GASabresIUFAN

No. This team is not better with McLeod and Byram. Cheaper in the short-term, but both are RFAs at year's end. Also younger as well. However, Byram is a disaster defensively and that erases much if not all his skill on offense. Byram is -15 in HDCF/HDCA. Power is nearly as bad at -11. Dahlin by comparison is +16 and he has had his own struggles this season.

When you are short of centers, you can double shift one of the 3 other centers and maybe help a depth line add some scoring? The 7th D also allows a coach to spread out the minutes early in the game so his top horses are fresher late.

Not even close. One excellent game does not a career make. There is much to like about McLeod. He is certainly better than the player I saw in Edm, but he is in no way a better player than Mittelstadt. Mitts is a better goal scorer and a better playmaker. He is also much more physical. He is also better along the boards and a more versatile player. Mitts had 59 pts two years ago and 57 last year. This season he has 16 pts in 17 games. McLeod had 23 pts two years ago and 30 last year. He is having a great year so far with 11 pts in 17 goals. Just think how much better we’d be with both Mitts and McLeod.

I just finished watching the replay on ESPN+. For some strange reason ESPN cut off the replay at 2:30 hours with 6+ minutes left in the 3rd. Stupid! Anyway, our defensive gaffs are still plentiful and dangerous. Fortunately, the forwards did a pretty good job of counterpunching and ultimately winning the game in OT. McLeod had a great game. I thought Benson was very good as well and Levi made some great saves. Dahlin seems better, but still not quite himself. Power is friggin awful. How many times can one guy read the play wrong and get out of position? So what’s the deal with the disallowed goal. Where was the friggin inference if the defender is pushing Benson into the crease. A truly awful call.

There are 3 major trading periods in the NHL calendar. 1) After the Stanley Cup through the end of June. Last year there were over 40 moves in this period. Beck Malenstyn was acquired during this period. 2) July 1 through the start of the season - this is sort of a continuation of the prior period but tends to be guys acquired if the GM misses in Free Agency or the selling team dumps a guy because they upgraded in free agency. This is typcially about 25 or so deals. The McLeod trades fits here. 3) The lead up to the trade deadline and the trade deadline itself. 50-60 deals can be made here. Many rentals but sometimes you get a building block like Greenway. That's it. There are trades the rest of the calendar, but they are in much lower volume. Trying to improve your team now is nearly impossible. Mostly you get Robinson type deals or the recent Lars Eller deal. There are blockbusters but rarely. Vanek to the NYI trade for example. Seth Jones for Johanson is another. Adams expending huge energy in a futile attempt to fix problems we all knew existed in the off-season is just par for the course.

You are assuming that Pegula’s yes man is a lame duck.

He is probably going to trade for Tyler Myers. Can't get bigger then him.

Shouldn’t the thread title be updated to reflect the Sabres claiming Reimer?

Talk about someone who needs a fresh start and whose price is decreasing by the game. With Samuelsson out for a significant period (months?), we need help now. Bryson and Gilbert aren't reliable and Joki sucks. Rutta can still play and can handle 2nd pair minutes. He averaged almost 20 a game last season and is at 18 this year. Remember this is Adams we are talking about. He loves the shop the clearance bin.

Which is why I wrote that he hasn't made a blockbuster since the teardown. That said, the Eichel trade is a blockbuster regardless of circumstances.

The Eichel trade? He hasn't made a blockbuster since the teardown, although some might say Mitts for Byram was a significant albeit stupid trade.

With UPL out with an injury. This is Levi's time to shine. When is Houser being recalled?

I understand this sentiment, but, assuming Adams can actually complete a deal, the deal would look like the McLeod deal (prospects and picks for an NHL player). One cheaper player I've always had an interest in SJ's Jan Rutta. He is 34 and on the last year of his current deal at 2.75 (cap). He is (was?) an excellent stay at home D and has no trade protection. He'd be a good vet to help teach the kids how to play in their zone. He is still playing about 18 minutes a night.

As Adams works the phones, what are the odds he actually completes a big trade? First of all, "big" trades are nearly impossible to complete. Second, what part of the team is Adams trying to fix or improve? Let's assume his priority is getting top 4 D help. Who is trading us such a defenseman? There are only a handful of teams that are truly out of the playoff chase already. Even if one of these handful of teams have a D we'd want, how many of these kind of D don't have NMC/NTCs? How many would wave such a clause to come to Buffalo? Adams can burn the phones all he wants, but it takes two to tango and in this case, the so many players with NMC/NTCs clauses, it now takes 3 to tango. I'd give Adams a 2% chance of actually completing a significant deal before the Xmas.

GM Howdy Doody thinks trading for Riley Stillman is a big move. I doubt Adams has it in him to make a gutsy “big” move. In order for him to make a move, he’d have to understand what is wrong with his roster and then be willing to do what’s necessary to fix the problem. He doesn’t understand that his team can’t or is unwilling to play defense.

The Sabres are still terrible defensively. This is completely on Adams. The team 20% of the way through the season are 27th in GA. They are on pace to allow 272 goals. Only one team in the last 5 full NHL seasons made the playoffs allowing more than 270 goals and that was the Fla Panthers (273 GA), but they scored 290. As others have pointed out, Dahlin is our best defensive D. Power and Byram, our other alleged “top” D, are terrible in our zone. Power has zero physicality to his game. He literally won’t even try to knock someone off the puck. Byram has no idea how to cover forwards while playing defense and is KA’s big acquisition on defense. The rest are replacement level players. We can’t win this way. I understand that Ruff, Adams, and Pegula want to play an uptempo style, but we don’t have the horses to play this way. At some point the Sabres are actually going to have to stop teams from scoring.

😱😭

Marty Biron

Proving that lightning does strike twice?

Why would Utah make that deal? You’ll be lucky to get a 4th for a benched player on a big longterm contract.

It’s going to take years to figure out an equilibrium for the leagues under the new rules. I think this is long overdue and was gong to happen once NIL ended the “amateur” notion in the NCAA. My hope is that kids play in the CHL and then jump to college once they’re 20. The CHL has great tradition and I hate to see it die. I also hope that more schools will create D1 hockey programs, especially down here. My son-in-law is the coach of U of Tenn’s D1 club team and I’d love to see everything he built there evolve into D1 NCAA.

Officially only 5. That’s what made the giveaways so noticeable.

I remember seeing Doug Henning at Studio Arena many many years ago.

I didn't get to see the game, just the highlights. It look like some good board work in the O-Zone resulting in goals by Sabres driving to the net. It also looks like the Sabres are a better team with Benson on the ice and Joki and Mule off of it. Lots of good stats from this game except 2. 21 giveaways is a terrible number and only 17 hits. I do like that they blocked 21 shots. 2-0 in the last 2 with 11 goals for and only 2 against. UPL looking good in both according to some articles on the games. 1 game under NHL 500 and a solid road win to boot.

Great game tonight. Maybe the best 3rd period we played this season. Now they have to build on it. Best game Byram played as a Sabre. Zucker may end up being Adams best acquisition. He has helped these kids grow up. Bryson and Gilbert out playing Joki and Samuelsson is still a bad look for Adams.