Sabres Training Camp Thread

[Brawndo]

Here are the 27 going to Europe 

 

[mjd1001]

5 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

Here are the 27 going to Europe 

 

I like all those line combos and D-pairings, at least to start.

I think the '5th line' listed should be the odd line out.  Each of those guy can be subbed in/moved into other spots, but this seems like the best starting point.

Its only preseason, but Power and Byram look like they are playing very well with each other so far.

Edited September 24 by mjd1001

[Taro T]

7 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I see no reason why Dahlin returning would affect either of those 2 in terms of deployment and/or production.

Lindy's game plan over the first 2 exhibitions seemed to be "play your regular season lineup as much as possible". And the workaround for Dahlin's injury was to plug Jokiharju into Dahlin's role entirely.

There is no reason he couldn't use Byram and Power exactly like they were used the past 2 games. And I suspect he will for as long as they hold their own against NHLers.

Given the underlying numbers of Dahlin/Joki in the past, and the way Henri has played so far, I think he starts with Ras.

Particularly because Mule/Clifton has some nice ruggedness I can see Lindy appreciating

You're late to the conversation.  The OP had said that having all 3 of Dahlin, Power, and Byram on the same team would cause all of them to have lesser scoring because they'd each be taking time away from the other 2 and keeping them all from being true #1's.  So, this discussion wasn't so much about who would play with Ras but rather how them all being on the same team affect each of them relative to being on different teams.

7 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I see no reason why Dahlin returning would affect either of those 2 in terms of deployment and/or production.

Lindy's game plan over the first 2 exhibitions seemed to be "play your regular season lineup as much as possible". And the workaround for Dahlin's injury was to plug Jokiharju into Dahlin's role entirely.

There is no reason he couldn't use Byram and Power exactly like they were used the past 2 games. And I suspect he will for as long as they hold their own against NHLers.

Given the underlying numbers of Dahlin/Joki in the past, and the way Henri has played so far, I think he starts with Ras.

Particularly because Mule/Clifton has some nice ruggedness I can see Lindy appreciating

You're late to the conversation.  The OP had said that having all 3 of Dahlin, Power, and Byram on the same team would cause all of them to have lesser scoring because they'd each be taking time away from the other 2 and keeping them all from being true #1's.  So, this discussion wasn't so much about who would play with Ras but rather how them all being on the same team affect each of them relative to being on different teams.

[Bangarang]

26 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

Here are the 27 going to Europe 

 

 

One would reasonably assume this is will be our opening night lineup. 

[JohnC]

On 9/21/2024 at 11:26 AM, Archie Lee said:

That's not really countering my point.  I'm not arguing that Cozens isn't or shouldn't be ready to be good, I'm arguing the opposite and adding that it is time to give him two wingers who are already there.

There comes a time when we have to fully support a player (in this case Cozens), by surrounding him with players who will help him be successful. This is not a shot against Quinn and Benson, nor am I fully discounting the possibility that together they might be great. Dylan Cozens would have a better chance to be a fully impactful player if his line-mates were the equivalent of what we project Quinn and Benson to be 3-4 years from now. I submit that this is self-evident.

Totally misses the point though.  Cozens may well be and should be ready.  The same can't be so definitively said about his projected line-mates though.

I have a different perspective on the line composition that includes Quinn and Benson and centered by Cozens that you are hesitant about. I don't want to get ahead of myself in judging young players but my expectation is that Quinn is going to have a successful season that is worthy of a good second line player. Just as JJP made a leap last year on the top line, I see the same leap forward with a healthy Quinn. I still maintain the view that if I had a choice of keeping either JJP or Quinn, I would take Quinn. That expectation is not a knock on JJP as it is my high expectation for Quinn this season. In addition, I also expect Benson to be a worthy second line player who has the vision and grit to round out that line. 

[#freejame]

2 hours ago, Brawndo said:

Here are the 27 going to Europe 

 

All I hope is that Levi gets the Saturday game and then is sent back down once in the States. 

[Taro T]

3 hours ago, Brawndo said:

Here are the 27 going to Europe 

 

Not a fan of Jokiharju on the top pairing.  Yes, he looked great against AHLers, which he should do as he typically looks great against 3rd & 4th liners but not so much against top 6 opponents.  Hopefully getting him into Ruff's system he can look like he did back when Scandella was his partner when he 1st came to Buffalo.  But expecting we'll see either Power or Samuelsson paired with Dahlin by the time October ends.  (Or possibly even he ends up w/ Adams plan and Byram is Ras' partner.)

