dudacek

Sample size, but by the eyeball test he is a legit 2-way play driver right now and has been every game. Right now he is a walking advertisement for the benefits of size. He’s making good decisions, playing with authority and using that frame to beat guys on both sides of the puck. Not making any predictions, but when you flush a roster like we have, you hope and expect that some players will step up, fill the gaps and become more than they were. That’s been Thompson and Asplund. Interesting to see where this goes.

It’s weird because these players aren’t hyped, but we’ve got some key injuries right now. Our leading scorer, our 1C, or 1 RHD and our starting goalie?

Good call. I think Adams is gravitating to his.

Samuelsson Dahlin Power Jokiharju Bryson veteran shutdown type intrigues the hell out of me, with Johnson knocking on the door. One will eventually get moved.

@PerreaultForever asking about Adams-type players needs to watch that line.

He’s only a number one centre in the way Chris Drury and Mike Peca were number one centres. I have no idea if Peca is a good coach, but the concept of him mentoring Krebs is exciting.

I also think the fact they aren’t more clear feeds the perception. Olofsson - “it’s just a precaution - soft tissue thing. We’ll see how he feels tonight.” That doesn’t really say anything, but it feeds the perception he’ not going to miss anything significant. Similar with Anderson.

Skinner Mittelstadt Tuch Olofsson Thompson Asplund Krebs Cozens Girgensons Okposo Samuelsson Dahlin Power Jokiharju Bryson Acquire a starting goalie, a defensively strong RHD and a defensively strong 3C Let R2, Quinn, Peterka, Fitzpatrick, Johnson and our 1st pick challenge some JAGs for the open roster spots. Next year could be fun.

I’m going to assume the Sabres pick top 10 again this year because roster. That means that by next summer we should have, developing in the system, 18 Top 40 picks, 6 of them in the top 10 1) Owen Power 1) Rasmus Dahlin 7) Dylan Cozens 8 Jack Quinn 8 Casey Mittelstadt ?) 2022 Sabres 1st pick 14) Isak Rosen 17) Peyton Krebs 26) Tage Thompson 29) Henri Jokiharju 31) Ryan Johnson ?) 2022 Panthers 1st ?) 2022 Knights 1st 32) Matthias Samuelsson 33) Prokhor Poltapov 33) Rasmus Asplund 34) JJ Peterka ?) Sabres 2022 2nd You can add to that mix two more later 2nd rounders - Kisakov and Lukkonen - and the 3 2nd-rounders we own in 2023. It’s interesting to compare that to where Murray was sitting 7 years ago, anticipating 14 top 40 picks developing in the system, 3 of them in the top 10 2) Sam Reinhart 8 Rasmus Ristolainen ?) Sabres 2015 first 12) Mikhail Grigorenko 14) Zemgus Girgensons 16) Nikita Zadorov 16) Joel Armia 23) Mark Pysyk ?) Islanders 2015 1st ?) Blues 2015 1st 31) Brendan Lemieux 35) JT Compher 38) Conner Hurley ?) Sabres 2015 2nd You can add into that mix 5 more later 2nds - Cornel, Karabacek, Bailey, Larsson and McCabe - and the Islanders 2015 2nd, and the 2 2nd rounders we owned in 2016.

Great question. Can't both be true? I think he ended the 2020 season — one where he personally did everything he could —seriously doubting that this organization was capable of winning. I think the Botterill firing and any subsequent info he got on the team's direction in the wake of that firing, pushed him over the edge. Think back to the way that firing was greeted in the hockey world and Jack observing it. I think you might be parsing a precision to Jack's words in the Friedman interview that maybe they don't deserve.

This encapsulates well where I thought you were coming from. I think where we differ most significantly is how we would personally frame the truth in the bolded. Your way is fair comment, my way would be more aligned with a Veruca Salt GIF. I think Eichel put himself above the crest. That's his right, I understand his frustration and it doesn't make him a bad person. It does make him a bad captain and a bad Sabre and it will forever colour how I remember him. I also think Terry Pegula decided to hold Jack's health and his manager's ability to trade him hostage for petty, personal reasons. Handcuffing the manager is just more fuel for the burning tire fire that's built up over the past decade. It's sad but expected. The messing with the health thing is just being a bad human being. I think time has slowly revealed what a steaming pile Kevyn Adams was handed. It has given me a better understanding of his choices and I am impressed by the way he managed to steer his way through this. It gives me hope. Your mileage may vary. Onward and upward.

I don’t think you are hearing me. I don’t think Jack is lying or misleading at all. You are ascribing a weight to the word “rebuild” that I am not, but that’s moot as far as my point goes. My point is Jack Eichel instigated the Jack Eichel trade talk because Jack Eichel was sick of losing and did not believe the losing was going to change any time soon.

