dudacek

I don’t think so. Granato seems to be trending toward this, although we haven’t had a real good sense of how the D might line up: Skinner Thompson xxx xxx Mittelstadt Tuch Peterka Cozens xxx Girgensons Krebs Okposo xxx Dahlin Clifton Power Jokiharju Samuelsson Johnson yyy Levi zzz Leaving these questions xxx = Greenway (who is definitely in the starting lineup, it’s just a matter of where) Olofsson Jost Benson Biro Rousek yyy = Stillman Bryson Clague Johnson zzz = UPL Comrie With an open question of whether the 23rd spot will be a 14th forward, 8th defenceman or 3rd goalie? *** Greenway with Mitts, Benson with Tage, and VO with Cozens is how they lined up today and I’d be happy to start the season that way. I think Jost has the inside track on the 13th forward spot and Stillman the 7th D, but again just my opinion. I think in an ideal world the preference would be to keep 8 D, that’s just how the roster is built when taking the Amerks into account, and how the coach has said he prefers to practice. But I also think the GM values his 3rd goalie more than his 8th D and waivers may affect his decision in that spot. I’d trade a backup goalie to the highest bidder and keep Bryson - mostly because I’d rather have him in an NHL press box and the other candidates playing in Roch. If I can’t get anything for a goalie, I’d waive Bryson.

I’d agree, although I’d say Murray is in the mix as well. He’s been getting a good look in the exhibitions and acquitted himself reasonably well. If they keep 13 forwards including Benson, it will be surprising if 13 isn’t Jost. But I think it’s definitely 7 forwards in the mix for the last 2 or 3 spots. If I had to drill it down further, I’m saying Jost is on the team and Murray, Kulich and Rosen are Amerks. it’s Benson, Rousek and Biro fighting for one or 2 forward spots.

So So one of the bottom 6 to the press box and the other 5 to Rochester? With Tuch Mitts and Greenway the other line? Or Tuch to the first line, one of the bottom 6 with Mitts and Greenway and Benson goes home? It’s become abundantly clear they are seriously considering keeping Benson.

Good OP @GASabresIUFAN I think Ryan Johnson and Zach Benson are the camp revelations: both more skilled and closer to NHL-ready than the board generally thought. Johnson is kinda where Mule was in his 1st pro season. He’s got NHL skills and a mature game and he is eventually going to make Clague and Bryson redundant. He’s going to get called up at some point and never go back down. Benson’s got a ridiculous amount of game. His ability to process and execute with and against good NHL players is shocking to me. You watch guys like Reinhart and Quinn at that age, and they look like that against their peers, but needed time to adjust to make those kind of plays at the NHL pace. Benson can already. I agree with those who say he logically shouldn’t be ready and should be allowed to cook. It’s just that he seems so obviously ahead of Rousek and Kulich and Olofsson the others battling for the Quinn slot it’s hard to justify giving one of them that spot ahead of him. Guess we’ll see how he can sustain this over the next two weeks. Rosen and Kulich look skilled and ready to be first-line AHLers. They’re right where I’d expect them to be. I suspect Savoie is about there too after prospects camp and am disappointed we haven’t had a chance to see it. I’ve been disappointed in Rousek. I think Biro has the edge in the battle for the 13th forward spot if the Sabres choose to elevate a veteran instead of a kid. The idea that we could roll Mitts/Tuch, Tage/Skinner Cozens/Peterka is very intriguing to me from a tactical standpoint. Not sure if we’ve got enough good wingers to sustain that without Quinn. Which makes keeping Benson up even more intriguing. And I love the edge Stillman has played with. It’s something we need. I think he’s outplayed Bryson and Clague and am feeling more comfortable with him as the #7. The bigger, still unanswered question is whether Erik Johnson and Connor Clifton are what was missing from the top 6. I’ve also started to drink the Kevyn Adams Koolaid on the goaltending front. Not really because of camp, but camp hasn’t changed my mind. I don’t have a ton of faith in UPL, or Comrie, but also think the guy they keep will be adequate for the 30 games he plays - on a tier with the many adequate backups that populate the NHL. My comfort level is based on my faith the Levi will be a good enough #1 that over 82 games we’ll be fine.

