dudacek

Is it just me, or has the board generally had a pretty dramatic swing from “we can afford to trade Mittelstadt” to “we have a giant Mittelstadt-sized hole on the roster”? Maybe it was more gradual over the past year or so, as Cozens and Tage dropped off and Casey emerged? From a depth perspective, I would be surprised if 1 or more of Krebs, Kulich, Östlund and Savoie doesn’t emerge as a decent 3C or better. But I - and I think most of us - would be shocked if any are that this year. It is my hope that Mitts is replaced not by another Mitts, but by a different kind of 3C: cheaper, edgier, more defensively focused. With Lindy on board, I don’t think it’s a stretch to target a Gaustad or Hecht type of player.

God, I loved watching Hawerchuk on that team. Favourite Sabre no one ever talks about as a Sabre.

I can’t get over how young these Amerks are. Last night they dressed 7 rookies: Neuchev 20, Östlund 20, Wahlberg 18, Johnson 22, Novikov 20, Metsa 24 and Levi 22 And 2nd year players: Kulich 20, Rosen 21 2nd-year guys Kisakov and Kozak, each 21, are among the spares.

All 3 are eligible and under contract. So as far as I know the Sabres control where they play. Östlund and Savoie are expected to for sure. Uncertain about the plan for Wahlberg. I thought Östlund was the most dangerous Amerk on the ice last night. He’s small, but fast and always moving and involved; he’s looked that way every time I’ve watched him play. But even though he attacks the game like Benson, he doesn’t show Benson’s ability to get underneath bigger guys to win puck battles. Definite hole in his game even though overall he’s looked effective.

It’s been the same for all these kids: you see things you like, you look at their age and say “damn, he could really be something when he’s in his prime.” The sad thing is that even if we’re right - and for every Girgensons and Kassian and Zadorov there’s been an Eichel, Reinhart, Thompson and Dahlin - it’s been so long since it’s happened when it mattered.

I always get into trouble speaking in broad-brush generalities. There are definitely fans who think targeting your guy without a thorough process is unprofessional, and that is a legitimate take. There are also definitely fans who were vehemently saying things like "they should hire ---" and "no way they should hire ---" I'm referring to people who belong to both group A and group B at the same time.

It makes me smile when the same fans who are passionately for or against a particular coaching candidate they’ve never met are furious because Adams targeted someone someone he knows very well, then simply went out and got him.

Picked Ehlers because he seemed to represent the “really good 2nd-liner” level that represents the low end of the peer group. Another way of saying it would be “you score 25-30 goals at 21 and the odds look really good you’re going to continue doing that, or better, throughout your career.” (Which we should keep in mind with Dylan Cozens, who hit 31). The question with Peterka is really “how much can he grow?” His skate/shoot combo is high-end. His compete and vision seem good. His consistency and details need work. He had 25 even-strength goals, that was good for 19th in the entire NHL last year. Leon Draisaitl had 20, Stamkos 21, McDavid 24.

Peterka is an interesting guy to look at comparables. His 28 goals mark the 25th-best 21-year-old season in the past 10. Some guys who had similar U22 seasons: Pastrnak 35 Conner 31 Kucherov 29 Draisaitl 29 Rantanen 29 Petterson 27 Eichel 25 Nylander 20 But then you also get guys like Alex Debrincat with 41 and Jack Hughes with 43, so there are guys who were pretty far ahead. One thing seems to hold true though, very few of the guys on that list of 25 proved to be a flash in the pan. This type of production at the age seems likely to set him up for at least a Nikolaj Ehlers type career.

I was listening to Lindy talk about how he works, and how he basically the same as most coaches, he deploys the guys he trusts most to get the job done in all the most crucial game situations. And I started thinking about how what changes is how much each coach likes a particular player. Donnie clearly had a pecking order that started with Tuch and Tage. He liked to match top lines. He didn't lean on Ras much for the PK, but he played him to death everywhere else. Krebs was an extra. Quinn and Peterka an afterthought on the PP. Girgs a 4th liner. Samuelsson in the top 4 and often with Ras. No shutdown line. All these trends that have kinda come to expect that may get overturned in ways we don't at all expect. It will be interesting how it all settles out. I mean I get the size and the compete level, but the team has a much better match for its Briere clone playing in Moose Jaw. Savoie has those as well, but he also has Briere's shark-like approach to offence and breakaway threat. He even kinda looks like Danny.

2022 #7 (plus a 2nd) for Alex Debrincat 2022 #12 for #27 #34 and #45 2022 #14 for Kirby Dach or Alex Romanov 2022 #19 (plus Brock Faber) for Kevin Fiala 2021 #9 for Connor Garland (plus a bunch of cap dumps) 2021 #14 (plus a 2nd) for Rasmus Ristolainen 2021 #15 for #23, #48 and #138 2020 #15 for Kasperi Kapanen 2019 #11 for #14 and #45 2018 #12 (plus 2 2nds) for Travis Hamonic Most recent time I can find a summer trade of a pick in the Sabres range involving a middle 6 centre was #7 and Tony DeAngelo for Antti Raanta and Derek Stepan, when Stepan was a 27-year-old 55-point scorer. I've stayed away from rentals.

I’d trade picks/prospects for a vet under contract.

