Curt

Someone said Byram hadn’t been playing so well. True? Players voted for their two captains and their goalie. Makes sense.

What does everyone thing about the potential of the Trump rise and presidency to truly fracture and damage the Republican Party? Especially if Donald/Don Jr. try to stay in the political spotlight long term. If a sizable segment of the electorate (and elected officials) continue to put pressure on the rest to support conspiracy theory nonsense (and/or Machiavellian mindset), I can’t see how they can stay on the same page. I honestly feel that this has opened a divide within the party.

I agree whole heartedly. It’s two years running now that this team has put themselves in a reasonable position to challenge for the playoffs only to be undone by losing streaks and slumps in the 2nd half. In addition to more talent, then needed some players with experience and resolve, to help them weather the ups and downs of the season without collapsing completely. I hope that they have done that.

Is this the guy who hasn’t had a winning record in 5 seasons as a HC, who got arrested and plead guilty to running an illegal gambling ring, whose organization is a complete disaster? He only coached Hall for half a season. Maybe Hall just wasn’t happy to be in Arizona? Also, it’s easy to say that you don’t want someone and are glad they are gone after they have already left you on their own decision.

This is not surprising for an 18 year old 2nd round pick. With regards to him being a bit of a floater, I wonder if that is a lot to do with what dudacek said below. Being dog tired will do that. Everything else that I’ve seen about him is that he is tenacious in puck pursuit, and generally goes all out.

Yeah, it’s essentially the same incentive he has had the past 2 years also though. We’ll see.

Agree. There is potential from multiple young guys (Cozens, Thompson, Routsalainen, Mittelstadt) to come in and make the 3rd line a force. That could make the Sabres forward lineup truly elite.

No. He is waiver exempt, 2-way, $874,125 in NHL, $70,000 in AHL.

A comparison between this season and last season’s forward lines. Hall-Eichel-Olofsson Olofsson-Eichel-Reinhart -This year’s 1st line is definitely better. Skinner-Staal-Reinhart Skinner-Johansson-Sobotka -This year’s 2nd line is definitely much much better. Girgensons-Eakin-Okposo Girgensons-Larsson-Okposo -This years 3rd line is probably worse. Thompson-Lazar-Reider (Cozens, Routsalainen) Sheary-Mittelstadt-Vesey -This year’s 4th line is hopefully better, but who knows. Overall, the lineup should be greatly improved because there will actually be two dangerous scoring lines. The bottom 6 may or may not be better, but they will definitely be less depended upon. Because the bottom 6 will be more sheltered, hopefully some combinations that work can be found and they can excel in their more limited roles.

Minnesota was definitely not a tire fire that season. They were ok. They had a winning record and scored more than they gave up (barely). What they were was a not exceptional talented team that played a defensive style. On a more talented team Mitts probably would have produced more, but I kind of doubt he would have put up over 45 points. That would be a truly elite freshman season.

The, this year I think, 6 game tryout is only for games actually played. If you don’t dress, it doesn’t count toward the limit.

No. It was Casey’s D1 season.

I think that Sam has more to give in the puck carrying department. I agree that playing with Eichel, we don’t see it so much, but as his skating has improved, I’ve seen his puck carrying improve along with it.

Sure, but Mitts led the tourney that season and won mvp. He was considered to be completely dominant. Cozens isn’t leading the tournament in scoring and it looks like scoring is way up this season. Honestly though, if you go look at the top 3-4 scorers from years past, large majority of them became at least solid good nhl players.

Lol, Casey Mittelstadt?

Valid point.

Yeah, of course. You think I don’t? I just see the most important aspect of his game as his goal scoring. I don’t think his usefulness as a puck carrier or playmaker, or defensive presence, or anything else comes close to his usefulness as a shooter.

Actually, I think that talking about PP scoring when discussing ES play muddies the discussion more than just not bringing assist into the discussion.

Yeah, they do count, I get that. It’s not irrelevant, but creation for others is not Olofsson’s primary skill set. We want him to score goals and playing with Eichel/Reinhart he is bound to pick up assists at a higher rate than if he was playing down the lineup.

Interesting. I don’t necessarily thing he is that good, but with the departure of Krug, I think McAvoy will put up a shocking number of points. Like 45-50 points in a 56 game season.

Yeah, top prospect is vague. I was thinking among the top prospects in hockey. Like among the top 25 or something.

Hall and Skinner both play LW pretty much exclusively. So I doubt we see them together.

Yes, an excellent WJC is always nice to see, especially if the guy is good against the top teams as well as the also rans. However, it’s no reason to drastically change the evaluation of a player. JJP is not suddenly a top prospect. I mean he might be, maybe, but it takes more than this to prove it.

I’m not really against the idea of Olofsson on the top line. I’m just against the idea that he MUST be on the top line. He is an option for that spot, but just one of multiple options.

I get it, he has the physical skills to be a good ES scorer, and it may not be a chronic hot-cold thing for him, but he needs to show me that it’s not. Consistency is what separates the serviceable players from the very good players. He needs to keep playing well, even when the pressure is on. If you go hunting for good stretches on the stat sheet, you can find all kinds of “just ok” players who had 26 game stretches just as good.