Taro T

Considering what the "official" shopping list is, not entirely convinced they'd spend to the cap minus Skinner's full cap hit. And if they aren't going to go to the cap minus his hit, then wait until next off-season to make the determination whether to cut him or not. Heck, it is not outside the realm of possibility that under Ruff he ends up in a situation where he is firmly in the bottom 6 and decides on his own that maybe getting traded elsewhere to play further from home for 2+ years isn't such a bad thing after all. And this comment has little to do with the subject at hand, but found it interesting leaving the MMArena last week and seeing on the outside of the building photos of Priolo (Captain of the Bandits), Tuch (Captain Candidate for the Sabres), Dahlin (Captain Candidate for the Sabres), Skinner (NOT a Captain Candidate for the Sabres), and then somebody else whose photo was blocked by a stanchion on the far side of the revolving doors they no longer use for entry into the building. No idea why Skinner's photo was up with those others, but as stated above, found it interesting that it was.

You can't add a player to your playoff roster at this point in the year. And they can't keep him in the minors over the summer hoping he doesn't have to clear waivers in October. It doesn't work that way. There is NOTHING (readily apparent) gained by waiving him today and keeping him in the organization.

What do you mean by perhaps? If they didn't waive him with intention to buy him out, where are they getting all this cap space from? They'll gain ~$950k in cap space by him being "in the minors." They gain $8.8MM in cap space above and beyond the actual $88MM cap by it simply being between July 1 and opening night. Truly not understanding your point.

That was niiice. But had hoped to see a bit more skewered spleen. There was almost no skewered spleen. And him overskating the puck on a penalty shot isn't exactly getting "destroyed." Would sue for false advertising, but did actually get full monetary value from it (exactly what was paid) so pretty sure there isn't a case to be made. 🍻

But, presumably he was waived so the Rags can buy him out, right? So, if the Sabres don't pounce on him by noon (2PM?) tomorrow, they'll have another crack at him at whatever contract they could come to an agreement with him on. (Of course, they'd now be competing with up to 30 other teams for his services at that point but still if he WANTS to be in Buffalo see no reason for them to guarantee an overpayment of him. And if they'd need to make a claim on him to land him, don't see Adams doing that.)

And that is a big part of why it is very plausible that should this Sabres team get to the playoffs, that they'll be able to "step out of character" so to speak and play tougher too. It's almost impossible to play physically AND at the very top of your game for 82 games for over 6 months; but when you might only have to do it for a week and a half (but hopefully for 2 more months) and the other team is getting just as beat up as you while you're playing that way, it becomes an accomplishable task.

Envy bread, yum. (Much tastier than sour grapes, but maybe not as good as having YOUR cake (especially when one gets to eat it too).) 😜

Wait one goll durned second. Filly is looking to trade Atkinson, trade him with retention, buy him out, OR keep him? Any other Phlyers Dreger can give us as quality insight into what Briere is considering for their futures as well? Short of talking him into early retirement (and MAYBE they're trying that tack as well, you never know), that is pretty much every option that is available to all teams for all players they have under contract.

This thread is pure gold. PLEASE keep it going.

Ah, yes, but 6 years ago (when the Sabres traded for Skinner in an analogous contract situation), Skinner was how old?

No show to an extent, but more just everything that could go wrong for the Swamp Cats did. Nurse initially gets a 5 minute penalty for kneeing Bennett which gets reduced to a 2 minute minor. Point man for the Cats hits the post on the PP and Reinhart pounces on the rebound and bounces it off the same post and though the crease. Later that same PP the F at the point makes a poor decision to win a race to a loose puck in the high slot creating a 2 on 1 with Montour the Cat dropping back. No biggie, right? Except when Montour goes flat to take away the pass to the far side F, his momentum takes him right back into Bobrovsky who winds up behind the goal line to the left of the net tangled up w/ Monty. Puck goes back in front and it's an easy goal for the Eulers. That initial goal was a microcosm of the entire game.

Wifey noticed it when it happened and got a pretty good kick out of it.

It is EXTREMELY unlikely that, should say Kane and Cirelli (or other vets of similar stature) get brought in that Kulich and Savoie will outperform them out of the gate. NOBODY is disputing that. Where the divergence of opinion comes in is that some of us believe that SHOULD it happen, it would be a very good thing; but others see that outcome as a "fail.'

