dudacek

Why do you think this?

The Sabres have the 9th most space with $23M They have 13 NHL players signed and 10 players to re-sign or replace with that space: Luukkonen, Jokiharju, Krebs, Bryson, Clague, Olofsson, Girgensons, Jost, Comrie, Robinson. For sake of argument, I’m going to dedicate $10M to re-signing the first 3 and let the rest go. Also for sake of argument, I’m going to budget $3M on the 3 guys starting in the press box. That leaves $10M to spend on 3 top 12 forwards and a backup goalie. That’s plenty of space for upgrades to Okposo Girgensons Olofsson and Comrie, particularly when you have a Comrie upgrade already available at $900K in Levi.

But that only took a week! It’s barely enough time to reach double digits in people talked to! It’s almost like Treliving knew who he wanted to hire before he fired Keefe and he didn’t even do a thorough search. 😜

A good off-season for me would be acquiring a veteran middle-six centre who can win faceoffs and two good grinding bottom 6 wingers. A better one would include a goalie on a short-term deal that will force Levi to beat him out, and flipping Joki for similar-level RHD with more stay-at-home, physical game. History says cap space along with a package including at least 2 of #11, Rosen, Kulich, Östlund, Savoie, Johnson and/or lesser picks or prospects will probably get you the big fish. Haven't really looked around at who might be a target. I've seen Bennett, Tavares and Couturier tossed out as names. Price depends on return. A 2nd/3rd and/or equivalent prospect should get you the grinders if unrestricted free agency can't. Think what we paid for Greenway and Clifton. Again, haven't looked at targets, but guys like Joshua and Martinook fit the profile.

Looks like others have already responded, but I would be shocked if Benson struggles with structure because his game is so naturally structured. I wouldn’t be surprised if he slides a bit either, but I think his “slide” will be more along the nature of Power’s: kinda stagnant overall, but with higher expectations amplifying the warts during the downs, both for observers and for himself.

At the risk of being told I don't want win, any trade where the 2 biggest pieces involved are Samuelsson and Laughton is a trade I don't want to make.

What Benson produced was unremarkable for a middle-six NHL forward, somewhat remarkable for an 18-year-old, and almost unheard of for an 18-year-old picked outside the top 10. Really curious to see if he can make a Peterka-style jump, because his production was similar to Peterka's rookie year and his overall game more reliable than Peterka's rookie year.

Right on! (As long as those more talented guys are coached to get to the net)

Thought that was their best game of the playoffs. They just allowed nothing, which is not unusual, but it was the first time they looked dangerous in offence. It’s remarkable how much - in just a year - Tocchet has transformed the way they play.

It’s an interesting class, but it’s hard to get excited about it. Not when your team has not shown much interest in, or got much interest from, the big names. Not when our big splashes have been Hall, Okposo, Ehrhoff and Leino.

Do you think Samuelsson is a low price tag? A 24-year-old 6’4” 230-pound defensively strong defenceman on a team that has no one else like that?

What you're saying is we really need to look at how centres do in high-danger faceoffs

Right, but Detroit has done exactly what you wanted the Sabres to do: acquire veterans to teach and "block" and "win now" and "play the right way", and pick bigger 2-way guys instead smaller, skilled types. The Wallinders and Kaspers and Velenos and Cossas and Edvissons and Berggrens have been playing in the minors or down the lineup while the Perrons and the Kanes and Sprongs and Petrys played in Detroit. Over the past 2 years, each team has missed the playoffs by a single win, and the Sabres have outproduced the Wings by a measly 4 points. Basically, there has been no meaningful short-term difference from either philosophy, so the difference will be measured in the long-term. Will Detroit regret some of the long-term veteran contracts they've signed? Will the Sabres regret the contracts they've given some unproven kids? Will the prospects develop better being shielded and slow cooked, or force-fed NHL minutes? I mean you're right, future moves might muddy the waters, but having the mirror image plan unfold at the same time in the same division will be fascinating.

Marchand's is absolutely the right response to what happened and the guy is a heckuva hockey player. He's also a prick and I have not lost touch with my basic Sabre fandom so much as to not enjoy it any time he suffers.

The fact that Ruff signed for 2 years to work in Buffalo when he could have collected millions from NJ to do nothing is evidence the bold is not the case. It will be interesting to watch over the next 5 years if the Wings were short-term gain for long-term pain, or we were. The starting points were similar. The Copp, Chairot and Compher contracts were exactly the things Adams refused to do.

We think so. it was basically the same with all wheat products over your way: pasta, bread etc. Makes her sick over here, but she was in her glory over there; spent 10 weeks last summer Lucky she was walking so much, otherwise she probably would have needed a new wardrobe. 😁

My daughter, who can't usually drink North American beer due to food allergies, has no such problems in Europe. She was in Prague this time last year and raved about the beer.

With the exception McNabb, every single one of them was dumped on by multiple posters on this site. But it's pretty clear that any problems they had here were less about the who, and more about the when and how.

Keep in mind, he was a year older than Reinhart and Cozens and two years older than Benson.

Savoie has NHL speed, plays hard in all three zones. He just had the best points per game of any Sabres junior prospect coming out of the Dub in recent memory: better than Benson, Cozens, Krebs, Reinhart and Tyler Ennis, and by a considerable margin. It was the 3rd best by any prospect period in the past 15 years. There is nothing unusual about a top 10 NHL pick making the NHL roster in their D3 year. It’s pretty common. 5 of the 6 forwards picked in the top 10 the draft previous were in the NHL this year. Logan stankoven is Savoie’s size and a year older. Last year he had a very similar season in the WHL and this year he is playing regularly in the Stanley Cup playoffs for a very good Dallas team. All of that is to say, is that in a vaccuum, it is entirely reasonable. Personally, I hope the Sabres are not planning for it, and, in fact, are actively seeking NHL veterans to put in his way. If he makes it, I hope it happens later in the year, and it’s because he has been playing so well in the AHL he earned his shot.

I agree with this specifically and the philosophy in general. Some people seem to think Johnson is among our top 4 defencemen. I don't think he is in our top 6. If he's not he should be playing, not watching.

As in he doesn't offer it? Not enough of it, I'd say. He's shown great ability to hold off checkers at times. But there's power there that's wasted because he'd rather beat guys with his hands. Without dumping on Granato, we saw no suggestion that he wanted his forwards to engage. We know that's not the case with Lindy. I'm curious to see whether players like Thompson and Tuch are encouraged to use their size more, not so much to punish, but to impose their will and get inside.

Think he was talking about Johnson.

He's been pretty consistently 1 PM for every 2 games played over the past 4 years and it looks like he's had a major every year 🤷‍♂️

I messed this up because I missed Mitts. Should have included his 14 instead of Robinson's 2, which makes the job of the replacements 12 goals tougher.