Conspiracy Theory 3 - Sabres 3-year Plan

Guys, what if this losing streak is all part of the three year plan? Right now the team is within striking distance of a top-3 overall pick and tumbling beautifully towards the first-line centre that Sabres fans have been pining for since July 1, 2007. This is a team that hasn't picked in the top 10 since it picked Vanek 5th overall in 2003. It badly needs a rejuvenating injection of high-pedigree talent.

We know from Ted Black that there's a three-year plan of some sort in place and losses this year don't affect your ability to make the playoffs two years down the road. Right now every player on the team save two (the captain and Atlas) are underperforming. And I don't just mean that most of the players are playing to less than their full potential, I mean virtually everybody is on-track-for-career-lows underperforming. But if everyone can suck miserably at the same time, couldn't it swing the other way, especially if you change up the head coach? Couldn't we see a team chock full of Pegula's special testetorone/PED blend playing above their normal abilities?

 

Two years from now Miller, Pominville, Gerbe, and Vanek will be in contract years and Miller in particular will be past the concussion cobwebs. Roy, Gaustad, Hecht, Boyes, Kaleta, Leopold, Weber, and Ellis will be sullying different franchises. Stafford will be reinvigorated by a new coach. Leino will learn/remember how to play centre. McCormick will be relegated back to the minors. Gragnani will be decomposing at the bottom of a pit in the Marcellus somewhere and his salary will come off the books. Ennis will be re-signed on a cheap contract because he sucks this year and go back to being a flashy 20-goal scorer. Foligno, McNabb and Kassian will still be on their entry-level contracts and they will be a step ahead because of the experience they gained this year. Myers, Sekera, and Ehrhoff will still be under contract and Regehr's services could be retained to fill out a solid top-four of veteran defencemen. Add a legit center through the draft and another one through free agency and you are talking. 

 

We believe that Ruff and Regier are safe because they recently re-upped their secret contracts. But does that really mean anything? Maybe their contracts are short and the plan was to fire them after one year all along. Pegula was stuck with those contracts when he came in and the team went on a crazy run into the playoffs before he had a chance to fire anyone. It makes sense for him to bide his time when the current coach is delivering what he wanted -- losing and lots of it. Now he gets to act like he was loyal to Sabres icon Ruff and pretend he is catering to the fan base when he shitcans him over the summer just in time for fans to renew their season ticket packages..

Do you really think that a billionaire businessman like Pegula doesn't know how to demand accountability? What's more likely: a) that Pegula bumbled his way into the Forbes 500 by being super nice to shoddy employees or b) that he is ruthlessly smart and knows how to take the long view? Pegula will condone blaming injuries for the team's poor showing because he wants the team to feel sorry for themelves so they'll continue to suck this year. Works for him. I wouldn't be surprised if he caused a lot of injuries to the defence corps himself. If Myers and/or Sekera get a staph infection from equipment that wasn't properly washed at home then we will know for sure.

The team has already sold all the tickets it needs to sell for the year and the chances of winning a Stanley Cup are not promising, so why not focus on next year and the year after. Get a good coach in place who isn't sentimentally attached to backchecking German forwards, hire a GM that isn't sentimentally attached to his draft picks, add a top-3 center pick with a full year under his belt (a la Tyler Seguin) and you can contend for a Stanley Cup, for real this time.

P.S. Obama is a Muslim.