2020-2021 Lineup Thread

[dudacek]

2 hours ago, Randall Flagg said:

You can simultaneously grow your prospects and build your NHL roster. 

Ours is half-patched together, was unceremoniously gutted in a very particular way last summer, was laden with garbage depth hurting the precious young pieces set above it the summer before, and we're already talking ourselves into being okay with another middle six nightmare this season while we wait again, because of The Plan. 

There was no plan in 2017 that involved the likely playoff miss in 19-20 among any rational fan that decided to flesh out their expectations for this organization on this site. Much less in 2016, 2015, or 2013, or 2012. Each and every season along the way, the prospect conversation has been completely and utterly identical. Each and every season, we enter with our empty roster, leave with our tails between our legs, pick something new to blame, and shoot ourselves in the foot in one way or another. Botterill has been just as bad with this as anyone else. 

I don't think we're talking about the same thing. I'm not asking to trade our prospects for middling 29 year old hockey players. I'm not saying we should have done this last year or the year before. I'm the one calling BS here, and it's on the new post-tank status quo that is going to spin our trek from 79 points to 80 points over a three year span as acceptable because Casey Mittelstadt exists as a reasonable offensive prospect in the mold of Tyson Jost, and Dylan Cozens scores 93 points in the WHL next year, and because we got incredibly lucky in a lottery. Go anywhere else to neutral fans that are knowledgeable of hockey prospects, and flaunt our situation to them, emphasizing both Casey and Dylan, the defensive prospects, the culture, whatever else you'd like, and see how they react to the roadmap of our entire organization, top to bottom, the last three years, and going forward into this one. They will have heard the same thing from fans of almost every other team, and every other team will have more of the important tangible NHL stuff to show for it along the way. 

The last four years, yes, including Jason's two and especially Jason's two, have been a ***** mess, even if it winds up okay soon because Samuelson is a "pillar" on some team whose existence I have no clue the nature of, and Ryan Johnson, who nobody heard of until we said his name at the draft, was in that Cole Caufield highlight clip. When we climb out of this, there will be entire years of step-backs that didn't need to happen, that everyone will pretend were critical steps along the way. These include typical GM errors you'd expect from even the best, and many things on top of that. 

It's the fact that as a fanbase we've been calling out these mistakes as they happen, in real time, for years along the way, that makes it so frustrating. It's this fact that makes the call to just please be reasonably digestible to watch most of the season, please rejoin the rest of the NHL, please get out of last place in wins since the tank ended four years ago, more anguished each passing year. And the reaction to patience, prospects, and The Right Way stronger and more sarcastic as they tick by. 

There is no right way that doesn't involve the NHL team winning tonight, and last night too. Much less losing, and losing much more than everyone else. 

To the first bold, what do you think acquiring Jokiharju, Cozens, Mittelstadt, Dahlin and Thompson at the same time as Johansson, Montour, Miller and Skinner was trying to do?

To the second bold, then what are you saying?

The “right way” is about getting the right mix of good players into the right environment, then having pucks bounce your way.. If there was a magic formula then someone would have picked Marchand or Point in the 1st round and Jake Allen wouldn’t have an NHL contract, let alone a Stanley Cup ring. Dan Bylsma and Cam Ward won Stanley cups.

Victor Olofsson could pop in 25 goals this year. Probably not, but its no less likely than Yanni Gourde popping 25 as an unheralded 25-year-old rookie. Maybe Ryan Johnson will be the next Josh Morrisey, maybe Jokiharju becomes MA Gragnani, maybe Alex Nylander has a better NHL career than his brother Willie. Who the ***** knows?

Your post reads like you already know what’s going to happen this year.

What happened before isn’t necessarily going to happen again. Why else would we watch?

Edited August 6, 2019 by dudacek

[darksabre]

7 hours ago, SwampD said:

That’s what we’ve been told.

It's the truth. 

[triumph_communes]

8 hours ago, SwampD said:

Tim Murray was fired before he was allowed to rebuild.

