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How many pull ups can he do?

But they do have Mikko Rantanen. And Heiskanen could still return this series/season.

He's big and safe and he's right-handed. He's not a top-10 pick -- there's nothing that pops.

The beer's good, Punch, but where's the C? Dodo even got you new readers at Rexall*. *Stoner didn't, but PA does his research.

As you well know, the substantive problem with the team relates to the talent level and player mix. The conditioning issue may be a factor but not a significant one. For me, I'll be watching to see how the composition of the team changes. The reality is that most everything else is trivial/BS because the obtuse owner has kept the upper staff intact. Stupid owner presides over a stupid organization. That shouldn't be a surprise because it has been going on for a generation.

I'm going to throw out another option at 9 that we've not talked about much, Justin Carbonneau. His game needs to mature but the guy has every tool in his box. He's a 6'1" 192lb winger, with excellent skating, a good shot, strong work ethic, and maybe the best hands in the draft. Hus biggest criticism is turning his game from high event to high possession meaning better play selection. That's not uncommon for Jr players with more skills and ideas than puck touches, although, he gets a lot of touches. Topped his team in pts by 8 and in goals by 18. They lost in the first round because the opposition decided to take Carbonneau away and he managed just 3g. He was really the engine for his team. Carbonneau needs work on getting his ideas in the right order but the fact he's got the underlying manipulation skills needed is good. He also has an excellent shot that makes those fakes with his amazing hands something defense reacts to. Carbonneau is a bit high risk high reward. The risk, he never quite adapts to a pro game and ends up more of a pp specialist you can run on your 3rd line. The reward, he's a 40g, 45a rw with edge who's defensively engaged with skills to spare. Carbonneau will likely remain in my top 10. There's games where he adapts and plays a more pro style and I think he's smart enough to know how to translate his game. Give him another year in Jr and 2yrs in the AHL, I think you'll have a hell of a winger.

I'm sure it is a minority view but I would rather keep Samuelsson and trade Byram. The hope with dealing Byram is that we can get a good player in return who has some grit to him. I thought that for the last dozen games or so Samuelsson game was solid. No doubt it was because he was paired with Dahlin. It didn't hurt Dahlin's game and it stabilized his play. Another factor, if Byram gets the contract he is likely to seek, it would be significantly more costly. As the link below indicates Samuelsson's contract runs to 29-30 at $4,285,714 per year. Bryram's expected market price would be more and longer. https://www.google.com/search?q=Buffalo+Sabres+Samuelsson's+contract&oq=Buffalo+Sabres+Samuelsson's+contract&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64.16470j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Yup. The blaming of conditioning for a 6-month season is garbage. If 2-3 folks aren't in fantastic shape after summer (i.e., recovering from surgery, unmotivated), you decrease their minutes early on and get them in gear in practice/gym during October. Or trade them if they're letting their teammates down. But the travesty is the Sabres powerplay still has all the same coaches. In Adams' first season the Sabres' PP was ranked 12th. Then 16th. Then 9th -- (but remember how it was great, and then cratered the 2nd half of that season?). Then 29th and 24th this past season. It's been awful for 2.5 years and no change to the approach and the only reason it improved this past season (from garbage to well below average) was Zucker was really, really effective.

I think this season if he keeps it under 27 and next season under 28, he could continue to use that narrative. For fans, that would be... unfortunate. For comparison, if Leftwinglock.com is correct at the moment, the teams under 27 are: Buffalo (1st, 25.6), SJ, PHI And under 28: BOS, MTL, ANH, CBJ, CHI, UTA, OTT. Of all these teams you have one semi-expected playoff team (Ottawa) and one surprise playoff team (MTL). Once they're into the 28.0-29.9 range they're in with the league of "teams trying to win" -- 19 of 32 rosters are in that range, and only 3 teams are over 30.0 (MIN, EDM, and PIT). The Samuelsson contract is easy to get rid of. Buy him out this summer and it is only a $714,286 cap hit each season (for 10 years). That's cheaper than Bryson.

And what 1 NHL scout said about Martin's physical game: "And for at least one NHL scout, it’ll be a separating skill in the NHL as well. "He's not just the best hitter in junior. He'd be one of the best in the NHL right now.""

And from the same article about Frondell "The powerful pivot was unable to create much in the way of offense. He failed to make plays, instead choosing to dump pucks in. His weapon of a shot was invisible." Now 1 tournament doesn't make or break a guy and Frondell was good in the Allsveskan playoffs, his team got promoted, but impo I don't see enough offensive creation from Frondell. There's not enough chaos creation.

Since ik Mrtka will come up a bunch and I wouldn't be surprised if the Sabres suck at drafting and pick him 9th overall. "Blessed with incredible size, reach, and stopping potential, Mrtka failed to dominate in any of the three zones. His lack of physicality was note-worthy. If a team is expecting a bruiser, they’ll be sorely disappointed." - Cam Robinson on Mrtka post u18s https://www.eliteprospects.com/news/2025-u18-world-championship/risers-and-fallers-from-the-2025-u18-world-championships

Because it’s just furthering their narrative that the only problem with the team was strength and conditioning, and that everything else is just fine. They don’t need a new coach or ass coaches or gm or players or owner. They got their guy and now they’ll just roll it back, but everything will be fine this time. 6th time’s the charm, eh?

dark!!!! It’s like an eclipse.

Dallas is fake. They’ve been shut out twice now in the playoffs

When average competency seems like Mt. Everest for your team . . .

Is there a joke that I’m missing

I know the Sabres have reached rock bottom when fans are clamoring for the NHL, easily the worst run pro sports league in North America, to step in and help Buffalo.

The Samuelson contract is difficult to get rid of. The inflated contract that we assumed is not the inflated contract that anyone else wants to take on. A bad contract can be not only a simple mistake but also a compounding mistake.

The league needs to step in at this point because Terry lacks the basic competency needed to run an NHL team. Until he sells the team or dies there is literally no hope.

Brad Marchand seems like an odd comparison and a stretch but a lot of Finns do seem to have more of an edge than Swedes (in general) and so it's good to hear he's grittier so time will tell.

What is the over/under for team age average that KA needs to keep the team under in order to keep convincing Pegula that we "are on the right path, these guys just need to develop"?

It seems he has his playoff mood on. The same way he had in Liiga playoff and Worlds last year. Once he finds his way to keep that "win next shift"-mood going over a whole season he will be a NHLer.

They got rid of Jack, Evander, Zach!