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Good teams bring in players like this all the time and never have a problem making the cap work. Trade Samuelsson or Power.

I think he is a development coach.

Not at all I'm saying Kesserling playing his off-side doesn't give enough of a boost to that of a savvy vet playing on his strong side. Plus the majority of coaches are going to skew ice time to vets.

The 26 1st would have to be Top 3 protected for me to trade it regardless of target; especially seeing as we can't conditionally use his signing to protect our *****. Benson is completely untouchable Lastly, if he wants more than 11.5mil we can't do it because we lack the cap flexibility to keep him at this number. Effectively we'd have to let Tuch go which defeats the purpose of getting Robertson to upgrade the Top 6.

And he’s somewhere in the organization right now, if I remember correctly.

Hadn't considered Quinn on a 4th line. But with 2 other guys that are both fast and defensively responsible, it MIGHT work. And, it has the added bonus of not ####### up one of the other 3 lines.

when he's asked to play defense, he often looks like the worst player on the ice.

Didn't say "cheap," said "palatable." Believe that Adams does actually understand they need 1 more top 6 F. Pretty sure he'd mentioned something to that effect a few weeks ago. Rust will cost more than we want; but he'll be a #### of lot cheaper than Robertson will be. (And Robertson should still be the dream with Roslovic the consolation prize. Rust is the poor man's nice thing.)

This is absolutely true. It's also true that most teams aren't running a Sam Bennett in the 2C slot. These were some of McLeod's peers points-wise: Marco Rossi, Morgan Geekie, Brock Nelson, Sean Monahan, Adam Fantili Mason Mctavish, Chandler Stevenson, Evgeni Malkin, Dylkan Cozens, Pius Suter, Barrett Hayton. Most of these guys also had to get the minutes and get points. He doesn't seem to be grossly outclassed.

This is the most blue sky thinking ever, but the concept of Quinn and the concept of Doan flanking a levelled-up version of the Krebs we saw this year would such a great mix of skillsets against most bottom 6 lines.

I don't pay much mind to where McLeod finished in points for a forward last year. Being top 50 doesn't mean you're top 50. On this sabres lineup with the issues at C...someone had to get minutes. Thus, someone had to get points. I like him. But I like him more getting 15 minutes a night....tops

Agree, except with the Rust might come cheap part. There are so few top 6 options available and so many teams with cap sapce, the price is going to be high.

They REALLY need 1 more F to make this work as they absolutely will deal with injuries and there are just so many guys that might not live up to the roles they get assigned to paly. Not a huge fan of Rust at this point, but bringing him in gives Ruff so much more flexibility than he currently has especially when the plan has to get revised in real time. And he should be available at a price Adams can find palatable.

I believe everything written on the internets 🤭

Kind of. Apparently after playing in Europe for a few years, he came back stateside and worked out a deal to sign an AHL deal with the Amerks. He played the next year for Binghamton.

I wouldn’t be shocked to see Lindy use a base like he did 20 years ago: Thompson is his Briere, Tuch his Drury. Each anchors a complete, 2-way line he is comfortable icing against an opponents best line, something he didn’t have when he kept running out Cozens, Peterka and Quinn in his top 6 for the first half of last year. Theoretically, a Tuch/McLeod duo is going to be winning a lot of their matchups. Add Greenway as the Grier if you want to lean defence, Zucker as the Kotalik for offence. Benson seems ideal as the Hecht to Tage’s Briere. @mjd1001 says Kulich works as their centre. I’d feel more comfortable with Norris as more high-end option, but if he’s right about Jiri all the better. Then you can shelter Quinn on a unit as your Vanek, with Doan as his forechecker and defensive conscience. Krebs and Danforth can anchor a pesky energy line with whoever isn’t with Tuch, or be reliable plug-ins where needed. Malenstyn’s the spare.

The last thing this team needs is another timeline, especially one that KA is trying to manage. Of the available options (that we know about), Robbie is the best answer. KA has exactly what Dallas wants, but it's the futures that he holds so dearly. If the end result were to be another rebuild, I fear that the Buffalo Sabres would no longer exist. The swirl would become the flush and the franchise would end up somewhere else.

By ice time, absolutely. By role, depends on how they're being defined. is your 2C your 2nd most used and 2nd most important C? If so, no 2 ways about it, with a healthy Norris, McLeod has to be the 2C. Are you defining it as the 2nd offensive C, with the 3C being the checking C? If so, like Kulich there. Definitely like him being pencilled in there better than being pencilled in as the 1C. (Don't care how good his analytics looked next to Thompson; when the top teams were driving the net, he couldn't stop / slow them down. It isn't fair to him to force him into that role again this year unless he's REALLY ready for a true breakout year.) Don't like Kulich pencilled in as the checking C either. 2C or if we're surprised and Adams has a top 6C up his sleeve (yeah, right) even at 2LW is where hopefullly he'll be slotted in to start the year.

But none of that really matters as long as the players are effective in the roles they are placed in. That so many of these players will now be in their 2nd year with Ruff theoretically will help both him to slot them where they belong and for them to understand what is expected of them. Have no faith in this coaching staff beyond Ruff, and his willingness to roll it all back a 2nd time reduces the faith in him too. Realizing goal scoring wasn't this team's issue last year (though it was on the PP and it was an issue 2 years ago) but would really feel a lot better about this lineup if they could even land a Rust to give them 3 true top 6W's with anywhere from 1-3 additional guys that COULD be legit (or at worst reasonable) top 6W's should all stay healthy. Whether McLeod is called the 2C or the 3C, he does lock down the lock down C role. Primary goal scorer is locked down. One top 6 PF is locked down. Would say at least 1, if not 2, of the 4th liners are locked down. How well the other EIGHT slots get covered really will make or break this year (almost as importantly as has the 1G been locked down) and IMHO moreso than how well the D has been revamped because you're still going to have Dahlin on the ice 24 minutes / night which will cover a lot of issues that might remain back there.

I feel better about McLeod at 2c than Kulich

And we should feel fine with McLeod written in as the defensive 2-way C centering the "checking" line. But expect that line will be a legit 2 way line if the coaches are even remotely creative.

And IF Norris can stay healthy AND Kulich doesn't have any of the sophomore slump, the Sabres could actually have a good C spine. But they REALLY need to stay healthy AND they can't regress (even a smidge) and that includes Krebs there. One more item Adams MIGHT have in OK condition, but soooooo many things have to break his way for us to be able to say it is.

None of that was known at the time I would have told him to go pound sand. And after he tried playing me like that, I’d have been just as inclined to tell him, anyway.

I think fans generally lock themselves into a hierarchy-style lineup where you need to have a certain level of talent to qualify on a certain slot on the depth chart and play with other players of similar stature. Which is ridiculous of course. Coaches employ lines to play roles and those lines change game to game and shift to shift based on a multitude of factors. The last time the Sabres were good, the “3rd line centre” was 5th among forwards in ice time and the “1st line RW” was 7th. The “3RW” led the team in scoring. The previous good team the “3rd line centre” led the team in ice time.

Certainly it’s something I’m guilty of. But even allowing for the presence of that bias, how comfortable should we be slotting in McLeod as a 2C given his track record? Which is essentially one season. (For those wondering, McLeod’s production last season slides him inside the NHL top 50 for points production among centres. Coupled with his superior defensive results, that makes him unequivocally a legitimate 2C last year)