dudacek

One think I like about Zucker McLeod and Greenway is that I consider each of them to be capable 3rd-liners. The idea that you've got complementary skills — a lightning-fast transition skater and carrier in McLeod, a behemoth in Greenway, and pesky forechecker who can finish in Zucker — all of whom are responsible without the puck is a bonus. But the idea of having real 3rd-liners on the 3rd line has been foreign to the Sabres. That' said, I'm 100% with @PerreaultForever, throw out what Granato taught you, Lindy is not likely to do what people are expecting.

Bouchard and Dobson are relevant comparables: at 20 Dobson 34 1/6/7 Bouchard AHL Byram 30 5/12/17 at 21 Dobson 46 3/11/14 Bouchard 14 2/3/5 Byram 42 10/14/24 at 22 Dobson 80 13/38/51 Bouchard 81 12/31/43 Byram 73 11/18/29 Byram is already on his bridge contract. He signed it off a concussion-hampered season where he was pacing close to 20 goals and 50 points without significant power play time.

Byram is interesting on 2 levels and you can’t really discuss one without the other: was this a good trade philosophically? And is he a good player? This is both the lost-in-his-own-zone 46.5 percent Corsi player over 18 Sabre games that @Thorny and @GASabresIUFAN consistently worry about, and the guy who led his team at +15 in 20 playoff games as the #3D on a Stanley Cup winner that Kevyn Adams targeted. I need the season to start.

For me, Dahlin's excellence on his off-side is a factor, but generally this is a great way of looking at it. The most obvious one is the best NHL team of all-time, the late '70s Canadiens. I'm certainly not going to argue Dahlin Byram Power is Robinson Lapointe Savard — the habs trio were literally all top 10 defencemen at their peak — but the types of games actually kinda parallel. Savard/Power the big smooth calm guy who played the game from a rocking chair, Lapointe/Byram as the fiery boom/bust pace guy, and Robinson Dahlin as the elite, complete, tick all the boxes type. The more recent example was the Predators squad that had Josi, Ellis, Ekholm and Weber/Subban. Right now the one that pops initially is Vegas with Pietrangelo, Hanifin and Theodore Here's another way of looking at it: top 3 of the recent finalists and cup winners: Forsling, Ekblad, Montour; Ekholm, Bouchard, Nurse; Makar, Toews, Byram; Hedman, Sergachev, McDonough

No names but Marty says he was down at the arena today and the place was packed with players getting ready - enough that 2 locker rooms were being used to accommodate them.

If you’re saying in a cap world you need to spread resources around more, that’s an interesting point. The counterargument may be that high-end defenceman play more and cost less. The Sabres model seems to match up best with the Vegas model.

Byram played nearly 22 minutes a game for Buffalo. Casey played just over 18. Byram can be an high-end fallback to Dahlin and Power, just like Casey was to Cozens and Thompson. Byram can bring unusual skill to the 3rd pair in the same way Casey did to the 3rd line. Byram alongside Dahlin is better than Jokiharju beside Dahlin in the same manner Ehlers would be preferable to Zucker alongside Tage.

I guess we shall see how Lindy utilizes them and whether it works. I won’t agree with the limitations some are already drawing around player deployment until I see it fail. I would put Byram on the right wall opposite Tage on the top PP and keep Power as the QB of PP2. Failing that, I’d run Byram in that spot on PP2. Regardless of his PP deployment, I think people are seriously dismissing what he can bring 5-on-5. He’s been one of the NHL’s more productive defencemen at even-strength in Colorado even playing on the 3rd pair with Jack Johnson. He looked good with Dahlin to my eyes. The idea of pairing him with Mule on pair 2 is intriguing to me as their skill sets seem quite complementary. Combining him with Power away from the other team’s 1st line seems like an intriguing risk/reward experiment. The idea of having one of he, Power or Dahlin on the ice at all times - and often 2 of them - should create match-ups Lindy can exploit. And I fully expect Lindy to be constantly mixing and matching from game to game and within games. The idea that the 3 pairings on the lineup sheet will be rolling over is false. Some of you seem to see Byram as an Olofsson type who needs to be sheltered and spotted to maximize his value, and who has little value outside an offensive specialist role. I think he’s better and more rounded than that.. He’s no more redundant in a 3D role than Mitts is as a 3C. All the same arguments apply. Maybe he’s not the player I think he is, and if that’s the case I’ll be eating crow. But I’ve liked the player for a long time, and I’m looking forward to seeing what he brings under Lindy.

