dudacek

I'm not fully on the Dobson train. Don't get me wrong: I like the player and think he would help the Sabres, it's just that he's basically going to demand $2M more than Byram to fill the role Byram just filled. And, like Byram, that role is not the perfect fit for his skillset.

(Reposting from the other thread because it fits here) I'm fine with Ras and JBD in 1D/6D I think Samuelsson and Clifton need to be upgraded in the 4/5 slots. Replacing Samuelsson with someone who actually manages to play well in the role we gave to Samuelsson should be the team's 2nd-highest priority. Clifton should be replaced with someone safer and tougher. I'd keep Byram with Dahlin on the 1st-pair if it was up to me, but I think that ship has sailed. If traded, Byram must be replaced by a legitimate top 4 guy, preferably one who can eat hard minutes. I'm OK with Johnson and Novikov getting a shot to beat out Bryson for 7D and being the first call-ups next year. I wish someone other than Bryson was 7D, but Kevyn obviously disagrees The highest priority on the blueline is figuring out what went wrong with Owen Power last year and fixing it. Moves I'd be interested in: Byram for Andersson Picks/prospects for Schnieder and a cap dump (or Hague, or Whitecloud or...) Sign Gavrikov Samuelsson and picks/prospects for Pulock Clifton and picks/prospects for a cap casualty (meaning a better player on a bigger contract) Other options worth looking into: Sign someone like Fabbro, Ceci, Lindgren, Perbix, Forbert, or Ruuta from the UFA pile Trade Jack Quinn for physical RD of similar age and stature

I'm fine with Ras and JBD in 1D/6D I think Samuelsson and Clifton need to be upgraded in the 4/5 slots. Replacing Samuelsson with someone who actually manages to play well in the role we gave to Samuelsson should be the team's 2nd-highest priority. Clifton should be replaced with someone safer and tougher. I'd keep Byram with Dahlin on the 1st-pair if it was up to me, but I think that ship has sailed. If traded, Byram must be replaced by a legitimate top 4 guy, preferably one who can eat hard minutes. I'm OK with Johnson and Novikov getting a shot to beat out Bryson for 7D and being the first call-ups next year. I wish someone other than Bryson was 7D, but Kevyn obviously disagrees The highest priority on the blueline is figuring out what went wrong with Owen Power last year and fixing it. Moves I'd be interested in: Byram for Andersson Picks/prospects for Schnieder and a cap dump Sign Gavrikov Samuelsson and picks/prospects for Pulock Clifton and picks/prospects for a cap casualty (meaning a better player on a bigger contract) Other options worth looking into: Sign someone like Fabbro, Ceci, Lindgren, Perbix, Forbert, or Ruuta from the UFA pile Trade Jack Quinn for physical RD of similar age and stature

I think you need to do a deeper dive into Andersson's underlying numbers and to watch him play. The contract is definitely a thing that must be accounted for before making any deal.

I'm starting to believe the correct Byram move is to Calgary for Rasmus Andersson. Calgary wants to get younger and needs a skilled top 4 LHD who can run their PP. Byram's the best one on the market Buffalo wants to get older and needs a reliable top 4 RHD who can smooth the way for Owen Power. Andersson's the best one on the market. I'm not sure what will be needed to balance the deal given the cap and the contract status of each player (Andersson is a year from UFA). But the fit seems too good not to work the rest out.

Five weeks since the Sabres season ended. Rangers let Housley go April 19 Flyers let 2 assistants go April 23 Devils let two assistants go May 9 Ducks dropped two assistants (including Tage's dad) May 10 Three of those teams also named new head coaches. I'm not sure what's normal with new assistants, but if the Sabres aren't planning to bring the band back again, one would think they would have made a move by now.

I mean, other than Norris and Greenway instead of Cozens and Benson it's basically a proven 80-point team, right? So with 72 games of Hasek-level goaltending, sure. 😄 Wait, it's still not official?

