Archie Lee

I agree with this. Without Dell in net our save % is .908. If we had a .908 in the games that Dell played that would be a difference of 8 goals; factor in the empty net goals that occur when you are trailing late and it perhaps works out to a 10-11 goal swing in the positive direction. That likely makes us around a .500 points % team or slightly better. I don't think it makes us a playoff team. The reasonable debate is over what impact losing has on a team and in particular on young players. We do have some experience with this. Is the development of young players negatively impacted by losing? In the long run, will the high draft pick we get this year because of losing have a more positive impact than the impact that could be gained from us being a more competitive team now (if not a playoff team)? I suspect it has more to do with the leaders in charge (Adams/Granato v. Murray/Blysma v. Botts/Housley/Krueger) than with the short-term win/loss outcomes. Here is hoping Adams, Granato and the rest of the hierarchy know what they are doing.

Ullmark is fine. I think, as with lots of things NHL related, there is overreaction to the early part of the season. Ullmark has a .914 save % which is ok but not great. The Bruins signed him to be their 1A or 1B, with Swayman, for the next 4 years and nothing that has happened so far suggests that was a bad move. Vladar is having a great start to the season, but the fact that Markstrom is also having a huge positive save% spike suggests pretty strongly that their #'s are partially related to the team they are playing in front of. My guess is that if you flipped Ullmark/Swayman to the Flames and Markstom\Vladar to the Bruins the save %'s would stay with the teams, more or less, and not with the individual goalies. If the Bruins are having regrets on Ullmark, and I highly doubt they are, then I would take him back in a second.

It's probably too soon to state he would be a first rounder if a re-draft were held today. I'm not sure the height thing would factor in too much though. In a re-draft, which is not an actual thing, you're just re-ordering the players based on how good they are now. Juuse Saros is 5'11" and he definitely goes in round 1 in a re-draft of 2013.

The only game that Tokarski has been outright terrible in was the Blue Jacket game. I don't know what happened to him in that one. I wonder sometimes about just how insecure guys like Tokarski and Dell must feel. I realize that they are not making big NHL money, but the difference between their NHL salaries and their minor league salaries is life-changing. Of course you need your goalie to be mentally strong, but I wonder if Tokaski was negatively impacted by Granato's decision to go with Dell in the Ranger game. Tokarski had been playing well, then gets run out of the game against Calgary (no real fault of his own in that one), Dell comes in and plays one solid period against the Flames and then gets the next start. Tokarski might have been feeling the pressure in the Blue Jackets game and maybe it got to him momentarily. Hopefully he is back. I hope we show a little faith in him and don't over react when he has a bad outing or a great game.

If Dell had Tokarski’s .904 save % it would mean 4.5 fewer goals against in the games Dell has played. Maybe that equals 2-4 points in the standings from the Leaf and Ranger games. Jonas Johansson currently has a .905 save %.

I’ve watched a ton of hockey for more years than I care to say, and I have zero idea what gets a guy tossed from a face off circle.

This game fits entirely with what I thought the Sabres will be this year. I think we will be an NHL .500ish team that finishes 24thish overall. Over a long 82 game season we will have some games where we sneak up on good teams who are not at their best. We will also have games against good veteran teams that are near the top of their games and when those nights happen we will struggle to keep it from being bad. Last night was one of those bad nights. There will be more. A reasonable goal for the team is to finish 5th in the Atlantic. To be the best of the bad bottom half of the division. To pass Mtl, Ott and Det. To be a bad but young NHL team that is on the rise.

It might be how it goes, but I think you keep Skinner with the players he is producing with. We have a good potential line coming off injury over the next 6 weeks (hopefully) in Olofsson, Mitts and Tuch.

I don’t think this is accurate. What Adams is doing is setting a value for a player and then not exceeding it. Paying more than value for a player is how you end up with Skinner and his contract. Adams has decided that he is not going to unnecessarily handcuff himself by giving out contracts now that will hinder his ability to re-sign Dahlin, Power, Cozens, etc. 3-4 years from now. This is also the reason why they did not consider retaining on Eichel. None of this means it is guaranteed to workout, but they have a plan/philosophy that they are currently committed to.

I’m not suggesting Dahlin, or any public figure, is above criticism. Just that words like “dumb” are unnecessarily provocative and possibly harmful. Particularly in the thread title of a home team fan forum. I understand you and others would disagree. Since you asked, my thread title for this topic would be something like: “Can we expect Dahlin to figure it out?” or “Will Dahlin ever become the player we drafted?

I thought Cozens looked good last night, save for one bad turnover at the opposition blue-line that led to a breakaway. While I would not object to him going to Rochester for a period, my first preference would be to let him play with Mitts and Olofsson when they come back (hopefully this week). Let him have a stretch playing with two players with offensive skills that match his and who are predictable in what they do on the ice.

