In The Buff

ha that narrowed it down to Asplund, Olofsson, & Oglevie. If i had to bet i'd pick Asplund out of the bunch thanks guys ?

Just turned the stream on & saw we're up 1-0. Any idea who scored for us?

420p? Looks more like 160p to me lol You see video game tournaments streamed in 1080p with no exceptions. Why they don't at least do 720p for an NHL Prospects Tourney is beyond me. Only thing negative about a 3-0 Sabres lead at the end of the 1st. These guys looked good, scary good :P

20k? Dayum, I was hoping it'd be a lot more! At least in the millions ? I agree, 2020 is gonna be a great offseason for us. We'll have our core in place, our young prospects will have another year of seasoning & a few of the bad contracts or players will be gone with a bunch of cap space for Botts to play with. We'll have the opportunity to really upgrade our roster. Which in turn should let us field the best roster we've had here in many years. It's just funny because here we are saying again: 'the following year we'll be better'. Seems every year my friends laugh at me for saying that again & again about the Bills & Sabres. "Next year guys, next year." But it really is true in this case. Compete for the playoffs this year. Compete for the Cup next one!

Stanley Cup here we come boys!

I'm not really sold on the names they mentioned to bring in per se, more on the names mentioned to move out. Getting rid of Scandy & Hunwick would open up im guessing $5-7 mil & with that we could bring in a solid player back imo. I'm not an analytics nut but i do see their value & i dont think we'd really miss those 2 guys if they werent here. I don't think Claesson or Read are the answer, but based on their analytics in comparison to those 2, you'd arguably get the same or better results from someone other than those 2 guys for a fraction of the cost. Just an interesting idea imo, if we're not gonna seriously upgrade the position with a longer term solution. I agree just like everyone here that we need a 2c/3c, as well as some RW depth. And i've heard Boyle's name mentioned for months now & he'd come cheap & could help. Perhaps Jbots is waiting for his Risto trade & thats why we havent seen Boyle brought in. Or perhaps he's just not interested in him or vice versa. I do find it curious as to why we havent brought him in by now. Since we havent im inclined to think it wont happen. The names you mentioned I'd say no thanks to as well. Other than the last 3 they're generally the same type of players Claesson or Read are but at different positions. Grantue i havent looked at their analytics to compare, thats just too much work tbh. Lindberg or Aberg would probably be the only ones i might consider. Lindberg being the only one with any faceoff experience & Aberg for putting up a modest amount of goals in the past. It just seems like Botts is in a holding pattern til other things he's working behind the scenes materialize or not. But hey at least you had some other Sabres content to read today. Such a critical offseason & i'm always starving for more content this time of year ?

Hey guys, i came across this article today & thought i'd post it here for any of those who might find it interesting. It is a long offseason so if you're like me anything Sabres related is worth a look. Some interesting comments on Sobokta & Scandella & Hunwick & possible PTO targets for JBotts to pursue. The last PTO we made was signing Cody Goloubef back in 2017. Anyone know who that is? I don't haha. While that didn't quite make an impact, i gotta say the writer made some good suggestions that could & they won't break the bank either. Happy reading! https://thehockeywriters.com/sabres-pto-targets-2019/

We haven't made him to be one. It's that he was one, prior to the coaching change in Chicago where Coach Q left & Colliton came in. He was playing 20-25 minutes a night with Duncan Keith & then almost immediately after the coaching change had his ice time diminish. So 1 coach felt he was good enough to play with Keith, the other didnt. One is Joel Quenneville, the other Jeremy Colliton. Who should we believe had a better handle on who Jokiharju was as a player? Not surprising that lots of fans are hoping Coach Q's evaluation was the right one, especially given his experience & success as a head coach. But fans here aren't just making him out to be a top 4 dman from thin air. There is good reason to hope he can be that in the future, as always time will tell.

Yep. I like the addition of Johansson but thats kind of what i was thinking myself. Canes got a great deal there. Really hope Mojo stays healthy, otherwise i'll look back to this & get even more depressed lol.

