dudacek

What do we think of Ryan Lindgren? 25-year-old defensive defenceman who battles hard, sacrifices his body, kills penalties and seems reliable in his own zone. With Miller to re-sign this year and Schneider next he might by the odd man out cap-wise on $3 million deal. If he works with Fox, then why not Dahlin or Power?

He plays like a Sabre: fast and relentless. One of many good choices at 13. We’ll get a shot at players who would have gone around 8th in a more typical draft.

Hawks had 3 1st rounders last year and have 6 firsts, 8 2nds and 5 3rds to play with over the next 3 years. They have $41 million in cap space. And they just got the player of the next decade. Not every GM is Tim Murray.

Highest the Sabres can get to under the new rules is 3rd.

I'm pretty sure the best players available at 13 will be forwards. If that's the case, take one. There will be better prospects than Sandin-Pelikka available

It was interesting listening to goalie guru Kevin Woodley talk goalies and systems a while back on the radio about how most goalies need their team to play a certain style to maximize their effectiveness. He specifically cited Hellebuyck and the Sabres as an example of a poor match. At the time I wondered if that was part of the reason Comrie dropped off so much, coming out of Winnipeg’s system. I love Hellebuyck, but I don’t think the Sabres should pay the price necessary to acquire him if they don’t intend to commit to him long-term. You don’t give up #13 for a rental and he’s not going to have any interest in a short-term deal. He’s one of the league’s best. You don’t get him to be a bridge, you get him to be the man.

Welcome back Did I tell you I’m headed for a Bosnian coffee in Mostar in few weeks?

Oh that sounds just about perfect. Bruins cannot afford it, bu twe certainly can. And, to answer @GASabresIUFAN's question, there are 9 forward spots taken, 5 currently unspoken for, Olofsson, Okposo, Hinostroza, Girgensons and Jost

An RFA I'd kick the tires on is Trent Frederic of the Bruins. I like the size and the snarl, and he's just 25. He'd be a nice addition to our bottom 6. Why wouldnt the Bruins re-sign him? Because he's due a nice raise and they've got bigger fish to fry with replacing/re-signing the likes of Bergeron and Krecji, among 7 free agents up front, and only having $6 million available. They will be shedding a few bodies.

Definitely. The skillsets of the three players are almost a perfect match: Mitts creating space for Savoie to dart into and finish while Greenway does the dirty work and keeps everyone honest. All three of them are good at taking away pucks and possessing them If the on-ice version matches the concept, it could be special, especially as a 3rd line

This ranking compares each player when they were 18, full stop. Improvement, or lack thereof, isn’t part of it.

It also may have shaved $1 million AAV off the Dahlin contract extension. Hughes $7.8 and Heiskanen $8.4 aren’t direct comps, because they signed earlier in their careers, but they are player comps. Fox and McAvoy are more direct, and they are both $9.5, the league’s 4th and 5th highest-paid D.

A true test of Adams ability to save Terry from himself?

Damn, looking at that roster Jack has an opportunity to be one of the key offensive guys. His former junior coach, Tourigny, is running the show. Toffoli is the only proven scorer on the team. Not a roster that inspires much excitement, but a good opportunity for our trio.

I suspect when the ballots are counted you will see a lot of the outsiders robbing votes from each other, allowing the established guys to come up the middle.

Hockey community out here is aghast that Quinn Hughes wasn't a finalist. Radio guys listed off Morrisey, Montour, Dahlin, Hamilton, Heiskanen and Hughes and said any of that group could be considered more deserving than all three finalists. Their theory was that in a year with so many viable candidates, voters frequently defaulted to a guy that won it before over a guy that didn't.

He hasn’t been signed yet, but age-wise, no. He’s 10 days younger than Savoie. Despite being Euro, I don’t believe he’s covered under the clause that allows Kulich to play because he was drafted out of the Q, not out of Russia.

I remember Lafreniere hyped as a clear #1 and much more highly regarded than Power.

Further to the above, the final 12 games of the season (basically when Tuch, Dahllin and Samuelsson came back and Levi arrived) the Sabres were 15th in goals against, with 3.00, and 19th on the PK at 78.6%. Small sample and mediocre numbers to be sure, but improvements, if they can be sustained.

