GASabresIUFAN

Isn't Bobby Bonilla still getting checks from the Mets?

Welcome to the darkside.

Why? He’ll play one or 2 college seasons and sign. Power, Mitts, Levi all signed.

Goal scorer maybe. Since he entered the league he has league leading 299 goals (Ovie is 2nd w 297). Sadly he is only 11th in points (542) and trials his own teammate, Marner, who is in 10th, by 12 points. That McDavid fellow leads Matthews by 260 points and leads the NHL during that period with 802. McJesus also has 287 goals. My guess is if McDavid wanted to score more goals he would. He’s like Gretzky, he does what he thinks will help his team win. Matthews isn’t one dimensional, but he lacks the overall vision and passing skill of McDavid. So tell your co-worker no, Matthews isn’t the greatest scorer in the NHL.

Just say 1967. (For those who weren’t around then, 1967 was the last year the self proclaimed center of the hockey world last won a Championship). Do they even know they haven’t even played for a Cup since 1967, they have lost in the 1st rd of the playoffs 6 straight years, they are 0-4 in Conference Championships since 1967 with only 2 Division titles? If they weren’t so arrogant, you’d almost feel sorry for them. By comparison. The Sabres have 6 division titles, are 2-2 in Conference Finals, won a President’s Cup and despite the Leafs recent “success,” the Sabres made a more recent appearance in the Conference finals (2007 vs 2003). It’s kind of sad that the Sabres results are actually better than the Leafs.

From last years’ team pretty much anyone not named: Skinner, Tuch, Thompson, Peterka, Quinn, Cozens, Mittelstadt, Krebs, and Greenway up front. Dahlin, Samuelsson, Power and Lyubuskin ( for now) on defense and Levi in goalie. Jost, Jokiharju, VO, KO, Girgensons, Stillman, Bryson, Clague, UPL and Comrie should all be replaced. Anderson and Vinnie are already gone. What KA will do - off my replacement list, only VO, Clague and Bryson will be moved or not re-signed. KO and Z will return if they want to, but don’t expect anything but a 1 year deal. Jost also probably gets a year. I suspect Comrie will start the year in Rochester or get claimed if waived. If Comrie outperforms UPL in camp, then UPL gets traded. After next season any returnees from my replacement list, such as Stillman and Comrie will be allowed to walk.

I fully acknowledge and have stated many times that I expect Stillman on the roster next season. He is the D version of Bjork. KA acquired him with term and by golly he's going to play for us whether that's good or bad. As long as he's not in the starting 6 and we stay healthy then that's fine. It's when he plays for us that the problems start. The guy has appeared in 5 NHL seasons for 4 different teams and has never been a full-time player. Why does anyone expect that to change now? If we had any D in the pipeline near ready for NHL duty, there wouldn't be a single person on this site clamoring to play Stillman.

He isn't. At best he's a bottom pair D. At best. The 20 minutes a night we give him are out of necessity not because he's good. He isn't physical. He's not great at blocking shots. He gives the puck away at twice the rate he takes the puck away. All he is a placeholder until something better comes around. Our D group's biggest issues are the lack of ability to clear the net, poor PK play and not being hard enough to play against. Joki's numbers don't really help in these areas. He also isn't a dynamic or even good playmaker to launch the offense from like a Montour. For a team that has Dahlin and Power and needs more physical play in other areas where does he fit? He doesn't. I think Joki is a fine NHL D on the right team, but his skill set and the Sabres' needs are no longer a match. In many ways he's the D version of VO and UPL. Sometimes you have to move on.

I don't mind Stillman next season as long as he is slotted correctly either; meaning not in the lineup unless there is a dire emergency.

How about bringing in Mayfield and trading Jokiharju?

Do yourself a favor and look at their analytics. These are all mediocre to bad hockey players. Joki, Stillman, Clague, and Bryson are not championship-caliber hockey players. When a GM makes a mistake, like Stillman, who is on a cheap contract, he can move on which is what KA should do. Sending him down keeps him in the organization for emergency use. Stillman is not a 5/6. If a team as bad defensively as Buffalo was last year is only willing to play him 12 minutes a night, that tells you he really isn't good enough to be a 3rd pairing player. He was being used because the other options were worse. There is no reason, especially with our cap room for KA to make us suffer through another season with 50% of the D group that stinks. It's also more important than ever to upgrade the D group. We are a playoff-caliber team and need better D. We also need a stronger D group to protect the young goaltenders. We also need guys under contract with term because we have no near-ready prospects in the pipeline. (This is a prospect thread after all.)

