elijah

So if we read the OP that started this in totality instead of stopping early, it appears that we’re on the same page 🤝

If you want to upgrade the top 9 forwards the guy to upgrade is Jack Quinn. But Jack Quinn has also substantially improved without Dylan Cozens. As far as the power play, I’m sure some new assistant coaches might help. I’m not saying I’m content with the results we’re getting, but this team isn’t failing right now because of the forwards. The forwards have been mostly fine but are getting backed by 1 defensemen and no goalies. It’s not the forwards that have led us to a 14th embarrassing year

You’re 7th in goals while being 25th in PP%, and all of these guys analytically are positive players aside from Quinn. Running back the forwards not only isn’t a problem, but it may even be the right thing to do. You need to fix the goaltending situation, add a desperately needed Power pair who’s strong and reliable defensively, and fix the PP. There’s no shame in running back the forwards next year.

Defensive makeover and a capable UPL pairing, borderline starter quality. I don’t think you have to do much to the forwards unless you’re getting an elite guy for the shits and giggles of it Benson - Norris - Tage JJP - Kulich - Tuch Quinn - McLeod - Zucker Greenway - Kozak - Krebs (Another middle 6 guy for depth, bump Krebs to scratch if you have to when we’re all healthy). Dahlin - Byram Power - XXX Samuelsson - JBD/Clifton UPL XXX That should be the bare minimum of an off-season right there. Even that bare minimum with a solid Power pair I think makes you a playoff team. If Adams decides to do more than the bare minimum (he won’t), you trade any combination of power/byram/quinn/prospects/picks and get a true difference maker in the top 6 or a borderline top RHD pairing guy and then replace the pieces you sent with free agents or prospects.

per Bissonette on Spittin Chiclets https://x.com/sabremetrix/status/1899485690619936973?s=46&t=kbUOOiUzO3Eq5rkogsdwqA

This is not true

if the plan for JBD is to be a Power pair for any longer than the remainder of this season i’ll be deeply concerned not surprised considering adam’s history of trying to force a 5/6 defensemen into a top 4 role, but definitely concerned

I’m surprised with the amount of disappointment that this trade is bringing. Norris isn’t a perfect player by any means sure and he’s similar to Cozens yes, but he’s finishing at a higher rate than Cozens Most importantly you take a player consistently getting caved in defensively and switch him with someone that gets caved in but not as frequently. Getting Cozens off the team was a net positive regardless of what the return was, his time as a Sabre was done by the end of November

Don’t Move: Tage, Tuch, Dahlin, Benson Maybe Move If The Price Is Right?: UPL, Quinn, Cozens, Peterka, Kulich, Levi, Power They Could Stay Or They Could Go: Greenway, Zucker For the Love of God Please Move: Everyone else

14-9-1, not quite that deceiving of a record. They are what their record says they are currently, and that’s an inconsistent (and unfortunately bad) team Realism aside, I’m still blind in optimism and telling myself how they’re only a 10 game win streak away from being back in the thick of things. Go Sabres!

We don’t have palm trees, we have taxes in New York

Brian Duff is a bigger problem than Dunleavy

Love and hate the underlyings. I trust them and put a decent bit of weight into them, so it breaks my heart when we’re doing good and they say not to trust our results quite yet. However, you can see before the Tage, Tuch, Greenway, Muel injuries that we were hovering around 50% xGF%. Can argue that we’re winning in spite of missing our best offensive player, and Greenway who plays a strong analytical game. Maybe we just stole a couple wins with our star out and the analytics start to trend back upwards once we get Tage back? One can hope. The analytics don’t mislead you very often.

Seems like the needs are the exact same as the offseason, a viable backup goalie in case Levi doesn’t work out, a Power pairing, and a middle 6 scorer. Shocking to say the least, I’m not sure anyone saw that coming.

To this point, I don’t think the Sabres are the team leaking. All of the quotes posted in this thread seem to be from another teams perspective or just general feelings around the entire league Not that that makes it anymore likely that Adams does anything significant though