🤷‍♂️

Yep. Pretty much the only TRULY gritty player on the team is Dahlin. Girgensons is close but doesn't bring the mean with it. (Which IMHO is a part of being gritty.) Clifton and Krebs bring the attitude and are (again IMHO) gritty players but are a little undersized and not dirty enough to make up for that being undersized to fully earn the label. And then there are guys that are still young and could very well be gritty with a bit more seasoning. Am pretty sure the point of these polls is for the OP to say the only truly gritty players are Dahlin, Quinn, & Benson (maybe Peterka too). But personally would only give him Dahlin out of that grouping and would say Peterka is at present the closest of those 3 forwards but not quite there yet. Tuch and Greenway can be gritty, but aren't consistently.

IF they demonstrably outperform others and earn spots on the roster, then they play as Sabres. Whether it is a fail of Adams or not, is entirely a reflection on what competition he brings in for them to outperform. If he brings in Kane and a true top 3C (say a Cirelli, Ek, or Danault) and a legit gritty 4th liner or 2 and those 2 make the roster, well then the Sabres should be really good (provided the GT doesn't take a step back) because they'll legitimately have 4 legit lines and the D should be improved under Ruff as well. If he brings in the equivalent of Jost and Robinson to be challenging for top 9 roles, well, yes, it'd be a fail. In either case, if they are 2 of the top 9 F's, they need to be on the roster. (Don't necessarily want them in 4th line roles at this point, so if they're say 11, and 12 would likely send them back down even though technically they're better than what else would be in Buffalo.)

So, they have a rink. No wonder Bettman let them move there. 😉

No. No "sea foam green" in there. Actually IMHO looks to be more derivative of Winnipeg's 3rds. Just with UT Alamo Heights initials in Caps rather than doing the UCLA cursive like Winnipeg used for "Jets."

Not exactly. Got the impression that Adams is going to continue to make adjustments to the roster and Ruff is going to significantly change how who is on the roster will be playing. While Ruff will have input into what Adams is trying to do (as does Karmanos, Ventura, Forton, etc.), it's Adams job to adjust who the personnel are and it's Lindy's job to adjust what those players are actually doing. Ruff actually specifically talked about the differences in how he'll be looking to improve the team game to game and it's Adams role to be looking for improvement on a more macro level (my term, not his, don't recall his exact words). Lindy also specifically said that he sees a Hughes, a Bratt, and a Hischier on this squad already. So, personally don't believe that Ruff sees the roster needing major overhaul. It will be interesting to see if they make a move to change the D makeup as Adams was really happy with the D after the deadline. If they do make a move there, would expect that Ruff was a major driver of the move. But overall, they seemed to be pretty much on the same page and they both were expecting a lot of improvement to come from being tougher to play against. Ruff specifically talked of actually having a system in their own D-zone, NOT trying to exclusively score on the rush (because they have way too much firepower), and trying to get tip ins / net front goals that they haven't gotten too often. He's also going to significantly revamp the PP and he'll keep the unit together without much (or any) variance in the personnel but that they'll be moving a lot and moving the puck a lot. Watch some of the Amerks PPs (particularly when Quinn and Peterka were there) to get an idea of what that'll be looking like. Seems that for the PP, it'll be Ruff's concepts with Appert's tactics as they'll both be working on it with Appert "taking the lead."

