Solving the Goaltending Issue - Can it be done?

[Marvin]

Win-win for RK would be Skinner for a goaltender.

[Norcal]

How good would Cal Peterson look in the pipeline right about now?

[Drag0nDan]

2 hours ago, Marvin, Sabres Fan said:

Win-win for RK would be Skinner for a goaltender.

Maybe if price or bobrovsky waives their NMC's to come here.  

[IKnowPhysics]

2020-21 goalie stats so far, btw:

Ullmark - NHL - 5-4-2 - 2.44GAA - 0.919 SV%

Hutton - NHL - 1-4-1 - 3.24GAA - 0.889 SV%

Johansson - NHL - 0-0-0 - 3.15GAA - 0.889 SV% (stepped in for 19 minutes against the Flyers when Hutton got elbowed in the head; allowed 1G on 9S)

Tokarski - AHL - 1-1-0 - 2.51GAA - 0.932 SV%

UPL - Liiga - 6-3-4 - 2.52GAA - 0.908 SV%

UPL - AHL - 3-0-0 - 2.90GAA - 0.916 SV%

Portillo - NCAA - 3-1-0 - 1.80GAA - 0.933 (3rd round pick in 2019. As a freshman, Portillo has taken about 1/3 of Michigan's starts from undrafted goalie (and captain(!)) Strauss Mann, who's posting 1.94GAA 0.929SV% in his junior year)

 

 

For funsies, here are highlights from Portillo's USHL Goalie-of-the-Year campaign last year:

 

[PerreaultForever]

On 2/1/2021 at 1:55 PM, Taro T said:

Does anybody believe the players believe in Hutton?

Honestly, the bar's pretty low so they actually might. They shouldn't, but they might. 

I don't want to go to the kid though, he will be ruined with this D. Let him develop properly. 

6 hours ago, Marvin, Sabres Fan said:

Win-win for RK would be Skinner for a goaltender.

Skinner for Bobrovsky would work for me, but I very much doubt that's an option even though Florida does have several good young goalies in their system. 

[sweetlou]

Ullmark has proved he can be a NHL starter and has good numbers the last two seasons.  My worry with him is staying healthy. 'He only played 34 games last year and 37 the previous year.  Sabres need to sign Ullmark to a 3 year deal and then pickup a vet like Elliot, M'Razek, or Driedger to split time with him for a couple of years.

 

I want UPL to develop in Roch for at least two more years before he even sniffs the NHL.

[nfreeman]

by the way, Fleury is 8-3 this year with a .942 save percentage.  

[Curt]

17 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

by the way, Fleury is 8-3 this year with a .942 save percentage.  

Would this team have been better off (1) signing Taylor Hall, or (2) trading for Fleury for free?

How many games has Hall won Buffalo?  How many games has Hutton cost them?

[Broken Ankles]

25 minutes ago, Curt said:

Would this team have been better off (1) signing Taylor Hall, or (2) trading for Fleury for free?

How many games has Hall won Buffalo?  How many games has Hutton cost them?

If they did not sign Hall, probably less drama around Jeff.  He slots into LW with Staal and Cozen, and maybe they perform adequately 5v5. The PP isn’t what it is today without Hall, but how many goals they regress, not sure. He’s probably getting moved at the deadline, and the return is unknown but perhaps significant down the road. 

Having a solid #2 in net and a guy that you can trust to play big minutes if you have to (like now possibly) is way more valuable than a goal scoring forward (who isn’t scoring). 

I also think of other assets in that trade when you take on MAF.  They needed that space and probably would have moved someone else to sweeten the deal. Whether it be Tuch, who seems to be playing better this season, or McNabb to help our D corp,  I’m probably leaning on a trade with Vegas over the FA signing, for this year at least.  

[nfreeman]

1 hour ago, Curt said:

Would this team have been better off (1) signing Taylor Hall, or (2) trading for Fleury for free?

How many games has Hall won Buffalo?  How many games has Hutton cost them?

This is reasonable, but I think they could’ve had both Hall and Fleury.  Maybe Vegas retains some salary, maybe Zemgus doesn’t get overpaid, etc.  There were multiple ways to get there.  

[Brawndo]

With Ullmark out at least a Month, the price of a trade for a goalie just doubled 

[Thorner]

2 hours ago, Brawndo said:

With Ullmark out at least a Month, the price of a trade for a goalie just doubled 

Always best to wait and deal from a position of weakness. 

