dudacek

His defensive numbers were actual quite good last year, and 20-ish points is fine for a 4C. He drastically reduced his giveaways, and his shot-blocking and hitting numbers were fine. In terms of 5-on-5 play there is no need to upgrade him in that 4C role. This is a kid who has really been asked to transform his game over the past 2 years, from a high-risk offensive distributor to a conscientious, hard-to-play-against checker. It's been a big ask, and he's really worked hard to make the adjustment. I see his question as two-fold: How much specialization do they need on their 4th line, because he doesn't bring the high-end PK, faceoff, or physicality elements that coaches often look for from those players. Can he tap back into his innate playmaking skills at all without losing his defensive gains? Because that would make him a perfect 3C. I think he ultimately will settle into a long-term career and be pretty good in a 3C role. I just don't know if he can get there this year, or if the Sabres can afford to wait.

Steve Yzerman 5'11" 185 Joe Sakic 5'!1" 185 Pat Lafontaine 5'10" 180 Dale Hawerchuk 5'11" 185 Wayne Gretzky 6'0" 185 Mike Peca 5'11 181 Danny Briere 5'10 181 Chris Drury 5'10" 195 Derek Roy 5'8 187 Steve Ott 6'0" 189 Nikita Kucherov 5'11" 182 Kiril Kaprizov 5'!0 202 Sebastian Aho 6'0" 176 Travis Konecny 5'!0 192 Connor Bedard 5'10 185 Seriously dude, the amount of guys Helenius' size to have successful NHL careers is so ridiculously long, it's unbelievable people would even bring it up. Throughout positions, eras, franchises and roles. In a lot of ways, the 5'10 195-pounders with the big thighs and butts have an advantage, using a low centre of gravity and burst to get underneath and around defenders.

I do not think Savoie has a higher ceiling. Matt is faster and smaller and equally competitive. I think each projects as a middle-sixer and I might gave the edge to Helenius as more natural centre. Also, unrelated, but the thought of a 5'11" 190-pound kid who just turned 18 as 'small" to me is bizarre. He looks considerably thicker than Savoie and Östlund did 2 years ago. Forton said he projects to play at 6'0" 200. The list of very good NHL players around that size is long. Decent choice. I was wondering if it was Sennecke.

Doesn't deserve the rep he got here thanks to a horrible half-season fed top 4 minutes. Was fine last year as an adequate 7D. Doesn't deserve his QA either. Is easily replaceable and preferably with a different skillset. Another member of the original "blinding light brigade (TM)" and cool kid insider shown the door. Not surprising at all. Neither would both sides circling back after the initial FA flurry, a la Jost last year. I'm hoping that doesn't happen. Overall, I like this move.

No Kulich, Rosen, Savoie, Östlund, Wahlberg, Kisakov, Komarov, Levi, Johnson, Novikov... This is a crazy weak roster compared to what it could be. I think it's basically only the guys who haven't got a contract yet, with the exceptions of Neuchev and Nadeau. Neuchev is the only Amerk. Oh well, at least we might get to see the legendary Topias Leinonen for the first time. I wonder what the rationale is?

I was surprised when people on here pushed back when I said this would be a controversial move among the larger fan base. Never mind the obvious "bad team cuts 30-goal scorer" response. He was a popular personality.

This build was always about having a large collection of young talent emerging at roughly the same time. I know Tuch, Thompson, Cozens and (to a lesser extent) Dahlin have more to give than we saw last year. I believe the same is true of Quinn, Peterka, Krebs, Benson, Samuelsson, Power, Byram and Levi. Adams is right about one thing: youth is no longer an excuse for most of them. No matter who we add, it's time for these guys to step up.

Probably too early to discuss this, no? If you're talking about comparing off-seasons? Tampa got appreciably worse. Boston too. Ottawa and New Jersey filled their biggest hole. Don't know if anyone else has made significant moves. And still plenty of shoes to drop. Besides, I find that this team of year people seem to pay far more attention to additions than departures.