I'm not trying to "fix the internet" here, but I just want to say that I think the title of this thread is terrible and should be changed. I think it reflects poorly not just on the OP and the site but on all of us who post here. There are ways to express concerns about a player's skills, effort or Hockey IQ without using words like dumb or garbage or trash; particularly on a home team forum. Recent events inform us that players may have things going on off the ice that can impact how they perform. It would be good if we tried to be mindful of that when we post.

It works under the cap until Mitts, Joker, Tuch come off IR. If all 3 were off IR today and 3 players were sent down to make room it would put us around 2 million under. By the time they come off IR someone else will probably be going on IR so no panic to acquire another contract at this point. I think it is a solid deal and falls between the boatload we hoped for and the disaster we feared. If Thompson turns out to be a legit middle six centre, then we now have 3 potential centres in Mitts, Cozens and Krebs to fill out the other two top 3 centre positions. Cozens and Krebs would both be fine to very good on the wing. Tuch is a good top 6 winger. Picks are picks.

Dahlin can be sneaky dirty at times. The video posted here shows it. That scrum started with Dahlin cross-checking both Pastrnak and Marchand. He throws the occasional reverse body check as well. I thought that game last year had showed he was ready to cross the line and fend for himself. I was a little disappointed in the recent Boston game when he allowed Marchand to own him a couple of times and never responded. I wonder if the puck to the mouth the game before had an impact; he may not have wanted to get punched in the mouth if his mouth was already sore. On a side note, it is hard not to like Tokarski. I forgot how he jumped in on that and how Pastrnak backed down as soon as it looked like he might get a blocker in the face.

I'm firmly in the Sabres' camp on this matter. I think the Sabres' are taking the good faith position that the only safe surgical procedure is a fusion. I think that the Sabres have zero intention in pressuring Eichel to have a fusion if he is not comfortable with it. Finally, I agree with their stance of not trading Eichel for less than fair value just because there are some teams that are willing to roll the dice on the ADR procedure. If a team is willing to allow Eichel to have ADR then they should pay the appropriate trade-value based on the assumption that Eichel will be able to play at a high-level for them. The Sabres have no legal or moral obligation to simply give Jack Eichel's playing rights away because he and a handful or teams are prepared to assume the risk that comes with him resuming his NHL career post-ADR. That said, if I ever come to the point where I think the Sabres are trying to put any pressure on Eichel to have a fusion then my view will change. Nobody should ever be forced or pressured to have a procedure as invasive as a cervical fusion. At some point if there is no remedy for this impasse via trade or grievance, then Eichel will need to make a decision on whether he intends to continue his career by having the fusion or if he is going to retire from hockey. That should be his decision alone.

I partially agree with what you are saying. A group that has a common goal will often determine naturally who its leaders are. The Sabre locker room may have chosen Eichel as one of its leaders independent of him getting the "C". There is no question though that "The Organization" was determined to have Eichel assume the modern-day role of Superstar-Captain whether he was suited for it or not. Where I entirely agree with you is on Granato, though I would add Adams to this equation personally. For years now the Sabres's issues have largely stemmed from a lack of talent and leadership in the GM and Head Coach positions. Obviously it is way too early to draw conclusions about how this season will turn out, but thus far I find that Adams and Granato are saying the right things and pressing the right buttons. I can't help coming back to Botterill's bizarre press-conference in December 2018 when we were 1st overall in the NHL. The intention was for Botterill to take some pressure off by pumping the breaks a bit on the idea that we might have gone from being the worst team in the NHL to being a contender overnight. His complete lack of communication skills though resulted in him instead just telling the world (including the players on the team) that he was not buying the hot start and that he knew they were not close to being as good as their record. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mr. GM! From listening to Adams and Granato speak over these past months, I'm confident that nothing so ridiculous will occur under their leadership.

Until I see proof otherwise, my view is that the Sabres’ position on ADR comes from their medical experts having the good-faith opinion that it is unsafe for a individual to play in the NHL after having the procedure.

I’m always curious about what causes people to make definitive statements when they have incomplete information. The season has not started yet. Eakin has yet to play a game and if/when he does it isn’t 100% clear he will be the same player he was a year ago. If Eakin plays as poorly as he did last year and continues in the line up then he has a point, but that hasn’t happened yet.

Good for him. Life is short. Enjoy it.

I was hoping we would claim Brooks from Toronto. I see the Habs snagged him.

