Taro T

Correct. Contracts only slide for 18 & 19 yo's. They aren't allowed to play in the AHL (except under extremely rare circumstances) so to keep teams from having a disincentive to sign 18 yo CHLers or an incentive to force them onto the NHL team a year or 2 early they came up with the compromise that the contract essentially gets delayed for any signed 18 or 19 yo that doesn't make the NHL roster. 20 yo's can play in the AHL so they can actually be earning the 2 way part of the money from the contract they signed so there is no reason for their contracts to slide. Apparently that there are a few guys that can play in the AHL while 18 or 19 wasn't seen as enough of a concern to make that section of the CBA regarding ELCs even more convoluted.

There is no chance in the world that Adams and Granato are going to put him in the pressbox. And yes, by the end of this season (by the end of next season at the latest) it certainly appears that R. Johnson will be a regular nightly contributor for the parent club.

Apologies. Thought you were referrring to Benson, not Mittelstadt.

He did in Washington. Just sayin'.

Don't believe they do, but will be there on Tuesday. If you would, send me a reminder PM on Monday (if you don't already have an answer) and I'll ask about them when I'm there the next day. You also could call the Sabres store directly and they'd tell you. You can order stuff over the phone and then pick it up or have it mailed out.

If the Sabres are playing good hockey and personally expect them to be doing so, yes, expect them to be selling out most nights down the stretch. Just like they did in the 90's and the 00's. They seem to have about 12k STHers. That's pretty comparable to where they've been through long stretches of their history. Since they've moved to the MMArena would expect typical would be 12-14k STHers. (And yes, after the lockout, they had ST's maxed out at whatever limit they'd set. (Can't recall if it was 16k or just below 15k.)

Which is why at the B&G Insights last spring, though really wanted to ask Adams about 10 other questions, the one that was actually asked was whether he'd say the playoffs were the goal this season. IMHO, and have stated this before, it was very important for the fans to finally hear him say yes. Though he's been consistent in saying since the playoffs have entered their vocabulary that they aren't actually the goal - consistently competing for the Stanley Cup is and will continue to be the goal. Even that day, the playoffs themselves were not the goal. Competing for the Stanley Cup is the goal. (And though WINNING the Stanley Cup is the ultimate goal there is too much luck involved for that to be THE goal they are measuring themselves against. The goal is to be legit contenders from here on out.) And personally really do like that they aren't baby stepping the goal to being happy with making the playoffs but then not doing anything should they get there. (And this year they should get there.)

And that hasn't been a thing since late 1979. That sellout streak that started in '72 ended while Carter was in the White House. And didn't come back until 2006 for a handful of years. You haven't been in the building in October when they've hosted the Whalers on a Tuesday night or the Thrashers on a Wednesday night. This season they're going to draw comparably to what they were doing in the 90's when the MMArena 1st opened.

The Bills really weren't. The 2 guards are significant upgrades from last year and as bad as Brown looked week 1 he looked as good against the Raider's edge rusher Crosby and against the WTFs.

With all due respect, no, you said being in Ra-cha-cha would be better than being on a lower pairing. A lower pairing implies he's the 5th or the 6th seeing as that is the low pairing that actually plays. Being the 7 means he's in the pressbox not on a pairing. Being the 6 in Buffalo would be better for his development than being the 1 in Ra-cha-cha. But he isn't going to be the 6 out of the gate. The 7 and 8 don't get limited minutes, they get ZERO minutes.

And then Skinner's skits could be renamed from between 2 Staals to between 2 Devons. 😉 And the 1st guest could be Adams. Skinner could have Kevyn between 2 Devins.

Except ticket sales AREN'T lower. They are up relative to last season and are probably close to triple what they were the 1st post-covid year. They are probably very comparable to or perhaps a bit better than they were the last Eichel year that more than a few hundred fans were allowed in the barn at any given time.

And during the criminal's hey day they had maybe 14k STHers but would guess it was closer to 12k. The Golisano years post lockout were the outliers due to those 2 nearly magical seasons. STH's were way down in '03. And they were still down in the '05 portion of '05-'06. The barn really started to get filled nightly after the Bills season was over and the team really started rolling. Once the waiting list was created, they artificially managed to keep ticket sales up even though the teams weren't as good as those 1st 2 post lockout teams. Would be interesting to see how the roster and how attendence would've progressed had Boychuk not taken out Vanek's knee in the playoffs the year they won the division. The corners for a Thrashers game mid-week in October were ALWAYS empty back in the criminals era. Could ball park guess attendance walking towards our section because if they were only expecting 12k or so, the beer vendor near our section wasn't set up.

2 years ago they had about 4000 STHers. Last year, would estimate it at ~8000. If there are 6k seats open for a non-optimal game that puts STH equivalents at about 12k. That seems like a pretty decent increase from last year IMHO.

