dudacek

You can’t take anything for granted. But I don’t think it is a stretch to expect 25-30 goals and 50-60 points from each of Quinn and Peterka next year. Third-year forwards with their track records often have productive seasons simply through the experience they’ve gained. It’s a pace each produced at last year and there’s a pretty good case they’ll enter the season as the team”s #2 and #3 wingers after Tuch. The ice time should be there. There’s also a chance each could get more PP time, given the need to revamp the PP, the fact Appert will be in charge of it, and how each had great PP success under Seth in Rochester.

What are the parameters to the pattern? The Sabres under Pegula? Ruff is about as opposite to the pattern as you can get. Granato fits the pattern Krueger does not fit the pattern Bylsma does not fit the pattern Nolan does not fit the pattern Adams fits the pattern Botterill fits the pattern Murray fits the pattern Karmanos does not fit the pattern Sexton does not fit the pattern Patrick does not fit the pattern Ventura does not fit the pattern Leone fits the pattern Appert fits the pattern Bales does not fit the pattern Wilford does not fit the pattern Ellis fits the pattern… Is this actually a pattern?

Is that yours? Ranking or what you think teams might do? I would take Catton with what was available at 11. Haven’t given it a ton of thought, but he might be as high as 6 on my list.

He’s terrible because he’s more of the same. But Appert wasn’t actually terrible… Maybe, but the Sabres are terrible and they hire coaches from the USNDTP. But really they haven’t. It’s just Appert and Leone right now, plus Granato out of dozens since Darcy got canned… That’s my point, they only hire people they know. But they don’t know Leone… Why do you hate the fans so much?

Kinda have a soft spot for Claypool because he is one of a very few B.C. kids to have a measure of success in the NFL. I have no idea if he deserves the hatred he gets on social media, but I do know what I think of social media.

I don’t think so, but it’s an interesting comparison. One could argue the Panthers did what they did after a Sabres-style rebuild around Barkov, Huberdeau, Gudbranson etc. failed. Some argued it’s what the Sabres should have done. But Kevyn Adams chose a different path and he thinks his players are better than you do. He’s going to sink or swim with this ship

Not sure whether the Greenway conversation is more about what role people want him in, what players they want him to play with, or where he ranks on the ice time depth chart. For me, I am remembering a Lindy Ruff who consistently played Jochen Hecht with Briere and Mike Grier with Drury. I have listened to coach, players and GM talk about the need for structure. And I have watched how much better Greenway is at structure than most of the other forwards. I expect him to be playing a lot.

Think he’s been mentioned on here somewhere, but if the Sabres are looking for defensively strong, veteran defensive forechecking winger, I don’t know if there’s a better fit than Jordan martinook. Great forechecker, kills penalties. He’s basically a better Girgensons.

Why not? Is he significantly worse than Corey Perry and Dylan Holloway, currently playing top 9 in the Stanley Cup final I’m not the kind of guy to build my lineup on a hierarchy system. The lines would depend more on role or chemistry. But in terms of ice time, I’d be giving Quinn and Tuch the most and Peterka Benson Skinner Greenway and new guy similar counts based on play and situation. Who were the 3rd liners out of Dumont, Hecht, Grier, Kotalik, Vanek, Afinogenov, Pominville and whichever of Connelly and Roy wasn’t playing centre?

Not disagreeing at all, but the heart of this team's offensive philosophy will be driven by its back end.

Isn't he saying the new guy and those 5 are the top 9 wingers, Greenway is knocked down?

So Gaustad, minus the faceoffs? For me, he's more the Grier: size and defensive conscience in a top 9 role.

I frequently see people pencilling Greenway in as a 4th-liner. I struggle to think of many teams who have a player as strong as Greenway on their 4th line. With the exception of the year he was in the doghouse and traded to Buffalo, Greenway was inarguably a 3rd-liner in Minnesota, part of what was considered one of the best 3rd lines in the game with Foligno and Ek. In Buffalo last year, he was actually 4th in ice time among forwards at more than 17 minutes a game, ahead of Cozens, Skinner and Peterka. Statistically, a 10-goal, 30-point player is a good 3rd-liner. His 28 points last year put him 64th among left wings. Throw in the fact that he is strong defensively and a mammoth human being, I tend to think of him as almost a prototypical 3rd-liner.

I might quibble about the way the pieces get used, but the only thing I'd say differently about the roster is Krebs is the 4C and I'm fine with him in that role, so long as the new 3C is sturdy and can win a faceoff. And I also think Adams will try to move Jokiharju if he can find a more physical 4/5 RD at similar or cheaper $$

Over the course of the season Levi put up good back-up goalie numbers, while UPL put up good starting goalie numbers. The counter-argument is that neither provided the same quality of play over the first 2 months of the season, where the season was lost. I took the "Levi timeline" thing to mean "the Sabres are planning to be good when Levi is ready to be an upper-echelon starter" which I don't really agree with, but that may not have been the intent of the original post.

