dudacek

It will fascinating to see how it plays out. The Sabres got Skinner as cheaply as they did because his NTC and pending UFA status depressed the market. Laine’s contract demands, potential attitude problem and incomplete game will depress the market as well, but how much? The larger the contract the smaller the price teams will pay - especially late in the summer with so many teams hard against the cap. I think the Jets will be looking at an either/or situation. Some team giving up the equivalent of Risto and Cozens and a first and signing him to a four-year $35 million deal? Don’t see teams lining up for that. Unless the Jets are willing to wait him out, he’s kinda got Winnipeg over a barrel, and it doesn’t feel like Matthews and Nylander on Management’s side, I kinda get the sense they don’t believe in Laine any more.

As someone without an HR background who has done a fair amount of hiring, I’d say make the call. There remains a chance they aren’t in love with the candidates they did interview and give you a late shot. And, as @Doohickie says it might influence them in another hiring decision.

Great look at 7 of these guys gunning for spots this year: https://www.nhl.com/sabres/news/buffalo-sabres-cj-smith-victor-olofsson-henri-jokiharju/c-308896458

Put up essentially the same point totals at the same age last year, Asplund in the AHL, Arttu in Finland. Asplund played 15 more games, but also put up 23 points in his last 22 games.

I’d like to have more information about the portability of analytics; ie, how constant are they from situation to situation when a player switches to a new coach, or a new team? For example, Randall expects Barrie’s points to climb because he is in a “better” situation in Toronto. Can we make similar suppositions about analytics? Its my understanding that analytics like Corsi and WOWY measure not how “good” a player is, but how effective his team was while he was being used in the situations he was being used in. Therefore, I am expecting Colin Miller to have worse analytics as a 2nd pairing guy in Buffalo than he did as a 3rd pairing guy in Vegas. Can anyone expand on that for me?

I really, really want to see Rasmus Asplund emerge this year like Mike Peca in ‘96. His play in this last year was outstanding. Love the way that guy reads and works.

I seem to remember reading they will be streamed on the Sabres website, but only in the Buffalo market. Hopefully someone can help us desperate out-of-market folk out if that is the case.

Best 12 Sabre forwards, regardless of position: Perreault, Lafontaine, Eichel, Hawerchuk, Gare, Martin, Mogilny, Peca, Foligno, Andreychuk, Robert, Ramsay Top 6 defence: Ramsey, Schoenfeld, Housley, Dahlin, Zhitnik, Campbell Top 2 goalies: Hasek, Miller Off the top of my head at least.

In the three years he’s been in the league, he’s 6th with 110 goals, one less than Matthews, two behind Tavares and McDavid. Kucherov has 120 and Ovechkin 133.

I would probably rank Laine as one of the 10 best goal scorers in the league. I doubt I’d rank him in the top 100 players in the league. What is so intriguing is the fact that he is so young and there is a lot of room for him to address his flaws. At a franchise player price (Cozens, Risto and a 1st) I’d walk away and never look back, but at a forced trade buy-low Rick Nash rate (Risto and a non-core plus) I’m intrigued.

I would be very sad if we traded Reinhart for Laine straight across, never mind packaged with Risto. At least we’re both consistent ? Is Laine a better player than Skinner?

Risto was quoted as saying Dahlin sometimes ate burgers for breakfast.

I don’t see this as my personal opinion, more of my reading of what I see fans do. And I see their point. The difference between McDavid and Johansen is far greater than the gap between Johansen and Hayes. Part of it is Blue’s point about the unspoken addendum of “on a good team” and part of it is a lack of appreciation of how many players are actually in the league.

I think for observant fans, context is key. I’m with Blue, when you have parts like Eichel and Dahlin in place and a gaping hole at 2C, I trade Cozens for the guy I hope Cozens turns into every time. And every fanbase obsesses over, and overrates their prospects. The Sad Sack Franchise fans are just more vocal about it because it’s all they have.

The single most defining characteristic of a “number one” in the minds of the general public is the ability to produce points in a highlight-reel fashion. That’s how you get people actually thinking Barzal is in the same stratosphere as Couturier. The only way to overcome that is to win: see Toews, Jonathan and Bergeron, Patrice.

It makes no sense, but people do it all the time. When people say 1st-pairing defenceman they generally mean top-20, when they say top-four, they mean top 3. When people say Ristolainen is a 3rd-pairing defencman, do they really think that a player who has consistently been among the top 30 in scoring over the past 4 years, is not among the top 120 defencemen in the NHL?

You will quibble with the rankings, but IMO elite 2nd line centre is somewhere around your favourite guy on the third of these three tiers, or your least favourite on the second: McDavid, Crosby, McKinnon, Barkov, Tavares, Bergeron Point, Stamkos, Draisaitl, Giroux, Schiefele, Eichel, Aho, Toews, Matthews, Seguin, Backstrom, Malkin, Kopitar, Pavelski, Barzal O’Reilly, Couturier, Monahan, Zibenijad, Larkin, Domi, Duchene, Kuznetsov, Petterson, Couture, Johansen, Nugent-Hopkins, Horvat, Dubois, Karlsson...

I’m thinking elite number twos are the guys you’d rank in that range - guys who aren’t clear-cut ones, but who would be centring the first line on a lot of teams.

The Sabres would be Cup contenders for a long time if they traded all their prospects for McDavid. We could conceivably have one of the best players in the world on the ice at all times. Basically, they would be the Penguins of 10 years ago, riding Jack, Conor and Rasmus for a decade like Pittsburgh did Malkin, Crosby Letang. Guys like Risto, Skinner Reinhart Montour Miller would eventually be flipped to replenish the pipeline.

If this is a thought experiment, the player in question would not be Malkin or Matthews, who are clearly a “number one centre” playing on a team with another “number one centre” O’Reilly is not, but was the first line centre on a cup-winning team, so I think he is definitely the type of player who fits PA’s description for me. Others might be Duchene, Couturier, Johansen, Horvat... Maybe some part-time wingers like Draisaitl and Couture.

Voted Samuelsson, but really there’s not much to choose between him and Johnson. The Borgen, Jokiharju, Laaksonen, Dahlin, Samuelsson, Johnson run could ultimately be what fixes the Sabres long-term if it compares favourably to the Vatanen, Lindholm, Fowler, Manson, Theodore, Montour run the Ducks had. Hopefully we manage that group a little better than they did.

While the idea of Eichel feeding Laine for bombs on the perimeter and Skinner darting into the dirty areas is attractive, that combo of wingers terrifies me everywhere else on the ice. You’d almost certainly play one of them with Reinhart.

A lot of good coaches fail in the NHL. A few bad ones succeed. I don’t think there are any coaches with a universal “magic bullet.” It’s about finding the right guy to maximize the potential of the group he’s handed. Craig Berube last year in St. Louis was the prime example. To paraphrase Herb Brooks: we don’t need the best coach, we need the right one.

No.I’d trade Ryan Johnson and Tage Thompson for one though. Probably throw in Colin Miller.

Provorov and Werenski are intriguing targets, if true, although I would think either is worth more than Laine. The RFA situation bears watching.