thewookie1

And yet we still beat them at great frequency

Respected around the league Dealt with the media through tough times Worked his ass off Played a fatherly/big brother role for most of the team I'm not going to tie his leadership and captaincy to the team's success.

Olofsson, E. Johnson, Okposo and Girgs are all moved Comrie might get moved Sabres likely look to acquire a bottom 6 player seeing as Top 4 D and Top 6 Forwards with any term aren't usually available at the deadline.

That's why I mentioned his agent being the one pushing it

I honestly don't think he's the one who told them not to salute the fans. The guy has been a model citizen and a warrior for this team for 7+ years, I'm not going to place the Sabres' failures on one guy who certainly didn't glide through unscathed. He's worked hard and nearly died during his time here.

I understand; its more based on the Blues' fans reactions to different Toronto offers. Many of the analytics guys on Twitter mention that he's a super Defensive Dman with little offensive driving ability yet still is very effective at zone exits. His contract is dreadful however. I just want to find a player that can upgrade the roster while not trading away a guy like Cozens or Power like so many here seem obsessed over. Endlessly cycling through young players isn't going to achieve anything aside from disappointment.

They mentioned that they (Levi's agent) made it rather clear they didn't want Buffalo signing any vet to keep Levi out of the NHL. While not exactly something I want to hear it makes sense that Adams wouldn't want yet another college goalie to jump ship. This talk was around when we signed Tokarski and Cooley to NHL contracts because they said Adams was toeing a fine line. Frankly it strikes me as Levi's agent more than Levi himself being behind all of it. Levi seems to honestly love competing and breaking expectations and seeing as there was no issues when we sent him to Rochester eventually; I'd imagine Levi himself put his foot down or the agent finally backed off. The great fun of hockey politics....

One of the TSN or ESPN stated this earlier this year that Levi was to be given a legitimate chance to be the team's starter as per the agent agreement.

Okposo has been a great trooper and I hope we have some kind of job for him after his retirement but as long as it isn't Boston or Toronto I'll look forward to rooting for him.

Who here would trade Muel, Savoie and a Protected 24 1st for Parayko ?

He’s like a cockroach only more prone to injury

That is honestly shocking; granted its also hilarious seeing as Pittsburgh paid CBJ to take him.

Guy isn’t good at hockey, just punching according to Avs fans

He loves to reverse check and certainly gets into it with opposing players at times. Benson definitely strikes me as an annoyance, little love tap at the end of the Vegas game and his love of getting his head into all sorts of problems. Krebs is rambunctious, unsure if he’d be dirty. Cozens is more of the clean tougher player but isn’t above fighting back.

Dahlin, Benson, Krebs and Cozens to a lesser degree are the only guys who have shown some of that “dirty” potential

Frankly the only one who does so on a consistent basis is a healthy Dahlin who will destroy people from time to time. Clifton throws lots of hits too. Muel used to buy injuries seem to make him shy away from it.

I honestly believe he would make a good POHO that even Pegula may allow. In part because I doubt Ruff would demand a non-Pegula presence clause in his contract. At minimum I’d offer him an advisory role of some kind seeing as he still has a house here and still loves the area.

Maybe he’d be a good POHO?

8. It isn’t going to happen

Cozens will be fine so I'm not at all angered by his contract. Muel's was a bit overkill but its nothing to end the world over. Convincing vets to come here and stay seems to be very difficult. I'd suspect Petry wanted Detroit specifically due to his ties to the area Olofsson never seemed to get any bidders so we are just kinda stuck with him. If he were a good or average backup the contract would be fine.

It can be, there's a lot of running and games tend to be pretty long in the sun more often than not. Plus it can be mentally tiring batting against guys throwing 98mph pitches at you.

It's a Catch-22 to be honest Buffalo has/had an abundance of prospects over the years; each of which only have a certain number of years under control/ELCs and only so many of those can play in the ECHL and the AHL. In Benson's case he was in the terrible position of being a graduate of Juniors Hockey but being blocked from playing in Rochester where he more or less belonged. With his Juniors team moving and having a whole situation with the head coach they hired I can certainly understand why Buffalo wanted no part in that for Benson and likely Savoie as well hence the early season trade of Savoie. Plus it does make logical sense that young players need experience in the NHL to truly become NHLers. However I do think location and brand does have a degree to do with Yzerman's plan versus Adams. The Detroit Red Wings are an Original 6 Team, with multiple Cups to their name as well as the Captain of said recent Cup Teams as the GM. (Not to mention his success in Tampa) The city itself is likely in worse shape than Buffalo but likely has a bit more "entertainment" for younger players to take part in. If the Sabres and Red Wings were to offer identical contracts to UFAs, the likelihood is that they'll choose Detroit if not only on prestige alone. Adams entire strategy of bringing in players who want to be here is testament of that, he is trying to bring in players at fair rates who actually want to be in Buffalo so that they can spread positive vibes about the city around the league and eventually rehabilitate the city and team's image. Otherwise he is forced to pay extra just to bring in UFAs whom already get a premium due to the general UFA market. Effectively if Yzerman paid what looked to be overpayment for Copp and Compher, we are likely paying at least 500k or more each to bring them here. Simultaneously, two years ago we saw Quinn and Peterka tear up the AHL and get a promotion due to that. They had earned it by their play in the AHL; signing UFAs to "block" them would come across as disingenuous as its changing the finish line after the race is over. And while some say that shouldn't matter; it really does from a player standpoint. It may hurt us the fan and the overall team success in theory but makes our franchise out to be reliable partners to young players. Something Yzerman has the benefit of not exactly needing this due to the fact he can just use their Original 6 status to automatically create clout. Yzerman also had the benefit of multiple dynasty players bleeding into their roster's leadership. Zetterburg and Kromwell both played with Larkin. Adams had no such benefit to play off of. Although not dynastic in Cups, the last GM who had the chance to try and connect past to present was Botts with Pominville but he chose to replace him at first chance with a guy who had already spurned us once. Adams has tried to do that with Tuch via his personal fan connection with the past teams but there's a difference between a player who played on a team and a fan who grew up idolizing them. So to sum it up, Yzerman actually had an easier job than Adams has in regards to actually creating a "team" I'm still bitter that Botts didn't re-sign Pominville and bring in Vanek during the COVID season. Neither were great by then but they could of been a solid 3rd line with a young Mitts and brought a degree of history to the team lineage.

That honestly is kind of absurd however the MLB schedule doesn't exactly have much rest time so aside that specific case I'm ok with it to general degree.

Load management should never be a thing; players make a lot of money and its their literal job to be out there, barring injury, for their many paying customers. The NBA is a literal joke with the fact they give their players games off for purely rest days; they should be required to then pay all those fans who bought tickets money back for their "load management" The MLB is a bit different, starters throw far harder than they used to and as such 100 or so pitches is about their limit. But that isn't a hard cap, some players are different than others and can throw on shorter rest or throw more pitches without issue. It all depends on pitching style and how they do in each individual game as well their personal attributes like age and experience. Probably depends on the player and their injuries. Suter and Doughty are both still playing and have been near the top of the league in TOI most of their respective careers. (Suter obviously took a step back in TOI upon his departure from MIN)

I don't think he played slow; I think he was out of juice and just didn't engage quick enough. Some of you guys just have this borderline obsession with finding scapegoats and chasing them out of town. Tuch has done very good in his time in Buffalo; just because he's not literally running through the boards 24/7 doesn't mean he's shot and needs to be dealt. Tonight was a better team with slightly more rest beating a lesser and less experienced one. Nothing absurd, nothing over the top.