To your opening, the best (only?) evidence out there to support Adams wanting to trade Jack and Sam was the fact that he was shopping them. Pretty compelling and I certainly bought in. Since then it has become indisputable, from their own mouths, that he had to shop them; both players wanted out. Despite that Adams tried to re-sign Reinhart, and tried to get immediately better with Staal/Hall. You may be right, he may have quietly welcomed it. But most of the pillars to support the argument that was his agenda have been removed. The biggest one was Eichel himself. I don’t buy the idea that Adams represented a big change in plans for the Sabres. What was this rebuild Jack was so afraid of? Where was this good team and who were these good players that Adams going to purge when he hit the reset? It’s a short list. My opinion has changed as new information as emerged.

Whether Jack made a knee jerk assumption of what we are watching now, based on the firings and Terry’s efficient, economic pronouncements, or Kevyn Adams called him into the office and said “it’s going to be 2014 all over again here,” I think Jack’s reason for wanting out was very clear: he was sick of losing and he expected it to continue.

Nashville’s Juuse Saros is the smallest, 5’10” 180 Levi is 6’0” 185 Quick is 6’1 215, Cal Petersen 6’1”, 185 Sabre starter Dustin Tokarski is 6’0, 198

Almost to a man the list includes hard workers, who play fast and are extremely competitive. None of them have Tuch’s size, in fact overall, size does not to be a priority at all. Fearlessness, however, is. I believe Tuch is the first NHL player Adams has acquired at the pro level that he has any intention of keeping.

We’ve spent a long time saying that a committee of Sabrespacers with access to the Internet could draft better than the Sabres, and not just for effect. The key to being a good franchise is to not only identify the talent, but to find value in assets that others are missing. There is no doubt Devon Levi is better than the Internet and/or the industry thought he was. There’s a pretty good case that same thing can be said for Jack Quinn and JJ Peterka. And we are seeing signs of this for many of our 2021 draft picks. Will we be saying the same thing in a year about Peyton Krebs and Alex Tuch and our 3 1st rounders next June? Does the Adams team of Crowe/Karmanos/Forton/Ventura/etcetera actually know how identify good hockey players? Wouldnt that be something?

I believe.

I think the responses to my posts are indicative of the fanbase’s feelings for Power. In and around the draft we heard tons about his lack of production and how he didn’t have enough high-end skill. He’s smashed those concerns, so people move on to toughness and zone entries. I honestly think the fan base has collectively decided the Sabres can’t have nice nice things and are giving themselves reasons not to get excited by him because they can’t bear to be let down again.

Is this why he consistently gets touchdowns instead of interceptions in the red zone?

Patience. Patience.

For me personally, the fact that Jack and Sam gravitated to Evander Kane of all people tells me who Jack was at 20. May have been Tim Murray’s biggest mistake.

At one point, I’m pretty sure he did. I’m pretty sure he lied. Adams didn’t fire everyone to launch a rebuild just like Botterill wasn’t fired in order to launch a rebuild. That was all about being economic and efficient and Botterill not being on board. I think a case could be made though that Jack just automatically assumed a new GM would mean some kind of reset, and that his state of mind was already considering a trade request. It reinforces earlier whispers that Jack wasn’t well-liked by alumni and rank-and-file staff around the team and arena. But I don’t know that it was at all a factor in the decision to trade him.

A question we were debating prior to the season was whether trading Jack was Adams’ idea first, or Jack’s. One of the theories was that Jack found out that Adams was floating his name out there and reacted. It’s clear that theory was wrong. The rumours from last summer about Jack being shopped weren’t about Adams responding to calls, they were about Adams doing his due diligence on Jack’s trade request. You can debate what path Adams wanted to take when he took over (ultimately he initially chose the path of Staal/Hall/change Jack’s mind) but you can’t say that the idea of trading Jack came any where other than Jack. It would be really interesting to see what options would have been on the table last summer had they acted on Jack’s request immediately.

Damn, I thought I could write more clearly than that. I feel like you’ve got the wrong impression about nearly everything I wrote. I’ll repeat, straight from Jack Eichel’s mouth: he went to the team and asked to be traded when Botterill was fired. https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/video/jack-eichel-explains-things-went-sideways-buffalo/?show_id=13373 Jack (again from his mouth) was willing to play for the team post-surgery to rehab his value. You seem to be arguing whether or not they should have done that, which is not my point, or my conclusion. My point was ownership had the power to authorize surgery and chose not to. I never said it was Terry’s plan. I’ve concluded that once Jack wanted out, Terry said “fine, trade him, but I’m not retaining, and I’m not authorizing the surgery.” In other words, I’ve treated that ungrateful brat like a king and he’s not walking out of here on my dime. He didn’t plan the Eichel trade, as Weave said, he handcuffed it. And I agree entirely with your last paragraph, other than the idea that Adams dictated that position to Terry. I believe Terry was embarrassed by the ROR trade and told Kevyn he was not going to set a deadline on this: hold out until he got what Kevyn deemed as fair value.