dudacek

They have the league's lowest payroll, are using a retired player to reach the cap floor and have spent less than $4 million combined on their five! best goalies. They traded or let go 3 of their 4 best defencemen, their 3 most talented forwards and their best goalie for players who have combined for 14 goals this year, and invested a grand total of $1.05 million in their biggest free agent signing. Does anyone think they didn't choose to ice a bad team? Seriously.

Haven't made up my mind about Fitz yet. I have about R2. He's not an NHLer. I haven't given up on Asplund though.

100% He’s not significantly better than the rest of the depth back there, but he sure is easier to root for.

Don’t think we’re too far apart on this one. Still hoping we get 20 games of UPL to show they are right (or even wrong) about him.

Eh, he always was going to be 1/2 the battery with a shot at being #1. The real concern is who he’s paired with. I think the article made it clear they do. The question is more about how they deliver.

Had some references elsewhere on Sabrespace, figured it deserved its own thread. https://buffalonews.com/sports/sabres/as-sabres-unveil-new-initiatives-for-season-tickets-theyre-mostly-holding-line-on-prices/article_938b3cd4-9727-11ec-bac9-eb84ea008c6b.html The team has hired a new VP of ticket sales and created a 25-person fan council to advise them. "Ultimately, we're going to take some of the experiences that I've had in other markets and see what works here and be able to listen to our fans. They've told us plenty of what they want to see and what they want to do, and we're going to look to execute on those items."

Cozens, Krebs, Quinn, Asplund, Power, Samuelsson, Bryson, Luukkonen, maybe Fitzgerald and Peterka. If you expand that to 240, add Jokiharju, Mittelstadt, Thompson, Olofsson and Bjork.

I’m of the opinion the team will be better next year simply because it will be adding UPL, Quinn and Power, because it should have a more effective Krebs, Cozens and Samuelsson, and because hopefully Mitts and Tuch will be around and playing up to their potential all season. I am also of the opinion that if management thinks that’s enough, we are in for another dull ache of a season. As far as I am concerned we need to be selling more than just fringe roster players come the trade deadline, we need to selling the cap space we have so zealously protected. And over the next 6 months, we need to start buying.

Both? I think Adams wants to build from the ground up based on a traditional draft and develop strategy. I think Adams did want his blinding light brigade (Dahlin, Jokiharju, Cozens, Thompson, Mitts, Olofsson, Asplund) force fed important minutes and pushed into leadership roles this year. I think Adams is focused first on the team he is building down the road and unwilling to make a move for today that could be counterproductive then. I think Terry Pegula is willing to spend money in order to help the Sabres win, but he’s tired of spending it to watch them lose. I think Terry was well aware that the arena was going to be empty this year regardless and would much prefer to lose $20 million on Adams rebuild than $40. I think Terry is interested in selling a portion of the team and has positioned it with minimal overhead and long-term liability in order to make it attractive to investors. I hope all parties want and are planning for a better Sabres team next year as an economic and development necessity. I think the bus is driving down a road where these interests align.

Gotta tackle these separately. Not sure what you mean with the bold. My post was irrespective of Adams’ intent, we’ve learned things about our young players that should help shape what comes next. It would have been very nice to know if Casey Mittelstadt was a building block, a support piece or an asset to be flipped. Fortunately we got those questions answered for most of his peers.

Makes sense in that frame. I did not expect the fully-formed Cozens to emerge this early. His game is too strength-based. I’m sticking with my Ryan Kesler comparison. The fact he’s going to put up 20ish goals and 40ish points this year is exciting to me. From a pure development perspective, we’ve learned a lot about what we have this year. The only “young NHLer” I haven’t solidified my opinion on is Mittelstadt. It’s really a shame, because he was #2 behind Dahlin in the “let’s see what we have” list. From a “worth sacrificing a season for” I’m not sure any player development was worth that. To me that aspect of this year was always more about economics - not spending $20 million for an additional 10 points in the standings - than development. And I never agreed with that. I really need to see Adams use some of that space in order to remove some of the sting.

Surprised you aren’t including Cozens. Doubled his points and tripled his goals and has been getting experience against all the top players.

That cross grain backhand pass by Dahlin to Thompson was sick.

Dahlin, Thompson, Skinner are significantly better. Cozens, Jokiharju and Okposo are better. Tuch is better than we expected. Olofsson and Mitts are worse. Asplund and Bryson are the same. Krebs, Samuelsson, Fitz are rookies. Eakin, Hayden, Bjork, Pysyk, Hagg don’t really matter.

The Mitts line has been so overmatched physically. They look like little boys out there.

Not disputing your point, but he is still 18, unless you meant past his draft year by overage? To your point, 12 other U19 OHL players have better points per game.

Roster/waiver rules, the faint hope of trading Eakin, the need to have some decent bodies in Rochester, a “let’s just wait until the deadline and/or healthy bodies (Hinostroza, Girgs, Quinn) get back” mindset, and the very real possibility that Murray/Biro/Jankowski are whoever else is available is not significant upgrades to those three? (Just spitballing, personally can’t wait until Bjork and Eakin are as relevant as Brian Flynn and Matt D’Agostini)

For some perspective, Mitts has played 75 more NHL games than Cozens has (166 vs 91). He’s not as far along the development curve as one might think.

“ We need to accelerate the developmental process of our players. So I need to get them fast experience. The hope and objective would be they learn faster because they get opportunity. I want to give him opportunity to play against top players and you know, he's really our number one penalty-kill guy. He's our go-to guy on the penalty kill now." That’s Donnie, talking about Mule, but he could also be talking about Cozens, Krebs, Fitz, Thompson, Dahlin, Mitts, Asplund, and others. I count 7 Sabres expected to play tonight who have yet to crack the 200 games mark, plus Bjork and Thompson who just hit it. Our first-pair D are 21 and 22. Our 2nd-pair D have played 27 and 15 NHL games, respectively Thompson and Tuch have never before played on an NHL first line. Cozens, Krebs, Mitts and Asplund - all in the top 9 - have less than 400 NHL games experience combined. We’ve got basically 4 proven players playing significant roles and one of those guys is 64 years old.

And to be clear, this is happening on a team that has had crazy lineups holes this year due to injuries, illness, and call ups and he still hasn’t been able to play himself off the 4th line.

When (if) most of Cozens, Mitts, Krebs, Quinn, Peterka, Power, Samuelsson, Johnson, Luukkonen, Levi etc. grow into their talent the way Thompson and Dahlin have. You’re overthinking it.

I despise Gudas. He’d be a great fit. Good call.

Be well.

I agree the line (which, to be fair, was actually the 3rd line) was often good, but that doesn’t mean Kyle could not have been better utilized. In his 74 games under Krueger he had 9 goals and 14 assists.

Starting to realize how poorly Okposo was miscast as a 4th liner. Donnie gets a lot of credit for the improvement in the play of Dahlin and Skinner and Thompson, but his role in Kyle’s resurgence is never mentioned.