DarthEbriate

It's not in hindsight. The timeline is: 9/11 - Sabres sign Georgiev. Luukkonen is reported to have an undisclosed injury and unknown recovery timeline. They signed the goalie before they had the information. 9/13 - Within 48 hours, it is reported that Luukkonen has a "tweak" and is considered day-to-day. That's no reason to have already signed another backup goalie. You already have Lyon -- whose career numbers are better than Luukkonen's anyway. And you still have Levi who can clear waivers and should be ready to take in some NHL games this season with any injuries to UPL/Lyon because that's his job as #3 in the franchise. And you can see if he's made the progress you want to see. You still have a week to go before your first preseason game. Shortly after that, it's known that Luukkonen won't miss the beginning of the season and is already ramping up to play in the preseason. So -- you wait until 9/13-14 when you have an actual diagnosis on Luukkonen, and then offer Georgiev (or Reimer - who didn't sign with his PTO with Toronto until 9/26, or another random guy, ... Houser!... ) a PTO to help you with the camp workload. If he shines, great, then offer him the 1-year deal knowing he's destined for Rochester. And no, it doesn't matter that Luukkonen either re-aggravated the same injury or got a new injury during the preseason game. They still didn't need to do anything beyond a PTO (of Georgiev/Reimer) because they had Lyon, Levi, and the waivers claim windows of this week. Or trade for a real #1.

One can only hope. But someone still needs to be Pegula's yes-man next year. Adams POHO, Ruff Senior Consultant, Jarmo or Forton as GM. Appert as HC. It's all the same. Naturally, you then extend the assistant coaches for continuity. And because they're the cheapest coaching staff in the league. All this after a very thorough search and interview process at each position.

Or a team with a distinct chance at the playoffs, or at least one that didn't jettison him at the end of preseason, and then let him walk after he was their best goalie.

It goes back to... why on earth did Georgiev get anything more than a PTO?

Entirely possible. But he'd still have been far and away their best goalie since Miller (and briefly, strictly by the numbers, Lehner -- if he'd been able to keep himself healthy off the ice). 40 healthy games of Ullmark, with ....Anderson?... as a backup and hot Levi to finish, gets them in 2022-23.

The Adams approach to goaltending... ...for a franchise that had Hasek and Miller for 20 seasons. And Ullmark ready to go for five more.

It's the "Reverse Reimer" from last year. Ellis' numbers are lightyears ahead of Luukkonen's... in the AHL. They'll waive him back to St. Louis in a month unless he's just a lights-out goalie. I guess they don't want to risk having Levi play in the NHL this season and accumulate games accrued toward losing waivers exemption. But, hopefully this (temporarily) solves the issue that Adams cannot ever solve. Luukkonen to IR, play Lyon, waive Georgiev to the AHL where if he doesn't report, no worries and no loss. Roll two goalies and keep Levi marinating for later.

The Matt Ellis of waiver claims, at least.

There's a 7.5% chance that Norris and Thompson both meet or exceed 74 games played this season (provided the league has a full 82-game slate). If someone (Benson at the moment) manages to stick on their line all season and they're all healthy, I'd wager that player would out-point Peterka's 68 from last year. Note: Benson would be hard-pressed to get 68 until he gets meaningful PP time, but I'd think he'd easily eclipse Peterka's 29 EV assists from last season with a healthy Norris/TNT. But of course, this is the abandon hopium thread, and that 92.5% is much, much more likely to happen.

With McDavid and Kaprizov off the market, anyone who does want to wait until next summer as UFA will have that much more money available to them.

Well, shoot. He could've just waited until next summer and signed with the Sabres for that. C'mon, Sheevyn! What even are you doing? 😇

Or, try to get him back on the "Okposo" as a veteran leader who can move around the lineup.

Tuch should sign for 2 x $12.25M as a prove it deal (to the owner). Then, go to Florida or Las Vegas on a Cup-mission spite discount.

I like the player, but $48.5M per year is way too high a cap hit for me. 😇

But then they'd have to waive Bryson (or the claimed player) once everyone gets back to health. And Adams can't risk exposing Bryson to waivers.

I think Greenway is a 4th liner on this squad. He's definitely not rolling with the Norris line or McLeod-Tuch under normal 5-on-5 situations. Ruff has a very Ruffian-style kid third line in Quinn-Kulich-Doan. If Greenway skates on the remaining spare parts line of say: Greenway-Krebs-Danforth, then they probably get 9-10 minutes 5-on-5 and Greenway gets another 2+ as PK1. But, I do agree that Geertsen gets much different ice time. If the 4th line for that night is Geertsen-Krebs-Danforth, then Geertsen gets 6 minutes total and other players get a double shift with the Krebs-Danforth forechecking effort. Pasta is from the Italian word for... well, pasta. Noodle is from the German Knödel or dumpling, but a boiled dumpling is a type of pasta.

I think Greenway’s primary historic injury is also a shoulder. Muel-PO seems to be everything.

Fully agree on Lyon. You got him to be the steady veteran backup. Use him. Don’t do him like they did Reimer last year. Waive Georgiev and let Levi play until Luukkonen is back. Regarding Korpisalo, with the exception of his brief time in LA (and their good defensive game) I don’t see anything inspiring more confidence than I’ve seen with Luukkonen.

If he’s on Seattle (and so is Cootes) then they’re a playoff contender and Mrtka is a team leader skating 27+ each night. If he’s on the Amerks, just pair him with waived and cleared NHL veteran Bryson and let the kid shine in second pair work.

If it’s Geertsen, it is significant . Greenway can give you PK time and experienced defensive play against the league’s top lines. Geertsen can give you 5 minutes of 2 hits, a fight if anyone is willing that night, and otherwise you try to hide from the opponent’s top 9. His next NHL point will be his first.

Didn’t see the game, but do want to point out that Georgiev is not a big goalie. He’s 6-1 178 compared to Levi at 6-0 192. Luukkonen and Leinonen are the bigs in the system.

Looking at those lines (and the odd flip of 2 and 3 by expected ice time)…. Man, Benson really ties the forward room together, doesn’t he? That’s a lot to be riding on the shoulders of a 20 year-old.

Vezina? Unlikely. But here are Ullmark’s career save percentages throwing out the high of that Vezina year: .913, .917, .935, .905, .915, .917, .917, .915, .905. Most of those numbers are with the Sabres defense in front of him, Housley, Krueger, and Granato teams… stellar defensive lineups. There might not be a more consistent above-average but-not-star goalie in the league. Ullmark would’ve been fine. With him as #1 starter, the Sabres would have had a positive goal differential last season. They’d have definitely ended the drought in 22-23.

For Adams, it's the only plan. Hope me Hopey-Hope, you're my only hope. I think at this point (except Samuelsson) it's all minor tweaks and "no reason for preseason" stuff. If it were in the regular season, they'd likely all play unless by resting a game they could get a 4-day break to really heal up. If it were post-season... ha. You're right. That's silly fancies.

Here's a solution. This season, I hope they're better against the rush and better at cycling in the offensive zone. Like... you know, real NHL hockey teams that make the playoffs year-after-year.