Curt

It’s a good song and she was a great singer.

Not to belabor the point, though I probably am, but with Samuelsson coming through USNTDP, NCAA, and Rochester, in addition to him being the high profile son of a long time NHLer, the Sabres probably feel like they have a heck of a lot more info on him than just half an NHL season. They would have had plenty of contacts near him and visibility of him every step of his development. If everything they have seen at each level is consistent and just reinforces their opinions of him, they might just feel that they KNOW who he is, on and off ice, even though they have only seen it in the NHL for half a season. I think a significant factor with Dahlin was that he was struggling mentally and with confidence for reasons that have been well discussed. They may have been a little unsure how he would come out of that and took a more cautious approach as a result. I don’t think that was a concern with Samuelsson.

I agree with you, it’s a risk/reward spectrum and Buffalo appears to be way to one end on this deal. All I can say is that they made an evaluation they are confident in, and they will be judged on the results. They probably just feel extremely confident with everything they know about Samuelsson. They don’t evaluate the risk the same way you do because they have more info. I personally love the mindset to aggressively lock up “your guys”. I’m not going to pretend to be fully impartial though, I’ve been saying for months how much I like Samuelsson for this team. Even still, if you would have asked me, I would have projected a Samuelsson extension for a bit lower of a number. I had him projected for $3.5M over 6 years I believe.

Brett Pesce and to a lesser extent Jacob Slavic are somewhat similar players who signed somewhat similar contracts in somewhat similar circumstances. I feel like analytical studies probably say that if you identify a young player as good, lock them up sooner rather than wait until they have proven themselves beyond question. I actually don’t agree that he could not have earned more after proving himself further.

Yeah, I hear this. I’m not sure really. Cernak just signed for $5.2M x 8, and that’s in Tampa with the No tax and contender price reducers. Samuelsson isn’t going to blow up in terms of points, but proving that you are a 1st pair/top-4 quality shutdown D definitely has value around the league. Right now has only done that for a small sample of games. Doing it well for a whole season would definitely increase his value, I’m not entirely sure how much though. Waiting 1 year wouldn’t have been a terrible move, but I’m really glad that they didn’t bridge him. Gotta get some of these contracts in before the cap spikes. Its probably going up just $1M again next offseason, but it looks like after that things could get really crazy. Like an increase of over $10M combined between the 2024 and 2025 off seasons. I think part of it is also just to get some of these guys signed before next offseason, when Cozens and Asplund definitely need to be signed, but Okposo, Girgensons, Olofsson, Mittelstadt, Krebs, Jokiharju, Dahlin, and Power are all eligible for extensions. If Adams is thinking that he wants to negotiate hugely important extensions with all of Cozens, Dahlin, Power next offseason, in addition to anyone else breaks out, maybe it makes sense to get some of the work done now.

Didn’t want to see the price go way up, I would assume.

True, you said that they slowly brought him back in. He led the team in ES ice time, so it couldn’t have been too slow. Also, I can’t find any record of him being benched his rookie year. Looks like he missed some time with an irregular heartbeat and then a knee injury. Not many teams have a Chara to pair with their stud rookie. Power is not going to be carrying the heavy load. That will be Samuelsson-Dahlin. Power will be fine.

What did Kjell say?

Sure, hypothetically. Hard to predict what the situation will be 8 years down the road.

WOW. I never would have guessed that this was coming. Its a little more that I think he has really proven so far, but I have a lot of confidence that he will prove to be worth more than this contract over the next 8 years. I love the player. Im excited by this strategy. I think 5 years from now, looking at the Sabres roster these Thompson and Samuelsson, and any others like them that get signed, contracts will look like bargains and be viewed as reasons why the Sabres, a good playoff team, still have cap flexibility.

In McAvoy’s rookie season he led the Bruins in ES ice time, played some on both special teams, and skated over 22 min/game overall. I understand what you are saying about having that veteran presence, but I definitely wouldn’t characterize what the Bruins did with McAvoy as easing him in.

Neither of you are willing to mark it down in the poll though?

You didn’t vote for it! Put it down on the permanent record.

League average sv% was 0.907 last season, so .910 seems like a fair threshold.

Define: Good enough

I feel like that is what most people expected, at least early in the season, and it was just you who was insisting that Anderson would be the clear starter and Comrie the clear backup.

NHL rookies are often not good, and Peterka has yet to show stuff worthy of unbridled enthusiasm while wearing a Sabres sweater.

I worry about Krebs-Cozens-Peterka. Seems like that could really kneecap Cozens. We’ll see how Krebs/Peterka do.

Is that guy popular on Twitter. I’ve seen his YouTube channel, and I find him incredibly annoying. I can not sit through a video listening to him.

But, Okposo isn’t a 4th liner.

Maybe they think he is an excellent role model for the young guys. Girgensons was drafted by Buffalo, has always worked hard, he and the organization have been loyal to each other, he chose to make his home and start his family in Buffalo. Basically, Girgensons has done all the things that the organization would love to see their current crop of youngsters do. Both Okposo and Girgensons live in Buffalo full time and have strong roots in the community. They are a good resource for the young guys trying to get settled in the city.

Why would they care? Just a shot in the dark: Maybe they have a good sense of the difference between right and wrong.

I hope someday the Canucks have two players on their NHL roster both named Elias Pettersson.

What more would you need to know in order to physically and psychologically evaluate a hockey prospect? lol

Definitely options. I think Thompson, Samuelsson, and Power are also possibilities.