dudacek

I don't know, I see Quinn carrying the puck, creating open ice for his mates and dishing it off to Cozens and Peterka all the time. He had 35 assists in 45 games as an AHL rookie and has an assist every 3 games as a young NHLer. I think he can be a 40-assist guy in the NHL. Benson shows similar traits in terms of creating space and finding teammates. He had 62 assists in 60 games as a 17-year-old. Who knows how that eventually translates at an NHL level, but it's in their games.

Prior to the deadline I absolutely wanted: A 2-way match-up forward who can be trusted against good players in tough situations A big-body forward who gets to the net An agitating forward who can forecheck A legitimate top 4 defenceman A new backup goalie Like his profile or not, Byram crossed the D-man off the list, but losing Mittelstadt means at least one of the forwards should be of 2nd-line calibre. At least one of the skaters should have an intimidation factor, at least one needs to be a respected leader, and all 3 need to be competitive. The three new forwards will be replacing Okposo, Girgensons and Mittelstadt on the everyday roster. Olofsson's replacement as the offensive spare forward comes from the prospect pool. The defensive spare forward should be a meaner Robinson. I think the 8 guys we have on the blueline right now are coming back. I'd flip one for a similar level player who adds more edge if I could. I'm going to count on the increased offence coming from in-house: a mix of Tuch, Thompson, Quinn, Peterka, Cozens and Benson. A key part of that should come from a complete revamp of the power play. I need someone to draw attention from Dahlin and Thompson and/or take advantage of the attention they get. I'm intrigued by Byram and I'm looking hard at Jack Quinn, who was deadly on the PP as an Amerk. Skinner is off my PP1.

Bowen Byram makes a little more than Casey Mittelstadt but is also one year further away from getting a raise. I think Adams was reluctant to commit long-term to 3 $7M centres (many Sabrespacers felt the same way) but whether that's about managing to the real cap, or an artificial cap, it's open to speculation. Byram creates a similar question on D. Sabres are about $6M under this years cap. They are $21M under next years cap with 10 roster holes to fill. Okposo, Girgensons, UPL, Jokiharju and Krebs are the most prominent players needing to be replaced or re-signed The following year they are a projected $36M under, with Greenway, Peterka, Quinn, Byram, Johnson and Levi the most prominent free agents.

Some more on Byram from the Athletic: Byram’s on-ice results have never really been stellar aside from that one playoff run, but that’s partially due to injury troubles and having to play with basically everyone but Nathan MacKinnon’s line in Colorado. The team’s depth has taken a serious hit since its Stanley Cup win in 2022 and that limits Byram’s teammate quality given Cale Makar spends so much time with MacKinnon. In previous years he looked like a serious driver when it comes to individual possession-driving and it shows in Corey Sznajder’s tracked data. Just last year Byram had the profile of a future star in the right situation: someone who can move the puck well in the defensive zone, defend his own blue line, rush up ice and create a serious amount of chances in the offensive zone. There may be other stuff he doesn’t do well that hampered his on-ice results, but skill-wise it looked like Byram had it. His puck efficiency was tremendous across the board. That’s all changed this year; none of those facets have been true and he’s been below average in every regard except rushing up ice. It’s been a night-and-day change, one that speaks to a need for a change of scenery where he can show more in a top-four role. Byram wasn’t getting that in Colorado, but he should get more opportunity in Buffalo — even with Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power around on the left side. This deal may not look perfectly fair at the moment, but everything hinges on what Byram can become. The talent and opportunity are there for him to make this a win for the Sabres. Can he take advantage of it? https://theathletic.com/5321783/2024/03/07/16-stats-mittelstadt-byram-colton-parayko-islanders/

The price for Mitts level player is generally a mid- to late-1st and an equivalent prospect. You'd never get 4th overall for that package. So the pertinent question is why has Byram's stock dropped, and is it justified. If you ignore handedness and go by contract and skillset, its a no-brainer that Henri gets moved now. But the handedness thing just makes it weird. (As an aside, Henri's play this year is the most under-discussed Sabres positive) I can see a world where Ras is RD1 and Henri and Cliffy are 5 and 6 by ice time, but one of them is on the RD2 in terms of the lineup card Most pissed-off guy on the team has to be Ryan Johnson. (As an aside, if you're honest with yourself, Bryson has outplayed him since he's been called up) Chucking him out there with Ras is so on-brand for Buffalo. I've said it before, in his 3rd pro season Mittelstadt was putting up 22 points while going in and out of the lineup. Krebs has an interesting opportunity here.

