dudacek

Seeing Eichel pop up on a few lists makes me wonder how history will compare him and Tage Thompson as Sabres. Eichel had 5 good years to Thompson’s 3 and has a significant lead in career points, but Thompson certainly has time to make up the gap and his recent years stack up pretty well Thompson 47/47/94 Eichel 28/54/82 Eichel 36/42/78 Thompson 38/30/68 Eichel 25/39/64 Eichel 24/33/57 Thompson 29/27/56 Eichel 24/32/56 I think you have to take into account how Eichel may have been robbed of a 90-point year by COVID. It all comes down to how much of an outlier 22/23 was for Thompson. If he has another point-per-game season or two in his holster, history will probably come down on his side.

Ramsay is a nice segue to a best LW post. To me there is only one choice for #1. Rick Martin is 3rd all-time in franchise points and 2nd in goals, 2nd in goals per game and 11th all-time in NHL goals per games played. He’s one of only 2 Sabres to score 50 twice, he finished top 10 in NHL goal scoring 5 times. Eight 30 goal seasons in his first nine, and he had 28 when injuries cut short the ninth. 2-time first team all-star, 2-time 2nd team all-star. Hasek is the only Sabre to dominate his position more on a league-wide basis for such an extended period of time. It’s too bad injuries cut his career short. He should be in the Hall of Fame.

In a cap system, there are only so many players you can commit to long-term. The Sabres are close to that cap already with Dahlin, Samuelsson, Power, Cozens, Thompson (and Skinner). Within the next few years, they will have to make similar calls on Peterka, Quinn, Byram, Tuch and UPL. And they have Benson, Savoie, Kulich, Östlund, Rosen and Levi coming. Your position makes a lot more sense for a team like Calgary, or a team where the Sabres were 3 years ago than it does for the Sabres now.

Step away the value chart for a minute, and look at the big picture: Jokiharju is not someone the team is likely to be able to afford to keep long-term. Given the cap, the Sabres probably will not be able to give him term. There is a very good chance he goes to arbitration this summer and is a UFA next summer. If he’s not traded this summer, this will probably be his last year as a Sabre. Larsson is a better player and a better fit for next year’s team. The future of Krebs is uncertain, but it is increasingly unlikely he will become more than a bottom 6 player. There’s a better chance he is merely a replaceable part than a core piece. There is a very good chance he will be passed on the depth chart and made redundant in the near future by one of the many prospects up front. Gourde is a better player and a better fit for next year’s team. Pick 11 has a ton of asset value. It is also 3 to 5 years before the NHL team will see a return if we invest that value in an 18-year-old, and another 2 before that value is fully realized. Tanev is a better player and a better fit for next year’s team. Johnson, Novikov, Komarov and Strbak - does it really matter if they are replacing Larsson in a year instead of Jokiharju? Savoie, Kulich, Rosen and Östlund - does it really matter if they are replacing Gourde and Tanev in a year instead of Krebs and Girgensons? These are the pieces around the edges, not the core pieces. Good teams are constantly juggling them on a year-to-year basis in order to win now. You accumulate a rich cache of young players like the Sabres have in order to allow you to do that. Would you rather trade Jokiharju and Krebs for draft picks next summer, or a better team right now? I don’t think there’s a debate there for most of us. What this trade idea forces you to weigh is the possibility of #11 becoming a core piece in the future against the possibility of filling in the 3 biggest holes on next year’s roster in order to win now. In principle, it’s really no different than the Canucks trading a hefty bag of futures for pending FAs Hronek, Zadorov and Lindholm. In practice, the Sabres have a much larger cupboard of assets in place to bankroll such trades than the Canucks did. It’s time to spend some of those assets. I agree with @Archie Lee that you might be able to accomplish the same thing at a cheaper cost. I also agree with @PerreaultForever that there are intangible gains to being good next year that should not be ignored.

Czech out this one!

I’ve seen more than one coach refer to this: calm and focus when everyone around you is melting in the moment. Where I’ve seen it applied most is to situations: last minute, up/down a goal. I don’t know that it applies as much to what @PerreaultForever is talking about: sustained excellence over the entire run of a playoff series as opposed to specific moments in it. Drury was a 27-goal, 60-point scorer in the regular season for the Sabres and a 40-goal, 75-point scorer in the playoffs.