I have zero problem with trading Bloom or a 3rd or a 5th or anything. I just want something useful back. Stillman is not useful. We needed help on D virtually all season and the best KA could do was acquire a player DG couldn't trust him enough to play him over 12 minutes a game on a team desperate for help on D. That is a useless player no matter how you spin it. I still don't understand how anyone can defend the acquisition when better players were available all season on the waiver wire or for an even less valuable asset. Stillman is that bad. People say he's better than Bryson and Clague and they may be right. That's not an endorsement of Stillman, it's an indictment of how awful Bryson and Clague were this past season. If our fearless GM had some ......., he'd wipe the D slate clean, and move on from everyone not named Dahlin, Power or Samuelsson (Ok Bush can finish out his contract). Waive, trade, dump, whatever Stillman, and Bryson. Try to find a hockey trade of a stay-at-home LD who'd make us harder to play against and include Joki in the deal. Sign Orlov for 3-4 years to partner with and mentor Power. Start next year with Dahlin Samuelsson Power Orlov New D Lyubuskin New D who is better than Stillman (I'd like another Vet here) If we can't trade Stillman, waive him and let him play in Rochester. His 1.35 cap hit would be reduced to 250K and I doubt he'd get claimed.

Why pay something for an “asset” when a similar asset could have been acquired earlier in the season when it was truly needed for less or nothing? What exactly did Stillman bring to the table? He played 12 minutes a game. He didn’t block shots, didn’t hit people and took bad penalties. This isn’t a capable player. Let’s compare Ethan Bear who was traded for a 5th rd pick when we needed help. He put up 16 pts, was a +6, blocked 82 shots and skated 18:30 minutes a night for Vancouver in 61 games after being acquired. He’s also just 25.

I'd have rather them make a deal for a 4th D and we'd have made the playoffs. I'd have rather given up a 5th for Ethan Bear during the 8 game-losing streak and we'd have made the playoffs. I'd have rather a lot of things. Stillman is not good, has never been good, and won't be next season.

Remember 80+ % of 3rd picks don't ever amount to legit NHL players, so the odds of Bloom ever becoming a full-time useful NHL player are small. Therefore, when you get an NHL player for a 3rd or its equivalent, the GM didn't give up much. However, that still doesn't make Stillman a good acquisition. Stillman is at best a 7 or an 8 and when he plays he isn't much if any of an upgrade on Bryson or Clague. To me, that's a wasted move. You could have acquired the equivalent of Stillman for nothing on the waiver wire.

What do they say about people in glass houses? It’s a good thing that Tage worked to get better instead of emulating Berglund’s whine and go home example.

There is a player who is currently 19th on my board but who will go higher on draft day who would be a steal for the Sabres on draft day at 13. What? How can I guy ranked 19th be a steal at 13? Great question. The answer is that he ranked much to low, but won’t be come draft day. The player is Gabe Perreault. The kid broke Matthews USNTDP scoring record this season with 125 pts, including 52 goals in 59 games. These numbers including his 5g 15 pts in 4 U18 games so far. If this kid is still around at 13 you take him and smile at the way to years of NHL playoffs. https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/news/meet-gabe-perreault-the-nhl-draft-prospect-that-broke-auston-matthews-scoring-record

According to our poll here is the roster next season Forwards - Overall there are 17 internal candidates for the forward jobs. Vinnie is almost certain to move on, but an argument can be made that 6 guys will certainly return and another 3 are also locked in unless some crazy deal comes along like Krebs for Shea Theodore. The poll results are below. Tuch, Tnt, Skinner, and Cozens were a given. JJP, Quinn, and Krebs were the highest vote-getters, followed by Greenway, Jost, and then Mitts. That's 11 spots. Savoie and Girgensons were next with about 60% of the votes of the top vote receivers. Interestingly KO had the 2nd least votes. Only VO had less and he's under contract. Vinnie had more votes. Given Ka's comments, the odds of KO returning have definitely increased. Defense - Power, Samuelsson and Dahlin are the core. I've argued that no one else should return, but that has zero chance of happening. KA's made very positive comments on Joki in his press conference. The analytics don't support that opinion. Our poll says Bush, Joki and Stillman will return. That leaves one slot. Goaltenders A tandem of UPL/Levi is the poll results. G-d help us. KA calls this fearless, I call it...... never mind. All I'll say is that the stats and analytics don't support KA's oipinion on UPL.

So you’re saying “Fearless” = “Stupid”. Jonas Johansson’s numbers are infinitely better than UPL’s and he’s a AAAA goalie at best. KA’s faith in UPL is a strange. It’s like he has blinders on. I wish someone had some advanced stats that document why anyone could believe that UPL is an NHL goalie.

Yes. Gatineau won their four games by a collective score of 23-4.

Actually, that's the 4th win of the series. The Ice advance 4-2. They'll play the winner of Lindgren's Red Deer Rebels vs the Saskatoon Blades game tomorrow.

Will Borgen opens the scoring for Seattle. Probably should have kept him.

You forgot the obits.

On Sabrespace? Never!

Musty is very interesting. Biron loves his game and the kid. I'd have zero problem trading back, getting extra draft capital, and if Musty is their favorite guy using the later 1st rd pick to take Musty. If you look at my mock draft I have us trading back from 13 to Nashville at 15. I then use this extra capital to trade back into the 1st rd from 39 to get Bonk, but I like Willander as well. Button has him 16th on his latest list. In the 8 lists I looked at Musty has a grade as high as 15, but most are 20-22. Only Marek at Sportsnet had him outside the 1st rd.