Thought people might be interested in Byram's Elite Prospects scouting report from his draft year: https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/326522/bowen-byram An exceptionally gifted defenceman who knows his strengths and plays by them. He possesses elite skating ability and is at his best when playing high energy, up-tempo hockey. He handles the puck well and is able to keep control of it under pressure. He makes calculated decisions that consistently shift momentum in his team's favor. His creativity in the offensive zone speaks to his confidence in his ability to be a game-changer. Defensively astute, he actively takes away lanes and limits options for the oncoming opposition. All-in-all, Bowen Byram is a workhorse who understands how to take advantage of turnovers and shift the pace of play in his favor in all three zones. (Curtis Joe, EP 2019 He’s an excellent skater, with good balance, explosiveness and a high-end top-gear., EPrinkside.com 2019 Byram does a good job of holding the blue line, and he uses an active stick to interrupt passing lanes and disrupt oncoming puck-carriers, EPrinkside.com 2019 The best aspect of his hockey-sense is his ability to rapidly process the play. This extends to all three-zones, Hockeyprospect.com 2019 Possessing excellent vision, creativity and awareness, he’s a highly-precise passer, Future Considerations 2019 He is a near elite passer from the blueline, just as comfortable with a short pass as with a stretch pass, or flip pass, McKeen's Hockey 2019 And from the Athletic: https://theathletic.com/947751/2019/05/06/wheeler-final-ranking-for-the-2019-nhl-drafts-top-100-prospects/ 5. Bowen Byram — LHD, Vancouver Giants, 6-foot-0 I’ve already broken down Byram’s game as the best defenceman in the draft and a frontrunner for third overall in considerably more detail but the short of it is that while there is still work to be done on his defensive play, particularly with his effort and his spacial awareness within defensive zone schemes, Byram is one of the better goal scoring defencemen the NHL draft has seen in recent memory. Furthermore, he is an excellent three-zone passer and a strong skater who can recover from mistakes made pushing the play into the high slot if the puck goes back the other way. And he just keeps getting better, and better and better. The Byram of the last half of the season and into the playoffs was one of the best players in junior hockey.

If it works the way it's envisioned you're going to see Byram used largely like you see Power used. I know it's pretty much vanished around the league, but I think you may see the Sabres bringing back a PP with 2 real blueliners on it. I think this is the most realistic reaction for this exact moment in time. The Avs made this deal work for them by dumping Johanssen and adding Walker. I'm not sure about the D — I kinda think we are going to run with our top 4 in ice time all being LH next year — but removing Casey certainly opens space under the cap and on the roster for a more robust, hard-nosed middle-six forward. Definitely disagree with the bolded. Casey may have an outlier season in him, but as a 25-year-old centre with more than 300 games, I think what we've seen the past 2 years is basically what we're going to get with Casey. As a 22-year-old D with 140 games played, Byram definitely has a lot more runway. First comparable that popped in to my mind is Morgan Reilly, who's not dissimilar in pedigree. Byram has 63 points in his first 143 NHL games, Reilly had 59 in his first 154. Noah Hanifin had 54 in his first 160. Miro Heiskanen 68 in 150. Byram's no Quinn Hughes, but he's got plenty of room to grow. This is a realistic worst-case scenario. It's pretty damn hard to predict when a talented young player will cement himself as simply a very good player. Byram hasn't done that yet. That said, Byrum for Eric Johnson should improve the defence corps. Your answer is more likely to come from how the other pieces fit as referenced in my reply to @rickshaw: how Adams replaces Casey and the other players that move on from this .500 team. These things don't happen in a vacuum. I don't think the issues with this year's Sabres are mostly about talent. Maybe a team doesn't have to be built in the mould of 1999 Devils. Maybe it's OK having a really talented attacking defenceman on the ice at all times? it never hurt the '70s Habs. Maybe all that matters is your guy being better than the other guy and the 'how' doesn't matter? Because even though I like the player, he certainly isn't the profile I would have targeted. I think this trade should obliterate the narrative that Adams doesn't have the balls to trade away pieces from the happy-to-be-here group, or the one that he's unwilling to take a risk. I also wondering why we haven't heard much celebration from the 'wake up the pampered country club' crowd. In my view Adams couldn't have fired a clearer shot across that bow than trading your leading scorer, hugely popular dressing room figure and party house host. I don't believe this will happen, but it's just as legitimate a worry as Byram going full Ryan Murray.

