All Activity

No team got "Panthered" in the playoffs, more than the Hurricanes. It's interesting to me that they have not made any significant attempt to address the grit-gap between then and Florida (Miller perhaps does this to a minor degree). To me, it speaks to the reality that there really are not that many players in the Tkachuk, Bennett, Marchand mold. It's easy to say that a team needs players like that, but how many of them are there? Somehow, 31 NHL GMs fell asleep and let Zito acquire 3 of them.

I'm down for getting Weegar in here .. I missed on Ehlers, again, but maybe the Sabres will trade Bo(hemian) for him. WEEGAR !! 😎

No argument from me that signed Bryson when they did was just dumb and unnecessary

I wholly agree with your first paragraph on Timmons, and partially on your JBD comments. On Timmons, there is nothing to be upset with management about him going to arbitration. The Sabres knew he was eligible and I'm certain they have a good idea what the potential ranges are for an award, if it gets that far. At worst he is awarded a bit more than what the Sabres would prefer, but nothing that messes with the salary structure. On JBD, I agree that it was obvious that it was never the case that JBD was the cost of the 2nd rd pick. Where I disagree a bit, is that I think it was fair for Sabre fans to look at that trade in its totality and to assume that the Sabres saw some added value with JBD. Post-trade, rightly or wrongly, pretty much the entire hockey world thought Ottawa was getting the better player or, at least, the player with the better upside. So, Sabre fans can be forgiven for not understanding why we were getting back an older player, who has a history of significant injuries, and who makes more money, and who has less long-term upside, AND we were adding the 2nd rd pick. That JBD was a youngish, former 1st rd R-shot D, seemed to offset the loss of the 2nd rounder at least a bit. That JBD then played fairly well and was praised by Adams at year-end, just makes the decision to not qualify him seem even more odd. Further, if the Sabres end up extending Byram and Timmons at a conservative $10 Million combined, that will leave them with a full roster and almost $4 million in cap space. An extra $500-600k on an AAV for JBD, was not going to be impactful.

Yes, and yes. He is exactly the type of player the Sabres need. Tough and can score. I think he could effectively play centre / wing with Tage and Tuch. He would not be a 1C on the Sabres.

Hey Chad.

I think its a good move, but there are a few red flags for me on Ehlers: -In the past 7 seasons, only once has he played over 80 games and only twice over 70 games. -He put up good numbers for Winnipeg on a very good team, but what is with him only getting average ice time in the 15 minute range? On Buffalo that is 3rd line ice time practically. He was never used short handed, and only had just above 13 minutes of even strength ice time per game. On one hand you can say he doesn't have much 'wear on the tires', so that is good long term. -Or- you can say you can't push him that hard because he might not be able to handle the workload. Yeah, I'd take him of course, but I don't think he anywhere close to someone that 'gets you over the top' for a team like Carolina, that some are saying on social media.

Good summary. Generous IMO but very comprehensive. Lyon was a good move given what was out there. We have to hope for a UPL recovery and that UPL/Lyon are a decent 1A/1B. Otherwise we bring up Levi. My view is Peterka was better than Quinn, we lost Peterka and kept Quinn. Another really good player that we developed is gone and it is hard to be happy about it or about the return. Right now, unless a top 6 F is obtained, Quinn may end up top 6. This does not improve the top 6 and it is the exact kind of gamble that Adams makes every off season. The goal of improving the top 6 will most likely not be met, Adams still has time but so far the top 6 looks worse and a key goal is not met. Peterka for Kesselring and Doan is key. Peterka will play on the top line in Utah and he will score goals. Kesselring has yet to show he is a shut down defenseman, which was another key goal of the off season. Our management loves puck movers. I like Kesselring but where he fits and if he is the guy to help Power is TBD. Doan is someone I am high on (and I must disclose that I really liked the way his father played so I have a bias). Owen Power is a big key to the season. It is time for him to grow up and play better defense. Either he does it on his own or he gets help from Kesselring or Timmins but it has to happen, especially if Byram gets traded. Timmins for Clifton plus a 2nd was hard to get excited about. I am not going to ooohh and aaahh at Adams for managing the potential offer sheet stuff, it is an expectation that a GM knows the rules and can do that simple arithmetic. We shall see what Timmins gets for a salary and if he is any better than what we have. Adding Danforth/Timmins/Doan plus deleting Lafferty should improve the fringes of the roster but this team finished with only 79 points so that alone is not enough and the top line players need to be better. It goes without saying that the Sabres will need good health and big years out of Tage, Dahlin, Tuch, Power, and Norris to compete. So are they better? Nothing they did moves the needle very much but if everything aligns then they are slightly better. How they react to Lindy and his staff will be a telling factor. Lindy's first season back was a disappointment and no coaching changes seems wrong to me.

