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Posted (edited)
53 minutes ago, WildCard said:

Sheary - Eichel - Oloffson

ERod - Mittelstadt - Reinhart

Sobotka - Berglund - Thompson

Wilson - Girgensons - Pominville

Replace Oloffson with Okposo, and switch Thompson and Rodrigues, and I think you could be looking at the opening night lines. Perhaps with Okposo and Reinhart switched. 

Edited by Thorny
Posted (edited)
56 minutes ago, WildCard said:

Sheary - Eichel - Oloffson

ERod - Mittelstadt - Reinhart

Sobotka - Berglund - Thompson

Wilson - Girgensons - Pominville

Olofsson isn't starting on line 1 playing the wrong side. 

Edited by LGR4GM
Posted
Just now, Thorny said:

Switch Oloffson with Okposo, and Thompson with Rodrigues, and I think you could be looking at the opening night lines. Perhaps with Okposo and Reinhart switched. 

Probably right, but I don't want those combinations

Posted

I don’t know if it’s because we finally have more than eight potential NHL forwards, but there are so many different ways you could arrange this group. There are a lot of versatile players at our disposal - guys who can play multiple positions, roles and places in the lineup. I’m really curious to see what Phil does.

Posted
43 minutes ago, dudacek said:

We’ve mostly talked about Berglund as picking up some of the defensive centre responsibilities that used to belong to O’Reilly.

But by and large the guy has been a 20-goal, defensively responsible, heavy traffic winger, who happens to be good on draws. I would not be surprised to see him and the speedy Sheary lining up with Jack on our new first line.

Sheary and Berglund are both LW.

Posted
3 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Bailey and Baptiste would need to clear waivers. 

Do they have to clear waivers to start the season in Roch?

Posted (edited)

There aren’t many Sabre forwards that you can’t plug and play into different roles.

Jack is a franchise centre (meaning you could shift him, but why?), Kyle a top six RW, and Pommers a (bad) middle six RW pretty much exclusively.

Reinhart apparently can’t play centre with scrubs, but it is his natural position. You don’t want Casey on checking line, but he could probably shift over to the LW if needed.

Sheary, Bailey, Thompson and Olafsson have played both sides. Olafsson likely needs to be on a scoring line and Thompson didn’t do much in a bottom six role, but the other two can slide up and down the lines. Thompson has also played centre.

Berglund probably fits somewhere in the top nine, Sobotka bottom nine and Larsson bottom six, but all three can play centre and LW.Wilson is a utility LW who is smart and fast enough to play higher up the lineup in a pinch. Same with Baptiste on the right side.

Erod and Girgensons can play any position, with anybody.

Edited by dudacek
Posted (edited)
11 minutes ago, dudacek said:

There aren’t many Sabre forwards that you can’t plug and play into different roles.

Jack is a franchise centre (meaning you could shift him, but why?), Kyle a top six RW, and Pommers a (bad) middle six RW pretty much exclusively.

Reinhart apparently can’t play centre with scrubs, but it is his natural position. You don’t want Casey on checking line, but he could probably shift over to the LW if needed.

Sheary, Bailey, Thompson and Olafsson have played both sides. Olafsson likely needs to be on a scoring line and Thompson didn’t do much in a bottom six role, but the other two can slide up and down the lines. Thompson has also played centre.

Berglund probably fits somewhere in the top nine, Sobotka bottom nine and Larsson bottom six, but all three can play centre and LW.Wilson is a utility LW who is smart and fast enough to play higher up the lineup in a pinch. Same with Baptiste on the right side.

Erod and Girgensons can play any position, with anybody.

...But not particularly well. 

I agree with the premise, a fair few of these guys allow for some options. I just hope that doesn't give Housley the desire to spend the first 3 months of the season tinkering the line combos. Find something in camp and give it a good chance. 

I'm with Hoss from the other thread that Mittelstadt should be a center, and that then means we are looking at Reinhart staying at right wing. 

Edited by Thorny
  • Like (+1) 1
Posted

Sheary - Eichel - Thompson

Rodrigues - Mittelstadt - Reinhart

Sobotka - Berglund - Okposo

Wilson - Girgensons - Baptiste

Scandella - Ristolainen

Dahlin - Bogosian

McCabe - Nelson

Hutton/Ullmark

 

I can do this every four days and give a different combination, but I think this is the group of players in some combination minus the possibility of Pominville instead of Baptiste.