I think there is a difference between what the Sabres are doing and tanking. The Sabres have spent the past 6 years spending near to the cap with nothing to show for it. The plan is clearly to avoid bad long-term contracts, and to develop and evaluate our own young players. Our own young players can then be signed longer-term based on merit and fit. I'm not saying they are going to get it right, but it is clearly the plan. It makes sense for such a plan to start with a year or two where you are spending close to the floor. A by-product of this is that they will likely pick high in the draft, but that is not the same thing as deliberately being bad to try and get the top pick. There are several teams who have recently done and who currently are doing what the Sabres are doing. The Sabres are no more "tanking" than are Detroit and Ottawa and Anaheim. The most obvious recent indication they are not tanking is that they waived Dell over Tokarski. I realize it sounds absurd to use they "kept Tokarski" as a sign they are not tanking. If they were tanking, though, it would make a lot more sense to run with Dell who has been terrible for over a year than to go with Tokarski, who has played well for about 3 years including his AHL time and who was excellent in exhibition. I don't see any signs that Sabres management will be disappointed if the Sabres exceed expectations this year.

I'm also not as excited about Blue Jacket prospects as I am about some other teams' prospects. But some of the people who do this stuff for a living are. In his top 50 prospect ranking, Wheeler from the Athletic ranks Johnson ahead of players like Beniers, Rossi and Lundell. He has Sillinger lower but ahead of Krebs and Turcotte. He has Marchenko just outside the top 50. Pronman from the Athletic has Johnson, Marchenko and Sillinger all ahead of players like Rossi, Newhook and Turcotte.

Columbus just makes sense to me. - They have an existing "youngish" core that Eichel fits in with (Laine, Bjorkstrand, Roslovic, Werenski, Merzelkins) - They are in a transition phase it seems. They're not exactly rebuilding, but it does not seem they have high expectations for this season. - They have the cap space and their cap situation looks fine going forward. - They have a fairly high-priced veteran player in Domi who they don't seem to have much use for and who only has one year left until UFA; he would fit perfectly as a player returned to help the Sabres meet the cap floor. No Blue Jacket players have trade protection - They have a solid pool of young players and prospects; they were 13th in Pronman's organizational rankings for players under 23 (Johnson, Marchenko, Sillinger, Cuelemans, Boqvist, Voronkov, Chinakhov, Foudy, Texier). There are a few Russians in there and we are looking to move into that space. - They have all their 1st and 2nd rd picks in the next 3 drafts plus Chicago's conditional first in 2022 - They have never had a 1st line centre like Jack Eichel - Their GM is a guy who isn't known for being risk-averse - Finally, and this might be a stretch, but their President seems like the sort of guy who has had a few steak dinners with high-end player agents like Pat Brisson.

Realistically, the Sabres will not be a high-scoring team this year. But I'm not sure that the career year analysis supports your conclusion. First, you use points instead of goals. If you take the players listed and add in Hagg, Pysyk and Bryson to round out the defence, and you add up their career years for goals, you get 240. The last time the NHL played an 82 game season, 240 goals would have been good for 19th in the league. The Sabres haven't scored 240 goals in a season since 2010-2011. They won't likely do it this year, but if they do they will be far from the worst offence in the NHL. Second, while you correctly point out that certain veteran players won't come close to reaching their career highs in points (or goals), I believe you overlook that around 1/2 of the players listed could conceivably exceed their career highs. Dahlin, Olofsson, Hinostroza, Mitts, Bjork, Joker, Thompson, Cozens, Asplund and Bryson could all realistically exceed their career highs; for those on the bottom end of the list it would not be a stretch that they do so by a wide margin. Lastly, while I don't think that Skinner will come close to his career high of 63 points I do think it is possible he rebounds and has a 20-25 goal and 40-45 point season.

I think that hockey “journalists” have done a poor job of covering this story. Two items in particular: 1). I know that the Sabres’ medical team opposes ADR. I know that Eichel has seen a neurosurgeon who prefers and recommends ADR. Presumably there is some level of split in the field of neurosurgery on this. What Is the split? Is it 50/50? 60/40? 90/10? Why has no journalist taken the time to speak to 10-20 experts in the field to try and get a sense of what the general expert opinion is on ADR for an individual who fits Eichel’s profile? 2). I know that the CBA gives NHL teams final authority on treatment for their players. I also know that player contracts are often insured. What I don’t know is, what are the potential consequences of Eichel just having the surgery he wants without Sabre approval? Can the Sabres void the contract? If they can, when would they have to do that? Could they wait for a definitive outcome or would there be some sort of deadline to void the contract? What are the likely insurance implications? I’ve read a lot of speculation on these things but not much in the way of facts. Without answers to these and other questions I don’t know how any outside observer can have a definitive opinion on who is in the right here.