dudacek

Frank says things with JJ and Buffalo have gone sideways and he doesn't expect the Sabres be able to repair them. The says teams expressed significant interest in Peterka at the deadline and the Sabres didn't bite then, but they may not have a choice now. Calls Peterka the best trade chip on the market right now and, next to Marner, the most valuable piece out there. Trade talk starts close to the 18-minute mark.

I’d say today buried the last excuse for not bringing in a goalie, but who am I kidding?

I didn’t see Adam’s give Levi a 5-year $25M contract He absolutely overrated Levi, but it was symptom, not cause. It certainly wasn’t the only swing and miss and it’s not the only reason he’s failed to build a playoff team. He banked a numerous youngsters to get good. Most of them haven’t.

Adams had us on the Tage/Tuch/Cozens/Quinn/Peterka/Krebs/Dahlin/Power/Samuelsson/Luukkonen timeline which he expected to start last year and this year. It was supposed to be augmented by Levi and all those picks from 21-23 to keep us contending over the next decade. He's went maybe 4 for 10 on his first wave and hasn't shown much yet on the second. He misjudged or mis-developed the talent and is now scrambling to re-set.

There's so much about next year that points toward another 2020/21 or 2017/18.

That COVID draft was a real crapshot. Combination of weaker class and lack of scouting. None of the top 9 picks look like surefire stars yet, but most of them still could be, and there's not a ton of separation there. Then you get the Wyatt Johnston outlier — potentially the best player in the draft at pick 23, who didn't play in his draft year. But the rest of the 1st round is a whole lotta maybe. You've got 6 picks who have yet to play an NHL game, and 8 others who have played 25 games or less.

They're usually quite good, so I take these numbers seriously. But the Docker one surprises me. He's coming off an $800K deal and has one full NHL season in 5 years pro. Both the term and the AAV seem high given his track record.

Over the course of 7 games I think he's been my favourite. Plays like a man and a leader.

Helenius is such a punk. Love it!

Better than 70% GF%? Wow! 😜

Severson had kind of a rocky year in CBus is the only one of the trade targets i could see being available.

I think we can all agree that Miller is bigger and Byram is more skilled. Miller, statistically at least, hasn't shown to be any better than Byram in terms of his analytics, and despite his size he's not a banger. Is the thinking here that he's cheaper and better fit in terms of usage? Doesn't solve the handedness issue and I think Byram is the better player, but I could be argued into this as the basis of a trade.

in Chad's latest Expected Buffalo pod he talked like this a still very much a live thing. His theories are 'It's Dudley and it will be announced after the Panthers are done" followed by "Bergevin, but he's still in the running for the Isles job". He also ran through a bunch of other names but gave the overall impression to me that he doesn't really have a clue what they're thinking. He did raise a good point though: the combine is nearly here, and the draft and free agency are a month or so away, how much of an impact can an advisor hired in June really have on next year's team?

Or your desire.

Dahlin was a Norris calibre defenceman playing with Bowen Byram.

Timo Maier signed two years ago for 8X$8.8M coming off a 66-point season. I don't think your offer is going to get it done.

I'm not fully on the Dobson train. Don't get me wrong: I like the player and think he would help the Sabres, it's just that he's basically going to demand $2M more than Byram to fill the role Byram just filled. And, like Byram, that role is not the perfect fit for his skillset.

(Reposting from the other thread because it fits here) I'm fine with Ras and JBD in 1D/6D I think Samuelsson and Clifton need to be upgraded in the 4/5 slots. Replacing Samuelsson with someone who actually manages to play well in the role we gave to Samuelsson should be the team's 2nd-highest priority. Clifton should be replaced with someone safer and tougher. I'd keep Byram with Dahlin on the 1st-pair if it was up to me, but I think that ship has sailed. If traded, Byram must be replaced by a legitimate top 4 guy, preferably one who can eat hard minutes. I'm OK with Johnson and Novikov getting a shot to beat out Bryson for 7D and being the first call-ups next year. I wish someone other than Bryson was 7D, but Kevyn obviously disagrees The highest priority on the blueline is figuring out what went wrong with Owen Power last year and fixing it. Moves I'd be interested in: Byram for Andersson Picks/prospects for Schnieder and a cap dump (or Hague, or Whitecloud or...) Sign Gavrikov Samuelsson and picks/prospects for Pulock Clifton and picks/prospects for a cap casualty (meaning a better player on a bigger contract) Other options worth looking into: Sign someone like Fabbro, Ceci, Lindgren, Perbix, Forbert, or Ruuta from the UFA pile Trade Jack Quinn for physical RD of similar age and stature

