DarthEbriate

Easy, proven solution: the 3-headed hydra goalie. You don't have to choose anyone. 😇

I don't want DeBrincat (the Sabres have enough young scoring talent), but OTT gave up a top-10, a 2nd and 3rd for him. I wonder if he goes the Kotkaniemi 1-yr offer sheet route where even if the Senators were to match, they know that he's walking at the first opportunity and end up having to trade him to get what they can.

Three in a row against the teams already eliminated from contention. Win the last one and they avoid the short series, but lose and it's a dismal way to go into the playoffs. The other thing that hurts them is they're not getting any reinforcements (apart from Rousek) this season. All the Sabres youngsters are up and not going back.

For my own laughs, how'd I do? A fun prognostication quiz. Scores to be tabulated at end of the 2022-23 season. Whoever gets the most correct receives a sincere ada-[space noun of choice] 1. Will Tage Thompson score 28-32 goals? More? Or less? Pick one. Right in the sweet spot. 28-32 Happily Incorrect! 2. Who will be the Sabres rookie with the most points? Quinn Woohoo! 3. What will the Sabres’ record be against the Atlantic? Only 3 vs. TOR/MTL this season... 11-11-4 12-12-2 That's pretty close. 2-6 vs. BOS and FLA, but swept DET neatly. 4. Will Casey Mittelstadt score more than 16 goals? Yes Oops. 15 5. Who starts more games: UPL, Comrie, or Anderson? Comrie Injuries derailed. Comrie finished third. UPL 32, Anderson 24, Comrie 19, Levi 7 6. True or False: Dylan Cozens scores 50 or more points? True Yippee! 7. What is the Sabres’ goal differential? -5 -4 That's pretty close. 8. Who leads the Sabres in PP points? Golofsson Uffda. Only 14. Tage had 20 goals, Dahlin had 26 assists. 9. In what position do the Sabres finish in the East? 10th Boom. Bullseye that womp rat! 10. Who leads the Sabres in points? Last year, [most] figured Mitts and he got hurt and it was Thompson. This year, everyone will figure Thompson. It has to be Thompson. Victor Olofsson Tell your sister, I was wrong about me. It did have to be Tagebacca. I was figuring VO started on the topline and wouldn't run into injury trouble and just eke out TNT (like 74 to 72 or some such). But this was wishful boldness. 11. Will any center on the Sabres win more than 50% of their face-offs? There are some who call him... Sheahan. Yes That's impossible, even for a computer! And not jut that he won better than 50, he crushed it at 70% to lead the team. 12. Does Victor Olofsson score more than 10 even-strength goals? Yes 21. Lots of ABBA. 13. Do the Sabres increase attendance by 33% or more this coming year? Announced or attending? Yes. I don't know how to find this information. I'll try spinning, that's a good trick. 14. Who leads the Sabres in PIM? Boushh, just barely ahead of Dahlin Quite incorrect. It was Dahlin. Then Krebs! Boushh finished 5th. 15. How many more wins do the Sabres have than last year? 7 10! Happily incorrect! 16. Name the player who will score the most SH points for the Sabres this year. Asplund Pudu. Cozens had 3. Asplund only 1. 17. How many trades will the Sabres make during the 2022-23 NHL season? 3. But one will be an Amerks-only transaction (Pilut). Negative. It didn't go in. I count 6 involving Sabres rights (and a 7th that was AHL-only). 12/15/22 Laaksonen to DAL; 2/27/23 Bloom for Stillman VAN; 2/28/23 Portillo to LAK; 2/28/23 Bjork for Gicewicz CHI; 3/2/23 Greenway from DAL; 3/2/23 Asplund to NSH 18. Does Peyton Krebs have more than 30 assists this season? No 17. Correctomundo. 17 isn't bad for a 4th liner setting up Girgs. 19. Kyle Okposo will have more, the same, or less points than last year (45)? Yes. I said 46 in the Okposo prediction thread and I'm sticking with it. I thought I could instruct him just as well as Yoda. I was wrong. I also thought the rookies wouldn't get all the PP1 and PP2 time, where Okposo had a very good season last year. 28 points. 20.How many 20+ goal scorers will the Sabres have? 5 Boom-shaka-laka! TNT 47, Tuch 36, Skinner 35, Cozens 31, VO 28. (Dahlin and Mitts next with 15) 21.Who will lead the Sabres in combined hits + blocked shots? Boushh Muel had 198, Boushh had 203, Dahlin had 237! Nope. 22.Will Mattias Samuelsson average TOI be above 22 min/game? Yes Yippee! 22:11. Third on the team among skaters. 23.True or False: Alex Tuch has over 52 points. True Neato Burrito! 