GASabresIUFAN

We'll never know for sure, but I doubt Lindy would have brought back Ellis or Wilford if he had a choice. Wilford's D group was among the worst in the NHL last season defensively and Ellis was worse. Hard to imagine Lindy saying he'd want either guy. During his last stint as the Sabres coach, he had guys like Mike Ramsey and James Patrick coaching his defense. He also has had NHL forward vets like Travis Green, Sergei Brylin, Don Lever and Curt Fraser on his staffs. I doubt he believes Ellis or Wilford are in that class. I don't think he minds having Appert around. Chris Taylor was on his staff in NJ.

I was looking through the list of NHL UFAs and guess what, Tyson Jost is the 6th highest paid UFA center. Monahan signed with Montreal last season for the same $2 mill we paid Jost. G-d Adams sucks. I did find a player with one year left on his deal who could be a good fit and that's Mikeal Granlund if SJS is willing to part with him. He is 32 and has one year left at $5 mill and had 60 pts last year.

Even if he is willing to make changes, it takes two to tango. He is going to have to find UFAs willing to be part of this circus or trade for players without trade protection or trade for players with trade protection who are willing to come. I looked at the UFA lists and for players on cap strapped teams without trade protection and I honestly don't see many acquisition candidates. I'm sure there are more than I think, but I remember the failed Gibson and Murray trades. I just don't believe Adams is capable of fixing the roster even if the want is there. I have more faith in Lindy Ruff being a GM than I do Adams. If Adams is willing to let Ruff have a say in who is brought in, then I'd be more optimistic. Given that Lindy wasn't given any say in his Asst Coaches, I feel pretty confident that Adams won't give him much input in the roster either. Sorry Lindy. The good news for Lindy is that he'll be retained as coach or GM when Adams gets fired for failing again next season.

Do you really think TB is going to trade him or if they do, would they trade him inside the division? Do you think that Adams wants to take on the next 7 years of his contract at 6+ a season after he didn’t re-sign Mitts to avoid taking on another long-term deal. Also add that Cirelli gets trade protection after next season and so far isn’t as good offensively (best season only 45 pts) as Mitts. By the way, I mentioned Cirelli earlier as one of the few decent centers without current trade protection who could help our current lineup. However the longterm deal he’s under may be a non-starter for Adams who has yet to commit to a contract outside of “his” players beyond 3 years in either trades or free agents.

That's perfectly reasonable. However, to believe, like some here, that KA will be spending like a drunken sailor on players this off-season is not really feasible. First, odds are he still has an internal cap below the actual cap, second he has to find guys who want to come here and third he has to maintain cap flexibility long-term.

You can’t keep everyone. That’s the painful truth of the NHL salary cap. It’s even harder when the team has a lower internal cap. If you keep Power, odds are that we won’t be able to afford to keep Bryam. These are the tough choices the GM has to make. My point is make the choice now and reallocate Power’s 8 million to improve other areas of the team. Are you giving up a prime asset. Yes, of course and that’s the point. Here Power will never blossom into a No 1 D. Dahlin deservedly has that job for the longterm. That means we are paying Power like a no. 1 D, but can’t utilize him that way. That’s a waste of limited cap space imho. I also like Bryam’s game a little better.

