French Collection

He can be dispatched if it doesn’t work out. He chose termination to bet on himself so that is something. He could have made a few million from Detroit and playing in the minors. Former Halifax Moosehead so @Sabres Fan in NSwould like that.

Gates Orlando?

Houser, Tokarski and Coolley can all be starters in the AHL. Two 3 headed goalie monsters in this organization. I would think Comrie or UPL gets moved or picked up on waivers.

Slow news day for hockey so I was looking at some older Cup winners, dreaming of the Sabres rise. Okposo makes me think of Ed Westfall and the New York Islanders. Westfall was an established veteran who joined the Islanders in their inaugural season and took on the captaincy to lead them through their formative years. His game started to fall off just as they were becoming a really good team. He retired, turning the team over to the young core of Potvin, Trottier, Bossy, Gillies, Tonelli and Smith. Those guys went on to 5 straight finals and 4 consecutive Cups.

No rush, it’s probably done but they’re waiting for the right time to announce. KA didn’t want to take the focus away from the draft, FA frenzy and development camp. There will be so much down time coming up that this will be the #1 headline in all of hockey.

They are as fragile as Murray’s body.

I watched the interview with the temporary coaches brought in to help. They sounded extremely grateful for the opportunity and raved about being included in everything by KA and all of his staff. Chelsea Walkland coaches at Colgate, is from Rochester and is a big Sabres fan. I wonder if there is a possibility of her getting a position with the Amerks at some point?

Only two guys have never worn Blue & Gold. That’s why it feels like they are running it all back. Still hoping for a goalie move.

That would be awesome if Arizona and Chicago refused to take Murray. Teams should make them pay dearly to take that guy.

The 7/8 guys being Boosh and Stillman would be a decent third pairing. Real depth. Bonus being Bryson as the 9th or 10th option, if he is still around.

EJ will have credibility in the room. He is already talking team defense and I hope he holds guys accountable. He and KO go way back so there should be good support there. Clifton is a D first guy and will also walk the talk. DG said the PK will be better with these two guys. Goals against should drop.

Kind of wish he had picked up Ross Colton.

DG may try something like this. Positives: Left/right balance. Clifton was great with Lindholm, may have the same chemistry with Dahlin. Experienced stay at home guy for Power. Mule may be the best fit for Joki. That could be the best 3rd pairing in the league. Negatives: EJ holding up, ice time wise. No chemistry from the start, may take awhile to develop.

That was fun to watch, even on YouTube. 3v3 development camp hockey is not where I base an opinion but gives me an idea of what some guys look like and can do. Guys that stood out to me: Benson is a dog on a bone when he doesn’t have the puck and is really creative with it. Doesn’t have the speed to blow by anyone but his edge work is fantastic and he handles the puck extremely well. He is a possession beast and has a defensive conscience at 18. Novikov is big and is a good player. He looks kind of a lumbering skater but he gets there and he was smart with jumping into the play. He could have crunched guys defensively but without hitting he just got in the way or angled them off. He is not yet 20 so will gain size, power and coordination. I think he will be an NHLer. Neuchev is highly skilled. He showed some good stick handling and created some offense. He had a few shots that were stopped with good saves. Marjala looked very good with the puck and went to the net. He may shy away from that with hitting but he has good offensive instincts. Richard has good size, a good shot and looked nifty around the net. Just starting his NCAA career so he can slow cook some more. Kisakov looked decent offensively, he seems faster than most. Ratzlaff was good, these goalies face a lot of high danger chances in this format but he was solid. All the goalies were decent. Johnson showed a few bursts of good skating and seem to be a Dman first. N.Savoie was a good all round Dman.

It’s great to have depth on D. The Sabres are in a position of strength with D and can make a trade and sustain a few injuries. It is a fine line though, for team chemistry. We have been guessing at the pairings and who will be sitting out. These guys are professional athletes, geared to play and play as much as possible. If guys like Joki, Boosh, EJ and Stillman are in a rotation like Krebs, Quinn, Peterka and Asplund were last year there will probably be some grumbling and demands for more ice time. They have contracts that pay them well even if they sit but these guys want to play. Early team success will help boost the morale. A few injuries will get everyone some games but I hope the room is strong enough to keep everyone “happy”. I think Bryson and Joki will be moved with Clague being #8.

Don’t most of the arbitration cases get settled at the 11th hour? Maybe some teams are so tight to the cap that they can’t sign guys. The Leafs are also close to 10% over the cap limit allowed during the summer or does LTIR help there?

Yes, couple of years at prep school.

Perreault, Housley, Andreychuk are the first ones I can think of.

He would not disrupt the chemistry and would bring in some Cup rings. He is from Quebec, like Levi. He could be the 23/24 version of Anderson, but able to play more.

I wonder if KA has reached out to old teammate Jonathan Toews about his feeling on playing another year. He could be load managed in Buffalo, rotating in as 3/4C. He doesn’t have to have the burden of wearing a letter, just help the young guys learn how to win. I think he could help the PK and he is one of the best at the dot.

Neuchev has decent size, right?

I can see Chicago picking p Bryson on waivers, they have cap space and only 4 NHL D. A lot can happen in the next 2 months, and maybe nothing due to the summer doldrums. Clague on a 2-way deal makes Bryson even more expendable imo.

Some people are comparing Benson to Marner, skill and size wise. Marner scored 126 points in 63 games in his draft year and 116 points in 57 games in his D+1 year. These numbers are between Kane and Benson for draft year. It will be fun to see how he turns out. If he hits his ceiling, a bunch of other teams will look bad.

I thought they were NCAA coaches.

Another guy I wouldn’t rule out moving is Marc Andre Fleury. I know he has a NMC and is tired of moving. The Wild have $7.4M cap space remaining to fill out 6 spots. They have 3 RFAs to re-sign in Gustavsson (#1 goalie) Addison (PP QB?) and Duhaime. They only have 5D, 6 with Addison so they could use one of the Sabres bottom options. Retain 50% on VO + Bryson to take MAF and his $3.5M. Step it up to Joker if they throw in Foligno. The Wild have Hunter Jones at $785K and top prospect Wallstedt as goalie options to back up Gustavsson.