sabresparaavida

This implies to me that if he was healthy, we’d probably have ended up with 3 30 goal scorers, which is exciting for next year, when we throw Quinn into the mix as well, Cozens and Quinn taking a step, and hopefully a healthy season from Mitts. We could have be rounding out 3 solid scoring lines with a 4th line (probably not in toi) that’s checking with some scoring (Asplund-Girgs-Okposo?

21/32 NHL teams are averaging over 2.8 goals a game, with the Panthers average over 4 goals a game to lead the league, and the coyotes in last with a 2.51 goals average. Your line of 2.8 is a bit better than league average, I don’t think the majority of goalies can be considered “Swiss cheese”, your line for a credible goalie is too high.

Oops, that’s my bad I was looking at Reinhart D-1 season.

Wright is pacing for 20 more points in his draft year than Reinhart did. And that is in the OHL, regarded as slightly tougher than the WHL. And that is also after a year off because of Covid. Wright was given exceptional status, When he was 15, I think he is the more regarded prospect than Reinhart was.

Good effort by Cozens to get that one.

Makes sense why KA didn’t mention him alongside Portillo and Johnson.

I wouldn’t mind throwing Shane Wright in our center group. Would really open a lot more options for 1-2 of Krebs/Mitts/Cozens to shift to wing, or be moved for a RD.

How soon till Eichel is blamed for this? /s

My (very under-researched and amateur) rankings for who I want the Sabres to draft would be: 1. Wright 2. Cooley 3. Nemec 4.Slafkovsky 5. Jiriceck I would be estatic to get any one of them, but other than Jiriceck I don’t think there’s a shot any of them will be there at 9, and Jiriceck is not close to guranteed to be there.

I absolutely agree, but the thought of having 3 potential 1D (1 already reaching that level) is very exciting.

I’d love for Nemec to fall to 9 where we could very well be picking. Really would solidify the future of this defense.

I would disagree with the bolded, mainly due to two reasons. One, I’m not sure if JJP’s defensive game is quite ready for the NHL. It very well may be, but the second reason is due to the inevitability of injuries. Mitts missed 40 games, Girgs missed 30, Oloffson missed 10-15 (which maybe should have been more), Tuch missed 40 games. If we bring in a 2nd line winger, there will still be opportunities for JJP to make the lineup.

I don’t think the middle 30 games is a red flag, he was playing through injury, but we are too thin and had enough injuries, where Oloffson at half or a third of his production was still one of our best 12 F at the time.

Cozens has been improving his FO% and was 51.4% on face offs in March. He was sub 45% for the rest of the season.

Elite name

Sabres were a little overwhelmed to start that period but slowly brought the play back to pretty even overall throughout the period (maybe even slightly better for the Sabres). Showing some good work today

That was a pretty nasty redirect

This also probably has a good bit to do with matchups, that line matches up against the other team’s top 6 pretty frequently.

Sabres are being a very physical team tonight

Tage hits 30!

Asplund looking good tonight

Yikes Fitzgerald

Nice move by Thompson.

I’ve been coming around on Bryson more, I think if we can add a vet Rd that can eat minutes with Dahlin, we could be in a good place with splitting the remaining minutes pretty evenly with Samuellson-Jokiharju Power-Bryson or some combination thereof. As for our forwards I think we stick with Skinner-Thompson-Tuch for line 1, I think Cozens takes another step to be a capable ~55 point 2C (went from 26 points per 82 pace last year to 40 points per 82 pace this year), and Quinn and Krebs take wing spots off him. It’s also possible we see Quinn and Tuch switched to give this line more veteran presence. Mitts and Oloffson on the third line, with probably Asplund, I don’t see KA wanting to block JJP in. I imagine we get an Eakin replacement (hopefully improvement) and Okposo and Girgensons can take the wing spots for that line. The most important area we need to improve on is goaltending. Get a 1A guy somehow, preferably for about 2 years. Get an Anderson/Tokarski level guy to battle UPL in camp to not give him a free pass.

Kappo Kakko