The Roster of the Future - Jbot’s Vision?

[Broken Ankles]

On 8/23/2019 at 9:29 AM, Huckleberry said:

I think some people are forgetting Samson actually makes jeff and jack better, they are worser without him.

  Let me add more of what Rakish supplied.    From Natural Stat Trick. Jack and Jeff played only about 24 minutes the entire season 5v5 without one of these three:  Sam, Jason or Evan.   With an obvious lion-share to Jason and Sam.  And while Jason's TOI was half  of Sams, his splits suggest they (Jack and Jeff) played better with Jason than with Sam.    Higher Corsi, Higher Fenwick, Higher shots for %, higher goals for %, and higher % of HD goals for.   

Now I don't believe that Jason is better than Sam in any way, but what I observed in the first part of the year is that Jason did not look out of place on a first line of a team that was in contention and competitive.  I think Sam's time spent on the first line was sufficient for him to gain the confidence that he can drive play, and execute without Jack or Jeff.  KO got 12 minutes, and Tage 10.   The results were awful.  Maybe the 2018 Sabres did not have another piece that would fit besides Jason or Sam, but Housley did not seem to even experiment with the idea. 

The intent of including other stats is to suggest that a good player/finisher (Vesey/Olofsson?) can help deliver similar results on the top line while at the same time leveraging Sam to provide better results on the second line.   

[dudacek]

1 hour ago, Thorny said:

Skinner being the 1/3 who is NOT a solid set-up man, I take it. I feel like he could pass, but he just doesn't. 

And I'm ok with that. 

Offensive end phonebooths. 

I think his actual passing - his ability to send the puck to a teammate at the right time in the right place - is outright bad.

[Thorner]

11 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I think his actual passing - his ability to send the puck to a teammate at the right time in the right place - is outright bad.

Too out of practice I guess. 

[Randall Flagg]

21 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I think his actual passing - his ability to send the puck to a teammate at the right time in the right place - is outright bad.

Sometimes alarmingly so