dudacek

I would think the most likely centrepiece is Quinn: position fit, Ottawa kid, highest potential of the pieces the Sabres are likely willing to move. From a hockey standpoint, he’s a great fit. My questions would be 2: What other pieces would be required? There would be a lot of teams competing and One would think the Senators would want more than futures. Does Brady want to be here? There’s no point paying a high price just to be held over the barrel next summer when Brady’s NTC kicks in.

The amount of smoke makes the Staios denials ring hollow for me. Smells a lot like the smoke around Eichel in the summer of 2021; this is the way these things usually play out in the NHL old boys network. Is Brady being a leader by saying he’s tired of being surrounded by incompetents, or is he selfishly abandoning ship? The answer probably depends on whether you’re a fan of the Senators, or a fan of one of the teams Brady wants to go to.

People know Bloom was available to score the memorial cup winner because he got cut from the Canucks ECHL team and went back to Saginaw as an over-ager, right?

A lot of hockey fans struggle to see the line between being a self-centred, antagonistic hot-tempered bully and being a focused, competitive, fiery leader. The Tkachuks definitely straddle that line.

I believe

I like those guys, but it wasn't really about the players. It was simply a thought exercise to see what dumping Skinner for Savoie would free up cap-wise over the big years of his buyout. And the answer was "a lot".

So I ran a ran a capfriendly scenario where I bought Skinner out, replaced him with Savoie, brought in 3 more forward upgrades (Bennett, Jeannot, Trenin) and was still $9 under the cap next year. (which, ironically, means I probably don't even have to buy out Skinner this year) And it left with me with about $32M the following year in order to re-sign or replace Greenway, Jeannot, Bennett, Peterka, Quinn and Byram — which seems like plenty. We'd probably elect to let one or more of the UFAs walk, but reloading should be easy considering we can bridge Quinn and Peterka if we want and we still have Rosen, Östlund, Kulich and Wahlberg among others as unused chips. The following year — the biggest Skinner hit — we have Tuch and Clifton at UFA and Benson's ELC expiring. Letting Clifton walk and the rise in the cap should pay for giving the other two raises. With the core locked up and lots of ELC options available we should be home free for a while after that. That was just the first random hit I tried and was totally doable. There are probably better options to use that $9M I'm under this year (like holding on to Skinner one more year and letting Savoie play in Rochester) and trades that make better sense. The point was just to see if the option was worth investigating. I am now officially on the buy out Skinner train.

How does fact that you have Zach Benson and Isak Rosen available on entry level contracts for 2 more years and Jiri Kulich and Matt Savoie for 3 affect that calculation? Couldn’t the Sabres be taking advantage of that now? Shouldn’t they be? To use your own example, skip bringing in a $5M player to replace Skinner for the next 3 years, bring in Savoie for $1M instead. He’s not likely to be 35-goal, 65-point Skinner, at least not right away, but he doesn’t have to be. Let Peterka and Quinn take care of that, bump Benson up a notch to the 20-45 guy and slide Savoie or Kulich into Benson’s 15-15 slot. Use the extra $4 million in savings on upgrading Z, KO, Jost, Olofsson and Robinson with the types of players we’re lacking. To me, the biggest argument against adding a rookie to the NHL roster is “too many of the same types of players”. That argument falls by the wayside if he is instead of Skinner, rather than in addition to. And that’s mostly because Skinner’s game has the same flaws you typically worry about with rookies. Thanks, this is the first time I’ve actually seen a way to use a Skinner buyout that might make sense long- and short-term.

He pretty much said the same thing himself.

Right now he’s one of the best 14 forwards in the organization and probably top 12. It will depend largely on how they go about filling the holes created by the departures and expected departures of Mittelstadt, Girgensons, Okposo, Robinson, Jost and Olofsson first. In terms of what’s realistic, there is nothing unusual about a top 10 forward pick making the NHL in his D3 season, it happens frequently. And there is nothing in Savoie’s body of work that would suggest he is behind the curve. The overall youth and needs of the Sabres suggests to me the team would be better off plugging the available holes with bigger, more experienced players than Savoie. If it’s up to me, they acquire three or four vets, leaving one spot as a spare forward for Rousek to lose if one of Savoie, Rosen and Kulich absolutely pushes a veteran to the press box.

Not that people invest much into such things around here any more, but McKeen’s has put out its list of the top 30 prospects outside the NHL, with Sabres putting three players on the list: 10 Savoie 14 Levi 22 Kulich. Will Smith, Matvei Michkov and Brandt Clarke were 1-3.

