Do You Think We Make The Playoffs NEXT Year?

[Crusader1969]

On 3/24/2024 at 12:27 PM, Thorny said:

No, my anger is just with the 4 putrid years 

Youngest team in hockey doesn’t mean anything. If you tout that as an indicator of looming success you are falling for the company line 

“Philly, Tampa will take a step back”. Baseless bias, we hear this literally every year 

young hockey teams actually means a lot 

Youngest Teams

Buffalo 25.1

Arizona 26.1

Ottawa   26.2

MTL     26.2

NJD   26.4

Columbus    26.4

Chicago     27

Anaheim 27.3

the 8 youngest teams will all miss the playoffs

 

 

[Pimlach]

1 hour ago, Crusader1969 said:

im not sure "hand him" is the right wording.. still a bit to go and we will see how he does in the AHL Pluyoffs but based on his play  over the last few months Levi deserves it   4th in AHL SV% -Goalies over 10GP with a SV% of .927. Not to mention being brilliant vs Vancouver the other night.

Im just being nitpicky on the wording...

If Adams does not bring in a goalie that is not named Comrie, then he is handing the job to Levi.  

[mjd1001]

Yes, I think they make it next year.

UPL should get re-signed. I think Levi is the backup here next year with the team looking for a UPL 55 game, Levi 30 game split.

I think Adams will TRY to make an addition to the forward ranks that is meaningful (not an elite guy, but someone who is a better forward than Clifton is a D-man)  Tage will have a bounce-back season (40-50 goals).

Unless this team is hit by injuries next year harder than they were hit this year, of this is a major unexpected subtraction...I'm thinking they are in the playoffs next year.

[Sabres73]

Absolutely they will make the playoffs next year with the goaltending tandem of UPL and Levi

[Crusader1969]

4 hours ago, Crusader1969 said:

young hockey teams actually means a lot 

Youngest Teams

Buffalo 25.1

Arizona 26.1

Ottawa   26.2

MTL     26.2

NJD   26.4

Columbus    26.4

Chicago     27

Anaheim 27.3

the 8 youngest teams will all miss the playoffs

 

 

thorny is correct though, just cause you are young doesn't mean one day you will be good 

I would suggest that it is important that the Sabres get older    Organically everyone will be a year older but Olofsso  nand Comrie will both be out and are 29. 

The 3rd line centre is going to have to be a vet and potentially they have to bring in a legit 1st line winger 

[Thorner]

5 hours ago, Crusader1969 said:

young hockey teams actually means a lot 

Youngest Teams

Buffalo 25.1

Arizona 26.1

Ottawa   26.2

MTL     26.2

NJD   26.4

Columbus    26.4

Chicago     27

Anaheim 27.3

the 8 youngest teams will all miss the playoffs

 

 

You’ve entirely missed my point. I mean it doesn’t mean anything relative to guaranteeing or ensuring future success: it’s not an indicator. 

*Of course* it’s harder to be good when you are young: that’s my entire point. They are willingly the youngest team in the league in a year where we might miss the playoffs for 13 years straight and the 4th consecutive year of this regime 

All under the false sales premise that “if we are young now, we are building sometime better later.”

No, we are just young now. 

[Thorner]

1 hour ago, Crusader1969 said:

thorny is correct though, just cause you are young doesn't mean one day you will be good 

I would suggest that it is important that the Sabres get older    Organically everyone will be a year older but Olofsso  nand Comrie will both be out and are 29. 

The 3rd line centre is going to have to be a vet and potentially they have to bring in a legit 1st line winger 

Well I guess you didn’t entirely miss it 

4 hours ago, Pimlach said:

If Adams does not bring in a goalie that is not named Comrie, then he is handing the job to Levi.  

Fool me once..

[bob_sauve28]

I'd be shocked if they found a decent goalie to come here. Who would sign knowing Levi is almost ready to take the back up role? Get a guy on a one year deal for big money?

[GASabresIUFAN]

There is certainly some correlation between experience and success in the NHL. It doesn’t mean a young team can’t make the playoffs, but it’s hard.  

The funny thing is the Sabres could be even younger next year as they have traded away EJ and KO, and Z, VO, Bryson, Robinson and Comrie are FAs.  Add together the 20 players under contract and control who are scheduled to return next season and the average age is currently 24, 25 for next season. Add more kids from the minors and the age drops further.

