Curt

I think if you look at the numbers and rate of production, he is more like 45-50 points. Just 2017-18 was a bad year.

Why would they do that? If they just skip a season no one gets paid.

Where are all the kids and internal players? 😉 You think Nash trades Bonino for futures? They need C’s, no?

No need to plan for the worst in order to avoid consequences of being too aggressive. We can just go with what we think is most likely. Me being wrong has no consequences for the Sabres.

Olofsson has played 60 NHL games. Jokiharju is 21. Dahlin is 20. Borgen has 0 NHL games. Why is Jokiharju not an internal player, but Thompson is? Your definition of kids is very strict. They rumored to be after a veteran goalie, rumored to be after Petrangelo. Those guys would not be cheap. I think they will take cost into consideration, and won’t spend to the cap, especially in real $, but I’m just not putting much stock in Servelli hearing from someone that they were thinking about maybe only spending low 70’s and taking that as verified fact.

No. One guy said he heard that they were “considering” an internal cap in the “low 70’s”. That far from anything definitive. Also, the above roster needs more kids playing? Olofsson, Thompson, Cozens, Dahlin, Jokiharju, Borgen isn’t enough?

Looks like the RFAs signed fairly cheaply. I don’t know if you get that return from Vegas or Calgary.

He is a 23 year old(turns 24 at end of January) RW/C with offensive skill who seems to have improved yearly since entering the league. He has been stuck in a bottom-6, sometimes 4th line role, but many think he is ready to take on a bigger role in the top 6. Montour is 26 and coming off his worst season. His play seems to have stagnated, if not regressed. It could be just that he is a poor fit for Krueger and/or he played out of position. Depending on each of their next contracts, I don’t think the value will necessarily be that different between the two.

I agree with you. FO% could use some improvement, at least situationally. I don’t put a ton of value in it, but I do want to be able to put a good face off guy out there in key situations, especially defensively. I think there are a lot of reasons the PK was bad. There were times that goaltending (Hutton) was really bad, and I do think that it showed more on the PK because that’s where you often face the toughest shots. They often played passively and let the other team dictate the PP. The FO% didn’t help them I’m sure, I just think it’s a small part of a large puzzle. When you are last by a large margin, it’s not just one thing.

You really should not “trust” or “not trust” analytics. It all depends on what numbers you are talking about and the specific situation of the player.

I don’t think that they will be going into summer as a permanent change, but will do whatever they can to get in as many games as possible next season.

Is there more context to this? What are the prior projections that this is based upon?

I think he is pretty good, versatile top-6 player. I don’t think he has a hard charging style though.

Hard to say about this, would need to see medically. With his knee, it was one very bad injury that required major surgery and rehab. That was 2018-19. Then he returned this year and missed a little time with it. He was healthy at the end of the season though. Hard to say for sure. Would need to trust the doctors opinions.

Marchessault‘s cap hit is $5M. In actual money he is owed $17M over 4 years, equaling out to $4.25M per. He made $13M combined over the first 2 years of his 6 year deal.

I feel pretty sure that it’s not the biggest problem with the PK. The reason they were last in the league is because Jack took twice as many FOs as anyone else, and isn’t great at them, and because Johansson took 500 FOs and won just 40%. Those guys weren’t taking draws on the PK though. In fact, Buffalo was not among the worst teams in the league in PK FO%, not that they were good, 18th at 44.5%. That was still better than some teams with much better PKs. Edmonton - #2 PK, 41.9% Boston - #3 PK, 39.4% (2nd last) New Jersey - #7 PK, 42.2%. Penguins -#10 PK, 37.7% (dead last) And there are more. It seems as though there is not that much correlation between FO% on the PK and how good the PK is.

Not what Casey is, but what he was supposed to be. What he was hyped and sold as.

I kind of view Perfetti as similar to what Mittelstadt was/is supposed to be. Not big, not fast, but just amazing hands, a good shot, and tons of creative playmaking.

I like him ok. Honestly I haven’t looked at the D as closely as the forwards because Sabres, and haven’t looked at Drysdale specifically in some time because I figure he’ll be gone by 8, so maybe I should take another look. After a quick glance at the numbers I see that he didn’t put up a lot of points on a bad PP, and for some reason I had it I’m my head that he had killed it on the PP and not so much at ES. Guess I’ve gotta watch him on film again.

Agreed. Outside of the top 3, 4, 5, you not going to RELIABLY find guys like that, but they are out there still.

Here are my Top-14 Rankings separates into tiers. Just for fun and discussion. Alexis Lafreniere Quinton Byfield. Marco Rossi Cole Perfetti. Lucas Raymond. Tim Stutzle Jake Sanderson. Anton Lundell. Seth Jarvis. Yaroslav Askarov Jamie Drysdale. Rodion Amirov. Jack Quinn. Alexander Holtz I’m working on my next tier now.

I’m hypothetically ok with Jarvis at 8, depending on who else is on the board. Vs Holtz, Jarvis is a better skater, better creator, shot definitely isn’t as good, but Jarvis has good scoring instincts, and a very good shot. Jarvis isn’t a real 2-way player either though. He is feisty and forchecks tenaciously, but he cheats for offense quite a lot, sometimes not getting involved in the D zone. Honestly that’s a lot of good offensive players in Juniors though, and something that often improves a lot if the player is willing.

I agree. I’m not a Holtz fan, but I wouldn’t be terribly let down either. I feel that he is only above average at one thing. Luckily, elite shooting is pretty valuable. If he can adjust his style of play a bit and just be good enough at everything else, his elite shot could see him be a consistent 30+ goal scorer. I would just like to add a less one dimensional player.

She is not President of Hockey Operations. She is Owner/President. It’s a different title. Many NHL teams have a non hockey person as team President. The Pegulas do enough questionable things to complain that we don’t need to invent grievances where there are none.

Sorry if you don’t, but do you know how many years the projection was for?