DarthEbriate

Possessing the puck much better this period. Not everything is a one and done.

If Olofsson finds his shot, Asplund finds his game, and Krebs stays tenacious... that could be a nice little line for a few games. (Until Mitts is healthy and sends Krebs to the wing.)

Krebs is getting to the right spot quickly on the forecheck.

Yup - touched the defender

If that popped off Thompson that might be high stick

Looks like they're at least starting to get their legs going

Just the shot itself and Pysyk getting caught looking the wrong way with his skate positioned for the bank shot. Not the prelude to it.

That is one crummy bit of puck luck right there.

There thousands and thousands of Darth minifigs out there in the world. I think the best bet for a steady defensive right-handed defenseman is a veteran via trade or free agency. Any of Muel, Dahlin, or Power could all use someone with playoff experience and some veteran muscle at their side. Fitzgerald won't turn 25 until later this month and it's about the game speed slowing down for him. Tons of plays get their initial call-up, look overmatched, and then show up a year later and they can process and play at the NHL speed. Fitzgerald could do the same. However, in his first few games he's looked good and not overmatched. But when the forecheckers really start to press, he's not ready for it. Next season he could be a 6/7 guy. Jury is still out.

I wonder how the NHLPA feels about a team that's been downsizing its cap and collecting revenue sharing while they're paying off escrow for years... is now moving to a new venue that needs substantial upgrades to be considered NHL-capable but will have a fraction of the revenue-generating capacity of a regular stadium, instead of moving to a robust new market (Houston) with a full-size building. I wonder how the fellow owners feel about the fact that the Coyotes have been collecting their revenue-sharing money and not providing cash for years and years. Note: There's no plan here for building a new stadium... just an option to extend this agreement.

The Concept Of (the Defensive Pair) is with you, @woods-racer, but you are not a Jedi Fitzgerald doesn't play at NHL speed yet.

++ Squad leaders, we've picked up a new group of signals. Enemy fighters Rescheduled games coming your way. -- My schedule's negative. I don't see anything. == Pick up your visual scanning Game Day Thread. ++ Here they come!

For his 8th suspension, by this count Marchand should be looking at: 1,2,4,8,16,32,64, 128. So he's up to 1.5 seasons.

Definitely high on hopium way back then. They were the first supplemental wave of kids to join the tank's new center spine of Eichel/ROR/Reinhart. We we on our way up! I readily admit I liked Baptiste and Fasching as the potential to become middle six if they peaked in their development. The complimentary guys who work hard/grind (Fasching) or win the puck races (Baptiste) but are not the most skilled guys on their line and rely on the overall chemistry of the trio. Bailey could become a bottom six guy with size/speed. The new trio's potential is significantly higher and that's reflected in where they were drafted.

If I'm Johnson or Bryson or hell... William Worge Kreu... I'm telling my coach I'd like to work on playing the right side.

Well... yes... but it was a prospects column and not an overall organization column. We have the NHL Standings the last 10 years for that. 😇

Marchand has been suspended 7 times, including for 3 games already this season. https://www.nhl.com/news/boston-bruins-brad-marchand-to-have-hearing-with-nhl-department-of-player-safety/c-330627952?tid=277549076 In this game, with 24 seconds left and the game out of reach, he sucker punches a goalie, then switches his stick grip so he can reach the blade to his right, then skates/pushes through a referee to spear at the goalie's -- throat? eyes? This is clear intent to injure an opponent. What if he just so happened to get his stick blade in Jarry's mask? The previous 7 suspensions didn't change behavior. So obviously he hasn't learned and his punishments have not been a detriment to his team for them to curb his actions. There's nothing wrong with the league stepping in and giving him the "suspended indefinitely" tag, is there? Let he and the Bruins sweat it out. Trading deadline coming up and they ask about status. "Suspended indefinitely." Playoffs coming up? "Suspended indefinitely." Give no indication he'll ever be reinstated. Maybe then as the paychecks keep missing and the team can't plan for him, it would impact behavior. Because he's a damn good hockey player when he's actually playing hockey and not attempting to hurt people -- good enough to be on Canada's top line, no less.

Watching the Canadiens from last year to this is like watching the demise of the Hasek-era Sabres condensed into a single offseason "highlights" package. Lose your all-world goalie (Hasek), your all-minutes D-man (Zhitnik), your heart-and-soul defensive center who has been know to score goals (Peca), an up-and-coming high draft pick (...really that Sabres team didn't have an equivalent so I'll play the pick angle and go Rasmussen), the cagey vet forward Corey Perry who was money in the playoffs (Ward), your rentals like Staal (... Juneau?), and replace them all with AHLers. For fun, stir in some Hutton-level or worse goaltending as a replacement on all rostered goalies.... Voila!