I'm fine with Ras and JBD in 1D/6D I think Samuelsson and Clifton need to be upgraded in the 4/5 slots. Replacing Samuelsson with someone who actually manages to play well in the role we gave to Samuelsson should be the team's 2nd-highest priority. Clifton should be replaced with someone safer and tougher. I'd keep Byram with Dahlin on the 1st-pair if it was up to me, but I think that ship has sailed. If traded, Byram must be replaced by a legitimate top 4 guy, preferably one who can eat hard minutes. I'm OK with Johnson and Novikov getting a shot to beat out Bryson for 7D and being the first call-ups next year. I wish someone other than Bryson was 7D, but Kevyn obviously disagrees The highest priority on the blueline is figuring out what went wrong with Owen Power last year and fixing it. Moves I'd be interested in: Byram for Andersson Picks/prospects for Schnieder and a cap dump Sign Gavrikov Samuelsson and picks/prospects for Pulock Clifton and picks/prospects for a cap casualty (meaning a better player on a bigger contract) Other options worth looking into: Sign someone like Fabbro, Ceci, Lindgren, Perbix, Forbert, or Ruuta from the UFA pile Trade Jack Quinn for physical RD of similar age and stature

I think you need to do a deeper dive into Andersson's underlying numbers and to watch him play. The contract is definitely a thing that must be accounted for before making any deal.

I'm starting to believe the correct Byram move is to Calgary for Rasmus Andersson. Calgary wants to get younger and needs a skilled top 4 LHD who can run their PP. Byram's the best one on the market Buffalo wants to get older and needs a reliable top 4 RHD who can smooth the way for Owen Power. Andersson's the best one on the market. I'm not sure what will be needed to balance the deal given the cap and the contract status of each player (Andersson is a year from UFA). But the fit seems too good not to work the rest out.

Five weeks since the Sabres season ended. Rangers let Housley go April 19 Flyers let 2 assistants go April 23 Devils let two assistants go May 9 Ducks dropped two assistants (including Tage's dad) May 10 Three of those teams also named new head coaches. I'm not sure what's normal with new assistants, but if the Sabres aren't planning to bring the band back again, one would think they would have made a move by now.

I mean, other than Norris and Greenway instead of Cozens and Benson it's basically a proven 80-point team, right? So with 72 games of Hasek-level goaltending, sure. 😄 Wait, it's still not official?

Josh Norris is a good player, but that comes with 2 caveats: 1) Kevyn Adams was stretching things considerably when he said Norris can be a first-line centre. 2) @Thorny was not stretching things at all when he consistently points out that questions about Norris' ability have to be leavened with questions about his availability. In 5 NHL seasons he has been health exactly once: his rookie year when he played all 56 games in the bubble. Since then he has missed: 16, 74, 32 and 29 games — or about 46% of his potential starts. Prior to this year, a vast majority of those missed games were due to a chronically bad shoulder, something that did not trouble him this year and the Sabres doctors assure us should not trouble him again. Technically, Norris is capable of centring a 1st line; he has high-end speed, a diligent approach to positioning, makes good and quick decisions with the puck, and has a deadly shot. But he is a 1st-line centre only in the sense that he can keep up with two high-end wingers, as opposed to drive a line in the manner we traditionally think of when we talk about 1C. You may not remember this as well as folks out here on the West Coast, but I think a good comparable is Brendan Morrison when he skated for the Canucks 20 years ago between Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi. And understand he is a finisher, not a playmaker. His career numbers put him at around 30 goals and 22 assists over 80 games. I think your expectations would be best centred at a Derek Roy to Derek Plante level 2C, who can win face-offs and help both special teams. Or maybe this: The Ottawa Senators most certainly watched Dylan Cozens play this year and decided they preferred Cozens to Norris.

Shocking that you would say that. 😉