dudacek

The plan was very much to accelerate the development process of a select group of young talents so that they would all emerge at around the same time (theoretically, about now). They insulated those kids with a handful of old guys and eventually the young guys emerged as the backbone of a contender. Like these teams did: https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0000331975.html https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0000352009.html https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0000552015.html Of course it doesn’t alway work as well as it did for the above teams, but when it works, the team is usually good for a long time. Are you just being rhetorical, because you’ve been arguing against it as unnecessary for quite a while?

The only ways they weren’t going to come in at or near where they are was by signing a bunch of Okposo-age players instead who they did, or by flipping a number of kids like Benson, Quinn, Peterka and Power for a considerably older group. That’s just the math of it all.

People need to keep in mind that this is partially a reflection of how young we were last year, and of old guys like Johnson and Okposo moving on. The youngest new guy expected to be on the roster is McLeod at 24. The rest are all in their prime years, or in Zucker’s case, beyond that.

I'm not so sure about this. There's been a lot of information and innuendo floated. This is my understanding: Eichel had made noises about his unhappiness with the team's progress well before Adams was hired. When Botterill was fired, Eichel made it clear he had no interest sticking around for any rebuild Krueger helped broker a plan with Pegula that the team would try to load up and make a run for the playoffs that year, which Adams then executed. Jack clearly arrived at camp with some kind of physical issue that was hindering him. The team got off to a terrible start and Jack was done after a hit 20-odd games into the season against the Islanders that either caused or aggravated his neck injury. With the season an abysmal failure and the Sabres historically bad, Adams went to Pegula with a plan to essentially hit the reset button and rebuild the team entirely. Pegula/team doctors (depending on who you believe) denied Jack his desired surgery, complicating a trade process that Jack clearly wanted regardless of injury, and Kevyn likely wanted as well despite playing the 'want to be here' card. It's possible Adams had decided it best to move on from Eichel even before he got the job. It's possible that Eichel had been passive-aggressively pushing for — or even outright asking for — a trade before then too. But Eichel was clearly injured before the well-publicized Florida trip where the teardown was approved, and he had clearly delivered his ultimatum well before the season had even started. Are you saying that Eichel would have been happy to stay after the disaster that was Krueger's last year if only Adams did what he was told? Or that Adams had tied his own hands by refusing to allow a player under contract to tell him how to manage the team?

As if you needed more evidence of Sabres irrelevance, check out this way-to-early file from the Athletic. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5628252/2024/07/11/nhl-picks-2025-stanley-cup-playoffs-awards/ Predictions about just everything under the sun — team and individual, bad and good — and not a Sabre to be found. The only place the franchise shows up at all is in the predicted eastern conference standings list: an utterly mediocre 12th.

Not sure if there is a better place to put this, but a large contingent of Sabres are training and holidaying in Switzerland right now. Looks like Peterka has hooked them up with his private coaches at Dube Skills. Mostly Euros, including Dahlin, UPL, Jokiharju, Kulich and Rosen, but Power and Mule also made the trip overseas to join them. More than just a business trip for Power apparently, because the kid got engaged. Shots of them on ice and having fun out on the water and the golf course courtesy the Instagram account of old friend Oskari Laaksonen.