He did not, at least not directly. He said what he always says about the goalies, he has faith in UPL and he thought he took steps, and he beams about Levi like he's his son. It's my opinion that he believes Levi upgrades the goaltending, Whether he believes he upgrades it enough is an open question. He was pretty open about the defence falling apart whenever it wasn't fully healthy and he talked about having space to add, so I read that as an open admission that he intends to add a defenceman who is at least good enough to play in the top 4. He talked about two other things that you didn't but fit into your line of questioning. One is team defence: he openly admitted that the primary goal of the past 2 years was to build confidence by developing the offence of his young players. He implied that the team is now in a position where there will be more emphasis and accountability on defence, combined with what he perceives as a natural improvement in decision-making due to experience. The other is the penalty kill. There will be deep dive into how and why they failed (there was a suggestion of a lack of confidence). He seems to be hoping that late season use of Tuch, Quinn, Krebs and Cozens gave them valuable experience in that role. And he also acknowledged their desire to look closely into acquiring players who are good at the PK. My impression was that he believes there were tweaks made at the end of the season that will pay dividends next year, particularly if a good start (and some big saves) builds confidence early. It is my belief that the plan for fixing the goals against is Devon Levi, a Ryan Graves type who can kill penalties, Jordan Greenway, and better defensive play from most notably Power, Quinn, Cozens and Krebs. We may also add a responsible veteran forward if either Girgs or Okie walk.

The Athletic did a piece where they asked scouts to rank Bedard against the past 9 #1 choices as they were regarded at the time of their draft. https://theathletic.com/4349812/2023/05/04/connor-bedard-connor-mcdavid-nhl-draft/ I found the results a little surprising; not that McDavid and Bedard are 1-2, but that Austin Mathews was thought of nearly as highly Bedard at the time of his draft. I remember Mathews as closer to Eichel Stamkos Tavares than the Ovechkin level where my hype meter has Bedard. Also interesting was Jack Hughes being a clear-cut #4. I remember doubts about his size and felt Dahlin was more hyped. But the biggest surprise to me was that the scouts ranked Dahlin/Power as almost a pick-'em. Remember, this is "at the time of their draft". Around here, Dahlin was touted as complete and the best defence prospect since Potvin, while Power was considered not a surefire #1 and the type of player who would have gone 3rd or even 5th in other years. "Three voters preferred Dahlin, two preferred Power, and they were always one spot apart in each voter’s overall list." Complete rankings: McDavid Bedard Matthews Hughes Dahlin Power Lafreniere Hischier Ekblad Slavkovsky

Can our pieces match up? Kucherov Kane - Thompson (Quinn?) Point Toews - Cozens (Savoie?) Stamkos Hossa - Tuch/Thompson (Quinn, Savoie?) Cirelli Sharp - Mittelstadt (Kulich, Krebs, Savoie?) Hedman Keith - Dahlin Sergachev Seabrook - Power McDonogh Hjallmarsson - Samuelsson Vasilevskiy Crawford - Levi it's interesting. Dahlin's the only surefire yes, for me. The others have a lot to prove — and that's a lot of players that have to roll the right way — but they aren't really out of the question, either And of course there's the rest of the roster to worry about, but this thread is about cores.

I know a few Amerks fans hate this attitude, but the team exists to feed talent to the Buffalo Sabres. The results speak for themselves. I can’t imagine a better spot for Östlund than Rochester. Neuchev, Novikov, Östlund, Nadeau and (unlikely, I know) Johnson joining Rosen, Kulich, Kozak would certainly have me renewing my AHLTV subscription.

Kid I’m quite curious about from a Sabres perspective is Matt Wood, who’s from my neck of the woods. On the surface he seems to lack the uptempo speed and fire that Adams seems to favour, but he is highly skilled and has some intriguing numbers. He led UConn in scoring as an 18-year-old - putting up similar numbers to what Thompson, Tuch, Zegras and Caufield did as 19-year-olds. The only U18 NCAA prospect to produce more in the last 20 years was Jonathan Toews. He also led his BCHL team in scoring as a 17-year-old the previous year, with the most productive year from anyone that age in that league in at least 20 years - ahead of guys like Turris, Newhook and Kent Johnson. In short, he drives offence. I suspect our analytics team has done a deep dive into this kid and found some intriguing results. I also know Jerry Forton will have an excellent handle on his character, since he is “very close” to the UConn staff. And he does seem to be one of those Quinn/Power personalities the Sabres love: a hockey nerd constantly looking for ways to upgrade his game. https://theathletic.com/4457512/2023/04/29/nhl-draft-matthew-wood/ I’ve barely started looking into the draft, and this kid seems to be ranked on the low side of where the Sabres are picking, (although I’d imagine the fact he tore it up at the U18s last week has pushed him closer to the centre of people’s radar) but I’m going to predict right now he has a good chance of being the Sabres choice.

He played with men in Sweden this year, so that should help.