MOST Important Season of Sabres Drought? | The Jeremy and Joe Show

MOST Important Season of Sabres Drought? | The Jeremy and Joe Show

I actually wanted to start with a little bit of hockey because I saw the news yesterday about Gavin McKenna. Gavin McKenna who is a generational word is overused so whatever. He’s a great prospect number one overall pick next year. like definitively it would be stunning I think if something happened in the next year where he wasn’t the top guy drafted and correct me if I’m wrong but he did like a a LeBron style the decision on ESPN yesterday I’m almost surprised they aired it ESPN not maybe it’s a time of the year that really works for this where there’s not really much going on other than Wimbledon and Wimbledon being in England is done by the time you get to, you know, 6 7 8:00 at night when Sports Center airs. So, all right, this college kid who’s going to be number one overall is picking his school. He wants to do it live on Sports Center. Okay, sure. It’s July 8th. We’ll give him the floor for a couple of minutes. I I guess that that’s kind of where you fall here. Um so he does that and he decides on Gavin McKenna. He’s he’s going to college, gonna be the number one overall pick. He’s awesome. He’s going to Penn State. And you know, I saw all the snarky Pagoula remarks on Twitter after that happened. I had a different thought about McKenna when I saw that he’s going to Penn State and it was I really wonder if the season starts really poorly because Pagoula has obviously big big connections to Penn State right alma mater and built the arena and he’s been active in that program. So, what are the odds he’s going to get to know Gavin McKenna in the next year or just grow to love him if he’s dominant for that team? And if you know they’re I don’t know. I don’t know about the rest of the team if they’re like national championship level good. But if they are and they are winning and he’s amazing, then I think it would be easy if you’re tied to that program to fall in love with the kid. And I had the thought yesterday of I wonder if if that starts happening and the Saber season gets off to a really rough start, which I don’t think is impossible if the owner or just the team in general would just be inclined to say, you know, this is going down the tube anyway. Let’s just kind of punt on this season a little bit. Maybe that that’s when they would trade Bo Byum for uh for a first round pick and just stack draft pile assets. The the reason I don’t think that’s probably realistic is because the Sabres don’t have a second guy now. When they tanked 10 years ago, it was okay. If we don’t get the all-time great prospect, our consolation prize is we’re still getting uh an amazing elite number one center. And I I I don’t know enough about next year’s draft to tell you if there’s a second guy, but I haven’t heard about a second guy. And I don’t think you’re punting on the season for just, you know, what is it? 18% of one player. Yeah. I don’t think Yeah, I think that’s the real the allure of that 2015 season was that there were two prizes to go get and you were guaranteed one of them if you were bad enough. And now you don’t have that same guarantee of even picking second overall because of what happened in that season, right? They changed the lottery rules. So now you’re you can move around all over the board. So there’s that and then there’s also just the re the reality of what this is here and what that would look like here. And I think it would be a tough that would be catastrophic and probably be the end of a lot of people. They would it’d be the end of the rope for a lot of people. I think if they were to make a conscious decision to say, “Yeah, we kind of think this is yeah, where this is going anyways, so let’s nudge it along.” I think any movement towards that just I think people here are done and would not be able to reconcile with that. No matter how good McKenna is and no matter how good Penn State is with McKenna, right? And Penn State was a really good college team last year, by the way. They were legit. And now they’re adding him. They’re going to be serious serious program next year. Yeah. He had 129 points in 56 games in the WHL last year. He’s a witch. If you got to just look up his highlights, it’s incredible to watch this kid play. He’s really impressive. But I just don’t I don’t know what it would do to people here. Yeah. If even if you ended up getting him, it’d be very exciting. And you’re not going to get them because you’re not going to get them. Your odds are so low. And I think you’re making the right point, too. The the reason they would never lean into anything like a rebuild again or a tank especially is what would it do to the ticket base, right? What would it do to your customers? What would it do to your fans? What just you couldn’t I don’t say you couldn’t survive that, but you would do I think serious damage to it. There are a lot of strategies that they have employed during this playoff drought that eventually you’re going to circle back around to. You know, like there there are certain ideologies with your team. They’re kind of doing it right now. I was going to