2019-2020 Lineup

[Taro T]

12 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I've been trying to quantify or otherwise express why this coming seasons's team is better then last year's.

I looked at both our opening day roster last season and the most common roster for last season to see where we are improved.  The answer is there are likely to be at least 5 new skaters in the lineup over last season.

They are Olofsson, Johansson, and Vesey at forward and at least Miller and Montour on defense.  As of right now they are replacing Sobotka, Pominville and Thompson upfront and Scandella or Bogo and Nelson on D.  

This is a clear upgrade of talent, especially on defense.  Then add improvements from Dahlin and Mittelstadt and you should have a 5-7 win improvement over last year.

And IF the new goalie coach is as good as advertised, that in itself could be another 4-8 wins over last year.

Provided Krueger doesn't cost them any points, they COULD be close.  Finding a mother ####### 2C could ( should?) put them in the playoffs.

Of course, finding out '19's goaltending is the REAL version W/' 18's the illusion & none of the rest matters.

[jsb]

13 hours ago, New Scotland (NS) said:

Who the heck is VO?

 

13 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

Victor Oloffson

Dang, I thought it was this

 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

3 hours ago, jsb said:

 

Dang, I thought it was this

 

I remember that stuff from my High School days.

[WildCard]

9 minutes ago, New Scotland (NS) said:

I remember that stuff from my High School days.

Personally

[GASabresIUFAN]

..... and now back to our regularly schedule thread.

Jokiharju and Gilmour make the team out of camp as our 3rd pairing.  

Jbot finds away to trade Risto and Scandella.

Question:  How much of Scandella's salary would you retain to make a deal?  Sending him down would have 1.07, but he would have to be replaced on the roster with someone like Gilmour making 700K, which is a net cap savings of 375K.  I'd like to net 2 mill in savings, so I think the most I'd retain is 1.3.  Thoughts?   

[TrueBlueGED]

18 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I've been trying to quantify or otherwise express why this coming seasons's team is better then last year's.

I looked at both our opening day roster last season and the most common roster for last season to see where we are improved.  The answer is there are likely to be at least 5 new skaters in the lineup over last season.

They are Olofsson, Johansson, and Vesey at forward and at least Miller and Montour on defense.  As of right now they are replacing Sobotka, Pominville and Thompson upfront and Scandella or Bogo and Nelson on D.  

This is a clear upgrade of talent, especially on defense.  Then add improvements from Dahlin and Mittelstadt and you should have a 5-7 win improvement over last year.

Here's the thing: other teams also got better. Maybe we have 5-7 more wins in a vacuum, but that's far from a given. Did we get 5-7 wins better relative to the improvements other teams made? I'm highly skeptical. It's not impossible or anything, but with a gaping hole at center and huge questions in goal, I have a hard time being confident. 

[Randall Flagg]

25 minutes ago, TrueBlueGED said:

Here's the thing: other teams also got better. Maybe we have 5-7 more wins in a vacuum, but that's far from a given. Did we get 5-7 wins better relative to the improvements other teams made? I'm highly skeptical. It's not impossible or anything, but with a gaping hole at center and huge questions in goal, I have a hard time being confident. 

The Rags, Devils, and Panthers have certainly added more hockey value to their teams than we have, after all finishing within 2-4 points of us (besides Florida who were 10 points better and have replaced bottom-of-the-barrel team goaltending with arguably the best goalie of the last three years). 

[triumph_communes]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

..... and now back to our regularly schedule thread.

Jokiharju and Gilmour make the team out of camp as our 3rd pairing.  

Jbot finds away to trade Risto and Scandella.

Question:  How much of Scandella's salary would you retain to make a deal?  Sending him down would have 1.07, but he would have to be replaced on the roster with someone like Gilmour making 700K, which is a net cap savings of 375K.  I'd like to net 2 mill in savings, so I think the most I'd retain is 1.3.  Thoughts?   

 

Who cares how much it’s only for this season.  If you have to retain you do it. 

Edited August 9, 2019 by triumph_communes

[GASabresIUFAN]

34 minutes ago, triumph_communes said:

 

Who cares how much it’s only for this season.  If you have to retain you do it. 

It matters because the less we retain the more cap room we create.

[Tondas]

2 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

..... and now back to our regularly schedule thread.

Jokiharju and Gilmour make the team out of camp as our 3rd pairing.  

Jbot finds away to trade Risto and Scandella.

Question:  How much of Scandella's salary would you retain to make a deal?  Sending him down would have 1.07, but he would have to be replaced on the roster with someone like Gilmour making 700K, which is a net cap savings of 375K.  I'd like to net 2 mill in savings, so I think the most I'd retain is 1.3.  Thoughts?   

I think Jokiharju makes it.  Gilmour, I'm not too sure. Unless you're saying he's a placeholder until Bogo and Pilut are ready.  If so, I think Nelson has the upper hand.

