nfreeman

Asplund seems like a good team guy, and he's a good skater, and he has good chemistry with VO, but I think his offensive toolbox is pretty limited. I'd expect 25ish points, with some pressure on his spot in the lineup if Quinn and JJP can deliver the goods, although he'll probably end up playing most of the time due to injuries.

So Mike Weber, who is starting his 3rd season as an assistant in Rochester, had a presser today that I really enjoyed: https://www.nhl.com/sabres/video/mike-weber-91622/t-277437090/c-12764198 I enjoyed it in part because I liked Webby as a Sabre quite a bit -- he scratched and clawed his way to 351 NHL games, all but 10 of which as a Sabre, over six seasons, with plenty of time lost to injury. He retired at age 30 with an unusable knee that required a replacement. He was drafted in the 2nd round in 2006, and didn't become an NHL regular until 2010-11 -- in that season, btw, he played in all 7 games of the Sabres' most recent trip to the playoffs, a 7-game loss to the Flyers in the 1st round that the Sabres lost despite being up 3-2 in the series, and up 3-2 in the 3rd period of game 6 at home with a chance to close it out, before blowing that game and then the series in game 7. Weber had zero offensive game, and other limitations, but he played a very tough, honorable, blood-and-guts game. I think it's fair to say that most fans appreciated him. He hated the tank, like all right-thinking people, and it consigned 5/6 of his career to playing for atrocious teams. Anyway, IMHO he comes across very well in the presser. He is articulate and passionate and I can see the players being inspired by him. He also provides pretty detailed and informative breakdowns of a bunch of the prospects. The only problem is that the press' questions are pretty close to inaudible in the video, and Weber usually doesn't identify the player that he was asked about -- he just plunges into a long discussion of the player in which Weber describes the player as "he" and not the player's name. I was able to figure out who he was referring to some of the time, but not all of the time.

I agree with all of this except the usage of "pragmatic" here.

I said legit #1C. I think he's young and improving, he's got a great attitude and is hungry, he's going to get #1C ice time and deployment, including PP, he's going to have very good offensive support from his linemates, D and coach, and he has a significant bag of skillz. I think 40-40-80 is very much on the table.

Yeah baby! Yeah!

Speaking of earlier hockey eras, I thought SabreSpacers of a certain age might appreciate this photo of Bobby Hull working on the farm in the offseason, which I recently happened upon on reddit:

Good stuff @RochesterExpat. Post more often!

Geez. What are you so unhappy about? Can't we look forward to the season and feel optimistic about the off-ice moves made by the organization without you fouling everyone's Wheaties?

I like VO. He's homegrown, he gets better and adds something to his game every year and he seems to have a good team attitude. His 1st 2 NHL seasons were the Covid seasons, and I am convinced that last season, his 3rd, was substantially impacted in that long middle stretch by his injury (which I think was to his wrist) -- and even so he delivered 20-29-49 in 72 games. I was kinda hoping they'd give him a longer-term deal, but I understand why they settled on 2 years. I think buying UFA years would've gotten expensive and he hasn't quite proven himself yet to be worth that kind of commitment, especially with younger forward prospects coming fast. Still, I think there is a very real possibility that he stays healthy, has a big year, establishes himself definitively as a legit top-6 guy and a core piece, while one or both of Quinn or JJP struggles to adapt to the NHL, and KA decides to give him, say, a 4-year extension next summer -- and I think one of the reasons KA chose a 2-year term for his contract was to keep that option open. I think if he stays healthy, 30-35-65 is very much on the table.

Well, it sounds like they got a successful HS coach who wants to break into the NHL and is willing to start pretty low on the totem pole. I assume his job will be to assemble video breakdowns of Sabre players and opponents and similar matters. It might be better to have a guy with coaching experience doing this job than just a young tech-savvy kid with no real coaching knowledge or understanding of the game.

