DarthEbriate

He's a CHL player, so age 20 -- until the new CBA kicks in and then he could be assigned at age 19 with an exemption. He joined Seattle in the middle of the 2024-25 season.

There are a bunch of bottom-third teams with a suspicious amount of cap unspent... and only a scattered RFA here or there. If the cards fall right, they'll stay within striking distance of San Jose/Chicago for the McKenna fest. In 2014-15, five teams completely bottomed out for McDavid. As a result, good teams scored more points. The playoff line was high: 97 points was the #16 playoff seed. The Sabres need almost everything to go right to get to 90 points. How do we feel about 97 if a half dozen team are obviously in on the tank? It'd be very on brand to have their "best season ever" under Pegula and still miss out on the playoffs by 5 points because a bunch of common opponents weren't trying. It would please and justify Adams/Pegula as incredible progress and we're on the right track. That is, until the following season has snap-back regression (in 2015-16 - 93 pts in the east and a silly 87 pts in the west to get in) with all teams trying again -- and the Sabres back to the mid 80s to fall a few points short.

I think we just saw that in Kesselring (again, a 5/6D by Utah depth chart, top-4 by injuries last season) for Peterka. So, it was... easy? From a certain point of view.

Not $832,500 annually, though.

More teams, even great teams, play down to their opponent than we realize. How else do you explain so many Sabres victories since the tank began? It's natural in an 82-game season to not be able to generate the same intensity each and every night. Teams come out flat in a simple 16-game (17) NFL season, let alone soon to by 84 NHL games.

The Sabres were up by 2 and going to the powerplay as a result of the major penalty. So the plans to retaliate were made. Then, the Sabres gave up a shorthanded goal during the major, so they were only up by 1. Gilbert can't play protecting a mere 1-goal lead or risk going on the PK. FWIW, the Sabres did hang on to win 4-3. (Nevermind that the season was already over barring some 8-game winning streak.) Scott saying that Lindy would have wanted blood after the Tage hit hasn't been watching Ruff behind the bench the last few years. Young Ruff is in the past.

Put Norris, Greenway, and Muel on LTIR to conveniently return in April and you can go add a Draisaitl-sized contract. Just sayin'. But yes, you'd probably have to be operating without the owner being happy for any additional yacht or construction payments. (And you'd have to be good enough to make the playoffs with just adding Draisaitl and subtracting those 3.)

Just build the entire dashboard of levers, blinking lights, and unmarked 1900s metal toggle switches.

9 NHL games or fewer and the contract slides. If they dress for game 10, the ELC year counts. While they're still 18 or 19 years old.

It's sad, because we all like him and he has been a good coach (when Hasek/Miller). But current-day Ruff was not getting rehired anywhere else in the league. Pegula got him hired as the sole interviewee, competing against the only other option: Appert. The good news is that Ruff's previous two overachieving -- playoff guaranteed rosters -- were in his third season as coach (109-point season with Dallas; 112-point season with NJ). The bad news is that Ruff is only under contract for two seasons here. But I'm sure Appert will do fine next season.

The NCAA distinction is important because now his access to money is Rochester. I definitely think we're seeing: 25 Seattle -> 26 Rochester -> 27 Buffalo (definitely more than just a 2-game look), and then one more season (2028-29) remaining before RFA.

It's a seemingly ongoing thing: the GM/front office is only capable of "fixing" or at least focusing on one thing at a time rather than a complete holistic approach. This comes from the top and Darth Pegula the Wise's flavor of the month approach: Leino was great in one playoff series against us: get him! Mittelstadt was great at the World Juniors for US: jump him up the board! Taylor Hall is going to make us contenders: get him! Fix the 4th line! We have Dahlin/Power/Muel all locked up long-term -- get all the RHDs! Was Mrtka the best player available? He very well could be. Time will tell. Did the pick fill an organizational need? No, it added a potentially great player to an organizational surplus. The future might very well be "Add scoring forwards!" but that is the most expensive to attain unless it's a sell-off-Skinner scenario.

