dudacek

I don't see Lindy being fired for a slow start. And if Adams is fired it won't be a hockey decision (regardless of whether it's justified for hockey reasons), it will be a business decision: the paying customer is telling Terry they can't tolerate the status quo and he gives them what they want. Lindy being given a bigger say under those circumstances is kinda the way Pegula rolls. It might be similar to the Botterill firing and the "Kevyn, please do what Ralph wants" aftermath. Kinda depends on whether Terry is a fan of Karmanos, or Karmanos goes down with Adams. That's why I am pulling so hard for Adams to get this right: firing him just brings us back to 2020, 2017, and 2014 all over again, and we know where that goes. Rinse and repeat.

Pitchforks. @Pimlach ain't the only one who's got them handy. This regime will not survive a slow start.

I’m starting to think I’m the only person on here who thinks Byram was brought in because they wanted to add a long-term top-4 defenceman and they think he can be that guy. And the vibe I’m getting is “they can’t be stupid enough to think ^^^ therefore it must be about contracts, or a prelude to another trade down the road.” When the trade happened I called it a boom or bust depending on Byram’s ceiling, because he’s got more upside, but Mitts is better right now. But now I’m starting to see it more as the move that defines Adams: if it fails, it will be the one that everyone points to when they are explaining why Adams had to be fired. Sabre fans liked the player who was traded, they don’t think he’s going to be easy to replace, they don’t think the player acquired is a good fit, and they’re not sure even if he’s any good. Then you’ve got that whole undercurrent of “we needed to get tougher and this didn’t do it” combined with the stronger undercurrent of “you told us to be patient and then you traded away a guy who was worth being patient for, only to tell us to be patient with the new guy.” Sounds like a recipe for pitchforks.

And Clifton, and Tuch, and Greenway, more of the same.

I’m pretty sure Granato and Appert were on record as playing the same system.

I think the basic disconnect here is that while everyone here thought the Sabres needed to add a top 4 defenceman, a large number of Sabrespacers don’t think that player is Byram. Nobody says the Knights have too many of the same type of defencemen with Pietrangelo, Theodore and Hanifan. Good is good. To me, it’s not the theory that’s the big question here, it’s whether or not Byram and Power can be as effective as Theodore and Hanifin. These are guys expected to round into two-way players like Dahlin has. They aren’t Phil Housleys.

Especially after that cheapskate paid Donnie Granato $6M to not coach the Sabres and gave Owen Power and Rasmus Dahlin $20M.

I’m not going to dismiss the above. I like Johnson and I respect analytics. But what I saw was a guy who was got the most sheltered use out of any Sabre D and held his own in those minutes. He had 59% Ozone starts and his less than 14 minutes per were rarely in key situations, or against tough players. The kid has great feet and I loved the way he can elude the forecheck and flip the ice. Outside of that, I didn’t see him making many plays. His in-zone coverage looked decent and he defended the rush pretty well. He got overpowered in physical matchups and his first pass wasn’t as good as it looked at lower levels. He brought little to no edge and little to no offence. He was pretty good with the puck early, but I thought he was coughing it up more later on. Didn’t PK or PP. I thought in the weeks prior to his demotion Bryson outplayed him, which certainly wasn’t my personal bias prior. One could argue he deserved a longer look in tougher situations. One could also argue that his analytics are a case of a guy succeeding because the coaches protected him and never threw him in over his head.

Why do you think so? I thought Johnson held his own for the most part, but he also had some of the easiest minutes on the blueline.

To my mind: Dahlin is a clear-cut #1 Power is a 2/3 with #1 upside Byram is a 3/4 with 1st-pair upside Samuelsson is a 3/4 with injury issues Jokiharju is a 4/5 Clifton is a 4/5 Johnson is a 6/7 with 4/5 upside Bryson is a 7 As a group they seem to skate and transition very well, defend the rush pretty well, need improvement boxing out and with in-zone reads, add to the attack nicely, and lack nasty. Ideally, they would add some snarl and defensive acumen, but I think in general that's a deep, highly-skilled group with everyone properly slotted. I'm curious to see what Lindy can do with them. Payroll is interesting: Dahlin will the league's 3rd-highest paid defenceman next year Power will be paid like an average 1D Samuelsson like a good 3D Byram and Clifton like average 2nd-pairing guys And Jokiharju has probably earned a deal like Clifton's Obviously the Mule, Dahlin and Power contracts are designed to hurt most this coming year, but this is not a cheap group

When people say they want to add a 2nd-pair D, do they mean the team doesn't have enough good defencemen? Or does it mean they don't like the mix and want to move a defenceman out in exchange for a different type of defenceman?

No, my argument is Doohickey is comparing 25-year-old 350-game NHL center with a 22-year-old 160-game NHL defenceman and saying what you’ve seen is what you’re going to get.

