dudacek

Mersch was not re-signed. Prow and Murray (and Jobst?) were wearing As yesterday.

You keep saying this. I’m not going to look it up again, but he was something like 2nd or 3rd in scoring among all U21 AHL players. His production was not pedestrian. If you’re comparing to that 06 team, Jason Pominville had 34 points in 73 AHL games at the same stage of his career (Rosen had 50 in 67) and has a similar profile as a player in terms of strengths and weaknesses.

Exactly, in approach at least. In skill Östlund is right up there too, but he is constantly around the puck.

Context there was Hamilton asked "Lindy don't you think Dahlin tends to put too much on his shoulders, how can you make sure that doesn't happen?" More interesting to me was Lindy specifically mentioning Thompson, Tuch, Cozens and Samuelsson as guys who are setting the tone. Your As are in that group, and Lindy's weird track record makes me wonder if all 4 might get letters. As far as I'm concerned, Dahlin as captain has been written in stone for a year.

I'm sure he was disappointed his buddy Kulich was headed to Prague and he wasn't

That game was exactly why I’m highly skeptical of Rosen. There was a no-look one-touch pass he made with his back hand under pressure from behind the net, and another blink-and-you-miss-the release rocket he pinged off the post through traffic that showcased high-end NHL skill. And he was painfully diligent defensively, consistently circling back high and trying to stay in the right side of the puck. But the vast majority of the game he was just circling and waiting; he’s never demanding the puck or going out if his way to get it. The kid has real NHL skill and he doesn’t seem to get bullied out there, his game is just so quiet.

I would imagine Leone wanted to evaluate how adept his troops were at bringing a game home. New coach, that was very much the bulk of his team out there.

This list is billed as a conversation starter and everyone is going to find something to disagree with. It's also probably the best representation of an informed consensus as you’re going to get. It has 5 tiers: MVP (best player on almost any team in the league) 12 players Franchise (best player on a contending team) 20 players, Dahlin dropped out of this category because his points dropped and the Sabres were bad All-star (strong 1st-liner, above average #1D, borderline top 5 goalie) 30 players, including Dahlin and Thompson. They break tiers into sub-levels, Dahlin is in the highest of the 3 along with Bedard, Hedman and Vasilievskiiy. Thompson the lowest, along with Stutzle and J.T. Miller. Star (average 1st-liner, below average #1 D, top 10 goalie) 36 players Support (below average 1st-line, good #2 D, above average starter) 52 players, including Power, Tuch and Cozens. Power is in the highest sub-level with Stamkos, Sergachev, Hampus Lindholm and John Carlson. Tuch is in the 2nd sub-level with Schiefele, Caufield, and Malkin. Cozens in the 3rd and lowest tier along with Patty Kane, Ovechkin, Byfield and Lafreniere

Tuch. There’s no 5 player per team thing. It’s the NHL’s top 150 players at large. There’s a wide variation per team. Ducks have 1 player in the list, San Jose none, Edmonton and Florida 7 each

He has only played wing as an Amerk and Forton has said that's where he will likely end up.

Cozens. Power is ranked on the same tier, but slightly higher

The Athletic sees him as the 5th-best player on the Sabres and just inside the top 150 in the NHL.

The Athletic pointed out that the reason Tage wasn't higher last year was because he wasn't good defensively. What was interesting is that they said his defensive numbers went up dramatically last year. So they now need to see him maintain that while his scoring bounces back.

They are given an exemption to carry them, but it hasn’t been made clear in anything I’ve read if that will delay the date they have to waived, or to when. In other words, will they be officially Sabres or Amerks on NHL roster cutdown day, despite being in Europe?

I hope Levi stays up and he and Luukkonen form a Swaymand/Ullmark combo. He’s better then Reimer, the playoffs are the priority and running out 2 good, fresh goalies is our best chance of getting there.

