Taro T

Not only that, but they'd still have money available should Levi earn a similar contract. Especially considering Skinner's contract will be just about done by the time Levi (or another G) get paid. And, people say you build out from the middle: G, D, & C. With the 7 big contracts (and that 7th doesn't come into play yet) that would be 1 G, 2 D, 3 C's (that all can play W if necessary), and 1 W. Isn't THAT the way people say you're supposed to build a team?

None in this one. 😉

You're kind of right. Levi is way beyond just decent. 😉 No idea what you mean by getting ruined by "throwing him right into the NHL."

He was wearing it yesterday too.

Yup. And am really looking forward to this game. Hoping UPL brings his A game; if he does, expecting they do win it in regulation. Yes.

No Krebs, Olofsson? Huh? Trying to help PP2?

So now it isn't even his development we're concerned about, but how much his parents get to enjoy watching him play? 😄 Pretty sure they didn't EXPECT to only give him less than 4 minutes of game time, but that's how it went. If he wanted more ice time, maybe he shouldn't have kept trying to make passes through Wild defenders? Pretty sure Granato would've let him get more time had he earned any additional shifts. He did make a better upgrade on D than Clifton. Some guy named Erik Johnson, perhaps you saw him play? There's also some guy named Ryan Johnson playing who looks pretty good in limited action. Were they not "upgrades?" So far, Adams goaltending moves (or lack thereof) appear that they might just work out. Would've preferred they go a different course there, but really don't see how that nor the D moves affect whether Mr. & Mrs. Savoie's 1st trip to Buffalo was as dreamy as they'd hoped it would be.

7 D, you say? And not one of them named Jacob? That works. 😉

It means it almost definitely will slide. Should his WHL team get upset early in the playoffs and circumstances dictate he gets an NHL callup rather than an AHL callup he could still play 9 games at the end of this year for the Sabres. But that would seem to be unlikely at this point. However, it does mean he definitely won't accrue an NHL season this year. And for long term cap management, IMHO, that is more important than the ELC sliding a year.

Yeah, because those 4 minutes he played against Minny were the only 4 moments of evaluation they had of him. They never saw him in practice nor anywhere else. 🤪 And they surely never spoke to him about what last night was going to go like nor that he wasn't long for the NHL in this particular stint. 🫨 Again, they aren't in DEVELOPMENT mode now. They are in WIN mode. And after sending Minny on their 2nd odd man rush, Granato decided to nail his butt to the bench. Am fine with the decision, though, again, did expect he'd get 1 more look before getting sent back. A big part of the reason that he didn't get a longer look but Benson did is that Benson controlled and drove play his 1st 3 NHL games and he'd done so in all the preseason games he got as well. He pretty much FORCED the Sabres to look at him longer. You can say the reason Savoie didn't do so is because of injuries or whatever; but at the end of the day, he DIDN'T force them to look at him longer. And in the season the goal is to not just end a 12 year drought but actually do something once it ends, when they need to drop the roster back to 23 men, they can't keep a kid that is far less likely to help in that effort than another player like Rousek is. (Jost is going to help them win more games at this point in time than Matt will as well.) It's a shame he can't play in the AHL this year until WA is knocked out of the running for the Memorial Cup; but it is what it is and it isn't going to ruin him to go back to the W. They still have the same development guys that they did before this season and they'll be working with him even though he is in the W.

Fun city. HATE driving there. (Nowhere near familiar enough with it to have a good feel for when there's going to be a need to slide over 3 lanes in the next quarter mile.)

Am primarily using the Sabres own players as comparables and also looking at where the cap is going now that they're in the last year of the players repaying the lockout money they were fronted. Mittelstadt isn't going to be a 0.52PPG player this year. If the contract hawks are lucky he'll only be a 0.75PPG player. It's below where he's been for going on close to a season now.

Expect it came down to Samuelsson being ready to come off IR and somebody had to leave the roster to make room for him. They weren't ready to send Johnson back down & for whatever reason they still don't want to send Bryson down. With Rousek getting raves from his head coach, don't see him going down. Actually expect him dressing again tonight and also Tuch rejoining the lineup giving them their 12 tonight. Though several here would be perfectly fine with Olofsson going down, doesn't seem to be Adams style and don't see it happening until there aren't any other moves he can make that doesn't expose a player to waivers. As said elsewhere, thought he'd get 1 more game, but the #'s seem to have worked against him. If Samuelsson is off IR (or any of the other 3 are instead, they still are at 23 minus Savoie) then they have 2-8-13 healthy players and no room for Savoie.