Good writeups today. I appreciate all the time & detail in your posts & i largely agree with everything you said. With the exception of pairing Risto with Dahlin. I think our D pairings require balance & with that i think you want to have Dahlin paired with a solid defensive minded player who can cover for him. You'd want to give Dahlin the freedom to take his offensive chances since thats where he dazzles. If they were together I wouldn't want Dahlin to curtail his offensive game for the sake of covering for Risto, since Risto is known for being out of position & being overzealous (in a good way imo) with checking the opposition & taking chances of his own. I'd much rather see Montour up there or Bogo if he were healthy or even McCabe although i dont see McCabe as a 1st pairing obviously. Maybe 1 day Borgen or Johnson can play with Dahlin. But while having Dahlin & Risto together sounds appealing, across the league from what i've seen the best pairings are those that have balance. Besides from what i already stated, putting Risto on the 2nd pair may help Risto's game as well. Playing less minutes against easier competition (for lack of a better word), may be just what the doctor ordered with his game. And would give our pairings (hate to say it again), more balance down the lineup for that 1, 2 punch. Regardless its fun to think about how everything will fit together as in years past it felt like we were playing 3 card Monte with trying to find something that would work. We now have some actual NHL'ers on our roster & its gonna be interesting to see with HCRK does with them.

Or he's got balls, balls that now John Scott will never forget what they smell like.

I've heard Brian Boyle's name being mentioned lately. Perhaps thats Bott's answer for help down the middle

I dont know if this has been posted yet but Vancouver has jumped into the free-agent pool, signing defenseman Tyler Myers to a five-year contract with an AAV of $6 million. The Canucks also signed defenseman Jordie Benn to a two-year contract with an AAV of $2 million Guess that means no trade with us for Risto or Bogo

Rangers deal Vesey to Buf so they can free up cap space to sign Panarin While Buffalo signs Vesey to upgrade their middle forwards A Tale of 2 Cities

theres the 3rd goalie. Crossing a need off the list

Used to be a highly touted prospect, former 1st round pick that failed to transition to the pro game. Seems like a good player to add to Rochester. If he finds his game he'll help out the Amerks & maybe resurrect his career. I think its good for gm's to take fliers on players like this.

Kid has a ton of skill. Is a good goalscorer and fun to watch. Has a nice hard wrist shot with a good release and good power. Decent hockey IQ & didnt shy away from physical play. Has decent size too at 6'1 187 lbs

Not the best video quality but another highlight reel goal of him scoring from between his legs

I think thats what the issue is that some have with the pick. Yes this pick fills a long term need of sorts, but in the what, 3-5 year range down the road? But given our needs & our current window, some fans (myself included) were hoping for someone who could help a bit earlier. And specifically help with scoring. Either with the draft selection itself or with trading the pick in a package for a return player of some sort. So perhaps thats where some of the consternation comes with this pick. I think we all expected us to draft a dman in the 1st half of the draft, but given our needs for more scoring this pick was just a bit of a let down. Even if he turns out to be good, albeit 4 or 5 years from now.

Brendan Guhle skater huh? Cool. Maybe down the road we can trade Johnson for another defenseman. j/k I'll be honest i dont know much about Ryan other than there were plenty of forwards i would've thought we'd choose instead

I wanted Zegras but i'm relieved its not Caufield so i'm not too upset with the pick. Fulfills a need & makes us stronger up the middle. Excited to see what he can do & watch his development

Donskoi is a player lots of teams will covet. Especially IF the Sharks decide to move on from him. Although he's come out publicly stating his desire to stay on with them, so its really up to San Jose on this one. But yeah IF he's available & the bidding war amongst teams doesnt push the cost up too high, he's definitely 1 player we should target. Yes he had a 35 game scoreless drought last season, but you can see the value of his game.

Dahlin has said in past interviews that the one timer was something he wasn't used to doing in the past & that given how much it was used & how important it was, that it'd be 1 part of his game that he was really gonna work on. So i imagine he's doing just that & going forward it'll be much improved from last year.

Since this is a Skinner thread this isn't the right place to address this but for lack of another way to respond i'll add a name i didnt see on ur list that i'd like. Jake Gardiner from Toronto. With the other priorities the Leafs have, maybe we could get him. I'd love to see him in the blue & gold. But with Zaitsev asking to be moved, idk how the Leafs don't make sure Gardiner is signed. But he'd be great imo. As for Skinner. Sure i'd like to have signed him for $500k less per year but you cant split hairs at this point. We had the money, needed him bad & its a win for both. For those naysayers bringing up the bad contracts we've had before, i don't see him going the KO or Moulson route. None of those players in terms of even strength scoring were ever in a list with McDavid, P.Kane, Draisaitl or Ovechkin. Yet alone the other stats one could point to. Skinner is a much better player & trying to compare him & his contract to those guys is just absurd. Our watch has ended, now we can go for the throne!

Yeah while i do think Lee is a better player than Okposo there's no way he is worth that term & money for our team. Plus i don't think theres any way the NYI lets Lee walk. He's too important to their team right now & is their Captain.