RochesterExpat

Listen, I'm sure she'll understand that we don't need the "college fund" for the kid after this one pays out.

Not sure what you’re asking, but different bookies will have different lines updated at different intervals. If you are wondering if your betting line will change after you made it, a bet is a bet. Even if the line shifts to 100, your original bet at 77.5 is the bet you made.

The 14 year old in me is upset that we're not playing Boston. I'd like to see us face off against the tandem of Bussi and Dyck. Who knows? Maybe Dyck is the real deal and can some day write his autobiography on his NHL career: "The Chronicles of Reid Dyck." Alright, I'll show myself out. Thanks everyone.

I made a bet with a friend prior to the start of last season that Jeff Skinner would score at least 25 goals and total 50 points or more. I won $430 off of it (the value of the bet was on the value of two tickets for the Stars final home game). I think depth down the lineup will help relieve pressure on the first line and we'll see Skinner and TT feed off each other while Tuch plays his role as a play-driving power forward. I'd be willing to bet a healthy Skinner breaks 30 goals again and tops his career-high of 63 points, but I'd like a much cheaper bet that isn't essentially dependent on another bet that the Stars will suck.

Reading this thread and the earlier debate about whether he should play in the AHL, the Q or Czechia and I wanted to contribute a few points before the season unofficially starts. People who are concerned about Kulich on the smaller rink and pace change of NA hockey vs Euro are pretty well justified given historical precedent; however, if you look at video of the kid, he's got the crazy drive of JJ--hence the comparisons--but his ability to read a play and move himself into position to support or exploit is on a different level and the rink size doesn't appear to influence that because he plays the boards extremely well. We saw it at development camp (go back and look at how he positioned himself on the boards on that breakaway video after delaying the player chasing the puck) and we saw it at the WJC this summer. At the WJC he proved his defensive support is at least as good--if not better than--previously given credit for (scouts noted he was usually the third man back and would pinch off pressure by forcing players to the boards). Basically, he plays the boards better than JJ did. JJ was a much more open ice player who needed more time to adjust to the smaller amount of space. Once he did that, it was clearly off to the races for him. I am certain that Kulich will have growing pains, but I think his playstyle lends itself to easier transition to NA hockey. He has the "hockey IQ" and "200 foot game" that scouts love to talk about, but he compliments that with very fast acceleration and speed plus a killer wrist shot. If we're worried about him getting pushed around, he is 6' tall and 180lbs and part of his core play in the Czech league was physical play (I mean finishing checks or bumping players off pucks, not going for open ice hits) and positioning himself to exploit. That was noted by multiple scouts in multiple public scouting reports prior to draft day. In short, he is a smart, physical player. Here is a four day old twitter poll I found from a Czech hockey journalist asking (in Czech) "Will Jiri Kulich play 10 or more games in the NHL next season?" which, arguably, implies it's already a given he's playing at least some games in Buffalo. 303 people voted. 50.2% said yes. 49.8% said no. That's quite literally one more saying yes than saying no. All the comments are in Czech so I don't believe Sabres fans from NA influenced this. These are the people who watched him play in Czechia. It says a lot that the poll wasn't a blow out of people saying he isn't NHL ready. It's interesting it's 50/50. Granted, If I were voting on that poll, I'd have tied it. I don't think he plays 10 games in Buffalo, but I would absolutely expect him in Rochester. Even with injuries to the Sabres, I don't believe Buffalo wants to burn a year of his ELC unless he shows that he belongs in the line up permanently because he is already at that stage--which I don't believe is the case. We will see how he performs at the prospects challenge, training camp and the preseason. I would bet he is one of the last to be sent down to Rochester and that is where I expect him to play this season. I think it's foolish for him to play in the Q or go back to the Czech league. If you think he should play in the Q or in the Czech League follow him at prospects challenge and at camp. Then see if he changes your mind. I suspect he will surprise you.

He has a late December birthday so he’s eligible this season for the AHL because he will be 20 by 1/1.

This should be an easy over in theory. We'd have ended up around 82+ points last season if Dell and Subban never went between the pipes. Of course, we'd have easily made the playoffs if Michael Houser played all 82 games, but that's a different story. If Comrie pans out to just average/slightly below average NHL goaltending across 40 games, Anderson plays 25 at below-average goaltending, and UPL takes the rest, Buffalo hits the over without any added impact from Quinn or Peterka (or addition by subtraction: Cody Eakins). Not to mention Buffalo has Krebs and Tuch for the full season now and a hopefully a healthy Casey Mittelstadt. On defense, we're getting full seasons from Samuelsson and Power and we've added Ilya Lyubushkin. The team has far more depth this year as well. Consider this, by game 4 in October of last year, we had a fourth line (because we had an injured Cody Eakin and Mitts) of the following: Hayden - Ruotsalainen - Caggiula This is with Bjork playing on the third line with Girgs and Okposo. None of Eakin, Bjork, Hayden, Ruotsalainen, or Caggiula would (or will in Bjork's case) make the roster this year out of camp. In the event we lost two players, none of those would even be in line to immediately slot into the NHL. Murray and Sheahan are both better proven 4th line replacements than any of those from last year and that's not even talking about unproven players like Rousek, Weissbach, or Pekar. Not to mention our new AHL players of Rosen, Kisakov, Cederqvist and Kulich. Our defensive pairings were (Joki was injured) as follows: Dahlin - Butcher Bryson - Miller Hagg - Pysyk Just looking at that, Butcher is not a first pairing defenseman--although, neither is Joki who he replaced--and both Hagg and Pysyk are now on sub-$1m contracts to play 7th D roles. Miller will be a bubble second pairing defenseman in Dallas and was underrated last season, but he missed a large chunk due to injury and then being a healthy scratch. We've graduated Samuelsson (who has proven he can play in the top line with Dahlin), added Ilya Lyubushkin (who is more physical and a better shot blocker than Colin Miller), and will be getting a full season of Owen Power. That leaves us with Dahlin, Joki, and Bryson from the start of last season, but with the addition of Samuelsson, Fitzgerald, Lybushkin, and Power. We also brought in Clague, Davies, and Priskie on show-me contracts for the 8th man role in the event of injury and we still have a pretty big unknown in Pilut's role now that he's returned and isn't playing under the Hockey Terrorist. It's hard to believe this team is going to finish worse than only 2.5 points better than last season. I realize there is a certain amount of hopium in this, but the Sabres were 32-39-11 last season and that team did not have the talent or depth the team has this year. Not to mention the team cohesion/unity/whatever we saw at the end of the season. If the Sabres hit the under, I will burn an effigy of Don Granato and Kevyn Adams.

