Taro T

Looking like that ECHL team is going to be stacked on D. Because barring other moves there's already 10 guys pencilled in down in Ra-cha-cha (am putting Bryson and Clague in with the Amerks group). So, am expecting at least 2 of those guys to be dominating the ECHL. Plus if they bring any of those other AHL vets back, that's just that many more that need to slide down to play "AA ball."

Yeah, prior to his follow up post you referenced, had thought he was confusing Erik Johsnon with Ryan Johnson. Apparently not. And, yeah, could see Ryan getting a couple of games at some point if the Sabres D are getting hit by injuries. But can't see him higher than 8 on the depth chart (and since Stillman has to clear waivers and he doesn't he'd still effectively be 9) and right now would have him 10 (behind Clague, can't put him at 11 behind Bryson too, just can't get there).

Well, expect a lot of people are taking your expectation that Jokiharju ends up as a trade piece to heart. If this group they have today is what they have come October, expect Jokiharju ends up the 5 just because Granato loves him some Jokiharju with Lyubushkin and Johnson in some sort of a rotation at 6. But personally, would keep Lyubushkin in the lineup and let Henri and Erik battle it out for 6 because IMHO they'll have more need for a stay at home guy on that 3rd pairing than a 2 way D-man that isn't as solid in his own end.

Would expect it to typically be Clifton-Samuelsson/Johnson and then Johnson/Samuelsson-Lyubushkin. But in crunch time would expect Dahlin takes a turn out there too. Would be a way to lower both Dahlin's and Power's loads. Hopefully they're going to need them to both be good to go 100 or so games.

Make it a 3 year offer. Walks him to UFA status. If Boston matches, in addition to putting them tight against the cap, they have to worry about him leaving as a UFA a year after Ullmark was eligible to be a UFA. Should the B's not match, the Sabres goaltending is set for at least 3 years. UPL absolutely becomes tradable and they can look to take whatever they can get on Comrie as well if they think he'll get waiver claimed. (That last sentence is true even without bringing Swayman in, but it's a lot easier to make those sorts of moves when you know you aren't looking at Tokarski being the backup on a fulltime basis should they not have a real 2nd NHL goalie locked onto the roster.)

Absolutely.

When Wegman's started selling subs, they literally were making and selling DiBella's in Wegman's under the Wegman's brand. DiBella's pulled out of Wegman's years ago but Wegman's still pretty much makes the DiBella's subs. No idea whether they kept the recipe or changed it up slightly when DiBella's stopped running the Wegman's sub shops but they're still essentially DiBella's. You can't really go wrong with either. Amiel's makes a very good sub too. Would put the subs in Ra-cha-cha (or Buffalo too, they've got some great sub shops as well) with the best anywhere.

Right now, there are a lot of possibilities. But we know Dahlin and Samuelsson play very well together. Clifton should complement Power's game very well. So, personally am expecting those 2 pairings barring another D-man being brought in. Which leaves 2 of Jokiharju/Lyubushkin/Johnson working the 3rd pairing. With Stillman getting a great view of a lot of games from the pressbox. But won't be shocked if they run your lines, but will be mildly surprised.

They absolutely aren't carrying 9 D on the roster, barring injuries of course. It's possible after the trade deadline but wouldn't expect it then either. They only get 4 callups until the Amerks season is done and with the D and young F's they're going to have they should have another long run in the spring so those 4 callups need to last a long time.

Don't know that it would "significantly" reduce Dahlin's minutes, but it would reduce them some and would likely reduce Power's as well. Not positive that's necessarily a bad thing as making sure both of those guys have gas in the tank remaining when the playoffs hit is a good thing. They also would be able to drop to essentially 4 (or 5 depending upon the situation) D rotating out in crunch time and Dahlin and Power would be 2 of those guys getting the crunchtime minutes. IF they did land Hanifin (or Pesce or a guy of that quality), providing they didn't lose any of last year's top 3 nor Clifton to get him would leave the Sabres with arguably the best D-corps in the league. You would have 60 minutes of quality D play every night the top 6 are healthy and you'd still have a very solid D should one be out with injury.

IF they land Hanifin, personally see him anchoring the 3rd pairing (or 2nd if Power anchors the 3rd). They'd have the ability to ice 3 extremely balanced pairs that way with a playmaker and a stay at home guy on each: Samuelsson - Dahlin Power - Clifton Hanifin - Lyubushkin/Johnson Spares: Stillman - Johnson/Lyubushkin Presumes Jokiharju is part of the package for either Hanifin or something else Adams tries to bring in. And that D could be mixed and matched depending upon situation or opponent and also doesn't go to crud with an injury or 2 (even at the top of the food chain).

The Sabres aren't a team near the cap. And MOST teams will carry 23 on the roster with only 2 Gs. So, you either run 8D or you run 14F's. When they had 14F's early in the year how long did Sheahan, then Asplund, then Hinostroza spend in the press box? You aren't going to keep a kid in the press box which would almost necessarily happen should the Sabres try to keep 14Fs. With the current D-corps, Stillman is the 8. He's probably getting waiver claimed. Kulich is likely the 14, he's waiver exempt. Which one do you expect goes down?

