dudacek

Sure, but you can offer him a lesser figure in exchange for term and he should take it. Hes not getting $7.5 million with term from anyone as a 25-goal 50-point winger. It would be a 1-year thing. It’s not the qualifying offer so much for Vancouver as it is committing to him as a core player with their cap situation as Rutherford tries to get better and faster.

Got a chuckle at Paul Hamilton this week. He was talking about how Jack and Sam will be treated when they return to Buffalo this month. Paul says Jack might get booed, but Sabres fans love Sam. If anyone says anything bad about Sam, Sabres fans jump all over them. I wonder who was saying something bad about Sam 😄

And it’s not just the IQ - he can’t pass and he doesn’t shoot.

Girgensons is big, fast, versatile, defensively strong, and never stops hustling.He’s not good offensively, but he can contribute at an acceptable bottom 6 level. He”s a useful player even on a Stanley Cup contender and is in the starting lineup of any team in the league. He deserves some success and I never understood how a “blue collar Buffalo underdog” who gets hockey could possibly dislike him.

He was out last night. The forward lineup was ridiculously top heavy: Murray, R2, Peterka, Quinn,Weissbach and 7 guys who would be in the ECHL if we were close to healthy.

it’s all about contracts and opportunity cost. I think Boeser at 6/6 at 25 would be better than Victor Olofsson at 5/5 at 26. I also think Olofsson at 4/4 is better than Boeser at 7/7. The best target on the Canucks might actually be Garland. He’s got an Alex Tuch deal and he’s the same age. And he’s fast. I’m sure you’ve noticed how speed looks like it could be a defining characteristic of the team Adams is building.

I don’t think he’s “good” and we need to upgrade him, but I like John Hayden. I like his hustle, his diligence, how hard he is on pucks, and how he always has the backs of his teammates. Too bad his offensive abilities are below NHL level.

The most exciting thing about this was the “hockey trade” part. First indication we’ve really seen from Adams that he wants to get better through the acquisition of real players, as opposed to draft-and-develop. Coupled with the cap space, it doesn’t just mean taking on cap dumps from contenders, it also means targetting hockey teams hitting the reset button. Teams like Vancouver, Montreal, Winnipeg and Philadelphia who are hard against cap and need to sell talent to buy cap space. For example, the Canucks will likely be selling Brock Boeser. Or the Habs might want to part ways with Joel Edmundson or David Savard. Real NHL hockey players that our cap space could allow us to buy without sacrificing much talent.

That was a taste of what could have been this year. By that, I mean that was the first time all season we had Tuch playing along with what appeared to be the pre-injury-level versions of Olofsson and Mittelstadt. It sure made a difference in the forward line rotation, and Donnie’s long-preached ability to be able to outscore our mistakes. More please.

Not sure if this answers the intent of the OP, but to me, probably the only player on the the current roster I consider a Sabre is Girgensons. Basically, it's about how when you picture a guy, do you picture him definitively as a Sabre? He has to have had a decent career, with the bulk or most memorable portion of it in blue and gold. It's probably going to have to be 4 or 5 years and 300 to 400 games. And being drafted by the Sabres helps be. Kyle Okposo has played 355 games as a Sabre, Jake McCabe 353. Like both players, but I think of Jake as a Sabre and Kyle as an Islander. Rasmus Dahlin is getting close, but he's only been part of the organization for less than 4 years and 250 games. I hope the Cozens/Quinn/Krebs/Dahlin/Power group can join the Vanek/Pominville/Miller/Roy/Hecht/Gaustad group, or the Perreault/Martin/Schoenfeld/Gare/Ramsay group.

Pure Wyshinski, the guy loves to stir it up.

Relative to what? The number of people who "cheer for" both teams has to have significant overlap. Wonder if she's talking about season ticket holders.

Remember that year when we had the Blues 1st, and they were like last in the league at Christmas? Good times.

"Team-friendly" means they didn't have to sell the Sabres, silly!

He will be moved to the highest bidder and the Sabres have the pieces. Seth Jones went for roughly the equivalent of two 1sts and Adam Boqvist. Are you prepared to give up, say, Rosen, Peterka and next year’s 1st for another LHD?

I can’t get my hopes up. This smacks too much of the Vanek trade and the top 5 pick that became #21. Because Buffalo knows it will be a Vegas/Florida final this year.

All 3 picks in involved in the trade slide year if the Vegas 1st is top 10

Only even-strength primary points, scored in tight games, against strong competition, without superior linemates, facing teams in a playoff race, when your team is also in a playoff race, when you aren’t catching your opponent on the 2nd night of back-to-backs, or the 1st game back from a road trip, when Ralph Krueger is not your coach count. Keep up.

I see that. My interpretation, and @PASabreFan will speak up if I'm full of it, is that the jersey matters, not the player. The more hyped the player, the higher the level of antipathy if the team results aren't there. If I remember correctly, he pushed back hard against Ryan Miller for precisely that reason. I can't remember @PASabreFan embracing a player for simply being "good," the way, say, you and I embraced Reinhart, or many are embracing Tuch.

Jack Eichel hasn't played hockey for a year, and been healthy for nearly 2. He's on a new team. He's going to take some time to find his groove. He will. Alex Tuch has played more like the Vegas Tuch for the past two weeks or so. It will be interesting to see where he settles. Sabres didn't make the trade to get better this season, so the timing makes this question moot as far as they are concerned. Knights did make the trade to get better this season, specifically the playoffs, so TBA.

My Amerks-watching has fallen off lately, has his approach during most of the game changed, or has it looked coincidental? In my view, becoming a perceived threat to hurt people would be a smart thing to do. Murray isn't making the NHL with the game we've seen this year. To be clear, I'm not talking becoming a goon, I'm talking playing more like a Kyle Clifford/Patrick Maroon.

O course it does. It's happening right now with Tage Thompson, who started to become a player after Krueger was fired. Sam Reinhart in the back half of 2017-18 another notable recent example off the top of my head. Players taking a jump at/around their 4th season or 23rd birthday give or take a year is so common I can't believe we are even talking about it.

20 points in his past 26 games. But never mind the points, he’s played tough, smart and assertive and he can move the puck in all 3 zones at an elite level. I can’t wait until the team catches up to him and everyone can grow to appreciate how good he really is.

Not sure if it will work as well against a grinding system, but the line combos were a great fit tonight for the game Donnie has been preaching. A talented player who is pressing (Olofsson, Mitts) with two puckhounds (Asplund/Krebs, Okposo/Cozens). And of course the top line has 3 talents who can all hound the puck. The Sabres played one of their stronger defensive games of the year, but we only noticed because Anderson didn’t let in any weak goals and made his best 2 saves (the Engvall breakaway) at exactly the moment in the game they were needed. Please, please find us a goaltending combo who can do that on a regular basis. It would mean so much. I wasn’t surprised Bryson had his best game in ages tonight. Playing with a legit #1 NHL defenceman will do that.