2022 Offseason Game Plan

[Crusader1969]

22 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

The two main UFAs are Letang and Kuemper which I'm overpaying rather nicely. I'd likely try to get Hornqvist first and use him to help Letang come here.

If you can't get Letang, go get Gudas(cheaply) or even pay up for Mayfield perhaps?

I’ll take Gudas over a big contract to a soon to be 35 year old Letang.   
Sabres  need the stay at home Dman to play with Power more than they need another offensive minded player a

taking it a step further - half of Letang’s points come on the PP  

Are you replacing Dahlin with Letang on PP1? 

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by Crusader1969

[thewookie1]

8 hours ago, Crusader1969 said:

I’ll take Gudas over a big contract to a soon to be 35 year old Letang.   
Sabres  need the stay at home Dman to play with Power more than they need another offensive minded player a

taking it a step further - half of Letang’s points come on the PP  

Are you replacing Dahlin with Letang on PP1? 

 

He's still a great player overall so age is of little concern there.

No, Letang would be with Power on PP2.

My primary concern with Gudas is that I have no way of knowing how he is in the locker room

[LGR4GM]

Guys like Letang typically aren't persuaded by some extra money. Not at his age and with having 2 kids and a wife. If Pitt offers anything remotely decent, I think he stays there. 

[Doohicksie]

11 hours ago, Norcal said:

The Sabres have missed that type of player since Deslauriers and Foligno left in my opinion. 

I think Cozens is bringing that kind of play lately.

[LGR4GM]

1 minute ago, The Ghost of Yuri said:

I think Cozens is bringing that kind of play lately.

So are Dahlin, Krebs, Tuch and I am pretty sure Samuelsson would eat a guy. 

[Crusader1969]

2 hours ago, thewookie1 said:

He's still a great player overall so age is of little concern there.

No, Letang would be with Power on PP2.

My primary concern with Gudas is that I have no way of knowing how he is in the locker room

And what’s the plan at even strength with Letang? He would work great with Samuelsson but then you are putting Power on the 3rd pairing and limiting his minutes 

As mentioned above , not that any of it matters Letang isn’t coming to Buffalo 

[sweetlou]

Subtle move to bring in RD and another vet.  Olofsson becomes expendable to fill a hole elsewhere.  The true test for KA this off season is the goaltending.  Need better goaltending fort his group to start experience winning.

 

https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/3153044

[mjd1001]

I'm not for making any big moves or free agent signings.  Things look to be getting better, stay on the path:

 

I personally would bring back Olofsson unless he wants top dollar. Try to resign Hinostroza also.  

Top 12:  Skinner Thompson Tuch VO Mittlestadt Girgs Cozens, Krebs Asplund Okposo Quinn, Peterka.  Roch guys like Murray and some low priced bodies battle it out in Training camp to fill injury spots or to see if anyone takes a huge leap to make roster instead of the above.

Defense:  Dahlin, Joki, Samuelson, Fitzgerald, Power for sure.  I'd like to resign Pysyk.  Open competition between Roch guys and anyone else you bring in for the final couple spots.

 

Thats not exciting. That is close to 'status quo' but with Quinn, Power and maybe Peterka, you are infusing some talented youth, and the team SHOULD be better just as the young guys get one year older.  The current youth should take another step and make this team better next year. Once you see HOW much better, THEN you can start thinking of adding more veteran pieces to take that next step beyond.

[thewookie1]

7 hours ago, mjd1001 said:

I'm not for making any big moves or free agent signings.  Things look to be getting better, stay on the path:

 

I personally would bring back Olofsson unless he wants top dollar. Try to resign Hinostroza also.  

Top 12:  Skinner Thompson Tuch VO Mittlestadt Girgs Cozens, Krebs Asplund Okposo Quinn, Peterka.  Roch guys like Murray and some low priced bodies battle it out in Training camp to fill injury spots or to see if anyone takes a huge leap to make roster instead of the above.

Defense:  Dahlin, Joki, Samuelson, Fitzgerald, Power for sure.  I'd like to resign Pysyk.  Open competition between Roch guys and anyone else you bring in for the final couple spots.

