Curt

I don’t think that is the general consensus opinion.

Not crazy, but 15G would surprise me. Maybe it shouldn’t. I can’t imagine that anyone, even Power, would push him off of PP1 for a couple years at least, if ever.

Nice win vs a really high quality team. I know the team has a ways to go before they are really good, but there is a definite different feel for the way they finish out games. There seems to be genuine belief that they will win, and there is always a team swarm every time there is a little pushing scrum. It’s honestly a joy to watch a team coming together. And they didn’t face the backup goalie.

This is silly. I can’t see the sense in trying to read much into this. It’s just Adams saying that he is ok with it if Johnson/Portillo decide to go back to school. My guess would be that if they feel going back is best for them Adams wants to support them in that decision.

Usually the headlines contain all the necessary information presented in a reasonable and contextualized format.

Extra tall players are often not that good along the wall. High centered of gravity and all that.

Was serious about the No though. 2 years of team control isn’t enough for a ~8-10 OA pick and a good prospect. Sabres are going to win a lottery spot anyway! So it will be moot.

Joking. The old “wants to be here” meme

No. He is only under contract for 2 years, and he doesn’t want to be here.

But go project out the future contracts. Its far from a forgone conclusion that 3 years from now, Olofsson making $5M will prohibit the Sabres from doing anything.

I guess my question is, why is such a hard line delineation between “2nd line” and “3rd line” necessary? If the team can build scoring depth throughout the middle 6, isn’t that ideal? You said yourself that Cozens, Mittelstadt, Krebs, Quinn, and Peterka will be cheaper. I’d argue that is exactly what allows you to keep Olofsson at $5M (for example) even if he is going to be getting 3rd line ice time a lot of nights. I’d also argue that none of those young guys have shown the ability to produce offense the way that Olofsson has. They haven’t beaten him out for spots. If 3 years down the road, those young guys are performing well enough that they are due larger contracts, then trade Olofsson at that time, when you need to. There is no reason to trade him preemptively unless something comes up that is going to greatly benefit the Sabres. The Sabres have lots of cap space right now. They don’t need to trade Olofsson so that they can stay down near the cap floor.

That’s a real loser mentality. “You can score goals because you are better than me, so you deserve to get punched.” I liked the Coyotes player holding back Zegras from addressing it with Beagle at the end. What do you think he was saying to Zegras? “It’s not worth it man, Beagle is an idiot. Let it go”. Maybe?

That’s a real loser mentality. “You can score goals because you are better than me, so you deserve to get punched.” I liked the Coyotes player holding back Zegras from addressing it with Beagle at the end. What do you think he was saying to Zegras? “It’s not worth it man, Beagle is an idiot. Let it go”. Maybe?

Sabres and Olofsson will both know how much injuries were a factor for him. Just looking at the anecdotal evidence, I think it’s pretty clear from the outside as well. He was scoring to start the year, got injured and was out for 3 weeks, didn’t score for 30 games after he came back, then started scoring again. In addition to that, he was obviously hesitant to shoot, and when he did shoot, it didn’t look right. The injury was a major factor during that time.

1) This increase in ES scoring rate is not due to a decrease in PP scoring though. PP scoring is roughly where it’s been for the past ten years. The difference is that ES scoring has gone way up. I think it’s a combination of expansion resulting in worse goaltending and 50 guys playing in the league who weren’t good enough for the league a few years ago, combined with the steady increase in skill level/creativity of the better players. 2) I wouldn’t call Olofsson a PP specialist any longer. He does pretty well at ES. 3) I don’t see any reason why Olofsson couldn’t play in a top 6. Stuff like that is obviously going to depend upon the type of players around him and how the lines at configured. 4) What would you do with Olofsson this offseason? He needs a new contract.

I agree. I think that a stacked defense, depth scoring though the forward group, and good goaltending can get it done even in the absence of an elite scoring forward. It was enough for St. Louis to win it all.

Nice. Funny things here: Anderson left his mask on for the pic? Tage way in the back, looking a full head taller than everyone.

Definitely true. I think the premise of thread is that when you project out the Sabres young players, you envision a team with 1 or 2 superstar defensemen but maybe no forward who projects to be a superstar. Can that team win a cup?

$1M per year for 4 years? Not a chance. I believe that @bob_sauve28 was referencing $4M per year for 4 years. That’s within the realm of possibility, but my guess is that it would take even more than that.

He wasn’t scoring while injured though. After returning from missing time he went 30 games without scoring a goal.

Welcome back. I understand what you mean about the pitfalls of focusing the construction of a team on one player. Let’s please continue focusing on the team above the individual. I don’t think that’s the spirit of the questions being asked here though. You must admit though that most cup contenders/winners have a “superstar” forward as part of the team. The Sabres don’t seem to have that player right now, although it’s possible that one emerges. If they did have a superstar forward, I think it’s a little easier to project them as a contender in the future.

What do you mean by “only one is Rodrigues”? He’s the only what?

Ok.....I’m not going to sift through players to look for good NHL undrafted ncaa free agents, but just know that they are definitely out there. There will be a few guys each year who turn into quality nhl players. Many will not, you are right about that, but the good thing is that these guys don’t cost draft picks or trade assets to acquire. There is no downside.

Not many stars obviously. Torrey Krug, ERod, dozens of useful NHL players. It’s not just players to fill out the AHL.

Yup, Vinnie Hinostroza has been pretty darn good.