dudacek

I’m trying to look at it objectively The team structure breaks down constantly. They try to play differently with the lead and fail. Their motivation and preparation is inconsistent at best. Their special teams are terrible. Individual players aren’t developing or improving; in fact very important ones - Power, Quinn, Benson, Cozens, Samuelsson, Lukkonen - have often looked outright bad. I think people are focusing most of their wrath rightly on Adams, and fans are usually too quick to jump on coaches because there is so much we don’t see. But Lindy’s past is giving him a pass. We are a poorly coached team. The eye test shows it, and most objective measures agree. He’s taken what most of you considered a poorly coached team last year and failed to make it better in any area.

It’s about the offence for them. Ottawa doesn’t create much of it 5 on 5, and Cozens has produced twice as many points as Norris has minus special teams. A lot of this stuff kinda rings true for the Sabres as well: Cozens had a similar profile in a similarly constructed room. I will say that when I look at the lineup projections, I find myself constantly feeling safer with Norris lines than I have been with Cozens lines. Norris may actually complement those two instead of getting in their way. Good call there, coupled with the sheltered offensive minutes in Granato’s “just go for it” system. To the reaction, I think we forget how much the NHL narrative is driven by the Toronto-based Canadian media. I am willing to bet the talking heads (and a lot of fans) have watched Cozens play more wearing a red maple leaf than they have in blue and gold. As the commentary has made clear, they haven’t watched the same things. Nine goals at the World Championships carries more weight with them than -19 against Carolina. I used to squint at some decisions/statements coming out of Sabreland and hand-wave that away with a “Lindy Ruff knows more about hockey than I ever will.” I’m not so sure any more. I have no idea what your thoughts Cozens have been this season, but the board consensus is he’s been terrible. How does that compute with “shoulda got more”? Other teams were watching him too.

Reading through a lot of stuff on Norris, the Sens, and their needs, it starts to become clear why the trade happened. Some things Cozens does better than Norris (neutral zone puck transport, 5-on-5 scoring) are things the Sens need in their top 9. And the things Norris does better than Cozens (special teams, faceoffs, puck management) are things the Sabres need in their’s. Also very clear that Norris is an immensely popular teammate.

Out of the 4 players in the mix right now for next year’s top 3, only McLeod is a pass-first player. Tage, Norris and Kulich are all finishers first. Agreed . As far as I’m concerned Tage has rebounded nicely. His D has improved and he is a beast offensively, a player other teams need to game plan for. Tuch is as good and as well-rounded as winger can get without being a star. I think that “3rd liner on a good team” stuff is ridiculous. He’s top 6 on any team and a 1st-liner on most. After that, you’ve got JJ as a first-line offensive talent you can’t trust yet against “real” first lines and Norris who should be a 2nd-liner. If those guys are your 5th and 6th forwards, you’re happy, 3rd and 4th, you’re crossing your fingers. Then you’ve got Zucker who played like a decent 2nd-liner this year, but is not likely to repeat it and a bunch of talented kids who looked to be in over their heads. We’re in pretty much exactly the same spot in terms of how we perceived the forwards last September, just reverse what we thought we might get from Quinn and Zucker.