I'm a little more hopeful. Roster-wise, we've lost some skill up front, but we're bigger and faster, and we should be more physical and better defensively. We've also changed the coach and our young players have got another year's experience, which often brings improvement. Chemistry, balance and 'tools' are just as important to team success as pure skill. But I also don't know if we've had much of a drop-off even doing a straight comparison On the left is last year's team ranked by ice time, on the right who I project taking that ice time (obviously contingent on health). Forwards Tuch 1462 -> Thompson Cozens 1360 -> Tuch Peterka 1342 -> Cozens Thompson 1286 -> Quinn Skinner 1183 -> Peterka Greenway 1155 -> Benson Mittelstadt 1132 -> McLeod Benson 1030 -> Zucker Krebs 1000 -> Greenway Okposo 830 -> Malenstyn Girgensons 746 -> Lafferty Olofsson 590 -> Kulich Jost 455 -> Krebs Robinson 440 -> Aube-Kubel * Quinn 422 -> Rousek/Rosen Defence Dahlin 2059 -> Dahlin Power 1741 -> Power Jokiharju 1404 -> Byram Clifton 1307 -> Samuelsson * Samuelsson 840 -> Jokiharu Erik Johnson 690 -> Clifton Ryan Johnson 568 -> Gilbert Bryson 528 -> Bryson/Johnson You can't ignore the fact that a healthy Quinn and Samuelsson (and to a lesser extent Thompson) improve the team. But you also have to account for the fact that the team is likely going to have to overcome similar injuries this year. That said, plugging Byram and Samuelsson into Jokiharju and Clifton's ice time and pushing those guys down the roster should mean an upgrade. At the top of the roster, I think the most realistic way of looking at the significant change is Quinn and McLeod for Mittelstadt and Skinner. The bottom got a huge makeover in terms of identity. I don't know if it adds up to being better; I've been saying for weeks a lot of that is going to be tied to how many players rebound from last year's disappointments. But I don't expect it to be worse.

My take on the rumour mill is that the Farabee thing has been an alternate plan for Adams should his attempts at getting better players (Ehlers, Zegras)fully fall apart. Not really seeing why some fans have fixated on him - to me, we’ve seen his ceiling and I’m not sure that he’s an upgrade to Benson and Zucker behind Peterka - but if the price is reasonable, I’d rather have 3 middle-six LW than 2.

Has anybody seen McLeod's quality of competition? Being a 3C on the Oilers is a pretty unusual spot and I wonder how it affected his usage. Did Edmonton use him as a matchup guy to free up their stars, or did they tend to match the stars head-to-head against the other team's best? It could significantly affect his charts

Assume you mean a better hard nosed defensive forward than the three already added in Lafferty, Aube-Kubel and Malenstyn?

Was interested to hear Marty Biron echoing the reports from some of our Sabrespacers that he was impressed by the play of Topias Leinonen at development camp. Most listeners know Marty pays special attention to the netminders and critiques them with a professional’s eye. He said “this kid is good! Great flexibility, great body control…I was surprised!” Said he backed up his strong play in practices with his work in the game. Maybe I crossed him off my list too early?

To be fair, I’ve not seen it reported by credible sources that he had an issue with Buffalo. His issue was entirely that he be given an NHL spot that was his to lose. Winnipeg wasn’t offering that, neither was Buffalo, and I suspect many other franchises won’t either.

Yes, he centred them for a while at ES, but remember he only played something like 20 or 30 games including playoffs for Rochester and maybe only half of those with those 2. I remember getting frustrated a bit with the line because he and Quinn had a tendency to want to do the same things and go to the same places, and get in each other’s way.

Maybe I’ve got rose-coloured glasses, or put too much emphasis on watching Team Canada, but I’m a little surprised at how much last season has soured people on Cozens. I’ve seen him be one of the best players on too many good teams to convince myself last year is what he is. I guess it’s also why I feel the way I do about Byram: way too much emphasis being placed on last season over the skill set and the body of work. Wholeheartedly agree with the idea that these guys bring a fast, hard and competitive Western League approach that’s a perfect fit for Lindy Ruff hockey.

I don’t have a strong memory of Peyton on that PP. He may have been one of the down low guys, but I remember him more as an even-strength centre on that team: playing fast and distributing. Quinn and Peterka played pitch-and-catch and blasted away from opposite half-walls on the PP and really dominated, with I think Murray clogging the net? Laaksonen was the point man. I tend to think Peyton was on the other unit.

One of the reasons I’ve come around on a Zegras trade is because I see him as an excellent solution to the PP problem of lacking a playmaker down low. Plugging him in where Skinner was could make a world of difference.

