dudacek

Aren’t you the same guy who is always complaining about the Sabres rushing their prospects? So when a team brings up a player in his first year and puts him in the top 6 it’s because they’re rushing him, and when they bring him up in his 2nd year and put him in the bottom 6 it’s because they don’t think he’s any good? Lets just call a spade a spade, if he’s a Sabre, you think they’re doing it wrong.

Quinn and Peterka dominated at the AHL level before they made the team and performed at an NHL level when they arrived. Kulich played 2 full seasons and went back again for the playoffs this year. Johnson and Rosen are still cooking. Novikov and Wahlberg are still cooking. Östlund and Helenius are still cooking. Power and Benson have been NHL players from day one no matter what way you try to spin them. Have Sabres properly insulated and supported them? No. Have they done a good job of building an NHL roster?Absolutely not. It’s not the fact these players were in the NHL too early that’s the issue, it’s the fact that there were too many of them at the same time with not enough veteran support.

Interesting to hear Marty Biron talking about how Topias Leinonen has caught his eye. He didn’t go as far as to say he’s high on him, but he was raving about his elite size and his ability to fill the net. Says he’s looking forward to to watching how he does in Rochester this year. Leinonen fascinates me because I have never seen a 2nd-round pick dismissed as quickly as he was. In terms of goalie development curves, Rochester backup is pretty much where he should be right now. Nobody is convinced yet however, that he belongs there. His progress this year will be one of the more fascinating prospect stories to follow.

Do you expect Zach Benson to be a 30-point scorer this season? Do you ever see him developing into a scorer? If so, when and how good?

We haven’t talked much about Jones but he’s a guy I have a great hopes for. Not to be an impact regular in the Sabres top 6, but to be the guy who finally makes Jacob Bryson redundant. For the last 2 years, he essentially played the Bryson 7thD role for the Rangers: sat in the press box and got shuffled into the lineup as injury and poor play required. Unlike Bryson, he actually did pretty well when he got in; he ranked 2nd on his team behind Fox in each of Corsi, GF% and xGF% - above 50% in each and well ahead of Bryson’s bottom-feeding analytics.

14 years of losing while waiting for kids to grow makes it really hard for many to separate player from result. Thats going to be particularly relevant to Doan, who was acquired for one of the few kids who actually did arrive. In a vacuum, Doan looks to embody the care, effort and fearlessness Sabrespace has been crying for the team to add. In reality he’s got 62 games under his belt and is probably going to take two more years before he comes into his own. I think aesthetically he’s someone we should be able to appreciate on the journey, if too many losses dont get in the way.

I had Tuch with Quinn and McLeod for similar reasons. But there’s something really appealing to me about the Doan/Quinn pairing. This exercise really made me think about trust, in terms of “as a coach, do I trust this guy in this situation?” Quinn is the guy who burned a lot of trust last year. It’s important that he earns it back because I think in terms of raw skill he is one of our most dangerous forwards

Probably too many summer margaritas, but I feel too comfortable with too many of these line combos and D pairs. There are still too many unproven pieces but the group feels more balanced in terms of skill sets. Effectively, it needs a healthy Norris and one of Quinn, Doan, Kulich or Benson to pop before I can say playoffs are possible, but the latter is something I think more likely than not. Fingers crossed on Norris.

Actually, I was referring to Mittelstadt, Cozens and Peterka. And he would say all three (I just watched him say it in the case of Peterka) although he’s probably lying to himself in the case of Peterka.

The first part of your post was excellent but I have to quibble bit with this one: I can think of three absolute core players traded in the NHL over the past 5 years (Rantanen, Tkachuk and Eichel, and Adams traded one of them. They just don’t get traded unless GMs are forced. if your broadening your definition of core, Adams has traded 3 top six forwards in the past 18 months. How many GMs can say that? He certainly is the author of his demise, but I think this particular concern has kinda faded. Again, I agree with the gist of this post, just questioning whether it’s time to move past a detail: Kulich and Doan are heading into their 2nd NHL seasons, Benson his third, Power and Quinn their 4th. There should be no rookies on the roster come October. These are “the kids.” When does the statute of limitations run out on them “needing more time”?

@LGR4GM check out what Adams says about Power’s partner starting at 47:30ish in the context of what he said about Timmins and what we know of Kesselring’s game. It explains where I’m coming from https://www.nhl.com/sabres/video/topic/sabres-coaches/ruff-and-adams-locker-cleanout-6371704447112 And the last piece is in Adams post July 1 session where he makes reference to having “two big shutdown guys” together as an option for Lindy. You can squint and call that Timmins and Mule, but to me, that sounds like Mule and Kesselring

I think I’m starting to get sucked in by Ziemwr.

Good question. Has Adams actually talked publicly since Byram signed? In the postdraft presser, he referenced Timmins as a “cleaner” player, which is what they wanted “in that particular spot in our lineup”. I think that’s what put the Power partner thought in my head because he’d used similar language earlier when talking about what Power needed in a partner and why he thought Docker did pretty well with Power.

I think Greenway was an overpay as well, but he’s hardly redundant. This team needed more players with his skillset. I think this team’s identity up front has quietly changed more than people are giving it credit for. Generally how many players on the current corps would you qualify as being in the not physical or good defensively class of Olofsson, Skinner, Mitts, Peterka?

