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I always go back to my signposts: Forwards generally break out — basically become who they are — in their 3rd or 4th season, after 200ish NHL games. Defenceman take a little longer Peterka (3rd year, after 161 games), McLeod (4th year, 217 games) and Krebs (4th year, 214 games) followed the model last year. Right now, the Sabres have the following players as candidates Byram 246 games, 5th year Power 242 games, 4th year Quinn 178 games 4th year Kesselring 156 games, 3rd year Benson 146 games, 3rd year I'm not expecting a fully formed Doan (62 games, 2nd year), or Kulich (63 games, 2nd year) to appear yet.

Despite the bluster I find deep down, Rivet is actually sincere, humble guy and I like listening to him. Peters on the other hand thinks he's the smartest guy in the room, which (as per your post) is very far from the truth. I'm still a regular listener, but if Rivet left, there's no chance I'm listening to Peters.

I was just told this past week by some people close to the Sabres that Adams runs the hockey operations and the "run it by Terry" stuff is pretty much always met with an "ok" and that this practice is not so unusual in todays NHL. The draft picks, the "no blockers", ignoring of the goaltending, the lack of big trades, the poor roster construction - its all Adams, even the cap situation is Adams saving cap space for his prospects/trades. That is what I am hearing right now. The insiders were making it clear that Adams record is on him and if he were better at his job the team would have improved by now. Terry is not stopping the notion of improvement, but he wants to be informed of what is happening, same as he is with the Bills. Adams keeps him in the loop and listens to him, therefore he can fulfill his contract and then we shall see what happens. Terry has McBeane with the Bills, and they are quite good at their job, and keep him informed too. Terry just cannot figure out the NHL. If he really said this to Shanny, and if he closed that door so quickly, it confirms that he is lost in the NHL world.

Another way of looking at is seeing how individual Sabres scored without the puck: Dahlin 90% Kesselring 81% Benson 73% Tuch 71% Timmins 59% Jokiharju 56% McLeod 54% Byram 48% Krebs 47% Samuelsson 46% Power 45% Thompson 44% Malenstyn 41% Danforth 40% Norris 39% Greenway 27% Kulich 26% Lafferty 19% Zucker 16% Quinn 16% Clifton 13% Cozens 8% Bryson 3% Peterka 2% For some reasons they don't have a Doan card, but reports say his play without the puck is a strength of his game. It seems pretty clear that roster has improved in this area, at least as measured by this metric. Also, the fact the Sabres had just 5 players among the top half of the league last year in this metric seems pretty reflective of their need to improve.

Thank you for that too dudacek!

https://thehockeywriters.com/sabres-players-put-nhl-notice-2025-26/#google_vignette Every season, there are always a few players around the league who have a breakout season and “put the league on notice”. Last season, we saw it with players like Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas of the Washington Capitals, who both put up career highs, helping the team to the Metropolitan Division title. And this is a second article to chew on: https://thehockeywriters.com/until-the-sabres-fix-their-culture-nothing-else-matters/

Okay then. So you wouldn't even answer my question? How can there be healthy discussion if you choose to only throw barbs but not respond to questions to help clarify your position? There are all kinds of real problems and the economic position of the country is one of them. This is like arguing about getting a speeding ticket by saying "Don't the cops have anything better to do?" The answer to that is "Yes, they do but because you are breaking the law by speeding you are distracting them from those other, more important, things?" In this case, the economy also needs to be improved, so this is not a bad thing. Reaching the record high, no. But calling out up 26% since the April dip is marketing through and through. I used to work for a company that would let employees go throughout the year and then hire a large number of people at once. They made sure to be published in the news for how they were hiring so many people but strangely it was never reported on that they let more people go in the prior year than they were hiring. It's all in spinning the message. What would you attribute it to? I'm not saying Trump should be given credit for all this. My stance is that the market is proven time and time again that will fall with the announcement of bad news and then, not too much after that, it will conveniently forget the bad news and climb back up. Sure, there are protracted moments where the impact lasts longer. it's really not all that different from the our society as a whole. Bad news, when announced, garners a strong reaction, and then people forget about it as they are distracted by other things and eventually they get back to their lives (or focus on the next bad news). I continue to be on the fence about concealing their identity. I don't think it's unreasonable for people who are responsible for effecting the capture of international gang members to remain anonymous. They, and their families, are put at risk should their identities be discovered. It's certainly one thing to argue WHO they target and certainly some of their actions have been downright deplorable and potentially illegal. I think that's the real problem is seeing armed, masked men, disappearing people off the street or in very public venues easily draws the comparison to other regimes that we all agree have violated human rights using similar actions. Even then, even if their targets are seemingly harmless illegal persons, having their picture appear on a raid could still warrant them and their families to a response from gangs or other reactionary individuals. Please enlighten me. Has Donald Trump been reasonably accused or convicted of this offense? Are you using this terminology because he has ties to someone who has been convicted of this offense? While it's certainly reasonable to believe that Trump is aware of what Epstein was engaged in there's a difference in knowing and not saying anything and engaging in the actions required to earn that title. This is walking a really fine line and without some evidence I think crosses it for how conversations in this forum should be conducted. Provide evidence or edit your post please.

