JoeSchmoe

A lot of this depends on what you make of the sliding definition of a prospect. I put it as someone who hasn't dressed regularly in the NHL yet. For that I don't consider Benson and Power to be prospects anymore. In my post above, I didn't consider Levi to be one either... but a case could be made to say he is. I know some people are still high on Östlund, but my research a few weeks back showed that of 8 guys who played SHL in their U20 year with a similar scoring pace as him, only 2 are top 6 NHL'ers. The 2 were William Karlsson and Joel Ericksen Ek who are both bigger. Larsson and Eller are/were both NHL players too but I'm guessing the better Swedes may be coming over here earlier nowadays. 19-20: Filip Hallender 0.52ppg U20 SHL. 18-19: Emil Bemstrom 0.74ppg U20 SHL. 18-19: Samuel Fagemo 0.60ppg U20 SHL. 16-17: Joel Eriksen Ek 0.62ppg U20 SHL. 15-16: Oskar Lindblom 0.52ppg U20 SHL. 12-13: William Karlsson 0.58ppg U20 SHL. 11-12: Johan Larsson 0.73ppg U20 SHL. 08-09: Lars Eller 0.60ppg U20 SHL.

This article is bang on. This year's draft aside, we just traded away our only prospect that's realistically capable of playing as a contributing top 6 forward. Beyond Kulich, we don't have any legit NHL'ers.

Our 4th line is better this year, and that might be about it. Mitts at 3C hasn't been replaced with McLeod, nor has Skinner been replaced with Zucker. We're basically praying that our remaining top 5 stay completely healthy and go back to their 22-23 form (without Skinner's help), Benson takes a major step forward, and/or Kulich is able to be an effective 3rd line or better NHL player. That's too much to come together at once. We're worse this year.

I get it, but Savoie was the only one out of our four senior prospects that I think will be legit top 6. I really don't like losing him for a warm body. Kulich will play in the league, but will be more 3rd line. The two Swedes will be lucky to stick in the NHL, especially Rosen.

Looking at his advanced stats, there's some positives, but he's not the top 6 we really needed. As a 3C, does he actually move the needle? 12g 18a doesn't seem like a push us into the playoffs type player. More like a warm body in the spot. I don't hate the trade, but IMO we need a top 6 F more than a 3C.

The trend in farmers markets I'm seeing is fewer and fewer real farmers and more and more overpriced niche food vendors. Think organic omega-3 granola or all natural kombucha.

Had he not already acquired so many F's yesterday, I'd have hope. At this point, I think he's done.

If Pegula doesn't cheap out, I'll buy tix, win or lose, just as I always have (except COVID when the border was closed).1 I'm boycotting because he's not doing his part to put the best product on the ice. The sob story might be that he's in the red every year in this small market town, but the reality is he's made a boatload in the appreciation of NHL franchise values.

It's in the very first sentence. No more tickets. I'll still watch the games, hoping we don't get any injuries and our top 6 get back to scoring like they did two years ago. And if at any point, we're sitting in a playoff spot (and I was wrong about the current trajectory) I'll 100% be looking at going to some games. At it stands though, the hope tank is on low.

If they actually have a plan to replace Skinner's 55% 5 on 5 GF% and 8 PP goals, along with Mittelstadt's 50+ points, I'll eat my words. But given the number of plumbers we brought yesterday, my hope level of adding more forwards is very low. We're now a penny pinching franchise... Not one who's sole purpose is to win a cup. If that's how Terry wants to do business, he's welcome to... But as ticket buyers, we should let him know what we think.

I like your optimism, but I don't see our two 4th lines, and the remaining top-6 getting us into the top half of the league from the current 23.

I think the big one is we got rid of Krueger.

I know this is the popular sentiment, but he was 3rd best forward on the team in 5 on 5 GF% at 55%. Add in us not getting his offense on the PP either, and we're a hurting unit.

I said this at the end of the season, but I'm never buying another Sabres ticket unless they're sitting in a playoff position. In the last two years, I think I paid for 5 games (got some seats given to me as well). Being 23rd in scoring last year and ditching two of our best offensive players (Skinner and Mittelstadt) almost guarantees we don't score enough to make the playoffs next year. Now it looks like we're icing two 4th lines next year, with no 3C in sight. We easily have the pieces to trade for a top 6, but I'm guaranteeing ownership won't pay the extra salary. In that case, I'm not paying either. Hopefully Adams gets additional pieces and makes this all for naught, but I'm 100% boycotting. Anyone else in?

Joe Schmoe verdict... Pro's: Bottom end much stronger Apparently tougher to play against Not resigning Girgensons Not getting a top 6 through a long term FA contract (they rarely live up to their contracts) Bryson deal Con's: Not getting a top 6 through a trade Not getting a top 6 through a short-term possible overpaying contract Losing Skinner who despite not being a great defender, still helped us far more than he hurt us (though he will likely fall off in another year or so)

I want to see @Buffalonill take a charity bet. $50 worth of booze to the homeless shelter.

He was decent last year. Advanced stats wise he was better than many of the regulars, albeit not in prime minutes. If we can get him back on the team in the 7/8 spot at league minimum-ish, that's a win.

Jeff Skinner was 3rd among team F's in GF% at 55%. We are worse without him.

And for fun, here's a shot from last summer on Lake Algonquin. Our family has had many vacations on this lake over the years.

Turns out I needed an app to reduce photo size on my Google Pixel phone. Anyhow, I had a really nice paddle on Henderson Lake. For you downstaters, Henderson is considered "the source" of the Hudson River (though there are smaller streams coming out of the mountains that feed into Henderson). The cell phone pics turned out ok, but it's hard to capture the size of the peaks around you.

Just looking at this thread again, I see my previous post was too wordy. Here's the summary: Malenstvn had the 2ND HIGHEST DEFENSIVE ZONE % starts in the league (next to his linemate). He also had the 2ND LEAST OFFENSIVE ZONE % starts in the league. Regular stats or even entry level advanced stats don't apply to this guy.

I just got back on the grid after camping the last few days. Just saw this pickup and was horrified like everybody else. I saw the post by @bg17. I looked into it and it wasn't quite right, his number of shifts on the fly was not out of line. What WAS out of line was the defensive zone starts. I haven't gone through all 8 pages, but did someone post this? This would HIGHLY skew his expected goal stats. Could the Sabres advanced analytics crew have a correction factor for the standard advanced stats based on the extreme number of defensive zone starts? Edit: I just checked again and he had the 2nd lowest in the league offensive zone starts as well. So 2nd most defense starts, 2nd least offensive starts. I can't say for sure but I think our guys did some homework. Was a 2nd too much? Maybe. Is it a guaranteed bust of a move? I'm thinking it might not be.

I'm on Android

Just arrived in the Adirondacks a couple hours ago for a little Schmoe-time. Fishing, hiking, paddling, and maybe some reading during the rain. It's a travel day today, so I'm camped out by the Sacandaga River a little bit outside of Speculator. I'm hoping to hit Henderson Lake for a paddle tomorrow. Still not sure if I'll stay there for the evening or hit the Long Lake area. After that, I'll do a couple nights on Raquette Lake for some bass fishing. Edit: I'm sure there's a how to somewhere, but if anyone knows how to post pics, can you let me know? The attachment limit sucks.