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

Another report from Dreger. Not sure that I believe but 3 reports in 24 hours has to mean atleast something? Maybe? Probably not

I should add to my take .. I’m a believer in analytics and Byram has struggled mightily not just as a Sabre, but for most of his career outside of the cup year. Trading Byram in a vacuum for any sort of decent return I would be very fond of. However unfortunately with the context of a 13 year playoff drought and the rest of Adams tenure, trading Byram for anything short of a Mittlestadt equivalent would be mind boggling

Lol, this would make me furious. Could’ve just kept Mitts at that point

Part of me feels like this deserves a thread, the other part of me says .. haven’t we been hearing this forever just for Adams to sit on his hands while we get tamed with ‘internal cap’ rumors? Feel free to merge if needed, but thought it was a little more worthy than the Around the NHL thread and didn’t see any other thread fitting for it. My question for y’all is, what’s the ‘big move’ that would be available? Seems like this type of desperation and urgency would’ve been fitting for the offseason rather than the first 2 months of the season when you’re going to have to sit on your hands for another 30 games until teams are more willing to make moves. Other reports today indicate the Penguins are willing to maybe send some pieces out Bunting or Rickard Rakell?

1) Sabres point total? realist - 91, realist/optimist/fan - 96 2) Will the Sabres makes the playoffs? No/Yes (see above, so edgy of me to pick both sides) 3) Sabres leading goal scorer? Tage 4) Sabres leader in total points? Dahlin 5) Sabres MVP? Dahlin 6) Sabres ROY? None 7) Best off-season acquisition McLeod 8.) Worst off-season acquisition? Zucker (maybe he still produces while playing, but continues to the oft-injured trend) 9) Biggest surprise? (positive or negative) Jack Quinn, second leading goal score and top 3 in points on the team (would it even be a surprise?) 10) Breakout player? Benson/Quinn 11) Will any Sabres players or coaches finish as finalists (win?) for any major awards such as the Norris or Selke? Dahlin & maybe Ruff 12) Unsong Hero? McLeod 13) Who will be the first Sabre traded away this season? Krebs/Greenway 14) Will KA make any in-season acquisitions before the deadline? Yes 15) Will the Sabres be buyers or sellers at the deadline? Buyers 16) Other Bold prediction? {Such as KA gets fired mid-season ;)} 17) Any other thoughts? did i miss the player expectations threads that i think @dudacektypically does? i enjoy looking back on those each year

the charts look good

Idk names well enough to throw out suggestions, but stop expecting 4/5 defensemen guys to be a suitable season long 4th defensemen. Jokiharju, Clifton, Samuelsson, etc., let them be bottom pairing guys and get someone that’s solidly been a second pairing defensemen to come in and be a second pairing defensemen Seems like we continuously rely on guys to come in and play their best game and play at their ceiling for us. It might work for the Boston’s, Tampa’s and Florida’s of the world, the teams that already have foundations in place but we don’t. We still need to lay that foundation. Dahlin Byram Power XXX Muel Clifton Joki RyJo You’ve got the money and you’ve got the assets, go out and get someone proper for the role. Don’t worry about blocking people or having too much depth, too much depth doesn’t exist and if someone outplays their role you can worry about that down the road and trade someone to make space later.

It is going to be awkward, but I won’t and certainly wouldn’t expect the other fans to feel shame. They’ve been BEGGING for a playoff team for years now and the majority of the year it looked like they were again going to be let down and so the fans leave the arena empty. Why waste your money to keep funding a disappointing product that consistently lets you down? If by someway the Sabres end the drought on a miracle run down the last 8 games and they make the playoffs to break the drought, then the fans got what they wanted and will happily return to the arena. Not their fault that the season gave absolutely no reason to believe we’d be here, and also not their fault that the past 13 years gave them no reason to have any faith and hold on to believe we’d figure it out in the end Also on top of all that, if they happen to make the playoffs I don’t care that they’d have likely finished 8-0 to do so, it’ll still be largely and mostly due to the teams around them absolutely dropping the ball TL;DR - The arena should sell out and will likely do so, and the fans should do it with no shame at all. They’ve sold out games consistently the past 3 years that we’re dedicated to reminiscing over better times, it’s not like we have a weak fanbase that doesn’t care to support the team. It’s a very strong fanbase begging to support the team but just don’t care to support the garbage product the drought era has been.

25, I stick out quite a bit in terms of age here it seems. Didn’t really realize before

Last year the 12-14-2 Sabres beat a West Coast team at home on December 13th before going on a West Coast road trip where they’d extend their winning streak to 4 games beating Colorado, Arizona and Vegas and begin to turn their season around. This year, the 12-14-3 Sabres are coming off a win over a West Coast team at home before hitting the road heading to the West Coast on December 13th where they hope to extend their winning streak to 4 games by beating Colorado, Arizona and Vegas and begin to turn their season around. Go Sabres!