LGR4GM

I think hits are most effective when defending a rush. You take the player or the puck and if you take the player, your D partner cleans up the puck. It's why I like Novikov so much, he might give you a little stick check but if you get past that, he'll just hit you. A lot of times in hockey now they talk about breaking through the hands or arms, not hitting someone.

Simple question, let's say 1 of them will make the Sabres roster this October, which is it and why?

Do they Sabres need to be more physical? Yes. Do I care what their hit count is? No.

Hits are a poorly tracked stat with limited definition and they don't mean what you imply they mean. https://thewincolumn.ca/2021/01/30/breaking-down-the-inconsistencies-in-counting-hits-between-different-nhl-arenas/ Sabres home arena under counts hits

Hits are a poorly counted stats. Buffalo's home arena counts the least amount of hits and no I don't mean just for Buffalo. Every team at keybank has lower hit totals than when they play elsewhere. Take a look. https://thewincolumn.ca/2021/01/30/breaking-down-the-inconsistencies-in-counting-hits-between-different-nhl-arenas/

These heights and weights are not correct. I get you say "when drafted" but that's not accurate. It doesn't matter what they were when drafted but what they are and what they become. It really doesn't matter what their list h/w was drafted since a chunk of them were from covid years. Hell Neuchev's height was off by 3 inches. Here's what these guys are listed at by Buffalo right now, that's the important part. Benson 5’10” 170, Savoie 5’10” 170, Östlund 5’10 163, (don't have updated stats) Kulich 6'1” 186, and Rosen 6'0" 173. Neuchev is 5'11" 171lbs

They haven't updated today rosters for this season but here https://www.eliteprospects.com/league/nhl/teams-physical-stats/2022-2023

His TOI only went down 1minute from 2021 to 2022. His g/60 went from 1.1 to 1.6 and that increase was mainly reliant on an increase in his sh%. 1.1 p/60 seems to be his average and most likely we see regression in Olofsson' scoring. I am just highly skeptical that Olofsson can get to 30. When you need multiple miracles and things to break your way to get there, I think that suggests getting there would be an outlier and not who you are. I know you aren't arguing he is some consistent 30g scorer. I am saying I am skeptical he will do it even once while in Buffalo due to his skill and the opportunity that won't be given to him.

I'd would be stunned if he scored 30goals. Totally floored. If he maintains his career avg sh% and his granato # of shots, he comes out to 23 goals. I don't see him getting top pp time due to his limitations.

My conclusions thus far... Skinner and Tage will remain together JJP and Cozens will remain together I think Power - Joker, Dahlin - Clifton, and Muel - Johnson are at least the preliminary def pairs to see how things work for now.

I wonder how many times Hamilton will be on WGR today telling ppl falsely that Trevor Zegras is better than Dylan Cozens, what say you? 5, 6 more? He is at at least 3.

The same pundits went into last year and again this year with the line that Detroit is so much better simply because they did stuff.

Everyone realizes the Sabre and Anaheim 100% talked. How do we know? Because we literally traded with them already. That doesn't mean they are seriously discussing a Zegras trade. Doesn't even mean anything of interest happened there. It doesn't make sense.

Redwings 1st training camp lines:

Christmas is a possible return for Quinn although from Adams' comments, I was not clear if that meant back on the ice to practice or back on the ice to play. Basically I don't know if he meant that is when they expect Quinn to be ready to play NHL games or just when he is done with that initial recovery and can start ramping up for game play.

Update:

There it is, the expectation is not playoffs, it is the Stanley Cup.

Zegras v Cozens v Mitts Zegras - 23g, 42a, 0.802ppg, 2.6pts/60, possession quality -17.5 E+/- Cozens - 31g, 37a, 0.84ppg, 3.1pts/60, possession quality -5.9 E+/- Mitts - 15g, 44a, 0.72ppg, 2.7pts/60, possession quality -2.4 E+/-

What if none of what you say here is remotely true? Dahlin was at the prospects tournament. Went to the Jets game. Is in their promotional stuff joking around. For a guy who's "unhappy" he sure is doing a lot of stuff with his team.