Interesting take, since all his draft targets turned into duds and he left us in cap hell that's taken Botterill three season for us the climb out of that's not ready until 2020-2021.

 

Looks like we will have some cap space to make some UFA splashes by this season.  Won't know really what's needed until this season plays out though. I'm hoping we just bank up some space and go after some nice rentals to push a cup run ?

Edited August 6, 2019 by triumph_communes

[GASabresIUFAN]

I’m kind of surprised by the venom in this thread.  What happens in 2020 if things go well?  

There are some obvious moves right now.  

Bogo and Scandella are gone.  We aren’t paying 4+ for 3rd line D. This opens slots for Joker and Pilut, but an FA is possible. 

Reinhart and Montour will be retained for Big $ eating up the money saved from Scandella and Bogo. 

Sheary and Vesey are on expiring deals.  If one steps up, I can see Jbot re-signing that player.

The flow of kids up front will continue as Asplund, Routsalainen and even Cozens push for jobs and if things go well Olofsson and Thompson may have finally established themselves.  

Hopefully by year end of this season Mitts proves ready to be our 2c.

If we have a good year, I really don’t see much demand for a big name trade or FA.  I am assuming that Ristolainen is traded before this coming year if at worst at the deadline.

Jeff Jack Vesey

Johansson Mitts Reinhart 

Olofsson Cozens Thompson

Erod Asplund KO

 

Dahlin Montour 

McCabe Miller

Pilot Jokiharju 

 

Hutton Hammond

Edited August 7, 2019 by GASabresIUFAN

[Randall Flagg]

9 hours ago, dudacek said:

To the first bold, what do you think acquiring Jokiharju, Cozens, Mittelstadt, Dahlin and Thompson at the same time as Johansson, Montour, Miller and Skinner was trying to do?

To the second bold, then what are you saying?

The “right way” is about getting the right mix of good players into the right environment, then having pucks bounce your way.. If there was a magic formula then someone would have picked Marchand or Point in the 1st round and Jake Allen wouldn’t have an NHL contract, let alone a Stanley Cup ring. Dan Bylsma and Cam Ward won Stanley cups.

Victor Olofsson could pop in 25 goals this year. Probably not, but its no less likely than Yanni Gourde popping 25 as an unheralded 25-year-old rookie. Maybe Ryan Johnson will be the next Josh Morrisey, maybe Jokiharju becomes MA Gragnani, maybe Alex Nylander has a better NHL career than his brother Willie. Who the ***** knows?

Your post reads like you already know what’s going to happen this year.

What happened before isn’t necessarily going to happen again. Why else would we watch?

My problem comes with the fact that comparing those players in to players out over three offseasons, and adding in all of the roster garbage that's been filled in with it, leads to the logical conclusion that is in complete conjunction with the garbage hockey we have seen to this point. And I'm not going to sit here and say it's being done well when it takes us three seasons to improve a negligible amount. And even if this year comes along and we surprise and make a big jump, there were two years of objective mistakes along the way that didn't need to happen anywhere near the degree that they did, and I don't think people are going to take being told that it was a necessary step along the way very kindly, because it simply wasn't, for all of the reasons that have been outlined endlessly on this forum.

You can make a similar list of player additions or prospect "development" for any successful or failed GM to ever exist, while ignoring their mistakes in a vacuum, and make it seem like they were doing a good job, save a guy like Chiarelli or something. Tim also added NHLers, and added through the drafts some nifty names like Jack, Sam, and a whole host of guys that are the reason we like our NHL-ready part of the prospect pool now in the first place, while bringing along such youngsters as Risto, McCabe, Zemgus and Larry. He was ***** fired, and he deserved to be. What you outline is baseline NHL GM competence, in a list that can be compiled for any GM of any team at any given time, while neglecting the stuff I'm referring to, that has made us the worst team in the league since we stopped trying to lose, due to the current GM that has had the two worst seasons of the four in that span. It's not impressive, it's not a convincing outline.