 

Thats not exciting. That is close to 'status quo' but with Quinn, Power and maybe Peterka, you are infusing some talented youth, and the team SHOULD be better just as the young guys get one year older.  The current youth should take another step and make this team better next year. Once you see HOW much better, THEN you can start thinking of adding more veteran pieces to take that next step beyond.

Lacks a vet RHD that’s better than Pysyk and relies way to much on Rochester guys to immediately take off at the season’s start

[GASabresIUFAN]

I hate to be the grammar or spelling police, especially because I have never quite figured out then vs than.  However please use "re-sign" for a player retained.  "Resign" has a completely opposite meaning.  

That is all.  

PS. We definitely need a veteran RHD to pair with Power and that player needs to be an upgrade over Pysyk.

Edited March 23, 2022 by GASabresIUFAN

[JohnC]

7 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I hate to be the grammar or spelling police, especially because I have never quite figured out then vs than.  However please use "re-sign" for a player retained.  "Resign" has a completely opposite meaning.  

That is all.  

PS. We definitely need a veteran RHD to pair with Power and that player needs to be an upgrade over Pysyk.

Getting grammar correct can be nettlesome. Fortunately, posting on the internet doesn't require a high standard of accuracy. I feel very comfortable in that low standard environment. Let's not discuss spelling! One of the greatest inventions of all time is spell check. Even there, I sometimes falter. In the eyes of the punitive Jesuits, I am a failure. 👨‍🎓

[Flashsabre]

This was posted on Sabres reddit:

Since the start of the 2020 season, the Buffalo Sabres are 20-15-3 when their starting goalie plays (Ullmark / Anderson) and 17-52-12 when they don’t 

2021-22: Craig Anderson 11-9 

2021-22 rest: 11-24-8 

2020-21: Linus Ullmark 9-6-3 

2020-21 rest: 6-28-4

 

Can they please bring in a legitimate 1A goalie and get serious about winning next season.

[Marvin]

10 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

This was posted on Sabres reddit:

Since the start of the 2020 season, the Buffalo Sabres are 20-15-3 when their starting goalie plays (Ullmark / Anderson) and 17-52-12 when they don’t 

2021-22: Craig Anderson 11-9 

2021-22 rest: 11-24-8 

2020-21: Linus Ullmark 9-6-3 

2020-21 rest: 6-28-4

 

Can they please bring in a legitimate 1A goalie and get serious about winning next season.

Those are very telling statistics.

[thewookie1]

13 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

This was posted on Sabres reddit:

Since the start of the 2020 season, the Buffalo Sabres are 20-15-3 when their starting goalie plays (Ullmark / Anderson) and 17-52-12 when they don’t 

2021-22: Craig Anderson 11-9 

2021-22 rest: 11-24-8 

2020-21: Linus Ullmark 9-6-3 

2020-21 rest: 6-28-4

 

Can they please bring in a legitimate 1A goalie and get serious about winning next season.

I believe it’s 12-9 now 🙂 

[GASabresIUFAN]

https://theathletic.com/3207746/2022/03/25/what-does-next-years-sabres-look-like-who-should-be-back-whos-coming-up-and-where-the-holes-may-be/

Quote

 

Here’s a potential depth chart in that scenario.

Jeff Skinner-Tage Thompson-Alex Tuch
Peyton Krebs-Dylan Cozens-Victor Olofsson
Jack Quinn-Casey Mittelstadt-JJ Peterka
Zemgus Girgensons-Rasmus Asplund-Kyle Okposo
Brett Murray-Arttu Ruotsalainen-Anders Bjork
Brandon Biro

The Sabres would once again rely on youth, but that’s always been the plan. General manager Kevyn Adams wants the players to go through ups and downs together, creating memories and bonds along the way. It wasn’t going to happen in just one season.

 

Vogl's Forward Questions: Will VO reclaim a top six role?  Are Quinn & JJP ready? Can Mitts and Dylan make a TNT type jump?

