nfreeman

I said Tage, but really it's too close to call. Both guys are elite at their positions, both are capable of being the best player on the ice in a playoff series and the Sabres would be screwed if either one were injured. I will say, in response to @bob_sauve28, that I don't think Power will be as good as Dahlin. I'm confident that Power will be a very good defenseman for a long time, and maybe great, and I think he's a somewhat better skater than Dahlin, but he doesn't have the puck skills that Dahlin has.

Holy-maybe-it's-time-to-stop-defending-an-indefensibly-terrible-GM, Batman!

These 2 tweets are making a very strong case for throwing @GASabresIUFAN into the Sabrespace dungeon.

I watched a good chunk of the final, and of US vs Iran, but I don't like soccer either. Deciding the WC on penalty kicks is insane. For that matter, penalty kicks themselves are silly -- the scoring percentage is much too high, so that whenever a penalty kick is awarded, it's pretty much like awarding a goal. Also, it's just a guessing game that frequently results in the goalie just leaping the wrong way and looking ridiculous. The whole clock thing is pretty silly too -- the ball goes out of bounds, the players fake injuries and act like they've been shot, the refs kinda keep track of how much time all that takes and add on some indeterminate amount that for some reason doesn't show up on the scoreboard, so no one knows how much time is left -- WTF is that? Not to mention the fact that a lot of the games are 1-0 snoozers. Having said all of that, I've attended two big-league soccer games in Europe, and really enjoyed both of them. The crowd was really into it and they were fun experiences. But no thanks to watching it on TV.

I thought Davies did fine vs AZ. There was a nice moment at some point in the game when Tuch was giving him a pep talk on the bench. I couldn't tell what Tuch was saying, but it didn't seem like Tuch was yelling at Davies -- more like welcoming him, encouraging him, etc.

That bottom 6 isn’t crazy, but I don’t like it as much as the current bottom 6. Krebs looks good and rapidly improving with Zemgus and KO, and even a bit edgy, which I think you’ve noticed. I also think VO-Jost-Mitts looked better last night — maybe Mitts’ best game of the season — and good enough that I want to see them for a few more games.

Not complaining — merely observing that this is fairly unusual at this point in the season with this many wins. however, I will also observe that until they’ve borne down and closed out a 3-2 win against a good team, which a good team needs to be able to do, they haven’t done it.

What a fantastic, memorable, picturesque, all-time RS game that was. The sports gods smiled on Buffalo last night. That PI call, which was the right call, still doesn't get called every time and was the difference in the game. And AZ had a clean shot to tie it from the slot and with Anderson out of position with a couple of minutes left and shot it wide.

I think everyone would be happy with an addition like Foligno. It's Reaves that people are disagreeing with. I don't think I'd bench KO or Zemgus for Reaves, FWIW (or anyone else in the top 12 forwards -- maybe Asplund or Vinnie, but maybe not).

BTW, still zero wins for the Sabres in which they score 3 or fewer goals.

I'd really like to see some more wins against quality opponents. 2 wins in the 3 games vs Vegas, TB and Boston would be great.

Let Power rest for the next few days until they get back home. For that matter do the same with Bryson and Loobie. Dahlin and Samuelsson are both solid as a freaking rock.

After a nice 3-game winning streak, including their first win vs a good team in forever, the Sabres are currently 1 game under DeLuca .500. The next 5 games: at Vegas Tampa at Columbus Detroit at Boston If they split the Vegas and Tampa games (and you-know-who has missed Vegas' last 4 games and 6 of their last 7) and beat Columbus and Detroit, they will be 1 over DeLuca .500 when they venture into the lion's den on 12/31. Kill the beast in its lair that day, preferably dropping 7 or 8 goals on them, and the Sabres will start 2023 2 games over DeLuca .500 and in the playoffs or right on the bubble. Then we can, and will, start charting playoff matchups.

Y'know, I know they need D and likely G as well, but I am going to point out that I think Jost was a nice pickup. Last night vs AZ the Mitts-Jost-VO line looked better than any Mitts-VO line has looked in a month of Sundays. DG was on WGR a few days ago and he mentioned that he thinks Jost has a lot more to give. It sounds like Jost is one of the guys, along with Mitts, Krebs and VO, whose potential the coaches are focusing on unlocking.