And you're right that I don't know what will happen this year, and I allow for all of the unknowns that namely reside in Dahlin, Mitts, and Olofsson's growth in figuring out this team's ceiling and likely standings range. But pretending that you can't make an educated guess before the season is also wrong, and given that I was one single point off of last year's final standings position in my preseason prediction because of all the work I put into trying to understand them (not to mention calling things like the fact that usage tweaks could turn a certain center into a 75 point selke winner before the trade even happened) paid off, well, I trust myself a little bit to have a general feel for what the given roster is capable of, and so does everybody else that allows themselves to form an opinion of Jason's offseason before the hockey starts. Add in the fact that I was regularly poked at for my "attitude" last summer, while ultimately ending up justified by reality, I have renewed faith in the work I put in to try and understand hockey. Just like anyone else trusts their own instincts.  Not breaking any rules here. 

Pretending Jason is doing anything novel or substantially different in a way that will pay off uniquely for the Sabres and is worth the mistakes and the bad so far would be foolish and, especially before it's come even close to working as well as the dude who got fired, I'm not interested in reading about how we have such a good plan and how much sense it makes and this or that.

 

Edited August 6, 2019 by Randall Flagg

[Randall Flagg]

Duda, in three offseasons, Shero has added Taylor Hall, Will Butcher, PK Subban, Sami Vatanen, Nico Hischier, the very same Marcus Johansson, Jack Hughes, Kyle Palmeiri. Sure, there are two bottom of the standings finishes, but there was also a playoff appearance. He's developed low-probability prospects such as Jesper Bratt, and his prospect pool is on a level that completely took apart our own pool in 2017 in that tournament, I vividly remember them owning the puck against us. Dahlin helped us the following year, but they had also lost Hischier to graduation. Miles Wood, Pavel Zacha, and especially Blake Coleman have settled into very nice depth roles developing in his tenure. This list is more impressive than anything you've listed, and it's the freaking Devils, who nobody cares about or think will be anything notable, and it includes a goddamn playoff season. Why on earth is what we're doing special and noteworthy rather than baseline competence while also being a miserable NHL team and not winning a single AHL playoff game, and only having a good AHL season because of Murray guys and players like Redmond who will never factor into our real team in the future?

This is not the same thing as saying we're doomed and will never get out of this - I think we're close and one big good move away from taking a fundamental leap towards something we haven't had in a decade. But I don't think I'm the only one tired of the perpetual , always-positive justification that fans build up whether it's deserved or not, and that's what led to the original comment you took issue with. It might become deserved shortly, but it objectively isn't yet, because no team ever HAS to go through what 85% of Jason's tenure has been so far, to become good from being bad. It's NEVER a requirement, certainly not from where we were when he took over.

Edited August 6, 2019 by Randall Flagg

[dudacek]

Again, I’m not arguing any of that. I have never said what we are doing is “special” or “noteworthy.”

In his first two years, Botterill put us exactly where we were in the standings when he took over. He needs to be better and we need to see evidence that his plan is working this year.

I responded only to the sarcastic “another three years” comment and what I took to be the implication that ithis type of plan won’t work and it’s a waste of time. I disagree. It might work, it has worked for other teams. It worked for us 15 years ago.

My position for at least a year now has been that Jason seems to know how to run an organization, but I’ve yet to see evidence that he is a good judge of hockey players. But I also know that the Byfugliens and Bollands and Hjalmarssons of the world often take time to develop and the Hossas and the Sharps and the Quenvilles take time to acquire so I’m willing to wait and see what this year brings.

And for the record, the Devils finished behind us last year and, like us, statistically are no further ahead than where they were at the end of 2017.

Edited August 6, 2019 by dudacek

[Randall Flagg]

5 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Again, I’m not arguing any of that. I have never said what we are doing is “special” or “noteworthy.”

In his first two years, Botterill put us exactly where we were in the standings when he took over. He needs to be better and we need to see evidence that his plan is working this year.

