Thorner

Why does it make me feel we are going to run 11-7 till Quinn is back? Is that the plan? Considering all the D, too? The 3rd scoring line invariably seems to amount to a spare parts line if we are seeking to maximize the top 6 + checking line Skinner - Thompson - Tuch Mittelstadt - Cozens - Peterka Girgensons - Krebs - Okposo Greenway/Jost swap into line periodically on a rotational basis during games? VO scratch? Samuelsson - Dahlin Power - Clifton Lyubushkin - Jokiharju Johnson or Stillman dressed as 7, subbing in to keep things fresh, other scratched? 3 goalies, one scratched makes 23

Wouldn’t surprise me if Adams felt the/a depth F could be added more in the neighbourhood of training camp, considering the required/desired aptitude of said addition, and their likely confidence in the matter after reasonably successful signings like Jost. on his checklist he undoubtedly has top 4 d add and depth d add checked off. And while I definitely think he’s open to/been open to a goalie add, I feel like the answer as to whether Adams might overpay by value somewhat to achieve “his man” is probably a resounding “no”- thought that might shift given state of roster/expectations. If the goalie box goes unchecked, I think Adams is more than content to pride himself on holding to his hard line evaluations and is confident what we have in house is not so inferior to what’s available so as to make any kind of (what he’d determine to be an) overpay worth it

Does it leave much room for discussion if any disagreement with something the GM has done is deemed as the poster being “mad”? If the idea is KA has laid out what he’s going to do, so any disagreement is pointless, I’d wager that’s a pretty big block on healthy debate

The more interesting issue I see is that the name “Murray” can be feasibly slid in there by Lance because of the fact the names he’s competing with, aside from Olofsson, have about as much NHL experience as he does. Forwards honestly seem a bit thin. Like butter, scraped over too much bread

@Ducky

Our very obviously questionable goaltending and the input data being over the course of a few seasons is my guess Mostly the model does a good job of representing our question marks. Never entered my mind it represented any likely ceiling, it’s simply a matter of the team still being in “prove it” mode where the stats and precedent is concerned. As mentioned I think it inputs a running total from a few years so one good year of stats isn’t going to swing it in totality. And it can’t expect improvement in net, how could it? It has nothing established to bet on. We can totally have faith in Levi and still understand why the model doesn’t favour him. He’s played 7 games, he’s a question mark to any reasonable data set

There’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time a long time

Model is operating pretty intuitively human here, honestly. It’s simply looking at at the fact our starting GT has all of 7 games at the NHL level and saying “hmm”. It’s not pointing out any potential downfalls and risks of essentially running back the same roster that we haven’t already mentioned

Keep on rocking me baby 🎵

Kind agree with this of late I could probably replace every one of my posts with the standard “Benson, Kulich, Savoie, Rosen, Johnson, Quinn, Östlund..” listing and I’d be contributing to the established conversation in a more meaningful, seamless way. Most any other posting is our SS version of a Block, I find, to use KA’s coined jargon

The 13th man is an unproven rookie We could use more F depth, Quinn injury saw to that

I like how Skinner is a deft playmaker now all of a sudden and VO a one trick pony who can only shoot lol. Skinner over the 3 full seasons previous to last year averaged 24 assists per 82 games. Olofsson over those 3 same seasons averaged 32 assists per 82. Maybe it more a function of who Skinner is lining up with relative to VO. If all it takes is a single season of increased assist totals to cement yourself as a deft playmaker, I’ll play devils advocate and side in the VO camp here because, considering he’s been *outproducing Skinner’s assist totals since he came into the NHL*, I would say he at least as likely, probably more likely a candidate to have that season that shifts opinions. Given the opportunity of course

I suppose the silver lining is if he gets back to “decent“, his raw counting stats probably look skewable to someone even a little bit better than that, in terms of trade value

Players don’t carry their teams to Cup titles Dude, honestly, it’s not worth it. I wrote my parody “Rosen is off limits” response before I read the thread, and by this time right now when writing this post I’ve realized said Rosen post probably plays closer to seriousness in this thread than parody The bottom line is that it’s difficult for folks to trade anything of the future for anyone, EVEN McDavid, because the perception held is said future is already *guaranteed* by doing nothing It’s almost the Monty Hall problem, psyche wise

Sign me up. What do we think it’ll take? I’m definitely open to it but we can’t go mortgaging the future to make it happen. For instance, Rosen remains an Untouchable for me in said deal. The Sabres aren’t trying to win the cup this season, remember - and I don’t want to Murray out, here Gretzky is the perfect example of why it’s pretty dumb to expect *any* one guy to substantially elevate or “carry” a team on their own - it’s just not really how hockey works

As noted, Skinner was still drawing penalties at a high rate when he wasn’t finding his way onto the scoresheet - a strong indicator in his favour that is absent with VO

We did! And a couple years ago..

If anyone laments losing UPL or Comrie on waiver..look I’ll tell you right now I’m calling Shenanigans I guess Promo could be the exception

No no, go on. This ain’t no truth or dare. Just beat it.

Aight. Scratch my “crucial” from the record and sub in “usually important”

The point was that even through the prism of a team in a vastly more assured, comfortable spot than we are, the backup goalie was an important part of that team. The argument wasn’t it say they couldn’t have made the playoffs without Swayman: the idea was to literally pick the most extreme example possible to show that EVEN they manned the backup position properly. Even for Boston the backup goalie was a key to a sizeable portion of their success. The Sabres *certainly* should be a team that mans the position properly, for the myriad of reasons already mentioned The fact Levi isn’t Ullmark isn’t even my central point. That’s where the argument’s strength lies: in the fact that Levi being very unlikely to be Ullmark right out of the gate *isnt even the biggest reason* we need to roster a competent goalie 2. Adding in that uncertainty is what makes addressing a roster spot that already needed attention, regardless, a no brainer

Ya, I guess if you are pacing for a regular season record, you can afford to roster someone bad as a backup. My point was that even then: they didn’t. And the Sabres aren’t even close to having that breathing room. I’d stick with my crucial vs nice designation where the Sabres are concerned. In fact, where the vast majority of teams are concerned

Were you out west at the time? The Sabres Jets trades have always come with an added degree of difficulty for me, considering the situation of being surrounded by people arguing the deal (s) primarily from the Jets’ perspective

That’s a good point, it probably did I’m sure if I could type back then I’d have a word document or several filled with similar bitching to that of my Eichel output