GASabresIUFAN

It would be wonderful if he'd add 2 decent to good D. Don't count on it after he has gone out of his way to discuss Joki's "growth" this past season. I believe KA sees his team like this Dahlin, Samuelsson, Power, Joki, Lyubushkin and Stillman. That leaves one opening somewhere between Power and Lyubushkin.

Actually if you listen to the interview KA talks about improving face offs by studying how many winger have to dig out pucks and also having the wingers take faceoffs. He also talked about not worrying about which side the D play. He specifically discussed how often Dahlin and Samuelsson switch sides during a shift. The bottom line is that want their guys to be able to play with anyone at any time.

True that.

In DG’s system it doesn’t really matter. They believe in “position less” hockey.

Ken Dryden got close. He won the Conn Smythe for the Canadians after playing only 6 regular season games. The next season, his actual rookie year, he won the Calder (and finished 2nd in the Hart voting). In his 2nd full season, he won the Vezina. It was his first of 5 over the next 6 seasons. He then retired at 31 after playing only 7 NHL seasons and part of an 8th.

I think you are going to see a relentless forechecker on Mitts' 3rd line. I really suspect when camp breaks the 3rd line will be Savoie Mitts and Greenway. That could end up being a very scary 3rd scoring to play against.

Here is the quote that stood out to me and gives me great hope for Jordan next season.

I went back and re-listened to the segment and he was talking about the goalies last season, but I still come away with the impression that the goalie structure for next season will be the 4 remaining; Levi, UPL, Comrie, and then Subban. @JohnC has been very adamant that KA's going to keep the guys currently under contract and although I hate that idea, I'm coming around to the fact that the Sabres could very well have all 3 guys in the organization next fall without adding anyone from outside the organization. This is not a smart strategy IMHO, but it very well could happen.

Only one I can think of. His name is Tom Barrasso. He won the Calder and Vezina for the Sabres in 83-84.

There is no one on this team I won’t trade for Bedard one for one. The question is how much more would I have to give to get a Bedard desl done that makes such a trade highly unlikely. The Sabres core 5 are Levi, Power, Dahlin, Cozens and TNT for now. However, KA isn’t moving on from Tuch, Samuelsson or Quinn either.

Sadly, the more interviews I hear with KA the more I think it likely that the status quo team plus one defensemen is what we’ll see next year unless KO and Z move on on their own. KA keeps saying how much UPL and Joki have improved and are still young. These statements don’t match the eye test or the public analytics. It’s very disheartening. He seems so intrenched in the development of prospects that he is becoming unable to cut bait when it’s in the teams best interest. Yes this worked for TNT and Mitts, but there was slow but clear progress being made by both players. Sadly, I haven’t seen that with Joki and UPL. In fact, what I have seen is the opposite.

I guess they are a pretty good team.

He is actually down to 3rd, Kane passed him this season. Still an amazing accomplishment for a guy who was primarily a D.

One other note from the interview was KA mentioned having 4 goalies. I take that to mean Levi, UPL, Comrie and Subban (who was excellent for Rochester this past year). He also talked about only carrying two next season in the NHL. Reading these tea leaves, I'll guess that they currently envision Levi and UPL in Buffalo with Comrie and Subban in Rochester. I like the Comrie/Subban tandem in Rochester, but not real happy with UPL's return. If KA is serious about cutting the GA, he can start with replacing UPL, but that doesn't seem in the cards right now. It also seems that other than adding one more D, but expect really many other changes in the roster over last year except a rookie pushing out a veteran at forward. I think his game plan is to wait and see what Z and KO want to return and then decide on the few remaining roster spots from there.

What KA talked about in the interview was really situational hitting (aka checking). Hitting once you have possession doesn't help keep possession, but forechecking to knock guys off the puck to aid in recovering possession does. I got the feeling from the interview that they feel they can be more physical in that area and that is one of the primary reasons Greenway was acquired. This answer does bring into question why Stillman was acquired and Lyubushkin was signed. Both guy are more hit first and ask questions later type of players and both guys are known for (and we saw) getting out of position while trying to make a hit. It's one of the primary reasons I was against the Stillman trade. What we need to more guys who are willing to clean out the crease and block shots. McKee type of players. Someone mentioned Parayko in an different thread and I incorrectly said we didn't his skill set. I thought of him as a Tyler Myers type player with better O skillset. However when I looked yesterday at his numbers, I was pleasantly surprised by his shot blocks and his willingness to take the body. Turns out he maybe a perfect addition to our top 4 if really available.

No one wondered why we traded Bloom, we wondered if KA received something of value for him.

Oh, look, another forward.

Until he doesn't. Odds are we'll still have Comrie and Subban in case of injury.

I'd take this deal.

After the draft and with the addition of Ford, how are people feeling about the Bills right now for next season?

What are some of the UFA goalies' estimated deals?

Would a 1.1 offer to KO be an insult? He had 28 pts last year. My guess is a 1 yr 2.5 deal would be more appropriate. Z has produced 15-19 pts each year for the last 7 seasons. I'm not offering anything over the 2.2 he earns right now and I'm not going beyond 2 years. We simply have too much talent coming up and already have enough leaders (Tuch, Cozens etc) to cover that need. Truthfully we need more physical players on the 4th line than Z or KO. If it were up to me, I'd move on from both, but that isn't how KA works.

If Z gets more elsewhere, G-d bless him and I hope he'll be happy elsewhere. Jost Q offer is 2.25.

These all look doable, except I'm not giving Jost or Z more than a 2-year deal. I doubt KA would go 5 years on Orlov, but 4 on Gavrikov makes more sense from a Sabres point of view.

The Athletic’s Wheeler has Gabe up to 8th on his May rankings after Perreault dominated at the U18’s. If you watch the Sweden/USA gold medal game highlights, there is a great clip of Perreault making a 180 degree spin with a behind the back pass onto his linemates’ stick for a point blank scoring chance.