Brawndo

Two players I would look at for the Bottom Six are JT Compher or Alex Kerfoot. In term of defense I would look at New Jersey. They have an abundance of cap space (35 Million) with Jesper Bratt the major pending RFA who needs a new deal, with 10 current roster players under contract. Both Ryan Graves and Damon Severson are UFAs, the latter being a RHD. They have the money to sign them, but do they have the roster spots for them with Simon Nemec, Luke Hughes and Seamus Casey probably ready to step into the NHL soon. So I doubt Graves and Severson fit into their long term plans. Severson will be 29, has good fancy stats and should be a top target for the Sabres if He hits UFA

Pilut in for Fitzgerald.

Maintenance Day with Joe Yerdon and Lance Lysowski is great. Expected Buffalo and The Instigator Pod are good as well. Sabres Live is on Tuesday thru Friday and they release a weekly Pod on Mondays usually.

UPL has a .911 Save Percentage 5v5 On the PK it’s a whopping .688 Stay out of the box or bring Craig Anderson in for PK with His .905 Save Percentage.

I would have had Anderson start tonight and Friday. That would give them the best chance to rack up points That being said UPL’s Other Starts have come against Toronto, St Louis, Tampa, Colorado and San Jose. Maybe they want to give Him easier starts against San Jose and Columbus against teams coming off a back to back and playing backup goalies.

The rumored offer for John Gibson was the Sabres 2023 1st with lottery protection on it. Based on Gibson’s Play I’m happy He said no to waiving Levi has fallen back a little, Northeastern has lost 4 out of His Last Five Starts. I think they make a move to shore up the goalie position.

UPL in net.

Moneypuck has their playoff chances at just over 50% at a projected point total of 92.8 The Athletic has them at 4% with 80 points HockeyViz has them drafting 7th with 83 points

Some tidbits. Murray is actually owed 15 Million over the final two years of His Deal so 11.25 Million would have been paid by the Sabres. They called about John Gibson who has five years including this one at 6.4 Million AAV left, He said no. I believe The Pegulas will spend but it has make sense. Sam Ventura was the primary reason the Penguins drafted John Marino and Samuelsson’s New Deal is based on His Contract. The Sabres had to be in on trade talks for Him. I imagine the story of Ryan Johnson having 30 minutes to decide to sign His ELC with a potential trade partner with the Sabres was with Pittsburgh. Jokiharju or Bryson didn’t move the needle as much as Ty Smith did. Karmanos was called by Rutherford about the Canucks GM Job and declined.

Connor Bednard is from North Vancouver

Friedman is reporting that Vancouver maybe willing to move Thatcher Demko when he returns from injury.

Östlund, Rosen and Kulich should get the call, the latter will probably be released for the WJC by the Amerks

Why do I have the feeling that Savoie isn’t going to be on the list for Team Canada

One point about The Cozens Line being on the ice for Mac Kinnon Second Goal which made it 4-2. There was a line change happening just before the goal, Cozens stepped onto the ice at 8:12 when Makar had already entered the Sabres Zone with the puck and the MacKinnon scored at 8:07.

Aaron Dell in net for the Sharks

UPL in net

I wouldn’t play VO over Krebs, they are actually worse 5v5 with VO out there Agree on Mitts Krebs has proven himself capable at the AHL Level with a ppg, I need Him to get 20 consistent games in the NHL before making that decision. Okposo won’t be re-signed after this season. Dahlin will be Captain, with Cozens and Tuch wearing As Pilut has better metrics then Bryson, so agree there as well Gibson wouldn’t waive to come to the Sabres, which is a huge favor to the team it appears based on His Play this season. Once Levi is signed, I imagine they will seek out a better partner for Comrie. UPL can go to Cincy. Kinda hoping that Winnipeg takes a step back and they can re-unite the that tandem in Buffalo