dudacek

I agree with this, even though I think this team can make the playoffs as currently constructed. Here’s why, and this fits this thread very well and doesn’t get talked about enough as we retread the same old worn-out ground about needing another goalie, or what a great prospect pool we have. Rasmus Dahlin is among the best defenceman in the NHL and is certainly the best defenceman ever to wear blue and gold. He has first-tier talent, first-tier size and first-tier compete. He is a stud and every inch capable of being the lead dog on a Stanley Cup-winning blueline. Tage Thompson may or may not be a top 10 centre given the holes in his defensive game, but he is an absolute top 10 game-breaker, in terms of being a player who can create highlight reel goals on his own. McDavid is without parallel of course, but who else in the league combines those one-on-one moves with that absolute bomb of a shot the way Tage does? Not many. Never mind the physical unicorn that he is. Eichel, Mogilny, Lafontaine, Martin, Perreault… who else in franchise history has shown the level of offensive talent we saw last year? And how good is Alex Tuch? 6’4” 220 pounds, sees the ice well, deceptive shot, impressive forechecker, impressive backchecker, an all-around all-situations player and an absolute freight train on the rush. Great dude who sets a tone and represents the franchise and the city the way you want it represented. Every intangible you could ask for AND he was the 5th highest points/game Right Wing in the league last year. These guys aren’t “potential” or “projections”, they are - right here, right now - the best D/C/W trio this franchise has had in at least a generation.

I don’t either, but I can see a world where Power could one day surpass Dahlin in hockey IQ and Dahlin currently has the best IQ on the Sabres, and among the best on the franchise of all time. The most impressive thing about Power is the way he handles the geometry of the game. He uses that enormous frame and sub-zero panic threshold to buy an extra half-second of time, or create an extra foot of space that nobody else has and then exploits it to perfection. Even at 20 he can play a game like he’s a 30-year-old playing against 10-year-olds. People compared Dahlin to Lidstrom because they’re Swedes, but Ras doesn’t really play like Niklas at all; he’s smart, but his calling cards are skill and compete. People see Power’s size and they expect him to overpower you, but he is like Lidstrom in that he knows what you’re going to do before you do and you just can’t touch him.

I think there are many fans around the league - and even here - who have no idea how good Dahlin was defensively last year.

Pretty sure you’re talking about organizations here. But I think that last sentence needs to apply to the players, first and foremost. I hope Dahlin and Cozens and Tuch and Thompson and Power and Levi and the rest are looking at this and understanding that this is the mountain they have to climb if they want to reach the top. This and that Hedman Stamkos Kucherov Vasilevskiy Point group. They are are the ones who will have to match up with those players, then beat them. If they are depending on Kevyn bringing in mercenaries to do it for them, it was never going to happen anyway. ***** EDIT: As soon as I posted I realized some people are going to read this as an absolution of Adams and it’s not intended as that at all, he still needs to do his ***** job. Its just an acknowledgement that our core is already here and that if we ever want to be taken seriously, that’s what our core needs to be shooting for.

Average age is such a misleading stat. What matters are the windows - rising U25, declining O30 and prime years in between - and the amount of key players you have in each window.

I think Dahlin was better at 18 than Power was at 20. I think Power was better at 20 than Dahlin was at 21. I think Dahlin is in the Norris conversation and will be for most of the next 8 years. I think Power needs to get to that level before this becomes a real conversation.

Hopefully Karlsson frees a log jam and a few more moves start to flow.

Is that really what I wrote? I like Clifton and I think he improves the team. I don’t think he’s the reliable 3/4 we needed.

Wait, that’s a little different, recalculating 😁

So a straight salary dump, more or less? The Sharks get 5 NHL players, some of whom will be fine for a year or 2, none of who will make a difference now or later, and most of which they probably could have had for free. Who’s better: 25 year-old Thompson Dahlin Tuch Cozens and Power or 35-year-old Crosby Karlsson Smith Malkin and Letang? Playoff race this year should settle a lot of arguments between the go-for-it and develop folks.

So have it, why do you like the guy and why has the recent progress of the team given you hope?

I am skeptical that Eric Johnston and Conor Clifton are enough to fix the defence and I really hope that both Adams and I are right about Devon Levi. I certainly would have liked to see him acquire a better insurance policy in net and a more certain top 4 defenceman. I also think Adams has done a tremendous job fixing the culture, installing hope for the franchise, building a cohesive hockey department, and accumulating a fine collection of young talent, and that the Sabres are on the verge of being successful, but I guess we need another thread for that.