If the Leafs can't get positive value for Marner, they keep him and let him walk. I think they'd rather have $11M in cap space than $2M in cap space and Jeff Skinner. You think the MNC improves the odds for the Sabres? History shows it means a trade to a contender of Marner's choice for a late 1st and whatever lesser pieces it takes to balance out contract and value. Marner is no cap dump, no matter what his playoff failures, He's an NHL star on a rental contract.

Mitts was better than Cozens this season. But its flat out false to say he has improved every season: 25 points to 9 to 21 to 19 to 59 to 57. Cozens is 13 to 38 to 68 to 47. Cozens also had 18 goals in an off-season — the same number Casey had in this, his best season. Dylan had 31 goals the season he turned 22, a number Casey has never come close to. I like Casey, but I take Cozens over him every single time. Why is because they had 5 top-4 dmen and he was the price they had to pay to get a legit 2C. Just like the Sabres had 3 top-2 centres and Mitts was the price they had to pay a to get a top-4 D. That's kinda how trades work.

The bold can be true without saying there was no spot on the roster for Mitts. This is about as true as saying Sabrespace wants to get rid of Owen Power. Some posters don't make a consensus. And they certainly don't make something fact. How many times have you read on this forum that Casey Mittelstadt is garbage? Tage Thompson? Rasmus freaking Dahlin? Bo Byram has first-pair talent. Adams bet a very good player that his performance will match his talent. I'm not going to pass judgement after 17 games.

I don't see anyone else on the roster capable of filling in the minutes of either of those guys should they go down. And that's assuming Tage and Dylan can bounce back. I also don't see anyone on the roster capable of contributing anything close to what Mitts could from the 3C slot. This is kinda like the argument against acquiring Byrum. It's actually a good thing to have guys who are better than their roster slot. It's kinda what makes the good teams good.

The Leafs would get a very nice return for Marner without taking on anything close to Skinner's salary.

This is not his history at all. We traded Derek Roy for a guy people thought could become Duncan Keith but so far looks like he's projecting as Brandon Montour. Weren't you one of the guys who stuck by Mitts through his early struggles? Byram is 22, has played 164 NHL games and has 72 points. At 22 Mitts had played 155 NHL games and had 61 NHL points

Incredible.Thanks for posting.

I took a rare walk along the Stadium Wall and damn they are melting down there. The Brady offence looked pretty damn good last year with Diggs being just a guy. Kincaid looked good and is going to be better. Shakir looked good and is going to be better. Nobody talks about the impact player Cook has become. Coleman should be able to replace or even upgrade Davis. Samuel is no prime Diggs, but he should be able to replace what last year’s checked-out Diggs was offering. And it’s Josh freaking Allen getting them the ball. They’re going to score.

Toronto’s biggest problem seems to be they keep coming up against better teams. 😁

You get a guy who you known can play 14 minutes of NHL + hockey a night and you tell Krebs there’s your target; be better than him and those minutes are yours. If I squint hard I can see someone who only watched Byram play in Buffalo say that. Im reminded of last year and what everyone was saying about Greenway. Im not going to say we bought low because we paid a pretty big price. But I will say you weren’t getting him at that price any time before this year. He’s shown he can be better and I expect he will be.

Yep. I think every game was 4-3

Tampa has no picks, prospects or cap space. They are loaded with experience and edge. The Sabres are exactly the opposite. I don't think you'll find many teams that are a better trade match. i wonder if Nick Paul or Tanner Jeannot might be available at a price we can afford.

I’m more interested in the Byram part of this equation. How likely are we to see the dangerous Bo of the 1st few games over the majority of the season? How likely are we to see the overmatched in his own zone Bo that finished the year? What I saw over his brief stint here wasn’t overly impressive; it gave me Brandon Montour square peg vibes. At the same time, I’ve seen this kid play at an elite level at the world juniors and in the Stanley Cup finals. He’s got a ton of talent and is a competitor. Being moved from a Stanley Cup champion to a doormat, after a largely disappointing season playing in a less-than optimal role, dragging his girlfriend from Denver to Buffalo, having to switch to a zone defence after playing man his whole career, and having some kind of family issue playing out behind the scenes are real things. There should be no issue with the roster fit. He can play on the left side in a top-4 role and add a transition and offensive weapon to augment skilled forwards, without hurting the team defensively. There’s room there and he has the skill set. There’s a world where his addition cements the Sabres identity as a dangerous, quick-strike, ice-flipping team that kills you from the back end. But he has to get focused and aligned with his coaches. He has to shake off the past, step up and grab the opportunity. He’s a guy who can be a difference-maker and someone I hope is a priority for Lindy and his staff.