What did we learn from the Prospects Challenge?

[GASabresIUFAN]

Impressions

1) Olofsson is ready for the big time.

2) Cozens has a bright future but it likely another year or two out

3) Borgen looks ready to challenge for an NHL job

4) Jokiharju made some excellent plays but I thought Borgen looked better.

5) Asplund and Routsalainen look to have NHL futures, but not this year.

6) Fitzpatrick looked better then I thought. Bryson also

7) who is this Olson guy?

[Randall Flagg]

Almost nothing, personally

[Zamboni]

It confirmed my long held belief ... player development is a wonderful thing. And thank god there are lower leagues to do it in.

Edited September 10, 2019 by Zamboni

[Brawndo]

29 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Impressions

1) Olofsson is ready for the big time.

2) Cozens has a bright future but it likely another year or two out

3) Borgen looks ready to challenge for an NHL job

4) Jokiharju made some excellent plays but I thought Borgen looked better.

5) Asplund and Routsalainen look to have NHL futures, but not this year.

6) Fitzpatrick looked better then I thought. Bryson also

7) who is this Olson guy?

Asplund and Borgen will be the amongst the first call ups from Rochester.

Routsalainen will be going back to Finland.

Fitzpatrick and Bryson should be fun to watch in Rochester this year. 

Olson was a camp invite, he was named Captain of the Tri City Americans of the WHL, the question is does he get a contract with Amerks? 

[Doohicksie]

Pekar continues to impress.  Looking forward to his arrival in the NHL.

[dudacek]

35 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Impressions

1) Olofsson is ready for the big time.

2) Cozens has a bright future but it likely another year or two out

3) Borgen looks ready to challenge for an NHL job

4) Jokiharju made some excellent plays but I thought Borgen looked better.

5) Asplund and Routsalainen look to have NHL futures, but not this year.

6) Fitzpatrick looked better then I thought. Bryson also

7) who is this Olson guy?

Mostly agree.

Asplund looked a lot better than Ruotsalainen and looks close. Don’t think he will make it out of camp, but Sobotka and Larsson should be looking over their shoulder. Arttu will not be in Buffalo this year.

Will need to look at Henri and Will against men. 

Olson was not among the guys assigned to Rochester or junior today. Does that mean he earned a main camp tryout?

Edited September 10, 2019 by dudacek

[Formerly Allan in MD]

Pekar has a four letter word the Sabres haven't had much of for years: G R I T.

[...]

The only real surprise for me was Pekar.  I don't know if he's NHL-ready, but I liked watching his game.  Olofsson wasn't a surprise.  He looked good in the games he played with the Sabres.  He might be the droid they're looking for to bolster the third or second lines this season (wouldn't mind seeing him with Eichel again, too).  I wasn't able to discern much on the D for whatever reason, so we'll see how camp goes.

[Mustache of God]

Is Pekar AHL eligible?

[pi2000]

1 hour ago, Randall Flagg said:

Almost nothing, personally

I agree.

Last year Mittlestadt and Thompson dominated the tournament (at least the last few games, CM had a slow start IIRC)... so take that for what it's worth.

[dudacek]

3 minutes ago, Mustache of God said:

Is Pekar AHL eligible?

He is in the same way Girgensons was, but Botterill indicated Barrie was the most likely place for him.

[Thorner]

3 minutes ago, pi2000 said:

I agree.

Last year Mittlestadt and Thompson dominated the tournament (at least the last few games, CM had a slow start IIRC)... so take that for what it's worth.

While I agree we didn’t learn much, I think Olofsson probably stood out to me as much as Thompson and Casey did. He certainly did game one, I’m kinda assuming he took the foot off the gas a bit. 

He doesn’t look so good that the RW issue in the top 6 is necessarily solved, though. 

But he’s the one guy I think proved he’s an NHLer. 

Edited September 10, 2019 by Thorny

[Brawndo]

55 minutes ago, Mustache of God said:

Is Pekar AHL eligible?

 

51 minutes ago, dudacek said:

He is in the same way Girgensons was, but Botterill indicated Barrie was the most likely place for him.

Randy Sexton was on the Instigators last Friday and indicated he will be heading to Barrie after TC, as that would be best for his development. 

[French Collection]

I have liked Asplund since his first WJHC. I don't think he makes the Sabres out of camp but by year's end he could be 3 or 4C.

[PerreaultForever]

Pekar. Pekar. Pekar!  I simply cannot wait for the day he is in our lineup. 

I like some of the grit shown by some of them. Their attitudes. I see a shift in culture coming and lots of potential guys to balance the roster around the main talent. In 2-3 years I can see every single one of the guys listed in the first post on our roster, including Olson.

The only question for me is how soon? Pretty sure it won't happen as fast as I want it to, or as fast as the team needs it to. But there is a future.

[LGR4GM]

We learned that the Sabres are trying to hold the blue line and that they are now willing to run the powerplay at time from below the goal line. I think there were some improvements in the breakouts but with a short tourney and almost no practice time, hard to tell on that one. 

[Randall Flagg]

2 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

We learned that the Sabres are trying to hold the blue line and that they are now willing to run the powerplay at time from below the goal line. I think there were some improvements in the breakouts but with a short tourney and almost no practice time, hard to tell on that one. 