For better or worse he believes in what he is building. Does anyone remember what the buzz was prior to the 2005 lockout? Nearly every significant piece on the 110-point 2006 team was in the organization when the team finished with 85 points in 2004. I think the only significant adds were Numminen and Lydman. https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0000332004.html All we can do is what we do every year: hope he’s right.

I get the stylistic comparison, I just think the difference in raw numbers put Eiserman on another level. It’s a significant gap.

Respectfully, I don't see him profiling with those guys. Wahlstrom is probably the closest. He had 70 goals in 88 games playing mostly with Jack Hughes, Bellows had 66 in 85. Dal Colle had 39 in 67 in the OHL. Eiserman had 92 goals in 88 games for the national program this year! And he had similar numbers against similar competition as a 16-year-old. As far as i can tell nobody has really profiled like Eiserman. Caufield is the only one close.

7. Wheeler says he sees the concerns, but also thinks the kid has been overanalyzed. Says his goal scoring ability is too rare to ignore, especially for an August birthday. He doesn’t cite him, but his take made me think of Mike Bossy.

Sorry to drop hockey in the football thread, but I’m real curious to see what the spree of contracts Adams has handed out over the past few years look like in a few years. Thompson and Cozens already rank 34 and 36 among centres with 6 years left in the deals. Always wondered how much influence the analytics department had on that thought process.

Yeah, Even in his write up, Wheeler acknowledges that he will go earlier. I think his Eiserman and Lindstrom rankings show where Wheeler falls in the size/skill debate.

”We’ve been without a 3C for more than 2 months now! What the hell is the matter with that guy!” 😄 Ive got interest in all your suggestions, but from that group I’d look hardest at Roy. Bennett and Cirelli are pipe dreams, Kerfoot is too soft, Stevenson and Karlsson too pricey. A $3 million 35-point guy who plays hard and with structure is my sweet spot.

Theodore? Aren’t you the guy who thinks we are already spending too much money on the D-core and also thought the Sabres were crazy to add another puck-moving LHD in Byram? Love the player, don’t see the fit. I think Larsson is a very good defensive RHD and would be happy to effectively flip Jokiharju+ a pick or prospect to add him as a full-season rental. Doubt that happens. I think you’re shopping in the wrong stores. The Sabres aren’t looking for big game on the back end. They already made their move for a 22-year-old Shea Theodore and are not adding another top 3 defenceman.

Don't get me wrong, I think that: A: the Sabres would have a much more balanced and complete D corps by flipping Jokiharju for a more stay-at-home, physical 4/5 RD B: Jokiharju is done as a Sabre due to the cap and contract situation. I just think he has value the others on your list do not have, particularly as an RD who can skate. Seems like teams are always looking for those..

Do people really consider Jokiharju 'fringe'? The math says there are 192 D positions available in the NHL. Last year Jokiharju was: 105 in points 125 in ice time per game 39 in plus/minus 104 in blocked shots 83 in hits 109 in giveaways per 60 Statistically he seems almost the definition of a 4/5 🤷‍♂️

Another interesting tidbit: Wheeler believes that the top five D in this draft are all better prospects than the two defencemen picked at #5 and #6 overall last year. That's 3 Levshunov, 4 Buium, 5 Parekh, 6 Dickinson and 9 Silayev. His #11 is Lindstrom, a pick that would make a lot of people around here pretty happy if it happens.

Scott Wheeler has his final list out in the Athletic and the most interesting thing to me is how he has it it tiered: #4 is on the same tier as #11, meaning we should see at least one player he’s very high on slide to our spot. The 2nd most interesting thing to me is how the top guys in his 4th tier (12 and 13 overall) are Yakemchuk and Iginla, 2 guys who are very highly touted by a lot of people. Everything I am seeing tells me there are going to be names available at 11 that some teams will be shocked are still available. Which is good news for Buffalo, whether we make the pick, or are trying to trade it.

He's only played 3 college seasons, so he's got one more year. Still a longshot prospect, but he bounced back with some nice numbers in Western Michigan after a terrible D2 season in North Dakota.

To my way of thinking there is such a wide range of potential results for so many Sabres players that they are going to be a very difficult team to predict regardless of who they add. They pretty much have to count on a lot of their roster being better. Given ages and track records that's not a huge stretch. Adding Byram to the top 4 and dumping EJ was their big move on the blueline. But they can't stop there. They have to — at minimum — upgrade the team's overall effectiveness using the slots (likely) vacated by Girgensons, Olofsson, Okposo, Mittelstadt, Jost and Comrie.