I responded only to the sarcastic “another three years” comment and what I took to be the implication that it won’t work and it’s a waste of time. I disagree. It might work, it has worked for other teams. It worked for us 15 years ago.

And for the record, the Devils finished behind us last year and, like us, statistically are no further ahead than where they were at the end of 2017.

Let’s see what happens this year.

That's my point - wow, we've done typical GM stuff and matched the vaunted NJD, except they got to watch playoff hockey in there at least. And aren't the worst team in the NHL over the span that we are

Boy sorry to derail this whole thread.

Given that we have things to do this summer, I have a tough time even imagining our 19-20 roster. 

[triumph_communes]

38 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

Duda, in three offseasons, Shero has added Taylor Hall, Will Butcher, PK Subban, Sami Vatanen, Nico Hischier, the very same Marcus Johansson, Jack Hughes, Kyle Palmeiri. Sure, there are two bottom of the standings finishes, but there was also a playoff appearance. He's developed low-probability prospects such as Jesper Bratt, and his prospect pool is on a level that completely took apart our own pool in 2017 in that tournament, I vividly remember them owning the puck against us. Dahlin helped us the following year, but they had also lost Hischier to graduation. Miles Wood, Pavel Zacha, and especially Blake Coleman have settled into very nice depth roles developing in his tenure. This list is more impressive than anything you've listed, and it's the freaking Devils, who nobody cares about or think will be anything notable, and it includes a goddamn playoff season. Why on earth is what we're doing special and noteworthy rather than baseline competence while also being a miserable NHL team and not winning a single AHL playoff game, and only having a good AHL season because of Murray guys and players like Redmond who will never factor into our real team in the future?

This is not the same thing as saying we're doomed and will never get out of this - I think we're close and one big good move away from taking a fundamental leap towards something we haven't had in a decade. But I don't think I'm the only one tired of the perpetual , always-positive justification that fans build up whether it's deserved or not, and that's what led to the original comment you took issue with. It might become deserved shortly, but it objectively isn't yet, because no team ever HAS to go through what 85% of Jason's tenure has been so far, to become good from being bad. It's NEVER a requirement, certainly not from where we were when he took over.

I think you're attributing coaching effects with GM effects.  Also, NJD had a great cap situation like when Murray started the job.  Botterill needed time to get over the mess that was Murray's choices.

[Thorner]

16 hours ago, dudacek said:

To the first bold, what do you think acquiring Jokiharju, Cozens, Mittelstadt, Dahlin and Thompson at the same time as Johansson, Montour, Miller and Skinner was trying to do?

To the second bold, then what are you saying?

The “right way” is about getting the right mix of good players into the right environment, then having pucks bounce your way.. If there was a magic formula then someone would have picked Marchand or Point in the 1st round and Jake Allen wouldn’t have an NHL contract, let alone a Stanley Cup ring. Dan Bylsma and Cam Ward won Stanley cups.

Victor Olofsson could pop in 25 goals this year. Probably not, but its no less likely than Yanni Gourde popping 25 as an unheralded 25-year-old rookie. Maybe Ryan Johnson will be the next Josh Morrisey, maybe Jokiharju becomes MA Gragnani, maybe Alex Nylander has a better NHL career than his brother Willie. Who the ***** knows?

Your post reads like you already know what’s going to happen this year.

What happened before isn’t necessarily going to happen again. Why else would we watch?

The difference is we enter into every season with these guys penciled in to top 6 roles and therefore expectant of a breakout, necessary for success, instead of surrounded by quality players in such a way that a breakout is a nice surprise (as it seemingly always is for Tampa). 

We require massive breakouts to just be competitive, other teams rely on breakouts to be contenders. We required it of Mittelstadt last year, we are psyching ourselves up to be requiring it of Mittelstadt again this season, along with Olofsson, and others. 

