Dahlin Would Be an Elite Forward...

[JoeSchmoe]

...Maybe top 10 in the league with his slippery skating and passing ability.

He's shown little to no defensive prowess thus far. 

Why is he committing to defense when it's clear that everything in his bag of tools is to be a forward?

[Norcal]

I don't hate it. He was converted to D after playing forward for a while originally wasn't he? 

[inkman]

Here’s hoping that becomes some other teams problem. He’s supposed to be our clear cut best player and I’m not sure he’s top 5 on the worst team in the league. 

[Carmel Corn]

I was joking about this last night...move Dahlin to center and have Tage play defense.  Fine if Dahlin QB's the powerplay, but he's really a liability out there 5-on-5 playing left D.

[Doohicksie]

4 minutes ago, Carmel Corn said:

I was joking about this last night...move Dahlin to center and have Tage play defense.

I was going to say precisely the same thing.

[JoeSchmoe]

14 minutes ago, Carmel Corn said:

I was joking about this last night...move Dahlin to center and have Tage play defense.  Fine if Dahlin QB's the powerplay, but he's really a liability out there 5-on-5 playing left D.

They could find another $0.75million man to play a similar level of DEFENSE or better to what Dahlin offers. Then move Dahlin upfront to replace one of our black holes on forward. Pair him with a finisher like VO and he gets 80pts his first season.

[PerreaultForever]

Well we totally cocked up his development didn't we? Threw the kid into a top role way too soon due to our crap D and his offensive skills, but we didn't work on his D game by keeping him paired with a responsible vet and limiting his exposure and ice time while he should have been focusing on developing his strength and defensive game. 

Housley asked for too much and basically wanted him to be Housley jr. Kreuger was right that he needed to learn to play D before being unbridled but Smith couldn't teach worth crap and he had no one to learn with and grow with. 

So now Granato pairs him with another Euro and it's go fly little bird, but he's crashing. I'm not sure at this point he is fixable. Maybe, but not likely in this scenario. Maybe on a good team with limited minutes and time to grow. 

Sabres have once again ruined a promising young D man, is Power next?

[IKnowPhysics]

Defensemen with Dahlin's talents playing as a defenseman are much harder to replace than a forward with Dahlin's talents playing as a forward.  This is evidenced by the fact that the 21 year old defensemen can do what he does offensively, while simultaneously (to some) looking like he needs to continue to develop his defensive game at the NHL level.  This is not unique to him.

F/D specialization has been a core development principle for decades in the NHL with infinitesimally few exceptions that even then didn't produce all-stars on the other side of the puck.  It would an historic error to ruin Dahlin's development and squander his potential by playing him at forward.

Dahlin will continue to develop and he'll be great.

[Buffalonill]

Please don't that would pretty much confirm that we suck at developing prospects and rush them

And yet people want JJ up here smh 

[Norcal]

To my eye it looks like he tries to play under control and not get too "excited" but it comes off looking lazy and aloof.

IMO he needs to bear down on his stick and get more aggressive in every action on the ice. 

Skate harder, shoot harder, hit harder, defend harder, pass harder.

He might just shut everyone up one day, I hope he does. 

[Weave]

*sigh*
 

 

[inkman]

14 minutes ago, Norcal said:

To my eye it looks like he tries to play under control and not get too "excited" but it comes off looking lazy and aloof.

IMO he needs to bear down on his stick and get more aggressive in every action on the ice. 

Skate harder, shoot harder, hit harder, defend harder, pass harder.

He might just shut everyone up one day, I hope he does. 

My big thing with him is the glaring mistakes.  Stop dancing with the puck at the blue line.  Yes his ability to navigate those situations is what makes him good but how many times does the puck gotta end up in his own net before he stops it.

[Taro T]

18 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

Well we totally cocked up his development didn't we? Threw the kid into a top role way too soon due to our crap D and his offensive skills, but we didn't work on his D game by keeping him paired with a responsible vet and limiting his exposure and ice time while he should have been focusing on developing his strength and defensive game. 

Housley asked for too much and basically wanted him to be Housley jr. Kreuger was right that he needed to learn to play D before being unbridled but Smith couldn't teach worth crap and he had no one to learn with and grow with. 