I agree with you in a vacuum (for example, a 3rd for Vesey is a good trade) or on a average/good team where you're fixing a hole or two in the lineup. But this is a cumulative trauma of sending picks for JAGs, often as one-year rental UFAs. The Sabres have been a below average-team for a decade, constantly lacking NHL-quality and -ready depth to step up to the roster. If Vesey signs an extension and provides his expected role for 2+ years, then that'd be well worth it. But Vesey was a one-year rental so the potential of a controlled cheap contract with RFA status at the end and building the prospect pool was lost. We also need to remember in any Vesey discussion: he cost the Sabres two 3rds. And this is all compounded by the point you made -- our 2005 through 2013 drafts were dismal. Yes, there are some really solid bottom 6/bottom-pair players, but only the two Tylers showed anything resembling top-flight potential. One got injured and the other became an overpriced JAG who somehow keeps getting long-term contracts. Then, we didn't build around them and blew it up to draft high. We've been rebuilding for 7 straight seasons --- we should have had one of the best prospect pool in the league the last 5 years running. The McNabb (plus Parker) plus two 2nds... yup. That was awful. (And I liked Fasching's and DLo's games. Heck, Deslauriers is still being effective at that same role all these years later. And Zegras doesn't have to worry about taking any flak for attempting "Michigan" goals because DLo will have his back.)

This is the key: looking at Wheeler's (or any draftnik's) reports over the long term. He had the Sabres 15th in 2021 and 16th in 2020. The difference? Two trades for key prospects (and 1sts) and a really strong 2021 draft with a ton of selections. The worst thing about the mid-league rankings previously is that we were always in a state of rebuild, even in the 5 seasons leading up to those two drafts -- and we still didn't even fulfill his prerequisites of 20 prospects in those earlier years. This year, it's 20 + some honorable mentions. It was something under GM JBot to trade away picks. In the 2017,18,19 drafts the Sabres made 6 picks. And in 2020 (Adams) they went into the draft with 6 picks and moved 1 to move up -- selecting only 5. Those are not the actions of a rebuild and a team that desperately needs to bolster depth. If you're going to move picks, you trade them for a) players who are going to move the needle [like Eichel or Skinner, not say... Beaulieu or Vesey], b) rentals because you're going to the playoffs [not for Simmonds to play out the string on a non-playoff team], or c) if you really need to move up in the draft, you do it at the top of the draft [for a JJP] and not at the bottom of the draft [sending a 6 and 7 to get back into the 5th round*]. *To select Cederqvist when you could have just selected him with your original 5th which was a few picks earlier. But you didn't have that 5th because you traded it for F Scott Wilson who is a very good AHLer and was a 4th liner type at the time.

@PASabreFan has become a DarthRoosevelt and is quoting Teddy. I believe next he'll be posting gifs of Arsenic and Old Lace into the GDTs.

We could sign both, but at least get one in the system now. If both, all the better for Rochester next year.

The consensus was that Rosen was being drafted in the 1st round. His overall skills, vision, etc. was very well regarded. He may have been a reach by a few picks, but he wasn't out of nowhere. It's just a matter of reaching the potential. My mention of Olofsson is that he might need years of development time in game and strength. Olofsson always had the cannon shot but he needed years to develop into a player. Next thing we knew he was leading the SHL in goals. Then an Amerk. And up until he got hurt this season he was arguably our best forward (and really had dismissed the notion he was only a PP specialist). So my thoughts on Rosen are that he might just be the "high upside" who we don't see for 3 or 4 years and then... wham, he just arrives ready to go.

Just make sure the kids get a playoff run in Rochester and the Sabres develop some chemistry with folks getting health. What I really want to see in the second half is Mitts solidify himself as a threat to score at the NHL level. The end of last season he showed it and I’m hoping he is able to get healthy and show it again. My second goal is goaltender stability. Third goal is sign Power and one of the NCAA goalies.

The key there is St. Louis was a perennial playoff contender. Once you’re at that level you can attract the higher-level UFA/mercenary who wants to be on a contender. We’re still at the point where our UFAs are the “prolong a career/happy to be in the league” variety. We’ll get there but it’s going to take a few years.