Further to the Kesselring/Timmins slotting, Adams made no reference to Owen Power in his presser after the 1st round, but he was pretty explicit characterizing Kesselring as a top 4 right shot D In his post-draft presser he referred to Timmins as a player with upside who could see playing higher in the lineup but who likely initially starts on the 3rd pair. i d said before on heirarchy on depth chart, and actual base pairings aren’t one and the same. But maybe Adams views such things the same way some of you do

Kesselring would be the #4 in terms of ice time, 18-19 minutes a game. Doan I see as a guy who works his way up. i really see Doan Benson Kulich Quinn Zucker Greenway (and maybe to a lesser extent Krebs, because I think Lindy likes Krebs more than we do) as more or less on an even keel to start ice time wise. How that unfolds will depend on their play Seriously, I have not once heard Adams directly link the two but maybe I’ve missed it? Hes talked about needing a partner for Power and separately about needing a big RHD and Kesselring fitting the bill perfectly. I’ve not heard him link the two. And when I’ve heard him talk about a Power partner I’ve heard him talk about that partner needing to be a calm smooth efficient quick touch puck mover, which sounds more to me like Timmins than Kesselring. I’ve also heard them talk about “playing the big guys together” Maybe he meant Power, but I didn’t read it that way. Im fully aware I’m on my own with this line of thought and the more obvious answer is usually the correct one. We shall see. The idea of Greenway getting Wally Pipped has certainly crossed my mind.

One of the things I like about my forward lines is that for the first time in recent memory each of the top 3 lines is anchored by a veteran pair. There are no kid lines, the most inexperienced forwards are spread out and supported.

He turned out to be a terrible signing. I knew what kind of player we were getting and hoped the risk aspect of his game would be outweighed by the reward and he would settle into a solid #5 for us. Turned out he was largely a creation of the Boston system and the players he was surrounded with and is actually a 6/7. We should have paid more attention to the analytics and less to the character references.

It’s possible, but Doan adds more of the dog to a dog pack line and Greenway more of physical and defensive presence for Kulich. There’s also a part of me that says they didn’t sign Greenway for $4M to play on the 4th line. Curious to see how others think Lindy will line them up.

Byram and Dahlin is a proven NHL top pairing that can win their matchups regardless of their opponent. I think Kesselring’s game is too aggressive (in terms of risk/reward) to make him an ideal Power partner. It think Timmins low-risk smooth game is a better fit and I think the Sabres do too. I’m hoping Kesselring can help bring some edge to Mule’s game while he takes care of the offence there. I see those 2 getting matched up against the physical lines while roughly getting similar ES minutes to the Power pair. Power and Kesselring will get more minutes than their partners due to situational play and shortened benches.

Reasoning: Thompson/Norris is our best offensive combo, McLeod/Tuch our best matchup pair. Benson best elevates and complements the Norris pairing in terms of 5-on-5 all-around play and vice versa. Quinn best elevates the offensive potential of the McLeod pairing and they best insulate his flaws. Zucker has become a mentor to Kulich and he and Greenway flanking Jiri on a 3rd line puts him in a great position to win his matchups. Any of the 3rd-liners can easily be bumped up to bring a different element to Quinn or Benson if needed. The same can be said for Doan who became the odd man out from my top 9. The 4th line consists of 3 dogs, a proper energy line who can create havoc on the forecheck and score more than most 4th lines

My opening night lineup card: Benson Norris Thompson Quinn McLeod Tuch Greenway Kulich Zucker Danforth Krebs Doan Byram Dahlin Power Timmins Samuelsson Kesselring Luukkonen Lyon Spares: Malenstyn, Jones

Running Connor Clifton’s numbers for another thread really pounded home a misplaced Sabres narrative. There is widespread belief that Bowen Byram is not good because of his numbers away from Dahlin. And while it’s true that Dahlin elevates Byram (and everyone else) what nobody talks about is the drag created by the other guys. Clifton, Bryson and Samuelsson were black holes I doubt anyone but Dahlin could survive. xGF% from this unholy trinity: 36.6, 40.4, 38.9 Actual GF: 36.6, 40.3, 39.3 Out of 270 NHL defencemen, they ranked 259, 231 and 247 Hanging on to Samuelsson was a questionable decision at best and re-signing Bryson is incredibly hard to defend. At least they dumped the worst offender. It will be interesting to see how Timmins and Kesselring affect team numbers, and the individual numbers of Byram and Power or whether they get sucked into a Marty Wilford vortex.

Connor Clifton’s game under Lindy didn’t actually change much in terms of counting stats and how he was used. Ice time 16:33 -> 16:03 Points 18 -> 16 Hits 204 -> 208 Takeaways 27 -> 26 Giveaways 24 -> 67 Blocked shots 117 -> 116 Possession 44% -> 40% xGF% 41% -> 36.6% GF% 46% -> 36.6% PK GA/60 8.26 -> 8.08 Penalties drawn -7 -> -11 Analytically, he was an absolute mess. He was terrible in his first year and even worse in his second.

Taro has it.