Guy this affects the most off the hop is Peyton Krebs, who should be the 3C for the remainder of the year, and with the likely moves of Girgs and Okposo moves from 10-11 on the depth chart to more like a 7-8 slot. Looks like that really was a test drive they gave him a week or so back.

Going to miss Casey. I really respect the way he has overcome adversity and have enjoyed watching him play. I also think he is going to be missed in the room. This trade gives the Avs a better chance at winning the cup this year and I don't blame them for making it. Can Sabrespace handle yet another good centre traded to the eventual cup winner? That said, I'm left with the impression Adams stood his ground in his evaluation and made the Avs pay a price they didn't really want to pay. Hope this is one of those deals where both teams benefit. *** Unrelated, I was not at all expecting a major deal involving core pieces. Glad to see it happen and glad to see some life injected into the board. I have some reading to catch up on.

Not really buying the idea here that this is a "futures" trade. Byram can and should be playing on the Sabres 2nd pairing now and for the immediate future. In a perfect world (<--please note) he is the mercurial Guy Lapointe to Power's refined Serge Savard. I expect bumps, but this is a 146-game NHL vet who has played heavy minutes in the Stanley Cup final, not an 18-year-old 17th overall pick. He'll play now and he will contribute. Pretty much every one of you wanted the Sabres to turn one of their skilled forwards into a top 4 D. That is exactly what this trade is attempting to do. it's just not the skilled forward you wanted to trade, or the type of top 4 D you envisioned. I don't disagree with the "yeah, but we don't really need a left-handed skill guy." But Adams clearly said ***** the fit, I want the skill. We'll see what happens.

Don't love it or hate it. A hockey trade, and a boom or bust kinda deal. I think you know what you get with Casey: good 2nd-line centre just entering his prime who competes and excels 5-on-5. But I'm a little surprised at the lack of knowledge on Byram: kid was the highest-ranked D in the 2019 draft and looked like a stud on the 2nd pair of a cup-winner as a 20-year-old just 2 years ago. He hasn't been at that level since and he has been injured, but this is a guy who still has the upside to be a 1st-pairing defenceman. I tell you one thing, if you had proposed this trade 2 years ago Colorado fans would have locked the thread and laughed you off the internet. Trading for Byram at this point of his career is like trading for Cozens at this point of his career: you know he's got more than he's shown this year, and not just because he's young, but because you've seen it. The question is how much more? Trading for Casey is like trading for Alex Tuch this time last year: you love what he's doing right now, but also know his value has never been higher. In my view Casey is clearly the better player at this moment in time, Byram clearly has more upside. Sell high, buy low is generally the law of good management, but that only works if you're good with your evaluations. This will be a very good test of our hockey department's skills at exactly that.

Adams is collecting Team Canada's lockout world junior team. Cozens and Krebs were that team's top forwards, Levi its starting goalie, Quinn a middle-sixer and Byrum its top defenceman and alternate captain.

It's pretty clear from this he expects to be playing his final games as a Sabre this week. https://www.nhl.com/sabres/video/okposo-after-practice-6348285564112 He's conducted himself with dignity and integrity through some extraordinarily trying times and represented the crossed swords with heart and class, both on and off the ice. Like this fan base, he's deserved better.

@Thorny Trying to be brief: If you're asking me if i still consider this season a failure if we miss the playoffs, the answer is yes. I expected to win this season. I'd say my post should be read in the context of the questions of "Is Adams' rebuild a failure? Should we set the reset button?"

