dudacek

To me this points to the "cultural differences" argument. My perception is a significant number of Americans feel there is a reasonable chance they might be threatened by someone with a gun. My perception is very few Canadians feel there is a reasonable chance they might be threatened by someone with a gun. I don't know if my perceptions are accurate, but if they are they certainly raise an important question as to why such a difference exists.

Yes. I think it goes without saying that he'll make moves to get a goalie and a defenceman. This is more about trading potential core pieces for an actual core piece. Actual core pieces involve a level of long-term cap commitment I'm not sure Kevyn is ready to make. Thus far he has only made that type of commitment to one player: Tuch. He has some big decisions pending in the relatively near future on Olofsson, Tage, Asplund, Mittelstadt, Jokiharju, Dahlin and, to a lesser extent Cozens. I get the sense he'd rather spend this season seeing what he has in those players and the ones coming behind them before making most of those decisions. (Although I do suspect we will see a Tage extension this summer)

I'm OK with the principle of moving a younger piece of the future for a Tuch type, but I get Adams caution. The cap demands smart decisions and, at the moment, there are too many question marks about what we have. Retaining the flexibility of cap space and a full pipeline seems prudent, unless that Tuch-type comes with the same kind of attitude and contract Tuch has.

Players we know are good NHLers, even if we’re still not sure how good: * Tuch, Tage, Olofsson, Dahlin Players who appear to have the ability to be good NHLers but still need to play and establish themselves: * Mitts, Cozens, Krebs, Asplund, Quinn, Peterka, Power, Samuelsson, Jokiharju, UPL Assets that could represent significant pieces emerging from the Sabres pipeline over the next 5 years: * Levi, Rosen, Poltapov, Kisakov, Johnson, Portillo, 9, 16, 28, 41, 2023 1st and 3 2nds To me @JohnC Is advocating moving assets from the 2nd or, more likely, 3rd groups this summer in order to add to the 1st group next season. Im curious who agrees and who would rather see who emerges from within, organically?

I would be shocked if either Gauthier or Nemec is still available where this list has them ranked.

A ranking that would allow us to walk away with Nemec, Gauthier, Miroshnichenko and Beck would be too good to be true.

This is not a take I have any problem with. it's the idea that coaches weren't preparing for Thompson, or putting their best defenders out against him I'm skeptical of.

This will inevitably be trotted out next year during his first slump, even though it makes little sense to me. One would think they realized that by Christmas, or at least by the all-star break.

Suzy talked about all the rebounds like they were something to compliment him about. He makes the routine saves look hard and hands out second chances like candy on Halloween. Team not creating any offence either.

The plan in net this year was to let the 4 goalies under contract fight it it out. I think ideally they wanted UPL and Anderson to emerge, but Tokarski and Anderson won the battle in camp. The plan overall this year was to let the young talent make mistakes and develop while forging a new culture in the dressing room. I, and many others thought the goaltending was going to get in the way of that. And it felt like we were headed that way in December. But, in the end, it did not.

Did anyone else get the sense he was saying “if the analytics and my eye test don’t agree, I reject the analytics.”

Our 3.58 GAA .874 SV% goalie back between the pipes tonight? *Edit: fantastic.

I think it’s time to admit that I was wrong and Adams right about the goaltending this year, at least in the context of what this year was about. The bargain bin combo of Tokarski and Anderson wasn’t “good” but it performed adequately enough to allow a bad team beat NHL .500 And my worst fear - that bad goaltending would interfere with development - never came to pass. Quite the contrary actually.

His game is not like Jeannot’s. He gets to gritty areas and doesn’t back down but hes not fast enough to wreak havoc on the forecheck and he’s not a player who punishes anyone.

It’s true for most AHL teams because of roster fluctuation throughout the season. It affects all teams, but some worse than others and makes evaluations based on regular season records hard. Tischke, alt, Fitzgerald, Davidson, Krebs, Rousek, Jankowski, Holmstrom and Dell played 33 games or less for the Amerks this year. That’s half the playoff lineup. R2, Murray, McInnis, Malone Quinn and Biro played between 39 and 57.

Kid gets hockey, mentally and physically. Cant skate (yet?) Some of these guys become Michael Mersch. One in a million become Mike Stone.

Think so? That’s an awful lot for a goalie who may have been lower ranked than UPL a year ago and essentially has one good 40-game season under his belt. Only 7 goalies make more than 6 per season, 12 more than $5.5. Lehner and Ullmark got 5, the latter over 4 years, the former 5. Each were more proven than Husso. Driedger was last years Husso and he got 3 X 3.5

I think you are ignoring the fact that Dell’s play has already tanked. AHL playoffs: 7 games .882 SV %. That’s 24th out of 28 goalie to have played. They next worst starter still playing has a .907 SV% Laval’s goalie is coming in with a .940 SV%. The offence isn’t going to keep hiding his soft goals by scoring 4 a game.

I want him to play because Dell is terrible. The Amerks got Dell here, not the other way around. We’re not going to agree on this

Wouldn’t be doing based strictly on development. Id be doing it for development and because I think Dell is awful and UPL gives this team a better chance to win.

What I'm reading and hearing says do not assume the Leafs will re-sign him; what he will want and what they can afford don't line up well and people don't expect him to take a big discount to stay. .915, .921, . 914 save percentages the past 3 seasons with Toronto, .900 and .928 before that with L.A. There's this weird dichotomy in this thread where people don't want to give up anything of value, or invest in term, then quickly dismiss pretty much anyone who may not require either. Barring Fleury doing the unexpected, personally, I don't see better goalie than Campbell out there who is free to acquire and might sign for 3 years or less. And, for the record since the start of 2018/19 season, Campbell has a .916 SV% and a 2.52 GAA in 128 games compared to Fleury's .912 and 2.59 over 209 games.

its a weird situation because Dell has made a few big saves and the fact he's won has masked the bad goals and the horrible numbers. The facts are that the Amerks have outscored his issues, but psychologically it's hard to move off the winning formula. UPL is a better goalie and should give us a better chance to win because of it, but it could be a minefield if they switch and he loses. I hope they play UPL when he's ready. He needs this for his development, and we need him to develop.

Amerks with Tischke, Davidson, Alt and Fitz on the blueline are a helluvalot better at defending than what they rolled out for the majority of the season. 33, 23, 14 and 28 games, respectively this year. Hope Mule and UPL are available for the next round.

It will be a big deal going through to the next round in spite of a goalie sporting a 3.50 GAA and an .879 S%. Come on Dell, play the game of your life.

Best PP guy is Laaksonen. Unfortunately he sucks elsewhere and is getting scratched. Other than that, yeah Fitzy might be.