What will be the Sabres approach at the trade deadline?

[Thorner]

This day used to be quite the fun event 

[Two or less]

[OverPowerYou]

40 minutes ago, Thorner said:

This day used to be quite the fun event 

The Bernier and the Zubrus trades were the most fun yet I despised it when they traded Brian Campbell.

wow. I guess the Sabres have always been idiots 

Edited Friday at 03:53 AM by OverPowerYou

[Carmel Corn]

Just now, OverPowerYou said:

The Bernier and the Zubrus trades were the most fun. I hated when they trade brian Campbell.

wow. I guess the Sabres have always been idiots 

Zubrus was the last time the Sabres traded away their OWN future 1st round pick.

[Mr. Allen]

I don’t know why, but I’ll always remember being shocked and pleasantly surprised we got a 1st for Goustad.  

[SABRES 0311]

Considering KA has allegedly been trying all year to make a trade and failed I don’t think he gets anything done that makes the team better.

Any trade of significance will probably be in the other team’s favor. Unless it’s Cozens. Then it’s addition by subtraction.

[DarthEbriate]

2 minutes ago, OverPowerYou said:

The Bernier and the Zubrus trades were the most fun yet I despised it when they traded Brian Campbell.

wow. I guess the Sabres have always been idiots 

Trading Holzinger, Primeau, Sarich and a 4th (Kharitonov) into Gratton and a 2nd (Derek Roy), then spinning Gratton and a 4th (Liam Reddox) to become Briere and Sekera wasn't too bad a pair of moves. (The Gratton Exchange)

A 3-4C, a career 4th liner, and Sarich, who was an extremely solid 4-6D for most of his career for a 2C, 1C/W captain, and a 3-5D is a good turn of events.

[EM88]

I will be checking this forum or social media every hour I am awake tomorrow in the hope Cozens will be moved.

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 hour ago, Two or less said:

There is also a report that the Rangers are not in on JJP.  
 

Assuming that JJP is on the block, how stupid and cheap is this franchise? They are going to trade the away the only young player that has progressed as a player every season since being drafted.  How does that make any sense?  

Edited Friday at 04:18 AM by GASabresIUFAN

[GASabresIUFAN]

Even Harrington gets it.

Fix the Defense Adams.

[K-9]

10 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Even Harrington gets it.

Fix the Defense Adams.

And the goaltending.

[GASabresIUFAN]

8 minutes ago, K-9 said:

And the goaltending.

He hasn't done anything about that since Ullmark left town.  

I'd also add that a better D group will help the goaltending.  

Edited Friday at 01:58 PM by GASabresIUFAN

[Archie Lee]

11 minutes ago, K-9 said:

And the goaltending.

I've been posting on this in a different thread.  It is probably more suited for here.  

Lindy Ruff is objectively awful for goalies.  Lehtonen, Niemi, Blackwood, Vanecek, and now UPL, all saw their save %'s implode under Ruff.  The idea of Lindy Ruff bringing a sound defensive structure to an NHL team, was and is an absolute sham.  We will not become a good defensive hockey club with Ruff as our head coach.

[K-9]

7 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

He hasn't done anything about that since Ullmark left town.  

I'd also add that a better D group will help the goaltending.  

Of course a better D group will help, that’s obvious. But I get tired of people (not you) saying fix that and the goaltending will be better. That’s only true to a point. We could have six All Stars on the blue line but that won’t make our goaltenders better technicians between the pipes. I’ve seen too many goals against where it’s goalie vs shooter with clean looks and our goalies are out of position. And their lateral movement can’t be any worse at times. Just not enough stops at those critical moments so we need good goaltending, regardless. UPL seems to wear down from over use, which is gonna impact his mechanics, so I’d make him a backup who can give you 25 games or so while a quality starter takes that job. 

[MISabresFan]

Trade Östlund, Levi and Kulich.

[HumanSlinky39]

3 minutes ago, MISabresFan said:

Trade Östlund, Levi and Kulich.

Huh?

He's been one of the few bright spots on this team and looks like a top-6 Centerman in the very near future.

[Thorner]

I’ve seen calls to move him, and admittedly I haven’t seen a ton of him in action this season but I’d be hesitant to trade Cozens unless it’s a very solid return. We just don’t have very good centre depth - I don’t know that any centre addition Adams is liable to make has a better shot of being a 2C than the likelihood of Cozens finding his game.

Sure we can point to a McLeod but it’s a rather small step up. 

Cozens is the type of player I’d move AFTER addressing the need at centre: though yes admittedly Adams usually moves the player and worries about the backup plan later

Edited Friday at 02:56 PM by Thorner

[Thorner]

3 minutes ago, HumanSlinky39 said:

Huh?

He's been one of the few bright spots on this team and looks like a top-6 Centerman in the very near future.