From the article: It’s a weighted combination of their production (goals, assists, expected goals, blocks, penalty differential) and their play-driving (on-ice expected and actual goal stats), adjusted for difficulty (quality of competition and teammates). The cards also show each player’s market value based on total contributions. The cards showcase both offensive and defensive ratings. I just showed the defence.

Thanks for the explanation.

The easy way to read it is that the Sabres are at least 113% better. However, for that left-hand column I'm wondering if it's solely based on the 2024-25 Sabres or how much an impact being on last year's defensively-inept Sabres team had on those numbers. For example, if Norris had played between JJP and Quinn for 30 games (like Cozens did), would Norris' number be 12%?

I would agree with this but Lindy was apparently not a fan of Jokiharju. Probably because he no one on defense that was physical other than Dahlin and Clifton. There is the concept of Samuelsson which is wanning with each year. I see data showing that Kesselring and Timmins were not big hitters, they better bring something to improve the defense.

Mice, driving uninsured, probably not even wearing pants.

Alright, I'm not even going to pretend I understood this. How would this percolate to on ice improvement?

In the saga of my alternate vacation plans and car the cause of injury has been identified. F'ing rodentia. Apparently nested up in the undercarriage and had chewed through parts of the main wiring harness which ultimately let go about 2.5 hours into the trip. So now the question will be... will insurance pay for the $7k repair or will they cut me a check and write the vehicle off? We shall see! Damn mice.. but at least insurance covers it. Comprehensive insurance for the win!

It doesn't matter to me if it's true or not true. The only indisputable fact we have is that Admiral Pegula has yet to assemble a front office or team that can make the playoffs. He's managed to set a record of playoff misses in league that is effectively a coin flip probability to make it. He's chosen the wrong side of the coin each time for 14 consecutive flips. Of course it's not really how it works but does it really matter? All the semantics of who said or did what all roll up to that one very simple fact. He's failed as an owner of this team.

I love the sound of that.

Random factoid: Josh Doan played with Owen Power as teenager with the Chicago Steel.

KA may not be hesitant with his thoughts but he certainly is frozen when he tries to act. It shouldn't be a surprise that when the top of the organizational chart reeks with mediocrity, the results are less than mediocre. A vicious circle that the owner is willing to endure.

🤷 I read it as Kesselring is really good without the puck, Jokiharju was better defensively than people say, and the other guys we moved on from were really bad.

You are working too hard to be pessimistic. You are assuming the negative when the goalie issue is still an open issue. I, like you, have my doubts about UPL. Were there better alternatives in the market? Not sure about that. My hope is that the team's better defensive play contributes to the better play in net, whoever is there. Hang in there, you are working too hard to be dour. 🙂

So I read this as really good, right?

Hoping and praying that UPL doesn't suck again is not a plan for success. By signing Lyons, Adams is basically saying that no further upgrades in goal are coming that that he is employing the same failed strategy since Ullmark left town and that is hoping and praying one or both of UPL and Levi emerge as real NHL goalies. This team is done before the season even starts.

There may have been one or two people that would have been acceptable for the allocation of additional resources for the coaching staff. One was not interested. This has been a GMKA Talking Point since Power signed his ELC, no action though I would trade for Liligren from San Jose. One of the common trade proposals for Byram before the draft was Liligren and 30th overall. San Jose does have Edmonton’s First this year

I have no idea how to quantify that the way I tried with the goals for potential. In terms of in/out with the skaters this is what the athletic model has to say about their defensive impact: Peterka 2% -> Doan (not ranked) Cozens 8% -> Norris 39% Lafferty 19% -> Danforth 40% Jokiharju 56% -> Kesselring 81% Clifton 13% -> Timmins 59% Not even sure how the stat (I believe it is a percentile relative to the league) is calculated, so take that for what it is worth.