dudacek

Pretty much everything the Sabres have done since Krueger was fired has been the result of faith in people and a plan. This is simply more of the same. It's a different look for professional sports. Even if it wasn't the Sabres, I'd like to see it succeed.

The whole idea of a “soft tank” is predicated on the idea that the Sabres don’t actually believe that playing Cozens/Krebs/Mitts/Power/Quinn etc in prominent roles is the best way to develop both them and the team. Which makes Adams and Granato and Appert and every other acolyte in the front office a really good liar. Im going to go with Occam’s Razor on this one.

Botts was awful, but that’s not why he was fired.

I can’t remember which coach/exec it was (it may have been more than one), but in the aftermath of Krebs excellent play at centre in the AHL playoffs, it was said “we want him/see him playing centre.”

Each so perfectly fit team needs through a moneyball focus that I’m a believer.

Haven’t looked at the Atlantic, but I think the top 4 in the Northeast slip while the bottom 4 improve. Buffalo and Ottawa could get 85-90, Detroit maybe 5 points behind them and the Habs about 60ish? Leafs and Lightning 100-110, Boston and Florida 95-105. I think it is possible one of the teams could implode in the same manner Vegas did last year and will make it a rest. I can’t tell you which one, but Florida’s defence corps is awful, the pressure on Toronto is immense and the Bruins are aging and without their best players early. Tampa has lost their depth and without Vas would be vulnerable.

@PerreaultForever's point of view is basically the same as the Athletic's: assign value to players who have proven they have it. They might be "new" going back to last fall, but Lyubushkin, Power, Samuelsson, Quinn, Krebs, Mitts, Tuch and Peterka combined for 28 goals last year and Eric Comrie has won 13 games in his career. I don't agree with him, but let's not pretend he doesn't have a case.

Wow. Very much unlike the NHL.

They’ve got 6 goalies in camp. I would imagine a 7th would be difficult to accommodate in terms of planning and sharing the net during camp.

Bjork with a new number, 15 Comrie will wear 31, Pilut 20, Sheahan 8 and Lyubushkin 46.

Training camp battles: 2C: Cozens and Mittelstadt should be facing off here, with Krebs in the mix 4C: Riley Sheahan best fits the role, but he's probably not one of the 12 best forwards. Will they move Girgensons or Asplund into that spot, or go with the low man in the 2C battle there? Scoring winger: It's not clear what kind of rotation Granato will run, but whether it's 3 balanced lines, or a clear top 6, he's going to lean on at least 2 wingers beyond Skinner and Tuch to join the PP and score some goals at even strength. Olofsson is the clear favourite to be one. Quinn and Peterka should battle Okposo, and possibly one of the 2C losers to join him. 2RD: will Lyubushkin or Jokiharju join Power? Final roster spots: Assuming health, there will be a maximum of 5 spots available for Krebs, Peterka, Quinn, Bjork, Sheahan, Pilut, Fitzpatrick and Luukkonnen. Biro, Murray, Malone, Clague and Subban are veterans who might also be pushing to join them.

Overall I think the Sabres are outclassed at the top of their lineup, but they have the ability to turn over 4 lines as good or better than most of their competition. That's a nice quality to have when the Sabres also have one of the division's fastest rosters and a coach who preaches that style. Buffalo's goaltending is a huge question mark, but no more than Toronto's, Montreal's, Ottawa's or Detroit's. It's defence corps is clearly better than Florida's, Montreal's, Ottawa's or Detroit's. Their PK needs work, but I expect their PP to be good. They aren't very physical, but they are well-coached and they do seem to compete and have resiliency. Yes, Ottawa and Detroit should be better and Buffalo could conceivably finish 7th. But Buffalo should be better too, and the top 4 teams are all likely to be worse. Points in general should be easier to come by. I find it hard to see this team finishing with a worse record than last year. I'm finding it really hard to put number on things, but I think anything less than coming within 10 points or so of a playoff would be a personal disappointment

The Sabres have good numbers, but the reason I'm ranking them #1 is no one else has prospects the calibre of Quinn and Peterka here, who have the ability to push ahead of guys in their middle-class. Toronto has a lot of vets and a handful of kids who can fill the bottom of the roster just fine. Detroit and Montreal have a lot of options here. Ottawa too, although some of these Senators will be playing higher in the lineup. Boston's depth isn't deep. And it will show with Marchand and McAvoy out. Tampa seems to have run out of cards in this portion of their lineup, while Florida's depth is just plain bad.

