Sabres sign RFA Beck Malenstyn to a 2 year 1.35 AAV Deal

[GASabresIUFAN]

5 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

So in other words Casey Mittlestadt. See where I'm going with that

I would never say something like that. 😉

 

[That Aud Smell]

11 hours ago, JoeSchmoe said:

Eye test wise, he seemed to be better at the scrambly type goals than anyone else on the team.

I won’t deny that. I also think this is consistent with the idea that he’s a freelancer who doesn’t do particularly well playing within a defined system or plan.

[GoPuckYourself]

4 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

The question would still be why aren't we drafting these guys ourselves in 2nd and lower rounds? They aren't that hard to find. 

We have lately imo, Anton Wahlberg, Olivier Nadeau, Brodie Zeimer, Ethan Miedema (later pick in the 4th round) but the question is why weren't we drafting these types before this as it seemed Adams only liked small, skilled forwards. 

[Night Train]

5 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

The question would still be why aren't we drafting these guys ourselves in 2nd and lower rounds? They aren't that hard to find. 

  I see your point but that is going back a few years, when most 18 year olds need developmental time.  Sabres had a ton of picks and waiting rime has run out. The so called pipeline has more players than anyone but at what actual talent level ?  Trading picks and young prospects for players with an actual NHL resume is needed to get the Sabres out of the drought now. Tired of projecting with little to show. 

[matter2003]

Not a bad contract...I mean he had to file for arbitration to get that? Seems like the two sides could have gotten to that without the arbitration.

[DarthEbriate]

2 hours ago, GoPuckYourself said:

We have lately imo, Anton Wahlberg, Olivier Nadeau, Brodie Zeimer, Ethan Miedema (later pick in the 4th round) but the question is why weren't we drafting these types before this as it seemed Adams only liked small, skilled forwards. 

Previous Sabres GMs would probably tell you they also drafted grinders, or at least bigger guys that could become grinders at the NHL level. They just haven't panned out. Picking out from those prior drafts: Bloom, Cederqvist, Pekar, Murray, Lemieux, Willman, Bailey, Kea, Jacobs.

(And Malenstyn nearly stayed a career AHL-er, too. Until last season he'd played only 26 NHL games over 4 seasons.)

[bob_sauve28]

2 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

 

(And Malenstyn nearly stayed a career AHL-er, too. Until last season he'd played only 26 NHL games over 4 seasons.)

Good thing about having guys like that on the team is that it shows the other guys what some have to do to get into and stay in the NHL. He has earned his place, for now, and the others will have to earn their place also 

[inkman]

3 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

Previous Sabres GMs would probably tell you they also drafted grinders, or at least bigger guys that could become grinders at the NHL level. They just haven't panned out. Picking out from those prior drafts: Bloom, Cederqvist, Pekar, Murray, Lemieux, Willman, Bailey, Kea, Jacobs.

(And Malenstyn nearly stayed a career AHL-er, too. Until last season he'd played only 26 NHL games over 4 seasons.)

The Sabres should have given Justin Kea some sort of development job.  He’s been personally responsible for roughly 10,000 penalty kill situations for the Amerks. Every game this dude is solely determined to let every person in hockey know that he curries no favor to the Sabres org.  I’ve never seen a phenomenon like it.  Every game is just penalty after penalty on Rochester.  It’d be comical if it wasn’t costing them games.  

[Taro T]

16 hours ago, JoeSchmoe said:

First column is advanced stats. Next four columns are old fashioned stats. You can't outthink the fact that he produced better than everyone but Tage.

He'd have been a good guy to have next year... Then buy him out after that.

 

They could have kept Skinner for another year.

And again, you are COMPLETELY discounting how much better the PP would've been had somebody besides Skinner been on the ice to retreive loose pucks, win battles along the boards down low, and not make lousy passes once he had the puck.

But he scores at a higher rate than these other guys that aren't stationed at the front/side of the net.  Cool, never would've thought that being stationed nearer the net than the other players on the ice might help him score more goals.  Again, but how many goals WEREN'T scored by the Sabres because Skinner was the guy in the role of the garbage man?

There is a reason that the vast majority of points that Jeff Skinner has scored throughout his career come at 5v5.  Other players on his teams have skill sets better suited to being on the PP.  Granato needed to knock him off the top PP long before he did (and he also needed to relieve Matt Ellis of that portion of his duties) and MAYBE he would've still been the coach of the team.