Maybe I'm misreading you guys? Power will be 22 this coming season. Dahlin and Samuelsson 24, Thompson 26, Cozens 23 — the window should be opening now, not a few years down the road. To simplify, I would say the Sabres can and should be competitive over the entire 8 years of Dahlin's contract, which kicks in this fall. Or do you mean Cup conversation timeline, as opposed to playoff conversation timeline? If Quinn is the player much of Sabrespace seems to think he is, that's a heck of an addition to next year's roster.

LGR asked under what scenario Iginla gets past the Flames. To me, the answer is "if Berkley Catton (or name your player) is still on the board". There will be player available at 9 you can easily justify taking over Iginla.

Who is the worst player a top 12 pick has ever been moved for? The fact that it is in conversation tells me Adams has at least interest in adding a piece that is more than “around the-edges.”

The contracts tell me the timeline is the Thompson, Cozens, Samuelsson, Dahlin, Power timeline.

I’m really curious how Lindy plans to implement structure when so many of his key parts haven’t shown much of an aptitude for it. Cozens, Peterka, Skinner and Thompson: 4 of your top six play games based on beating opponents with their bodies, rather than their brains: “just throw it deep along the sidelines coach, I can beat this guy!” You can’t shield them all, and you certainly can’t bench them all. How much can you get them to change? I’m expecting a much different look to the forward lines. If you force Cozens into the matchup role - which it sounds like they want to do - do you put Tuch with him as the most structured of your top wingers? Then add Greenway as your best defensive winger and match them against Matthews, Point and the like? Same idea as Drury and Grier, back in the day? Can you find a Chandler Stevenson or Sam Bennett to anchor a sneaky good 2-way “2nd” line with an emerging Quinn? Can Benson improve enough to be a Quinn-like presence on the other side? Will that allow an all-offence “first”-line of Thompson Skinner and Peterka to wreak havoc a la Max, Vanek and Roy? Then Krebs going full pest between two new loads on the wing as a forechecking line? That’s something I could see Lindy doing, but it will acquire an above average new centre, as well as Cozens, Quinn and Benson taking a step.

I think the sweet spot for Skinner's raw value is when he's around your #6F — if he can play 15 minutes a night mostly with good offensive players, but not necessarily against the other team's best. Ideally for him, he's back with Tuch and Thompson again while Ruff creates a legitimate matchup line so that line doesn't have to consistently face the other team's best. I don't know if he's going to work on a 3rd line unless that line is with Roy and Vanek. Put Skinner with guys who are too structured or can't create chaos and you're wasting his skill. Put him against skilled structure and he tends to freelance and collapse whatever structure you are trying to create, tilting the ice in the wrong direction. Put him in the offensive zone in situations where his unit is more talented than the opponent's unit, he will feast. I fully expect Quinn to pass him this year, and it looked like Peterka may have passed him last year. That still makes him the #5F, which is pretty much where he can work. But I have my doubts of Peterka and Cozens being two thirds of a shutdown line, and therefore how the creation of a shutdown line will effect him. So I am concerned with all the talk of needing structure he will be squeezed out of a role where he can succeed by a more structured player. It really depends on who the Sabres can acquire to flesh out the lineup.

This board is going to call me a homer, but the Sabres shouldn’t have to add a thing if they offered Power. Brady Tkachuk put up 44 and 45 points in his first 2 seasons and didn’t have Rasmus Dahlin blocking him from playing on the power play. Yes, 6’4 nasty wingers with first-line scoring ability are unicorns. So are 6’6 defencemen who can skate and move the puck like Power can. Power is under contract for another 7 years, which will probably be the 7 best years of his career. Tkachuk has 4 years until he is a UFA. Defencemen are more important than wingers. If Power is the player he was in November 2 years from now, then he won’t get you Tkachuk. But he is a #1 pick 160 games into his NHL career. Mystery box prices still apply. I said it up thread, if Power is offered, it is highly unlikely any NHL team will be offering a single more valuable asset. Yes, Tkachuk is a better player right now and that matters. But it isn’t the only thing that matters.

There’s a weird thing up here about wanting a Canadian team to win. But I’ve noticed the people who express that are by and large the less hardcore fans. The hardcore fans here like Edmonton and Calgary like Buffalo likes Bill Belichik. And I think it’s the same for other Canadian cities and their neighbours. And, of course, all non-Ontarians are united in their hatred of the Leafs and their fans’ centre-of-the-universe attitudes.

LW: They would be in serious need of a top 6 left wing. They could also use another top 6 RW, given Batherson could be upgraded and Girous is ancient. They have their young building blocks on D and at centre with Sanderson and Stutzle. But their 2C Norris is troubled by injuries, their 2D Chabot is overpaid and their 3D Chychrun wants out. Their goalies suck. Their prospect pool is pretty empty because all their youngsters are on the big team. And they're mostly young and have been bad for a while so they're more interested in younger players that can play now, and would probably be looking for the best asset that fits that description more than any particular style or position. *** He's a top-tier player because of the overall package, but his career highs are 37 goals and 83 points: most accurately, he's a 35/75 producer. Think of what his brother went for, or what Eichel went for.

Contracts match. Doubt the Sens would be offered a more valuable single asset.