I think we're going to see a big switch in how they line up and how they operate on the PP. I'm curious to see how much Appert leans into the success he had with Quinn and Peterka in the AHL. I'm curious to see how the promised emphasis on players moving around more manifests itself on the ice. I wonder if Tuch's inability to get to the net for rebounds and screens can be changed by coaching, or if it costs him a spot on PP1. I wonder if Thompson can acquire a curve ball to go with his heater and create a change-up that will prevent team's from neutralizing his 1-timer? I wonder who replaces Skinner down low? Can that person be trusted to make plays out of the corner in a way Skinner could not? I wonder if the presence of the above player will mean we will see Dahlin creeping in from the point more? I wonder if or how they will utilize Byram, who is really good at the above, can dish and move as good as any point man in the NHL, and scores more goals from that type of play than pretty much any d-man? I wonder if there is a bumper on the roster? So many questions.

Interesting kid. His dad owned his junior team and his career has been about trying to prove things haven't been handed to him. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/2419898/2021/03/05/edmonton-oilers-prospect-tullio-path/?source=user_shared_article On the ice he probably slides into the longshot with a shot category: he ranked 10th on the Oilers prospect list in an Athletic article from last week. Small and feisty: the reports say he gets to the net, works hard and pays attention to detail on both ends. Sounds like his best comp in the Buffalo org right now might be Kozak, except as a winger? Maybe not as tough, but a little more talented? He scored 42 in 65 in his last year in junior. He's a depth prospect for sure, but is a guy wit a game you could project playing in a bottom six and he might be more than the contract dump I originally perceived him to be. He's probably going to make the more touted guys in Rochester work for their ice time.

I think for GA, it really just boils down to whether Byram can be: a) better than Casey, and b) more useful to the Sabres as their 3D than Casey was as their 5F And his starting points are: a) Casey was the Sabres best all-around forward last year b) Byram is defensive train wreck whose offence is OK, but unneeded.

You really dumping on the guy for eating pucks and banging bodies?

It’s the case. I’m pretty sure he was the highest goal scorer in his draft class (52 goals in 62 games) and he got 26 goals in 45 games as a rookie in Rochester. Add in a goal every 3 games pace last season without time on the PP and the expectation is definitely there.

From memory, but I believe previously, with Numminen McKee and Kalinin instead of 2 plugs and Spacek the players were deployed much more equally. From recent research, Ruff played 5 guys almost equally in New Jersey in his Jack Adams finalist season -about 20 minutes each, wth the number 6 way back. I think Lindy will work with what he’s got. I also think people should stop thinking in terms of “1st, 2nd and 3rd pairs, because I don’t think Lindy will be lining them up and rolling them over that way; he will be changing them up from game to game and inside games as situations demand. Personally, I think he’s got a very good top 4 that he’ll mix and match and use a ton and slide the others in as they fit best. I’ve also come to realize Gilbert might be in the lineup a lot more than people anticipate because he supplies qualities Lindy will want that the others don’t have.

I think most of us are in agreement that Lindy Ruff is a very good bench coach. He’s a guy who notices things and makes quick adjustments and is good at deploying his players in ways game flows and situations dictate. Kyle Okposo talked recently about how the Sabres strategy and answer to everything was skill. The implication was that last year’s roster simply wasn’t good at responding when the game was demanding they play in other ways. Remember that long TV interview with Ruff a few weeks back when he said he needs his tools? The implication there being that when situations demand a certain response or tactic (this is not code for thuggery, it applies to all facets of the game) he had players at his disposal who could deliver. Does he now have his tools?

Unless Dubois has a complete reversal in his game, I prefer the Sabres off-season. Two decent defencemen in, another out, a lateral move in goal and a middle six winger isn’t going to fix what ails that team. (And didn’t Buffalo grab their 2 best checking wingers 😜]

I think they have every intention of playing him in Rochester. Physically, he’s ready, development-wise he needs to get used to the smaller ice surface. Roster-wise, he slides into the spot vacated by Savoie. With Biro gone, they could conceivably run out Kulich Östlund Helenius as their centre spine. Wahlberg played wing last year, Jobst played it prior to last year. Kozak and the new guy Dunne are also centres. Lots of ways it could,go.