By who? None of these defensemen or forwards have ever played meaningful amounts of time together

And they practiced like once or twice for this thing

[LGR4GM]

3 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

By who? None of these defensemen or forwards have ever played meaningful amounts of time together

And they practiced like once or twice for this thing

The way they broke out I thought was good. There was a lot of support. I think we did not see that at times last year. There was your defense partner. Someone in the middle, and someone up the wing. You had 3 options. It looked different and I think it was better when working. The only thing we can gleam from the Prospect tourney is how we might see the Sabres run. So the support on the breakout might be something to watch when the NHL team starts. 

Edited September 11, 2019 by LGR4GM

[Randall Flagg]

3 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

The way they broke out I thought was good. There was a lot of support. I think we did not see that at times last year. There was your defense partner. Someone in the middle, and someone up the wing. You had 3 options. It looked different and I think it was better when working. The only thing we can gleam from the Prospect tourney is how we might see the Sabres run. So the support on the breakout might be something to watch when the NHL team starts. 

Are you comparing this year's prospect tournament to last year's prospect tournament? Or this year's prospect tournament to last year's Sabres? 

 

[LGR4GM]

2 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

Are you comparing this year's prospect tournament to last year's prospect tournament? Or this year's prospect tournament to last year's Sabres? 

 

I am comparing the Sabres breakout during last season to what I saw in the prospect game in an attempt to see if we can glean any information about how Krueger will run the breakout. I noticed it seemed a little different than last years Sabres breakout. There seemed to be more support. That could just be a mirage but hopefully it is not. 

The blueline however was 100% different. They did not give up the blueline unlike the Sabres who gave it up constantly last year. 

[WildCard]

Just now, LGR4GM said:

The blueline however was 100% different. They did not give up the blueline unlike the Sabres who gave it up constantly last year. 

I'll believe that when I see it honestly. We all were glowing about Housley bringing the same thing

[Randall Flagg]

1 minute ago, LGR4GM said:

I am comparing the Sabres breakout during last season to what I saw in the prospect game in an attempt to see if we can glean any information about how Krueger will run the breakout. I noticed it seemed a little different than last years Sabres breakout. There seemed to be more support. That could just be a mirage but hopefully it is not. 

The blueline however was 100% different. They did not give up the blueline unlike the Sabres who gave it up constantly last year. 

Krueger didn't even coach these guys, it was Taylor again. It's definitely just a mirage, because of the fact that so many of these players have never been together. You'd be more accurate comparing "giving up the blue line" in this tournament to what Rochester did last year than Buffalo, but either way, because they didn't actually practice in a meaningful way for this thing, it means nothing.

Phil said all the right words about  not "giving up the blue line" too, but a lot of that falls on the player's spatial awareness and trust in their own abilities, ultimately. 

And the single best thing Phil did for the Sabres was fix their transition game. The difference in puck support in transition from October 2017 to last April was large, in a good way.

[...]

1 minute ago, LGR4GM said:

The blueline however was 100% different. They did not give up the blueline unlike the Sabres who gave it up constantly last year. 

This is something I definitely noticed.

RK mentioned in the interview they really only had a day to practice with him (as I understood /recall it), but that these guys had been working with the Amerks' coaches. If nothing else, aside from the blueline, their attacking the front of the net was distinctly un-Sabre like.  They have had the summer to sort out and discuss a framework for the system, and, again, other than instructing the D on how to manage the blueline, some simple instruction on getting to the front of the net is not out of the realm of possibility.

[LGR4GM]

19 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

Krueger didn't even coach these guys, it was Taylor again. It's definitely just a mirage, because of the fact that so many of these players have never been together. You'd be more accurate comparing "giving up the blue line" in this tournament to what Rochester did last year than Buffalo, but either way, because they didn't actually practice in a meaningful way for this thing, it means nothing.

Phil said all the right words about  not "giving up the blue line" too, but a lot of that falls on the player's spatial awareness and trust in their own abilities, ultimately. 

And the single best thing Phil did for the Sabres was fix their transition game. The difference in puck support in transition from October 2017 to last April was large, in a good way.

I know who coached them. I was there and saw Krueger in the box with Pegula and Botterill. I would bet though that Taylor knows the system and style that Krueger wants. The blueline defense was very noticeable and different. 

[Taro T]

'Bout the only 2 things that we can really take away from this is:

1. the Sabres prospects (collectively) are better than Boston, Pittsburgh (does anybody really expect that a non-invite goalie would've been lit up as bad as Welch was?), and NJ's prospects; which except possibly for Joisey should be the case as Buffalo has been drafting higher than them for the better part of the decade; and

2. in a simplified version of what we can likely expect to see with the big club, the team played an entertaining brand of hockey.  The kids had pace, kept good gaps, made quick, typically accurate passes, and forechecked hard.

It was entertaining and gives hope that we'll see a few of these guys in B&G in the next 2-3 seasons.  It also gives hope that with Eichel & Dahlin still young and filling the key roles up front and on the back line that the team won't have to go FA to fill holes (rather they can use it to supplement existing strengths) but rather can fill holes through callups & /or trades.  (It's very possible that the team will build up a surplus of D talent that can get traded for established F talent if necessary.  Botterill SEEMS to have an eye for D talent.  We'll know soon if that's real or just perception.)

Edited September 11, 2019 by Taro T