media. Uh, and you know, it’s social media videos or pictures. So, you know, these are not really that meaningful, but just things that I thought about looking at Saber on social media. One, quickly on Tage Thompson. Taage Thompson looks like he is in the greatest shape I have ever seen. Uh I I can’t confirm that he is in like drastically different shape than he was before cuz he’s always been a dude that’s been in really good shape, but I saw a picture of him on the beach and I thought to myself that looks like a dude that has been in the weight room desperately trying to make the playoffs this summer. Uh so you know maybe the other one was Zack Benson. Zack Benson working out on the ice going through certain drills. There were a lot of drills that are impressive from Zack Benson that I was seeing, you know, skating, what he’s doing with the puck, certain like unique, creative puck movements that he’s kind of always been known for. Um, and those stuff like cool, I’m glad you’re great at that, but not really the thing I want to see you getting better at this summer. I already know you’re good at using the boards to your advantage and understanding the angles and spacing and you know like using your your leverage as a scape. Like there’s a lot of stuff in these drills like okay you’re I know you’re good at that. I know you’re good at that. I know you’re good at that. Where’s the stuff I want to see you get better at? Which is shooting and getting bigger. And there is one video where you see him I can’t tell which goalie it is. He’s got a Dallas Stars practice uniform on. So, I mean, it could be Jake Ainger for all we know. Uh, it also could just be anybody in the star system that Benson on this drill comes down on this goalie and he just beats him clean with a wrist shot. And I went, “Ooh, that’s that’s what I want to see. That’s what I want. I want to see Zack Benson have the ability to beat goalies one-on-one straight up. You got to your great scoring area and now you just got to beat the goalender.” his expected goals were less than half of what his or excuse me his actual goal total was less than half of what his individual expected goals were last year because he would get those scoring chances and then couldn’t bury them. So I want to see him have the ability to shoot. I saw two impressive shots from him in these videos. Hard to tell if it’s drastically different than last year. Same thing. But that is the thing. If I’m looking for anything this summer in a Saber workout video from any player, all I want to see is Zack Benson shooting the puck past goalenders, looking like he’s getting a lot of weight on his stick and being able to beat them cleanly. The other thing I would have loved to see that I don’t think we’re going to be able to is something with Owen Power, whether that’s same thing big shots from him or looking more physical. Um, the problem with that is, of course, he had that injury at the end of the year and probably delayed his on ice work. So, we might have some time on the power front. So, hey, if Zack Benson, you want to put out a video on TikTok or Instagram every single day of shooting pucks, I I’m all for it. It’s going to just get me more and more excited about what he could potentially be this season because to me, that’s like the only thing really holding him back is just be able to beat goalenders and get stronger. um upper bodywise especially. All right, that’s going to do it for us today here on the Locked On Sabres podcast. I mentioned top of the show, we’ll get some uh we’ll get some nostalgia in along the way. We’ll keep tracking Bo Byum and what’s going to happen there. Um and we’ll see what happens around the league. I heard I saw a report that they’re going back to the decentralized draft. All right, it went horribly, but maybe the NHL will do a better job with production this time. So, yeah, we’ll have some fun in the coming months with the Sabres and the uh in the offseason. So, that’ll do it for us. Thanks everybody for listening and we’ll talk to you next time here on the Lockdown Sabers podcast. Be sure to check out Locked on NHL. I’ll actually be on uh Monday’s edition of Lockdown NHL. Make that your second listen. You can find them on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast as well. And we’ll talk to you next time here on Lockdown Sabers, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

Brendan Shanahan reportedly showed interest in being the Sabres President of Hockey Operations, but Terry Pegula said ‘thanks, but no thanks’, due to Pegula viewing himself as that person. Should we be surprised Shanahan was interested in the first place? And why this basically means the team will never have someone in that role again, as long as Terry is the team’s owner.

Plus, why Jack Roslovic is maybe the only remaining free agent that the Sabres should be interested in at all. And Zach Benson is posting social media videos working hard this offseason.

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOSabres?sid=YouTube

Locked On NHL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Prospects & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNHL

Follow on Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/SneakyJoeSports
Follow the show on Twitter https://mobile.twitter.com/LockedOnSabres

#NHL #Sabres #BuffaloSabres