[Curt]

On 8/8/2019 at 3:46 PM, bob_sauve28 said:

If Okposo can generate some offense for that line I think they might be a pretty good fourth line. And if Grigs and Larry and put a few more in the net that would be really great 

That should definitely be a pretty good 4th line.  We have watched it be a pretty good 4th line for like half a season+ already.

[MakeSabresGrr8Again]

18 hours ago, TrueBlueGED said:

Here's the thing: other teams also got better. Maybe we have 5-7 more wins in a vacuum, but that's far from a given. Did we get 5-7 wins better relative to the improvements other teams made? I'm highly skeptical. It's not impossible or anything, but with a gaping hole at center and huge questions in goal, I have a hard time being confident. 

 

18 hours ago, Randall Flagg said:

The Rags, Devils, and Panthers have certainly added more hockey value to their teams than we have, after all finishing within 2-4 points of us (besides Florida who were 10 points better and have replaced bottom-of-the-barrel team goaltending with arguably the best goalie of the last three years). 

What matters the most is that we should compete better than last year and that should get us more wins. Also, does it really matter what other teams got better? Those teams have to play each other too and with 1 winner emerging. We just have to learn to win the games we're "supposed" to win (an issue for several years).

The Rags, Devils and "Canes will be fighting for divisional spots and that could help us within the conference. Florida was already ahead of us good bit. The problem I can see is that in the league standings there were 9 Western Conference teams between us and 15th overall. That means that most of the Eastern teams are a ways ahead of us and not many to jump over along the way up. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

23 hours ago, TrueBlueGED said:

Here's the thing: other teams also got better. Maybe we have 5-7 more wins in a vacuum, but that's far from a given. Did we get 5-7 wins better relative to the improvements other teams made? I'm highly skeptical. It's not impossible or anything, but with a gaping hole at center and huge questions in goal, I have a hard time being confident. 

 

23 hours ago, Randall Flagg said:

The Rags, Devils, and Panthers have certainly added more hockey value to their teams than we have, after all finishing within 2-4 points of us (besides Florida who were 10 points better and have replaced bottom-of-the-barrel team goaltending with arguably the best goalie of the last three years). 

But other teams are worse.  

 

[TrueBlueGED]

18 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

 

But other teams are worse.  

 

Other than Columbus, who? 

23 hours ago, MakeSabresGrr8Again said:

 

What matters the most is that we should compete better than last year and that should get us more wins. Also, does it really matter what other teams got better? Those teams have to play each other too and with 1 winner emerging. We just have to learn to win the games we're "supposed" to win (an issue for several years).

The Rags, Devils and "Canes will be fighting for divisional spots and that could help us within the conference. Florida was already ahead of us good bit. The problem I can see is that in the league standings there were 9 Western Conference teams between us and 15th overall. That means that most of the Eastern teams are a ways ahead of us and not many to jump over along the way up. 

When you're a perennial bottom feeder, there are no games you're supposed to win. 

Okay, fine, we should beat Ottawa. 

[dudacek]

Last season virtually every team in the east “got better” in the off-season except for maybe Montreal, Carolina and the Islanders (and for those who correctly read the ROR trade, the Sabres.)

The most improved teams at the end of the actual season were (along with Tampa Bay) Montreal, Carolina and the Islanders. Buffalo was was 5th.

We don’t have a clue.

Edited August 11, 2019 by dudacek

[Wyldnwoody44]

4 hours ago, dudacek said:

Last season virtually every team in the east “got better” in the off-season except for maybe Montreal, Carolina and the Islanders (and for those who correctly read the ROR trade, the Sabres.)

The most improved teams at the end of the actual season were (along with Tampa Bay) Montreal, Carolina and the Islanders. Buffalo was was 5th.

We don’t have a clue.

i kinda have a clue.... 

[PalmTreeMafia]

6 hours ago, dudacek said:

Last season virtually every team in the east “got better” in the off-season except for maybe Montreal, Carolina and the Islanders (and for those who correctly read the ROR trade, the Sabres.)

The most improved teams at the end of the actual season were (along with Tampa Bay) Montreal, Carolina and the Islanders. Buffalo was was 5th.

We don’t have a clue.

I'm wondering what teams in the Eastern Conference people here think the Sabres are better than, on paper? Ottawa? Detroit? Who else? There aren't many. 

Yet some here are excited that we added a decent second line LW (Johansson), a decent third line winger (Vesey), a prospect of completely unknown NHL impact (Olofsson), a solid 3rd line D-man (Miller), and a solid D-man prospect (Jokiharju)? None of these are individually bad additions, but cumulatively they are nowhere near enough to put us into borderline playoff contention this year. So we're looking at 9 straight years without playoffs now (NHL franchise record is 10), 3 straight for Botterill, and 5 straight for Eichel's career.

Also, some here are not factoring in the issue of injuries. This team was atrocious since November despite barely getting hit with the injury bug. What happens if or when the team's injury situation regresses to the mean this season? Another lottery pick to look forward to?