All valid. And I did not suggest that JBD is worthy of the second round pick. Maybe closer to the Gilbert return than the second. But in between. My point is how Adams said he was #8. Bryson was also waived, and previously not qualified. Maybe he is a much better teammate than we imagine. But I’ve seen enough to know he’s probably the #7 LD in the system. A few more random thoughts. If JBD was waived, why is Adams worried about what an arbitration might yield? What is the max award he might receive? $1.5m? That’s the ceiling right? He signed for under $900k. And probably closer to $1.25m. My point is, with a lack of right handed D available, I would rather keep him over Bryson. I can be persuaded that he might not in the top 6, but for an additional $250k, I’d rather him, than Jacob.

Gone ... another one's gone .. another one bites the dust .. 😎

Kadri is the type of player the Sabres need. Tough and can score. He would look good with Tage.

Limited time with the 3 of them being together, but even strength last year: Tage-Kulich-Benson: 1 goal scored every 15.23 minutes (good numbers) (152 minutes ice time), 1 goal allowed every 19 minutes Tage-Kulich-No Benson: 1 goal scored every 11.1 minutes (unreal good numbers) (200 minutes ice time even strength), 1 goal allowed every 18.1 minutes. The "no Benson" guy most of the time appeared to be JJ Peterka in most cases. But it was Tuch a little, Zucker a little too. The deeper analytics were good for both combos. With Benson the deep-dive analytics seem to be "slightly" better, but that may not have translated well to goals as Benson's shooting percentage isn't all that great. Again, I'm less worried about "Should Kulich be a first line Center" and how that looks on paper, and more concerned with keeping Tage and Kulich together to see if they can replicate ANYTHING close to what they did last year. If that means Kulich gets 1st line center minutes because he is playing with Thompson but the team scores a goal once ever 15 minutes or less, and allows less goals than they score....I don't give a care that Kulich is my 'first line center' if I am getting those results. Again, maybe they won't replicate what they did last year, but I want to find out.

He can choose one-year term and repeat this process next year with significantly more leverage. Or 2-year and walk directly to UFA

Ahhh Ruff. Remember the stretch prior to the 13 game losing streak when Thompson was injured and McLeod played in the top 6 and the team went 4-1 including 3 wins in California. And then Thompson returned and Ruff put McLeod on the 4th line.

Good stuff. I wouldn’t expect Power to be playing 17 minutes a night. That set-up,is more of a base. On Lindy’s good New Jersey team, they kinda ran 5 guys at 20 minutes and the 6th guy at 12. i think the Sabres would be something like Dahlin 24, Byram Power 22, Kesselring 18, Samuelsson 16 Timmons 14.

He can opt for a one year term, and does he also get UFA status one year earlier as well?

Friedman this morning says the Byram noise is not really about him getting traded as much as it is about him getting paid. Said Peterka wanted out, that’s not necessarily the case with Byram and the market for Byram is kinda soft. Also said, as I alluded to upthread, the agent likes to take his clients to unrestricted free agency. Does nothing but reinforce my sense that he’s staying in Buffalo on a short-term deal. Really interested in seeing if the Sabres force that by taking him to arbitration because I don’t think Bo would mind that at all.

