Curt

You think the cap might go up $17.5M or even more in just two offseason? No chance man. Is it going to take a big $5M jump next (2023) offseason? Or will it be mostly flat again?

They will need to worry about it sooner than you think. By the 2024-25 season, Sabres will probably be up against the cap.

Sabres are actually paying him. However, most of his salary is reimbursed by an insurance policy. At least that’s what I recall.

Regardless of what position he plays, Krebs will need to be stronger than he was last season. I’m not so sure that there is any reason that C’s need to be stronger than W’s. I think W’s find themselves battling along the boards just as, if not more, often as C’s. I believe that Krebs has the 2-way instincts to be a C, but just needs to fine tune his decision making, and get stronger.

Yes, he flashed skills last season, but it didn’t coalesce in a good NHL player. The Sabres seem to like him at C. I know C is generally considered to be more difficult, but maybe he just feels much more comfortable in that position.

Yeah, I do want to get to that point as well. I get the impression that right now they are establishing (or they did establish towards the end of last season) a standard for how they are expected to behave, work, and play. And that they see that as their path forward to improvement both individually and as a team. I think that’s what they will judge themselves off of, and believe that if they each meet that standard that they will win quite a few games. I think we could be a year away from everyone going into the season with playoffs as, not just a goal, but the expectation.

If they are all just acting in their interviews, then they are all much much better actors than the guys who were on the team a couple years ago. I think they believe that they are pretty good. Feels like they are setting an internal standard in the locker room for what they expect from themselves and each other.

Spielberg couldn’t have crafted a better scene.

This is true. The Sabres don’t have a 1st of players who are going to get 22 mins per night like a McDavid might, and the 4th line isn’t scrubs skating 9 mins a game. They have run a pretty even ice time distribution, with basically all the forwards getting between 18 and 13 mins per game. I see that continuing this season.

I get the impression that Dahlin is very serious hockey and puts a lot of pressure on himself to be excellent. That combined with struggling to get good results while trying to do the stupid things Krueger was asking him to, and I think Dahlin ended up in a bit of a bad place mentally where he was playing very tight, low on confidence, and desperate to prove that he can be a great player. It affected his mindset both on and off the ice. With help from the current coaching staff he got himself turned around.

I think it is a factor in fan outlook. I think the way they finished the season is also a big factor. It’s having an effect on fan perception, but also on the team internally, I believe. I honestly give Adams a lot of credit for this. It can cynically be viewed as a bunch of new age office culture speak BS, but I believe that it can have a real effect on team mindset if it is perceived as genuine, especially for earnest young guys who haven’t been through the ringer of the business of hockey. Adams appears to have gotten buy in from the team and fan base (to a certain extent). That’s what I want from a guy leading the organization. I think Adams is a very good manager. I hope he proves to be a good NHL general manager. That came out more jumbled than I intended but I think you get the idea.

I am so not in the loop regarding football things.

I know it’s kind of dumb, but I absolutely love stuff like this. Sabres marketing/social media team never used to do stuff like this a few years ago, but there have obviously been a lot of changes/improvements over the past 1-2 years. Also, I think they have more to work with regarding the personalities currently on the team compared to a few years ago.

In the Eastern Conference?

Official published figures. So that’s announced I guess. Is there any official tracking of the actual number of people in attendance?

@dudacek @Zamboni Are you guys super optimistic regarding where Sabres will finish in the East, or were you accidentally answering where you think they will finish in division? Question #9

A fun prognostication quiz. Scores to be tabulated at end of the 2022-23 season. Whoever gets the most correct receives a sincere adaboy. 1. Will Tage Thompson score 28-32 goals? More? Or less? Pick one. 2. Who will be the Sabres rookie with the most points? 3. What will the Sabres’ record be against the Atlantic? 4. Will Casey Mittelstadt score more than 16 goals? 5. Who starts more games: UPL, Comrie, or Anderson? 6. True or False: Dylan Cozens scores 50 or more points? 7. What is the Sabres’ goal differential? 8. Who leads the Sabres in PP points? 9. In what position do the Sabres finish in the East? 10. Who leads the Sabres in points? 11. Will any center on the Sabres win more than 50% of their face-offs? 12. Does Victor Olofsson score more than 10 even-strength goals? 13. Do the Sabres increase attendance by 33% or more this coming year? 14. Who leads the Sabres in PIM? 15. How many more wins do the Sabres have than last year? 16. Name the player who will score the most SH points for the Sabres this year. 17. How many trades will the Sabres make during the 2022-23 NHL season? 18. Does Peyton Krebs have more than 30 assists this season? 19. Kyle Okposo will have more, the same, or less points than last year (45)? 20.How many 20+ goal scorers will the Sabres have? 21.Who will lead the Sabres in combined hits + blocked shots? 22.Will Mattias Samuelsson average TOI be above 22 min/game? 23.True or False: Alex Tuch has over 52 points. Extra Credit/Tie-Breaker: Predict the Rochester American’s top goal scorer this season and how many goals he scores.

Google and a calculator, unfortunately. If you find someplace where it’s all neatly broken down over multiple years, please let me know, lol.

You did it 1st, and better.

37% of the players selected in the 2020, 2021, and 2022 NHL drafts were from the CHL. 248 of 666 That’s pretty close to KA’s 30%.

Facts support the idea that Botterill was fired because he would not go along with the Pegulas’ organizational restructuring (massive firings). At the time of the firings, the Pegulas stated this quite plainly. https://buffalonews.com/sports/sabres/one-year-later-inside-jason-botterills-final-days-as-sabres-general-manager/article_2c4842b4-d04a-11eb-939f-6be7ef3c39cd.amp.html “Terry Pegula acknowledged following the firings that a disagreement with Botterill led to the decision, saying, “We as owners had a vision to where we need to go in these uncertain times. We don’t know if we’re going to have fans next year and what not as far as competitive sports go. Looking ahead, we need to make some adjustments in the business side of our operations that we provide that foresight to the organization. We felt like we weren’t being heard. I’m not going to sit here and dish on Jason Botterill, but we have a vision and we want to see our vision succeed."”

These figures are not generally publicly released. Could leak out at some point though.

I could type a lot, but I feel basically what LGR said, but without the antagonistic tone. The team to start 2022-23 is not a lot different than the team that ended 2021-22, but the team changed a whole lot over the course of the 2021-22 season. Most of the worst players are not returning and have been replaced by better talent. There is plenty of reason to think that the Sabres will win more games than last season, and they certainly aren’t tanking. To suggest a tank is borderline laughable, to the point that it’s a statement that can’t even be taken seriously. How many points do you project for the 2022-23 Sabres?

Girgensons will be on the team, and in the starting 12 for most of the season. It’s possible he gets traded depending on how the season goes. I don’t think JJP is a sure thing to start in the NHL.

I hope they don’t draft a D in the 1st, but draft 2-3 in the 2nd.