Josh Norris is a good player, but that comes with 2 caveats: 1) Kevyn Adams was stretching things considerably when he said Norris can be a first-line centre. 2) @Thorny was not stretching things at all when he consistently points out that questions about Norris' ability have to be leavened with questions about his availability. In 5 NHL seasons he has been health exactly once: his rookie year when he played all 56 games in the bubble. Since then he has missed: 16, 74, 32 and 29 games — or about 46% of his potential starts. Prior to this year, a vast majority of those missed games were due to a chronically bad shoulder, something that did not trouble him this year and the Sabres doctors assure us should not trouble him again. Technically, Norris is capable of centring a 1st line; he has high-end speed, a diligent approach to positioning, makes good and quick decisions with the puck, and has a deadly shot. But he is a 1st-line centre only in the sense that he can keep up with two high-end wingers, as opposed to drive a line in the manner we traditionally think of when we talk about 1C. You may not remember this as well as folks out here on the West Coast, but I think a good comparable is Brendan Morrison when he skated for the Canucks 20 years ago between Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi. And understand he is a finisher, not a playmaker. His career numbers put him at around 30 goals and 22 assists over 80 games. I think your expectations would be best centred at a Derek Roy to Derek Plante level 2C, who can win face-offs and help both special teams. Or maybe this: The Ottawa Senators most certainly watched Dylan Cozens play this year and decided they preferred Cozens to Norris.

Shocking that you would say that. 😉

There’s a large part of me finding it really hard to reconcile the Jack Quinn I watched tear up Rochester 4 years ago, and the Jack Quinn I watched play 27 games coming off an injury 2 years ago with the Jack Quinn I watched last year. They were like 2 completely different players. One part of my brain says: the easiest way to improve the forward ranks is by replacing Quinn with an abrasive defensively responsible player who can pop 20 goals. Another part says sell low on this guy right now and you might seriously regret it for a long time. How can you be that wrong about a player? Which I guess makes me Kevyn Adams 😬😫

That’s certainly fair, and also what I expect. That said if the Sabres wanted to operate in old-school vets-first way, they could, by icing the following top 9: Tuch Norris Thompson Quinn McLeod Peterka Zucker Krebs Greenway Every one of those players save Zucker is in their 23-30 prime. So if Kulich and/or Benson were to break into the top 9, it wouldn’t be because of “no blocking” it would be because of the poor play or injuries of a “veteran”. Quinn, Peterka and Krebs aren’t kids any more, physically, or by experience.

I hope everybody around here realizes that “youth” and “blocking” are no longer talking points with the Sabre forwards. Tage Thompson is turning 28 next season and will be entering his 7th NHL season Zucker 34 and 12 Tuch 29 and 9 Greenway 29 and 8 Norris 26 and 6 McLeod 26 and 5 Krebs 25 and 5 Peterka 24 and 4 Quinn 24 and 4 These guys have been around long enough to know what the league is about. Yes, there are 2 babies also vying to break into the top 9 in Kulich and Benson (and 2 vets in Malenstyn, 28, and Lafferty, 31) but putting them there is a choice, not an excuse. This is group that should be considered largely in its prime. The questions should be are they good enough, and are they balanced enough? “ Are they old enough?” is so 2022.

It’s all about action, not words. The Sabres decided the fitness department and the lack of management trainees needed to be accountable for the lack of results last year.

Yes, I’ll be starting Thursday.

But Jeff Skinner, Kyle Okposo, Matt Moulson, Christian Ehrhoff and Ville Leino all went so well.

Ryan O'Reilly did it a couple years after Bergeron. I may be missing somebody, but I think he, Benson and Cole Sillinger are the only 18-year-olds since Bergeron to play in the NHL full-time in the D+1 year that were not top 10 draft picks. The list of players to score 25 points as an 18-year-old this century doesn't have many players on it who didn't become stars.

I'm really curious if Peterka has another gear. He's turned 23 and cracked the 200-game mark: was this his breakout year? Is he a 30-goal, 65-point top 6 winger, or can he graduate to a 40-goal, point-a-game star? He's young enough and he's skilled enough to take another step but does he have the processor and the will? Personally, I don't think so. But I'm not quite ready to rule it out.

Definitely is relevant.

Another one is Lehner acquired for a 1st, no return. The McNabb deal is a perennial favourite around here. I haven’t completely tracked the Kane deal trade tree, but I don’t think the Sabres have any assets left from that one. Botterill was a disaster at managing assets and Adams squandered a lot of what was left in the Bubble. Yes, the McCabe injury was a stroke of bad luck, and Botterill set him up for failure, but managing to turn Ullmark, McCabe and Montour into exactly nothing is a huge black mark against Adams that no one ever talks about.