Like (I'm assuming), a lot of you, I had to look up Malenstyn when the trade was revealed. I have no ***** idea if he's any good or not. And I do think he is unlikely to have a better career than Hank Tallinder, Jason Pominville, Jhonas Enroth and Jake McCabe. But I know he's already had an as-good or better NHL career than Mark Dutiaume, Daren van Oene, Norm Milley, Jaro Kristek, Milan Bartovic, Doug Janik, Gerard diCaire, Mike Funk, Philip Gogulla, Luke Adam, Connor Hurley, Justin Bailey, Eric Cornel, Vaclav Karabacek, Brendan Guhle and Marcus Davidson. I know I wanted them to invest prospect capital into players that can help now. I know I wanted them to add speedy, punishing forecheckers. I know I wanted them to add defensive chops and character He played 14 minutes a night with some of the toughest defensive deployment in history. He was the Capitals fastest skater. He finished 12th in the entire NHL in hits. He kills penalties and blocks shots. He's a western Canadian farmboy who toiled for 4 years in the minors before finally making the show. Caps fans seem to respect him. He seems to tick the requisite boxes. So even though it looks like an overpay, I kinda shrug. Maybe the fact I didn't know the player says more about me than it does the Sabres? He seems like the type of player we need. We'll find out soon enough if he is.

Pending trades, I think these roster slots are set Five top 6 slots are taken: Tuch, Thompson, Cozens, Quinn, Peterka Four other forward slots are filled: Benson, Greenway, Krebs and Malenstyn Five defence slots are taken: Dahlin, Power, Byram, Samuelsson, Clifton Both goalie slots are taken: Luukkonen, Levi They still need to fill: Skinner's top 6 wing slot Mittelstadt's middle 6 centre slot Girgensons and Okposo's bottom six wing slots Comrie's #3 goalie slot They have decisions to make on Whether Jokiharju continues in the final defence slot How to handle the 14/15th forward slots and 7/8 D slots: are they prospects or veterans

This thread is a combination of Andrew Peters gross misunderstanding of the modicum of professionalism his job should entail, and the fanbase grappling to find coping mechanisms for their team's remarkable inability to provide reason for hope. NHL GMs clearly have no issues making deals with Buffalo. Four of them did so this weekend. The issue is solely the failure of the Buffalo Sabres GM to execute any deals that inject hope into the fan base in the wake of the franchise failing to reach the playoffs for the 13th year in a row. Deals are there to be made. Deals have been made. It's just that the ones he has actually been able to pull off are neither exciting, nor effective.

Almost impossible to know what guys like that are looking for in their twilight years. I suspect it's not Buffalo. But if they are interested in a 2- or 3-year deal on an overpay, the Sabres are in prime position to oblige them. If a Lindholm, a Stevenson or a Monahan wants to cash in on a stupid contract in a slim centre market, the Sabres are in prime position to oblige them.

Sabres with the 3rd most money available after the Skinner buyout: $31.7M Detroit has $32.7M, Anaheim $33.3M. 20 teams have less than $20M, nine have less than $10M The numbers can be pretty misleading because teams have anywhere from 4 to 11 roster spots to fill, and a wide disparity in how much cap and how many roster spots will be eaten up by their own restricted free agents. Long story short, the Sabres are better positioned than most to absorb a big contract, whether it is a UFA signing or a Sergachev-style trade. Assuming fair contracts for their RFAs, they will have 4 roster spots open and about $20M available to fill them.

Draft weekend scorecard. Thirteen teams acquired NHL players: Utah: Sergachev, Marino Vegas: Holtz, Schmid (lost Thompson, Cotter) New Jersey: Cotter (lost Marino, Holtz, Schmid) Buffalo: Malenstyn Los Angeles: Jeannot, Grundstrom (lost Burroughs) Washington: Mangiapane, Thompson (lost Malenstyn) Minnesota: Lauko (lost Lettieri) Boston Korpisalo, Lettieri, (lost Lauko, Ullmark) Ottawa: Ullmark (lost Korpisalo) Pittsburgh: Hayes St Louis: Texier (lost Hayes) San Jose: Wallman, Burroughs Chicago: Mikhayev These teams made the most trades: Washington 6 Philadelphia 5 New Jersey 4 Buffalo 4 San Jose 4 Vegas 3 LA 3 Nashville 3 Chicago 3 Carolina 3 Utah 3 Might have missed a few, but that’s the gist of it. Obviously with only 19 NHLers changing hands most of the deals were to flip draft positions.