Who is our best centreman's right wing? We can't even answer that question and it's his 5th season. Can't be Reinhart, as he's what we are counting on to make Mittelstadt this season palatable in a 2C role. 

Edited August 6, 2019 by Thorny

[Weave]

I want to hurt myself now.

[dudacek]

48 minutes ago, Thorny said:

The difference is we enter into every season with these guys penciled in to top 6 roles and therefore expectant of a breakout, necessary for success, instead of surrounded by quality players in such a way that a breakout is a nice surprise (as it seemingly always is for Tampa). 

We require massive breakouts to just be competitive, other teams rely on breakouts to be contenders. We required it of Mittelstadt last year, we are psyching ourselves up to be requiring it of Mittelstadt again this season, along with Olofsson, and others. 

Who is our best centreman's right wing? We can't even answer that question and it's his 5th season. Can't be Reinhart, as he's what we are counting on to make Mittelstadt this season palatable in a 2C role. 

The 2013 Winnipeg Jets finished out of the playoffs built around Ladd, Byfuglien, Little, Wheeler, Kane and Enstrom.

The next year they added Schiefele and Trouba and missed the playoffs

2015 Perreault and Lowry were added, and Myers and Stafford for Kane and Bogosian. They made the playoffs and lost in round one.

2016 Ladd is gone,  Ehlers and Hellebuyck arrive but the team plummets 20 points and they miss the playoffs again.

2017 Laine, Morrisey, Tanev and Connor surface AND THEY MISS THE PLAYOFFS AGAIN!

 

Every piece of what we now know was a pretty good Jets team was in place at this point yet they still sucked.

Yet in 2018 the Jets jumped 27 points without adding a single player of substance.

Why? What happened? Could it be that they slowly added young talent and that young talent slowly got better?

 

And why given our slow accumulation of young talent can’t a similar leap come for the Sabres?

[darksabre]

6 minutes ago, dudacek said:

The 2013 Winnipeg Jets finished out of the playoffs built around Ladd, Byfuglien, Little, Wheeler, Kane and Enstrom.

The next year they added Schiefele and Trouba and missed the playoffs

2015 Perreault and Lowry were added, and Myers and Stafford for Kane and Bogosian. They made the playoffs and lost in round one.

2016 Ladd is gone,  Ehlers and Hellebuyck arrive but the team plummets 20 points and they miss the playoffs again.

2017 Laine, Morrisey, Tanev and Connor surface AND THEY MISS THE PLAYOFFS AGAIN!

 

Every piece of what we now know was a pretty good Jets team was in place at this point yet they still sucked.

Yet in 2018 the Jets jumped 27 points without adding a single player of substance.

Why? What happened? Could it be that they slowly added young talent and that young talent slowly got better?

 

And why given our slow accumulation of young talent can’t a similar leap come for the Sabres?

I think, truly, that Buffalo fans have PTSD from Regier basically never drafting and developing anyone. It's been a looooong time since a core of young kids bubbled to the top here. 

[Broken Ankles]

7 hours ago, triumph_communes said:

I think you're attributing coaching effects with GM effects.  Also, NJD had a great cap situation like when Murray started the job.  Botterill needed time to get over the mess that was Murray's choices.

+ 1 to this point.   If I recollect, the NJD were under the Salary cap floor with $30M to spend in 2015.  Conversely JB had cap hits like Moulson, Okposo, Pommers, Georges, Bogo and others which takes time to correct.  Of course he did not help himself with adding Scandella and Pouliet to the mix.  

 

other points:

• Fun fact.  Las Vegas has the NJD Win total at  88 points for 2019 and Sabres at 84.  How is it that a team adding an all world D-man PK Suban, the league MVP who missed all last year, and the #1 overall is only 4 points better than the Sabres?  
• This is Shero's 5th year.  Palmeiri was added in 2015.  the additions were over those 5 seasons, not three. 
• Their awesome playoff run was losing in the first round 4 games to 1. 
• I don't watch junior hockey but most of the sites I read do not have their farm system above the Sabres.  In fact, Shero should be highly criticized for the failure of the 2015 draft where he drafted Zacha over about a dozen others more highly regarded.   We all know the names. 
• His 2016 first rounder looks suspecious.  Six goals last year in the AHL for Binghamton? 
• The trade for Mirco Mueller (2nd +4th) highly questionable. 
• The Vataneen and Hall trades were highly successful, and should be louded except their are both UFA's and will be expecting significant pay increases next season. 

