DarthEbriate

I hope we all know that. But, they liked his all-around game. He certainly has potential to be a 2C in the right conditions/lineup, but I think we've all generally thought of him as the 3C type who can be dangerous because of his plus shot.

I would love to see what the GM of a competing franchise offers for Bryson in a trade.

Of all the acquisitions to mention, Zac Jones seems the most important. It's just a matter on whether he can be as happy as Bryson to just be in the press box. Because if not, he's headed to waivers and Rochester. I want to see that competition in training camp: who is better conversation for Adams in the press box?

Krebs is easily replaceable. From production to health, Chinakov looks extremely replaceable, too. Moreso because he's a winger only.

The Sabres have one of the least impressive center spines in the league (even if TNT plays center) and Norris is lucky to play over 55 games. Why are we wanting to trade a center who has gotten better in the dot every season (and is now not a complete liability at 49 FO%) and hits (136) and will actually defend his teammates, and put up 10 goals in 4th line minutes... ... for yet another oft-injured, non-hitting, quality-shooting winger whose best season is 16 goals and he hasn't had half as many in any other year despite getting 3rd line minutes? Goalofsson is a more dangerous and consistent scorer than Chinakov at this point.

It's why the only way out of this mess is for Pegula to publicly state that EEE is finished and the mission is back to winning Cups. (And then blowing Adams out of the ######## airlock!) (wrong franchise)

Not only. Kulich is the wildcard -- unproven center, let alone top 6 at this point. But overall, yes, I think they are a real first-line player away from a playoff-caliber forward** lineup. Preferably a center. But someone to push Benson/Kulich to line two and cascade it down from there. That could compete with the aging Tampas, rising Habs, flat Wings, and whatever Ottawa is (Ullmark-led?) of the division. Their depth is NHL depth at this point -- albeit not playoff-tested. **All forward lineup discussions are moot if they don't play sound defense and get average-to-above average goaltending.

Looking more at Chinakov's good season in 2023-24... it does appear to be boosted by playing with Voronkov and Marchenko. His GF% with Marchenko was 63.64 and with Voronkov 64.29. However, their expected GF% were 49 and 47, respectively. Potentially, his good season was a very big statistical outlier -- and given those two are moving up the lineup and Chinakov hasn't based on ice time (at least under Evason), they made their choice on which two players drive the offense.

I guess my thought is that Quinn is the replacement for Peterka. Quinn has 19 goals in his last 81 games and that's with a bunch of 4th line time and a 20-game disappearing act at the start of last season. I believe his ceiling is higher than Chinakov's (and from an Adams/EEE perspective, they just paid Quinn, why would they add Quinn-lite?) Put Quinn into the top 6 with two defensively responsible/all-around players on his line instead of Cozens or JJP and he might take that step that could/should have happened last year. I don't deny that Chinakov would be a solid 3rd line edition (if Quinn is in the top 6), but then Chinakov doesn't displace Zucker on the left and it depends on what kind of checking line/tough to play against you're going for whether he'd be a better option than Greenway/Doan on the right. Scoring, yes. Physical? No. If Chinakov were to fall to the 4th line, his goal potential goes down. (Unless he had exemplary chemistry with Danforth -- which, they didn't. Only 27 minutes together last season and a CF% together of 36%.)

Varied thoughts: Too many injuries. A different injury each season. One "good" year with 16 goals and a very solid 4:1 takeaway to giveaway ratio. He has vocally asked to be traded from a non-contender. I can't see that happening in Buffalo because... you know... the strong culture here. I guess if you could fuse him with Jordan Greenway you'd have quite the player. Yegordan Chinaway. He's an RFA after this season so it is the absolute perfect Adams-style acquisition. A third liner with one good season and a ton of missed time. Dakota Joshua got moved this week for a 4th. Chinakov is worth what, a 3rd? (meaning Adams would love to trade away a 2nd for him.) Overall: Pass

Sheevyn lykes yt.

Maybe poor AHL teams/goalies or defensive-only deployments or a combination thereof.

He's a CHL player, so age 20 -- until the new CBA kicks in and then he could be assigned at age 19 with an exemption. He joined Seattle in the middle of the 2024-25 season.

There are a bunch of bottom-third teams with a suspicious amount of cap unspent... and only a scattered RFA here or there. If the cards fall right, they'll stay within striking distance of San Jose/Chicago for the McKenna fest. In 2014-15, five teams completely bottomed out for McDavid. As a result, good teams scored more points. The playoff line was high: 97 points was the #16 playoff seed. The Sabres need almost everything to go right to get to 90 points. How do we feel about 97 if a half dozen team are obviously in on the tank? It'd be very on brand to have their "best season ever" under Pegula and still miss out on the playoffs by 5 points because a bunch of common opponents weren't trying. It would please and justify Adams/Pegula as incredible progress and we're on the right track. That is, until the following season has snap-back regression (in 2015-16 - 93 pts in the east and a silly 87 pts in the west to get in) with all teams trying again -- and the Sabres back to the mid 80s to fall a few points short.