79. A career year. Don't look now, but he might just score more points for the Sabres on this current contract than Eichel will for VGK on his current contract (both expire 2025-26). Extra Credit/Tie-Breaker: Predict the Rochester American’s top goal scorer this season and how many goals he scores. T-27. Mersch and Murray Noooooooooooo! 2 games left in the season today and tomorrow! Murray (23) still has a chance to overtake Kulich (24). Weissbach sitting on 20. Mersch in 4th but well back at 17. Edited September 23, 2022 by DarthEbriate 1. Where will the Sabres finish in the Atlantic? 6th 5th 2. What will their record be? 39-33-10. 88 pts 42-33-7. 91 pts. I am happy to on the low side, and I thought I was pretty positive compared to many folks at the start of the season 3. Will they make the playoffs? No Well... yeah. Sadly correct. 4. How many goals will the team score? 266 296! Holy hell +30! Nice. 5. How many goals will the team allow? 271 300. Uffda. Also nearly +30. +29. Team defense (forwards!), Tweener defenders playing too many games, and Tweener-level goaltending. 6. Team leader in goals and with how many? Thompson 32 TNT. Try 47. 15 off. Not very close. 7. Team leader in assists and with how many? Dahlin 48 TNT and Skinner had 47. To tie for 2nd. Dahlin wins it with 58. What a season. And a bunch of those were perfect wheelhouse setups to TNT. 8. Team leader in points and with how many? Olofsson 74 Yeah. No. 9. Team MVP? Dahlin I stand by it. 10. Most improved player? Olofsson, in perception league-wide Yeah, no. In the Season Grades thread I went with Mitts. 11. Team ROY? Quinn Power. Totally Power, despite Quinn having the edge in rookie points 37 to Power's 35 (and JJP's 32). They finished 8, 9, and 10th on the team in scoring. No 12. Biggest positive surprise? Asplund provides offense, too Uhhh. Asplund and VO really had my hopes up this season. And it was the rookies who took their spots and ice time. 13. Biggest disappointment? The Sabres leadership stays with Anderson too long and doesn't trade for a veteran goalie heading into, or at, the trade deadline Hmmm. Curious. In hindsight it was Comrie, but mostly because of injury. 14. Outside the box prediction? Buffalo does not lose in regulation to the Bruins Hahahahhahahah. 15. How many 20+ goal scorers will the Sabres have? 4. Thompson, Olofsson, Skinner, Cozens Uhhh... I said 5 in the previous answers and got it right. Let's see how I compare with only 4? Yup, still right on all counts. Plus Tuch! Boom-shaka-laka! TNT 47, Tuch 36, Skinner 35, Cozens 31, VO 28. (Dahlin and Mitts next with 15) 16. How many 10+ goal scorers will the Sabres have? 13. Okposo, Mittelstadt, Tuch, Quinn, Krebs, Power, Asplund, Hinostroza, Dahlin Only 11. Boo. Krebs, Hinostroza, Asplund, and Power let me down. JJP picked me up. 17. Best case scenario for the Sabres? Stanley Cup victory. Levi is amazing. Levi is amazing, but didn't win every single start he had. 18. Worst case scenario for the Sabres? Okposo gets hurt early sending the team into a tailspin, Dahlin and Power miss many games, but they still finish 12th and draft 13th. Boston and Toronto meet in the ECF and the winner takes the Stanley Cup. Well thankfully this didn't and can't all happen. But Boston did finish with the best record ever. Bold Predictions Thread: Northeastern and Michigan both fall in the opening round of the Frozen Four tourney to 3-1 (empty netter) and 1-0 scores where the opposing goalie stands on his head. Portillo signs and will finish his business degree in the summer. Levi signs as expected. Both rookies go 3-0 with a shutout down the stretch while alternating starts with Anderson as the backup to guide them. Final record 40-30-12 for 92 points and the kids have taken over the pipes to finish the season 6-0 with 2 shutouts over BOS (in Boston) and TOR (at home) and a combined score of 31-7. One point off! Portillo traded. But Levi made 7 starts and won 5. No shutouts though. Slacker. Let's go bold. GM Sheevyn gives in to his hatred and signs Kadri to ensure Detroit and Ottawa stay in our rearview mirrors. The strategy works! But as to the other part of the equation: this means the season begins with JJP and Quinn both in Rochester. They do well as call-ups though because they're ready and raring to go by midseason. This was back in July 2022 and really had no chance of being correct. But JJP and Quinn did look good. Not sure what this means for predictions, but I assume this will be @Buffalonill when Rodgers is finally traded.

