GASabresIUFAN

They hide guys in the AHL all the time. That’s one reason why NHL teams now own their AHL teams. It’s a way to control a player without using up one of the 50 contract slots. If Metsa proves NHL ready, the Sabres buy his contract from the Amerks. The Amerks are owned by the Sabres, how on Earth can Ottawa (for example) just swoop in an take an Amerk on an AHL deal without first coming to a trade or other compensation agreement essentially with the Sabres? If the Amerks were owned by someone else and only affiliated with the Sabres, then in theory they could sell their AHL signed players to another team, but I doubt that would go over well with the Sabres. Think back to when the Sabres and Panthers shared an AHL affiliate. There were three groups of players on that team; Sabres prospects, Panthers prospects and AHL signed players. When the affiliation ended the AHL players remained with the AHL team and all the NHL prospects were moved to their new AHL teams. The key is who owns the AHL franchise. As of a few years ago at least 20 of the 32 AHL teams were NHL owned. The Chicago Wolves are the only completely independent team with no affiliation.

They hadn’t earned bigger deals.

The Sabres. Rosen is better than Bryson, Stillman, and Clague. I’d rather have claimed Dreidger, but Jones is also better than UPL and Comrie.

Calle Rosen is on Waivers. So is Martin Jones. There are two reasonable waiver claims.

I'd love to see the organization's notes on Metsa vs Bryson.

It does, but the AHL contract would have to be purchased by the NHL team. The Amerks, which are a wholly owned subsidiary of the Sabres aren't selling their AHL players to another NHL team. They certainly can and do trade AHL players to other AHL teams. Once traded, the new parent can purchase the AHL contract. If there was an independent AHL team, the team would be free to sell their players to anyone, but there aren't any independent teams.

No they can't. They have an AHL contract. The AHL team can trade them to another AHL team and then the parent can acquire the contract, but (for example) Ott can't sign Metsa out from under the Sabres. This isn't the NFL practice squad.

Losing Jones, Milano, and White in 2 games. Cursed!

No he can't. He is either going to play the season in Rochester or his contract will be purchased by the Sabres. Those are his two options. His contract with the Amerks is for 2 years.

My concern about the goaltending is growing. Keeping all 3 is a sign that they lack confidence in all 3 and are playing wait and see if any of them step up. How many wins will that cost this team. It’s also a sign that they are putting to much on Levi and KA’s lack of realistic goaltending plan since Ullmark walked is still plaguing this franchise.

Nearly every defender on waivers is probably better than Bryson, including the guys we waived.

So 20 moves regarding goaltending and signing a 40 year old goalie who could only play a limited amount of games was then only one to give us NHL average goaltending. Talk about wasting 3 years and failing to adequately support the young roster. This list is shameful. Also you forget calling up UPL when injuries hit and he also failed to give is NHL average goaltending.

Great, the Sabres will have an easy 5 goals if he starts against us.

Welcome to bizarro land.

According to people here his value is that he is 24, might be claimed on waivers because he may possibly develop into a serviceable goalie sometime in the future eventually. It certainly not that he is an NHL goalie now that can help the Sabres make the playoffs this season.

This is an excellent question.

That argument sounds great on paper but not in reality. Compare him to the guys already here like Comrie, Tokarski and Cooley. Compare him to Jonas Johansson. What did Jonas develop into? Sometimes you just have to move on and we are there with UPL. Frankly I’d claim Driedger even with his 1 year $3.5 cap hit and move on from UPL and Comrie. It’s time to get better goaltending and at least Driedger has had success in the NHL. He turned 24 in March. He is unlikely ever to be a serviceable NHL goalie.

Again so what? Is he helping the team get better? If not, why do we care if he is waived and claimed. What has he done in the NHL that shows he is better than Tokarski ?

Odds are, given his stats and pre-season performance, that he wouldn’t be claimed. If he is, so what! He likely has no trade value and therefore no asset value, so what are we losing except a bad goalie who isn’t helping the team. In truth Cooley and Tokarski are as good if not better players. Dumping him would open a roster spot for someone who might actually help the team like Savoie or Biro or open a spot for a waiver claim from another team. I’ve seen a few D on the waivers who I would much rather have than Clague, Bryson or Stillman such as Caleb Jones or a goalie like Dreidger.

So glad we traded for Stillman last season. He can’t even beat out Bryson. Or are Comrie and Bryson still in the NHL because of the size of their contracts?

So we are keeping 3 goalies because they all have struggled in the pre-season. KA seat needs to get warmer and warmer if they don’t have adequate goaltending this season. This has been an issue since Ullmark left.

I think the coaching is something that bares watching. It’s up to DG and his staff to get buy in across the roster to playing with better defensive structure. The quicker they get the puck out, the quicker they can transition to offense.

Lets be honest, the defense and goaltending, especially the last 2 preseason games, has been lousy. So how concerned are you heading into the season? I don’t like the D pairings. I don’t care about R/L balance. I do care about players that work well together and the early returns on Dahlin/Clifton aren’t good. I also don’t like the return of Power/Joki. I’m glad Joki is healthy and he has had some positive moments on the offensive side, but his defense is clearly still lacking. There is no excuse, even in pre-season, for giving up 7 goals. During the CBJ broadcast, they showed the High Danger chances allowed in the 1st 2 periods and we had allowed 15 and it wasn’t any better in the 3rd. Against Pitt, the chances were worse. This is not acceptable any longer and can’t continue into the season. If it does, this won’t be a playoff team. I also don’t like that DG hasn’t played the new players more in pre-season. As to the goaltending, I’m not sure what condition it’s in because they haven’t been given much of a chance. Levi let in some softies against Pitt and UPL has as well in each of his starts. Given they have started the last 2 games, I suspect they are 1 & 2 in the G rotation. DG has a pile of work to do before the season starts on the 12th. Most of all, he needs to get the team playing with some urgency coming out of the gate. Pitts and CBJ had urgency already, the question is why didn’t we? D pairings I’d like DG to try 1. Bring back Mule and Dahlin. 2. Power Clifton 3. Joki and Johnson - This would allow Joki to be the O catalyst for this pair.

Hey Donnie, maybe try different D pairings.

The first 28 minutes were ok, but sh…t that was awful. Levi and defense were pretty bad. I liked Benson with Mitts and Greenway.