I’d be shocked if that move didn’t put us solidly in the playoffs. You bring in the bottom 6 energy winger the team is crying for, upgrade Krebs significantly at 3C, and give Power exactly the partner he needs. Yet the quality returned for those 3 rentals should be enough to make the Kraken seriously consider it if they aren’t planning to re-sign them. They aren’t getting anything near #11 for any of those guys individually and the other 2 pieces have value. It’s exactly in the sweet spot @Thorny has been calling for: make the Sabres better even if you probably lose the trade looking strictly at it from long-term value.

Loved "You've Got Another Thing Coming" blasting out after the goal. Great pump-up goal song.

It was simply that they did not offer him a contract and he became a free agent. He scored 31 goals and 71 points in his post-draft year, slipped back to 18 and 59 in 9 fewer games the following year and Jason Botterill decided there wasn't enough there. https://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/news/2021-mwc-hagel-gets-over-the-hump

I have my doubts about Rosen as well, but I'm curious what you mean by the bolded. Statistically, he finished 3rd in AHL scoring this year among U21 players, ahead of several other high picks. https://www.eliteprospects.com/league/ahl/stats/2023-2024?age=u21

Franchise best right winger is a good debate, in my opinion. Nobody can come close to Mogilny’s ridiculous 76 goal-season, but he’s actually just number 6 in all-time scoring, a few points back of Miro Satan (who was too 1-dimensional to deserve consideration.) The other 4 are all within 50 Sabre points of each other. Robert edges Pominville for #4 in a tight race for that 100-point season in otherwise pick-em careers. Mogilny is the most talented and dangerous RW ever to lace them up in Buffalo, but too many of his seasons were disrupted by injury or drama and his career was cut short. He’s #3 for me. #2 is the best power forward in Sabres history. Punishing 40 goal scorers don’t happen very often, especially ones that can chuck the knuckles, backcheck and lead like Mike Foligno could. And #1 is Danny Gare who not only leads the group in career goals, but also is it’s only 2-time 50-goal scorer, who has the # 2, 3, 9 and 11th best all-time single season points for RWs and 2, 3, 4, and 8 for goals. Like Foligno he was tough, diligent defensively and a captain. Like Mogilny, he was a Rocket Richard winner before the trophy existed. He was also clutch.

I’m not much of a Phil Housley fan, but the fact that he has 8 of the top 11 most productive scoring seasons by a Sabre defenceman of all time is pretty incredible. (Even if he played forward for some of those games) Dahlin’s 73 last year was the 3rd best, but the guy holding down #5 and #7 might surprise some people: John van Boxmeer had 69 and 68-point years running the PP in the early 80s.

You want an all-time crazy stat? 19 Sabres have finished their Buffalo careers at +50 or better. 9 are +100 4 are +200 Craig Ramsay and Bill Hajt are +326 and +320 respectively - +110 and +90 ahead of their nearest competitors (Luce and Schoenfeld). Remember those numbers are compiled playing against the other team’s best players over a 10-year period of extended effectiveness. To flip things around, Ristolainen is at the bottom by a wide margin: -163, no one else reached -100. Unsurprisingly 2/3s of the cellar dwellers played, and played a lot over the past decade.

I have no problem taking Hawerchuk ahead of Eichel or Turgeon or anyone else at centre after Lafontaine and Perreault. Guy has the 3rd-best points per game of any Sabre all-time, just behind Lafontaine and Mogilny. He’s 9th all-time on the franchise total assist list despite playing half the games of the others in the top 10. His worst Sabres full-season point total was 86. He’s also 5th in playoff scoring and 2nd behind Perreault in points per playoff game I’ve said it on here before, his 5/9/14 in 8 games in the ‘93 playoffs while Lafontaine and Mogilny got hurt remains the most impressive run of hockey I’ve ever seen by a Sabre. Loved the way that guy played. Probably among my 10 favourite Sabres of all time and the best Sabre no one ever talks about.

His was the 4th-best Sabres season all-time. One of only 5 Sabres to ever hit 100. 16, 89, 14 and Perreault was the only guy to do it twice. Only 5 more hit 90: Martin, Hawerchuk, Andreychuk, Briere and Thompson. We’ve forgotten pretty quickly just how special Thompson’s season was last year. 94 points was the most since Briere in 07 and the 2nd most in 30 years. 47 goals is the best ever by a Sabre not named Martin, Gare, Lafontaine and Mogilny. It was also the 3rd best since the 1970s. If Tage plays out his contract in Buffalo, he’s got a chance to be a top 5 Sabre goal scorer of all time. He’s already ahead of guys like Turgeon, Briere, McKegney and Drury. He’ll pass Eichel and Reinhart this year and should even move ahead of Lafontaine.

