dudacek

If I'm Dylan's agent, I'm saying "You're heading for a long career regardless, kid. Whatever they'd be willing to sign for now, one good year is going to double that." Dylan seems like the type who has no problem betting on himself.

The fans are so quietly eager for Comrie to be good: good-guy underdog is the sort of of ***** we are absolutely primed to fall head over heels for. Nobody wants to really consider the alternative right now.

Agreed. We know he tried and failed with Murray. We have no idea what else was tried and failed, or was offered and rejected. Comrie was the best choice - or at least the preferred choice - of what was available.

Vegas should have kept him. Could have used the LTIR.

Has there been an occasion where Adams has stepped up and taken a risk, or “overpaid” to get what he wanted, be it on a trade or a contract? I don’t think he has. So far, he seems to be about setting his price/value and sticking to it. It will be interesting to see if that is strategy for the foundation-setting stage that will be modified when the team is a contender, like @Thorny suggests, or a general management principle he’s planning to stick with.

Leaning toward this myself. I see a confident kid with decent skill; a good head on his shoulders and a track record of winning, who is still young, has steadily improved, and wants to be a difference-maker. He's no stud, but he's going to be a good mid-roster piece for a good team.

Nice to see there is another Perreault available down around where we'll be picking.

Coming off a pair of low-key but promising seasons, Henri Jokiharju got hurt right at the beginning of the season and didn’t find his game immediately upon his return. Don Granato’s response was to force-feed him all the hard minutes, important situations and tough opponents he could handle. Despite playing only 60 games, he set a career high in points. Despite the harder matchups, he managed to slightly improve his 5-on-5 possession percentage (to a mediocre 48.5). He increased his time on special teams, and added a full 3 minutes of ice time to his average per game, to finish 2nd overall on the team behind Rasmus Dahlin. https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=196298 Jokiharju - who was still just 22 at season’s end - played much of the year with Dahlin, and finished it with prize rookie Owen Power. Not everyone agreed that he is worthy of the #2 spot on the blueline pecking order, but he certainly got his share of vocal support from Granato. It will be interesting to see how the additions of Lyubushkin and Power, along with the emergence of Samuelsson will effect his role. What do you expect from him this year? (Last year’s takes here):

Yes, probably where the Sabres had him pencilled as well. Good reason to think they might still acquire someone.

I love Comrie’s character and think he has NHL skill, but I wonder if he is the type of guy who gets in his own head. He has a track record of getting NHL opportunities and blowing them. Nine starts with three different NHL teams to start his career (a 4th, Arizona, kept him for 3 months on the bench without ever giving him a shot) and he was mediocre to bad in every single one of them. This despite AHL play that showed he should have been ready. Part of me says last year proved he has overcome that. Part of me wonders if, in the presence of his 1st real opportunity to be the guy, he melts down again.

Casey Mittelstadt has played most of his 195 NHL games at centre. Dylan Cozens maybe 100 and Tage Thompson 78? Krebs a handful? Asplund and Girgs played centre as rookies, but barely at all since. The Rochester depth chart at the moment is Malone/Biro/Pekar and that’s it. The latter two were wingers last year. I just think some veteran insurance in the form of a Jankowski or Eakin type tweener would come in handy. A Johan Larsson/Curtis Lazar type would be even better.

The Winnipeg Jets drafted Eric Comrie in the 2nd round of the 2013 draft, 23 picks after Montreal made Zach Fucale the first goalie selected, and 70 picks before Buffalo snagged Cal Petersen. Over the next 8 years he eventually proved himself to be a good AHL goalie, posting .916 and .917 save percentages in his last two seasons as a regular starter with the Manitoba Moose in 2018 and 2019. He was also sent to the minors 10 times, placed on the taxi squad 4 times, waived 5 times, claimed 4 times (twice by Winnipeg) and traded once. He managed to squeeze in 9 NHL games, compiling a grisly .873 save percentage. https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=132742 Last year, however, things finally clicked into place for this “goalie nerd” and “genuinely good guy”. Comrie found a home and a full-time role as the Jets backup. And he excelled in his 19 games, with a goals saved above expected rate second to only Igor Shesterkin in the entire NHL. The Sabres signed him to a 2-year deal on the opening day of free agency for backup money and a chance to start. What do you expect from him this year?

The bold is interesting, because I think it is a key element of Adams’ plan. Mattias Samuelsson was born March 14, 2000. Owen Power was born Nov. 22, 2002. Jack Quinn, JJ Peterka, Dylan Cozens, Ryan Johnson, Eric Portillo, Peyton Krebs, Devon Levi, and Rasmus Dahlin are all born in between them. Stretch the window a back a year and you add Mittelstadt, Jokiharju and UPL. Stretch it forward and you get Rosen, Poltapov, Kisakov, Savoie, Östlund and Kulich, among others. The Boston contender was built around Bergeron, Lucic, Krecji, Rask, Horton and Marchand, all who were born within a 3-year window and all of whom came of age together in Boston. The Blackhawks added Kane and Toews to Seabrook, Keith, Crawford, Byfuglien, versteeg, Ladd, Bolland, Brouwer, and Hjalmarsson in similar fashion. And, of course, there is the all-time extreme example of Messier, Gretzky, Anderson, Kurri, Coffey, Lowe, Fuhr and Moog. Adams certainly hasn’t assembled that Oilers’ caliber of talent, but the Bruins and Hawks teams aren’t out of reach. The template he’s following of assembling a bunch of young talent and letting them grow together is a hardly a new one, and it’s one that has proven to work.