say, I mean, are we not seeing the big tough get mean thing? Tough to play against. They’re the second biggest team in the league right now and they’re acquiring that sort of player. Um, and that’s something they kind of did at the beginning of the drought when Luch hit Miller and they thought they had to be tougher to play against and whatever and couldn’t get bullied around. So, some strategies you will circle back around to. I don’t think you ever circle back around to a hardcore tank. However, if it doesn’t go well in the next, it wouldn’t happen quick enough to start talking about this kid. Even though like you like he’s going to be he’s going to be a superstar the second he shows up in the NHL, right? Like he’s going to be an 80 point player in his rookie season level. Good. Like Bard McDavid level prospect kind of guy. Like he’s a he’s really special. I don’t think any of this happens quick enough to where he’s the talking point. He’s the the hope other than, you know, if the Sabres miss the playoffs and they have 7% to get him like like they have in recent years. Eventually, eventually this is a rebuild again, right? Eventually it is. I I hope it’s not for another 3 years, four years, and I would have a greater hope that you just kind of eliminate that conversation by making the playoffs. But at some point, we know this, we we know there is a date where Dene and Taage hit the ejector seat. And the day they do that, I I think you’re in a rebuild. Even if you’re not choosing to be in one, your team just will be in one automatically. Maybe you have a different GM by then. I mean, at that point, I mean, you got to think that that would those guys are asking out that Yeah. Yeah, the guy doing it now wouldn’t be the guy gets to trade him. That is really like we we are a week removed from all the Sabres action and we’re going to be waiting for a buyer trade maybe forever. Um or at least until you know arbitration gets closer at the end of the month. But that is really what’s on the line for them this year. It it makes it feel more important than even some of these more recent seasons because now you kind of feel like there is an end date on the horizon. And it’s tough to know what it is, you know, like when D the Dene thing came up last year with Paul Besonette, that was I think greatly exaggerated the extent of his meeting with Kevin Adams. But when that day happened, my thought was, okay, this was expected at some point. Maybe it’s a little earlier than I would have thought, but it’s actually earlier. It’s later than Eel got to this point, right? Den’s been on the team now longer than Eel has. Yeah. So, his end date is coming. I wouldn’t have been stunned if it had happened at the end of last year. It didn’t. And it hasn’t happened now, but will it be at the end of this year? E either way, like all of that is impossible to know unless you are in the mind of Rasmus Dalene. So, you know, it it it might not be this year. It could be next year. Either way, this year I feel like there’s more pressure because you just gota you got to stop the train of stop that snowball effect of now this Purka wants out, now this guy’s going to want out, now this guy’s and then and suddenly it’s rolling downhill and you can’t stop it, right? I this season to me feels like the most important crucial season that they’ve had maybe since Adams has been the GM and it’s felt maybe it it has felt like that every year just because of the nature of the drought and every year it gets it’s 13 and now it’s 14 like it all grows. So that that obviously contributes, but I think all of what we’re talking about here with the ticking clock on these great players that the Sabres do have Mhm. it all ramps up each and every year that you’re bad again. And you only get closer to that every year that you miss and every year that you get worse. And so I think every year if say they lose again this year and and somehow those guys are able to handle another one, we’ll be talking the same way next off season. It’ll just continue to ramp up and become this pressure cooker. And that probably contributes to some of those issues and it probably contributes to some of those guys wanting out is like I don’t want to play under that. I don’t want to have to feel that pressure of the last, you know, 15 years in this city. Sure. Yeah. That’s a lot to weigh on you. So that that can be tough. But I just it’s this season to me is everything for that team. I think if this team doesn’t make it this year, like you said, you’re forced into another rebuild that, you know, you’re gonna have a hard like you’re going to try and trade all those guys for current players and not do a long-term rebuild. All right, that’s going to be tough to do. Good luck. You’re going to you’re going to end up with picks and prospects in a trade like that. You’re seeing how hard it is to get NHL players for a good NHL player right now in Bow and Byum. It’s going to get easier if you’ve got four of those guys. I don’t think it’s going to get easier. I guess am I wrong on next year’s lottery odds? Because Tankathon has the first overall pick at 25.5% to pick number one overall. Um maybe there’s a team that’s