Did you guys catch Dreger on SabresLive today? Confirmed Sabres interest in Kane and that they've already had conversations with Pat Brisson about him. Guess we might want to change the thread title.

Don't let the facts (or the way he's played) get in the way of your narrative. Pretty sure he said the exact same thing about Patrice Bergeron on a Bruins board in 2003

The logic for not keeping him up has consistently been "he's 18, small, and history tells us...." Not once have I read a post saying "he doesn't look like he belongs" The most interesting parallel to me is "he's 21, small and history tells us..." And in the case of Devon Levi, Adams and crew have ignored logic and, instead, trusted their eyes.

Well, if it is a real race, i guess we can say Comrie stepped into the lead tonight.

Definitely true. He had a terrible season last year. I don't think that should be how we define him, not with the rest of his body of work. He's a responsible defensive forward with a ton of size and enough offence that he can be the defensive conscience of a middle 6 line. I've been saying Mike Grier since we acquired him.

He was not a 4th liner in Minnesota. He was a regular on perhaps the best 3rd line in the NHL with Foligno and Erikson Ek and averaged a shade under 40 points per 82 games the 3 seasons prior to last year. I don't get why people keep saying this.

If they are at the point Bryson is not in their top 8, should they care?

@Sabres Fan in NS already shattered my heart. There’s nothing left.

Also, is there a cap squeeze issue? Not sure how LTIR works exactly for a 10-week injury.

So he can’t follow in his footsteps because he’s 10 months younger, full stop?

Oh, I think they signed Cooley and Tokarski because they expect one of the top 3 to be moved and everyone involved knows it.

It might also matter if they can get something for either in a trade. Meaning they keep the guy with the lesser trade value because the difference between the 2 in their mind is negligible

Things like this matter if he ends up playing at a level somewhere in vicinity of Vinnie Hinostroza to JJ Peterka. What if he's capable of being Clayton Keller, who put up 65 points as an NHL rookie when he was 10 months older than Benson and about the same size?

I don't think it's an even battle: two games each, winner take all. i think the job is UPL's unless he whiffs completely over the entirety of camp while Comrie shines.

Not really arguing with this. I was just responding to the "did nothing to help carry the squad" by pointing out that the sabres were badly outplayed for more than half the game and until Power's awful play setting up the shortie, he kept them in it.

i think he stopped something like 22 of 23 shots in more than half a game where his team had about 10?

A lot of bubble guys getting equal shots against NHLers. Good litmus test. back to back for Johnson and his 3rd game in 5 nights? Plus all 3 prospects games? Really giving him a hard look.

Here’s what Donnie thinks: “How would you stick around?” Granato said. “You look at young players and size and strength is an automatic. You can’t put a guy in the NHL no matter how talented he is if he can’t keep up with the size and strength of players in the NHL. He stripped and stole some pucks and forced some plays against guys that are 30 or 40 pounds heavier than him (against Washington). He pushed them back, forced them into bad ice and eventually there were turnovers. That was impressive. … That was something I never would have guessed a player would have done that quick.”

All the junior players are now gone save Benson. AHL guys are still needed for tonight and maybe Saturday, but I suspect they’ll be a massive cut soon where they’ll break off into their own camp by Sunday or Monday and the main camp will get down to about 30 I suspect most of Rosen, Kulich, Benson, Johnson will survive that cut. It will be interesting to see how many of the guys like Weissbach, Davidson, Biro, Rousek will.

I think people are letting their overall opinion of UPL colour their picture of last nights game. He let in one long shot, and 2 breakaways. He stopped 25 shots, including several flurries down low and for the most part looked controlled. The team in front of him was badly outplayed and he was OK. That game didn’t win him any ground, but I doubt it cost him any either.

I have to add, that I probably shouldn’t have lumped Lukas Rousek in with the AHLers and longshots because I had him pencilled in to the NHL lineup this year. But if you watched him, you can’t really blame me. He had the best spot in the lineup beside Cozens and did absolutely nothing to distinguish himself from the crowd. I’d say Murray and certainly Biro have been better, never mind the “real” prospects.