Taro T

Not surprising, but good to see. Expect he'll get some time with the big club this year. Wonder what the AHL salary will be? Hoping he got a healthy bump while he continues to earn an opportunity to get a good chunk of that $775k.

Certainly does appear that way. But even if 1 of the 2 gray beards weren't brought back, they were going to go with close to what they had up front next year anyway.

He knew he wanted to be a Sabre. And really hope that they find a role for him long enough that he can retire as a Sabre. VERY few cradle to grave Sabres over the past 53 years. Perreault and Ramsay are 2 but there aren't many others when guys that only had a cup of coffee in the NHL like Morris Titanic aren't included on the list. Can't believe Hajt wasn't included on the original list. D'oh!

Interesting. Was sure it was Larkin he was trying to nab. Wonder what Adams would've gotten for Eichel with Tuch already in the fold. 😉

2 issues with that IMHO. 1 - they aren't going to be pulling a kid up from Ra-cha-cha to play while Okposo is getting a "veteran rest night" in the press box and that is likely an opportunity lost for growth / development. 2 - he's a proud and well respected professional athlete; there is no guarantee that he'll get that pressbox time (especially if he continues to wear the C) and that COULD leave points on the board that they'll want back at the end of the year.

Disagree about HIM not being good on the PK. Look where the goals come from against on the PK. It's rare for the goal to come because Z missed an assignment. The PK had/has lots of issues; don't believe that Girgensons is one of them.

We'll see if it's an overpay. Personally expect he could've gotten more on the open market (both in $'s and term).

That sounds like Victor Olofsson and 13 OA will get you 6 OA if you want it. 😉

You have to have SOME guys that are solid in their own end and are good on the PK. See it as both - a hockey move and a culture move. Personally believe the purely culture move was the one that happened about a month ago when the Captain was re-signed. Hoping he doesn't run out of gas in mid-November but the KO signing could look a lot like bringing Pominville back for 1 last season did - awesome in October, spent before (US) Thanksgiving.

Which "youth" are you referring to? There is a LOT of youth already in the top 23 at ALL positions. Those kids aren't eating sandwiches watching the older guys make things happen. If it's the kids in Ra-cha-cha and the CHL, well, perhaps that's it. Or perhaps, they're perfectly fine with keeping those guys on ELCs for 3 years beyond this one if they don't flat out beat out somebody already pencilled into a roster spot and they also are pleased with their F's overall and believe that with an upgrade in net and on the blue line they're good enough to challenge for the SC. Personally, was hoping to see a PK stud 4C brought in this off-season to upgrade 1 of the 4th line W's (sliding Jost or Krebs or a new rookie into the opened W slot with one of their departures), but it looks like that ship has now officially sailed.

Really like Z and he deserves to be a part of the 1st Sabres team to make the playoffs in over a dozen years. Not overly thrilled that both he and the captain are back; but it is what it is. And could definitely see them making shipping Olofsson out the door the only "move" of this off-season. (No Schlitz, Sherlock.) Expecting they re-sign Jost. And if they do and they keep 8 D up on the big roster, then all the handwringing over whether Rousek, Kulich, or Savoie makes the team out of the gate was for naught as there won't be room for any of the 3 on the season opening roster.

If he were about 3 years older he could qualify for a bonus-laden contract, but he isn't so he doesn't so hard pass.

Expect we'll see a lot of "interesting" combos this September as Granato sees if he can come up with some new permutations that are greater than the whole of STT, QCP, MKG, 4th line. Will be really interesting to see if any of them stick. They could stack lines or they could set up with at least the top 3 lines (and possibly all 4) having a forechecker, playmaker, and finisher on it. With several guys like Tuch and Cozens being able to double into more than just one of those roles. Am in no rush for it to be October, it'll be here soon enough, but am very interested in seeing what gets put together come October.

If Dahlin comes in at $10MM/ and Power comes in at $8+/, the Sabres will have about $23MM locked up into their top 3 D. The Sabres have about $23MM locked up in 2/3 of their top line and their #2C. Not seeing where the D is out of kilter with the F's. But would agree it's something to watch for, especially with the likelihood of bringing in a legit top 4 D-man to round out that unit.

One thing Taylor seems very good at (among other items) is he seems to run a quality PP. The Sabres DESPERATELY need a coach that can do that. (And, no, don't expect to see him coming back.)

Too soon IMHO. Not a given yet that he'll be an NHLer but he still could grow into one.

IF the bridge isn't burned, and from what we know of Ullmark and Adams can believe it isn't, then absolutely would be interested in seeing Linus back in Buffalo. The B's would be looking for a cheap backup for Swayman, from Buffalo's perspective don't expect it would be a dealbreaker to include either of Levi's backups as part of the package. (Though would prefer trading away Comrie to them than UPL; Boston's defensive style would give UPL about as good a chance of succeeding as anybody's. And he's young enough, he just might succeed. Would hate to become the '20's version of the '90's/'00's version of TO when it comes to Bruins goalie trades.)