Btw, Girgensons had an EG/60 of over 12.  Maybe they should've kept HIM for the PP too.  😉 

Look, personally didn't want Skinner dumped this year as IMHO it made more sense from a cap perspective to cut him next season (or even the one after it).  But there's no doubt that Ruff didn't want him here.  So, he's gone.

And also btw, when Eichel and Reinhart were in Buffalo, 5 players had P/60 on the PP of greater than 5.0 and 2 more were about 4.0 and another 2 were within 0.1 of 4.07 this season.  You know, when the PP actually didn't stink.  And Skinner wasn't even in the top 10 for P/60 on the PP; he was 13th.

[PerreaultForever]

7 hours ago, GoPuckYourself said:

We have lately imo, Anton Wahlberg, Olivier Nadeau, Brodie Zeimer, Ethan Miedema (later pick in the 4th round) but the question is why weren't we drafting these types before this as it seemed Adams only liked small, skilled forwards. 

My point was we should already have guys like him in the system pressing to come up. We shouldn't need to use 2nd round picks to get them. If you want success you find Peterkas with 2nd round picks. You find these guys in rounds 3-7. 

[PerreaultForever]

6 hours ago, Night Train said:

  I see your point but that is going back a few years, when most 18 year olds need developmental time.  Sabres had a ton of picks and waiting rime has run out. The so called pipeline has more players than anyone but at what actual talent level ?  Trading picks and young prospects for players with an actual NHL resume is needed to get the Sabres out of the drought now. Tired of projecting with little to show. 

Right, and maybe we should have been making moves all along instead of just stocking cupboards. It's a desperation move. I'd rather they had just signed a free agent and kept the pick and used it on a big D man or a future tough guy. 

[JoeSchmoe]

56 minutes ago, Taro T said:

And again, you are COMPLETELY discounting how much better the PP would've been had somebody besides Skinner been on the ice to retreive loose pucks, win battles along the boards down low, and not make lousy passes once he had the puck.

But he scores at a higher rate than these other guys that aren't stationed at the front/side of the net.  Cool, never would've thought that being stationed nearer the net than the other players on the ice might help him score more goals.  Again, but how many goals WEREN'T scored by the Sabres because Skinner was the guy in the role of the garbage man?

There is a reason that the vast majority of points that Jeff Skinner has scored throughout his career come at 5v5.  Other players on his teams have skill sets better suited to being on the PP.  Granato needed to knock him off the top PP long before he did (and he also needed to relieve Matt Ellis of that portion of his duties) and MAYBE he would've still been the coach of the team.

Btw, Girgensons had an EG/60 of over 12.  Maybe they should've kept HIM for the PP too.  😉 

Look, personally didn't want Skinner dumped this year as IMHO it made more sense from a cap perspective to cut him next season (or even the one after it).  But there's no doubt that Ruff didn't want him here.  So, he's gone.

And also btw, when Eichel and Reinhart were in Buffalo, 5 players had P/60 on the PP of greater than 5.0 and 2 more were about 4.0 and another 2 were within 0.1 of 4.07 this season.  You know, when the PP actually didn't stink.  And Skinner wasn't even in the top 10 for P/60 on the PP; he was 13th.

My view is the power play sucked because Granato and Ellis had just one play... Which as we know was to pass it to Tage on the half-wall for a one-timer. Teams adjusted to that by mid 22-33, but our coaching staff didn't seem to care. 

 

[tom webster]

14 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

The question would still be why aren't we drafting these guys ourselves in 2nd and lower rounds? They aren't that hard to find. 

Same reason Tampa rarely drafted them. You draft for skill and trade or sign for grit. Seemed to work well for them.

[LGR4GM]

9 hours ago, GoPuckYourself said:

We have lately imo, Anton Wahlberg, Olivier Nadeau, Brodie Zeimer, Ethan Miedema (later pick in the 4th round) but the question is why weren't we drafting these types before this as it seemed Adams only liked small, skilled forwards. 

Still not true. 

[PerreaultForever]

3 hours ago, tom webster said:

Same reason Tampa rarely drafted them. You draft for skill and trade or sign for grit. Seemed to work well for them.

Except they started doing that AFTER they were a top of the division playoff team and got bounced in the first round by a gritty Columbus team. Toronto's trying to do that every year now. Edmonton is trying it now and came close but lost. You add missing pieces when you are close or missing a key piece. We haven't even made the playoffs yet and are trading for mediocre available bottom end talent. 

Look, I like the new composition of this team better than it was, but this is the structure the team should have had years ago and we should now be trying to upgrade it piece by piece. So it's progress, but it's a pin step. 

