sabresparaavida

Replace Quinn with Peterka in that statement then. The Sabres had a lot of injuries last year, and Peterka got called up and played 2 games. The sabres were a considerably less deep team last season, as they iced the worst line in hockey for a stretch (which was well documented here, if you recall the thread on Hayden-Eakin?-Bjork). Despite that, Quinn and Peterka who were dominating the AHL in their D+2 seasons (to a rare degree) only played 2 NHL games. Now, the Sabres are deeper and hopefully have less injury problems. *Knock on wood* I doubt that Kulich would get playing time on the Sabres in his D+1 season.

I'd have to agree, Hard to see him outperforming Quinn's performance of last year in the AHL, and we are a deeper team this year.

That was actually year 2 of Josh Allen (seems like so long ago), where the Bills made the playoffs and faced the texans in the wild card. The following year was when Josh became a star nationally. The only playoff game Tyrod played for us was against the Jags.

Wasn't this a discussion of where they slotted in the lineup (and what lines they slot on)? If a 3rd liner has enough PK time that he is in your top 6 of forwards in ice time, that doesn't really make him a second liner. Now that wasn't the case with Okposo last year, as he was a second liner for us (I believe in terms of EV ice time), but it could be the case next year. Being good on the PK does count as part of a player's value, but minutes on the PK don't really reflect where they slot in the lineup for the rest of the game. Oloffson slotted about equal to Okposo in terms of ice time outside of the PK.

Really the only reason Oloffson is behind Okposo in TOI is due to Okposo playing a significant roll on the penalty kill. Okposo averaged 1:24.5 penalty kill minutes a game, whereas Oloffson had just under a minute of PK time over the whole season.

Not putting too much stock in his rankings. He had Toronto up a Tier for goaltending, and their defense in the second tier.

I’m a pretty young fan (entering senior year of college) and I’d always rooted for the Sabres with my Dad growing up (usually listening to RJ on the radio). But the first game that I still remember watching was the last time they were in the playoffs, the game where Pominville got hurt against the flyers (game 5?)

That’s a quick release

Yup, I’d agree with all of this. Bedard and Michkov are definitely ahead of where Wright/Savoie/Lambert were a year out of the draft. The only reason I said near-lock for Michkov was the Russia situation, if he was from anywhere else he’d be a top 2 lock assuming he doesn’t turn into a pumpkin.

Even the players at the top aren’t locks to go there. Bedard is pretty much a lock, and Michkov is close, but remember last year, the top 3 were Wright, savoie and Lambert, with some having miro in the that tier as well. Wright ended up 4th, Savoie 9th, Lambert 30th and Miro 20th.

I think it’s a call to the fan base similar to how there’s #mafia or #billsmafia on similar posts for bills stuff.

While It may make sense for Tage to sign a contract now (coming off a 38 goal season), I don’t see much incentive for Cozens to sign now. Signing a bridge deal is possible, but would expect him to try to have a big year this year and increase his value. And he wouldn’t want to sign a long term deal if he thinks he can break out still, which I’m sure Cozens thinks he can.

I would be very surprised if the Isles traded Barzal, and even more surprised if the Sabres were to go after him. That being said, Cozens-Barzal-Asplund/Tuch would be an great 2 way second line.

To be fair, they also do have some bonuses attached. I believe Boston has about 4.9 in eligible bonuses that are pretty attainable. They are currently over the cap, though LTIR will fix that. However, they won’t have cap left for bonuses, which is allowable (up to 7.5% of the cap), and the amount you go over is taken from next years cap space.

In an ideal world, the Sabres would have a competent starter and Comrie would only need to play 25-30 games, but I don’t see Anderson staying good/healthy for 50+ games. Unless UPL blows the Sabres away or Comrie gets hurt, I don’t see him playing less than 30 games.

They still have injury concerns with a bunch of their stars to start the year. They could be playing catch-up most of the season, and losing Cassidy will have some effects good or bad.

She’s great, and if you want some more difficult stuff, breathe and Flow do a good job (also on YouTube)

Looks like Bergeron is re-signing with the Bs on a 2.5mil bargain deal. He gets an extra 2.5mil if he plays 10+games this year.

I’m going to go with 45 games ~9.10 save percentage, equivalent to a 1B type goalie.

I think I’m a vacuum, it could be considered a good deal for Florida. However, they’ve spent a good deal of assets in the past couple years that have really narrowed their window, by trading their firsts in upcoming drafts. They are extending their window with the Tkachuk trade, but the rest of their moves have been shortening that window, so it may not work out for them long term.

His game certainly has rounded out a great deal. I wonder how much our perception of VO was changed this season when he went 30 games without a goal due to injury. He didn’t really have his shot, so was definitely dishing more than shooting for that time period.

If the Sabres can stay healthy, they have a shot at the playoffs. Over the last 28 games they were 16-9-3 with 8 wins against playoff teams, and the only loss to a non-playoff team was to Winnipeg in a shootout. If they can play at a similar level they will be in good shape next year.

Neuchev would definitely qualify for this, I believe he led the MHL in shots this past year. Oloffson is also still a sniper, though his game has rounded a bit over the past couple years.

Sounds like someone who’d do great alongside Cozens in a strong 2 way line. I think KA is trying to build a team that can run four lines all night, without too much difference in minutes. In a few years, I think we could end up with an average first line, a second line that is more like a below average first line/High end second line, and a third line that is like an average second line. Skinner, Tuch, Quinn, JJP, Oloffson?, Rosen, Kisakov, Poltapov, bloom, Neuchev, and Nadeau are all possibilities to fill the wing spots and make that happen. Between Thompson, Cozens, Krebs, mitts, Savoie, Kulich, and Östlund we should have the centers to make it work as well.

The comparison to Oloffson is an exciting one to think about. Oloffson in the AHL the year before his rookie season (age 23 in the AHL) put up near identical numbers to JJP last season (age 19). Quinn put up even better numbers. If they can come in and produce like Oloffson’s rookie season (20g and 42 points in 54 games), the Sabres will be in good shape to compete for a playoff spot. Oloffson in his rookie season got better linemates and likely more ice time than JJP and Quinn likely will, so getting that level of production would be hard, but they also are younger and have a shot at growing more.