dudacek

Looks like they’ve updated heights and weights. Rousek is now a 200-pounder, as is Cozens. Kulich a sturdy 6’1, 186. And how about Rosen at 6’0” 173? Isn’t that like 2 inches and 15 pounds since he was drafted?

Stillman, Johnson, Bryson and Clague have been playing about as much as the schedule allows, while the actual top 6 have played 4 games combined, 5 after tonight.

Only thing surprising about that roster is that they’re still giving Cecconi and Davies a shot. The forwards are a very interesting group. Looks like the 5 most likely candidates (benson, Biro, Kulich, Rosen and Rousek for the last 2 spots on the roster. And my god, are they giving Johnson and Benson a hard look. They each played 3 games in 4 nights for prospects tourney and I think they’re each playing their 4th in 7 nights tonight. That’s 7 games in two weeks with a lot of hard practices mixed in. Donnie definitely wants to see what he has.

Not disagreeing with you, i just wonder what people thought of those players at the time (Crosby nothwithstanding). Would Jonathan Toews be Jonathan Toews if he hadn't won cups? Won't Jack Hughes be Patty Kane if he wins a cup and Mitch Marner if he consistently pukes all over the 1st round? Who knows what history will say about Power Dahlin, Cozens, Quinn, Thompson, Benson...in 15 years?

I’m with this, a Thursday game against a vanilla opponent in October still 3 weeks away has already sold 11-12,000 tickets? That seems way ahead of where they’ve been.

Right, but we want to know what he is in the 23-24 season 😜

I thought the clock was set by age at the start of the season? That’s what I’ve used and I thought that’s what Elite Prospects uses as well. Legitimately don’t know if there is an NHL standard, although I suspect there should be something defining age for purposes of the CBA. @Taro T might know for sure, if you aren’t. (Levi turns 22 on Dec. 27, for anyone wondering)

I don’t think so. Granato seems to be trending toward this, although we haven’t had a real good sense of how the D might line up: Skinner Thompson xxx xxx Mittelstadt Tuch Peterka Cozens xxx Girgensons Krebs Okposo xxx Dahlin Clifton Power Jokiharju Samuelsson Johnson yyy Levi zzz Leaving these questions xxx = Greenway (who is definitely in the starting lineup, it’s just a matter of where) Olofsson Jost Benson Biro Rousek yyy = Stillman Bryson Clague Johnson zzz = UPL Comrie With an open question of whether the 23rd spot will be a 14th forward, 8th defenceman or 3rd goalie? *** Greenway with Mitts, Benson with Tage, and VO with Cozens is how they lined up today and I’d be happy to start the season that way. I think Jost has the inside track on the 13th forward spot and Stillman the 7th D, but again just my opinion. I think in an ideal world the preference would be to keep 8 D, that’s just how the roster is built when taking the Amerks into account, and how the coach has said he prefers to practice. But I also think the GM values his 3rd goalie more than his 8th D and waivers may affect his decision in that spot. I’d trade a backup goalie to the highest bidder and keep Bryson - mostly because I’d rather have him in an NHL press box and the other candidates playing in Roch. If I can’t get anything for a goalie, I’d waive Bryson.

I’d agree, although I’d say Murray is in the mix as well. He’s been getting a good look in the exhibitions and acquitted himself reasonably well. If they keep 13 forwards including Benson, it will be surprising if 13 isn’t Jost. But I think it’s definitely 7 forwards in the mix for the last 2 or 3 spots. If I had to drill it down further, I’m saying Jost is on the team and Murray, Kulich and Rosen are Amerks. it’s Benson, Rousek and Biro fighting for one or 2 forward spots.

So So one of the bottom 6 to the press box and the other 5 to Rochester? With Tuch Mitts and Greenway the other line? Or Tuch to the first line, one of the bottom 6 with Mitts and Greenway and Benson goes home? It’s become abundantly clear they are seriously considering keeping Benson.

