Two or less

My takeaway from today: Benson is fantastic. Really solid playmaker who threads difficult passes. Also super focused on his defensive game. Was always back in the d-zone…often back before the dman. Almost always broke up the play. Standouts to me: Novikov (just a bully on the puck with offensive instinct), Neuchev (skill for days), Kisakov (really good movement and finishing) Richard (big boy who can skate and shoot), Berndtsson (scored a few).

Ostland isn't here to play. He just came to get checked out by Sabres doctors and is hanging out to see the culture in Rochester and met teammates. Isn't even on the ice.

Good point. I didn't realize they were so thin at forward. Biro is out for the season btw. That would be interesting to see Nadeau get some playing time.

Not sure if you're talking about this season still or next, regardless i doubt Nadeau plays unless theres a bunch of injuries. And Östlund isn't here to play, forgot where i read it, probably Lance, they have Östlund here to check out the facilities, meet the team and coaches and sell him on the culture they have.

Core 5- Dahlin Power Thompson Cozens Tuch

I like the Mayfield idea. He's the type of player this team needs imo. A bruiser and plug on the PK.

Rousek never played there before.

Interesting but not exactly surprising. Every time somebody speaks about Rousek they always speak very highly of him, either Paul Hamilton, Lance, or most recently Duffer and Marty with Kris Baker on the Sabres live podcast. Rousek is a top contributor on the Amerks and showed flashes with his speed and hands in his short time with the Sabres. But, it's obvious he doesn't fit in a top-6 role. And from what these guys say, is he's viewed as a bottom line, energy, "bulldog" type player. Maybe he doesn't view himself as a fourth liner and grinder and views himself as a top-6 and a guy who gets plenty of PP time? I could see him not being happy with how the Sabres view him and go somewhere where he's much more comfortable playing hockey, even though, the glory and money is less.

Sorry

i'm in. nyr over mcdavid in the scf

They also do some cool season ticket holder events, such as paint the ice and Halloween skate. Pretty cool watching so many games at that arena and then skating on that ice, and a "state of the sabres" type event with Kevyn Adams.

This is all great and this will keep us excited all throughout summer waiting for next season but first time since they last made playoffs this team is going to have immense pressure heading into next season. Which is also exciting but some teams don’t always do well when expectations are risen.

Smaller then Jokiharju

The timing just sucks. Theres team in much worse shape then we are in that would love to have a goalie such UPL and give him opportunities to take control of their net. Like you said, there isn't a easy way to send UPL back to Rochester. Boston dealt with this problem as well after the emergence of Jeremy Swayman, they traded Dan Vladar to Calgary.

Interesting that you wrote down coaching. I'm all in on Donny G, but i am not sold on Marty Wilford. I wish they had a more proven coach with him on the bench. But, the guy i'm wondering about is Mike Bales. Highly touted goalie coach, but none of our goalies have improved under him. Ullmark leaves for Boston and becomes a world beater. UPL didn't establish himself at all under Biles. Comrie had injuries but also this season is a wash on him. Maybe i'm alone on this but it doesn't seem like Bales' job should be safe.

Atleast hope they are very confident they can bring Nikita Novikov to Rochester next season.

He didn't say this directly but reading inbetween the lines it seems like he sees himself much closer to the NHL then the Sabres do, and Sabres think he will need a lot of time in the AHL while he thinks hes close and probably wanted to get a crack this year and burn off a year. Which seems Sabres don't really agree with.

Lance says on his podcast Maintenance day one of the holdup's of Ryan Johnson signing with the Sabres is the Sabres are having internal discussions about rather to sign him or take the pick.

I think you're fooling yourself thinking that. The team defense was atrocious. And all you need to do is look at the penalty kill stats, even when teams didn't score on us, they were getting grade A chances. PK is about a unit, a system and having that extra juice. Replacing one guy wasn't going to fix the defense. And for all the crap Joki gets, he had some good games down the stretch too. Let's not make it out that he's some guy who has been trash every single night.

And they are bottom 5 in most defensive categories. A goalie or a d-men was not going to fix those issues.

He did mention he was drunk. Blaming Adams is absolutely silly. Could they have done things better and put themselves in a better spot? Of course, but that game works the other way too. They could've done some wrongs and been further away like Detroit or Ottawa. And they won 40 games. Way more then anyone expected them to.

I don't think Foligno can keep up with this team. And i don't see why people are so down on Jokiharju? Dude's played 268 NHL games and is just 23 years old. He still has another level to go. You won't get fair value for him and at $2.5 million he's great value for this team. Stick him on the 3rd pairing and you can move him up if theres any disruption to the top 2 pairings, as he's someone who has experience playing with the skilled guys.

How can they possibly know by start of next season if Levi is “ready to be the #1”? It seems like that’s impossible to know. Adams keeps talking about not taking short cuts and doing it the right way, and thinking they can know based on these few games he’s ready to be #1 and just pair Comrie with him is absolutely asinine to me. Maybe I’m wrong.

Exactly. The debate is silly.

Interesting. I love watching Andersson play on espn+ when the Sabres are not on. Hanifin is also a very interesting player. I think he's one of Jack Eichel's best friends too, which would be interesting since he knows/believes Jack's entire story on what exactly happened here with his injury and our doctors and organization.