inkman

NHL gonna NHL

The Sabres need to stop hemorrhaging the loss of players who play big. I’m sure @LGR4GM will point out how large the Sabres are, which is correct but Wahlberg is a guy who uses his size and uses it effectively. Every one of these guys has been purged from the Sabres pipeline for the last decade or so. They need more Wahlbergs, not less.

Byram, Kulich & a couple picks.

I guess since all I’ve seen from him are the lacrosse style goals, I wasn’t aware he was a pass first player. I may be on board with this depending on the price.

Zegras is a nice player but I feel like he’s just more of what they already have in droves.

Not everything has to be a thing

Hear me out here. Maybe just getting Jeff off the roster was the benefit. Declining production, allergic to defense, not real good at anything other than finishing plays that someone else does all the work for.

I was referring to the players on the current roster. Lafferty, NAK, Malenstyn and McCleod aren’t better than Tage, JJP, Tuch, Quinn, Cozens, Benson, Greenway or Krebs. Ok maybe Krebs.

None of the players brought it are any “better” than who they had. They are bottom 6 role players.

Typically, I don’t read. It makes participating in this forum a wee bit of a challenge but I can be ignorant with or without reading. 😎

Quite frankly. It smacks of poor roster construction. None of their top 6 (or top 9 minus McCleod) are fast. Average skaters at best. They keep drafting average speed guys in the first round (Savoie probably considered fast who is obviously gone). I don’t want to over value speed and draft 10 Brian Holizingers but it would be nice if the Sabres started drafting players with speed. A couple of the Russian kids in Rochester are fast but they are later round picks with a slim chance at the NHL.

What does this mean ? Also, are you familiar with any of the players they acquired? All these dudes skate hit and fight (Ok McCleod not so much).

Well, they might have but a whole slew of people decided to ***** it all up with the slug, turdburger and goathead.

I think it comes down to not having too many of the same type of player. Can any one individual, regardless of size, perform well in the NHL? Absolutely. Do you want 14 5’8” 175 lbs forwards on your team? Probably not.

Maybe he’s wholly ineffective. I just like players that play a certain way. It doesn’t mean they are better. It’s just players that I can be proud of. I admire guys that hit and drop the gloves. If the Sabres were making the playoffs and competing for the cup, these thoughts would probably be buried in the back of my brain. Instead we are saddled with whatever the current lot of players do.

By your definition, they are all super jammy. Great. Not one of them intimidates anyone.

Lots of tenacious players, outside of Wahlberg I don’t think I’d fear for my safety going into the corner with anyone else on the list. This doesn’t mean those players wouldn’t win battles because of their skill and tenacity, I want the guy that might break my neck slamming my face into the boards rather than the crafty guys that pick my pocket. Effective players, good players. Just not my personal preference. I want players that impose their physical presence into other players.

If you are going to categorize players who play with tenacity as “gritty” players, then we’ll never agree. I love Quinn and Benson. They aren’t Matthew Tkachuk. I want guys on the team that physically intimidate. You don’t care about that. Fine. I do.

So Compher and Lemieux kinda fall into that category of size (average to above average) and attitude. Just like their defensive mates with size and attitude (Borgen & McNabb), the Sabres never value these players and send them packing leaving giant holes on their roster. Imagine if we still had the aforementioned players to go along with the skill on the current roster. It really makes little sense that a grinder like Kevyn Adams would be hell bent on only acquiring skill guys, with no thought of grit in his top 9 players.

Yes I was implying that with my last sentence but thanks for spelling it out for the simple folk.

If the Sabres would just draft or acquire forwards (this off-season they did, albeit, bottom 6 role players) with both size and attitude, none of this would even be a conversation. Instead, the Sabres have spent high draft pick after high draft pick on finesse players. Almost all were good draft value and look like they will be good NHL players. But it’s created a roster of almost all finesse, no jam. When was the last time the Sabres drafted a forward in the first couple rounds with these traits? Zack Kassian? And look how he turned out.

The concept of Jack Quinn Dont get me wrong. I love the player. When I saw him in Rochester, he was the first player since Max Afinogenov, that was clearly going to be a good NHL player. I just need dude to stay healthy.

I’ll be sure to let everyone know the next time I can use fun and Sabres in the same sentence.