Quote

 

Bryson has been playing the right side lately, so here’s a potential opening-night lineup.

Dahlin-Jokiharju
Power-Bryson
Samuelsson-Fitzgerald

 

Vogl doesn't really mention adding a veteran D, but does mention the uneven "handedness." 

Vogl agrees with goaltending is highest off-season priority.

Vogl seems to think that KA will continue to focus on the youth.  While that's ok in general, it is no longer acceptable to to just let continued natural growth fuel improvement.  It's time to upgrade the forward depth and add veteran D and goaltending.  

Edited March 25, 2022 by GASabresIUFAN

[triumph_communes]

Joki needs to be pushed down via UFA

[Randall Flagg]

People spend thousands of words and many hours crafting elaborate offseason scenarios..that wind up with the Sabres icing a full 23 man roster indistinguishable from what they will have the previous spring. This happens on every forum and publication every single year. Drives me crazy lol

The Sabres are going to bring in 3-4 starters, or more, from the outside as they always do and every single organization always does 

[thewookie1]

Do you think we could pull off Olofsson for Matt Roy of LA? He’s a 27 year old with solid defensive analytics last I saw

[Broken Ankles]

10 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

Do you think we could pull off Olofsson for Matt Roy of LA? He’s a 27 year old with solid defensive analytics last I saw

No chance.  Matt is well liked here in LA.  He is a great example of developing within an organization and just signed an extension.  The Kings also traded for Arvidsson last year and he fills that role of Victor with an AAV of $4.25m and has a higher ceiling in production. He also fills PP#1 wing, so Vic would be superfluous in LA.  

[sabresparaavida]

I’ve been coming around on Bryson more, I think if we can add a vet Rd that can eat minutes with Dahlin, we could be in a good place with splitting the remaining minutes pretty evenly with 

Samuellson-Jokiharju 

Power-Bryson

or some combination thereof. 

As for our forwards I think we stick with Skinner-Thompson-Tuch for line 1, I think Cozens takes another step to be a capable ~55 point 2C (went from 26 points per 82 pace last year to 40 points per 82 pace this year), and Quinn and Krebs take wing spots off him. It’s also possible we see Quinn and Tuch switched to give this line more veteran presence. Mitts and Oloffson on the third line, with probably Asplund, I don’t see KA wanting to block JJP in. I imagine we get an Eakin replacement (hopefully improvement) and Okposo and Girgensons can take the wing spots for that line. 
 

The most important area we need to improve on is goaltending. Get a 1A guy somehow, preferably for about 2 years. Get an Anderson/Tokarski level guy to battle UPL in camp to not give him a free pass. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

On 3/22/2022 at 8:15 AM, LGR4GM said:

Guys like Letang typically aren't persuaded by some extra money. Not at his age and with having 2 kids and a wife. If Pitt offers anything remotely decent, I think he stays there. 

Agree.  Our mostly likely source of the veteran RHD is the trade market.  I can see a guy being acquired in trade for a season or two and then re-signing once this team turns around.  I don’t see top level FA’s coming here until we prove that rebuild 4.0 is working.

Will Mon trade us Savard?

Edited March 28, 2022 by GASabresIUFAN

[Marvin]

33 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Agree.  Our mostly likely source of the veteran RHD is the trade market.  I can see a guy being acquired in trade for a season or two and then re-signing once this team turns around.  I don’t see top level FA’s coming here until we prove that rebuild 4.0 is working.

Will Mon trade us Savard?

I am figuring our young D not named Power and Dahlin to be moved for veteran RHD -- potentially more than 1 player in and out.

[Norcal]

Kane and Toews 

[spndnchz]

7 hours ago, Marvin, Sabres Fan said:

I am figuring our young D not named Power and Dahlin to be moved for veteran RHD -- potentially more than 1 player in and out.

No. Please no

Unless you’re bringing in a vet 

[Marvin]

1 minute ago, spndnchz said:

No. Please no

Unless you’re bringing in a vet 

Oh, yeah.  You have got to bring in a vet -- preferably more than one.