The stretch run will have no impact on the likelihood of making the playoffs either way. It's not going to change Adams offseason plan either. Generally speaking, he's bringing back the kids, shopping to replace the UFAs and deciding what to do with his RFAs, picks and prospects based on possible returns. We might see a start to that this week. Granato is coming back unless the bottom really falls out down the stretch. He gets to start next season, but he wont survive a slow start. Only other thing that might change that is Brind'Amour wanting the job.

All spot-on, perfectly reasonable and really interesting to me in the context of the purge, draft and develop from the ground-up plan Adams sold to Pegula almost exactly 3 years ago. Year 1 the focus was on trading Eichel, playing the kids who wanted to be here and seeing what they had They went .394 in the first half and .452 in the 2nd and the vibes went way up Year 2 the focus was on skill development above all else, showing the kids they could produce in the best league in the world They went .483 in the first half and .533 in the 2nd and the goals for went way up Year 3 the focus was on learning how to prevent goals and playing with NHL consistency, discipline and structure They went .447 in the first half and (so far) .609 in the 2nd with the goals against taking a significant drop It's impossible to ignore the fact that it is reasonable to expect a rebuilding team to make the playoffs in the third year of its rebuild, especially when that team finished just 1 point out last year. But I also find it hard to ignore the fact that each year Granato was handed something particularly broken at the start of the year, asked to fix it, and then showed real, demonstrable evidence of doing so over the course of the year. Is it a shell game? Are these 2nd-half improvements proof of progress or just empty calories? Is this step-by-step process unnecessarily slow and painful when the focus should have been on winning immediately? Or is this what "building the right way" from within looks like? I just don't know.

Offence and PP. PK is up from 28 to 18 and trending up: 10th in this quarter. Don't think it is any coincidence the defence and the PK have improved hand-in-hand and the offence and the PP have done the same in the opposite direction. The Sabres have 41 fewer goals this year than they had at the same time last year. Tuch, Thompson and Cozens have 35 fewer goals than they had at the same time last year. 16 of those on the PP. Had we maintained last year's PP, I believe we'd be in the race right now.

I'm inclined to agree with this but: Carolina 2 Florida 3, 4 Vancouver 1 Dallas 2 Tampa 2, 3 Minnesota 2 Los Angeles 0, 3 Ottawa 3 is what they've done against the good and decent offences faced this quarter

I don't think anyone would accept Adams coming back with the same roster next season. I don't think anyone expects Adams to give up on his young core. Moving on from all or most of free agents Girgensons, Okposo, Robinson, Jost, Olofsson, EJ and Comrie will create the roster and cap space to make additions, and our prospect capital gives us ammunition to translate those additions to improvements. I'm curious what people think about how much more the rest of the current roster has to give? How much improvement should we expect from within? (If you think a player is going to give us roughly the same, leave the box unticked)

Not my opinion, it's what the numbers say: The Sabres finished last season 24th in the NHL in defence, allowing 3.35 goals per game In the 1st quarter of this season they were 18th, allowing 3.33 In the 2nd quarter of this season they were 25th allowing 3.40 In the 3rd quarter of this season they are 1st allowing 2.16 Overall this season they are tied for 12th allowing 2.98 The last time the Sabres finished in the top half of the league in goals against was 2009/10, Ryan Miller's Vezina season. The only time they've been close since was when they finished 16th out of 30 in Bylsma's first year. What, if anything, should we read into this?

Of course not. Just saying that it is pretty naive to expect the players to respond to the type of rhetoric being pitched around here in anything other than a negative way. Just like I think it would be even more naive for the team to expect the fans to respond to this season in anything other than a negative way. See above. It's not about "noble". You don't think the rhetoric Adams was peddling prior to Cozens, Dahlin, Samuelsson, Thompson and Power signing influenced their decisions at all? Or that it might ring hollow to those players right now? And since I apparently have to say these things: the above does not absolve any of them for their bad play, nor suggest any fan should not be upset about same, or feel sorry for the players. I happen to agree with most of your reply to Swamp above. Tried to say the same thing in my initial post.

