thewookie1

Worst part about this entire season is that Granato needs to be fired more than likely but unlike Krueger, I still really like the man.

He's no sure thing but he's kind of the only goalie prospect we have even within 3 years of being NHL capable. Good ones, rarely. It's more akin to a crapshoot. Usually you either overpay and get screwed or underpay and get screwed.

On progressively inane calls

Even so, it means if UPL falls off we are literally without a goalie for the present and future.

We got Tuch, Krebs and a protected 1st + 2nd and sent them back a 3rd. No where near as much as Cozens + Benson + more I wouldn’t offer Levi regardless

At that cost it isn't worth it in the slightest. You'd end up in Lindros trade territory of 4 1sts + for 1 guy and that never works out for the team getting the 1 player.

I'd say no since Levi is still our high end prospect goalie and until UPL does this a couple years I'm not interested in playing that game. Quinn and Peterka are a dynamic duo and I'd be extremely hesitant to trade either of them much less both.

Great player but his maturity issues being bantered about would give me great hesitation over any such acquisition. You'd be nuts to trade Dahlin for him. I'd decline that rather easily to be perfectly honest. You don't trade an entire line's worth of talent and your top prospect goalie for a singular player with perceived maturity issues.

Benson can't play in Rochester; he is stuck either in Juniors or the NHL

The statistic here just tells me Cozens and Benson have done the work but haven’t been rewarded whereas Peterka is having some puck luck. Anything within 2 to -2 really isn’t a story as it’s merely a margin of error.

1st goal is still credited to Girgs by some miracle lol

Guy is gripping his stick like it’s his child being sucked into a tornado.

I was meaning what I'd want for the team not what they have.

Greenway going goalie on the line to kill the play with 2.5 seconds left. Tage was held with no call then slashed in rage which the ref looked at then after a delay made the call. Cozens drew a pretty chincy call and then Tuch and Greenway worked the final 25 seconds

Bad penalty but that delay by the ref is absurd

Thompson’s shot isn’t as hard this year so he’s probably trying to compensate with more tight window shots but has been missing

Well then I doubt we are scouting them regarding trading Mitts. Trading him for futures would likely cause chants for heads not just firings. Still don’t really have any interest in trading Mitts but in Colorado’s case I’d value Girard >>>> Byram

I have literally negative interest in Byram. Girard is at least somewhat interesting. Would rather try to get Manson cheaply in the off-season however

Not quite 2 scoring lines 1 multi-purpose line (defensively sound and still competent offensively) 1 Character Line (Vets, energy, checking, etc)

Sabres win 6-2, Skinner with a hattrick and 4 pts because he likes abusing MTL and us fans

https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/4907215 How's this, I know the defense hasn't been upgraded however