You’re right in terms of how they will handle his contract. (He’s actually an RFA right now, but they have his rights for 3 more years). But if he can’t show he’s capable of being an NHLer this year, they will be bringing in an outsider to be Comrie’s running mate next year and he will lose his status as the Rochester “goalie in waiting” to Levi. His door to the crease in Buffalo will virtually close.

Entering or in their primes is what I said. What I was getting at is that we don’t know how good any of those guys listed will be. We have a pretty good idea with Tuch, Dahlin, Thompson and Jokiharju, but we still need confirmation. We have no idea with the rest. Three years from now, we should pretty much know the hits and misses, as well as the roster’s holes and it’s redundancies. We seem to differ on whether the team and players can get better without making moves. I think with that much young talent, it’s likely. But I’m in full agreement with you that trades and additions will be needed to finish the puzzle and push us into the ranks of legitimate contender.

It’s impossible to predict, but 3 years from now the group of Peterka, Power, Quinn, Samuelsson, Cozens, Krebs, Dahlin, Jokiharju, Asplund, Mitts, Thompson, Tuch, UPL will be entering or in their primes. We should know by then how good that group will be. Is it the core of a contender? And that can help dictate how Savoie, Östlund, Kulich, Levi, Portillo, Johnson, Poltapov, Kisakov, Neuchev, Leinonen, Bloom, Nadeau, Rosen and next year’s high picks can best be leveraged to push us over the top.

He’s touched on few times on his daily radio show: I’ve heard him question UPL’s consistency and his tracking on long shots.

I have what appears to be a minority opinion. When I’ve watched UPL play - in the NHL - he looks like he isn’t out of place. He’s had 13 NHL starts and I’m not sure there’s been any where he didn’t give his team a chance to win. He’s faced Boston 4 times, the Rangers twice, Tampa, Washington and Minnesota, hardly a bunch of gimmes. In the 11 games he’s finished, he averaged more than 35 shots against. Overall, he’s got a .913 NHL save percentage. Unfortunately, he didn’t finish the other 2 because of injury. And that, coupled with his multiple injuries and inconsistencies with the Amerks, is what people remember. I think UPL looks like an NHL goalie: his size, his poise, the way he tracks the play, gets post to post, and covers the net when the puck is down low. But away from NHL action, I have seen him let far too many long shots leak through - shots that he was completely prepared for. And his fragility has to end. I honestly don’t know what I expect from UPL; losing the Amerk crease to Subban would not surprise me, neither would a breakout season where he backstops a resurgent Sabres squad and gets Calder Trophy talk. He has both those scenarios in him. I do know that the Sabres’ patience with him is about to run out; this is a make or break season for him in Buffalo.

Hutchison? Seriously?

The Sabres had 18 forwards play at least 18 games last year. Five of them are gone - 3 of those centres. 2 have been replaced. Not with centres. I don’t agree with your math

Yeah, not interested in a stats debate over this. The parallel is that they are both touted 2nd round picks who failed to become NHLers after 3 years of development, whose fan base started writing them off. In Comrie’s case, he was still in that spot after 5 years.

It’s interesting that 3 or 4 years ago Eric Comrie was basically UPL and people have essentially already given up on UPL

Maybe, for the 6 games the team is completely healthy. It took nearly 70 games for Cody Eakin to sit last year. It’s essentially Eakin we’re talking about replacing

I agree the answer is “who cares?” Maybe it’s even the centre we sign. Like I said, I’m talking about replacing Eakin, Jankowski and R2. If Peterka Krebs Cozens or Quinn aren’t ready, it’s them. If they are playing well it’s Bjork. Its about creating depth and waivers shouldn’t be an issue.

Is it just me, or should the Sabres be in the market for another centre? I mean, theoretically they should be fine with Thompson/Krebs/Cozens/Mitts, Girgensons moving over in a pinch and Biro and Malone down on the farm. But personally, I prefer Girgs on the wing, and I’d like to see the first 4 all in the top 9, with one of them moving outside. And while Biro and Malone are fine to fill in, I don’t see either as the 4C on opening night and Rochester looks very thin beyond that. For all his issues, Cody Eakin played 69 games at centre for Buffalo last year, while Jankowski and R2 combined for 37 NHL games and were the top 2 centres in Rochester. All 3 are gone and we haven’t added another centre to the system to replace them. Should we?