Not sure what’s up with your math, but there are 192 top 6 positions open in the NHL (6x32). 224th is upper-end 3rd line production. Benson’s 28 even-strength points ranked 184th. Guys around him: Elias Lindholm, Jake Debrusk, Dawson Mercer, Andrew Copp, David Perron, Mats Zuccarello and Anton Lundell. And that doesn’t even take into account his chops defensively. I also don’t agree with your knock off the puck comments. Did it happen? Absolutely, but I also saw lots of instances where he won pucks along the boards and made plays in heavy traffic. Looked me like he won more battles than he lost. This is just a bad take. He was clearly NHL-ready.

And Marner didn’t play as an 18-year, but put up 60 at 19 as a rookie. The size matches, but Marner’s got that Housley thing, where his skating agility and puckhandling are so, so good. Zach doesn’t have that. But he’s got something. I keep coming back to Marchand without the elevated ***** element. He’s smarter and more competitive than anyone he matches up against and just finds a way.

I gravitate to smart players who don’t quit. He’s become my favourite player to watch on the team. Really hope he can improve his shot. It stood out to me as a significant hole in his game. His performance relative to physical maturity and experience was remarkable, something I’ve never seen before on this team. Housley, Dahlin and Turgeon were much bigger and/or obviously skilled and that’s more or less where the “regulars at 18” list ends. Guys of his size just don’t play in the NHL without hall-of-fame hands and feet, but he doesn’t seem to have either. So that says a lot about his will and hockey sense. It’s hard to project his ceiling given the lack of comparables. But it’s obvious the kid just gets hockey.

It was concerning. It wasn’t mistaking 25 for 26, it was like literally missing things the whole building could see. The “five players on the ice” sequence was bizarre.

Lindy’s interview with Marty today came across better than the big presser.

I agreed with your take with these players on this team at this time. If we’re talking in generalities though, opportunity is not the same thing as role. My observation has been that NHL teams will give a D3 or D4 1st-rounder coming off a good season a chance at beating someone out for a job in the fall. If yours is different, we’re probably not going to change each others minds.

I mean Kulich, Rosen and Savoie are players who, in most situations, have earned an opportunity. But I agree with this. They aren’t what we need in the bottom 6. I have never got a whiff of Krebs lacking in drive at all. Quite the opposite. What he seems to lack is an NHL identity. I always got the sense he was the guy Donnie never quite got around to. Very interested to see if he develops under Lindy because I think there is potential for a connection.

Clifton had a very rough start that I’m going to chalk up to bad luck and system adjustment. He was a capable 3rd pairing guy in the new year. I don’t see Novikov having any role on the team next year simply because the coach - who just hinted that he lost his job largely to having too many rookie defencemen - isn’t going to want to lose points having Nikita learn the lessons Clifton and Jokiharju have already learned. That Devils team has a lot in common with this Sabres team. The Sabres don’t have Hughes, but the Devils didn’t have goaltending.

This is more important to the team than a lot of people realize. I brought up in season how the players felt the disdain and it affected them. Got a lot of pushback that amounted to “if true they need to suck it up.” They did need to, but that doesn’t make it irrelevant or not true. This is very perceptive and probably the first time I’ve seen someone make this point. Lindy has had great success with exactly the type of personnel he’s being given on the blueline. It’s almost tailor-made for his system. Dahlin, Clifton and Jokiharju now veterans, Power, Byram and Samuelsson are getting closer to that 200-game threshold. This should become the strength of the team and this is a coach who can exploit that. This I think this would have been a thing regardless after last year, but I think the 25 or so players most likely to be playing NHL games next year won’t be seeing a lot of the other 25 in training camp. It’s probably going to be a frustrating fall for most of the prospect pool.

Canucks had just 5 shots nearly half-way into the game after blabbing all day that they needed to stay patient and not deviate from their game plan. I think sometimes that mantra can be taken a little too far.

Since nobody else mentioned it, Adams immediately said (while kissing his ass in many other ways) that Terry was wrong about 06. I just chalk it up to the way some people perceive the game. Owen Power is very good at a lot of things. But he’s not that good at the thing that matters most to them and probably never will be. And until the team wins they will hone in on that as a lightning rod for their anger. Kid is good right now and when he’s a man, he’s going to be very good for a very long time.

I think this is a good point. I doubt he goes all Krueger on him. i think it was Friedman who said Lindy has 3 rules he leans hard into in terms of discipline: be a “good person”; be on time; and the discussion and variation happens before the team locks into a course of action, once it’s decided, you do it. Its the application of the latter where Lindy and Skinner may clash, the consistency. I think he’ll ask Jeff to play a game Jeff can succeed at. Where they’ll clash is those times when Jeff freelances. In my view, Granato coached Skinner to his best season ever last year because he succeeded with the above strategy.

You think Adams has ceded responsibility to Lindy to decide who coaches his minor league team? Ahead of both himself and Karmanos? You think the Sabres are concerned about Rochester? Which just had its 2nd best regular season since 2007? Won 2 playoff rounds last year and another the previous year? Has gone 112/79/20 under Appert? While icing a youth-heavy lineup that has graduated Quinn, Peterka, Lukkonnen, Samuelsson and Bryson to the big club? What, other than your general disdain for the way the Sabres do things leads you to think they are concerned about Rochester?