Krebs Antilles, Hero of the Rebellion Turn Krebs into a bottom 6 Swiss Army Knife. C/W. PK2. PP sidewall if there are injuries. He'll be an agitator and fiery sparkplug that the team needs. Part Angry Larry, part Lazar, part Mitts, part Jost. The best part of Krebs is he hasn't languished as high pick whose skill was passing/offense. He's embraced the gritty. He was 2nd among forwards in hits and first in fights. Like 2/3 of the team, he needs to bulk up a bit, but he's 6'0" and nearly 190. Get to 192-198 over the next couple seasons and he'll look the part of a 3C/4C who can do a bit of everything. One good aspect of Krebs: he went from 35% faceoffs his first season to 45% last year. Part of that is playing with Zemgus/KO who know how to battle off the draw, but Krebs has the tenacity to become good in the dot. (And the kids as a whole will get better at winning the faceoff scrums as they age.) Lines I think Quinn-Cozens and the top line are set in the top-6. And Mitts has shown the potential to belong there. If Krebs slots into the Mitts-role of "rotating 3rd line parts", he can work with Greenway, Savoie, Rousek, JJP, (or Jost or VO?) to figure out the right combination. I'd be curious to see a 3rd line of JJP-Krebs-Savoie where you expect chaos but can live with it because Levi is the goalie. (The "responsible" 4th line would get more minutes than the Kid Chaos Line.) Early in the season, I do think Granato will "pull a Krebs" and start Savoie centering a 4th line of veterans/responsible grinder types. Your choice of Greenway/Zemgus and KO/Rousek. That gives Krebs about a month to explore the 3rd line and gel.

I'm sure there were other threads (such is the nature of 'Space), but are some of the preseason prediction threads from @Curt, @GASabresIUFAN, and @Doohickie. Obviously, don't reply in these outdated threads, but how does everything look after a season?

There are tons of veterans who bounce around -- they won't be part of your core but you give them a 2-year deal as a scoring boost. With that shot, VO can make himself a really nice career. Someday you'll sitting around remembering some guys and be like "Oh! Goalofsson! Remember that guy?" And you'll look up his stats and see that he scored 400 NHL points and you're like... "That can't be right." But he had 20+ goals/season for 10 seasons for 6 different teams and got to 402 points and you'll owe your friend a beer.

VO started the season on the top line, but Thompson was ice cold (new contract signed pressure? new baby lack of sleep?) and Tuch was on fire. The top line was reunited and... VO went to the perfect spot in the lineup for him: 3W. There, he provided excellent secondary scoring (75% of his goals at EV, only 7 PP goals), particularly in January when the 7s (Mitts-Jost-VO) got hot and Olofsson netted all the goals for them. And the rest of the story: terrible defensively. When the team struggled most in its own end it was VO and Bryson as puck after puck went into the Sabres net. There are scoring-deficient teams that will employ a much stouter overall defensive structure where VO could absolutely thrive (as a 2W/3W and PP specialist). Find that team and make the trade happen. Preferably out West so we don't notice as much when he turns into a 30G scorer for a couple seasons. I agree, thank you Victor! Not too shabby for a 7th round pick. I dig your dancing tunes.

One note on Boushh. He looked very good the first few games until he blocked the shot, then he looked like he was skating on a broken/severely contused foot for about 6 weeks. With better depth, he can probably rest for a month before coming back, but Muel, Joker, and Dahlin all missed time in the next couple weeks.

A side note on Skinner: When asked to waive his NMC for the expansion draft, he did so. His contract prevented him from being taken, but his resurgence easily could have been as a part of the Kraken's top line instead of helping guide Thompson-Tuch. The Sabres elected to protect Bjork instead.

Alright. Heading out to for Friday date-night dinner. Playoff-wise a bit short, but a very entertaining and promising season. It's been an honor to serve with y'all on the 'Space this season. Keep your S-foils ready to deploy.

Levi's gaffe in the end of the period should help motivate the Sabres to finish them off in the third.

Oooof, Levi. ok offense, go get it back.

3:1 Sabres advantage in shots and CLB can't get anything established but got a rebound early that hit Levi, Dahlin's skate, and Mitts had his stick lifted before he could get to it... It's not like the Sabres are getting steamrolled here.

Hud(BryGirgenOlofThompMuels)son: You maybe haven't been keeping up on current events but we just got our ***** kicked, pal! VasKrebz: All right, we got seven canisters of TNT-72 (replaced today by a bunch of VO-71). I say we roll them in there and nerve gas the whole ***** nest. Of Blue Jackets, which I assume are some sort of stinging insect. Wait... wrong movie!

