DarthEbriate

Overall, it's been a very entertaining hockey season.

If he's unprotected. The Sabres GM/coaching staff was still very high on TNT's potential. Super-duper hindsight says we protect: Eichel, Reino, Tage, Mitts, Dahlin, Risto (to trade), Joker, Borgen, and Ullmark. It would depend on what Seattle's leadership thought of VO, knowing he was not a defensive forward but had a lethal shot. They probably take Asplund if this is the 4+4 setup. Who the Sabres Protected in 2021: Asplund (F), Bjork (F), Eichel (F), Mittelstadt (F), Olofsson (F), Reinhart (F), Thompson (F), Dahlin (D), Jokiharju (D), Ristolainen (D), Ullmark (G) Available in 2021: Caggiula (F), Dea (F), Eakin (F), Fogarty (F), Girgensons (F), Oglevie (F), Okposo (F), Rieder (F), Sheahan (F), Skinner (F), Smith (F), Borgen (D), Davidson (D), Irwin (D), McCabe (D), Miller (D), Nelson (D), Houser (G), Hutton (G), Tokarski (G) He waived his NMC with about a week before the expansion draft knowing Seattle was staying away $9M/yr and coming off a 7-goal season.

The Sabres were in the Final in their 5th season. Just gotta cash in the chances you get.

If he hadn't already requested a trade, they'd likely have gone with his preferred surgery as the face of the franchise. They'd have seen it as risky, but he'd almost led them to the playoffs (play-in) and had gotten better year-after-year up to that point. But once he said he was out, they weren't going to risk his trade value.

That's fair. Risto turned into Hagg, Rosen, Karlsson, and the 2023 PHI 2nd still to be determined. Joker (1st rounder) had just been acquired for a 1st rounder; they weren't going to keep Borgen over that investment. They should have exposed Bjork and gone 4F-4D with Borgen, but he was the fresh new acquisition from the Hall trade and no one wants to give up on their newly traded-for piece. But then, maybe Seattle takes Skinner or Okposo and there's no 1st liner resurgence or Dad-figure? (Doubtful, it's true, because cost. But it could've happened.)

In Russia, they describe Samuelsson as the "Voorhees Township Novi".

I'm not sure it's so much a matter of suburbia as where in suburbia/boonies. It's a matter of access for the entire metro region. Arlington is smack between Dallas and Fort Worth. For Orchard Park's comparison it'd be as is <looks at map> ... Springville... was another city with 250,000 people. NE New Jersey has another 2-4M people within a short distance of the Meadowlands coming from the opposite direction of NYC. If it's centrally located and you've got population centers of 6M and 20M, suburbia isn't really an issue. If you're winning (and the tickets aren't music concert cost), then the more casual fans will show up. If you lose for 10 years, you won't have nearly as many kids asking to go to a game. You won't be able to rally a few friends to make a weeknight of it to go watch your team get caved.

I don't think they were downgrades relative to Detroit's prior roster. Copp is an upgrade over Suter/Rasmussen as 2/3C from the previous season. The issue is if Larkin (very good but not great) is your 1C, you'd better have another 1/2C caliber as your 2. But Copp is not that. He's a low 2/good 3. Maybe in a couple seasons if Kasper becomes a 1/2 and Larkin is a 1/2 and Copp an overpaid 3 it'll work out for them.

Overall, I'm fine with the latest expansion rules. This latest protections of 7-3-1G or 8-1G at least gave the newcomers a chance to get 1 NHL/tweener player off your roster.o The last expansion (Wild/BJs) the league didn't have a salary cap in place, so this time around there would be "better" players exposed because of cap implications. It was up to VGK/SEA whether to take those established higher-priced veterans vs. potential or about-to-breakout players. The 2000 protections of 9-5-1G or 7-3-2G + no salary cap meant the only real option was to go full youth movement. What I didn't like about the new expansion? Seattle's delay: They set their date. Then, GMs and players/NHLPA planned and signed contracts that would either expose or protect them or head to UFA accordingly. Then, Seattle put off the expansion for a year. I understand Seattle's reason for the delay, but it was a move that should have come with expansion protection modifications. I would have extended all ineligible players out 1 year in time to meet Seattle's new timeline. VGK should not have been exempt from the expansion draft, especially if the League was going to allow Seattle to shift back a year. Your roster is established by year 3, you're a real GM, you play by the same rules as everyone else. The long-term workaround on this would have been forcing both teams to enter the same season and do a true expansion draft. That way, the 7-3-1 or 8-1 protections make tons of sense. You're losing 1 good player, but which team takes them... that's the fun.