So now Granato pairs him with another Euro and it's go fly little bird, but he's crashing. I'm not sure at this point he is fixable. Maybe, but not likely in this scenario. Maybe on a good team with limited minutes and time to grow. 

Sabres have once again ruined a promising young D man, is Power next?

And Mittelstadt wasn't "fixable" just 18 months ago either.

Get him a responsible partner & he will look light years farther along.

Trading away/ letting walk every D-man that had even a tentative claim to being a better D-man than him at this point while also losing the only defensive defenseman on the roster besides McCabe to the expansion draft has not done him any favors.

Maybe Samuelson or somebody else in the pipeline can build chemistry with him.  But the minutes he'll be forced to play due to the rest of the D-corp will most likely make that a losing proposition as well.

Stabilize what's around him & he'll be fine.

[Digger]

Someone with more patience than me should go through the list of great D that took time to develop and many teams gave up on them.  Pronger is one of them (no not suggesting the same style but still Hartford dumped him before he established himself and it still took a few more years with St. Louis).  Patience will be hard playing on a sucky team this year but patience is needed.

[IKnowPhysics]

14 minutes ago, Weave said:

*sigh*

Maybe OP is on to something.  UPL has been struggling.  The way he lets pucks get by him, he would make an elite powerplay screening forward.  Probably better than Vanek.

[Buffalonill]

3 minutes ago, inkman said:

My big thing with him is the glaring mistakes.  Stop dancing with the puck at the blue line.  Yes his ability to navigate those situations is what makes him good but how many times does the puck gotta end up in his own net before he stops it.

 Victor Hedman didn't figure out stuff until 23 and he was one of the worst  Offensive/  Defenseman in the league 

Still hope 

[inkman]

7 minutes ago, Digger said:

Someone with more patience than me should go through the list of great D that took time to develop and many teams gave up on them.  Pronger is one of them (no not suggesting the same style but still Hartford dumped him before he established himself and it still took a few more years with St. Louis).  Patience will be hard playing on a sucky team this year but patience is needed.

Chara and Campbell come to mind 

[Norcal]

15 minutes ago, inkman said:

My big thing with him is the glaring mistakes.  Stop dancing with the puck at the blue line.  Yes his ability to navigate those situations is what makes him good but how many times does the puck gotta end up in his own net before he stops it.

Right. It's frustrating because he can make the play. 

[JoeSchmoe]

Were the Chara's and Hedman's of the world glaring defensive liabilities like Dahlin is? My memory is they were reasonably good on D but didn't show their offensive upside until later on. 

As a defensive defensemen, has Dahlin ever shown elite promise in that regard even prior to being drafted?

Edited October 5, 2021 by JoeSchmoe

[tom webster]

33 minutes ago, Buffalonill said:

Please don't that would pretty much confirm that we suck at developing prospects and rush them

And yet people want JJ up here smh 

And I still think this is crap. If someone is mentally weak enough that they are messed up by their early years they were never going to make it anyway. There really is no way to prove it short of creating an alternate universe but I believe “bad at developing” is just a euphemism for “wasn’t very good in the first place.”

[Sabres Fan in NS]

This will never happen.

For crap sake he is just a kid.

[Buffalonill]

14 minutes ago, tom webster said:

And I still think this crap. If someone is mentally weak enough that they are messed up by their early years they were never going to make it anyway. There really is no way to prove it short of creating an alternate universe but I believe “bad at developing” is just a euphemism for “wasn’t very good in the first place.”

Are we talking about JJ or Dahlin?

16 minutes ago, JoeSchmoe said:

Were the Chara's and Hedman's of the world glaring defensive liabilities like Dahlin is? My memory is they were reasonably good on D but didn't show their offensive upside until later on. 

As a defensive defensemen, has Dahlin ever shown elite promise in that regard even prior to being drafted?

No they both had huge problems but Hedman was bust level bad 

[Eleven]

1 hour ago, PerreaultForever said:

Threw the kid into a top role way too soon due to our crap D

I'm not sure this happened.  He wasn't a top pair D until this season.

I'm not giving up on him yet.

[Zamboni]

ZOMG!!! UPL is struggling playing goalie.

maybe Sabres should switch him to third line defenseman.

 

 

😂

[tom webster]

1 hour ago, Buffalonill said:

Are we talking about JJ or Dahlin?

No they both had huge problems but Hedman was bust level bad 

I’m talking about players in general.