Incredible. It’s like the hockey gods decided we’ve suffered enough and a franchise 1C who is a top-5 NHL player just dropped out of the sky. BTW, it’s also worth noting that DG has Skinner and Tuch playing like legit star top-line wingers too.

GR — you’re an excellent poster, but please break up posts like this into paragraphs. The monolithic wall of text is hard to read. I’d guess that plenty of board members just blow right by without reading it.

I wonder if this will satisfy @GASabresIUFAN?

Dude -- knock it off or keep quiet.

I don't think the Sabres will trade their #1 in 2023 unless they know it's not in the top 10 -- so that means they will either trade it with top-10 protection, or they will wait until the summer. I don't think Van will trade Demko or AZ will trade Chychrun without receiving a 2023 #1 in the deal -- so that means no trade with the Sabres until the summer. I suspect that KA thinks that goalies generally are too up-and-down to justify giving up major assets in trade for them -- so I think a trade for a good defenseman is more likely than a trade for a good goalie. I think that KA is open to trading during the season or the summer, but a summer trade is more likely as there will be more of an active market. I agree with @GASabresIUFAN that it seems pretty unlikely that AZ would trade Vejmelka.

There are guys in every sport, including hockey, who "put up numbers" but who aren't great players and are certainly not guys that a good team can be built around. Phil Kessel. Thomas Vanek. Sean Monahan. Taylor Hall. Max Pacioretty. Tyler Seguin. If we fast forward 4 years, we could easily come to the same conclusion about Eichel. Time will tell.

The bolded is not what I was saying -- it has nothing to do with timing. It has to do with whether the player in question is the man, the leader, the guy who sets the tone, the guy everyone looks to, the rock, the foundation, the guy who scores with 7 seconds left at home to tie game 5 in a playoff series, the guy who scores the OT winner in maybe the best playoff game the team's ever played, the guy without whom the team is lost. That's the guy around whom the team is built. Eichel has not come even close to showing that he can be that guy for a good team. As for your assertion that "Eichel is capable of being the best player on a good team" -- I suppose it depends on how you define "best player." If you mean scoring production and/or fancystats, that's probably true. But I think the "best player" has a large dose of the attributes I mention above -- that's the difference between "most talented player" and "best player." That's why I'd rather have Stone than Eichel.

The bolded is a theory, not a fact, and it's not a theory that's supported by his success to date in Vegas, as that team was not built around Eichel. It is entirely possible that Eichel is the kind of guy that a good team cannot be built around, while still being the kind of guy that can be a member of a good team.

This is reasonable. OTOH, if someone cites prior experience X in support of proposed move Y, and X was actually a train wreck, I think it's fair to say that citing X hurts the argument holistically, even if X can be logically distinguished from Y based on a number of factors.

You're kinda alternating between using "pacing" to support your positions and denigrating the use of "pacing", innit? In any case, I don't think the NHL generally would view Cozens as a 1C, or pay him as such, especially since he's only produced real scoring numbers for 29 games. Again, my assumption was that he ends up the season at around 65 pts. That's not expensive 1C production, especially on an all-offense, zero-defense team. As for Dahlin, there are only 2 defensemen in the NHL making more than $9.6MM per year -- Karlsson and Doughty, both of whom signed huge contracts as established star defensemen. There are 4 defensemen making $9.5MM to $9.6MM -- Werenski, Fox, McAvoy and Seth Jones. All of those contracts took effect this season (so some were likely signed in 2021). After that we drop down to Darnell Nurse at $9.25MM, Roman Josi at $9.1MM and Dougie Hamilton and Makar at $9MM. No one else is at or above $9MM. So, there are a total of 10 defensemen making $9MM or more, and only 2 making $9.6MM or more. It's certainly possible that Dahlin ends up with 100 pts and the Sabres reward him for that one huge year, despite a prior career-high of 53 pts, but I think something in the nines is more likely.

All of this is fair -- but it's also fair that the contract numbers I mentioned are good 2C numbers, which is what Cozens seems to be. Having said that, I agree that Dahlin is likely a $9MM+ guy, if not $10MM.