dudacek

This is flat-out wrong. Outside of a relatively small group of Buffalo fans, there is no hype at all.

To be clear, Devon Levi is nowhere near a can’t-miss prospect. He’s a 7th-rounder that “the industry” is very much divided on whether he will even be an NHL goalie, let alone a good one. And this is absolutely the logical and tried-and-true approach anyone should correctly support on principle. Sometimes though you take off your analyst’s hat and your risk management hat, you forget about “industry consensus” and “the concept of a goalie” and the “math” of development, and simply ask yourself: does this kid have what it takes to be a good NHL player? And my answer, with Devon Levi, is unequivocally yes, moreso than any other Sabres prospect outside the first round that I can remember.

Many people are too firmly in the territory of “goalies are voodoo” and are throwing up their hands at ever counting on any goalie to be good. Many others are still living in the fading archetype of a goalie needing to be a 6’5” mountain of a shot-blocker. What is actually happening is that we are at the edge of a sea change in how the position is being played, a sea change that is creating the uncertainty we are watching as goalies adapt or die. NHL offences have solved the Robin Lehners of the world by shifting attacks away from the create-traffic-and-crash-the-crease tactics those monsters were spawned to thwart. Instead they are using speed and lateral movement to create holes and forcing goalies to move and make saves again. The best goalies of tomorrow won’t be behemoths who square up and give you nowhere to shoot, they will be quick thinkers, able to diagnose where the puck is going, and even better athletes, quick enough to get there. The best goalie in the NHL right now is a 6’1” 189-pound New York Ranger who meets that description to a “T”. As does the 6’0” 190-pound Devon Levi. Watch him play. Levi is not as successful as he is because “it’s college”. He’s as successful as he is because he’s that good.

It’s more about Quinn Krebs Peterka Power Samuelsson getting 200 NHL games under their belts and acquiring/developing a legitimate #1 goalie.

Sure there will be bumps. But Devon Levi will be better than you are willing to let yourself believe, sooner than you are willing to let yourself believe, for longer than you are willing to let yourself believe. He is as inevitable as a Bogosian injury, a chin-high Zhitnik slapshot or Rob Ray butchering the English language.

I don’t think there has ever been a Sabres prospect I have more confidence in exceeding his industry ranking than Devon Levi.

Chychrun has been out there forever with no one stepping up to meet the ask. Yotes have decided the time is now to make the deal; the price isn't going to go up in June or next March. They have an offer in the table that they might have to take if no one beats it, but they are trying their damnedest to get someone to beat it — or the current leader to up their offer — before they pull the trigger. All this noise is coming from them. Somebody is sitting there waiting quietly, calling their bluff.

It's nice that this team doesn't quit. They were still coming until the bitter end. Too bad they started 15 minutes late. This looked a lot like the Dallas game against another premier team. The major difference was we didn't have Anderson saving our ***** during the sleepy start. I saw enough to know that we've got the pieces to play with these teams, we just haven't quite figured out how to do it from start to finish, shift to shift. We're still learning how to win, Carolina already knows how. Individually, I really hope whatever is bothering Mule heals up over the break. We won't survive an extended stretch of this version of him. And that was the closest NHL facsimile of the Jack Quinn I watched in Rochester. Can't wait until he breaks through. See you all in a week, where I to be returning with a healthy Tage to enjoy the rest of the ride.

Power

Reminds me of the Bruins and Panthers games: 2 teams that have mocked us for years. Let’s bump our record above .500

It’s the forum that’s changed -where you communicate, what and who hears it. Lines have been blurred about what is and should be private and public. The Hull Tweet above is a good example of this. A generation ago, people would have freely debated his merits as a hockey player and a human being in cafes, pubs and lunch rooms. Very few would done so in front of his grandson. I suspect very few did so considering they were doing it in front of his grandson, and most who did were only doing so because there would never be any personal repercussion.

Cozens is exactly the type of kid you could trust to do it and you could trust for it not to carry issues with him or his teammates, now or later.

