GASabresIUFAN

Nino would be great, but how do you make the $ work. Someone else has to go to bring in that kind of salary. Are you better off with Nino or signing two $3 mill players?

When it comes to PK what we really are talking about finding ways to limit the number of total goals against and fixing the PK is just one piece of that puzzle. The best way to avoid PP GA is to not take penalties. We actually were good at that last season. We had the 4th least penalties called on us last season (2.68 per game). So while we had the second worst PK, our lack of penalties put us at 24th in total PP GA. Not stellar but better. Now we have to continue not to take penalties but also find a way to kill penalties when they occur. Save % on the PK by our two main goalies was piss poor. Ullmark .838 and Hutton .836. It's often said your goalie needs to be our best PKer and ours weren't. We also only won 44.5% of our SH faceoffs. I know @LGR4GM doesn't think FO% is that important, but having the PP team starting with the puck 10% more often doesn't help. I don't know where to find this stat but it would be interesting to know how many shots per PP we allowed last season and what % of those shots were in high danger areas (and how those compare to the rest of the NHL). I think this would reveal if the problem was more the goaltending or the scheme.

I wouldn't I wouldn't mind adding Stralman or Staal to the bottom of our D group. They would bring much needed leadership to the group as well as some reasonable depth play. Haula is a good depth player who has had one really good season for his career. He is a 35 pt player At some point the kids have to play. I'd much rather spend money on a 2nd line RW then another depth center when we have Cozens, Mitts, Larsson (if re-signed) and Lazar already here. His best attribute is that he wins faceoffs. I'm all for signing him over Larsson, but not for getting both. I'm ok with a spine of Eichel Staal Haula Cozens with RK using the Haula line as the shutdown line and then using our 4th line as a young offensive zone weapon. However, we can;t just try to solve our problems with money spent on outside assets. We must develop some talent from our prospect pool beside Eichel, Dahlin and Reinhart for this team to succeed long-term.

Coaching, coaching and more bad coaching. These same crappy coaches coached our PP into mediocrity and our PK to the bottom of the league.

How many Sabrespace posters heads will explode when KA drafts Drysdale with the 8th pick.

My point was that they were wrong about Vesey. He was fine defensively last season. It was his lack of scoring that was the problem.

One note on Saad, the critics say he has never been great in his own end. We heard that also about Jimmy Vesey.

As I noted in another thread I think he can be had for a deal similar for the Bjugstad deal. Maybe a conditional 5th if they keep $2 mill in cap and 2.5 in salary?

Not sure if he is the best player on the team, but he is our best offensive weapon not names Josh Allen and it was certainly a great pickup by the team. We also saw how important Edmunds and Milano are to our defense. The D looked average at best without them in the lineup. Diggs, Milano, Edmunds, T. White and Allen are the top 5 players on the team. The NFL Best player list back in the July had White 47, Diggs 54 and Allen 87.

Staal was a great first step. With only 2 teams left playing, can we expect more moves soon or will we have to wait until draft day (Oct 6) to see the next step. I also wonder if TB, which needs to shed at least two contract to retain their key RFAs and rebuild their defense, is the linchpin to opening the trade flood gates.

I think KA will try do what is necessary to try to keep the team together and make the budget work. SR has as much incentive to take a short deal right now as the Sabres so in giving one out. Both sides are likely interested in kicking the can down the road a year or two hoping for a better economic situation.

I have 6.5 in my budget for him for the next 2 seasons. If we can get him for 5 years @ 6.5 that would be fine.

A 3rd line player on a good team just like Kahun. We have limited extra money with the internal cap. KA is going to have to make tough choices. How you allocate those resources is going to make whether we can contend for the playoffs with our internal cap; so would you rather have Larsson or Fast ?

@Thorny I’m confused. You are disagreeing with me but then agreeing that we shouldn’t sign him?

We really like Kahun because he is still youngish and may have more upside and should be reasonable to retain. Signing Fast is just meh. He is 29 and is what he is. I’d rather save the 3 mill and give Thompson a shot.