That said, this team has a fair amount of experience for a young team and should be better next season. Of the 8 skaters 23 and under only Benson (rookie) and Quinn (IR) have under 150 games of NHL experience.  The other 6 guys average 227 games.  
 

The other good news is that there is a log jam of mediocre teams in the East.  TB, Wash, and Pit are headed down. Ott and the NYI are in no man’s land.  Det and Philly look to be improving but aren’t impressive.  A good offseason by Adams such as better forward depth including another Greenway type player, plus a 3rd and 4th line centers should have this team solidly in the playoff mix.

Edited March 26 by GASabresIUFAN

[Mango]

22 hours ago, Crusader1969 said:

young hockey teams actually means a lot 

Youngest Teams

Buffalo 25.1

Arizona 26.1

Ottawa   26.2

MTL     26.2

NJD   26.4

Columbus    26.4

Chicago     27

Anaheim 27.3

the 8 youngest teams will all miss the playoffs

 

 

I think comparing the Sabres to other teams based on age is tough because they aren't just young. A ton of these kids have been playing in the league for 3-5 years. At what point do you draw the line between age and years played? Take Cozens for example, he is 22, that is young. When would one expect him to be a consistent high level NHL Player? 26? But if we say 26 then that means he will have spent 8 years playing in the NHL which is certainly a veteran. 

My quick $0.02 is that by constantly throwing these kids in the deep end at a young age and waiting for them to learn how to swim we are actually delaying their development. 

 

Edited March 26 by Mango

[mjd1001]

31 minutes ago, Mango said:

I think comparing the Sabres to other teams based on age is tough because they aren't just young. A ton of these kids have been playing in the league for 3-5 years. At what point do you draw the line between age and years played? Take Cozens for example, he is 22, that is young. When would one expect him to be a consistent high level NHL Player? 26? But if we say 26 then that means he will have spent 8 years playing in the NHL which is certainly a veteran. 

My quick $0.02 is that by constantly throwing these kids to the wolves at a young age and waiting for them to learn how to swim we are actually delaying their development. 

 

I'm not sure how I feel about how badly the Sabres are currently developing players, at least this current regime.  Could they do better? Could/should the have more/better/more experienced assistant coaches and dev coaches? Sure, but I don't think that makes them bad. 

Sabres drafted Dahlin. Generational talent (supposedly). Got ice time from his rookie year, didn't look good the first 2 years but had a great year last year (maybe a top 10 D-man in the league) and he had a rocky start to this year, but in the last 2 months looks to be every bit as good now as he was last year.  Maybe you expect him to be great, but I don't think the Sabres 'messed him up'. Samuelsson in the 2nd round that year....he can't stay healthy but when he does play, he certainly is probably as good as anyone drafted in the 2nd round or later.

-2019 Cozens. I was really hard on him late last year and early this year, I thought he may have been the worst player in the NHL regarding coverage in is own zone. But, over the last 2 months he's turned the corner, not only has he been playing better there, but his scoring is coming back.  And from a strong draft class, the only 2 players drafted after him that are out-producing him are Caufield and Boldy (and only by a handful of goals) and he is doing BETTER than Turcotte, Dach, and Kakko, all drafted before him.

-Ryan Johnson. He just got to the Sabes this year, but he has been at all their dev camps and worked with their coaches. I think most poeple on here think he is playing better than they expected he would.

-2020 Quinn.  He has been injured so its hard to rate him, but he had a very good rookie year last year, that was after being a GREAT player in the AHL for his year there, and in his short stint this year, he looked really really good. He has played 94 career games, some of them after coming back from a bad injury, but he is 7th in points per game of anyone drafted that year.

-Peterka.  2nd rounder. Top 10 in scoring for anyone from that draft class overall, 3rd this year in goals scored (and only 3 away from the top spot) from that draft class.  Both Peterka and Quinn are at least average in terms of defensive zone play..I think you can make a case that for their age they are actually pretty good too.

2021. Owen Power.  Top guy in a supposedly 'below average' draft class. But, he played as a rookie, he is playing a ton of minutes now. He has his ups and downs, but again, recently he is playing a lot better. Many may not like his style (he is big but hits vitrually no-one) but I don't think you can see he isn't starting to be an asset on the blue line.