Good OP @GASabresIUFAN I think Ryan Johnson and Zach Benson are the camp revelations: both more skilled and closer to NHL-ready than the board generally thought. Johnson is kinda where Mule was in his 1st pro season. He’s got NHL skills and a mature game and he is eventually going to make Clague and Bryson redundant. He’s going to get called up at some point and never go back down. Benson’s got a ridiculous amount of game. His ability to process and execute with and against good NHL players is shocking to me. You watch guys like Reinhart and Quinn at that age, and they look like that against their peers, but needed time to adjust to make those kind of plays at the NHL pace. Benson can already. I agree with those who say he logically shouldn’t be ready and should be allowed to cook. It’s just that he seems so obviously ahead of Rousek and Kulich and Olofsson the others battling for the Quinn slot it’s hard to justify giving one of them that spot ahead of him. Guess we’ll see how he can sustain this over the next two weeks. Rosen and Kulich look skilled and ready to be first-line AHLers. They’re right where I’d expect them to be. I suspect Savoie is about there too after prospects camp and am disappointed we haven’t had a chance to see it. I’ve been disappointed in Rousek. I think Biro has the edge in the battle for the 13th forward spot if the Sabres choose to elevate a veteran instead of a kid. The idea that we could roll Mitts/Tuch, Tage/Skinner Cozens/Peterka is very intriguing to me from a tactical standpoint. Not sure if we’ve got enough good wingers to sustain that without Quinn. Which makes keeping Benson up even more intriguing. And I love the edge Stillman has played with. It’s something we need. I think he’s outplayed Bryson and Clague and am feeling more comfortable with him as the #7. The bigger, still unanswered question is whether Erik Johnson and Connor Clifton are what was missing from the top 6. I’ve also started to drink the Kevyn Adams Koolaid on the goaltending front. Not really because of camp, but camp hasn’t changed my mind. I don’t have a ton of faith in UPL, or Comrie, but also think the guy they keep will be adequate for the 30 games he plays - on a tier with the many adequate backups that populate the NHL. My comfort level is based on my faith the Levi will be a good enough #1 that over 82 games we’ll be fine.

Did you guys catch Dreger on SabresLive today? Confirmed Sabres interest in Kane and that they've already had conversations with Pat Brisson about him. Guess we might want to change the thread title.

Don't let the facts (or the way he's played) get in the way of your narrative. Pretty sure he said the exact same thing about Patrice Bergeron on a Bruins board in 2003

The logic for not keeping him up has consistently been "he's 18, small, and history tells us...." Not once have I read a post saying "he doesn't look like he belongs" The most interesting parallel to me is "he's 21, small and history tells us..." And in the case of Devon Levi, Adams and crew have ignored logic and, instead, trusted their eyes.

Well, if it is a real race, i guess we can say Comrie stepped into the lead tonight.

Definitely true. He had a terrible season last year. I don't think that should be how we define him, not with the rest of his body of work. He's a responsible defensive forward with a ton of size and enough offence that he can be the defensive conscience of a middle 6 line. I've been saying Mike Grier since we acquired him.

He was not a 4th liner in Minnesota. He was a regular on perhaps the best 3rd line in the NHL with Foligno and Erikson Ek and averaged a shade under 40 points per 82 games the 3 seasons prior to last year. I don't get why people keep saying this.

If they are at the point Bryson is not in their top 8, should they care?

@Sabres Fan in NS already shattered my heart. There’s nothing left.

Also, is there a cap squeeze issue? Not sure how LTIR works exactly for a 10-week injury.

So he can’t follow in his footsteps because he’s 10 months younger, full stop?

Oh, I think they signed Cooley and Tokarski because they expect one of the top 3 to be moved and everyone involved knows it.

It might also matter if they can get something for either in a trade. Meaning they keep the guy with the lesser trade value because the difference between the 2 in their mind is negligible

Things like this matter if he ends up playing at a level somewhere in vicinity of Vinnie Hinostroza to JJ Peterka. What if he's capable of being Clayton Keller, who put up 65 points as an NHL rookie when he was 10 months older than Benson and about the same size?

I don't think it's an even battle: two games each, winner take all. i think the job is UPL's unless he whiffs completely over the entirety of camp while Comrie shines.