So, what were the answers to the other few remaining Q's? (As before, my comments are in parentheses.) Q about Capfriendly going away? KA - feels bad for the fans but the Sabres don't use it. (So, he doesn't really care.) Q about the Salary Cap going up? KA - Agents love it. 😉 On a more serious note, he said he liked it because it's a reflection of how healthy the league is because the cap is directly tied to revenues. Q about FA and how Adams approaches it. He answered it in a bit of a roundabout way. Discussed how there's a core of players that want ot be Sabres who were here from the start of the last rebuild: Tuch, Dahlin, Thompson, Cozens, (and a couple more that he said too fast to get written down, pretty sure Samuelsson was included in that) and also a 2nd wave of those guys (Lukkonnen, Levi, Byram, Quinn, Peterka (don't believe he said any others, but he might have mentioned Power and Benson (honestly don't believe he added them, but he might've). He said he would trade anything that makes sense and it makes sense if it makes the team better. He specifically mentioned that prospects and #11 is on the table and implied that for the right deal anyone (even a guy that wants to be in Buffalo (like Mittelstadt at this past deadline) could get traded; again provided Adams thinks it makes the team better). Who will Dahlin's partner be this coming season? LR - A lot of things will work and because of his ice time and how often he's used in pretty much all situations, he'll play with a couple of different guys. Power and Samuelsson were specifically mentioned as guys he'll be partnered with. And it was left open that he could end up paired with some of the others if they're particularly needing O or D. (It was pretty clear from the response that Dahlin will be carrying a heavy load this year, which is completely in line with expectations.) Long (and good) Q about the goalies heading into last year and heading into this year. KA - He thought both Levi and UPL were on their way heading into last season. UPL took a HUGE step. He's been having contract negotiations with him and the 1st Q to UPL and his agent was "do you want to be here and be a Buffalo Sabre." The answer was an overwhelming YES and he said he loves this place. The AGM that works the Cap for Adams is helping him find a contract that'll work for both sides. They're looking at all options at present (LT, ST, 1 year); they can do any length deal with him. They are also very happy with Levi. LR's take on the Q was that you look at RS and playoffs as different animals. In the RS it's important to have a good goalie able to go on the 2nd night of btb's (and that was (clearly) an issue for the Sabres this past season), so we'll be seeing a pretty decent split between the 2. (Got the impression that UPL would probably get about 2 out of 3 starts in the RS and whichever guy is considered the hot 1, and again expecting that UPL has the edge as of now, will get all the starts as long as he's playing well.) He is very happy with the 2 goalies they have and he believes they are both going to be good. Somebody in the audience mentioned that Lindy had said UPL was his #1 and he did not dispute it. (So, again, it looks like it's UPL's job to lose and it also looks like the Amerks are looking for a goalie again as Levi will be a Sabre.) That's about it for what they discussed. They actually went a few minutes past 8 o'clock which was unusual for these. They typically end promptly when scheduled to end. Apologies for anything that got mistranscribed / reported. Tried to stay true to the actual answers given.

Yeah, he could very well get the other A. Maybe even sneak the C away from one of the other "big 2."

University of Texas Alamo Heights? Didn't know they had a rink. 😉

Should've taken a photo of the bowl while there, as the seats that remain available for full seasons and 1/2 seasons had the gold and white placards on them respectively. Way fewer than expected. So, maybe that estimate of the STH base getting to 11-11.5k is realistic (or possibly even a bit low).

Umm, really, people "freak out" when somebody states somebody other than Tuch be named captain? You mean, kind of like this post above except predicated by somebody saying somebody other than Dahlin be named captain? 😉 Will likely let you get the last word in on this for now (won't promise that, but it's likely and will try to do so).

Considering none of us are in the locker room, that isn't surprising. Personally, haven't seen anything from Dahlin that indicates he communicates in the locker room more than Tuch. And considering none of us are in the locker room, THAT isn't surprising. 😉 Still am expecting the captain to be one of Tuch or Dahlin with Cozens likely getting the other A. But, honestly, when Ruff was done describing what he wants / expects in a captain, turned to the guy sitting next to me and said "that sounds like Girgensons." Because it literally did describe him to a T. Should he be back, am really hoping he doesn't get the C because it is time to turn the leadership over to the younger guys IMHO and also IMHO wanted to see THAT transition this past season. And, am biased towards Tuch getting the C (but have no issues whatsoever if it ends up Dahlin), but the comment about being the captain for the entire team seemed to point more towards Tuch than Dahlin (who has been described in the past as the captain of the D). The guy that took the entire team out to dinner when he 1st got to Buffalo was Tuch. The guy who put his love of all things Sabre out there on his sleeve was Tuch. The guy that noticed RJ at the bench after the RJ game and then brought him out onto the ice was Tuch. Apparently, Tuch also walks the walk about all the employees at the MMArena being a part of the effort (similarly to the way Adams talks about everyone being a part of it himself pretty much whenever he has the opportunity to do so). Pretty sure that you've taken my paraphrasing of what Ruff and Adams said and used it to confirm your opinion that Dahlin will be the next captain. Which is fine. 2 people can hear/read (essentially) the same thing and come to different conclusions from it. One of us will likely be right (would be rather surprised if anyone other than Tuch or Dahlin gets the C) and we'll know soon enough.