From upthread discussion: scoring less is fine if they also give up fewer goals. All acquisitions this offseason should combine to be at least a little better in the Goals Against department. How much better do they need to be? Last season, if you were under 240 GA, you were in the playoffs (Calgary at 236 was out, and massive outlier Montreal at 261 was only team over 240 to make it). The last 3 seasons, the Sabres have given up 2710, 2402, and 2368 shot against. They're improving! But the goaltending has been at best middle of the pack (16th) in team save percentage (.899% in 2023-24 when UPL was great the 2nd half). The team % I'm using includes ENG. So, if the Sabres goaltending is at .900 (better than ever recently), they need to reduce their SA to 2288 to get down to 240 goals allowed. That's carving an additional shot per game off what they allowed last year. That's doable -- particularly if Byram-Dahlin is a tandem for another 500 minutes of ice time because they're the top pair from game 1. But -- boxing out, tying up folks, forcing offside by standing up at the blue line, and occasionally wrecking someone for an easy puck win by your teammate -- would go a long way toward reducing high danger shots. Tick that save percentage up, and sub-240 GA is also realistic. Has any of our goalies ever had a great save %? UPL did a .917 in a 9-game stint in 2020-21. His .910 season isn't great and that was even with him playing fantastic for 3 straight months. Possess the puck, reduce shots against (by over 100 to be safe), and reduce high danger chances against. Can this revised roster do that?

There is no conflict.

Welll.... here we go. Tonight, 15 minutes down the road where the T-Birds (Mrtka) play:

Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. I can make that work in some manner in the future.

The good news is... (I think) he can still qualify for two contract slide years (one for sure). The bad news is... Kesselring is a RFA next summer and Timmins could be as well and our GM will still be 'Ol No-Blockers.

We're posting in 'Space for a team that hasn't been to the playoffs in 14 seasons and is retreading their GM and sub-par coaching staff again. Our minds are already lost.

There will always be someone (an RFA or one year until RFA) that Adams claims to have loved forever. If he isn't extended beforehand, we'll see what happens when Benson becomes an RFA next summer (after, probably, an entire season of LW1 and PP1 time).

An injury to Power or Dahlin would give him ample opportunity. The sub- $7M contract is a good value for another team looking to acquire a potential PP D-man. There are still trade possibilities before the end of the contract. If traded next summer, the return won't be as great on a one-year rental to UFA -- think Pu-Skinner. And the Pegulas wouldn't consider retention, so you have to take salary back... so it's limiting what KA can even do. I don't know that Kesselring should be considered elite potential. He's a 6th round pick who made it to the 3rd pair by and got increased playing time because of injuries. He had good metrics on a team that had good metrics overall but lacked top-end scoring to compete with a very tough division. That's what we know thus far. Good night, Byram. Good work, sleep well. I'll most likely trade you at the deadline. Overall: The team is better with Byram on the roster than losing him to a 1st/2nd/3rd offer sheet to some perennial playoff team. So... there's that.

It has been noted (weeks ago) on this board JJP had zero leverage, too. All you have to do is have your agent tell Adams you want out.

Jackikin Eichwalker did not stay loyal to the Sabres, however. He was seduced by the desire for victory, the Cup Side.

Of note through all this... Ruff called out TNT and Cozens as centers who weren't putting in the effort to play center last season. TNT got moved to wing. Cozens just continued playing center (I have a note that he started one game 11/1 vs. NYI on the wing before immediately going back to center). So JJP wasn't alone as a top 6 key scoring forward who wasn't playing his defensive role up to expectations. The difference between them all is JJP had a choice - a smallish choice, but a choice nonetheless. TNT is under contract with reasonable big money, Cozens is already traded (also under big money). As an RFA, JJP's rights were owned for a couple more seasons, but he was not under contract this summer. He used that little leverage to say adios to this inept franchise. If you were a player -- what would you do? Would you want to sign for 1 year to play it out all over again next summer, 2 years to UFA, or sign here long term? With this GM/Owner forever linked? Why? You're in the NHL -- you can play hockey and make (likely) more money elsewhere on a team without an internal cap, or with lower taxes and more palms if that's your thing. Or go be on a team trying to win. (Or a team trying to tank, if that's your thing. Or pull a Skinner and go to the Sharks for sunshine and no playoff expectations.) Good... gooooood... your Sabreing has made you powerful!

And it went back to the root problem of never getting a legitimate top-4 veteran RHD to pair with Power when he was in his first season. Jokiharju is a fair complementary D-man to the right partner. Everyone is good with Dahlin, and he was good with Zadorov, but he is not the right fit for Power. And he certainly wasn't a grizzled tough veteran and mentor when he skated predominantly with Power in 2 of their first 3 seasons together. Joker was a fantastic trade win and remains a good player, but he's not the guy to lead your #1 overall pick to the fullest of his potential. The question remains... are Kesselring (age 25, 156 GP) or Timmins (age 26, 159 GP) any more qualified now than Jokiharju ever was (now age 26, 407 GP)?

Four hundred! We could almost buy our own (champion)ship with that!