Amerks 24/25 - Young Talented Roster

[Jorcus]

14 hours ago, pi2000 said:

He's getting closer, but he still only has 48gp in the AHL.     

IMO a goaltender needs at minimum 100gp at the AHL level before they should sniff the NHL.

By comparison, Askarov has 108gp in the "A" and he's just now breaking in to the Sharks lineup. 

Ryan Miller played a full season in the AHL at age 23 and another full season at age 24... having 170gp in the AHL  before permanently breaking into the NHL in 2005 as a 25 year old.   

 

I think it depends on the player and what kind of system he is being brought into. I am not advocating to bring Levi up now. Let him finish his season in The AHL and roll to wherever the playoffs take them. Notable exception to AHL experience is Andrei Vasilevskiy who played 37 games for Syracuse. Now he was going up to the strong Tampa Bay team that could help him some but he always had a good GAA. Bobrovsky never played in the AHL unless you count his 2 years with the Flyers as being his training ground. Oettinger played 44 before getting steady NHL time but went back for 10 more games after a few years. So every guy is different and playing a steady number 1 roll on a good team can't hurt. Levi is good for now but next fall it's should just be about how he is playing and not how many AHL games he has. 

[SwampD]

On 2/11/2025 at 10:01 PM, Porous Five Hole said:

The Amerks are a wagon.  
Aube-Kubel with two tonight, Murray (21) and Rosen (24) also scored, and they’ve pushed their winning streak to six. Levi excellent tonight as well in the 5-1 win against third place Cleveland. 
They’re at 29-12-3-1 on the year, which is the second best record in the league.  I’m saving my pennies to follow their playoff run in the spring instead of going to Sabres games for the rest of the year.  

What does that mean? I’ve never heard ‘wagon’ used in that way. I’m assuming it’s good.

[Captain Caveman]

19 minutes ago, Jorcus said:

 

Bobrovsky never played in the AHL unless you count his 2 years with the Flyers as being his training ground. 

Bobrovski played 2 seasons in the KHL though

[Porous Five Hole]

2 hours ago, SwampD said:

What does that mean? I’ve never heard ‘wagon’ used in that way. I’m assuming it’s good.

I’m not a spittin chicklets podcast guy, but I know Biz has used the word/phase a bunch.  
 

Wagons wheel and roll, they're on a roll, kinda unstoppable. That’s the Amerks right now.  

[PromoTheRobot]

Amerks play 3 games in 3 nights this weekend, starting Friday 7p vs Syracuse, Saturday 7p at Utica and Sunday 3p vs Laval.

[kas23]

3 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Amerks play 3 games in 3 nights this weekend, starting Friday 7p vs Syracuse, Saturday 7p at Utica and Sunday 3p vs Laval.

Tonight we start with a 5-1 beat down. Crunch wins. 

[Amerks8796]

Leone killed them in the post game interview. I love his honesty. 

[PromoTheRobot]

27 minutes ago, Amerks8796 said:

Leone killed them in the post game interview. I love his honesty. 

I know Levi is having a good year overall but he gets into ruts where he isn't good like last night. 

[LGR4GM]

1 hour ago, Amerks8796 said:

Leone killed them in the post game interview. I love his honesty. 

He's got more fire than Lindy these days.

[Flashsabre]

2 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

I know Levi is having a good year overall but he gets into ruts where he isn't good like last night. 

Every goalie does. The more AHL reps Levi has the less those ruts will rear their ugly head

[K-9]

Östlund with the OT winner to get the Amerks back on track. 4-3 over Utica

[Porous Five Hole]

6 minutes ago, K-9 said:

Östlund with the OT winner to get the Amerks back on track. 4-3 over Utica

Yes and Rosen tied it up late in the third (25).  The kids are alright. 

[lothar]

Did Levi play?

[Porous Five Hole]

Just now, lothar said:

Did Levi play?

Sandstrom tonight. So probably Levi tomorrow. 

[Flashsabre]

36 minutes ago, K-9 said:

Östlund with the OT winner to get the Amerks back on track. 4-3 over Utica

Great to hear. It seems either Östlund or Helenius can play well at any given time but not both simultaneously.😀

Great to see Östlund is getting back on track as a top centre prospect.

[pastajoe]

Amerks moved into 1st in division. Play Laval Sunday who is 1 point behind.

[Jorcus]

Oh no Levi gets the hook after letting in 4 goals on 11 shots. Two bad games in a row.

[Porous Five Hole]

1 hour ago, Jorcus said:

Oh no Levi gets the hook after letting in 4 goals on 11 shots. Two bad games in a row.

The Amerks were gassed.  They played Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and today Sunday (today against the best record in the AHL). 
 

The Amerks opponent tonight, Laval, hadn’t played since last Sunday and were waiting for the Amerks in ROC for today’s game while the Amerks bussed home from Utica after last night’s game.  The schedule didn’t do Rochester any favors today.  

[pastajoe]

 

[Pimlach]

All this talk about the Rochester GM and coach brings up a few things. 