I think the Bruins have the best supporting cast: a lot of good NHL players properly cast in their appropriate slots, as well as 2 of the division's better goalies. I'd take Florida next. It's not a deep middle class and the defence is weak, but the top 4 are well above the competition. But Buffalo might be third. Detroit and Montreal have their share of depth at this level, but so do the Sabres, and most of the Sabres have upside possibilities the other two don't have. Tampa has lost much of it's middle class, although their grit there should keep them competitive here. Toronto's continues to be meh. Ottawa hasn't developed one yet and the youth of its core is going to make that even more obvious.

I think the Lightning continue to have the best core; to my mind the presence of Vasilevsky makes it not close. The Leafs is very good, just ahead of the Panthers because theirs is one player deeper, and Boston is right there with both, assuming good health and age resistance for Marchand and Bergeron. Don't sleep on Ottawa either: there's some projection involved obviously, but that 6 is good already, and some would argue Batherson makes it 7. Objectively, the Sabres and the Wings are a step behind and similar: fine, but nothing special, lacking in elite players, and hoping their young stud D-man can change that. Montreal might be excited about Suzuki and Caufield, but they are way behind.

Honestly, how do you think the Sabres stack up? Core Boston: Bergeron, Marchand, Pastrnak, McAvoy, Lindholm, (5) Montgomery Buffalo: Thompson, Skinner, Tuch, Dahlin, (4) Granato Detroit: Larkin, Vrana, Bertuzzi, Seider, (4) Lalonde Florida: Barkov, Tkachuk, Reinhart, Ekblad, (4) Maurice Montreal: Suzuki, Caufield, Anderson (3) St.Louis Ottawa: Tkachuk, Stutzle, Norris, Debrincat, Giroux, Chabot (6) Smith Tampa: Kucherov, Point, Stamkos, Cirelli, Hedman, Vasilevsky (6) Cooper Toronto: Matthews, Marner, Tavares, Nylander, Reilly (5) Keefe Supporting cast Boston: Hall, Krecji, Zacha, Debrusk, Smith, Coyle, Carlo, Grelczyk, Ullmark Swayman (10) Buffalo: Olofsson, Okposo, Mittelstadt, Cozens, Krebs, Asplund, Power, Jokiharju, Samuelsson, Lyubushkin, Comrie, Anderson (12) Detroit: Raymond, Copp, Perron, Kubalik, Fabbri, Suter, Chiarot, Hronek, Maatta, Husso, Njedeljkovic (11) Florida: Bennett, Verhaege, Duclair, Lundell, Hornqvist, Forsling, Montour, Gudas, Bobrovsky, Knight (10) Montreal: Dvorak, Dach, Gallagher, Hoffman, Dadynov, Drouin, Matheson, Edmunson, Savard, Allen (10) Ottawa: Batherson, Formenton, Joseph, Zub, Forsberg, Talbot (6) Tampa: Killorn, Paul, Colton, Hagel, Namestnikov, Sergachev, Cernak (6) Toronto: Bunting, Kerfoot, Jarnkrok, Engvall, Brodie, Muzzin, Murray, Samsonov (8) Depth/role players Boston: Foligno, Frederic, Nosek, Clifton, Fobert, Reilly, Zboril (7) Buffalo: Girgensons, Hinostroza, Quinn, Peterka, Sheahan, Bjork, Bryson, Pilut, Fitzpatrick, Lukkonnen (10) Detroit: Zadina, Erne, Rasmussen, Sundqvist, Veleno, Smith, Berggren, Eidvinsson, Lindstrom, Hagg, Pysyk, Oesterle (12) Florida: Cousins, Lomberg, Tierney, Luostarinen, Balcers, Staal, Del Zotto, Carlson (8) Montreal: Pitlick, Byron, Slavkovsky, Evans, Armia, Guhle, Barron, Harris, Wideman, Montembeault (10) Ottawa: Gambrell, Watson, Pinto, Grieg, Kelly, Katelic, Sanderson, Hamonic, Holden, Zaitsev, Bernard-Docker (11) Tampa: Maroon, Bellemare, Barre-Boulet, Perry, Bogosian, Cole, Foote, Myers, Fleury, Elliott (10) Toronto: Kampf, Clifford, Robertson, Gaudette, Aubel-Kabel, Simmonds, Giordano, Liljegren, Holl, Sandin, Benn (11)

