nfreeman

Portillo mis-played the puck behind the net on the goal against in the 1st, and gave up too many rebounds in the 1st, but played pretty well in the 2nd.

I've never been to Sweden -- going to a late-season SHL game in one of those smaller Northern cities between 2 good teams is on my bucket list.

OK, so it's Michigan, with Power and Portillo, vs U. of Denver at 5:00 pm on ESPN2, and Minnesota, with Ryan Johnson (junior defenseman) and Aaron Huglen (freshman forward), vs Minnesota State at 8:30 pm on ESPNU. The main event from the Sabres' perspective is the first game, featuring Power and Portillo. Power has 3-29-32 in 32 games this year. I was somewhat surprised to see that he was not named as one of the 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker award. He was first-team all Big 10. Portillo was 31-9 this year, with a 2.13 GAA, .926 SV% and 3 shutouts. He's a 21-year-old sophomore from Gothenberg, Sweden (which sounds like an evil place based the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books) who turns 22 in September and is 6'6", 225 lbs. He was named MOP of the Big 10 tournament and of UM's region in the NCAA tournament. He was also Big 10 all-academic and 2nd team all-Big 10. The Sabres drafted him in the 3rd round in 2019. As for the 2nd game, Johnson has gradually assembled a pretty solid resume after being taken at the end of the 1st round in 2019 with the pick the Sabres received from STL in the ROR trade debacle. He's 6'1", 190 lbs, turns 21 in June and is finishing his junior year at Minny. He's 8th on the team in scoring as a defenseman, with 3-16-19 in 38 games. He was second on the team in blocked shots (44) and seventh in shots on goal (68). In the NCAA round of 16 last week, he played over 30 min in Minny's OT win, and then over 26 min in Minny's win 2 days later in the regional final. He played for the US World Junior team in January 2021. His dad, Craig, played 10 years in the NHL. Huglen is 6'0", 170 lbs and is 10th on his team in scoring as a freshman with 7-9-16. 2 of his goals were on the PP, so presumably he's got some skill. At 21, he's old for a freshman -- he was drafted in the 4th round in 2019, after playing 2018-19 in the USHL. He then missed all of the 2019-20 season with an injury he suffered lifting weights, played in the USHL in 2020-21 and put up 15-20-35 in 39 games and was co-MVP of his team, and has now played 1 season in the NCAA. (Couple of asides: Minnesota's top goalie is Jack LaFontaine, who is not related to Pat, and Minny's captain, Ben Meyers, is one of the 3 finalists for the Hobey Baker.) Here's a pretty nifty goal by Huglen: FWIW, Michigan and Minnesota played 5 times this year, with the 2 teams splitting the first 4 games and Michigan winning the 5th. These guys look pretty promising!

Hang in there friend.

Varlamov turns 34 in a couple of weeks, but I agree that he is the type of guy, and in the current type of situation, that KA should be targeting (and should've targeted last summer, but that's another discussion). He's a proven NHL goalie with only 1 year left on his contract, and he probably wouldn't cost much to acquire.

They've got Lehner and Alec Martinez back now, so that will help them, although it was Lehner who gave up 5 goals last night. Vegas has 10 games left: AZ @ Vancouver @ Calgary @ Oilers NJ Capitals SJ @ Dallas @ Chicago @ STL As noted upthread, Dallas and Nashville are both ahead of Vegas currently and have 4 games in hand, so they are probably safe. Vegas has played the same # of games as the Kings, but the Kings are 4 points ahead. Vancouver is 6 pts behind Vegas, with 1 game in hand and a home game against Vegas. It seems like Vegas, to get in, will need some combination of a 4-6 record or worse by the Kings and a 6-4 record or better by Vegas, or a major collapse by Nashville or Dallas.

Doughty was a superstar IMHO and Quick was pretty close.

I checked youtube for this and didn't find it -- I'd love to see it if anyone has a link.

I would expect BB to go BPA at CB, WR or OT in rounds 1 and 2 this year.

I’ll be interested to see the salary cap deets. He still has 2 years left on his existing contract, and this is an extension, so I assume there are substantial cap penalties if he doesn’t stay here for at least 4 more seasons — which is a not insignificant risk. Having said that, I think this is good news. I love Diggs.