And he apparently rubbed Hockey Canada the wrong way by trying to force himself into exceptional status a few years back. Not that Hockey Canada would ever be governed by anything other than the utmost integrity. When I saw Savoie live he was used like a standard 1st-line centre on a deep team. Regular shift, top PP. He played with Benson a top prospect for this year’s draft.

Sure, not arguing this at all, but he wasn’t asking who the worst draft picks were, he was asking if there was a worse player that we drafted and signed than Pekar? There may have been, but there weren’t many. Pekar is not good and certainly was not a better player than Nylander, as ineffective as Alex was.

Is there anything in the world stopping us from paying Dylan $20 million next year, then an 8-year, $48 million extension? Somebody get Sam Ventura on the phone now!

Great point. Why not? Sure would be a great way to weaponize cap space.

That’s not exactly what’s happening here. That’s what they’re being paid. What they are worth on the recent market is more like a $7 million defenceman and an $8 million winger.

My 2nd Meier thought is are we in a position manipulate the cap in a Meier trade? Think about what the Canes did with the Kotkaniemi offer sheet, or the Sharks with Kevin Lebanc: essentially secretly agree to one multi-year deal, but officially break it into two contracts. For example, we sign Meier to his $10 million qualifier, or hell, give him $14 for next year. We’ve got the room under the cap. Then, when the calendar rolls around, sign him to a 5-year, $40-million extension. Effectively, he gets his 6-year $9million deal, but we save a $1 million under the cap when we need it more

I’ve had 2 contradictory streams of thought about Meier. The first was based on Tuch/Eichel comparisons: If Tuch and Eichel are similarly useful players on the ice, who in their right minds would prefer Eichel at 4 years at $10 million to Tuch at 4 years at $4.75? Similarly, Meier, 26, at $10 million for 1 year or Chychrun,24, for $4.6 million for 2 years? What helps us more? Chychrun at 20 minutes a night upgrading Jokiharju and removing Bryson going into next year? Or Meier at 16 minutes a night upgrading Quinn and removing Okposo? Aren’t we far deeper up front? Plus, trading for Meier now kinda forces you to negotiate an extension for him now, ahead of Cozens, Dahlin and Power. Trading for Chychrun now, you can decide what/if you’re willing to pay him after you get those guys signed. More flexibility. More time for both sides to feel out the fit.

The question was “drafted and signed” Hurley and Davidsson were never signed. Cornel played 250ish AHL games with 80ish points Grigorenko and Nylander played a lot of NHL games. Pekar has just 77 AHL games and 13 points in 3 years. He’s definitely a contender. Karabecek was even worse though: 24 AHL games, 8 points. And he was a 2nd-rounder. That’s some bad scouting there.

Totally agree. It’s exactly what Granato is taking about when he says the young players have learn to play the game “efficiently” and learn that “you don’t have to win every shift”. It’s no different from the philosophy of not sacrificing winning long-term for winning tonight. The NHL regular season is marathon, not a sprint.

Why are you skeptical about his ability to rebound? His track record has been impeccable prior to now, his slump is 15 games.

This. Basically, for me it comes down to whether or not you believe in UPL. This thread is one of the most clear examples of recency bias I’ve ever seen. In the space of less than 20 NHL games we’ve gone from “UPL sucks, when is Adams ever going to get a goalie” to “not interested” in a young already-established #1. Demko is the best goalie to hit the market since Ullmark left.

I live in B.C. and follow the Canucks more closely than any team but the Sabres. He’s been bad and injured this year. That’s it. He was their best player last year and consistently very good since his run in the playoff bubble three years ago. He has missed one week due to injury in his NHL career prior to this season.

This is fair, but I’m going to put a lot more emphasis on his body of work than a 15-game stretch on this year’s most dysfunctional team. His resume and his numbers up to this season are textbook goalie development. Last year he was definitely among the league’s best goalies. He’s a high pick who has excelled at every level. To me this screams buy low and profit. https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=146146