dudacek

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.

Both of last year’s backups, sandstorm and Houser, are without contracts. I doubt Sandstrom returns, but Houser seems to resurface annually as the organizational number 5. The plan seems to be rotating the two young guys between starting in Jacksonville and backing up in Rochester. Their youth is a main reason why I’m pretty sure Levi is pencilled in for Rochester. UPL spent most of the year in the ECHL when he was their age and Ullmark didnt come over until he was 22. Can’t remember the last time the Amerks had a 20 or 21-year-old goalie playing regularly.

It’s interesting that 3 key veteran forwards from last year remain unsigned: Rousek, Murray and the captain Jobst. Rousek has gone back to Europe and Meyer looks like his obvious replacement. Geertsen and Leschyshyn aren’t direct parallels, but they may slide into the roster spots of the other two. Neither Jobst, nor Murray have signed anywhere that I’ve seen. I wonder if they could still re-sign, or if the idea is to lean on Helenius and Wahlberg more in their roles.

Centre Östlund Helenius Kozak Leschsyshyn Dunne Costantini Wing Rosen Meyer Wahlberg Neuchev Geertsen Fiddler-schultz Warren Slaggert Joshua Kuntar Koppf Nadeau Defence Jones/Bryson Johnson Rathbone Novikov Metsa Komarov Beliveau Laaouan Tischke Goalie Levi Ratzlaff Leinonen

What the current Sabres have to show for the past 12 years of their own first-round picks: Kulich, Levi, Tuch, Krebs, Östlund, Greenway, Byram, Dahlin, Norris, Quinn, Power, McLeod, Benson, Malenstyn, Helenius, Mrtka and a 2026 4th-rounder. What they have to show from the rest of the draft over those 12 years: Timmins, Kozak, Kesselring, Doan, Bryson, Luukkonen, Samuelsson, various prospects What they have to show from various signings and trades not directly involving those 12 years of picks: Lyon, Danforth, Jones, Zucker, Thompson, Johnson

US has a split squad at the Summer showcase, which functions a little as a training/tryout camp for the WJC. Zeimer is alongside Hagens on the 1st line of one team, Osburn and Kleber are the 1st pair on the other.

I actually like the PK forwards: Tuch, McLeod and Greenway are very good, Benson and Malenstyn are fine, Norris PKs as does Danforth and Doan seems have the skillset. It’s the D I worry about. Clifton and Samuelsson led the team SH TOI last year and neither were great. Byram was next and Dahlin started to take Power’s minutes down the stretch. (Even though Power led the team in PP goals against per 60 for the season) Kesselring and Timmins were not regular penalty killers. Seems like a gross oversight in the offseason plan

I'm pretty sure you're correct: there was a fair share of healthy scratches in there:

In actual spending this year's Sabres are expected to pay out $108M in contracts, 21st among league teams. Last year, they spent $99.6M, ranking 27th, a figure inflated by the Skinner buyout https://www.spotrac.com/nhl/cash

Last year's Sabres spent $79.6M, which was $8.4M under the cap of $88M. They ranked 7th in unspent cap

So the Sabres have now filled out their 23-man roster and are at $90.3M under the cap, leaving them with $5.1M in space. They did not have to pay to trade Conor Clifton or not qualify Jacob Bernard-Docker to fit under the cap, which sits at $95.5M. They rank dead centre of the league in terms of cap space remaining, at 16th. It is possible that rank will change with further trades or signings around the league, but unlikely it will shift dramatically given the lack of available roster spots or expensive unsigned players. They are scheduled to spend $89.2M in actual salaries and bonuses this year, slightly less than their actual cap hit.

My pet theory is that the brain trust brainstormed exactly what undervalued player they could find that could be the kind of partner Owen Power needed and somehow arrived at Timmins as the answer. They then decided to pay whatever price was necessary in order to obtain him. It's the same theory I have for the thought process (sub in 4th-line forechecker) that led to the Malenstyn trade.

You're bang on with this. Their actions show they think Timmins is helluvalot better than I do. This is a injury-plagued player who has played 42, 37, 6, 33, 25 and 68 games respectively in each of his 6 pro seasons. He has a history of solid Corsi numbers but doesn't seem to add much in terms of production or physical play. They've chosen to invest 2 years, $4.4M and a 2nd-round draft pick in him. And giving away Clifton was not necessary under the cap in order to make that happen. Their valuation makes no sense to me.

Here’s something I have not seen posted about: If you had to identify the most frustrated Sabres last year would any of Cozens, Lafferty. Clifton, Peterka and Jokiharju not be on the list? I wonder how many of square pegs with Ruff are left? Who did they miss? Quinn maybe? Samuelsson?

Change is never non-consequential. Every piece In and out resets the chemistry and creates opportunity. Chychrun for Jensen helped both teams. Adding Steven Stamkos for nothing helped torpedo the Predators. St Louis signed 6-goal scorer Dylan Holloway and got 60-point scorer Dylan Holloway. People don’t know if the Sabres got better. And their view of the changes won’t matter. But they will continue to expect they haven’t until they do.

I still think Benson is the best choice to complement Norris and Tage: netfront presence, passing, puck possession, puck retrievals, defensive zone coverage - he’s got proficiency in areas the other two lack and he’s got enough untapped offence that he won’t slow them down in that area. Doan might work for similar reasons but I think he’s not as smart or skilled. Same with Greenway. Quinn is plenty skilled but too similar to Tage in his approach and too lacking in the off-puck areas. Kulich is too similar to Norris. Tuch would make for the strongest line, but that would expose vulnerabilities elsewhere. Zucker might work nicely.

After the “core four” I see three groups of three battling for ice time and to carve out a specific role for themselves. The third group is the easiest to identify: Krebs, Danforth and Malenstyn, the energy guys. These are the role players who will typically get 4th line minutes and bump up the roster to keep the rest honest. Think Mair, Gaustad Group 2 is the scorers Zucker, Quinn and Kulich who will battle for PP time and offensive opportunities. Think Dumont, Afinogenov And group 3 is the “hard-to-play against” group of Benson, Greenway and Doan who will battle for shutdown time and the dirty work with skill guys. Hecht, Grier. Im really curious how much scoring we can get from Group 3 and how much defence from group 2 - I think rounding out their games will be key to their ice time, and how Lindy will mix and match in terms of lines and deployment. I see those 6 with more or less equal opportunity to fill out the top 9 in myriad ways based not only on how well they play, but what kind of identity Lindy wants to establish. Some will sink and some will swim.

Oh I would have. I’m a Sabrespacer, we know better. 😜

I am real curious about what Lindy’s plans are for this group of forwards, if it’s indeed what they start the season with. I don’t think there is much debate about Thompson and Tuch being our top 2 forwards and the guys who are going to top the ice time charts. And Lindy seemed to make it clear down the stretch that he prefers Thompson on the wing, which is probably going to put these two on different lines. It was made pretty clear when they acquired him that they intend to lean on Norris heavily in a top 6 role. Whether that’s with Tage as in his brief trial, remains to be seen. And for all the Kulich chatter, Lindy playing McLeod 19 minutes a night as he registered a point per game makes it pretty clear who his other top centre is. It’s possible McLeod ends up centring a “3rd” (checking) line of some sort. But personally I think he and Tuch will be a hard-minute pairing on the “2nd” line deployed like the Drury line back in the day, while Tage and Norris are the first choice in offensive situations. Regardless of lines, I think it’s pretty clear these are the four guys starting at the top of the depth chart in terms of ice time.