To me Shero is comme ci, comme ca.  Not reading his book on how to be an NHL GM.

Edited August 6, 2019 by Broken Ankles

[dudacek]

11 minutes ago, dudacek said:

The 2015 Sabres finished one of the worst seasons in NHL history built around Ristolainen and not much else, but they do add Kane and Bogosian at the deadline.

The next year they added Eichel, Reinhart, O’Reilly and McCabe

2017 Okposo and Ullmark

2018 Rodrigues maybe?

2019 O’Reilly and Kane exit, Skinner, Dahlin, Thompson and Mittelstadt arrive

2020 Miller, Montour, Jokiharju Olofsson and Cozens?

Basically Murray stopped after adding Eichel and O’Reilly and Botterill did nothing in his first year.

The tale of the past two off-seasons has yet to be told.

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

Basically Murray stopped after adding Eichel and O’Reilly and Botterill did nothing in his first year.

The tale of the past two off-seasons has yet to be told.

Scandella, Pominville and Baloo

Edited August 7, 2019 by GASabresIUFAN

[Broken Ankles]

17 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Scandella, Pominville and Baloo

Like Dudacek said, he did NOTHING his first year. 

[thewookie1]

1 hour ago, Broken Ankles said:

Like Dudacek said, he did NOTHING his first year. 

Scandella played well his first year and Pommers had his moments. Having a plan fail to pan out is different than doing nothing.

[MakeSabresGrr8Again]

13 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I’m kind of surprised by the venom in this thread.  What happens in 2020 if things go well?  

There are some obvious moves right now.  

Bogo and Scandella are gone.  We aren’t playing 4+ for 3rd line D. This opens slots for Joker and Pilut, but an FA is possible. 

Reinhart and Montour will be retained for Big $ eating up the money saved from Scandella and Bogo. 

Sheary and Vesey are on expiring deals.  If one steps up, I can see Jbot re-signing that player.

The flow of kids up front will continue as Asplund, Routsalainen and even Cozens push for jobs and if things go well Olofsson and Thompson may have finally established themselves.  

Hopefully by year end of this season Mitts proves ready to be our 2c.

If we have a good year, I really don’t see much demand for a big name trade or FA.  I am assuming that Ristolainen is traded before this coming year if at worst at the deadline.

Jeff Jack Vesey

Johansson Mitts Reinhart 

Olofsson Cozens Thompson

Erod Asplund KO

 

Dahlin Montour 

McCabe Miller

Pilot Jokiharju 

 

Hutton Hammond

Your roster concerns me. No Risto and no Larsson yet also no indication as to whom we got for them. Risto should at least impact the roster if traded. Larry maybe not (Ilike the Asplund addition).

Also, if certain players don't develop properly, this looks like a bubble team ( on the outside). Thompson and Casey would need to step it up for a playoff spot.

[dudacek]

2 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Scandella, Pominville and Baloo

 

49 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

Scandella played well his first year and Pommers had his moments. Having a plan fail to pan out is different than doing nothing.

The whole exercise was based on building by adding players you expect to contribute over a long-term.

Edited August 7, 2019 by dudacek

[GASabresIUFAN]

11 minutes ago, dudacek said:

 

The whole exercise was based on building by adding players you expect to contribute over a long-term.

I think he hoped when he acquired Scandella that he was more then just a depth D.

[GASabresIUFAN]

10 hours ago, MakeSabresGrr8Again said:

Your roster concerns me. No Risto and no Larsson yet also no indication as to whom we got for them. Risto should at least impact the roster if traded. Larry maybe not (Ilike the Asplund addition).