The best thing I can say about Zucker and Greenway is that they are useful if overpaid vets who can contribute middle-six minutes. Probably better they did this than casting around the free agent market for replacements in July and overpaying more, or, worse, missing altogether. Bernard-docker in, Jokiharju out is…interesting? Jokiharju wore out his welcome here 2 years ago and was horribly miscast in this year’s lineup. But he is a better NHL defenceman than he generally gets credit for, and will probably do fine as the puckmover on a good team’s 3rd pair. I know little about Bernard-Docker, except that he’s an RFA and it won’t cost much to keep him. Similar age, size and draft pedigree - I guess the hope is he will be a bit steadier and defensively sound than Joki and a better fit roster-wise? The key thing is obviously Norris for Cozens, who are very similar on paper. Cozens at 2C was the team’s weakest link this year, IMO: a failure at a key role. The question becomes will Norris be any different? He’s slightly smaller and slightly faster (well, NHL edge has him as one of the league’s fastest players) and hits a similar amount. He’s a better finisher and a worse set-up guy. He’s produced more offence on a per-82, but is much less durable. Stylistically though, they are much different. One thing notably different in his profile is how he’s had better success defensively than Dylan in harder minutes. Whereas Cozens likes to carry the puck and wants it on his stick as much as possible, Norris is about fewer touches and quicker decisions. I hope this is good news as poor puck decisions were Cozens biggest issue. Will his more opportunistic, more patient game prove a better fit with some of Buffalo’s wingers? He’s a finisher, not a set-up guy, but the Sabres best playmakers seem to come from the back and their wingers can move the puck pretty well. So maybe his game works better than a more traditional centre/distributor with this mix? He’s also a good faceoff man who produces on the power play and kills penalties - 3 things we couldn’t really say about Cozens. 2C had become the most important fix for the franchise so I am glad Adams recognized it and moved to correct it, even if I’m not sure that Norris is the right move, or if he can stay healthy. And I am also sure that a piece of Adams core needed to be sacrificed. I think he sold low on Cozens, but that stock could still drop lower and the same could be said for the other candidates for trade. And the Senators may have sold low as well (a 30-goal centre for the player Cozens was this year is a steal) so there’s that. Bottom line: something needed to break. As far as I’m concerned Adams has forfeited the right to fix this, but if it’s going to continue to be his job, today was better than doing nothing at all.

I worry about Cozens’ upside and Norris’ injuries coming back to haunt us. I don’t think Docker is worth a 2nd any more than Malenstyn was. This seems like an iffy trade from an asset value point of view. In terms of on-ice play this year, no player has hurt us as much as Cozens. I will be very sad if Norris isn’t an immediate improvement in the 2C role. Bernard-Docker appears to fill a need. In terms of getting better now, I see it. What am I missing here ^^^? Im not surprised I guess, and I love Benson, but people seem to ignore how little offence he generates. Traffic isn’t his issue at all. It’s open ice and his inability to utilize it to create and finish.

Yes, I'd like to subtract some losses by adding some players Yes, line 1, thanks for catching that. Tuch and Thompson just works. ??? Thompson Tuch ??? Norris ??? ??? McLeod ??? Greenway and Zucker fill two of the ??? Ride with two of Peterka, Quinn, Benson and Kulich, swap the other two out for veterans who make plays, battle and defend.

It's weird to me that we went so quickly from: 3 emerging top 6 centres (Thompson, Cozens, Mitts) and maybe 4 more guys coming (Savoie, Östlund, Kulich, Krebs) To: 1 oft-injured top 6 centre (Norris) and maybe 2 guys coming (Kulich, Östlund) I hate Tage as a winger and I hate how they've moved away from him with Tuch on Line One and as the focus of the PP. Maybe Norris can run a 2nd line, and allow us to bring back the Tuch/Thompson combo on line 1?

Looks to me like he's what Clifton never materialized as. Pretty much the textbook concept of what a stay-at-home #5 RHD should be

Am I correct in reading this that the Sabres had decided they needed to move on from Cozens and were shopping him? Even though both the eye test and the analytics were crying for it, that seems unusually bold for Adams.

Also, Cozens departure makes Byram here long-term less likely.

Deck chairs. At least it busts up the "core".

I would have choked on 3x$6. This goes down better, but we're still getting fooled by an outlier year amplified by the mess around him. My hot take is he will not live up to this contract: 30-something points next year and an afterthought the year after.

Just for perspective: Jiri Kulich the season he turns 21: 47/12/7/19 Dylan Cozens the season he turned 21: 79 13/25/38

Can you list other wingers the Sabres have who have the capability of returning a player or players in trade who can fix this mess? I'm not advocating trading Peterka. I answered the question of why they might consider it. But I certainly would trade him for the right return and I think he's one of the few Sabres who may actually be capable of generating one.