“What even available?!?!111”

[IKnowPhysics]

Yep.  Ullmark's out a month.  We're ***** dead in the water.

[pi2000]

The time to fix the goaltending situation came went over the offseason.    Now their hands are tied and they're going to have to overpay for a starter with picks and prospects if they want to upgrade Hutton.     Unless a fair deal comes along, I would not recommend mortgaging their future for what is most likely going to be another season out of the "playoffs".

I'm using quotes here because this is not a normal season, they're playing in a stacked 8 team league.    Considering where they are in the standing, and with a shortened season... even with peak Hasek I'm not sure they could make up enough ground at this point, especially considering the teams they'd have to chase down.

[Kruppstahl]

21 hours ago, IKnowPhysics said:

Yep.  Ullmark's out a month.  We're ***** dead in the water.

We were always going to be dead in the water due to the compression of the schedule this year, particularly after our little COVID outbreak.

There were always going to be a big batch of games that Hutton had to play, and therein lies the rub.

This season was lost during last off-season, when the organization thought it was a great idea to do absolutely nothing to upgrade our goaltending, and thought a journeyman AHLer like Hutton was a solid NHL #2.

 

 

Edited February 28, 2021 by Kruppstahl

[LGR4GM]

 

[Thorner]

^ I still think any system that doesn't commit so thoroughly to low-event hockey would leave the goaltending somewhat more exposed. 

Edited March 1, 2021 by Thorny

[Drag0nDan]

On 2/26/2021 at 6:53 PM, PerreaultForever said:

Honestly, the bar's pretty low so they actually might. They shouldn't, but they might. 

I don't want to go to the kid though, he will be ruined with this D. Let him develop properly. 

Skinner for Bobrovsky would work for me, but I very much doubt that's an option even though Florida does have several good young goalies in their system. 

Bobrovsky and price are the only ones who might do it.  And they both have NMCs.  

[mjd1001]

5 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

 

I don't think goaltending is an issue this year.  It is/has been good enough for this team to be a lot better that it is. Is Hutton good? No, but Ullmark is actually playing above average.

[Radar]

34 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

I don't think goaltending is an issue this year.  It is/has been good enough for this team to be a lot better that it is. Is Hutton good? No, but Ullmark is actually playing above average.

Unfortunately I'm beginning to be concerned with Ulmark's durability.

[apuszczalowski]

I think Ullmark is a good '1B' goalie in a tandem, I don't think he is a full time #1 goalie though

 

Hutton has one good season in his career, is already over 30 and has never started more then half a season worth of games before coming to Buffalo

He hasn't really shown over his career that he is a guy that would be anything more then a backup

[bob_sauve28]

On 3/1/2021 at 3:19 PM, mjd1001 said:

I don't think goaltending is an issue this year.  It is/has been good enough for this team to be a lot better that it is. Is Hutton good? No, but Ullmark is actually playing above average.

Huh? 

23 minutes ago, apuszczalowski said:

I think Ullmark is a good '1B' goalie in a tandem, I don't think he is a full time #1 goalie though

 

 

I think we need to view it this way. I think he is really good, but if he can't handle the load playing all the time then we need a solid 1a goalie. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

https://buffalonews.com/sports/sabres/sabres-will-prioritize-goaltending-in-offseason-whether-linus-ullmark-stays-or-goes/article_cf7912c6-b8d3-11eb-a6d7-d3b9ef1b30ac.html

Nice article about Ullmark.

Also good information about Mrazek.  

If I were KA, I'd re-sign Ullmark asap and use our expansion protection on him.  Take one issue off the board.  Use his injury history to get a slight discount and go 4 years and 4.5 per season.

I'd then sign Mrazek as the backup unless they can get Andersen at a reasonable cost.  Mrazek and Bales have worked well together in the past and Bales has done a great job developing Ullmark.  Seems like a really good fit.

 

 

[steveoath]

I get the awful feeling that if the laffs exit round 1 (again) they go for ullmark.

[bob_sauve28]

With all the draft picks we have this year, one extra in both second and third round, I wonder if there is any thought of trading back into first round and grabbing one of the two goalies highly ranked in the draft. Maybe if they start getting into high teens  and one is still available  we make a move.

 If not, I sure hope they grab a goalie with one of those picks or even later in the draft.  There should always be more than a few goalies in the pipeline.