Athletic’s annual ranking just came out today. He was ranked at the same level as Hedman as the 8th/9th best defenceman and between the 32 and 39th best player overall - they rank in tiers using statistical analysis then vetting that through real NHL executives. Dahlin fell out of Tier 2 for two primary reasons: He didn’t produce as much offensively as he did in 2022-23 (in terms of both points total and overall impact) and the Sabres regressed as a team. Still, there’s plenty of reason to think a return to franchise-player status is still in the cards for the 24-year-old, starting with the fact he had a second consecutive season of decent defensive play. That’s exactly what some of his doubters wanted to see, and he delivered. ”I do (think he can defend at an elite level),” one coach said. ”I hear great things about him as a competitor. He can defend as well as all those (Tier 2) guys.” If he shows the full picture for a full season — and some of that hinges on his teammates — he’ll regain his forward momentum. He’s got top-five D-man potential. On topic, Tage ranked in the 16 to 20 range for centres - and between 50 and 62 overall. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5750903/2024/09/24/nhl-best-players-list-2024-2025-season/ Other Sabres to make the list of the NHL’s 150 best players were Tuch and local whipping boys Power and Cozens.

If I was drafting a D from scratch the only guys i would consider over Ras are Makar and Hughes. They are as talented and have had better results over the past 2 years. Hedman and Josi are on his level right now, but I take Dahlin because he is at the start of his prime, rather than the finish. Fox, McAvoy and Heiskanen are in the ballpark to the point where I could see why someone would prefer one of them. I prefer Ras. For me, no one else is in the discussion. So somewhere between 3 and 8 is fair. I agree with @LGR4GM, that his numbers and his reputation among the greater NHL fanbase is tainted by being on the Sabres. Just look at how the perception of Hughes shifted last year. If Buffalo ever gets good, he will be in the Norris conversation.

I see no reason why Dahlin returning would affect either of those 2 in terms of deployment and/or production. Lindy's game plan over the first 2 exhibitions seemed to be "play your regular season lineup as much as possible". And the workaround for Dahlin's injury was to plug Jokiharju into Dahlin's role entirely. There is no reason he couldn't use Byram and Power exactly like they were used the past 2 games. And I suspect he will for as long as they hold their own against NHLers. Given the underlying numbers of Dahlin/Joki in the past, and the way Henri has played so far, I think he starts with Ras. Particularly because Mule/Clifton has some nice ruggedness I can see Lindy appreciating

So the consensus starting 20, plus Reimer, Gilbert, Bryson, Clague, Krebs, Kulich, Rousek? Makes sense I guess.I would have brought Rosen, then Johnson ahead of Clague, but it sends a message to each and hopefully stokes their fire. *** The game tonight will be interesting look at the Amerks. Two extra players on that roster, so a couple will be sitting out, and those are goalies 5 and 6 on the depth chart. But I think that's basically the Amerks team minus Sandstrom, Neuchev and whichever 4 of the Prague 7 ends up being sent down.

I never thought anyone could possibly challenge Owen Power for the the honour, but somehow Dylan Cozens has become the most underrated player on Sabrespace.

Sometimes things like these can be a little hard to judge. Im thinking of Lindy’s post-game after the opener, when he was asked about giveaways. He said something to the effect of “it wasn’t the passer’s fault, the other guy didn’t do what he was supposed to do.” Now don’t get me wrong, I find it hard to believe Cozens is being asked to cover that much territory and your post makes sense, My point is, I’m not sure what it is Cozens has been asked to do. Usually, if a player is blowing his assignment, he stops getting the assignment; that’s certainly been Lindy’s MO in the past. So I guess we’ll see.

Before I found out how they were using camp, I was wondering if Krebs would get a look on one of the scoring lines. It’s a little surprising though under the condensed circumstances. Maybe a peek at their intentions for him this year? He’s going to be a Swiss Army knife that gets plugged throughout the lineup as needed, as opposed to a 13th guy who gets plugged in at the bottom of the roster and everyone else moves up? I’m particularly interested in seeing what McLeod brings. Hope the Jackets dress more NHLers than PIttsburgh did.

Amen. It's like Bruce Smith, or Perreault or Hasek: it's a rare privilege to have a guy that good on your team. Enjoy it while you can. I my view, Josh is 2nd-greatest Buffalo athlete ever, after Dom.

Staff has made it clear they are icing a similarly strong roster for both pre-Munich games. Lindy says some of his regulars will play one game, more of them will play 2 Zucker is clearly the next man up on the PP after Kulich, but I can't see him in that same slot. I wonder if he'd go into Cozens slot and Dylan slides up higher. Id think he'd go where Byram is an Byram where Kulich is. Regardless, expecting a lot more motion and rotation anyway.

Agreed. I think it shows that the Sabres forwards are theoretically old enough to make a jump this season. Good enough is an entirely different question.