Oh good. I've been pissed off at the Sabres lately and even more after my buddy told me it didn't seem like anybody wanted to trade with them, so I called Petey to vent about it. I thought it was a little weird he didn't ask me who I was before he Tweeted it out, but I'm glad he did.

Seemed like a good guy, but outside the 1st 40 games with Eichel and 2 years ago with Tage I never liked the player. Out: Skinner, Okposo, Girgensons, Olofsson, Mittlestadt, Johnson In: Malenstyn, Byram On paper, this roster still has a long way to go just to break even

Yep, check out the second link I posted. The guy explains why.

More interesting stuff from the same poster: https://forums.hfboards.com/threads/caps-roster-general-discussion-coaching-fas-cap-lines-etc-2023-24-regular-season-edition.2942812/page-205#post-195651545 Basically, it's a dive into how Malenstyn got his ***** analytics.

From a Caps fan on HFboards: I wanna take a little deeper dive here to point out just how brutal the minutes for Washington's "4th" line are and how nuts it is that they're performing so well anyway. The individual members of that line have started their shifts in the offensive zone 7.98% of the time (NAK), 8.02% of the time (Malenstyn), and 9.29% of the time (Dowd) over ~400 minutes of 5 on 5 play each. As you mentioned, as a unit they've outscored opponents 13-6 at 5 on 5. OZ Start% as a statistic dates back to the 07-08 season, and in that time only one player has posted a sub 10% season while playing at least 300 minutes at 5 on 5: Paul Gaustad in 15/16. He had 5.76% OZ Starts and was outscored 6-21. Coincidentally, Gaustad had been traded with a 4th for a 1st as a pure rental at the 2012 trade deadline, the only 4th line center I can think of who was traded for a 1st rounder. That year he ranked 8th out of 626 skaters with 31.98% OZ Starts. One of the things you notice as you go through OZ Start% year by year is that giving players extreme deployments in one direction or another is a pretty recent phenomenon. In 07/08, the skater with the lowest OZ Start% was Bobby Holik at 29.62%. This season, that number would good for 30th. Long story short, the Caps 4th line is at the forefront of the current trend of highly specialized deployments, and as a result they're playing quite possibly the most brutal minutes of any line in the history of hockey, on a team that's overall been outscored 71-90 at 5 on 5 (58-84 if you factor their line out)... and they're outscoring their opponents by a 2-1 margin in the process. It's insane, it shouldn't be possible, and yet it's happening. Nic Dowd should've been the Caps' All Star, and he should legitimately be in the Selke conversation.

So hard look, and maybe not listened to? Even more intriguing now.

Big brain trade looking for the next Dakota Joshua with a player nobody knows. Sounds like everything the Sabres need or want on the fourth line. Some of the hardest deployment in hockey last year and he is the type of player you guys have been screaming for. 241 hits? Lindy will know this guy and probably gave his stamp of approval. And I'm sure the analytics team had a hard look. High price to pay for this type. Ballsy, risk/reward move that could end up looking really smart or really stupid.

I’d say he’s of the same tier. They did. In a few years, we will find out if they were right. (To be clear, I don’t know enough about Eiserman to have an opinion on the player, only the scenario.) They aren’t, but if you project the NHL roster over the next handful of years, the Sabres had 3 D under 25 signed to long-term deals, with recent 1st rounders Johnson and Byram there as well: 3/5 of 7 NHL spots Do the same exercise up front and you have Thompson and Cozens long term with Quinn, Krebs, Peterka, Benson and 4 recent 1st rounders: 2/10 of 14. The facts are that it doesn’t matter what position the Sabres chose because they have more prospects than spots, period.

Was it posted earlier that two of Bob McKenzie's NHL scouts had him ranked as 3rd overall, and 5 had him in their top 7? Pretty surprising to me in this draft.

Helenius? He's been described as a pure centre in pretty much everything I've seen. Smart, responsible, solidly built, good skater, defensively diligent, good distributor: ticks all the requisite centre boxes.

This will be the thing that bothers me most about this draft. Very high potential I will be cursing for years the fact we could have had him.