dudacek

The more I think about the way the Skinner leak came out and the way Adams addressed it, the more convinced I am that this was the classic planned leak for preparing the fan base for a controversial decision that has already been made. He gone. Like the Mittelstadt deal, for it to make sense, another shoe has to drop.

Another thing the presser more or less confirmed: Luukkonen and Levi is Plan A for next year. I mean we all expected it, but that was closest I’ve ever heard him come to acknowledging it.

11, Savoie, Östlund, Kulich, Rosen, Krebs, Jokiharju, Johnson. I’m betting right now a package of two or more of those pieces is gone by the end of next week for a real centre ice man.

I was thinking about the presser in the context of @Weave’s post about not trusting what Adams said and two things really stood out for me. The first was the Skinner question: if there ever was a instance where it is in the GM’s best interest to flat out lie, there it is. I’m sure it was a situation where many a GM has lied before and their fanbase probably understood. The 2nd was Krebs: seems to me he talked about Mittelstadt in similar terms and pretty much the same tone just before he shipped him off to Denver. I wouldn’t be getting my panties in a knot that it meant Kevyn has him firmly pencilled in as the 3C. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if Krebs is a piece headed out of town as part of a package to grab a Mittlestadt replacement.

Absolutely perception. I have no idea what those numbers signify, I crush on Benson’s approach to hockey and grimace at Skinner’s but I can’t really argue with concept the 2 had a roughly similar impact on the Sabres success or lack thereof last year. One of the reasons I’m OK with dumping Skinner, but not if the plan is to replace him in house.

Somebody’s going to slide. Just watched one where the two that slide are Sennecke and Parekh and we don’t take either. If it’s really a tier lasting from 2 to 14ish like some say, this is my pyramid of 8 “I hope he slides.” 1 Iginla, Lindstrom 2 Buium, Silayev 3 Parekh, Dickinson, Catton, Senneke At least one of them will be there at our turn. Dont see any way Demidov or Levshunov is there. From the next tier, Helenius is my choice. I’ll be disappointed but still OK with Eiserman, Stolberg and Brandsegg-Nygard. Don’t want Yakemchuk and I will be surprised if anyone else is even a consideration.

Im going to piggyback off other people’s ideas here: Use Skinner buyout savings to add a better Skinner Use prime picks/prospects to get a good centre Use leftover cap space, more futures to buff out the bottom 6 Giving Lindy something like this: Scoring line: Kane Thompson Peterka Matchup line: Tuch Ek Greenway 2-way line: Quinn Cozens Benson Grind line: Trenin Krebs Jeannot Do I expect it to happen? Of course not, I’m a Sabres fan. But I can see how the extra $6M and the empty roster spot created by cutting Skinner can open up a lot of exciting options for rosters that look better than they would with him still there.

Exactly, a master class in media manipulation, more 4D chess from the Sabres.

You have to take the long view on these things because you’re typically talking a minimum of 5 years down the road with later picks. So we really have no idea with this regime because they’ve only done 4 drafts. You can say “look at Novikov and Komarov” but it doesn’t seem that long ago we were excited about Bloom and Nadeau. Adams has graduated 4 players in 4 years (Benson, Power, Quinn and Peterka). Benson and Peterka are ahead of the curve, Quinn and Power are roughly where you’d expect. The rest are open questions.

I’d say this is very much up for debate. Skinner has produced very well in Buffalo with Tuch and Thompson, and with Eichel and Reinhart. Not so much elsewhere. The other question is deployment: in theory, Skinner can work with a Roy/Max/Vanek style unit 3rd line, with the other 3 lines sheltering it defensively. Buffalo doesn’t seem to have the personnel for that now and they seem to be talking about chasing players and a philosophy that doesn’t match it either. I don’t see him working on a checking line, or an energy line, and I prefer a better defensive option on a top 4 wing group that also includes Peterka and Quinn. To me, Skinner’s fit is largely dependent on what moves they are able to make elsewhere up front.

My read is that there is a web of potential moves contingent on each other. Skinner's future is one of several balls in the air. Adams generally seems like he tries to keep his players informed, so I would be surprised if he hadn't talked to Skinner's camp.

I've seen a few mocks that have him up in our range and I like the player. He really seems like the best "needs" fit likely to be available. I'm just hesitant that picking him will mean we left a better player on the table.

Skinner slipped in this category last year. Historically, he's been among the league's best. 6th on the team in penalties drawn with 17. League-wide he's tied for 173rd. 7th in penalties drawn per 60 among Sabres regulars. Peterka was far and away the leader.

Didn’t realize the defensive analytics were so strong. Got a lot of minutes too on a blah Caps team. Somebody who caught your eye, or have heard he’s caught the Sabres’? Not sure why they’d be moving on from him.

Doesn’t move the needle much, but he seems like a legit 4th line vet on an attractive contract. As the Jost replacement on the depth chart, sure?

And I also demand the right to share Woody's posts whenever and however I choose.

Does this affect the possibility of Danualt being on the table? Or was Dubois not going to be a King regardless?

I want a total no-movement clause. @nfreeman keeps my posts exactly where and how they are unless i give the OK.

What were you expecting? Looks like retention got Calgary a little more than I was expecting, but that’s basically ballpark value, IMO. New Jersey held fast on to 10, as they should have. Legit starters get moved so rarely.

And people are taking my initial post far more seriously than it was intended. I was just having a random chuckle about how even when we seem to agree on some things some times, we never completely agree on anything.

To me, it's about Skinner not being a player they want getting prime ice time any more and him being a net negative player if he's in a lesser role. It's kinda like the Diggs trade. He can still play, but the team feels its better off big picture making the move. The Sabres don't necessarily have to spend up to the cap, but they have to make follow-up moves that show a top 9 that looks more effective than it did before they cut him. I think Skinner's likability to the marketing department far outweighs his likability to his coaches.

Or multiple useful players. There's no point doing it if they aren't going to spend the money.

Trusted source: "It's not done yet and maybe there's a chance it may not happen, but the sabres look like they're going to buy out Skinner. I know (guy who should know) says Skinner's agency has been warned. They're trying to keep this quiet while the agency looks for an alternative, so you definitely cannot report this as done or in any way tie it to me." Friedman: "But, you know, I always try to be careful with what I say unless I 100% know. So I can't say 100% it's going to happen, but it's definitely out there."

Sabrespace: We need to get bigger and better defensively. Also Sabrespace: not Greenway! Sabrespace: We need to add a top 4 defenceman. Also Sabrespace: not Byram! Sabrespace: We need to trade one of the young guys to shake up the core. Also Sabrespace: not Mittelstadt! Sabrespace: We need to be more accountable and start playing the right way. Also Sabrespace: not Skinner! There is no such thing as a hive mind around here. 😄

Forgive the self-quoting, but we were talking about this earlier.