Since then, Benson is a surprise and playing well in the NHL for how young he is.  Savoi, Östlund, Kulich....nothing from them yet but all of them have showed flashes in their current leagues of being legit NHL players at some point.

As far as the older guys, Thompson looked like a Bust until Granato came along, and even with a 'down' year this year, hes on pace for about 30 goals, the last 3 years is close to a 40 goal guy overall.  Tuch, he is getting more chances in Buffalo but his production is way up here compared to Vegas.  It took a while but Mitts developed into a really good NHL forward with this team. UPL certainly, he has 'developed' into one of the better goalies in the league.

So yeah, they could do better, but I look at this roster and I see a lot more 'development' successes than I see failures, especially since the current regime took over.

Roster construction (not having a GOOD veteran D-man here) and player mix might be an issue for this team's current lack of success. But I think player development? A case can be made for them doing a good job...at least not doing a bad job.

 

Edited March 26 by mjd1001

[Mango]

26 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

I'm not sure how I feel about how badly the Sabres are currently developing players, at least this current regime.  Could they do better? Could/should the have more/better/more experienced assistant coaches and dev coaches? Sure, but I don't think that makes them bad. 

Sabres drafted Dahlin. Generational talent (supposedly). Got ice time from his rookie year, didn't look good the first 2 years but had a great year last year (maybe a top 10 D-man in the league) and he had a rocky start to this year, but in the last 2 months looks to be every bit as good now as he was last year.  Maybe you expect him to be great, but I don't think the Sabres 'messed him up'. Samuelsson in the 2nd round that year....he can't stay healthy but when he does play, he certainly is probably as good as anyone drafted in the 2nd round or later.

-2019 Cozens. I was really hard on him late last year and early this year, I thought he may have been the worst player in the NHL regarding coverage in is own zone. But, over the last 2 months he's turned the corner, not only has he been playing better there, but his scoring is coming back.  And from a strong draft class, the only 2 players drafted after him that are out-producing him are Caufield and Boldy (and only by a handful of goals) and he is doing BETTER than Turcotte, Dach, and Kakko, all drafted before him.

-Ryan Johnson. He just got to the Sabes this year, but he has been at all their dev camps and worked with their coaches. I think most poeple on here think he is playing better than they expected he would.

-2020 Quinn.  He has been injured so its hard to rate him, but he had a very good rookie year last year, that was after being a GREAT player in the AHL for his year there, and in his short stint this year, he looked really really good. He has played 94 career games, some of them after coming back from a bad injury, but he is 7th in points per game of anyone drafted that year.

-Peterka.  2nd rounder. Top 10 in scoring for anyone from that draft class overall, 3rd this year in goals scored (and only 3 away from the top spot) from that draft class.  Both Peterka and Quinn are at least average in terms of defensive zone play..I think you can make a case that for their age they are actually pretty good too.

2021. Owen Power.  Top guy in a supposedly 'below average' draft class. But, he played as a rookie, he is playing a ton of minutes now. He has his ups and downs, but again, recently he is playing a lot better. Many may not like his style (he is big but hits vitrually no-one) but I don't think you can see he isn't starting to be an asset on the blue line.

Since then, Benson is a surprise and playing well in the NHL for how young he is.  Savoi, Östlund, Kulich....nothing from them yet but all of them have showed flashes in their current leagues of being legit NHL players at some point.

As far as the older guys, Thompson looked like a Bust until Granato came along, and even with a 'down' year this year, hes on pace for about 30 goals, the last 3 years is close to a 40 goal guy overall.  Tuch, he is getting more chances in Buffalo but his production is way up here compared to Vegas.  It took a while but Mitts developed into a really good NHL forward with this team. UPL certainly, he has 'developed' into one of the better goalies in the league.

So yeah, they could do better, but I look at this roster and I see a lot more 'development' successes than I see failures, especially since the current regime took over.

Roster construction (not having a GOOD veteran D-man here) and player mix might be an issue for this team's current lack of success. But I think player development? A case can be made for them doing a good job...at least not doing a bad job.

 

This is totally fair, I am not going to die on this hill.

At the same time I look at Ryan Johnson, Peterka, and Quinn compared to somebody like Cozens specifically and I like the formers games a lot more than I like Cozens at the moment. All 4 of the players mentioned are 22 years old, but the 3 I like spent significant time in the AHL/NCAA. Where as Cozens was drafted and a Sabre from day one. We are complaining about his game more than the others and defending it with his age. 