Edited so it didn't look like I changed @GASabresIUFAN's responses. So what are Sabrespacer’s thoughts on the team? Either right on track or right on track but should've been more on the attack or still all a bunch of flak. What is overall grade for the season? A What grade would you give Adams and Granato (including his staff)? B It was stated as a development year and they did not deviate from that. My expectations were met and some were exceeded. I think Granato should have focused more on defense, but again, the stated objective was learn to score first and they did. What grade would you give the Forwards, the Defense and the Goaltenders? B Forwards: for what they were, they followed the offensive plan and produced more than any Sabres offense in years. For all the crap given to them about defense, they frequently made other teams who were stressing defense look woefully outmatched. They have a bunch of room for improvement in their own end, which is good so there's no resting on their laurels. B Defensemen: When healthy, they're good. When running with two injuries (or more), they were problematic. Dahlin can control games already, Power soon will. The issue was depth, which really isn't on the defensemen suited up playing above their station. C Goaltending: It was the known weakness going into the season and it remained so (Anderson needed multiple rest days; Comrie had multiple injuries; Luukkonen was an inconsistent youngster as was expected). Levi had one bad game in a small sample size, but gives the team a confidence they haven't had since Ullmark. What grade would you give the Power Play and the Penalty Kill? C- PP1 was a overly dependent on Tage and rarely crashed the net. PP2 needs Power to develop a shot (or at least take it to keep the opponent honest) but still managed to stay in the top 10 leaguewide. They'll be alright with tweaks and growth. The PK is Tuch and too passive. 1 experienced D and coaching change to be more assertive will do wonders. With the talent the Sabres are amassing, a mid-tier PK will be sufficient to do real damage in the standings. Edit: And it should be noted, the Sabres don't take many penalties and it's doubtful they will next year, either. Just getting to a middling PK rate will be fine since they just don't give up very many opportunities. Who is your MVP? Dahlin and it's not particularly close despite career years from all 3 top liners and Muel-Pace Pts% being a real thing. Who is your ROY? Power and it's not particularly close despite Quinn's excellent all-around game and top line potential. Who is your MIP (most improved player)? Mitts was 1C at the start of last season until the game 1 injury. We'd seen glimpses of a decent player and then he lost half a season again. This year he was given VO and an ever-changing cast of 3rd liners and he grew. His board work became among the best on the team, his feistiness elevated, he hit probably 7-10 posts this season. He really developed into a full-grown hockey player. And when a 1C was needed, he's been good enough to lead a playoff push against teams that needed wins for home-ice, etc. The question for the other most-improved contenders is simply gaining core and leg strength to fend off checks and win battles: Quinn, Peterka, and Power will take enormous strides when they stop looking like baby Reino and start looking 3rd-year Reino with better speed, grit, and shots. Who is your unsung hero? UPL. The season could have gotten away from them entirely, but he stabilized them and went 12-4 in his Dec/Jan starts. Did they need to score a bunch to win? Yes, but he gave them +.900sv% tending and swagger. Then, as expected with inexperience and unpolished goalie, he faded as the season wore on and teams scouted him as the Sabres #1 starter. But he is the reason the Sabres got past that 8-game skid and started the climb.

All they had to do was keep Crosby, let Letang and Malkin go to UFA, and save cash. Trade off everyone (Jarry, I guess) as a rental during the season and weave their Penguin-waddling magic for Bedard. Then, re-sign Letang and Malkin and Rust who would've all suspiciously signed one-year deals this season... and boom, igloo reassembled.

The Amerks on AHL deals are covered, it's the Amerks D on Sabres entry-level contracts that are missing. Going into next season it's currently 0. If Komarov signs an ELC, it's 1 (I'd put that likelihood at 95% unless he has some weird Memorial Cup desire for next year or plays the "doesn't want to be here" option). The only other pieces available in the pipeline are Lyckasen, Novikov, and Nyberg who don't have to cross the pond this offseason, if ever. RFA addendum: To start next season I think you can easily slip Bryson at $1.8M down to ROC. Clague would be 50/50.

This has nothing to do with the playoffs. Hextall was a dead GM walking for the new ownership. National pundits have been hearing this rumor for months. It was just a question of how quickly after the season ended did they can him. He was not going to be allowed to lead the team in the draft or new/next direction.

There is a significant ripple effect and it continues on from this season. The Sabres don’t have waiver exempt D assets for short-term injuries. They lost Fitz and then had to give up an asset for Stillman instead of having a waiver-free D guy available. The same will happen next season except Komarov unless they can convince European prospects to get out of their contracts to join the AHL only (unlikely). Or, you’re using your trade assets (VO) to get a prospect + pick instead of a 4D if you wanted to go the trade route. If not, it’s more Clague types who have to keep on the Sabres or risk losing when sent down.

Win and finish cleanly above the @deluca67 threshold.

(Edit: Because no Tager on the PP1, it's...) Time to get VO to 30.

But... there isn't an A on it. With the exception of the arm/tomahawk wrap that could be any team (which is subtle and cool, but... that's it?). Get some branding on the figure, marketing team!

It's ATO and Rochester or free agency and the final pick of the 2nd round in 2024. (And if he's still "making a decision", then he's already made his decision for UFA and just doesn't have the forthrightness to state it in public.)