ineligible because they changed the lottery odds or whatever. How different are the Sabres playoff odds from their odds right now of being the team that lands Gavin McKenna next year? What would you by percentage? What what what’s their chance of making the playoffs right now? Gut feeling. Is it 20%, is it 30% the roster right now? Sure. As is Byum’s on the team. Although 33% one in three chance. Okay. 33%. I would not project they’re going to finish last. No. So, you know, maybe it’s very different then because if you’ve got them at 33% and I would probably be around the same number, you know, once you get to the fifth, sixth, seventh from the bottom, you’re at it’s 8, seven, 6%. Yeah. And at that point, you would say it’s probably like four, five times more likely that they’ll make the playoffs than they would land this player, right, individually. The only reason I’m bringing him up is because I actually I feel like reading about more of him last night and watching some of these crazy highlights and seeing the numbers he puts up. I think I want to go above and beyond. Like you mentioned Bernard, I think he’s the best prospect since McDavid. I I I Matt Matthews maybe since Matthews that trio he he might be a a more high level prospect than Matthews was. I mean Matthews was incredible and he would have been going two or three with you know in that McDavid Eel draft he would have been battling with Eel for that two spot. Yep. But McKenna is really really really special. And he’s going to uh he’s going to Pagoula school. Yep. And it’s a great program down there. They have got it all going on. Got a couple buddies that have played there that love it and it’s going to be like we’re going to have to get down there for for a game or two next year to see that kid play cuz it’s it’s really something. Yeah. I see the when I drove down to see McDavid the was it a dozen times? It was eight, nine times I think. Yeah. It was always knowing the team is doing this and the team is wants him and is tanking to get him and it’s undeniable that he’s going to be like the best player in the world and Eerie was so close right 90minute drive um down the 90 this Penn State like you know that might be one where like I would go to one or if they came close by I would go to get it. But the difference would be one, he’s a little further away, and two, I don’t think I don’t think the Sabres are going to make concerted efforts to uh No, I mean, they could fall into it. I don’t think that’s impossible either if their goalender goalending isn’t there and the team starts to fall apart. I think it’s possible, but I would not think they’re going to be the worst team in the league. No. Let’s go to the phones. Jerry and Kenmore’s first up this morning. Morning, Jeremy or Jerry. Yeah, we’re not allowed to use the word tank anymore. It failed twice and and it and basically it was the way it was built. Um this is a league now where men play better than 18 and 20 year olds and you can’t we built this team incorrectly. You know look Dylan Stum was a very high draft pick and would have been considered a bust his first five years in the league. The same with Sam Bennett. Um you know Reinhardt’s improvement even since he’s been here. Um, you can get that generational player, but the parts around it need to be way better than we were. They couldn’t be that young a at all. You know, Deon Levi was a ser was a savior. And how long ago was that now? Four years ago. It’s the league is different than it used to be. You can’t just immediately come in and make an impact. And, you know, we had a draft. I’m glad we drafted this five foot uh 6’6 defenseman. you know, the guy that’ll we’ll see three years from now and three years after that he’ll ask for a trade. It It’s just we’re built incorrectly. Stop building young. Stop talking about rebuilds. Just figure out how to get the right mix here. You haven’t had the right mix here for 10 years. Yeah. Thanks, Jerry, for the call. That that right there, I think, is why this year is so important because I think a lot of that is right. And if their season goes poorly, you’re going to be forced back into it. you’re going to be forced back into, oh, you got to get more young pieces because guess what? Your good veterans are going to want out eventually. I think that’s what makes the season so critical. So, anyways, there’s some sabers at the beginning of the show.

Joe DiBiase and Owen Parker react to generational prospect Gavin McKenna committing to play NCAA hockey at Penn State. Joe points out Sabres owner Terry Pegula’s deep relationship with Penn State, having built their hockey arena. This leads Joe to consider the possibility that if things don’t go well for the Sabres they may be in a position to tank for the #1 overall pick and the chance to draft McKenna. Owen jumps in and shares his belief that the fanbase wouldn’t be able to handle seeing the team purposefully lose again in the throws of the longest playoff drought in the NHL. The guys debate the strategy, acknowledging McKenna’s talent and value, but settling on it being unlikely for the Sabres to make that choice.

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