dudacek

Hope you and/or others are able to go to the event next week and report back.

I'm with Taro here. He's certainly given more emphasis to the bottom 6, but he has directly answered the question of top 6 with a 'yes' (Seravalli interview I think) To me it's been more of (paraphrasing) we will upgrade the bottom 6, we will try to upgrade the top 6.

I'd add opportunity: a chance to play a bigger role and advance your career. But all Webster is saying is most of those things — particularly the bold — are personal and vary dramatically from player to player. Running through the list myself: Money matters, but I'll take less to be where I want to be. Location is important: San Jose, Seattle and Vancouver are close to home and my kind of climate, geography and personality. I'd take Edmonton and Calgary for being adjacent, Western Canadian and smaller hockey towns. Buffalo for my affinity to the franchise and being a smaller hockey town. No way to Winnipeg despite being similar. Too much in the middle of nowhere and crappy geography. L.A., Toronto, Dallas and New York? Keep me as far away from the giant, noisy, self-important cities as possible. Florida likely the same, but I'd look at Tampa and Anaheim. I like the character of Montreal and Ottawa. Carolina seems like a comfortable fit. Not going to go through the league Wife? Fortunately her roots and comfort zone is similar to mine. But she could push me on or off the fence on a few places. Taxes aren't a consideration for me now and wouldn't be as an NHL player either. I pay them when they're owed and grumble when doing it, don't think about them much otherwise. I want to be on a team that I think will win, but it's less about "who has the best chance of winning it all this year" and more about "what direction is this team going and what part can I play?" I would have been far more interested in being a Senator last year than I would this year. And even bigger, how do I fit on the roster? I'm a net-front top-6 LW. I want to play on a team with 2 good top six centres and a lack of scoring on the wings. I'm not interested at all in playing for a roster loaded with good wingers and weak at centre. And the people part is huge: do I want to play with these guys and/or for that coach? Do I trust the GM? What are people I trust saying about the organization? I suspect Johnson picked Buffalo last summer largely because of Okposo, the $ and the fact the team needed a big, veteran RHD who could kill penalties. Those things superceded the fact the team has been bad and Buffalo is cold. Kane was very interested in Buffalo but ultimately didn't come. I suspect that was not because of money or location, but because he didn't feel good about the organization and/or team's chances of winning. We don't really know, but the point is the decision process is far too complex to make sweeping statements.

Pick 11 has value. Recently: 7+ a 2nd ana 3rd got Alex Debrincat, who was then flipped for a lot less. 13 got Romanov and 98 13 and 66 got Dach 17ish and a mid-2nd got Hronek and a 4th 17ish and a 2ndish prospect got Bo Horvat. I'd say given expected progression, Kulich's value has generally improved from his draft slot, Rosen's has slipped, and Östlund's is sorta the same, but each of those would be in the eye of the beholder. Johnson isn't worth a late 1st any more. Krebs either. I would think most teams would certainly give up a 3rd for either though, some might give more. I've always maintained Jokiharju is worth more than this board thinks, simply for what I see people paying for RHD at the deadline. Colin Miller was acquired for a 2nd and a 5th. Andrej Sekera was flipped for a 2nd and Jamie McBain, than flipped again for pick #21. Let me put it this way. You'd have beaten the odds if your 2nd-round pick plays 300 games in his career and Jokiharju has already done that before his 25th birthday. Sam Reinhart went for a package similar to Östlund and 11. So did Kevin Fiala. Sam Bennett was acquired for 2 2nds. The Sabres have the assets to improve their team.

Buffalo News has a lengthy Sabres-focused interview with new COO Pete Guelli. He says the Sabres are expecting a season ticket base of about 10,000 last year to grow about 10-15 %. New roof underway, new scoreboard ready by August, lots of other business-related tidbits, including an answer to everyone’s favourite ownership question. https://buffalonews.com/sports/professional/nhl/sabres/pete-guelli-coo-terry-pegula-buffalo-sabres-nhl-lindy-ruff/article_33306f9c-22a5-11ef-90ca-2b5da1025629.html

Forgot Housley. But in general, I think the only area that shows a clear pattern is when it comes to GMs. Which seems to make sense if you consider how that one is the Pegula hire.

You can’t take anything for granted. But I don’t think it is a stretch to expect 25-30 goals and 50-60 points from each of Quinn and Peterka next year. Third-year forwards with their track records often have productive seasons simply through the experience they’ve gained. It’s a pace each produced at last year and there’s a pretty good case they’ll enter the season as the team”s #2 and #3 wingers after Tuch. The ice time should be there. There’s also a chance each could get more PP time, given the need to revamp the PP, the fact Appert will be in charge of it, and how each had great PP success under Seth in Rochester.

What are the parameters to the pattern? The Sabres under Pegula? Ruff is about as opposite to the pattern as you can get. Granato fits the pattern Krueger does not fit the pattern Bylsma does not fit the pattern Nolan does not fit the pattern Adams fits the pattern Botterill fits the pattern Murray fits the pattern Karmanos does not fit the pattern Sexton does not fit the pattern Patrick does not fit the pattern Ventura does not fit the pattern Leone fits the pattern Appert fits the pattern Bales does not fit the pattern Wilford does not fit the pattern Ellis fits the pattern… Is this actually a pattern?