Frankly, I'm not either. I'd be willing to bet money he is in Rochester this fall, but, as it stands right now, he's got one season in the WHL left.

Surprised I haven't seen it mentioned, but Tyson Kozak will be another one to watch. This will be his last season in the WHL. It will be interesting to see his play compare with, say, Rosen (14th), Kisakov (53rd), and Bloom (95th) who went before his own selection at 193rd in the 2021 draft. It's a shame that Nadeau won't be on the ice so we could see a player from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th rounds of the same draft who are under contract.

Since this was TT's first season at center, I'd like to remind everyone Sidney Crosby's first NHL season at center he was 45%. It's unfortunate that this is a skill which can't be taught or practiced as Crosby's struggles in the faceoff circle for the subsequent 16 seasons is thoroughly documented... right? Of all the criticisms about his contract this is far and away the least valid. It's something he can improve on and I'm sure the coaching staff is well aware of. He has shown he is willing to put in the effort to improve his game. I am confident he will improve in the circle as well.

I can’t fault Boston for signing Ullmark when they already had Swayman. Banking your future on a goalie with 10 games of NHL experience when you’re a contending team is not a recipe for success. The bigger question is what kind of contract do they give Swayman after next season. He split the net time with Ullmark this season and then played 5 of 7 playoff games. It gets even more interesting if we consider the slide into a rebuild that appears to be taking place.

I don’t know who Boston will replace him with, but I’m curious if Vegas pursues Cassidy now.

Looks like the heeler legged it. Five second penalty.

Tyler Brennan - 6'4" Canadian playing in the WHL and doing OK on a terrible team. Topias Leinonen - 6'5" Finn who I don't understand why he is ranked as high as he is because he's slow to react and just stops pucks by being, well, 6'5". Ivan Zhigalov - 6'3" Belarussian currently playing in the QMJHL and doing OK. I believe those goalies will go between rounds 2 and 4, but none are putting up stellar numbers in their respective leagues and I think are ranked there entirely based on size. It's also possible that Hugo Havelid (5'10" Swede) is drafted in that range because of his play during the WJC-18, but he's a small goalie and the NHL doesn't like small goalies. So to answer your question: no. There's really not any interesting goalie prospects in rounds 2-4 this year (in my opinion anyway). Speaking of 7th round flyers from Obscurityvakia... I really want Buffalo to throw a 6/7th round flyer on Maxim Mayorov. Speaking of size, he's a 6'5" goalie who plays athletically and with good positioning. If he wasn't Russian playing in the MHL he'd be going higher than the 6th/7th round.

Pretty sure this is the correct take. Given his age, he's no longer waiver exempt, correct? So, in theory, Buffalo could recall him in the event of injury, give him a 10 game look, but if he were to stay past that he'd need to clear waivers, right?

I can't fault him for signing an ELC. Buffalo screwed his development. I don't blame him for that.

So from that list, who do you wish was a Sabre (other than McDavid) heading into next year the most? Assuming Buffalo could trade for that person for future considerations and nothing more. I would probably go for Kaprizov because we still need to find another 60+ goals next season to be really competitive. That would certainly help.

Should fix the title. His name is “Olivier” and not “Oliver.”

Funny enough, Sam Reinhart saw 5 in shorter since Quenneville resigned in October.

Assuming he stays in North America I’m inclined to believe he’s going to be called up on the first injury opening.

That pass was gorgeous.

I was a fan of trying the offer sheet on Oettinger (pretty sure I said this in the thread about fixing goaltending) because I thought he could be had for $4m and Dallas might let him walk to sign their other RFAs (Jason Robertson is due a payday, although they may bridge him) and UFAs. His play during the playoffs has ruled that one out entirely.

It's worth mentioning in here that Rousek played well yesterday. The obivous play is that he got the perfect feed from JJ to score the first Amerks goal, but he was also noticeable throughout the game in a positive way. When he first came back from injury, I didn't exactly have a positive outlook on him. In fact, I thought he was awful at first. I kind of forgot this is his first season in North America, he's coming off ACL surgery (where he wasn't originally expected to play at all this season), and he just turned 23. I am looking forward to seeing how he plays through the rest of the playoffs and next season. I don't expect him to be a superstar, but it should be an interesting storyline nonetheless.

Fitz is that weird in-between talent where he's dominant in the AHL, but just doesn't really make the cut for the NHL.