That's ok. The sky will have fallen after the next loss.

The GOAL this year is playoffs, NOT development. Wtf would they give him a few more games if they've seen all they need to see already about where he is at as a player? Personally, expected he'd get 1 more game against a lesser opponent, but thought there was a strong possibility he'd get sent back after that game. They obviously decided they've seen enough and didn't need to overwork the rest of the forwards by giving him 4 more minutes in another game.

4 years does do that for him. But, can't see him, who one has to assume presumes that he's part of this team's core, settling for a 4 year deal at below market when everybody else on the team that's part of the core that showed up after he did gets 7 or so year deals at / SLIGHTLY below market.

Can't see any way he takes that deal. He's going to get Cozens/Thompson money.

Would be extremely surprised if Granato goes against what he said a week ago was the plan. UPL gets tonight's game. Unless he gets a SO, Levi gets the Bruins game.

Slow news day.

Would have to go back and review it, but thought the Rags PP goal was a backdoor play as well. But that was game 1, they've improved a lot since that game (which still only gave up 1 PP goal on 4 chances). Agree on Power. The funny thing is, he IS having a sophomore slump as he gets asked to do more than he was last year. But he's still far and away their 2nd best D-man. Not wishing any of this season away, but really looking forward to seeing what he'll end up doing next year when all this is starting to become old hat for him and also when he will likely FINALLY be nearly as strong as a person with a body that large should be. He can very much be a Lidstrom-style player. There also is a reasonable chance that R Johnson will be getting top 4 usage next year (at least at 5v5) which means Power can have either him or Samuelsson as his partner. Don't underestimate how much having a guy that SHOULD be top 4 as a partner will make him better. (Will also likely make the 3rd pairing better regardless of which 2 guys end up there.) Granato has definitely changed his coaching style to a degree. In tight games, the 3rd period is pretty much always 3 lines (and can drop to 2 at the very end). He also mixes lines much earlier in games when things aren't working. That used to always wait until the 3rd period (except when he wanted to get a guy some extra ice right before a TV timeout was due) but now that will happen earlier if things aren't working. He does occassionally match lines (last night being an example, after having the Thompson line play against the Foligno line to start the game, the Okposo line got matched up against that really heavy line when he could). He NEVER did that when development was the focus. Can't wait for tonight's game and Tuesday's as well. Expect they'll play a lot better tonight than they did last night. Hopefully they do and the better team gets the W too.

You bring up an interesting point about his attachment to his teammates and his coach. The reason he was the best HS hockey player in Minnesota was he wanted to stay with his friends on the HS Team rather than move to Major Junior or a Shattuck St Mary's. MAYBE that helps keep his cost down to the Cozens' level?

It seemed to be shift related because nearly positive Skinner started on that PP but came off at the 1st faceoff during the PP.

He was great in the playoffs when he was an Amerk. He took his game up a level in that run.

Well, that's the Q. HAS Johnson moved ahead of anybody in the top 6. He's playing on the 1st pair right now, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he is in the top 6. (McNabb early in is career was Doughty's primary partner on the Kings' top pairing but was only 5th in ice time.) It SEEMS he's ahead of Jokiharju on the pecking order but not sure whether that's wishful thinking or reality. IF they're willing to / going to go to a rotation with the D similar to the rotation they went to w/ the F's last year, keep him up. If they aren't ready to cycle through benching a vet every 3rd - 5th game, send him back and bring him up as soon as the next injury happens. Expecting Girardi and E. Johnson will have a lot of input on the decision.

Very possible. But regardless of how things play out this year, expect he's pencilled into Okposo's slot on next year's roster. They may decide they want to go outside to get a more veteran presence there if his play slides, but right now he has the inside track to that job. (And things can definitely change. Just barely over a year ago, it looked like that job was going to be Asplund's now. THAT didn't happen.)