Is that yours? Ranking or what you think teams might do? I would take Catton with what was available at 11. Haven’t given it a ton of thought, but he might be as high as 6 on my list.

He’s terrible because he’s more of the same. But Appert wasn’t actually terrible… Maybe, but the Sabres are terrible and they hire coaches from the USNDTP. But really they haven’t. It’s just Appert and Leone right now, plus Granato out of dozens since Darcy got canned… That’s my point, they only hire people they know. But they don’t know Leone… Why do you hate the fans so much?

Kinda have a soft spot for Claypool because he is one of a very few B.C. kids to have a measure of success in the NFL. I have no idea if he deserves the hatred he gets on social media, but I do know what I think of social media.

I don’t think so, but it’s an interesting comparison. One could argue the Panthers did what they did after a Sabres-style rebuild around Barkov, Huberdeau, Gudbranson etc. failed. Some argued it’s what the Sabres should have done. But Kevyn Adams chose a different path and he thinks his players are better than you do. He’s going to sink or swim with this ship

Not sure whether the Greenway conversation is more about what role people want him in, what players they want him to play with, or where he ranks on the ice time depth chart. For me, I am remembering a Lindy Ruff who consistently played Jochen Hecht with Briere and Mike Grier with Drury. I have listened to coach, players and GM talk about the need for structure. And I have watched how much better Greenway is at structure than most of the other forwards. I expect him to be playing a lot.

Think he’s been mentioned on here somewhere, but if the Sabres are looking for defensively strong, veteran defensive forechecking winger, I don’t know if there’s a better fit than Jordan martinook. Great forechecker, kills penalties. He’s basically a better Girgensons.

Why not? Is he significantly worse than Corey Perry and Dylan Holloway, currently playing top 9 in the Stanley Cup final I’m not the kind of guy to build my lineup on a hierarchy system. The lines would depend more on role or chemistry. But in terms of ice time, I’d be giving Quinn and Tuch the most and Peterka Benson Skinner Greenway and new guy similar counts based on play and situation. Who were the 3rd liners out of Dumont, Hecht, Grier, Kotalik, Vanek, Afinogenov, Pominville and whichever of Connelly and Roy wasn’t playing centre?

Not disagreeing at all, but the heart of this team's offensive philosophy will be driven by its back end.

Isn't he saying the new guy and those 5 are the top 9 wingers, Greenway is knocked down?

So Gaustad, minus the faceoffs? For me, he's more the Grier: size and defensive conscience in a top 9 role.

I frequently see people pencilling Greenway in as a 4th-liner. I struggle to think of many teams who have a player as strong as Greenway on their 4th line. With the exception of the year he was in the doghouse and traded to Buffalo, Greenway was inarguably a 3rd-liner in Minnesota, part of what was considered one of the best 3rd lines in the game with Foligno and Ek. In Buffalo last year, he was actually 4th in ice time among forwards at more than 17 minutes a game, ahead of Cozens, Skinner and Peterka. Statistically, a 10-goal, 30-point player is a good 3rd-liner. His 28 points last year put him 64th among left wings. Throw in the fact that he is strong defensively and a mammoth human being, I tend to think of him as almost a prototypical 3rd-liner.

I might quibble about the way the pieces get used, but the only thing I'd say differently about the roster is Krebs is the 4C and I'm fine with him in that role, so long as the new 3C is sturdy and can win a faceoff. And I also think Adams will try to move Jokiharju if he can find a more physical 4/5 RD at similar or cheaper $$

Over the course of the season Levi put up good back-up goalie numbers, while UPL put up good starting goalie numbers. The counter-argument is that neither provided the same quality of play over the first 2 months of the season, where the season was lost. I took the "Levi timeline" thing to mean "the Sabres are planning to be good when Levi is ready to be an upper-echelon starter" which I don't really agree with, but that may not have been the intent of the original post.

Maybe I'm misreading you guys? Power will be 22 this coming season. Dahlin and Samuelsson 24, Thompson 26, Cozens 23 — the window should be opening now, not a few years down the road. To simplify, I would say the Sabres can and should be competitive over the entire 8 years of Dahlin's contract, which kicks in this fall. Or do you mean Cup conversation timeline, as opposed to playoff conversation timeline? If Quinn is the player much of Sabrespace seems to think he is, that's a heck of an addition to next year's roster.

LGR asked under what scenario Iginla gets past the Flames. To me, the answer is "if Berkley Catton (or name your player) is still on the board". There will be player available at 9 you can easily justify taking over Iginla.

Who is the worst player a top 12 pick has ever been moved for? The fact that it is in conversation tells me Adams has at least interest in adding a piece that is more than “around the-edges.”

The contracts tell me the timeline is the Thompson, Cozens, Samuelsson, Dahlin, Power timeline.