The best reason for trading Peterka would be the return. Unlike most Sabres his value is at its apex. Unlike most Sabres the return for him might actually help. Also, he’s the best of the bunch, but JJ is also the type of player - smallish quick, skilled, defensively poor winger - we have too many of. So yes, culture change. Now if only I trusted Adams to get the proper return

Greenway playing like a bag of feces against the Sharks knowing he’s about to sign a big deal, then going down with an injury the day after he signs it would be very on brand Sabres.

Trading JJ Peterka now would be like trading Dylan Cozens 2 years ago. 😘

Further to the Benson bit, I am absolutely aware those videos show us what they want us to see, but there was a ton of tape of our Western scout, Lukas Sutter, slamming the table hard for Benson. I can absolutely accept the analytics department clinching the pick, but they weren't alone. Further to that, as much as I love Benson, do we know he was the right pick? (Yes, Jack Quinn has me really questioning my judgement 😁)

Thanks for the reply. I'm reasonably confident Forton ranked Leinonen as the best goalie in the draft. I haven't seen anything to support the idea that Forton pushed hard and convinced Adams to take him over the advice of the rest of the staff. My personal theory is that Adams was highly aware that the Sabres had taken just 2 goalies in the previous 7 drafts. Ullmark had just jilted him. Lukkonnen had bad hips, and Portillo was poised to walk. He had a gaping hole in his goalie pipeline and more high picks than he could use. He was the one who made up his mind he was using a high pick on a goalie. Forton just told him this guy's probably the best one available. I have no proof of this either. I have never seen or read anything on the Benson stuff. Would appreciate it if you could share the source material. Ventura appears in many of those videos. He rarely if ever talks. It's been highly noticeable to me. I've always chalked it up to the Sabres jealously guarding their analytics as proprietary. Can you expand on the McLeod stuff? Do you have more than "McLeod's public fancystats were good, so I'm giving the analytics department sole credit here." His acquisition also made sense from a contract standpoint, a traditional scouting standpoint and a development standpoint.

Did I come across as defending them? That wasn't my intent at all. The Sabres braintrust has clearly done a bad job as a whole. @LGR4GM offered some strong opinions on its individual components, positive and negative, and I am curious as to what fed those views.

Not saying you're wrong, but I always wonder how people develop strong opinions about the guys on the inside. We heard the analytics department was surprised by the Leinonen pick, but not who pushed the pick and why. We hear Karmanos is in charge of the Amerks and was a consideration for the Canucks GM job. We heard Forton wanted McAvoy over Nylander and watched him gush over how Adams makes sure everyone is heard. We've been told how well-respected Ventura was when he was hired, and noticed how his voice is never, ever heard in those proprietary behind-the-scenes videos. Such little information to go on. What specifically has Forton done to be fired? Or Ventura to be promoted? I have no idea what ideas either has been feeding Adams. Or what direction Adams may be giving leading either astray. Karmanos is the associate GM, so, by definition, he is the number 2 guy in the hockey department. Why have you come to these conclusions?

I like the good Greenway. And I am OK with the signing given the teams needs and reputation. But we’ve seen the good version what, 60 games over 2 years? It’s an expensive price for a player who hasn’t been very reliable. The Sabres problems are very much the forwards - specifically the fact that 1st-line winger JJ Peterka doesn’t provide 1st-line level 2-way play and 2nd-liners Jack Quinn and Dylan Cozens have been outright bad at their jobs. Neither Kulich nor Benson are anywhere near top 6 worthy as the final top 6 piece. So yeah, I’m content with Greenway as a 3rd-liner with McLeod, just like I’m content with Thompson and Tuch in the top six. The rest of the top 9 needs a drastic upgrade.

Seravalli tells Vancouver radio this morning the Sabres may flip a UFA or 2 but he'd be very surprised if they moved anyone else. Says they've received no offers they are even considering and the types of trades they are interested in for their other players aren't the types of trades that get usually made at the deadline.