1.  Karmanos was more qualified to be a GM than Adams.   Dig into their experience prior to taking their jobs at Buffalo.  It is not even close.  

2.  Adams was hired to save money (EEE) and to rebuild with a home grown approach.   He probably masterminded the plan along with Terry.  Trade the best players away, stockpile picks and prospects, develop picks/prospects, have no blockers, no big vet contracts, just play the kids, extend the kids, and assume they are good enough.    Do all this with a rookie NHL coach and staff,  and stay under the cap to enable signing your home grown players.   Of course this has not worked and it has made it even harder to get good players and good coaches to come to Buffalo. The EEE plan just added 5 more long years of losing to the string - but at least Rochester is good!  😞   Of course adding Lindy, a guy we know and like, was supposed to take the team to another level too.   Unfortunately,  I think this EEE master plan has another year to go with Lindy still on contract.   

3. Putting Karmanos' work in perspective - Good job, but lets not forget it is easier to GM in the AHL, you don't have to deal with the parent club culture issues and NTCs.  Still, Karmanos could not be any worse than Adams.   It's hard to be worse than last place in the conference and 0 playoff appearances after 5 years.  

[JohnC]

4 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

All this talk about the Rochester GM and coach brings up a few things. 

1.  Karmanos was more qualified to be a GM than Adams.   Dig into their experience prior to taking their jobs at Buffalo.  It is not even close.  

2.  Adams was hired to save money (EEE) and to rebuild with a home grown approach.   He probably masterminded the plan along with Terry.  Trade the best players away, stockpile picks and prospects, develop picks/prospects, have no blockers, no big vet contracts, just play the kids, extend the kids, and assume they are good enough.    Do all this with a rookie NHL coach and staff,  and stay under the cap to enable signing your home grown players.   Of course this has not worked and it has made it even harder to get good players and good coaches to come to Buffalo. The EEE plan just added 5 more long years of losing to the string - but at least Rochester is good!  😞   Of course adding Lindy, a guy we know and like, was supposed to take the team to another level too.   Unfortunately,  I think this EEE master plan has another year to go with Lindy still on contract.   

3. Putting Karmanos' work in perspective - Good job, but lets not forget it is easier to GM in the AHL, you don't have to deal with the parent club culture issues and NTCs.  Still, Karmanos could not be any worse than Adams.   It's hard to be worse than last place in the conference and 0 playoff appearances after 5 years.  

Our organization is such a state of chaos and dysfunction that there will be no quick fix to this mess. At least with Karmonos, he had the requisite experience a normal GM candidate would have when considering for the most critical position in an NHL franchise. The hiring of Adams without bothering to search for legitimate candidates was reckless and insane. The appeal that he had to our sphynx owner was that he was going to start over with not only less expenditures for players but also within the organization. 

The analogue to that non-existent GM hiring process was the charade hiring process for the HC position which ended with Ruff being selected. Everyone knows that the coaching search was a charade with him being preselected for nostalgic reasons. Both the GM and HC hiring process were outlandishly foolish representing the dysfunction within the franchise led by the inept owner. 

Karmonos came from the Pittsburgh system. It knew how to build around McDavid, a generational talent, winning Cups. What did our stupid organization do? It drove out our generational player, Eichel, and others such as Reinhart. (I recognize that Eichel is not at the McDavid level but he is still in an elite talent level. He's a player you build around, not trade away for pieces.) 

In this forum we talk a lot about players, trades, analytics etc. Until order is brought to this chaotic and hollow organization, little will change. That is not to say that there won't be some glitters of success but it won't take long for the hollowness and fragility of this franchise to bring us back to the ugly reality of how hollow our franchise is. 

[inkman]

1 hour ago, Pimlach said:

All this talk about the Rochester GM and coach brings up a few things. 

1.  Karmanos was more qualified to be a GM than Adams.   Dig into their experience prior to taking their jobs at Buffalo.  It is not even close.  

2.  Adams was hired to save money (EEE) and to rebuild with a home grown approach.   He probably masterminded the plan along with Terry.  Trade the best players away, stockpile picks and prospects, develop picks/prospects, have no blockers, no big vet contracts, just play the kids, extend the kids, and assume they are good enough.    Do all this with a rookie NHL coach and staff,  and stay under the cap to enable signing your home grown players.   Of course this has not worked and it has made it even harder to get good players and good coaches to come to Buffalo. The EEE plan just added 5 more long years of losing to the string - but at least Rochester is good!  😞   Of course adding Lindy, a guy we know and like, was supposed to take the team to another level too.   Unfortunately,  I think this EEE master plan has another year to go with Lindy still on contract.   

3. Putting Karmanos' work in perspective - Good job, but lets not forget it is easier to GM in the AHL, you don't have to deal with the parent club culture issues and NTCs.  Still, Karmanos could not be any worse than Adams.   It's hard to be worse than last place in the conference and 0 playoff appearances after 5 years.  

