PerreaultForever

I think he should be third line (or in Rochester) and his primary development goal right now should be adding muscle and strength. I want him to be elite when the process is complete but Sabres don't understand the development process.

I'm skeptical simply because he couldn't really crack the line up of a weak Utah team so clearly, they didn't think he was good enough or ready or a major piece. Do not remember seeing him play though so just don't know. For me he's like an unknown rookie. Wait and see when he actually plays. I need to see how he plays most of all. I really think people tend to be overly optimistic here because of his father. I am curious, but remain neutral and skeptical until I see him in action.

I could have thrown coaching in there as a point. It is mediocre that's definitely correct. I fear the future when they name Appert head coach more. I included the chronically injured as a collective group. Norris is obviously the most important piece there. Greenway the least important.

I think your prediction is a little premature. If you have noticed in the past I have praised Benson often. I like Benson. Benson is the future. I don't think he's ready to be the present.

idk, we never know. I just don't see the urgency or the true commitment to trying to win now. Doing everything possible. I see a hole in the line up. I see these things as all potential recipes for disaster: 1) Reliance on young scoring players emerging rather than going with proven vets. 2) Hope the goaltending rebounds. 3) Hope the injury prone roster stays healthy. 4) Hope that Power develops given a better partner to play with. I see all of these as potential flaws. Now the die hard optimist might say: 1)Quinn will rebound and emerge. Benson and Kulich will become solid NHLers. 2)UPL will rebound and Lyon will give us a solid reliable tandem 3)Norris, Zucker, Greenway etc. will actually stay relatively healthy and provide solid veteran play 4)Power and Kesselring will click and arguably become a top pairing giving us a solid D for the first time in years. Possible, but I'd say improbable. Could be some mix of both scenarios but I guess I see the probability of the bad much more than the good. I just don't feel optimistic about this line up.

Time is up for Quinn. imo he was rewarded for failure with the deal they gave him. So yes, there's an expectation, but I do not have the faith Adams has in him. Benson is 20 years old. He is a kid and he should not be top 6. We are pushing Kulich too fast and too much and I expect a sophomore slump scenario. Hope that's wrong. Power should start to show signs of getting it and maybe Kesselring helps further that but idk as we have not been developing him properly. Sabres are just "get in the deep end and swim kid" and maybe eventually he's good enough to get it on his own but have to see it to know. Doan I am not commenting on since I just haven't seen him play as I've said before. A veteran top 6 forward allows Benson to play on the third line where he belongs this year.

Rust was supposed to be on the block. Rumor has it that Pavel Zacha is on the trade block. There are players out there that could fill in for Peterka's loss and give the kids a little more time and ease.

They're not in 'cap trouble". That is utter nonsense. They choose to spend under the cap, but in no way shape or form are they in cap trouble. Also going to have tons of cap space when Dahlin demands a trade. 🙂

The D is almost certainly set as Dahlin-Byram, Power-Kesselring, Samuelsson-Timmins. The forwards idk, I see holes and too much reliance on young players in top roles. Health will be an issue but I'd actually consider Greenway-Norris-Thompson as the top line. Greenway to open up space for the other two and to provide net front presence. More middle six options that way as well. Ideally however, I'd want to add a top 6 forward we don't currently have.

Sure, ya, and they definitely need that money 😉

I just don't think this guy is any better than Clifton but we shall see.

Bored this summer?

We haven't really. Norris played what one, two games for us in a dead season? He's basically a new addition now.

It's edited for effect and I'm sure parts are even added in to transmit a message. I'm sure Kevyn was acting stubborn and wanted an additional player with Kesselring. I'm sure Utah preferred to throw in a pick or something. It's a trade negotiation and we were already told on twitter teams said Sabres were hard to deal with. Kevyn likes to try to win trades. So he got a throw in at the end. Yay. Well to me that is a toss in but we likely define that differently. I wouldn't disagree with the rest of your comment. I initially reacted to somebody having him up on the top line with Tage. I thought that was ridiculous.

Well he hasn't done anything noteworthy in his NHL career yet. We shall see. Again, we shall see how "hard" he is. That was the sales pitch on Malentstyn too. I don't believe a word "embedded" says.

Those are the MAIN PIECES. The other bigger change is Cozens/Norris as I've said repeatedly. The rest is non consequential.

Well that's kind of my point. They threw him in as an extra. They saw him as a replaceable bottom end player. People here are talking like he's going to be a top line power forward. It's a little far fetched to say the least. Doan could be an upgrade from our bottom 3 of last year but I really don't see him above Krebs level. Don't remember the details or perceptions at that time so I can't really say.

You're just wishing and hoping. It's all they leave us with every year. If this guy if that guy maybe him maybe maybe maybe. Rarely doe much of it come to fruition though. Utah obviously didn't feel this way about Doan or they wouldn't have made the deal.

No. You're twisting the words. You include Cozens as well then. You can then make the argument that Cozens production was crap (which it was) but then also Norris was injured and didn't produce much for them. So last year they expected Cozens to step up. This year they expect Norris to stay healthy. There's always a hope and pray aspect and a young guy stepping up aspect to the Sabres. They don't build with established veterans. So if Benson and Kulich step up or Quinn re-emerges then I guess your forwards aren't terrible but as usual we are relying on a bunch of kids to leap forward and the one kid who did leap forward is gone.

We see this differently but there's no real reason to keep arguing it. For me it's a simpler equation. You take the roster that started last season and then you take the roster that starts this season. Compare and contrast all pieces together.

and we know this is a thing we talk about but they never do.

No but you can't look at the roster and say Norris gives us goals to make up for Peterka. That still leaves you filling a forward spot and either Kulich or Benson has to step up and emerge big time. I just think there are too many too young players in our top 6 to make any kind of headway.

We were talking a while back about how several teams this year were leaving cap space and we speculated it was for next year's big list of FAs but now I'm wondering if one or more team was anticipating this result.

Well then you have to factor Cozens back in too.

You went a little too far back for the first two but I guess. Moulson didn't exactly work out though did he? Who was the 1st? Nylander for Jokiharju is a wash, Neither is here. So it's Nylander for Boston's 4th round pick. Which is really a high first round pick ending up as a 4th round pick. Big fail. O'Reilly didn't work out here and just adds to the issues. For all his flaws I think Zadorov would have filled a big need here over the years. Man is a mistake machine but he's also a beast. He wouldn't have stood by when Tage got hit. The high picks can't count because anybody and everybody would have done that. It's a reward for failure. Even in that you have the Reinhart Draisaitl debate. Ullmark sure, but we lost him, and yes JJP was a good pick but he's also gone in his prime years. Kane should never have been brought here and Zucker is meh. Mid level free agent player who got overpaid. It's fine but it's not an accomplishment. McLeod yes, even if Savoie is good, because we needed help now not later. The net loss gain on every season is a loss in terms of moves. If it wasn't we'd be decent and we are not.