And this is why this team doesn't move forward. He'll develop, he'll develop I hear them cry. Really he will! When? When will he become a physical force? When will he become a 50 point player? 2 years into his $8 mill deal or is it 3 or 4 or 5? Dahlin is the No. 1 D. He gets the majority of the PP time. Power and Byram are therefore 2nd fiddles. Despite having all this expensive talent on D, we are still terrible at playing defense. Something has to give. You can't keep handing out big contracts and field a complete team (see Toronto and at least they are a playoff team). KA traded Mitts because the team's budget didn't allow for another big contract. What happens after next season when the team is slated to re-sign JJP, Quinn and Byram? Buying out Skinner helps but not as much as your think. Only Greenway's salary comes off the books and truthfully we need him. So the questions becomes priorities. Who to keep and who to trade or not re-sign. The sad part is that we are making these decisions already and we aren't even a playoff team because of our clueless GM. So if you aren't moving on from Power, are you allowing JJP to walk in a year, or Quinn or whom? We don't have enough centers, but are you trading Cozens who finally seems to be blossoming at Worlds? Pick your poison. To me Power is the logical point to start now that KA acquired Byram. Dahlin and Bryam anchor the top 2 D pairings and QB the PP units. After that we have plenty of candidates, both short-term and long-term for the majority of the remaing D roles in Clifton, Joki, Mule, Johnson, Novikov, Strbak, Komarov, except D first top 4 defenseman. Maybe the assets from a Power trade bring in that piece and more center help. Remember the reason Toronto failed is that they signed Tavares for big money and all their star forward but then didn't have enough cap space to fix their D or goaltending properly. Our goaltending is becoming a strength. Our D needs more D first players to become elite and our forwards need center help. If you want to keep Power, trade Byram again and don't re-sign Joki. That's fine with me as well, but having Byram, Power, and Dahlin is not a working plan either short-term or long-term as their skill set are redundant and they don't work as D partners.

I agree. I’d trade Power. This may seem extreme but what does he bring that Dahlin and Bryam don’t? He also isn’t worth 8 mill a season imho, but given his age and draft status, I think we can get some important pieces to improve this team short and long-term.

Not on medium or long term deals. One year deals, sure, but they have to have significant open cap space after next season to re-sign JJP, Quinn and Byram. Good luck finding players that only want a one year deal and who will improve the team. Also 3 mill for a player gets you Clifton type players. Is that really going to elevate this sorry roster?

I was crunching some numbers and it doesn't look good for the Sabres being able to truly spent much this off-season unless it's on one year deals. Assuming Ryan Johnson and Levi make the team and UPL takes a 4 million contract, the Sabres will only have 17 million to sign or acquire 5 forwards and 2 D or about 2.3 per player. Unfortunately, KA must keep in mind that JJP, Quinn and Byram need new deals following next season with only Greenway's 3 mill coming off the books after next season. The way KA has structured the team isn't sustainable. If he acquires players, they'll be on short-term deals in order to be off the books after the season to clear room to at least retain JJP and Quinn. The qualifying offers for the RFA are 925K for UPL, 2.6 mill for Jokiharju, 1.9 for Bryson and 832K for Krebs. Given the Sabres budget, Krebs is sadly returning as cheap depth with upside (in theory anyway). I don't think Bryson is worth 1.9. I'd rather trade Joki than keep him, but it may be cheaper for KA to retain Joki than find a useful RHD replacement. With Savoie (887K), Krebs (2 years 1 mill per season), and Joki (3 year @ 4 per season) another nearly 6 mill will be spent on rookies and returning players. This leaves us with 11 million for 4 players and us still needing a 2/3C. Here is a link to some FA contract estimates. They look pretty good. Their UPL and Joki projections seem spot on. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JPtGk5m_S9VuR5e7T8lb_BlilXRwJPF0V2ddQzjjpvc/edit?pli=1#gid=0

