dudacek

Speaking of Skinner, he had another typical Skinner game where he contributed about as much as he usually does 4 out of every 5 outings.

Who? Who had cap space? And a need for 1st line LW? And lived in the small window Skinner wanted to be? And the willingness to make a 65-point one-trick pony among the top 10 highest paid players in the league? The Sabres bid against themselves and got played

Do you think anyone else would have signed Skinner for $9 million? Or even $8?

Ugliest period in a while. Bruins clearly more engaged.

Haven't you noticed how every time McCabe and Borgen are on the ice they are doing so much to create dangerous scoring chances? And people laugh at +/-

It's more of an ellipse

No one in my circle has reported any significant side effects.

Ruhwedel, Pysyk, Borgen, and Renouf, them Kraken is gonna be loaded!

Agreed, yet weirdly catchy.

I think it is a bit ridiculous that someone could be arguing that a player who hasn't even been a 30-point player over the past 2.5 seasons, doesn't play special teams, and is regularly hidden from tough defensive situations is more than just a guy. He used to be, but we have not seen that player in a long time.

I don't know how anyone can imply Skinner's defence is making up for his lack of offence with a straight face. When 8 points in 17 games on the first line is the high point of a 126-game stretch? When the offence that he creates is so infrequent? His assist last night amounted to him being bumped off the puck and Olofsson beating the Bruin to it.

I think Granato has been exactly the right coach to finish this season. He's found a way to let the fans and the players enjoy hockey again. He's erased the doubts that were creeping in about Dahlin, resurrected Casey Mittelstadt's career, uncovered startling things about Sam Reinhart and kindled hope for a half-dozen youngsters. He's also won about as many games as one could reasonably expect given the situation and the talent he was handed. None of these things mean he is the right coach to take this team into next season. Or the wrong one.

He's spent the past month playing on the first line with Sam Reinhart, who is good and recently has been on fire. Jeff has scored 3 goals in 17 games. I think that if a player can only rise above JAG status if he is nailed to the hip of one of the best players in the world, he's still a JAG. Here's an interesting frame of reference: Casey Mittelstadt put up 17 goals and 22 assists in his first 114 NHL games and was sent to the minors. Jeff has 24 goals and 17 assists in his past 126 games.

Granato took over a broken team after 12 straight losses, then the team lost 6 more. When did this team stop being Krueger's and start being Granato's? He is playing three rookie defencemen, two of his three 'veterans' are 21 and 20. All three of his captains and both his goalies are injured His starting goalie hadn't won an NHL game in five years and his backup hasn't established himself as a starter in the AHL yet His 1st line centre hasn't played centre in years. His 2nd line centre played in the minors last year and entered the year with 17 career goals. He's regularly dressing 4-6 players (Sheahan, Rieder, Bjork, Caggiula, Eakin, and Irwin) who have been healthy scratches this year and could be classified as borderline NHLers He's also leaning on 8 more who weren't in the NHL at all last year. Even after dropping three straight, he's 7/8/2 in the past month. How much better do you think another coach could have done? (This is an honest question, not an endorsement of Granato.)

He does, and I like him. It's very early.

I think many Sabres needed to discover they are capable of making risky plays at this level. How do you reach your limits without being able to explore them? I do agree the risk will have to be dialed back at some point, but what I'm increasingly seeing is that the Sabres don't have enough horses up front to maintain this style. Casey and Sam have combined for 20 goals in the past month. The other 10 forwards have 21. Jack should make a difference. But Bjork, Skinner, Caggiula, Rieder and Sheahan are JAGs and Thompson, Asplund and R2 might be too. That's too many.

Good catch on Cozens. I multiplied by 10, rather than 8 for some reason. Fixed in the original post. For the other, I went back a month, so the March 31 game is included.

