dudacek

And to be clear, Kulich doesn’t belong there ahead of McLeod

No one doubts that. Kind of curious what you think Utah has done differently in terms of development choices.

You read the site and you see plenty of references to him as the 1st line centre. I don’t recall the Sabre brass ever referring to him that way. He did play with Tage Thompson down the stretch when the guy they actually referred to as a possible 1C was hurt, but he was playing 4 minutes a game less than McLeod and 30 seconds more than Krebs.

How many full-time NHL players entering their 3rd years can you name whose lineup spots aren’t guaranteed? How many NHL teams will enter training camps this year with more then a couple bottom-tier roster spots up for grabs?

Considerably more Id say.

Yeah, but Buffalo 😁

Gunther 22, 148 games Cooley 21, 157 games Keller 27, 601 games Peterka 23, 234 games Hayton 25, 291 games Schmaltz 29, 588 games Looks pretty young and soft, no? Kinda like the Sabres last year?

Well he’s not fat any more and he made it through the year uninjured. 😁

I don’t think anyone perceived Leinonen as anything other than a fat, fragile colossal bust-in-the-making over his first 2 post-draft years.

I’m a little concerned Jiri might be the next in line for pitchforks because the fanbase has put unrealistic (1st-line centre) expectations on his shoulders that he’s just not ready for. Hes a good player who is still finding his way. I think he’s more conscientious than Quinn or Peterka and safer than Cozens, but he’s the least talented of the 4 and IMO peaks as a 2nd-liner 2 or 3 years from now. Theres an opportunity here to feed him middle six minutes with solid wingers where 20ish goals and 40ish points is possible this year and that’s the path I hope they take.

I’m curious how often it’s actually happened. I remember hearing Pesce blocked one. Necas and Ehlers declined to extend but that’s not the same thing. Google is telling me 70% of NHLers do not have NTCs. https://www.thefourthperiod.com/no-trade-clauses#google_vignette

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?