Not to be repetitive, but this is such a non-story it’s hilarious. I mean malynstein applied for arb last year too. It’s a very typical ploy for mid to low level rfa free agents to give them some negotiating power. Has nothing to do with the team and his agent would’ve done this no matter if he was traded or not most likely. The issue is people assigned some type of second round value to JBD. It’s pretty obvious in retrospect that this was just a false thinking because people did not like the idea of adding to cozens to get Norris. It should’ve been obvious to us when looking at his history that he was waived last year and no one claimed him. Do we really think Buffalo, despite how negative everyone is about their management, would pay a second round draft pick for a player that was on waivers a couple month earlier? If no one else claimed him when he was free, why would they pay a draft pick for him now? It’s not like he did anything remarkable like Fabbro

Eh I think they can afford to linger on this trade because the player is willing it to sign back even for a couple years in Buffalo. Peterka refused to sign here in any capacity it seems. The question is whether they could’ve gotten more at the trade deadline… But that sort of a dicey proposition. It’s funny that people are saying the Sabres had complete control that situation because they did have complete control of his rights, but they could not let him go into the season unsigned and tank the first part of the season.

Agree with all this. Player evaluation (and development) has been questionable at best with this regime of coaches and GM. How is JBD worse than Bryson? Plus he is a right handed shot. To your point, Johnson or Novikov could fill that role of #6. And if, if you somehow extricate the AAV for Mr.Glass, then you might have been able to plugged in an even better partner for Power. But we all know if Adams was to able to move his $4.4m cap number, it’s doubtful they spend it elsewhere. Something like Dahlin/Weegar Power/Kesselring JBD/ Novikov. That group would be ~$1m more than what the Sabres ice after Timmins raise and keeping Samuelsson. I would love to know if Adams actively tried to move JBD and received no offer. Like every GM said hard pass.

I recognize you are speculating. Power at $8.35 million in the sheltered Jason Woolley role, would be...something. If this is the sort of combinations and usage that Ruff is looking at, then I think they would be better to package Byram and a forward for a big upgrade upfront, and put Power with Dahlin, and play Zac Jones with Timmins. Jones is more analogous to Woolley than Power is, I think. Or sign Byram and trade Power in the package for the big forward upgrade. The Rangers tried hard to make Zac Jones and Schneider a thing. We might be sleeping on him a bit as an option for the 3rd pair. Of course, Woolley's value was that he was a better PP option than any of the top-4 at the time. That won't be the case for anyone like Jones in our current lineup. Byram and Norris for Pettersson and Forbort would be very risky, but I'm not sure if it would be more risky than Norris at $7.95 million + Byram at whatever a long-term extension would cost. EDIT: I keep forgetting that Pettersson now has a full NMC; so we can scratch him as being an option for the Sabres for the foreseeable future (to the relief of many!).

I can agree with this. UPL had one good stretch last season and then the turnovers and poor team defense became the norm. He overcompensated and lost his positioning and his confidence. Not sold on UPL but he and Lyon might be a decent 1A/1B combo. We need it if we have any chance of contending for a playoff spot.

I guess if we lament and cry wolf everything KA breathes it really loses its proper meaning when he really does behave insanely. That said I would have preferred if we were trading for a player and giving up an extra 2 for them that we would have had an agreement in place. Bottom line i wait and see how this plays out. Maybe KA feels like arbitration will be a better financial deal... who knows... I reserve my KA is a clown show comment for IF he goes thru arbitration AND we dont sign him... then gloves off... until then let's see

To be fair, I have to assume that the Sabres had every intention of trading Byram before or at the draft. Would have made sense to do it at that time for planning purposes for the draft and free agency. I think the process with Byram has gone a bit sideways for them.

Stumbled on an interesting fact while looking up my above post. Remembering the much-vaunted Malenstyn-Lafferty-Aube-Kubel 4th line that got so much hype last summer and busted? Apparently it never actually went bust. In the 7 games it played together it had a 68.4% expected goals. Apparently that wasn’t working for Lindy.