I think most of us have a tendency to react to the board as a singular entity and make observations to the whole based on the whole. Not precise enough I suppose, but the only thing I really see as an issue there is when it results in people having 2 different conversations, where one is speaking to or about Sabrespace while the other is speaking g to or about the other poster.

I think there is a good chance the Sabres are better off this year with what Byram/McLeod add than what Casey would have added. But I also think we’re in the minority and don’t blame the skeptics for disagreeing.

Am I the only one who liked Casey, but also thinks his contribution has been overstated? Cozens scored the same number of goals as Casey and had similar xGoals and a very similar Corsi in notably tougher minutes. Cozens had 10 fewer assists, but 3 more primary assists and a +13 advantage in penalties taken/drawn. And he brought more speed and edge. The perception here seems to be Dylan was ***** and Casey was great, but is that more about relative to expectation than actual play?

Pegula is saving $1.9M for one year on this deal. This is how most people seem to see it: The Sabres don't have enough talent up front The Sabres had enough talent on the blueline Mitts was one of the few Sabres who played well last year Casey Mittelstadt is better than Bo Byram This is how I see it: The Sabres had 3 top 6 centres The Sabres had 3 top 4 defencemen The Sabres wanted to get faster and harder to play against Peak Bo Byram is more talented and valuable than peak Casey Mittelstadt I think it was a risky deal, but i have no problem seeing the why.

Interesting (paywall) read on everyone’s favourite 2nd-rounder Topias Leinonen. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5744228/2024/09/04/sabres-ukko-pekka-luukkonen-topias-leinonen/ Basically explained last season’s washout - stress fracture in his foot that wiped out his summer training, pre-season reinjury, broken hand, Liiga team that didn’t trust him enough to use him, poor play in the handful of games he got in. Basically, it was a wasted year of development. He’s slimmed down considerably this summer and is set to play Swedish 2nd division for a team that lost its starter in a small town with coaching the Sabres trust. Goalie development coach Kotyk says they saw the skill they liked about him at development camp and a fire to reclaim his career path. Compares him to UPL and the adversity he went through. It will be interesting to see if he can put himself back on the radar, because last year was about as bad as it could have been.

Uncontrollable audio feed? Constantly behind the play? I like where this thread went.

Tage is golfing in Arizona "getting to know" Zucker. Tuch is showing Krebsie how to bottle-feed his newborn. And Ras is on the phone with Okie asking about whether it's OK to text your teammates before training camp. Cozens and Byram are bow hunting for bighorn sheep in the southwestern Rockies. The season doesn't wrap up until next Thursday, but they promised to come home early if they bagged their limit. UPL and Joker are with their wives at the Venice Film Festival. They're going to stop in Ibiza for a few days once that's over, but they should probably be here in time for training camp. Levi is on the phone with his agent demanding to know what he's going to do about Reimer. Mule is trying to figure out how to explain his waterskiing injury to Lindy. Power is shopping for drapes with his fiance. Quinn and Peterka are getting shooting and stickhandling lesson over Zoom from Matt Ellis. Malenstyn and Aube-Kubel are skating with the Canisius College team, wondering when they're going to meet their new teammates and a little uncertain about whether or not they're at the right rink. Benson would have been here Saturday to join them, but the Labour Day weekend is peak time in the carny industry and he promised his dad he'd help get the tilt-a-whirl operating properly before they pack up for the Okanagan road trip. Those Peachland crowds can be tough.