 

49 minutes ago, JohnC said:

Our organization is such a state of chaos and dysfunction that there will be no quick fix to this mess. At least with Karmonos, he had the requisite experience a normal GM candidate would have when considering for the most critical position in an NHL franchise. The hiring of Adams without bothering to search for legitimate candidates was reckless and insane. The appeal that he had to our sphynx owner was that he was going to start over with not only less expenditures for players but also within the organization. 

The analogue to that non-existent GM hiring process was the charade hiring process for the HC position which ended with Ruff being selected. Everyone knows that the coaching search was a charade with him being preselected for nostalgic reasons. Both the GM and HC hiring process were outlandishly foolish representing the dysfunction within the franchise led by the inept owner. 

Karmonos came from the Pittsburgh system. It knew how to build around McDavid, a generational talent, winning Cups. What did our stupid organization do? It drove out our generational player, Eichel, and others such as Reinhart. (I recognize that Eichel is not at the McDavid level but he is still in an elite talent level. He's a player you build around, not trade away for pieces.) 

In this forum we talk a lot about players, trades, analytics etc. Until order is brought to this chaotic and hollow organization, little will change. That is not to say that there won't be some glitters of success but it won't take long for the hollowness and fragility of this franchise to bring us back to the ugly reality of how hollow our franchise is. 

All these words are great.  Too bad nobody in the Sabres org cares.  I’d say I’ll be happy when the season ends but even then, just more of the same.  Same BS lines from the same players and coaches.  I’m going to my grave with this team being the worst run business in the world.  

[JohnC]

2 hours ago, inkman said:

 

All these words are great.  Too bad nobody in the Sabres org cares.  I’d say I’ll be happy when the season ends but even then, just more of the same.  Same BS lines from the same players and coaches.  I’m going to my grave with this team being the worst run business in the world.  

The dissolution of this once proud franchise starts and ends with the non-talking owner. This situation with the Sabres is both weird and incomprehensible. This silent owner also owns the Bills and Bandits. Both are resounding successes on the field and at the box office. In both cases, he allows the quality staff in each franchise to manage the operation. With the Sabres, he has done the opposite. He installed a patently unqualified person to be the head of the hockey operation. The outcome was predictable. Apparently, the owner prefers having a sycophant at the helm so that it would give him more room to play around with his toy. 

Terry Pegula has become the Buffalo version of Danny Snyder, former owner of the Washington Commanders. What both have in common is a talent to destroy a franchise and dramatically erode a once robust fanbase.   

The worst part of what has happened to the Sabres is not that they are perennially bad, which they are. What's even more demoralizing about this ridiculous situation is that this franchise has become an irrelevant franchise to the extent that the hockey world ignores it. 

[inkman]

17 minutes ago, JohnC said:

The dissolution of this once proud franchise starts and ends with the non-talking owner. This situation with the Sabres is both weird and incomprehensible. This silent owner also owns the Bills and Bandits. Both are resounding successes on the field and at the box office. In both cases, he allows the quality staff in each franchise to manage the operation. With the Sabres, he has done the opposite. He installed a patently unqualified person to be the head of the hockey operation. The outcome was predictable. Apparently, the owner prefers having a sycophant at the helm so that it would give him more room to play around with his toy. 

Terry Pegula has become the Buffalo version of Danny Snyder, former owner of the Washington Commanders. What both have in common is a talent to destroy a franchise and dramatically erode a once robust fanbase.   

The worst part of what has happened to the Sabres is not that they are perennially bad, which they are. What's even more demoralizing about this ridiculous situation is that this franchise has become an irrelevant franchise to the extent that the hockey world ignores it. 

For the record, I never need to hear the owner of a franchise speak. Nothing he says matters, it’ll just be platitudes to placate the masses. I need action, not words.  

[EM88]

34 minutes ago, JohnC said:

The dissolution of this once proud franchise starts and ends with the non-talking owner. This situation with the Sabres is both weird and incomprehensible. This silent owner also owns the Bills and Bandits. Both are resounding successes on the field and at the box office. In both cases, he allows the quality staff in each franchise to manage the operation. With the Sabres, he has done the opposite. He installed a patently unqualified person to be the head of the hockey operation. The outcome was predictable. Apparently, the owner prefers having a sycophant at the helm so that it would give him more room to play around with his toy. 

Agree on the Bandits.

With the Bills, one can take a different side of the argument than what is popular.  Maybe, just maybe they are less of a success story than we think.  How many times has a team had a Quarterback as good as Josh Allen has been and has yet to reach the superbowl let alone win one?  I personally put him in a category that has 95% of Quarterbacks with his talent already at least making a superbowl appearance by this point of his career.

Yes, Patrick Mahomes is in his way. But Brady did not stop Roethlisberger or Manning from reaching, and winning the Superbowl.  If you were to make up a list of the greatest Quarterbacks of the past 25 years, Allen and Lamar Jackson are probably the only 2 that have not even made a Superbowl, let alone winning one. That might say something more about the organization around them.

Remove the starting QB, and I think Kanas City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, the Rams, Pittsburgh, and recently the Vikings and Lions are better teams, and probably have been or are currently better run organiztions top to bottom.

Edited Wednesday at 06:29 PM by EM88