It's getting really hard to get excited about the 2019-20 season. I realize Botterill still has a couple months to trade Risto for a 2C, move out the Sobotkas and Scandellas of the roster, etc... but the closer we get to the start of the season without substantive roster changes, the less sanguine I feel about Botterill's future in Buffalo. He talks a good game about locker room culture and has certainly created that in Rochester, but the core players in Buffalo have been languishing.

[Tondas]

16 minutes ago, Marchand'sNose said:

I'm wondering what teams in the Eastern Conference people here think the Sabres are better than, on paper? Ottawa? Detroit? Who else? There aren't many. 

Yet some here are excited that we added a decent second line LW (Johansson), a decent third line winger (Vesey), a prospect of completely unknown NHL impact (Olofsson), a solid 3rd line D-man (Miller), and a solid D-man prospect (Jokiharju)? None of these are individually bad additions, but cumulatively they are nowhere near enough to put us into borderline playoff contention this year. So we're looking at 9 straight years without playoffs now (NHL franchise record is 10), 3 straight for Botterill, and 5 straight for Eichel's career.

Also, some here are not factoring in the issue of injuries. This team was atrocious since November despite barely getting hit with the injury bug. What happens if or when the team's injury situation regresses to the mean this season? Another lottery pick to look forward to?

It's getting really hard to get excited about the 2019-20 season. I realize Botterill still has a couple months to trade Risto for a 2C, move out the Sobotkas and Scandellas of the roster, etc... but the closer we get to the start of the season without substantive roster changes, the less sanguine I feel about Botterill's future in Buffalo. He talks a good game about locker room culture and has certainly created that in Rochester, but the core players in Buffalo have been languishing.

I get the sentiment and I can't argue.  Having been through a few of these off seasons, I comfort myself (maybe delusionally so) that things will change this year.  I'm going with the following:

RFK is a hockey whisperer.

Jack will be a 30-60 player.

Rhino will be a 30-40 player.

Dahlin will be a force and put up 60 points.

Mitts, having gained some weight, will be the answer as a #2 center.

Our goalies will be better.

VO will pack 25 this year.

Skinner will pack 35 this year.

Our defense will be mobile and agile.

Sobotka will bring in the nicest, biggest bag of pucks known to the NHL.

 

One can dream, can't one?

 

 

 

. 

Edited August 11, 2019 by Tondas

[triumph_communes]

I think we already had a decent team, barring the abysmal defensive depth, and they only got better and completely reworked that depth. 

 

I think coaching will be all the difference. 

[nucci]

6 hours ago, triumph_communes said:

I think we already had a decent team, barring the abysmal defensive depth, and they only got better and completely reworked that depth. 

 

I think coaching will be all the difference. 

we have the same goalies

[Tondas]

22 minutes ago, nucci said:

we have the same goalies

Hopefully, the new goalie coach can squeeze a few more saves out of our dynamic duo.

[MakeSabresGrr8Again]

On 8/11/2019 at 12:05 PM, TrueBlueGED said:

Other than Columbus, who? 

When you're a perennial bottom feeder, there are no games you're supposed to win. 

Okay, fine, we should beat Ottawa. 

Even in the "lean" years when winning was decent, we had issues against lower teams and played better against top teams. But yea, I agree.

[inkman]

23 hours ago, Tondas said:

I get the sentiment and I can't argue.  Having been through a few of these off seasons, I comfort myself (maybe delusionally so) that things will change this year.  I'm going with the following:

RFK is a hockey whisperer.

Jack will be a 30-60 player.

Rhino will be a 30-40 player.

Dahlin will be a force and put up 60 points.

Mitts, having gained some weight, will be the answer as a #2 center.

Our goalies will be better.

VO will pack 25 this year.

Skinner will pack 35 this year.

Our defense will be mobile and agile.

Sobotka will bring in the nicest, biggest bag of pucks known to the NHL.

Mitts doesn't need to gain weight, he needs strength. Cut down on the donuts and Fortnight and start hitting the gym. He's a professional athlete, he could at least look like one. Not the kid handing me tacos and the TB drivethru.  

[gilbert11]

Training camp starts in about a month and despite some chatter, no recent roster changes.

Is the goaltending good enough?  I’m not sure.  While the GA averages over 3.00 for both Hutton and Ullmark are poor, they can be a result of poor defensive play.  Save percentage can be a somewhat better predictor of goaltenders’ play but if the poor defense is leading to breakaways and point blank shots, it may not all fall on the goalies.  However, looking at those Save Percentages of .908 for Hutton and .905  for Ullmark, they place them at 34 and 40 respectively in the league for 2018/19.

Did the Sabres add enough scoring in the offseason? I don’t think so.  Vesey and Johansson should help but I don’t expect that much of an impact. I think they need one more proven 20 goal scorer to help balance out the production.

So, in my opinion, if the Sabres go into the season with this current roster, I don’t see much improvement in the team’s win-loss record.

 

[inkman]

While I'd like more added to the roster, I think JBot might be done unless something falls into his lap. 

I still see a competent coach easily getting 5-10 more wins.  If RKrug is that guy, time will tell.