Still consider him a rich man's 5 or a poor man's 3/4.  Definitely don't want him as a 2.

[dudacek]

58 minutes ago, #freejame said:

All I hope is that Levi gets the Saturday game and then is sent back down once in the States. 

I hope Levi stays up and he and Luukkonen form a Swaymand/Ullmark combo.

He’s better then Reimer, the playoffs are the priority and running out 2 good, fresh goalies is our best chance of getting there.

[shrader]

Are they given an exception for the european trip where they don't have to waive any of the Rosek/Bryson/Gilbert/Clague/Reimers of the roster?

[Taro T]

Just now, shrader said:

Are they given an exception for the european trip where they don't have to waive any of the Rosek/Bryson/Gilbert/Clague/Reimers of the roster?

Pretty sure their official cut down day is Monday Oct 7 like the rest of the league.  So, technically even the guys staying stateside and playing the Pens, BJs, and Detroit are "Sabres" and not Amerks or ECHLers or Juniors.  At least for another week and a half.

[dudacek]

2 minutes ago, shrader said:

Are they given an exception for the european trip where they don't have to waive any of the Rosek/Bryson/Gilbert/Clague/Reimers of the roster?

They are given an exemption to carry them, but it hasn’t been made clear in anything I’ve read if that will delay the date they have to waived, or to when.

In other words, will they be officially Sabres or Amerks on NHL roster cutdown day, despite being in Europe?

[Taro T]

Just now, dudacek said:

They are given an exemption to carry them, but it hasn’t been made clear in anything I’ve read if that will delay the date they have to waived, or to when.

In other words, will they be officially Sabres or Amerks on NHL roster cutdown day, despite being in Europe?

Haven't seen anything official either.  Am presuming their cut down date is the same as the rest of the league.  And, as we're still after the trade deadline and ahead of the "official" schedule start date which is Tuesday October 8; am presuming as long as they're below 110% of the cap and they stay at or below the agreed to 27 man rosters all is copacetic as far as the league is concerned.

Would be really interested in seeing how guys get paid for these games as they're technically outside the window of the regular season; but presumably that's all been agreed to by the players involved.

[PerreaultForever]

6 hours ago, ska-T Chitown said:

Isn't this season, the one that has not started, the first of his new contract? He was probably a bargain on his rookie deal last year, no?

Yes, so at the moment both Cozens and Power are overpaid - until they are not if they show it on the ice. Remains to be seen if these will be good, bad or just right contracts but they were both paid on faith and expectation. 

[shrader]

1 hour ago, Taro T said:

Haven't seen anything official either.  Am presuming their cut down date is the same as the rest of the league.  And, as we're still after the trade deadline and ahead of the "official" schedule start date which is Tuesday October 8; am presuming as long as they're below 110% of the cap and they stay at or below the agreed to 27 man rosters all is copacetic as far as the league is concerned.

Would be really interested in seeing how guys get paid for these games as they're technically outside the window of the regular season; but presumably that's all been agreed to by the players involved.

Ahhh now we’ve really opened the can of worms. I just deleted a bunch of stuff I typed because it winds up being very circular and contradictory. 

[mjd1001]

2 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Yes, so at the moment both Cozens and Power are overpaid - until they are not if they show it on the ice. Remains to be seen if these will be good, bad or just right contracts but they were both paid on faith and expectation. 

I am hopeful that Power takes a big step forward this year. Yeah, I know D-men SOMETIME take 3-5 years to get to be the best version of themselves, but from the very little I have seen in the 2 preseason games, he looks a lot calmer with the puck (to me one of his bigger issues last year).  Even with a moderate step forward, he still won't be worth his contract this year, but it would go a long way to the team being better AND him being on the path to being worth his contract in the near(er) future.

Cozens I am very hard on because I don't think he's been a very good hockey player for this team.  He's a train wreck positionally in the defensive end, so unless he is scoring you 30+ he's not worth his deal either.  I'll take him giving the team 20-25 goals AND being at least average in is own end...if he does that, again this team will be much better for it.

Edited September 24 by mjd1001

[dudacek]

19 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

I am hopeful that Power takes a big step forward this year. Yeah, I know D-men SOMETIME take 3-5 years to get to be the best version of themselves, but from the very little I have seen in the 2 preseason games, he looks a lot calmer with the puck (to me one of his bigger issues last year).  Even with a moderate step forward, he still won't be worth his contract this year, but it would go a long way to the team being better AND him being on the path to being worth his contract in the near(er) future.