I think most fans are over being a bad team. I think most fans are on board with development if it leads to contention and on board with contention if it leads to championships. And I think most fans were fine with last year in the context of what came before, but they wan’t be fine with a repeat of last year. Or did you honestly think we were going to go from the .330 team of 20/21 to Stanley Cup contender in 22/23?

Didn’t you call me out when I said essentially the same thing about the way you view the Sabres?

I think that’s where a lot of the tension around here comes from: most of us can see how close we are, and it’s been so long since we've been here (2016? 2009?) that we’re terrified it will be frittered away. So suggestions that we’ve already made it, or that we’re the same old Sabres, are frustrating as hell. At the edge is absolutely the wrong time to give up, or to ease up: dig in and get over the hump.

I missed this earlier. Saying no competence has been shown given the hole we were in 2 years ago and what has happened since demonstrates a ridiculously narrow definition of competence. It’s no less blind than JohnC’s definition of success.

I gotta say, that’s not what Thorny has been saying at all. He’s not talking about last year. Hes talking about whether or not Adams has done enough for this team to take another step next year.

Adams had one of the best offensive teams in the NHL and missed the playoffs by a single win. I don’t think his job ahead of this summer was overly complex, even within the overarching mandate of sustainable success: cut the goals against enough to become a perennial playoff team. Now there are many ways to make this happen and I will judge his off-season on the results of his decision in each: Coaching: Adams decided to keep the people responsible for league’s 29th ranked PK and its 26th ranked defence intact. The head coach said it is easier to coach defence than offence, implying strongly that offence and accelerating player development were his initial priorities. Granato is now saying the time for gaining experience is past, that youth is no longer an excuse, and that players will be held accountable for their errors. He has raised expectations that defence and situational awareness within the system will be more of a point of emphasis this season. There has been no suggestion that the system itself is being changed. Changing the forwards: The Sabres are, as the Twitterverse says, ‘running it back’ this year. The most significant change up front actually happened at the deadline last year with the addition of an out-of-shape Jordan Greenway, who was 1/3 of one of the NHL’s best defensive lines in Minnesota the 2 seasons previous to last. The team did not add a bottom-six centre, instead bringing back Tyson Jost as a UFA and choosing to lean on some mix of Mittelstadt, Krebs, Cozens and Thompson for their hard matchups. They have not moved their perceived “weakest link” up front defensively, Victor Olofsson. Instead, he is the odds-on favourite to fill the middle-six hole created by the injury to Jack Quinn, one of the team’s more defensively responsible youngsters. Changing the defence: While Adams stood pat with his top 3, he made his biggest off-season moves here, first adding Riley Stillman at the trade deadline, then Erik Johnson and Kyle Clifford in free agency. All 3 look like calculated efforts at finding upside and/or fit. Clifford will get a shot at top 4 minutes here after showing well in spot duty in that role with Boston while excelling on the 3rd pair. He brings edge and own-zone competence, while playing Granato-style hockey. Johnson is expected to be James Patrick circa 1999: savvy and a professional presence to supplement judicious situational usage. He can still skate and remains a mammoth human being, but he is no longer young and his contributions last year were questionable. Stillman was bad for the Canucks, but considered a better fit for the Sabres system. Like Clifford, he’s no tough guy, but he does bring some edge in a 6/7 role. The fact that Jacob Bryson frequently got top 4 minutes in the 1st half of last year and is now fighting off challenges from Kale Clague and Ryan Johnson to hold on to the 9th spot on the depth chart is indicative of how much deeper the team has become. It remains uncertain that this team has a playoff-calibre top 4. Changing the goalies: Most of Kevyn Adams’ eggs are in Devon Levi’s basket. His skill and charisma were obvious in his 7-game stint last year. His track record is impressive. The list of recent goalies who have carried an NHL load at his experience level exceedingly short. The fanbase antipathy for UPL is very high for a 24-year-old rookie with a winning record on a bad defensive team. His other numbers provide reason. Some remain hopeful Eric Comrie is more the competent backup he was during his last season in Winnipeg, than the Dustin Tokarski he’s been his other 8 professional seasons. Adams has decided - at least thus far - that he will get competent NHL goaltending in some form out of this trio. Penalty-killing: The Sabres penalty killing last year was the worst in franchise history. It was also the area the team did the most to address in the off-season. Both Clifton and Johnson are very good penalty killers and should be notable upgrades. Never having to use Bryson and Fitzgerald on the PK any more has to help. Granato talked about Johnson making everyone around him better here. There was a lot of auditioning going on last year, both on the blueline, and up front. Last year was Dylan Cozens’ first on the PK, Peyton Krebs didn’t start playing that role until the 2nd half (where he was 2nd in PK ice time) so there was definitely some learning on the job going on. Girgensons was probably the only “good” PKer up front, but the GM is betting Krebs, Quinn, Cozens and Tuch have the proper skilllset to do well there, maybe Greenway as well. A key will be setting up a proper rotation early and letting them find a groove. The most important change, however, will be more big and timely saves. Will Levi’s focus and athleticism make a difference here? Experience Adams seems to be putting a great deal of emphasis on this in 2 ways. First of all, Krebs Quinn Peterka Power Samuelsson and UPL now have a full season behind them; Thompson, Tuch, Cozens, Dahlin and Mittelstadt now have a full season of being “core” behind them. He’s betting they will all be better all-around players for it. Secondly, he has been very judicious in his choices of the veteran supplements he’s chosen to nourish his young core. He brought back Girgensons and Okposo because the tone they set is the tone he wants and he added Clifton and Johnson for the exact same reasons, plus the pedigree of playoff success with successful franchises. He’s very specifically chosen this mix and avoided “mercenaries”. Finally, he’s also betting that his 3/4 from last year (Mule and Joker) will not suffer the same injury issues that have plagued them for the 2 previous seasons, and that the likes of Kulich, Rousek, Savoie and Biro are ready to step up and match up defensively should injuries strike up front. Those are his choices when continued growth (read playoffs) is absolutely the mandate. He wears the results.