Instead of going to your bread and butter move of jeering other posters, why don’t you contribute positively to the conversation and provide your thoughts on VO? Specifically, do you think they should keep him? What kind of realistic contract would you be OK with? How much is too much? If you don’t want to keep him, what do you think they could get for him in trade? I’d be OK with that contract for VO. I wonder how high they’ll need to go to keep him. His production has fluctuated the last few years and he probably has Sabres stink on him. It’s hard to see another team giving him, say, $5.5MM x 5 years — but it only takes one.

They need to keep him. He’s a good player who adds a lot of value when healthy. And notwithstanding their nice stretch of recent play they are not overflowing with scorers. He turns 27 this summer and has one more season until UFA. I don’t want them to crazy with his contract, but I would be fine with $4.5MM x 4 years.

Pretty good stat that ESPN had in the postgame: Total Sabres wins in December, January and February: 8 Total Sabres wins since March 1: 10

That is a great article. Highly recommended. Here's a snippet I found interesting:

The spread between Joki and Dahlin doesn't seem terribly significant. I'm inclined to view Joki being even at +/- and Rasmus being not far from even as reasonably positive results given that this was a bottom-5 team with atrocious goaltending for much of the season. I will also say that I continue to think Joki is a very good and improving young defenseman, with good speed, good hockey IQ and good skills on both ends of the ice, and while he's not a Brent Seabrook to Dahlin's Duncan Keith, Joki is still a fine partner for Dahlin and a fine top-4 RHD. If a great RHD becomes available who would be ahead of Joki in the lineup, that's fine, but I don't view a #1 RHD as an urgent roster priority. I continue to think Pysyk is JAG and would like to see an upgrade in that slot. As for Fitzie and Bryson (your post didn't mention Bryson but others have upthread) -- I think Bryson has earned a spot in the top 6 next year. He needs a defensively sound partner with some size, but Bryson adds a lot of value on the offensive end with his skating, playmaking and pushing the play. Fitzie, OTOH, is an open question. His +/- stinks, but it's worth noting that he had a -10 in February, in which the Sabres were 2-8, and he missed 6 games of the Sabres' March resurgence, in which they were 4-1-1. Overall though he still frequently looks out of his depth in the D zone. I like his attitude though and would not give up on him -- but I wouldn't pencil him in to the top 7 next year either.

Well, it says "He has proven many times that nobody knows what’s best for Devon Levi better than Devon Levi himself" and that Levi has a high degree of self-confidence -- so I think a fair inference on this decision is that Levi has determined that staying at NE is better for Levi's development and isn't concerned that this bucks the conventional wisdom. Now, you're right that the thread doesn't specify the reasons supporting Levi's determination that staying is better for his development, so in that sense perhaps my post overstated things. But I do think the twitter thread was pretty informative about his mindset.

This is obnoxious and a glass house. This is an excellent thread. Highly recommended for anyone interested in Levi’s reasoning.

I get the best friend and Beanpot tournament stuff but still. This is a strange decision. I wonder if he thinks he needs 1 more year of development before he’s ready for the NHL, and he’d rather spend it in college than in the A?

After Gretzky, Bossy was the best goalscorer I've ever seen. God bless him and his family.

A 3-year extension would be nuts, IMHO. I think the most likely outcome is that he plays out his contract and maybe signs a 1-year extension with the Sabres in the summer of 2023.

If we know Helly would re-sign, I would give up Ryan Johnson and the Vegas #1 for him.

C’mon. You don’t really mean this, right? Just exaggerating to make a point about not overpaying to keep VO?

Well, Levi staying in college and Portillo turning pro would be a bit of a curveball, innit? But I agree it’s not a bad outcome. All the more reason to sign a credible vet to be the #1.

I think @Brawndo is right that you can't give up real assets for a guy who's 2 years away from UFA. Having said that, it seems pretty likely that the Sabres' pick will end up being #10 or #11 or so (as someone will probably get lucky in the lottery and jump in front of them). In theory I could see trading that pick for the right goaltender.

What a great game. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that last night could have been a turning point in Sabres history. The city’s relationship with the team may be healing. How fitting that it was RJ who, in one of his final acts here, delivered the penicillin. A smaller, but still significant, factor in the resurrection of the franchise from last night: Cozens is becoming a force. Go Sabres.