And, would add, if Greenway and Mitts are regular linemates, expect there's a greater chance that Mitts ends up on the PK than if they don't. Expecting Greenway to be one of the usual 4 PK F's.

Very hard to say, because he came off the PK right about the same time that Comrie got injured and the goaltending went kerplewy. That also occurred (slightly) before Mitts line started gettting 3rd line usage vs the 2nd line usage they'd started the year with. So, expect they took him off the PK to let him focus on improving his 5v5 play. Would they bring him back to that role? Who knows. Before answering that, would need to have the coaches answer the question of was Mitts good on the PK because the goaltending was reasonably good and the D hadn't been decimated or was it because he was actually good on the PK. Thought he was pretty good there, but as others have stated, it was a very small sample and again he was a part of the PK when the goaltending and D hadn't gone through the injury wringer.

So, you have a $6MM backup for a year. Big whoop. The cap will be at least $6MM higher than it is now then. And this is where getting guys like Thompson and Cozens on ~$7MM deals pays off. Do not see Adams making a move on Swayman because there will be other options available and doubt he wants to start an offer sheet war with anybody. But it won't be because they'd need to give Swayman a 3 year deal at $6+. Levi isn't THAT much of a hot house orchid that he can't have competition on the roster. Actually expect that he'd thrive in that situation. He talks about how he loves the pressure. Personally, based upon his work to date, believe him.

If they did make an offer to Swayman, pretty sure that if they gave him a 3 year deal it would walk him to UFA status (didn't look closely at his history, may be off by a year). That would be worst case for the B's and should they not match would let Levi share the crease for the next couple of years and if Levi dominates then Swayman is his backup that 3rd year (maybe even the 2nd and 3rd years) and then he walks and the Sabres either find a new backup for Levi or somebody in the system is ready to step in as the backup at that time. (Yes, the cupboard is pretty much barren today, but that can change w/in 3 years.)

No. But they have been slowly moving the start of the league year back towards July 1 (where it traditionally was before the lockdown) and this past season still started a bit later than normal. Had the SCF run the full 7 games, the last game would've been played on June 19 so the league had a conundrum should they keep to the traditional weekend draft. They could either swap the 2 teams in the finals out of playoff mode and into draft mode in less than 1 week or they could have the 2nd day of the draft coincide with the free agency signing period opening. Neither is a particularly good choice and players become UFA's and RFA's on the 1st day of the new league year so were they to move the FA signing period out a week that wouldn't really work either. So, they took a page out of the NFL's book and had the 1st 2 days of the draft (and the NHL only has 2 draft days thankfully) during the week. Expecting the draft will be at its normal time next year.

He's already been replaced. 13 or 14 on the depth chart at the end of the year. Only 1 guy ahead of him in the top 12 MIGHT not be back (Girgensons). There are at least 3 kids knocking on the door to try to take Girgensons' spot if it is in fact open plus they might grab a 4C that can work a PK and knows what his side of the blue line looks like. And, expect you're right that fans underestimate his value and he'll bring back something good either as part of a package or in a 1 for 1 deal. (More likely the former.) A fair amount of fans don't expect him to return anything particularly valuable. Personally, expect that's incorrect. But, though he has value, he doesn't have much here as he cannot get onto the top PP unit nor into the top 6 F's and he isn't enough of a line driver to make his being on the 3rd line a mismatch for opposing teams though if he has a line driver he could create mismatches for the other team. Not his fault he's a goal scoring specialist on the 3rd highest scoring team in the league and a team that still got outscored (barely) by its opponents. There are a LOT of teams that could use his skill set and put a good value on him. The Sabres happen to be a team with different holes to fill and he could be a big part of filling them (either today or in the future as a prospect/high pick).

Mainly because Kulich is only 19 and would be better served getting top line minutes in the AHL rather than being an 8 minute per game 4th liner or healthy scratch. Don't see there being an opening on W in the top 9 available for either guy and expect Rousek will transition to 4th line better than Kulich will. Rousek looked good in his very brief callup last year and is ready IMHO for the NHL. Expect Kulich will be a mid-season callup when an injury hits in the top 9. Which of the 2 stays in the lineup when all are healthy again, no idea. But it is good to see the Sabres finally having enough depth again that guys that can actually play in the NHL will be on the farm team. Been a long time since we saw that.

Lance's offer sounds reasonable IF Pesce has told Waddell that he absolutely won't sign next off-season AND he told him he'd only accept a trade to TO or Buffalo. Barring that, yeah, the offer seems a bit light.