Do you think so? I don't think there's any chance he's going to make or break the Sabres this year as a middle-six winger with a ceiling of about 25 goals and a floor of about half that. i think basically the Sabres overpaid on a one-year so they didn't have to commit on a two-year, and Zucker's role is to be a security blanket for Quinn and Benson, and a bridge to Rosen and Kulich. He's here because — in addition to making considerably more than he would this season elsewhere — he sees a decent opportunity to pad his stats and set himself up for another contract next year. If Lindy goes with the top 6/bottom 6 alignment, I think he and Benson will battle it out for 4th wing spot in the top 6. And if Lindy tries to balance the lines, he probably gets a middle-six role there as well. He's a versatile player, who can add scoring to a checking line, or keep up with more talented players on a scoring line. He gets to the net and forechecks and backchecks with some zip.

So from 2 years ago to last year's team, it wasn't quite a clean sweep: 11 of 12 finishers got worse Skinner's 46 last year for 7th topped Olofson's 40 in that slot from the year before. Every other slot dropped. Obviously just one example, but we didn't have to look far to find another example where such a dramatic, widespread change happened.

Apparently WAY too many overs.

Noted that too. I've seen every game of their NHL careers and a fair number of their Amerk and junior games as well. I wouldn't laugh at someone who disagreed — JJ is a talent — but I have no problem picking Quinn over Peterka.

One would think they'd have to be a train wreck in their own zone for that not to be a playoff team. If it was just some guy's opinion, I'd say he was being too optimistic. None of the numbers are way out of line in and of themselves, there's just too many overs. i have no idea how good the model's track record is.

The Athletic dropped its fantasy hockey projections this morning. For those unfamiliar with it, it's done on a formula: a three-year weighted average of a players production including numbers beyond goals and assists, adjusted for age and any expected changes in roles and deployment. Sabres numbers: Thompson 80 Dahlin 72 Tuch 70 Cozens 67 Peterka 63 Quinn 48 Benson 42 Power 37 Byram 32 Zucker 32 McLeod 29 Greenway 24 That looks like a pretty high scoring team.

Pronman just dropped his pipeline list of the top U23 players in hockey. Sabres have a lot of names on the list, but not at the top. Bubble all star/top of lineup 19 Owen Power Top of lineup 36 Jack Quinn Bubble mid/top of lineup 57 JJ Peterka 58 Konsta Helenius 62 Zach Benson MIddle of the lineup 102 Jiri Kulich 104 Noah Östlund 117 Anton Wahlberg 141 Adam Kleber Of much interest to me: Rutger McGroarty at 147, Matt Savoie at 143. Goalies were included. Devon Levi did not make the list. Going to be a lot of fanbases grumbling about where their personal faves are.

You don’t have to hit guys to play good defence. Nick Lidstrom never threw more than 56 hits in a season. Adam Fox has never thrown more than 44. Hank Tallinder maxed out at 64. These are the guys Power should be emulating in his own zone. Don’t try to be something you’re not, just use your brains and your feet and your reach to get in the way.

I think the safest bet is Tage. Over the past three years combined among NHL centres he ranks: 17 in total points (if you consider Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Steven Stamkos centres) 18 in points/game (again if Stamkos and Nugent Hopkins are centres) 7th in goals (2 behind that pesky Stamkos) He also finished the year with 27 points in his final 28 games which pretty much matches his pace over the past three years, so I am pretty comfortable chalking his overall numbers last year up to his hand injury. He does have to start the year better though. He was 1 point in 6 games out of the gate last year after going 3 in 7 and 4 in 8 to start each of the previous years

This is correct, UPL was never exposed to waivers because all of his Rochester time happened before he became waiver-eligible. He would have been exposed if he had been sent down last year, which was one of the reasons the Sabres kept 3 goalies.