Skinner just turned 30. He matched his career high last year with 63 pts (interestingly, he's had exactly 63 pts 4 times), with 33-30-63. As @dudacek points out, he didn't really get going until a couple of months into the season. Once he and TT got comfortable, and once Tuch joined them -- they were a very dangerous top line with a ton of size, speed, range and forechecking. They created multiple good chances seemingly every shift. And Skinner did most of his damage at 5-on-5. I think he's reborn under DM, like a phoenix rising from Arizona. He's still got his legs, and will have them for quite a while (which is good, because the Sabres are paying through the nose for him for a while), and DM helped him get his mojo back. He plays with passion. And he has really good linemates and a good offensive system, with good offensive support coming from the D. 41-32-73.

Wasn't Stan Fischler 70 years old about 35 years ago?

Yes -- it seems like each year, he's made huge improvements in accuracy in a certain range -- i.e. he started out missing all of them, then the first improvement came on the shorter throws, then on the intermediate routes, and now it looks like he can throw it deep with reasonable accuracy. The deep throws were an issue even last year, but that deep post to Davis last night in particular was a thing of beauty. Oh yeah. JA literally threw him to the ground. And I think it was in a pretty big moment -- IIRC, it was on a 3rd down in the 3rd quarter, when the game was either tied or a 7-point game.

Holy mackerel we look awesome. Oliver hurt though.

Now that drive was what the doctor ordered. JA is 20 for 23!

This is how the Bills lost a bunch of games last year. They move the ball well for a while but then the offense just dies for 4 or 5 possessions.

In retrospect it was another awful Botteril move. A good young forward who is tough and intense and has some skill for a very-close-to-done Pommer and a decent RHD in Scandella that they totally squandered, healthy-scratching him for a lengthy period and then dumping him for a 4th to Montreal, who turned around and traded him for a 2nd a month later — and not much later we found ourselves short on RHD. As for your main point here, I agree that one or 2 more guys with size and an edge would be useful. Maybe one of the lower-round picks who will be in Rochester this year will make his bones this way.

I would guess that Poyer wishes he were 4 or 5 years younger. I think this is right. If Edmunds demands too much, they'll let him go. Otherwise, they'll extend Edmunds and let Milano go.

I think there will be a spirited 3-way battle for the 6-7-8 slots among Casey, Bryson and Pilut. It seems most likely that Bryson will win out initially, especially because Boosh will probably be the other guy on the 3rd pair, so some offense and puck-carrying will be needed from Boosh's partner, but I wouldn't be surprised with any outcome. In any case due to injuries elsewhere in the D corps, 2 of those 3 will likely end up playing a lot. I like Fitzie and the edge he brings. It's an area where the Sabres are a bit deficient. He just needs to improve his decision-making in the D zone, which will come with experience.

Well, $9MM+ per year next summer means that Dahlin would've just finished a huge season in which he made it clear that he's going to be an elite defenseman for the length of the contract. So it's not all bad.

I've been thinking about this too -- he's really good at using that leverage to create a great wrister that is a major weapon. I think the leverage allows for the wrister to be both quick-release and high-velocity. And his high-skill hands make it accurate as well. Yes indeed and here are some numbers: All 3 of them are centers, Norris and Suzuki were both born in 1999, 2 years after TT was born, both Norris and Suzuki got 8 years, $63MM, and Suzuki has played 209 NHL games, TT 223 and Norris 125). Just sayin'. Good read. Thanks for posting.

Possibly on both, but I think the 2nd line will likely end up VO-Cozens-KO and the top PP will be Dahlin-TT-Skinner-Tuch-VO.

This is such a good post about an interesting player who could easily deliver a Tim Connolly out-of-nowhere explosion, or wash out, or just tread water again. This is where I am as well, although it’s more because of DG’s apparent belief in him than my own, which is pretty limited.

I chose the 2nd option. I like Vinny, and I think KA and the coaches like him, and that guys like Quinn, JJP, Krebs, Asplund, Sheahan and perhaps Mitts will have to work like crazy to stay above him in the rotation, but I think the team views him kinda that way too -- i.e. as a bar for those guys to clear if they want to become NHL regulars. Vinny got under 14 min of ice time per game last year -- less than all of the regulars (including Caggiula!) except Eakin, Bjork and Hayden. With those JAGs being presumably replaced by better guys like Quinn, JJP and Krebs, it seems likely that Vinny will slot in as the 13th or 14th forward but will end up dressing for most games due to injuries, rookie inconsistency, etc.

My wife and I just took our daughter to start college and I really miss her.