Yeah, I didn’t mean to imply we can make any conclusions from the tourney. I kinda looked at Weissbach and Laaksonen to set the bar. I’ve watched both at the AHL level and consider each to be useful-to-good AHLers who won’t be NHLers. In that context, this is what I saw: the Sabres group looked better - faster and more skilled - than the opponents they faced. Kulich and Savoie are already better than Weissbach. Rousek, Rosen, Kozak, Kisakov and Cedarqvist are at a similar level to Weissbach Komarov and Lindgren are worse than Laaksonen. To that, I’ll add that the 4 highest picks are clearly the most talented players When I filter that through where they are on the development scale and where they were picked and adjust accordingly, it makes me think the Sabres might be on the right track. It will be interesting to see how much these guys improve.

Good info. Glad to see you posting more.

Meh, nothing to get worked up about. They have a model, their model kinda works, this is what it spits out about the Sabres. Their model isn’t really built to account for a bunch of young players dominating the makeup of a roster, or accelerating their growth at the same time. And no broad-based model is going to anticipate the difference the eye test has shown between Krueger and Granato. It’s built to predict based on broad strokes, not outliers. I look forward to the chance I’ll be reading about ^^^ in next year’s preview when they explain how they missed on the Sabres. As many have said elsewhere, the general hockey world will continue to expect the Sabres to be bad until they aren’t. And with good reason. Models aren’t always right, that’s why we play the games.

I liked Kisakov a lot. He's sneaky and I think maybe a bit dirty. I get the impression he's found ways to deal with the tough guys. His on-ice vision is good and his hands and body control sublime. The way he adjusts his feet and frame to open up for the puck, or to make a play is impressive. Can he be fast enough and/or strong enough to take advantage of his skill at the higher levels?

This is generally proven true time and again. That said, the numbers support getting at least 3 or 4 out of: Savoie, Östlund, Power, Rosen, and Quinn as top 16 picks And I would be surprised if there aren't 2 or 3 more out of: UPL, Kulich, Leinonen, Poltapov, Kisakov, Peterka and Johnson. The math supports that as well. Throw in the progress of Portillo, Bloom, Nadeau, Novikov, and especially Levi, among others, and I'll take the over. Personally, I will be surprised if Savoie, Östlund, Kulich, Power, Quinn, Peterka, Johnson and Levi don't all play substantial NHL games. That's 8 without dipping in to the longer shots.

I wonder about the offence. I am an Asplund fan - the smarts and hustle are topnotch - but he’s never scored enough at any level to suggest he will up here. You can’t cement yourself in the top 9 with 25 point seasons. 35 maybe. He’s young enough to show more than he has, but I fear he’s probably headed for a Girgensons-like career.

Wonder if there were many young Sabres in attendance, and if they took notice of what could be theirs.

So many things to like about that tourney. But I think my biggest takeaway was seeing how complete a player Jiri Kilich was — and this is important — as a centre! Hard on puck battles, fast in open ice and always in the right position on both ends of the ice. Such an an assertive, smart game. Loved the way he connected with and seemed to rub off on Rosen (who also elevated in my eyes). And he looked that good coming off an injury, and without really showcasing what we've been told is his elite trait: his shot. This kid is a player. Overall, our team looked so much faster and more talented than the competition and fun to watch. Keep it coming.

Last year was all about how many picks were outperforming expectations. Was it a repeat, or an anomaly? Looking at Savoie, Kulich, Komarov, and Lindgren in this tourney and you lean toward repeat. Especially when you consider how good Rosen and Kisakov looked — two players who were among the more "disappointing" from last year's draft.