[tom webster]

2 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Except they started doing that AFTER they were a top of the division playoff team and got bounced in the first round by a gritty Columbus team. Toronto's trying to do that every year now. Edmonton is trying it now and came close but lost. You add missing pieces when you are close or missing a key piece. We haven't even made the playoffs yet and are trading for mediocre available bottom end talent. 

Look, I like the new composition of this team better than it was, but this is the structure the team should have had years ago and we should now be trying to upgrade it piece by piece. So it's progress, but it's a pin step. 

I disagree. It should have been done one year ago, not years ago.

[PerreaultForever]

2 hours ago, tom webster said:

I disagree. It should have been done one year ago, not years ago.

Why just 1 year ago? Why not 13?

[GoPuckYourself]

7 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Still not true. 

I disagree but we can agree to disagree.

[tom webster]

4 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Why just 1 year ago? Why not 13?

Because I don’t hold Adams responsible for anything that happened before JBOT was fired and I don’t dwell on the past. He screwed up last year by running it back. If he would have made these type of adjustments last offseason, they likely make the playoffs and the mood of this board is completely different.

[SwampD]

On 7/23/2024 at 10:00 AM, That Aud Smell said:

It was a bit of a wonky choice. Usually you just see it reported as coming to an agreement. "Settlement" is generally used for litigated cases where adverse parties are engaged in more of a zero sum dispute -- "I owe you nothing!" "You owe me $2M!"

I need a refresher on some lore. What's EEE?

On 7/23/2024 at 10:29 AM, Brawndo said:

Economic, efficient and effective.

Terry used this on the day Botterill was fired and replaced by Adams 

So far, they’ve only hit on the first E.

[PerreaultForever]

10 hours ago, tom webster said:

Because I don’t hold Adams responsible for anything that happened before JBOT was fired and I don’t dwell on the past. He screwed up last year by running it back. If he would have made these type of adjustments last offseason, they likely make the playoffs and the mood of this board is completely different.

There's continuity in design though. One guy has been in that management room for all those years and that's Pegula. The "plan" and the design has remained fairly similar all this time. It's not a radical departure with Adams, until maybe now. 

My feeling is that Pegula has finally somewhat given up on his idea and has turned the key decisions over to a "hockey guy" and that is Ruff. That's why we see a change in roster design. Ruff. 

[dudacek]

1 hour ago, PerreaultForever said:

There's continuity in design though. One guy has been in that management room for all those years and that's Pegula. The "plan" and the design has remained fairly similar all this time. It's not a radical departure with Adams, until maybe now. 

My feeling is that Pegula has finally somewhat given up on his idea and has turned the key decisions over to a "hockey guy" and that is Ruff. That's why we see a change in roster design. Ruff. 

I think Lindy has a clear influence, just like I think Granato has a clear influence: Adams strikes me as collaborative.

I also think Terry has a clear influence and has done more harm than good.

But I see clear differences between Murray, Botterill and Adams.

I see the change in the roster this year is primarily the result of 2 things:

1) the natural evolution from a development focus to a winning focus, which started last year and was always going to part of a draft and development plan

2) Adams realizing the mistakes he made with last year's roster and moving to fix them.

Edited July 25 by dudacek

[PerreaultForever]

3 hours ago, dudacek said:

I think Lindy has a clear influence, just like I think Granato has a clear influence: Adams strikes me as collaborative.

I also think Terry has a clear influence and has done more harm than good.

But I see clear differences between Murray, Botterill and Adams.

I see the change in the roster this year is primarily the result of 2 things:

1) the natural evolution from a development focus to a winning focus, which started last year and was always going to part of a draft and development plan

2) Adams realizing the mistakes he made with last year's roster and moving to fix them.

Sure, but you're forgiving the guy for getting it wrong. The only reason it was in a "development focus" was because he tore it down and created an undeveloped and leaderless team and when it got close he didn't try to win, he kept "developing" until he saw that was going nowhere. Now he's trying to "win". My point would be you should ALWAYS be trying to win, the whole "development year" thing was total bs. 

Murray tried to construct the same thing, but he tried to do it too quickly. Both him and Botterill had no choice but to try to build around Eichel. After Eichel and the team fell out he was given a new pathway but he botched goaltending and the team has underperformed. Even now he's still a step behind the competition. There is nothing "natural" about any of this. 

[JohnnyK]

So, you're saying there's a chance!!!!

Go Sabres!!!!