It's kind of a hard group to rank right now. I think the top 12 all have NHL futures. After the top 15, I doubt any of the others play a minute in the NHL. 1. Benson is still a prospect despite playing in the NHL last season (and again this coming season). He's 18 with only 71 games under his belt. He is still waivers exempt and can be sent back to the CHL 2. Levi - Likely UPL's 1B to start next season. Great in the AHL once sent down full time. 3. Savoie - AHL eligible next season after destroying the WHL. Could make a run at an NHL roster spot in the fall. 4. Johnson - still only 22 and earned a extended callup last season. I think he could force his way into the Sabres lineup fulltime next fall. 5. Kulich - didn't see much progress year over year in the A. Hopefully he'll take another step forward next season. 6. Rosen - Improved over the course of the season, but like Kulich struggled in the playoffs. Also needs to take another step forward next season 7. Östlund - Solid season in the SHL and a very good in the U20. Made Amerks debut. Could vault ahead of Rosen and Kulich next season 8. Novikov - Great AHL debut with 23 pts for the Big D. Might challenge for an NHL callup as early as next season. 9. Wahlberg- Solid AHL late season debut for the big center. Decent in the U20s 10. Komarov - Q D of the year for good reason. Now lets see if the O he showed in the Q carries over into the A for the big D. Skating still a concern 11. Neuchev - Came on late in the year for the Amerks. Hope to see further progress next season 12. Strbak - Another big D who had a nice freshman season in the NCAA for Mich St. 13. Lindgren - Another solid year in the WHL. Hopefully he'll be in Rochester in the fall 14. McCarthy - 38 games as a freshman for BU and was a +12. 15. Ratzlaff - played 52 games for Seattle in the WHL. Solid if unspectacular .905 save % 16. Kisakov - Improved in send season in Rochester, not sure what his future is however. 17. Poltapov - only 13 points in 56 KHL games. I don't expect him to come to NA. 18. Richard - Solid freshman year at UConn with 18 points in 36 games 19. Costantini - 21 year old blew up in 3rd NCAA season with 31 pts in 38 games for W Mich after on 3 pts for N Dakota the year before. 20. Sardarian - production improved in second collegiate season with 14 pts in 32 games. 21. Marjala - 40 pts in 60 Liiga games with another 9 in 9 playoffs games. No idea if he'll return to NA. 22. Kozak - 12 pts in 41 Amerks games 23. Miedema - 41 pts in 68 games in the OHL this year down from 52 in 68 last season. 24. Panocha - Solid first NA season for the German D with 15 pts in 52 games in the Q. 25. Leinonen - Former 2nd rd pick is looking like a bust. Continues to struggle in Finland. Moving to Sweden 2nd tier league next season.

If KA can make a deal that pushes Greenway to the 4th line, that’s a step in the right direction. I like Greenway and am glad he is here. I do think if we made a 4th line staring Greenway, a decent center and another smart effort player, we could have a very effective and disruptive “4th” line. When I look at the returning forwards I see 4 top 6 players (Quinn, TNT, Tuch and JJP), 3 players who could be in the top 6 but shouldn’t be yet (or anymore) in Skinner, Benson and Cozens and a 3/4 liner in Greenway. In Adam’s world the forwards probably look something like this JJP TNT Tuch Benson Cozens Quinn Skinner ???? Greenway ????? Krebs ????? What he should be looking at JJP TNT Tuch Benson ???? Quinn Skinner Cozens ???? ???? ???? Greenway We need a top6/9 center, a top 9 RW, a 4th LW and Center.

KA is not a proactive GM when it comes finding veteran talent for his roster. Every major deal has been reactive. He's told to sign Hall, he signs Hall. He is told to redo the rebuild and he trade Risto, Eichel and Reinhart. He fails to sign Ullmark and has no plan B, thus signs Dell and Anderson. The team is up against the internal cap because of the long-term extensions, so he can't re-sign Mitts and therefore trades him for whatever he can get even if that player doesn't really fit any need on the roster. I guess the only thing he is proactive about is signing players to long-term deals after one good year. Makes you wonder how he is going to be able to retain JJP and Quinn when they have another big year this coming season? Trading for Necas is arguably again reactive since he doesn't have any centers after TNT and Cozens. At least it would be a move to add depth and talent where it's needed and Necas is at least a legit player.

As I said in my post, I'm not against the move, but it would be contrary to KA stated objective. There is no question that we need to upgrade the center position. He's a reasonable replacement for Mitts with potentially better goal scoring upside. I also don't think KA has the b.... to make such a big trade. If the trade were made Krebs, 11 and a mid level prospect for Necas and 28 maybe?

Let me see if I understand your post. We should trade two 1sts (or equivalent) for a less physical and less defensively aware version of Mitts and give him the same money that re-signing Mitts would have cost? If that's the case, why trade Mitts? I thought the whole point of trading Mitts was for KA to avoid another long-term big forward contract. I'm not against this move per se, but if this was the plan, why not re-sign Mitts and use the 2 1sts on a top 4 D, who adds a skill set we don't already have?