DarthEbriate

Voila is a bit of an exaggeration. There was an entire lockout season in between wherein Miller became a goalie, Roy and Afinogenov became NHL-caliber, Vanek arrived and had a full season of AHL dominance, and Gaustad grew up. Tallinder went to Elitserien for a season and came back a top-pairing guy. They moved out aging players in Curtis Brown, Satan, and Zhitnik, and retirees (James Patrick). Additions included in-their-prime Grier and Lydman. That was a lockout-aided rebuild on the fly. Satan is a part of it, yes; but make no mistake the biggest fix is Miller/Biron vs. Biron/Noronen. Miller gave Ruff his second run (way too brief because of limited budget). What did Ruff learn from this? If Levi is Miller, everything's rosy!

Vancouver might, but he's got a broken knee, hasn't looked dynamic in two seasons, and comes with a $11.5M pricetag for many seasons and a NMC kicking in. He's got even more warning signs than Norris, because he's pricier and he stays in the lineup so you can't just stash him on LTIR and bolster your lineup in other ways.

One thing I was disappointed with in last night's game was wanting to see more from Rosén and Östlund. I don't mean scoring (Rosén had an open look) necessarily, I mean, it's your chance as a rookie to leave the fans with a "pencil that kid into the lineup next October" game or moment. Go be memorable. I guess I could technically add Kulich to this list as well, although he did shoot the referee, so that was memorable. Go make a play, make a hit, play with energy and chase and fire, because in game 82 you will stand out because most everyone else is floating. Rosén doesn't have it. He will be in the NHL, but he's had 15 games and he still hasn't shown anything apart from a couple nice cross-ice passes. Östlund might, but needs more time/age/size, so give him another callup next year, but for me he's not a member of the roster until 2026-27.

Much too early to tell. The Sabres could still have significant organizational and lineup changes for next season. As of this moment, the OP question 'minds me of this question and subsequent conversation.

Ran the Tankathon sim ten times for old time's sake. Pick 7th seven times, 9th twice, and 2nd once.

From the 24-25 Sabres to the fans... "We're out!"

I saw an empty-netter in the McLeods!

Or not. Can't take the goalie's glove off there, Quinn.

Flyers could've been called for too many men, but it's Peterka on the redirect.

Östlund started that chance with a drop pass to the corner that Dahlin couldn't get to.

Fantastic save by Reimer. It should've been tied 4-4, but it stalls on the line.

Not a great shot. Östlund had a lot more room short side to make the goalie need to make the save. Instead, right into the crest on a late slide.

That pass back to a triple-teamed Dahlin was just plain odd. Possess the puck, hold for the line change, or do something fun yourself -- Dahlin's trying to give you space and you set him up for a body check?

It would be appropriate for the 24-25 Sabres to blow a 3-goal lead at home.

Cool thing for Cozens is he gets to experience playoff hockey and learn how to play with a gear and intensity his previous team never gave itself the opportunity to do. He’ll be a better player for it. How much better? That’s for another few years to determine.

Clifton, that is what we call poor shot selection. Unless he had a shots on goal clause. Then, keep firing!

Lovely move to pass, McLeod. Tap-in.

Krebs! Nice backhand

So many soft and slow passes this season. They’re professionals they can accept a good hard pass.

Good drive to the net, JBD.

The Wild are not a great hockey franchise. They bought out Parise and Suter and it was...wild. They purposefully took on $14M in dead cap! That's more than the EEE-imposed (or Adams- because he says he has all the resources he needs) spending limits the Sabres have set for themselves the past couple seasons. But when the Wild bought out those two, did they say, "we give up!" and also trade away Kaprizov and Zuccarello, Brodin, Spurgeon, and Eriksson Ek, or heart-and-soul guys like Foligno? Did they jettison goaltending? No. They kept a good guy in Gustavsson and got a real backup like Fleury. (They didn't grab Anderson out of retirement and pair him with kids and AHLers. They didn't get rid of Eichel, Reinhart, Montour, Ullmark, etc.) This has forced the Wild to shave their roster in a couple spots: MoJo? Bogo? Hartman is meh. But next year they'll get all that cap space back to fill out the roster, plus the rising cap. In the 4 years they've dealt with that cap hell, they've made the playoffs three times. Again, not a contender, but they've got playoff revenue and an engaged fan base and they still have their superstar in Kaprizov. They're ready to rebuild this offseason. JJP would be an excellent offer sheet target for them (replacing UFA MoJo).

Right, but the folks you listed: Dahlin, JJP, and Tage aren't in the system. They're already on the Sabres.

There were so many other avenues available beyond going cheap (until the owner says "tear it down, EEE only"). But Adams had to say that he could do the teardown and keep it cheap, he was fully complicit. If he had gone to TPeg and said, "Keep the core, I can get this roster to the playoffs" they could have extended Reinhart and not alienated Eichel, and built around them and Dahlin. And the kicker, once the cap rose, you could pay all those players their current salaries and still fill out a roster. And you'd have made the playoffs in '22-23. You wouldn't have Power and you wouldn't have been able to extend Skinner for 8, but whatever.

By system, I think @Ogelthorpe means the planets prospects not the star NHL roster.

Someone needs to let GMKA that the absolute floor is set for Byram. Edit: LT. You could and should bridge him for less. Or trade.