So 3 points with the goalie pulled? I have him with 4G and 2A on the PP, 15 points overall, in the past 16 games. https://www.espn.com/nhl/player/gamelog/_/id/3114722/sam-reinhart

Great post. The bolded is the crux of the debate and we won't know until we see it play out. Another one to chew on: what if playing Cozens on Jack's wing accelerates Dylan's offensive development in such a way that he becomes Reinhart's equal as Jack's sidekick almost immediately? It's pretty well acknowledged wing is an easier position to play and I find it easier to see Dylan jumping from a 30-point 3C to a 60-point 1RW than I do to a 50-point 2C. By the overthinking comment, I meant not paying enough attention to how well Sam is actually playing centre; it's not like he's been pretty good, it's that he's producing like a legit 1C. We carry the baggage of the Sam-to-centre history, and the 'Dylan needs to become our 2C' projections. Sam's play should be changing that. If we had flipped RW Sam Reinhart for C Tom Ranheim a month back and Ranheim had played like Reinhart is, moving Ranheim to the wing when Eichel returns would not have been a consideration. I expect Cozens to become a top 6 forward. I do not expect Cozens to be a 2C on a playoff team next year. How much of that is projecting for Cozens, and how much is thinking Mittelstadt's past month is a mirage? Generally speaking how many points do you expect from each of them next year?

Expect, no. I think there is a chance and I hope it happens. It depends on a lot of factors: Dahlin's contract, what happens with Reinhart and Risto, who ends up with Seattle in the expansion draft, and how his injury affects his market value. Also his mindset: does he have unfinished business here, or is he ready for a reset? Cap space isn't infinite and the Sabres may see Borgen and/or Samuelsson as ready to take over his role at a cheaper price and choose to spend money elsewhere.

You won't find many players who combined his level of excellence on the ice with his commitment to the franchise and to Buffalo. A true all-time Sabre, whose number needs to be retired.

I think you have to differentiate between the first half of his time here when he was playing pretty well and not producing goals and the second half when he was lost and/or had given up.

You guys are thinking too hard based on an outdated set of premises. The obvious 2C solution is right there in front of you. https://buffalonews.com/sports/sabres/sam-reinharts-successful-transition-to-center-strengthens-sabres-depth/article_4adf77ba-a82c-11eb-8f1f-2bf1703a4b5e.html Moving Reinhart off the right wing equates to taking the restrictor plate off a sports car. Playing down the middle has given him more room to distribute the puck to his teammates. “What I really like about him, Sam is not only a great goal scorer, he has more room to find different pockets because he’s not wedged against the wall half the game,” Granato said. “He can move east-west, left-right, and he has a creative side to him as well, very deceptive and creative player. He has more opportunity offensively in that position. I feel we’ve seen that and we’ve been able to take advantage of that. As he’s re-acclimated to that position, he shows signs of continuing to get better and more dangerous.”

Forgive me for using pace, which I know can frequently be misleading, but I think this discussion needs some context. I think the first numbers are generally an indication of what we could reasonably expect next year. The 2nd show what each player has accomplished in their current role under the current system. Over 82, based on this season's pace: Mittelstadt 21/21/42/-20 Cozens 9/21/30/-17 Over 82, based on this month's pace: Mittelstadt 40/26/66/+31 Cozens 0/56/56/-7 (*Edited from original post for math) Given the upheaval this season and the youth of each player I don't think we can use this season to effectively predict next, but Cozens has shown nothing to indicate he is capable of being a 2nd-line centre next season. Mittelstadt maybe but the sample size is very small.

We can ice this team (minus whoever goes to Seattle) in September: Skinner Eichel Reinhart Olofsson Cozens Ruotsalainen Asplund Mittelstadt Thompson Bjork Girgensons Eakin Okposo Dahlin Jokiharju Samuelsson Ristolainen Bryson Borgen Miller with approximately $8-15 million in cap space to sign two goalies and make any upgrades. Actual cap space is $31.5 million. I'd project ~ $20 million of that to RFAs Reinhart and Dahlin (a lot), Jokiharju and Mitts (affordable bridges), Asplund and Borgen (dirt cheap)