Similarly I really like Levi, but he needs more time to bake in the AHL. He still looks too frantic to me. 

I don't think the Sabres suck at developing players. There are certainly some great examples. But I do think that the narrative that letting them develop live from day 1 is the best thing for them is overplayed. Just because some guys figure it out doesn't mean it was the best or most efficient developmental process. 
 

[thewookie1]

I wonder if William Karlsson will be a cap casualty in Vegas because he'd be a solid 3C with a 55% FO as well solid 2 way play. 

[Thorner]

9 hours ago, bob_sauve28 said:

I'd be shocked if they found a decent goalie to come here. Who would sign knowing Levi is almost ready to take the back up role? Get a guy on a one year deal for big money?

One year deal with money corresponding to talent. Goalie can parlay a good year into another contract 

[bob_sauve28]

1 minute ago, Thorny said:

One year deal with money corresponding to talent. Goalie can parlay a good year into another contract 

Is there recent precedence for this? Like a team signing a good goalie to one year deal? 

[thewookie1]

3 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

Is there recent precedence for this? Like a team signing a good goalie to one year deal? 

Francois if healthy could likely be convinced of a 1x2mil prove your healthy type deal.

Stolarz would be a solid 2mil guy for a year. 

[bob_sauve28]

2 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

Francois if healthy could likely be convinced of a 1x2mil prove your healthy type deal.

Stolarz would be a solid 2mil guy for a year. 

I'm all for it if it can be done 

[Thorner]

14 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

Is there recent precedence for this? Like a team signing a good goalie to one year deal? 

Nope, it’s never happened 

[Buffalo Super Fan]

No I don’t think so the Buffalo Sabres highlight will be the new video scoreboard and that is about it. I see everyone returning like nothing happened. I hope I am wrong in my opinion. Go Sabres! Let’s Go Buffalo 

[SabreFinn]

The offseason is the key to success. There is a lot to be done during the summer. The contracted players need to take their summer practice serious and they need to get the right advises on what to work on.

The GM needs to find and get the missing pieces, and that is a job much harder than summer practice as a player. There are some really big decisions to be made of some of the players on current roster also, Krebs, Skinner, Byram. And yes, I mentioned Byram again, the team is not in balance and they played better the weeks before trade deadline than they do now. 

Granato needs a long vacation. And new assistans.

They will make the playoff next year. I still have the faith.

 

[Ducky]

On 3/24/2024 at 7:19 PM, Thorny said:

It would be absurd to bet on Levi to play 30-35 if missing next year truly isn’t an option. But I’d still probably be more surprised if they add a backup: Adams made an even riskier bet with Levi last summer, don’t see why he’d balk this time around when there’s a better likelihood of success 

No matter what he does, goaltending will play a huge part in whether the Sabres make the playoffs or not.

[bob_sauve28]

We will start next season with two quality NHL goaltenders. When was the last time we could say that?? 

[Thorner]

Just now, bob_sauve28 said:

We will start next season with two quality NHL goaltenders. When was the last time we could say that?? 

Levi is not proven as an nhl goaltender 

I don’t care where your bias lies, he’s not a proven “quality goaltender”

[bob_sauve28]

Just now, Thorny said:

Levi is not proven as an nhl goaltender 

I don’t care where your bias lies, he’s not a proven “quality goaltender”

He sure looks good to me! I mean he will be our number 2 goalie? I'm cool with that, I mean it gives me confidence

 

He should go down to Rochester now, but next year he is our number 2 man 

[Thorner]

4 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

He sure looks good to me! I mean he will be our number 2 goalie? I'm cool with that, I mean it gives me confidence

 

He should go down to Rochester now, but next year he is our number 2 man 

I’m sure you are correct it is the plan. But your statement of “when was the last time we could say that?” doesn’t apply, that’s my point, cause we can’t say it now. Levi may absolutely prove to be ready, but you asked when was the last time we could say we were entering into the season with 2 quality goaltenders and saying Levi is a quality NHLer goaltender right now based on all of 23 games and an .899 sv% doesn’t seem fair, does it? Regardless of your personal belief that it’ll be A-ok