In watching the WHL Final, Benson was the better player than Savoie. Both had the instincts and the awareness, but Benson was more dynamic and shiftier. Of course, paired together on the same line in Winnipeg they were simply eaten up and beaten up by bigger, but just as fast Seattle T-birds guys playing aggressive defense. If Benson is the pick, then you might as well trade Savoie.

Levi is our princess, trade-child of Reino Samidala. He gives us...

As would I. Then, I'd put my Darth-CBJ hat on and reject our trade offer without hesitation.

From the NJD perspective, they've got Hughes to take Severson's PP2 time. Graves could still hit UFA, but this definitely opens the door for the Devils to re-sign him. They can still be pretty smart about their forwards as Meier could get a long-term deal rather than the giant 1-year cap hit, and Bratt could get a bridge as well, then get a big deal when the cap goes up in a couple more years. Columbus is as likely to trade Jiricek as Buffalo is to trade Power.

Levi would be a Conn Smythe candidate within those 2 years.

As would be expected after acquiring a very solid piece, LAK re-signs Gavrikov. That's one defensive d-man option off the UFA list.

Hart is still an inconsistent young goalie. He has flashed some potential. If you believe the Sabres will continue to improve in puck possession over the next 2 seasons and that sub-24ers Dahlin, Muel, and Power (and Joker) are better than 27-28ers Sanheim, Risto, and DeAngelo (and Provorov was) and will continue to improve as they mature... then Hart could be a good bet for 2 years.

Certainly -- the team's D depth got out of whack because Power skipped all pipeline work and went right to top-4 minutes, which is great; the rest of the 2021 draft had only 1 D out of the remaining 10 picks and the 2022 draft had only 2 D from 11 picks. A little course correction is necessary. This year, with 8 picks, something like 4-3-1 would be good, but even 3-4-1 wouldn't be bad. The pipeline still has Savoie, Östlund, Poltapov, and Richard as maybes (plus the AHL stockpile). Next year, start easing back to balance.

Absolutely. He's on the board.

Good for Dahlin and the Sabres (provided the cap goes up as anticipated). The unspoken item is that this year's Cup-winner will have a $10M/year player no matter who wins (Barkov, Bobrovsky, Eichel). The ceiling is broken for winners!

Thanks! I skipped right past it in my notes, 7/13/22 Prow and the 2-year deal. I see Bryson's salary easily passing waivers at the end of training camp; I'm of the mind that the Sabres like Clague as an 8. Either could be on PP2 for the Amerks.

Agreed. If you must draft for need, you do it organizationally. My thoughts are... don't look at the NHL roster because it's 3 years out. And mostly, you can skip the AHL roster, too. Instead, you can base your needs on what is missing in all the feeder systems to maintain a healthy pipeline of potential NHL players. Example: Outside the NHL/AHL, the Sabres have 1 LHD (Lindgren), 1 RHD (Komarov), and 1 G (Leinonen) who you would give a "maybe NHL" grade to if they hit their peak and stay healthy. Nyberg and Lyckasen both appear to be outside the teams' plans. This draft, you'd best find some D and G. Also, this year, I still seriously consider a late pick on a goalie for an AHL backup gig (Milic, Suchanek). I don't think they both make it through to UDFA status. That would be a need pick to keep Rochester competitive so the kids all get meaningful games and a playoff-caliber squad. Also, also, draft by the coolest and most Star Warsy-sounding names. That's a need.

The Amerks are now in the market for someone to run their PP. Prow can be re-signed to an AHL deal. The incoming defensive prospect reinforcements are not especially known for PP prowess. Metsa and Jandric have scored some points throughout college. But Novikov and Johnson probably don't play on a 4F-1D PP unit.

If you have the opportunity to draft someone with the last name Mania... Do it.

It only ever comes into play with dead cap hits after the player is no longer on your team and you can't do any more tweaks with the contract. Even then it's usually easy to plan for.

Per the bolded, last season, yes the Amerks were younger among the forwards. However, for defensemen, the Sabres were younger. In goal, the Sabres were the younger battery anytime Anderson wasn't on the ice.