The amount of hatred that has been directed their way and this surprises you? I think Sabrespace feels like it has been shouting into the wind at this franchise for so long, it’s lost perspective on what it is actually putting out there right now, and that people are actually listening. I’ve been here for the entire dark era - through far worse and more uncaring teams - and I don’t ever remember it feeling this personal. I think it’s far more of a reaction to the entire disastrous Pegula era than it is about these players, but they are paying big-time for the organization making us actually feel hope in September. The fanbase may have turned on this franchise because of a decade of truly horrible hockey, but it turned on this particular group of players after less than 3 months of mediocrity. And, in my view, has treated them with a degree of disdain that far outstrips what their actual play and effort warrants. What Donnie is saying is that in the past year or two, a number of players made a long-term good-faith commitment to fix this. And they did it not ‘in spite of the city being a dump” but because they believed in Kevyn Adams story of this wonderful city and fanbase and group of players who could build something special together. But I know most of you just want to be mad and I’m the one shouting into the wind. It’s not really about the hockey on here anymore; we’ve given up on talking about that. It's just win, and ***** off until you do. You guys may be entitled to your rage, and it’s clear you feel entitled to it, but that should not make you oblivious to its repercussions.

I like this team and the majority its players. It still gives me hope. Over my 50 years of fandom, I'd put it somewhere in the bloated middle of the pack. I dislike the degree of hatred it gets on here and am sad that 13 years of Pegula has skewed people's perspectives to the point it has. But to answer the question in good faith, I disliked all these teams more: The 2021 Krueger team was a god-awful mix of uncaring mercenaries and unhappy-to-be-here vets that couldn't score to save its life, played mind-numbingly boring hockey and lost game after game after game. That team fully deserved the scorn this team gets. The 2018 and 19 Botterill/Housley teams were extraordinarily hard to love, absolutely bereft any kind of edge or esprit de corps, and loaded with has-beens, not-yets and never-weres. Eichel's considerable talent was perhaps its only redeeming quality. The Bylsma teams offered a bit more hope than the Housley teams, but god-damn were they dull. The tank teams were miserable affronts to the concept of NHL talent, leavened only by Ted Nolan's charm and attitude in the face of the mess around him. Perspective over time has elevated the last Lindy teams, but at the time it was very clear they were a team on the decline and any hope was false hope. The 02/03 team(s) kinda mirrored the last Lindy teams, in that you knew the good times were past and the road to their return was bleak. No more Peca, no Hasek, and only the me-first Miro Satan (maybe my most disliked "good" Sabre) for skill. Some may have fond memories of the last Muckel/first Nolan team in '95ish, but the pleasure of Ted's underdog schtick and the May/Ray/Barnaby fun didn't start to ignite until the following year. I remember that year as the year the promise of the Lafontaine/Mogilny years was snuffed and the talent stripped from the organization. '85-'86 was a nightmare, the first time in my experience the Sabres were actually bad, with my passage to adult hockey fandom slamming home with the realization that Scotty Bowman wasn't really a genius and his collection of 1st-rounders weren't actually going to be great players. And '86-'87 was absolutely the worst year. Instead of a rebound, we got a hamfisted collection of waiver-wire pickups and has-beens like Clark Gillies and Wilf Paiement and the worst start in franchise history as we plunged to all-time low in the standings. Perreault retiring 20 games in - giving up - was the final, crushing blow. This season will either mark a growth chapter where adversity shaped the Adams Sabres, or the beginning of the end of his era. The team wins about as much as it loses. The coach is nice guy who may be in over his head and players seem like nice kids who want to do the right thing. I'm disappointed in them. I don't dislike them at all.

I'd tend to think putting your body in harm's way night after night despite the obvious damage it is sustaining is the opposite of soft. Feel for the guy. Appreciate what he brings. And talk about kicking people when they're down.

The Canuck blueprint to go from 27th at last year's all-star break to 1st t this year's all-star break: Replace Boudreau with Tocchet, along with switching most of the rest of the coaching staff. (Effectively) trade Horvat for Hronek Swap a handful of depth guys (Bear, Schenn, Ekman-Larsson, LAzar, Dries) for a different handful of depth guys (Cole, Suter, Lafferty, Blueger, Soucy) Have your core (Petterson, Miller, Demko, Hughes, Boeser) all have fantastic years at the same time. I can tell you guys first-hand from living in the market that one year ago the Canucks fan base was a frustrated and out of hope as you seem to be, and fan expectations in training camp were very low for this season.