Quinn, Power, Samuelsson, Byram was 23 this year. Kulich spent a lot of time at 1C, he's not a heavy player.
And this isn't new, it's been the case the last 5 years. Cozens tries to play a heavy game, but he wasn't good at it. He was 24 this year.
The Sabres are built to play an open ice game. When the opposing team plays a 'road game' and takes away space, they struggle. They need more guys who can play in a tight-checking game.
Doesn't mean you trade all the 'finesse' guys for grinders. You also need finesse guys to win. It just means the GM needs to do a better job with roster construction.
How about everybody but Tuch, Tucker, Dahlin, Malenstyn, McLeod, Peterka, Clifton, and Benson. Greenway, when he plays.
I might be generous here with McLeod and Peterka. And Clifton and Greenway aren't anything special as players.
Don't know if the team is allowed to organize that in the off-season. The players would need to take it upon themselves to do it, hence the comments encouraging to do so from management.
That said, the problem wasn't conditioning this year, the problem was roster construction and players too young to play outside their character.
If you draft a bunch of finesse players and throw them on the ice at 21 or 22 years old, they're going to play like a finesse team. Telling them to lift weights isn't going to change that.
Yeah, kids are delusional like that. Put them in a good home, give them a bunch of free stuff and they're happy idiots until their first crush breaks their hearts.