I think we just saw that in Kesselring (again, a 5/6D by Utah depth chart, top-4 by injuries last season) for Peterka. So, it was... easy? From a certain point of view.

Not $832,500 annually, though.

More teams, even great teams, play down to their opponent than we realize. How else do you explain so many Sabres victories since the tank began? It's natural in an 82-game season to not be able to generate the same intensity each and every night. Teams come out flat in a simple 16-game (17) NFL season, let alone soon to by 84 NHL games.

The Sabres were up by 2 and going to the powerplay as a result of the major penalty. So the plans to retaliate were made. Then, the Sabres gave up a shorthanded goal during the major, so they were only up by 1. Gilbert can't play protecting a mere 1-goal lead or risk going on the PK. FWIW, the Sabres did hang on to win 4-3. (Nevermind that the season was already over barring some 8-game winning streak.) Scott saying that Lindy would have wanted blood after the Tage hit hasn't been watching Ruff behind the bench the last few years. Young Ruff is in the past.

Put Norris, Greenway, and Muel on LTIR to conveniently return in April and you can go add a Draisaitl-sized contract. Just sayin'. But yes, you'd probably have to be operating without the owner being happy for any additional yacht or construction payments. (And you'd have to be good enough to make the playoffs with just adding Draisaitl and subtracting those 3.)

Just build the entire dashboard of levers, blinking lights, and unmarked 1900s metal toggle switches.

9 NHL games or fewer and the contract slides. If they dress for game 10, the ELC year counts. While they're still 18 or 19 years old.

It's sad, because we all like him and he has been a good coach (when Hasek/Miller). But current-day Ruff was not getting rehired anywhere else in the league. Pegula got him hired as the sole interviewee, competing against the only other option: Appert. The good news is that Ruff's previous two overachieving -- playoff guaranteed rosters -- were in his third season as coach (109-point season with Dallas; 112-point season with NJ). The bad news is that Ruff is only under contract for two seasons here. But I'm sure Appert will do fine next season.

The NCAA distinction is important because now his access to money is Rochester. I definitely think we're seeing: 25 Seattle -> 26 Rochester -> 27 Buffalo (definitely more than just a 2-game look), and then one more season (2028-29) remaining before RFA.

It's a seemingly ongoing thing: the GM/front office is only capable of "fixing" or at least focusing on one thing at a time rather than a complete holistic approach. This comes from the top and Darth Pegula the Wise's flavor of the month approach: Leino was great in one playoff series against us: get him! Mittelstadt was great at the World Juniors for US: jump him up the board! Taylor Hall is going to make us contenders: get him! Fix the 4th line! We have Dahlin/Power/Muel all locked up long-term -- get all the RHDs! Was Mrtka the best player available? He very well could be. Time will tell. Did the pick fill an organizational need? No, it added a potentially great player to an organizational surplus. The future might very well be "Add scoring forwards!" but that is the most expensive to attain unless it's a sell-off-Skinner scenario.

From upthread discussion: scoring less is fine if they also give up fewer goals. All acquisitions this offseason should combine to be at least a little better in the Goals Against department. How much better do they need to be? Last season, if you were under 240 GA, you were in the playoffs (Calgary at 236 was out, and massive outlier Montreal at 261 was only team over 240 to make it). The last 3 seasons, the Sabres have given up 2710, 2402, and 2368 shot against. They're improving! But the goaltending has been at best middle of the pack (16th) in team save percentage (.899% in 2023-24 when UPL was great the 2nd half). The team % I'm using includes ENG. So, if the Sabres goaltending is at .900 (better than ever recently), they need to reduce their SA to 2288 to get down to 240 goals allowed. That's carving an additional shot per game off what they allowed last year. That's doable -- particularly if Byram-Dahlin is a tandem for another 500 minutes of ice time because they're the top pair from game 1. But -- boxing out, tying up folks, forcing offside by standing up at the blue line, and occasionally wrecking someone for an easy puck win by your teammate -- would go a long way toward reducing high danger shots. Tick that save percentage up, and sub-240 GA is also realistic. Has any of our goalies ever had a great save %? UPL did a .917 in a 9-game stint in 2020-21. His .910 season isn't great and that was even with him playing fantastic for 3 straight months. Possess the puck, reduce shots against (by over 100 to be safe), and reduce high danger chances against. Can this revised roster do that?