dudacek

That be Chytil, the guy they got in the JT Miller trade.

Out here they talk about Norris being more attractive because he’s Quinn Hughes’ buddy. All Canuck talk is filtered through “we can’t let Hughes walk when he gets to UFA”. They’re deathly afraid he will be joining his brothers in New Jersey. People already saying only reason Foote was hired is because Hughes likes him.

Looks like the Canucks are going to name Adam Foote as their new coach. Was a Tocchet assistant.

Why are people reacting to this like we’re thinking of hiring Lou as GM? Why do people think that Rick Dudley, a 76-year-old with 7 years experience as a GM, just one of those in the past 20 years would be a terrific senior advisor, and Lou Lamiorello, an 82-year-old with 37 years as a GM, including all of the past 20 years would be terrible in the same role?

Basically, it’s only the 3rd tier you’re worried about. You match the 4th and you take the picks with the 2nd. And that goes for both Byram and JJ. The danger spot is anything that translates to over $8M AAV from a team in the upper half of the league. That’s where you’re paying more than you want in contract, but getting less in compensation than you probably could have in trade. Remember, it’s not just the draft picks you’re getting in compensation, there is also the cap space you get to backfill.

Byram and Peterka's offer sheets just ran screaming in Evan Bouchard's direction.

I think Ray is a mediocre analyst but I love him as a colour guy, and there has never been a better Buffalo Sabre. I'll miss him.

That photo is fantastic 🤣 My only interest in Lou Lamiorello as a GM is that he'd be better than Kevyn Adams. But as an actual senior advisor — knowing the league, the gossip, the tricks, the history and not being afraid to give Kevyn Adams a different point of view — doubt you could find anyone more qualified. If it really is him, he's probably just finished telling Terry what an idiot he's been, and he's just about to call Tuch with instructions on where to find a razor.

So many nuances missed here. In 3 years, the cap hit of the average NHL player will be a tick under $5M: Dahlin 11 Power 8 Byram 8 leaves $8M to stay on average. That means rounding out your core with 2 $3M players and 2 $1M players, with the option of using some of your Tage savings to spend on an upgrade, if you want. The cap hit is hard now, it will be the opposite long-term. Power was a positive player - largely without Dahlin - in each of his first two seasons. We shouldn’t forget that. Byram couldn’t anchor the first pairing of the Buffalo Sabres for 7 games without Dahlin is a far cry from Byram needs Dahlin to be effective.

To be clear, there has been no actual acknowledgement that this is happening, just Friedman relaying what he heard, after initially relaying that Adams might be shuffled upstairs.

He sure plays a safer game than Clifton. And he’s just as mean and far bigger. Issue is his feet: are they fast enough to keep up with the Mitch Marner’s of the world and is he smart enough to compensate. At the AHL level he is exactly the type the Sabres seem to lack at the NHL level.

Dahlin has benefited hugely from Byram. They have been the most effective first-pairing in the NHL: I believe it is something like 35 ES goals for, 15 against, playing against the other team's best players. I hope repeating this is starting to get annoying. Those are real goals. Not imaginary ones. Doesn't matter, I know. Dahlin will be at 70% with Samuelsson too. That 51% is probably a typo.

I personally can't recall a situation where a single stat has been used to whitewash one player at the expense of all other stats. To a ton of people the only things that matter about Bowen Byram is that his expected goal numbers away from Rasmus Dahlin are considerably lower than with him and worst-case scenarios about his contract. His actual goals for and against, his overall numbers, how dominant he has been with Dahlin, the quality of his other partners, how other partners do with Dahlin, how he compares to other 23-year-olds getting 1st pairing minutes, the amount of 1st-pairing minutes he effectively eats, the block shots numbers, the hit numbers, the even strength scoring numbers — irrelevant. It's the worst case of blinders I can recall about a player on here since the old "Sam Reinhart is slow and falls down too much" days.

Cherry picking of one stat might give people a skewed view of things. Unless you believe expected goals are more important than real goals.

Some of us like to entertain ourselves by analyzing and 'fixing' the roster.

I'd rather pay Byram $7.4M than Mule and Clifton the same. I realize its not that simple. But keeping the overpaid bad players instead of overpaying the good one seems pretty Sabres-y

Inevitable reminder that Dahlin Byram was already the most elite pair in the NHL this year by a wide margin — even with UPL in goal — and nobody cares.

🤷‍♂️ In a league where 1/2 the players are below 50%, 45% and 48% seems like the definition of adequate to me.

This is what I've been thinking about a lot as well. The Sabres need to be better defensively, but they are able to outscore that when they get good goaltending. Replace 2025 UPL with 2024 UPL and we're in the race, in my opinion

Jokiharju 26% O, 56% D. That seems to combine his Boston and Buffalo play, but it doesn't explicitly state that. Bryson is 17% O, 3%D, 2nd-worst ranked skater in the Atlantic Division, ahead of only Ryan Reaves.

In theory you can if you identify low-cost, high-value defence-first players like this model thinks of JDB. In practice you are probably right

I really think the Athletic player cards do a good job of illustrating the Sabres issues on defence: Dahlin Value: $12.3M * Cost: $11.0M * Offence ranking 99% * Defence ranking 90% Byram Value: $5.3M * Cost: $3.9M * Offence ranking 69% * Defence ranking 48% Power Value: $4.7M * Cost: $8.4M * Offence ranking 62% * Defence ranking 45% Samuelsson Value: $2.1M * Cost: $4.3M * Offence ranking 21% * Defence ranking 46% Clifton Value: $0.8M * Cost: $3.3M * Offence ranking 30% * Defence ranking 13% Bernard-Docker Value: $4.2M * Cost: $0.8M * Offence ranking 42% * Defence ranking 60% Dahlin is an absolute stud, Power and Byram are positive players (good offensively, adequate defensively), Samuelsson is adequate defensively and bad offensively and Clifton stinks The problem is we have one good defensive defenceman and two starters who aren't good on either end. (I'm not sure about those JBD numbers). To me this shows an obvious solution: invest the $7.6M we pay Mule and Cliffy into two guys who are above average defensively.

Why not both?

We probably shouldn't ignore the fact Kulich got 9 assists, often playing with the league's best goal scorer and is a year older than Benson. D3 seasons of 1st-round Sabre forwards: Reinhart 79 17/30/47 -11 Eichel 67 25/39/64 -25 Nylander 12 2/2/4 -4 Mittelstadt 31 4/5/9 -2 Cozens 79 13/25/38 -19 Quinn 74 14/23/37 -7 Kulich 62, 15/9/24 -4 Benson ??? And just because I noticed him: Power 76 6/27/33 +8 He's right there with Sam Reinhart in terms of the 2nd-most advanced guy behind Eichel. That +8 really sticks out. Something to think about.

Not sure exactly where you’re aiming on this one. Luukkonen is a 3-year NHL vet with 8 years in the organization and not a prospect at all. Levi is a far better prospect than UPL ever was. He was a dominant college goalie and has been a dominant AHL goalie. UPL had an an excellent 19-year-old year as an OHL MVP and WJC star, but was exceedingly mediocre in the minors, to the point there were regular threads on here with posters calling him a flat-out bust who would never be an NHL goalie. If you mean will Levi pass him soon on the actual Buffalo depth chart, I think he will, but the Sabres can not count on that happening next year. They’re goalies, so who know? Kulich is the best prospect/skater currently on Rochester.