Also, if certain players don't develop properly, this looks like a bubble team ( on the outside). Thompson and Casey would need to step it up for a playoff spot.

Larsson is on a one year deal and doesn't have the speed Jbot wants longer.

As to Risto, you are correct.  I didn't project a roster player from the deal for him because it is really a huge unknown what his value is.  Will Jbot trade him for futures and cap savings?  Will he trade him for a top 6 forward (I think we'll have to give up more then Risto to get a top 6 forward) or will he trade him for a near ready prospect and futures.  No idea.  

The point of my post was that regardless of the RIsto trade, there are siginficant building blocks here right now that with a little luck should make us competitive this coming season and even younger and more dynamic the year after.  

Edited August 7, 2019 by GASabresIUFAN

[Broken Ankles]

1 hour ago, thewookie1 said:

Scandella played well his first year and Pommers had his moments. Having a plan fail to pan out is different than doing nothing.

  I wouldn’t say Scandella ever played “well”.  He was/is replacement level his entire time as a Sabre  I always liked Pommers and happy to have him return, but I liked  Foligno more considering his age, term, his style of play and his AAV.    You are absolutely correct it was an attempt to do something which should not be dismissed.  

[MakeSabresGrr8Again]

2 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Larsson is on a one year deal and doesn't have the speed Jbot wants longer.

As to Risto, you are correct.  I didn't project a roster player from the deal for him because it is really a huge unknown what his value is.  Will Jbot trade him for futures and cap savings?  Will he trade him for a top 6 forward (I think we'll have to give up more then Risto to get a top 6 forward) or will he trade him for a near ready prospects and futures.  No idea.  

The point of my post was that regardless of the RIsto trade, there are siginficant building block here right now that with a little luck should make us competitive this coming season and even younger and more dynamic the year after.  

I'm good with that. Just hoping that we could upgrade at least one of the forwards through a Risto trade. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

I know 6 games into the new season this is very premature but it’s also important to know where the team stands long-term as Jbot is certainly looking at these numbers to determine who to keep, who to let walk and who to acquire or trade this current season for the long-term health and success of the franchise.  

Jbot has us in great cap shape for next season.

Based on these early season returns, I’m envisioning Asplund, Cozens, Lazar (RFA)and Thompson (RFA) (3.4 total next year) taking over for Sheary, Erod, Vesey and Sobotka (current cost 10.775). I also see Mitts (2 years at 2.5 per), Larsson (3 years at 2.25 per), Girgensons (3 years at 2.25) being re-signed.  Samson get 6 years at 7.25 per and Olofsson 3 years @ 4 per season.

Of course Mojo, KO, Jack and Skinner all return (cap cost 29.5).  These 13 forwards have a total cap cost of 51.15

On defense we have Risto, McCabe, Miller, Joker, and Dahlin all signed for 13.975. Borgen can serve at the 7th D for .864 and that leaves only Montour to re-sign (3.875).  No idea what kind of deal he gets, but at 25, maybe we sign him for 5 years at 5 per season.  This puts our D group at 19.84.

In goal Hutton has a year left at 2.75 and Ullmark is an RFA.  I’d say 2 years at 2.25 per season, thus 5 mill for goaltending.

Lastly we still owe CoHo .792 for 4 more years.

The 22 man roster would have a cap cost of $76 mill plus CoHo.  

Lines

VO Jack Sam

Skinner MoJo Mitts

Asplund Cozens Thompson

Girgensons Larsson KO

Lazar

Dahlin Montour

McCabe Risto

Miller Joker

Borgen

Hutton Ullmark

 

Obviously this won’t be the opening roster next year, but it may not be far off either.  Jbot has room to make a deal to add a top forward or can still trade Risto to end to over crowding on the RHD and open a slot for Pilut.  He also may want to hold onto the cap space so that he can re-sign Dahlin long-term.