This was interesting to look into: Cozens acquired for pick 7, flipped for Josh Norris Skinner acquired for basically a 2nd, no return Jokiharju acquired for Nylander, flipped for a 2026 4th Savoie acquired for pick 9, flipped for McLeod Mittelstadt acquired for pick 8, flipped for Byram Lyubushkin acquired for nothing, flipped for a 2025 4th Erik Johnson acquired for nothing, flipped for Simon-Pierre Brunet and Ryerson Leenders Colin Miller acquired for a 2nd and a 5th, no return Sam Reinhart acquired for 2nd overall pick, flipped for Kulich and Levi Jack Eichel acquired for 2nd overall pick, flipped for Tuch, Krebs, Östlund and Greenway Taylor Hall acquired for nothing, flipped for Bjork and Kisakov Brandon montour acquired for a 1st-rounder (Brayden Tracey) and Brendan Guhle, flipped for Stiven Sardarian Eric Staal acquired for Marcus Johansson, flipped for Riley Stillman and Viljami Marjala Jake McCabe acquired for a 2nd, no return Linus Ullmark acquired for a 6th, no return Connor Sheary acquired for a 4th (Mattias Marcelli) flipped for Dominik Kahun Pominville and Scandella acquired for Foligno and Ennis, flipped for Michael Frolik Ryan O’Rielly acquired for Grigorenko, Zadorov, Compher and Jeremy Roy, flipped effectively for Thompson, Johnson and Colin Miller The most notable thing to me here was the amount of assets frittered away by Botterill and during Adams first year. Eichel, Reinhart, Ullmark, O’Reilly, Montour, McCabe, Foligno, Hall, Johansson, and Miller are all playing in the NHL right now. In exchange the Sabres have Thompson, Tuch, Greenway, Krebs and Kulich.

The market for a player like Bowen Byram is fairly well established in recent years. Chychrun for Jensen and a 3rd Sergachev for Moser, Geekie and a 2nd Byram for Mittlestadt Hronek for a 1st and a 2nd Provorov (and cap space) for Sean Walker, a 1st, a 2nd, Grans Chychrun for a 1st and 2 2nds I think this is a player who had a lot of GMs very interested in him 5 years ago, and who did a ton of work this season to rehabilitate his value. If a 25-point Byram coming off concussion issues can return a 60-point centre, what can a healthy, 40-point, 23-minute-a-night +11 on stinky Buffalo Byram return? I expect the market to be strong: any team lacking a PP QB, or looking to upgrade their skill level on the back end (read most teams) will be very interested. It feels like this is the chip Adams intends to play and one that could generate a good return.

I think Cuylle and Schneider simply do not have Peterka’s upside. Those two for Peterka and cap space is more fair value. Maybe add Clifton and a prospect for Kreider? Miller is the guy the Rangers will be shopping, rather than Schneider. Ive never seen a trade like this, but what do we think of Miller and Schnieder for Samuelsson and Byram?

The player on this list I struggled the most to find comparables for is Mattias Samuelsson. There just aren’t many 25-year-old defensive defencemen with 5 years left at $4.2M period, let alone ones who have been traded. Alex Carrier for Justin Barron Dante Fabbro on waivers Will Borgen (and a 3rd) for Kaapo Kakko Olli Maatta for a 3rd Brian Doumoulin for a 4th None of these guys are perfect matches. The contract in and of itself is actually quite good in this rising cap environment for the entire prime of a big responsible stay-at-home 2nd-pairing D. The issue is how Infrequently Mule has been that player due to injury and poor play. I suspect there are teams who have no interest in Samuelsson under any circumstances and teams desperate enough for the concept of Samuelsson that think they can wash off the Buffalo stink. I think the Sabres best approach may be the one they took with Cozens: find a similar depreciated asset, exchange change-of-scenery guys, and cross your fingers. When I hear Lindy Ruff talk culture and about figuring out how certain Sabres didn’t match his preconceived concept of them over the course of the year, I think first of Mule. I think they played him with Dahlin down the stretch to rehabilitate some value in order to trade him this summer and I think he - along with Byram - is the most likely Sabre to be moved. I don’t expect the return to be much.

I think what bugs me about your Amerks posts is the lack of context. "They're doing it wrong, just like the Sabres" Amerks might be flawed (we'll see) but they're contenders; they're nothing like the Sabres. They had the 7th-best defence in the AHL this year and the 7th-best offence and the 4th-best record. In NHL terms, they're the Knights or the Canes, not the Sabres. It's one of those things where you've set yourself up to be 'right' until they win the Calder Cup, and even then you'll say "It wont translate to the NHL because they're doing it wrong."

I think the Rangers would have trouble paying Byram what he wants. I also think Byram is significantly better than Schnieder. Would have to be a few more pieces to make this work