dudacek

I have a bad feeling you’re right, which is why we need to see 20 games from UPL to finish the season. Let’s see evidence we need more, or reason to think that might work, instead of blind faith (again) on Adams’ part. Semi-related, Husso impressed last night.

Haven’t read the thread, but I assume Mitts got roasted on the winner? It was a bad play, which is a shame because today was the first game where I saw last year’s puckhandling skills starting to show up. He had some chances, and created some chances. I saw it as a step in the right direction after being absent or filler all season. Hopefully the worm is turning. Overall, I thought we got a glimpse of what this team could become; Samuelsson assertiveness, Cozens doggedness, Dahlin dominance, and three lines capable of scoring. Next step is adding Power, Quinn and Luukkonen to the mix and getting most of the kids playing that way most of the time, rather than some of them some of the time.

Sorry, what have I missed? Are the Pegulas actually doing something in terms of courting fans/marketing the team?

He’s really not either of those things if you’re using him in a #4 role.

Don't worry about this at all. Eakin and Bjork have played themselves off the roster and possibly out of the NHL. We aren't seeing Eakin because they "love" anything about him. We are seeing him because they want(ed) to shield their kids and because they have been obliterated by injuries. Still hoping Eakin is gone at the deadline, but I honestly not sure any team will be dumb enough to take him.

Hasn't looked like that player here, or since, really.

This I like. PK help is a must. Similar role to the Eakin/Hayden/Bjork, much better at it. Much more Girgensons than Jankowski (surprised how many people like him around here)

I know. I didn’t mean actually trading VO for Copp. I meant effectively doing that by choosing to invest a top 6 roster spot and long-term contract slot on a Copp-type than a VO-type. I know we can afford both now, but it probably won’t be the case in a few years when Tage, Power, Dahlin, Cozens and Mitts are all getting raises.

Sure, but the issue is convincing any those guys to come to Buffalo without overpaying on a long-term deal. (That aside, I’d kick the tires on any UFA who is still capable. Manson is a perfect fit, Klingberg not as much. Letang is still real good, Subban not so much)

No offence man, but you pass on anyone with any warts. Where you going to get a better veteran RHD for two years or less at a cheap acquisition price? Myers ain’t great , but also isn’t the player you remember either. He would help this team. He is better than Mark Pysyk or Colin Miller or moving one of our lefties over.

I wonder if the Canucks would give us Tyler Myers for a 3rd rounder or less? They are about to launch a rebuild and need to clear cap space. Cap hit of $6 million for 2 more years, RHD. He’s 32 now and having a decent year. Setting aside his Buffalo baggage, he’d tick a lot of boxes for us and would be an interesting partner for Power.

Actually, the AHL thing is pretty interesting looking at last night’s lineup. Anderson, Tokarski, Pysyk, Asplund, Skinner, Mittelstadt, Thompson, Bryson and Jokiharju spent time last year as healthy scratches or on the taxi squad. Biro, Krebs, Fitzgerald, Samuelsson and Jankowski all played in the minors this year Hayden, Eakin and Bjork probably would not be dressing if this bottom-feeding team was completely healthy. Cozens is in his first full NHL season. That leaves Tuch and Dahlin as unquestionable, full-time proven every day veteran NHL regulars. Obviously Skinner and Thompson have proven themselves this year. But it really is incredible when you look at it that way.

I think of “core” as your key guys and don’t see Fitzgerald ever playing 20-plus minutes a night, or skating in our top 3. Not out of this world to picture Samuelsson leaned on in a leadership and shutdown role down the line though.

No one has fully laid claim to that status. Not one player. Dahlin is on the verge, Tuch and Thompson have shown some signs. Mittelstadt, Luukkonnen and Peterka could be, though I think it's unlikely. Most of Levi, Cozens, Krebs, Quinn, Power and this year's 1st pick need to be or we're *****.

What a god awful mess that was. The good players looked like *****, the ***** players looked like *****. Burn the tape.

Apologize for misreading your initial post. My take was simply that the only scenario I see where both Cozens and Krebs end up on the wing long-term is one where we have 3 legitimate centres forcing them there.

I think we’ve established that the Sabres can use more centres in the system. But the reason is they don’t have many who aren’t already on the team, not because we might need both Cozens and Krebs on the wing.

I don’t see this as anything other than putting your top 6 most talented players in your top 6 because of extreme circumstances. We literally have all 4 middle 6 wingers (Okposo, Girgensons, Olofsson Hinostroza) plus our best wing prospect (Quinn) out.

Effectively, trading Olofsson, cap space and futures for a guy who adds some of the elements the top 9 most lacks - experience, battle, 2-way play - Andrew Copp, maybe?

I think next year Adams is kinda committed to 10 forwards: Thompson, Mittelstadt, Cozens and Krebs as his top 6 centre hopefuls the odd men out of the above, plus Skinner, Tuch and Quinn in his top 9. Asplund, Girgensons and Okposo in the bottom 6 So I’m really interested in how he plans on filling the the last few spots, and how Olofsson and Peterka fit. Skinner Thompson Tuch Cozens Mitts Okposo Krebs Quinn ??? Cozens Mitts Okposo Krebs Quinn ??? Asplund Girgenson Okposo ??? I wonder if they aren’t best off giving Olofson’s role to Quinn and spending a big chunk on bringing in a warrior/matchup type to the middle-six, kinda an approximation to Chris Drury.

What about trading him for a 2022 version of 2019 Jokiharju?

I’m wondering if we will ever get to a point where we will dress something even close to our optimal lineup. This is my loose ranking of our most useful forwards and the amount of games they’ve missed: Tuch 32 Thompson 4 Skinner 2 Mitts 42 Okposo 5 Olofsson 9 Cozens 3 Girgensons 17 Hinostroza 15 Asplund 2 Krebs 34 Quinn 49 Caggiula 33 Yes, Krebs/Quinn is partly by choice, but that’s 5 of the top 13 forwards absent for about 2/3 of the games and another 2 out for 1/3, and Mitts and Olofsson being hampered for a lot of the games they’ve played. I’m not saying that our record would be significantly better, but adding that to having a third-string goalie or worse starting over half of our games, it’s been extraordinarily frustrating as a fan to have to watch. I mean all of Bjork, Eakin and Hayden have played pretty much every single night, when none of the three should ever be in the healthy starting roster.

Neither is on PP1, but it sure leaves PP2 in shambles: Joki Mitts Cozens Asplund...Matt Ellis?

It wasn't that long ago a lot of people were done with Okposo and Girgensons, but my god does the bottom of the lineup look terrible without them. Lot of pressure on the Mitts line to give the Thompson line some help.

He’s not. He is, however, better than Dell and Tokarski, and should be more capable of playing 40 games than Craig Anderson. Adams appears to be shopping in a Venn Diagram of “available” “OK with Buffalo” “affordable cap hit” “affordable acquisition cost” “not going to block UPL” and “doesn’t have term” I hope we do better, but Georgiev is one of a very small group of goalies who fits.