DarthEbriate

He is Buffalo's all-time leading goalie goal scorer.

This is a good contract for goalies. Saaros, Shesterkin, and Swayman (in UPL's same situation next summer, but with multiple seasons behind the Bruins D) are going to get paid. Last year, Luukkonen had .667% quality starts. That was in excellent company in the league (once you take out the folks who only dressed for a game or two). Tied with Hellebuyck, Ullmark, and Varlamov, and those three had the largest sample sizes. GM Sheevyn finally committed to a goalie. If Luukkonen stays consistent and we see the expected improvements in team defense as the core ages, this should work. Talking myself into it... it'll work.

Previous Sabres GMs would probably tell you they also drafted grinders, or at least bigger guys that could become grinders at the NHL level. They just haven't panned out. Picking out from those prior drafts: Bloom, Cederqvist, Pekar, Murray, Lemieux, Willman, Bailey, Kea, Jacobs. (And Malenstyn nearly stayed a career AHL-er, too. Until last season he'd played only 26 NHL games over 4 seasons.)

I really hope Malenstyn's entire argument for filing arbitration was: "Look at the money you threw at Girgensons the last 4 seasons!" (4 years, $9.1M. 199 GP, 28G 22A 50P)

I'm thinking that by the end of this season Quinn may very well be the 1W and Tuch the 2W, at least in terms of 5-on-5 ice time.

Ranking this high is of three things: 1) It's 98% pity. Awww, the Sabres won a game, even against my favorite team? Good for them. 2) Two seasons ago they were fun to watch. If you went to you home team's game and the Sabres were in town, you'd at least be entertained by an all-out press attack and an attempt to score 7. (Colorado is also very fun to watch the last few seasons.) 3) They don't have any rats/goons on their team since... JBott took over? They don't have individual players to dislike. (Colorado also fits this -- their Cup win was such a fast buzzsaw blur they didn't even get the chance to be called punks about it.)

He's going to have a Jesper Bratt-like season under Ruff. 25-35 goals; 40-50 assists. 73 points this season.

Yes. Give me the top goaltending and dangerously solid team defense. A 3-2 win is an exciting hockey game. The most exciting hockey I've seen was the dead-puck era Hasek Sabres. Chaos in their own end, Hasek makes one amazing save and it's a rush goal going the other way. Plus the hits, dust-ups, and speed that makes hockey fun. The constant tension was the race to 2 goals. In 98-99, the Sabres would have gotten the win or gone to OT by scoring just two goals in 57 of 82 games. To compare, the Bruins would have gotten the win or OT with two goals in 52 of 82 games in 2022-23 (65 wins). I'll bet that regular season was pretty exciting for Bruins fans.

Agreed on both accounts. Purely for fun I was matching up the players to their (somewhat) equivalents of past Ruff lineups. What I can really see with Ruff are those grinder-on-each line setups that may have us scratching our heads because so-and-so isn't a top 6, but it works on the ice. And the grinder gets no PP time and someone else (Briere/TNT) gets double-shifted so the TOI makes sense for the top forwards. Malenstyn-Cozens-Quinn, for example. Myself, I'd start the preseason with the admittedly boring lines that everyone else is already predicting: Peterka - Thompson - Tuch Zucker - Cozens - Quinn Benson - McLeod - Greenway Malenstyn - Lafferty - Aube-Kubel (Krebs)

This was my thought as well. I'll go extra specific: 1. Dahlin and Quinn both play 70+ games 2. The Sabres PP% is 21.5 or better (NSH was 16th with 21.66% last year; BUF was 16.59!) 3. Cozens and TNT combine for 65+ goals (they had 57 last season; 78 two years ago) 4. Luukkonen has a save% of .912+ (better team defense and UPL becoming more consistent with experience; .910 last season)

For our summer amusement: First, a Rufferized lineup using the general '05-'06 regular season roster (all vets up top, Grier/Drury together, Vanek/Roy as kids fresh from ROC on the 3rd line) for inspiration. Fret not: this is for 5-on-5 only. The kids would get PP time to boost their points. [Benson=baby Pommer; Briere=TNT] Zucker - Thompson - Tuch Malenstyn - McLeod - Greenway Peterka - Cozens - Quinn Benson - Lafferty - Aube-Kubel (Krebs) Second, a Benson=Briere shuffle and sneak Kulich=Kotalik into the lineup. Peterka - Thompson - Benson Quinn - Cozens - Tuch Zucker - McLeod - Greenway Malenstyn - Lafferty - Kulich (Aube-Kubel, Krebs)

Does the article provide any definition of what it counts as a prospect, or what criteria it is measuring for comparison with other teams? Is Connor Bedard still a prospect? It's easy to be overrated when you're consistency ranked in the top 5 because that's where you've drafted.

Ben says Benson scores:

Based on TOI, Peterka had already replaced Skinner in March-April last season. If JJP stays on the top line, Zucker is replacing a 2nd-line JJP/Benson or 3rd-line Benson/Skinner.

Chief?