And in regards to whether Levi is 21 or 22 this season, he's 21 in 2023 as far as the league is concerned. And he's 22 in 2024 as far as the league is concerned.

How a player's age is defined depends upon which portion of the CBA one is concerned with. A player's age at the signing of his 1st contract is determined by his age on September 15 of the calendar year he signs the contract. For eligibility for a contract to slide a year, an 18 yo and a 19 yo are determined by their age on September 15 of the year they sign a contract and only NHL games count towards that 10 game threshold to count as a season for the ELC. But for a "19 yo" that's really 20 (because of the late birthday) the contract won't slide. For purposes of FA, it depends upon which category of FA you are looking at whether an 18 or 19 yo with 10 games of pro experience accrues a year or if he needs to be on an active roster for 40 games to accrue a year. And even then it can vary as for Group 2 FA (restricted FA's) the player only earns the experience for playing in the NHL BUT when that 19 yo turns 20 (including those guys with late September and on birthdays), any professional games count towards the 10 game threshold to count as a season for the ELC restricted free agency.

Yes. All this.

Really wonder if Rousek isn't gripping the stick too tight knowing the opportunity that's been laid out before him. When you're lightly pencilled into a role, it's yours to lose but it's very losable. It's way easier to play YOUR game when you're trying to steal a job from somebody. Your good plays will get you the opportunity. When you're protecting the job, it's your mistakes that are going to cost you. Could see Rousek miss out on this chance, work hard in Ra-cha-cha and get another crack at it when injuries strike and then look like he did in his 2 games last year. Stillman is looking like the guy Adams and Granato thought they were getting last year. He's not going to be a top 4 fixture but he's good enough to be the 6 which makes him an excellent 7. The big Q IMHO is has Clague played well enough to earn the 8 over Bryson? IMHO he has, but due to the way they've liked Bryson in the past could see him getting the benefit of the doubt on that. Either way, when they need to use the 8th D-man am fully expecting R. Johnson to get the game action. Will be interesting to see if Metsa can climb past Clague and Bryson too. Comrie has been playing like I've expected. He's not giving up killer goals (though especially how ice level shots are his specialty would really like to have seen him stop that 2nd goal even though it was a really tough save with the open man on the back door that was seemingly the bigger threat) but he's giving up enough that they really are going to want to keep him at 30 games tops (should he win the competition to be the backup). Unfortunately, in his 1st preseason game, UPL played as expected too. And found it interesting that with limited vets playing in any given game that Cozens, Mersch (Amerks C), Thompson, and Mittelstadt have all gotten chances to wear an A this preseason. Gives a glimpse into what management thinks of their leadership traits.

Except he wouldn't be a lower pairing player in Buffalo out of the gate. He'd be the 7. They aren't going to sit E. Johnson for a rookie right out of the gate and Granato loves him some Jokiharju. Henri isn't sitting out of the gate either. It's way better for him to be the 1 in Ra-cha-cha than the 7 in Buffalo. When he's at the point that they'll make him the 6, he's better off in the NHL. He isn't going to get the Bryson 8 minutes a game when there are 5 real D-men to play instead of Jacob. He'll be getting at least 12 maybe 15 minutes per game as the 5/6. When the Sabres have 6 legit D through the lineup we'll likely see Dahlin dropping to 23 or so minutes on nights that they aren't in danger of blowing 2 points. Yeah, when the game's in doubt, he'll still get 24+ (and maybe 27-28) but it isn't going to be an everyday thing because that was an everyday thing with there being no faith in the 3rd pairing on many nights due to the injury bug they dealt with. Same logic for Power as well. When Granato needs those guys they'll be on the ice, but they shouldn't be needed to be relied on heavily every night anymore.

Not out of the gate. Granato loves him some Jokiharju. But after he's an injury callup, it could get interesting seeing who stays in the lineup and who gets bumped out.

Have you watched him at all?

Take it up with Appert. He's the one who said that's how they're going to use him.

Well, the silver lining in losing UPL to waivers is if he is claimed the claiming team needs to get him into 10 games (dressing as the backup counts) or keep him up for at least 30 days before sending him down or else the Sabres jump to the front of the line to reclaim him. (After any other teams that made a claim at that time.) So, if the Sabres really want him back, they'll likely be able to do so. And if they aren't able to reclaim him, he still may be helping the Sabres by losing games for a TB or other rival.

It makes a ton of sense. The Amerks are the development wing of the or-gan-i-za-tion. There is no room on the Sabres on any sort of consistent LT basis for Johnson to be running the PP. Let him spend his time becoming a stud PKer and focus on breaking up plays and moving the puck up ice at 5v5.

Dang, we're even using versions of the same analogies now. 😄