If you are building a roster, it’s really hard not to take those top two lines as units. Two of the best lines NHL, all-time. 75 Connection: 131 goals 93 MLA: 158! And Dave only played 52 games. Did we have any others come close? Tuch Tage Skinner had 118 last year. Im not sure if we had any other lines that have put up 100? ’19 Eichel Reinhart Skinner had 90 Luce Ramsay Gare in 75 also had 90 (as a checking line!]

Sabres play only, peak but also sustained play over time. Best at their position in order: Dahlin Ramsey Schoenfeld Housley Zhitnik I’m going to take Hajt over Korab, McKee and Bodger for #6 mostly due to sustained dependability. It’s weird that what might have been the best corps we had - ‘06 - didn’t put anybody on the list. Peak Tallinder wasn’t good enough long enough. The blueline has been the least star-studded position for the team. Power just needs 35 points next year to crack the top 20 of all-time scoring. Also, only 41 defencemen ever played 200 games for the Sabres. Only 74 played 100. It’s crazy to me that Richard Smehlik ranks 5th all-time in games played.

I’m not familiar with Nick the Habs Fan but for now will give his post more credence than his name suggests I should. But he can’t really be saying Marjala is better prospect than Kulich and others? There’s more names hidden?

I’m curious to see how the softness and offense actually manifest. IMO, Dahlin is elite when it comes to generating offence from the back-end. Power and Byram have 1st-pairing offensive skill. Jokiharju and Clifton are more or less average and Samuelsson a non-factor. Can this group provide game-changing dangerous offence from the back line? IMO Dahlin is also big and 1st-pairing abrasive and has the numbers to back that up. Samuelsson is a physical force and an upper-echelon defender. Clifton is net plus in this area of the game. Jokiharju is hardly punishing, but he’s squat and a good skater who seems to hold his own one-on-one. Overall, he’s kinda neutral. Byram battles and has an edge but seems kinda skinny and lost at times defending. Power has the size but not the will. Each has the tools to be better here. I’d love to flip Jokiharju for a Will Borgen type, but I wonder if the need will be as pronounced as we think it is once we see Byram and Samuelsson in the lineup at the same time under Ruff.

To be clear, I don't think Byram is dominant either, just very talented. Something I'm not sure people are aware of is how productive Byram is at even-strength and how PP time colours point totals for defencemen. His 28 ES points ranked 34th among defencemen in the NHL last year. His peers included John Carlson, Drew Doughty, Vince Dunn, Shea Theodore, Owen Power, Brock Faber and Torrey Krug. He was 8th in ES goals. He was ahead of age peers like Seider, Sanderson, Luke Hughes and Kaiden Guhle, not to mention veterans like Chychrun, Chabot, Pietrangelo, Seth Jones and Brent Burns.

And what I'm saying is I don't buy in to the popular theory that Adams made this trade because of Casey's looming contract. I believe it was purely a roster trade: we had 3 top 6 centres and 3 top 4 defencemen; Adams traded from a position of strength to fill a position of weakness. Whether Casey signs for $5M or $8M won't really affect my position on the trade much. I will judge it on whether Byram improves the D-corps more than Casey's loss hurts the middle 6 up front. And how Adams backfills the Casey hole (or doesn't) will definitely factor into my judgement.

If you think it was purely contract-driven maybe. For me, it will be moot if the Sabres make the playoffs next year with Byram contributing as a top 4 D For Sabrespace it will end 3 or 4 years after we stop talking about the ROR trade.

Small and fast? To me he looks a lot like Dylan Cozens and Tage Thompson?

Great article about Sam Reinhart in the Athletic. Reading it you would think this type of pro would have to be a lifelong Bruin. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5515260/2024/05/30/nhl-mock-draft-2024-gm-round-1-expert-picks/

Posted about this a day or 2 ago in the prospects thread. Between what he's shown and what we have in the pipeline, I'm not surprised. I tend to want to sign everybody; letting someone who's not a late-rounder go after just 2 years makes me nervous. But I understand how that's not really how things work, especially with all the picks the Sabres have made recently. Seemed like a nice kid. Hope he gets a shot elsewhere. Just don't go all Brandon Hagel on us.