  • Like (+1) 1
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Thorny said:

...But not particularly well. 

And that probably applies to most of these guys.

Edited by dudacek
Posted
Just now, Hoss said:

Sheary - Eichel - Thompson

Rodrigues - Mittelstadt - Reinhart

Sobotka - Berglund - Okposo

Wilson - Girgensons - Baptiste

Scandella - Ristolainen

Dahlin - Bogosian

McCabe - Nelson

Hutton/Ullmark

 

I can do this every four days and give a different combination, but I think this is the group of players in some combination minus the possibility of Pominville instead of Baptiste.

I mostly like this, but I struggle with the lineups that show Okposo on the third line. If it’s a checking line, he doesn’t belong.

Posted
13 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I mostly like this, but I struggle with the lineups that show Okposo on the third line. If it’s a checking line, he doesn’t belong.

That’s fair. I actually had 23-21-Thompson as the top three RW in that order first but I do think they want Thompson getting top six minutes early.

Posted (edited)

The Sabres have 13 waiver-eligible forwards and seven waiver-eligible defencemen they might care about protecting. Eichel, Reinhart, Okposo, Berglund, Rodrigues, Sheary, Sobotka, Girgensons, Larsson, Wilson, Baptiste, Bailey, and Pominville. Ristolainen, Scandella, McCabe, Bogosian, Beaulieu, Nelson and Hunwick.

They also have two prospects everyone expects to make the team, as well as a third who is pencilled in: Dahlin, Mittelstadt and Thompson. That means guys like Guhle, Pilut, Olafsson and Asplund are almost certainly starting in the minors. And that also means at least one, and perhaps two of the guys in the opening paragraph are likely to be waived.

I know the obvious candidates are Baptiste, Nelson and Bailey, but I can’t see that happening, not with their cap hits, not with the time invested in their development, not on a team focused on youth and speed. But as cap dumps unlikely to be picked up, Pominville and Hunwick better come to play. After their play last year, Larsson and Beaulieu shouldn’t be too comfortable either.

After the past five years it’s nice to have to think about the waiver wire again. It’s another sign of some light at the end of the tunnel.

Edited by dudacek
  • Like (+1) 1
Posted
15 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

But who wants a 4th year pro who can't even make the worst team in the NHL?

Maybe a team looking for a cheap injury replacement? No matter how you slice it they are 1000% more likely to get plucked off the waiver wire than Jason Pominville and his boat anchor cap hit.

Posted
13 hours ago, WildCard said:

He's listed as a LW/RW

Gerbe was a center.  So....

13 hours ago, pi2000 said:

Do they have to clear waivers to start the season in Roch?

Here's what i would suspect would happen.

Training camp opens and the front office decides who they think is going to be their starting lineup.

At that point, all players who have to clear waivers that have trade value will be shopped.  If no trades happen before the start of the season then they will remain in Buffalo while others who are starters will be sent down along with any players who are unlikely to be claimed.

The team will continue to look to move them or call them up as needed.

They aren't going to waive Bailey or Baptiste or anyone if there is a trade value out there.  Even if the trade value is a 3rd rounder in 2021.

Posted
47 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

This is NHL.com's predicted lineup

Projected lineup

Conor Sheary -- Jack Eichel -- Sam Reinhart

Evan Rodrigues -- Casey Mittelstadt -- Kyle Okposo

Vladimir Sobotka -- Patrik Berglund -- Jason Pominville

Zemgus Girgensons -- Johan Larsson -- Scott Wilson

Rasmus Dahlin -- Rasmus Ristolainen

Marco Scandella -- Zach Bogosian

Brendan Guhle -- Jake McCabe

Carter Hutton

Linus Ullmark

Don't see the Rasmus pair happening, as great as that would be for the poetic angle,  but the rest seems reasonable.

Posted

The fourth line is pretty brutal, unless Gus and Johan really bring it like they did a few years ago.

This team is still a work in progress, and probably will be most of the season.

This topic is OLD. A NEW topic should be started unless there is a VERY SPECIFIC REASON to revive this one.

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