Cozens I am very hard on because I don't think he's been a very good hockey player for this team.  He's a train wreck positionally in the defensive end, so unless he is scoring you 30+ he's not worth his deal either.  I'll take him giving the team 20-25 goals AND being at least average in is own end...if he does that, again this team will be much better for it.

The Athletic sees him as the 5th-best player on the Sabres and just inside the top 150 in the NHL.

[mjd1001]

Just now, dudacek said:

The Athletic sees him as the 5th-best player on the Sabres and just inside the top 150 in the NHL.

Cozens? or Power?

[dudacek]

Just now, mjd1001 said:

Cozens? or Power?

Cozens. Power is ranked on the same tier, but slightly higher

[PerreaultForever]

7 hours ago, dudacek said:

The Athletic sees him as the 5th-best player on the Sabres and just inside the top 150 in the NHL.

So do they take 5 players from every team and since Buffalo is low in the standings he's near the 30x5 mark cause I have no idea how you make any sort of sensible ranking like that. 

So I guess Thompson's better, Dahlin's better, Power slightly as you said and who is the other one above him? 

[Weave]

5 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

So do they take 5 players from every team and since Buffalo is low in the standings he's near the 30x5 mark cause I have no idea how you make any sort of sensible ranking like that. 

So I guess Thompson's better, Dahlin's better, Power slightly as you said and who is the other one above him? 

UPL?

[Archie Lee]

5 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

So do they take 5 players from every team and since Buffalo is low in the standings he's near the 30x5 mark cause I have no idea how you make any sort of sensible ranking like that. 

So I guess Thompson's better, Dahlin's better, Power slightly as you said and who is the other one above him? 

Tuch is the other Sabre in the top 150,  he is ranked between Power and Cozens. There is no set # per team, some have more than 5, others have less. The Sabres have no player ranked in the top 2 tiers, with Dahlin and Thompson in tier 3 (Dahlin at the top of tier 3 with Bedard). 

As with all of these Athletic rankings, the real point is just to generate discussion. I think all 5 Sabres ranked have an opportunity to jump a tier (or two in some cases) this year. Further, there probably is no team with more players than the Sabres, who could move into the rankings a year from now: UPL, Byram, Quinn, Peterka and Benson all have that sort of pedigree/potential. This is how you get to be a playoff team. You don’t wait for the teams ahead of you to get old and falter, you just get better than them. 

[dudacek]

6 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

So do they take 5 players from every team and since Buffalo is low in the standings he's near the 30x5 mark cause I have no idea how you make any sort of sensible ranking like that. 

So I guess Thompson's better, Dahlin's better, Power slightly as you said and who is the other one above him? 

Tuch.

There’s no 5 player per team thing. It’s the NHL’s top 150 players at large.

There’s a wide variation per team. Ducks have 1 player in the list, San Jose none,  Edmonton and Florida 7 each

 

[dudacek]

This list is billed as a conversation starter and everyone is going to find something to disagree with. It's also probably the best representation of an informed consensus as you’re going to get.

It has 5 tiers:

• MVP (best player on almost any team in the league) 12 players
• Franchise (best player on a contending team) 20 players, Dahlin dropped out of this category because his points dropped and the Sabres were bad
• All-star (strong 1st-liner, above average #1D, borderline top 5 goalie) 30 players, including Dahlin and Thompson. They break tiers into sub-levels, Dahlin is in the highest of the 3 along with Bedard, Hedman and Vasilievskiiy. Thompson the lowest, along with Stutzle and J.T. Miller.
• Star (average 1st-liner, below average #1 D, top 10 goalie) 36 players
• Support (below average 1st-line, good #2 D, above average starter) 52 players, including Power, Tuch and Cozens. Power is in the highest sub-level with Stamkos, Sergachev, Hampus Lindholm and John Carlson. Tuch is in the 2nd sub-level with Schiefele, Caufield, and Malkin. Cozens in the 3rd and lowest tier along with Patty Kane, Ovechkin, Byfield and Lafreniere 

Edited September 25 by dudacek

[bob_sauve28]

 

[pastajoe]

What happened to Amerks captain Michael Mersch? They just didn’t resign him? If so, who will be the new captain? Prow, Murray, Kulich?