In terms of how they are perceived among the fanbase and around the league? That’s fair, but it’s also fleeting if they cough up an 84-point season next year.

I think when people talk about teams making moves they tend to focus mostly on who they added and not who they lost, or what they need. Case in point was Andrew Peters gushing over the Leafs: Bertuzzi, Domi, Reaves and Kilngberg, all veterans I’ve heard of! Im not saying these guys can’t be good additions, but I will say that you are collectively adding some talent and some edge, but you are also adding a group of mercenaries who tend to take bad penalties, make defensive miscues, don’t do well with structure and haven’t produced up to their reputations in recent years. And, at the same time, you have subtracted O’Reilly, Kerfoot, Bunting, Holl, Acciari, Schenn, Simmonds, Engvall Sandin and Aston-Reese, some of whom played significant roles in last year’s team. Isn’t the more pertinent question how well have they addressed the perceived weaknesses of last year’s team: the goaltending, play without the puck and the playoff worth of the core 4? It’s a significantly different team than the one they were icing prior to the trade deadline, but is it actually better?

It’s possible to think Adams has done a good job of fixing the culture, building the hockey department, acquiring and developing young talent, and resetting the team on the positive path over the past 2 years, yet still question the decisions he has made this so far summer.

What single word would you use to describe his summer.

Yes, he’s prudently put him himself in a good position with contracts and with young talent. Now that he’s in that position, can he execute the right steps to transform potential to contender? He appears to have had a pedestrian summer so far, in terms of addressing what most of us considered needs. Maybe there’s more to come. If not, we’ll see if he’s done enough. We’ve moved from preparing and into doing, don’t you think?

Isn’t that mostly based on the Tage deal? Cozens and Samuelsson seem fair, but are only “good” based on projection, not performance. And the decision to bridge Dahlin remains an open question. Johnson, Comrie, Lyubushkin, Girgensons, Okposo and Jost aren’t anchors by any means, but they are all on the generous side for what they bring. Olofsson is not looking good. Adams seems to have primarily used his glut of entry-level deal savings to overspend short-term on the bottom half of the roster. Like a lot of what his done with development, he’s primarily used being bad to his advantage, contract-wise. We should reserve judgement until the decision-making gets harder.

Could this be roster in 2027? Benson (23) Tage (30) Tuch (32) Peterka (26) Cozens (27) Quinn (27) Kulich (24) Krebs (27) Savoie (24) Wahlberg (23) Östlund (24) Poltapov (25) Dahlin (28) Samuelsson (28) Power (25) Johnson (27) Novikov (25) Clifton (33) Jokiharju (29) Levi (26) Luukkonen (29) (Rosen, Mitts, Rousek, Kozak, Nadeau, Neuchev, Kisakov, Komarov, Lindgren, Strbak…) Of course trades and the cap will happen and players will develop differently than expected, good, or bad. But that is a ton of talent in their window at the same time.