Still see it being more likely he ends up at W. Middle 6 not a bad bet 

[HumanSlinky39]

5 minutes ago, Thorner said:

Still see it being more likely he ends up at W. Middle 6 not a bad bet 

Either way, I've liked what I've seen from him. He's a rookie, so there's obviously been stutter-steps, but you can see the bones of a very good Forward there. Trading him would be foolish.

[Thorner]

1 minute ago, HumanSlinky39 said:

Either way, I've liked what I've seen from him. He's a rookie, so there's obviously been stutter-steps, but you can see the bones of a very good Forward there. Trading him would be foolish.

Unless it’s in a good hockey trade I’m inclined to agree 

[EM88]

19 minutes ago, Thorner said:

I’ve seen calls to move him, and admittedly I haven’t seen a ton of him in action this season but I’d be hesitant to trade Cozens unless it’s a very solid return. We just don’t have very good centre depth - I don’t know that any centre addition Adams is liable to make has a better shot of being a 2C than the likelihood of Cozens finding his game.

Sure we can point to a McLeod but it’s a rather small step up. 

I started the season high on  Cozens getting back to his form of 2 years ago, but when reading some of the criticism of him, mostly by LGR4GM, MJD1001 and recently CarmelCorn, I started to watch for it myself.  Most of them have posted plenty of the fancy-stats but I do not usually give much credit to them unless it can be verified by actual on-ice visuals.

If you have not yet, you need to get out to a few games in person downtown and isolate on Cozens. Most of the problems with his game are apparent not on the camera but away from the puck.  It is not simply his lack of production that is an issue but most other aspects of his game.

He will leave top players on the other team uncovered in an attempt to retrieve a puck he has little chance of getting to before a defender. He will take shots from what seem to be good spots on the ice but he does not notice other Sabres wide open in much better areas. 

There was a single shift a few games ago where he lost a faceoff and eventually got back to the puck but almost tripped for no reason before he got to it. When he did get to it he rushed a pass across the ice that went into the D-mans skates, and then before the shift ended a simple pass from a teammate hit his stick right on the tape but he fumbled it into his skates for a turnover that led to an opposing scoring chance.  

When you watch him in person, shifts like that are not the exception, they are rather quite normal game after game. I honestly have never been so puzzled watching an NHL level player as I am with him when you see how he thinks and reacts in a game.

 

Edited Friday at 03:14 PM by EM88

[dudacek]

10 minutes ago, HumanSlinky39 said:

Huh?

He's been one of the few bright spots on this team and looks like a top-6 Centerman in the very near future.

Just for perspective:

• Jiri Kulich the season he turns 21: 47/12/7/19
• Dylan Cozens the season he turned 21: 79 13/25/38

[LGR4GM]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Even Harrington gets it.

Fix the Defense Adams.

Again, why does Wilford still have a job and why are all the same defenders continuously brought back?

[Thorner]

10 minutes ago, EM88 said:

I started the season high on  Cozens getting back to his form of 2 years ago, but when reading some of the criticism of him, mostly by LGR4GM, MJD1001 and recently CarmelCorn, I started to watch for it myself.  Most of them have posted plenty of the fancy-stats but I do not usually give much credit to them unless it can be verified by actual on-ice visuals.

If you have not yet, you need to get out to a few games in person downtown and isolate on Cozens. Most of the problems with his game are apparent not on the camera but away from the puck.  It is not simply his lack of production that is an issue but most other aspects of his game.

He will leave top players on the other team uncovered in an attempt to retrieve a puck he has little chance of getting to before a defender. He will take shots from what seem to be good spots on the ice but he does not notice other Sabres wide open in much better areas. 

There was a single shift a few games ago where he lost a faceoff and eventually got back to the puck but almost tripped for no reason before he got to it. When he did get to it he rushed a pass across the ice that went into the D-mans skates, and then before the shift ended a simple pass from a teammate hit his stick right on the tape but he fumbled it into his skates for a turnover that led to an opposing scoring chance.  

When you watch him in person, shifts like that are not the exception, they are rather quite normal game after game. I honestly have never been so puzzled watching an NHL level player as I am with him when you see how he thinks and reacts in a game.

 

I think the Sabres are in my neck of the woods later this month  

Was hoping there’d be a little something more on the line haha 

[mjd1001]

4 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Again, why does Wilford still have a job and why are all the same defenders continuously brought back?

Its puzzling....What does their coaching staff say when they watch film?  Sure, they know a lot more than us and they see more, but there are obvious plays where players are out of position and it happens over and over.

What does the analytics department do and do they have a say in anything.

There are players on this team that seem to make obvious mistakes that would be recognizable to both pro scouts/coaches and to even casual fans they are so bad, and many of those players show little to no sign of improvement over the season or even multiple seasons.  Then, the Analytics back up the things that can be seen with very strong numbers showing it.

So, It doesn't matter whether you are an old fashioned....'get out of here with your fancy stats' guy....or if you are deep into analytics....there are some players on this team that BOTH sides of things point out major issues...and those players are not getting any better. Why are many of them still here?