This exactly As the year goes on I feel like this wasn't even his original plan and due to that he's sort of dragged his feet on things due to a lack of conviction. Picture last year prior to the draft, the Sabres are making a push to deal their 1st or prospect to Carolina for Brett Pesce whom they already have extension plans cooking behind the scenes. The strategy being, get Pesce to sign an extension under 7.5mil, then you can use that to keep Dahlin at 10 mil which were the rumors floating around and you could bridge Power without issue. Then Pesce nullifies the deal so you move on to your 2nd favorite idea in Noah Hanifin. However CGY wants more than Carolina and Hanifin is giving CGY trouble over an extension. The talks seem to indicate Hanifin wants 8x8mil+ and that immediately creates a further wrench in any potential deal seeing as he'd be another LHD making 8mil+ and eventually Power would join them. With no other options abundantly open which interest the team, you go with plan B. Sign Clifton who's your favorite B/C level signing to fill in while not making it impossible to still get a Pesce or Hanifin later. However you now must overpay him a bit due to need and add more to Erik Johnson's offer because his purpose now has far more importance as a vet on the blueline. Then comes Dahlin; whose agent now plays the Sole Top 2 Dman card to force you to up the 10mil to 11mil. Likewise Power, who could of been bridged with the security of another Top 2 guy, is now demanding 7x8mil or something even worse like a 5 year contract. So now although you did create solid defensive depth through Stillman, Clague, E Johnson, R. Johnson, and Bryson; you never got that Top 4 piece you set out to get. So you leave space open and wait for something to shake and yet nothing does. A story about the offense: Offensively you believe you are mostly set, Greenway when healthy looked very good and some more experience should do wonders for the kid's line and even with a slight regression the Skinner-Thompson-Tuch line should still be great and Mitts gives you a backup Top 2 C for if Cozens or Thompson go down. Okposo is well respected and you want him to get 1000 games so you resign him for another year to help push the team forward. Girgensons has been a good soldier and has put up ok numbers so his return isn't problematic either. Krebs plays well with those two on the 4th line anyway. No one has offered you anything of note for Olofsson so why not hold onto him for depth and hopefully jettison him in season. However that 3rd line Winger position is being saved for one of the youngsters; Kulich or Rosen more than likely or maybe even Savoie! If so, maybe I'll cut my losses with Olofsson and just grab some vet off waivers to fill in when needed or better yet, bring back Jost from last season. He played well in his stint and is a good character; he can play if need be. ...... *****, Quinn is injured until January.... if I sign someone it may help us in the immediate term but then I'm forced to kick Olofsson out for nothing and he's a multi-time 20 goal scorer so that just seems stupid. So lets just let it roll, hopefully Olofsson bounces back and/or the youngsters light it up..... Our 18 year old rookie Zach Benson just out competed everyone vying for the winger job so we'll give him a shot, plus Savoie is hurt so we'll hang onto both of them since their Juniors team is a literal mess right now. ..... Olofsson still sucks, Tuch is banged up, Thompson is having his usual slow start and Cozens just punched a bear and had his face broken, patience Kevyn.... *****! Thompson just broke his freaking hand or wrist or something, at least Tuch is back and Cozens is playing in a bubble.... Maybe Patrick Kane could fix our disastrously bad Powerplay, oh look, Cozens is out of the bubble helmet and can actually stick handle again.... Woohoo Thompson is back and there goes Tuch and Skinner and Thompson looks like he's playing with a grenade.... Anyone want to score this year not name JJ Peterka or Casey Mittelstadt? Dahlin you don't count because your a defenseman but Owen where are you hiding your shot?..... So playoffs might not be in the cards this year... but have you seen UPL?

If they’ll do it for Skinner, sure. I’ll eat that lost point production for even LTIR space that can play within a system. Otherwise I’d be very selective about the ask and retention. You want a 3rd for Couture at 4milx3? Sure, worst he can be is LTIR bait that can bring good vibes to the locker room. At best he can be an experienced leader playing 3rd line minutes and coming through in the clutch.

I don’t think he’s entirely wrong; however there is a degree of square pieces into round holes, massive downturns in most players and our record being worse. Hopefully this year was just a down year with a lot of bad luck and with some good roster moves we’ll shoot right back up the standings. Honestly while the Powerplay isn’t THE reason we are worse this year, it is also very true our record would be far better if our powerplay was even middle of the pack. It’s one of those oddly specific changes you can tweak and see massive gains or losses while not actually being the root cause. Imagine, if you will that we had the 15th ranked powerplay. Arizona holds that position at just over 21%. With our PP chances we’d have just about 33/34 goals which would give us 10/11 more goals for. For starters that would make us a positive goal differential team. (+1/2) But far more importantly I would very easily assume our record would be better. We are 24-27-4. With those extra goals let’s minus 5 losses and say it’s 1-0-4. Nothing drastic in success but brings us up to 25-23-8 for 58pts which would put us in the tail position but still a legitimate shot at the playoffs.

Here's what I do, 1. You fire Granato and the entire coaching staff the day after the season ends 2. You make the players watch the playoffs as a group, KA can organize it. 3. You make a push to get RBA and if that doesn't work hire Gallant, Beudreau, or Berube 4. Have the coach come in and have a team meeting; tell them they need to hop on the bus to win or exit stage left. (We know these guys like it here, now we just need to weed out the ones who don't care enough about winning) 5. Give them their marching orders(suggestions) for the summer and take care of the disinterested 6. Make some moves and then go to Prague with a rabid hyena in your pants and win.