Have been pointing out the bolded for a few years now. It makes practice way easier to run as you not only have a D-pair resting up at either end of a drill you also are only rotating 1 F through the lines in drills rather than 2. And also believe the Tokaraski signing showed that they were only keeping 2 goalies in Buffalo. Whether they trade whoever will be 3 on the depth chart after Adams is done adding talent to today's roster or try to waive that guy and fail; they have a guy at 4 (presently, 3 in that scenario) that they trust for a game or 2 should he absolutely be needed to step in and either finish a game or actually get a start to give the healthy guy of the top 2 a rest. Unless they are really light on F's, don't see them running 7D in a game.

Wow. Expected him back if only 1 D was added. Didn't expect him to come back with 2 guys added though did believe it was possible. Guess nobody else was going to give him nearly a half mil to play in the AHL. For those saying Pegula is cheap and he won't let Adams retain salary on Olofsson, he is now spending $150k shy of $1MM for the guy who may possibly be his BACKUP AHL goalie (should at least 1 of UPL or Comrie still be in the organization in October and #3 on the depth chart) and the D-man that is currently somewhere between 9 and 11 on the overall depth chart. He absolutely will let Adams retain salary if it improves the deal there. And this is further proof that the Sabres will most likely be running 8D on the 23 man roster on opening night.

Very possible. If he's fully recovered, believe at this point in their careers he's a better goalie.

Will preface this with not wanting ANYTHING to do with Gibson. But a reason why the backups look reasonable and the starter looks like trash, especially on one of the 3 worst teams in the league, is that the starter gets the bulk of the games against good teams which are significantly better than the skaters in front of him so he looks even worse than he should but the backups get to play against teams that are aren't significantly better than the skaters in front of them or maybe even that 1 or 2 teams that the Ducks are actually better than. Who you play against can go a long way towards making you look like a hero or a bum. Only saw 2 Ducks games this year, so this spitballing could be WAY off. But should it turn out Gibson gets moved and actually stops being a sieve, it would go a long way towards explaining it. Even if he still is bad (as expected) but not terrible ...

Really expect that should Olofsson get traded that the Sabres will be retaining salary. Unless Adams still has a couple of very big moves left to come, retaining salary on a guy with only 1 year left won't affect the team's ability to stay under the cap at all. Retaining salary will make Olofsson's flaws much more palatable and can see a lot of teams interested in getting a 28 goal scorer for less than $2.5MM. Teams like Carolina are way closer to the cap than the Sabres are. Any deal will likely be structured in a way that the Sabres take on the bulk of the salary, not the other way around.

What you're missing (your phrase, not mine) is that only the next 3 are going to count towards that total spent on D and that one of them will be Ryan Johnson who will be on a cheap contract. Those 3 additional contracts will likely come in at $6MM total (or less). Additionally, though Skinner makes $9MM, their 2 best C's will combine for just over $14MM. The goaltending will either be cheap (Levi will earn less than $2MM even with hitting on his bonuses) or extremely cheap (should they be running UPL as his backup 1 season from now). Further, the cap will make a fairly significant jump next year with another jump to follow that subsequent year. They also are set for the next 2-3 years with the ability to bring 1-2 highly skilled rookies into the lineup on ELCs. IF goaltending holds, this team is in a very sweet spot contract wise. They'll be close to the cap (in a year, they're still clear of it this year) but they shouldn't have to be jumping through the same sort of hoops that Vegas and Tampa have been jumping through.

Nah, it'd still be under $40MM next season presuming Jokiharju is sent out in the deal for Hannifan and Dahlin bumps to $10 and Power bumps to ~$7MM. And THIS year it'd still be under $30MM. It is very doable IF Adams is willing to move enough assets to get Calgary to pull that trigger.

It's possible. But until it happens, much like a trade to improve the #2/1B option in net, won't assume that it will.

And MANY years back, the Sabres were told they wouldn't be allowed to use Tim Connolly in the playoffs if he didn't play any games at the end of the regular season. Am fairly certain, though not positive, that the league has been letting teams get away with not meeting that formality on the 1st day of the league season the last couple of years. If you take a look at Cap Friendly's cap tracker, it shows Vegas's full projected cap hit on the 1st day of the past league year October 11, 2022 as $96,557,127 which is significantly above the salary cap. Tampa did the same thing the year before with Kucherov.

Everybody else is saying Benson has a 200' game. And you decide the comparable is Danny Briere? Interesting.

Yeah, we have to figure that Clifford is pencilled in as Power's partner. The good thing about that is on paper his style of play and his strengths complement Power's. They also, especially if they just need to do it for a few games if Clifton or Samuelsson is out, have Jokiharju, (a presumably healthy) Lyubushkin, or Johnson to slide up into the top 4 if necessary. Which looks a heck of a lot better than sliding Bryson, Clague, or Pilut into the top 4 in a pinch. Liking this signing more and more upon further review. And should they still make a move for a Hannifan or Pesce or the like, well what is now a deep D becomes really deep and good. (Not expecting to see a move like that at this time.)

Biron, Noronen, Thibeault, Enroth, & Lalime were the main ones.

Qualifying offers expire at 5PM on July 15 (unless the team decides to extend it beyond the deadline). It is not automatic. The player has essentially 2 weeks to sign the QO and receive that as his compensation for the next season. If he doesn't sign it, he remains an RFA with the team still having right to match any other offers the player might receive. He will most likely still end up back with his original team but not necessarily at the salary provided for in the QO. Also, a QO is only for a single year. The player and team are still free to try to negotiate a multiyear deal. But if he does sign the QO, he is done with negotiations with anybody (he can't even sign another contract with his own current team until January 1 ).