GASabresIUFAN
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Posts posted by GASabresIUFAN
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11 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:
When draft reports and tracking data come out, this is something you should be looking at and thinking about. It is why Benson transitioned to the NHL faster and easier than Savoie imo. It is also why, with additional muscle, Östlund might be a quietly decent middle 6 player (but he still has a lot of questions). Things to think about when you look at prospects.
One of the things Mitts excels at besides winning puck battles along the wall.
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Would you trade Quinn for a top 4 D? In his 17 games, he has 12 points (a 58 pts pace over 82 games). JJP is playing at a similar level (57 pt pace). So with Kulich, Rosen and Savoie in the pipeline, would Quinn be the logical place to look for a quality asset to acquire a top 4 D?
Tuch Mitts Greenway has worked. JJP Cozens has also worked. Skinner TNT we know can be effective as well.
If you look at next year’s Sabres I see the following if Quinn is traded
Skinner, TNT, Benson
Tuch Mitts Greenway
JJP Cozens Kulich/Rosen
Robinson New Center New Player
The question is what can we get for Quinn?
I don’t think any top 4 D is going to sign here this off-season. To get one we are going to have to make a trade using young players, prospects and picks.
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Adam's sin this past off-season was not doing enough.
Our list this off-season was
1. Upgrading the defense, including but not limited to adding a top 4 D partner for Power. Adams added EJ and Clifton. Clifton struggled early, but his play has dramatically improved and now looks like a solid acquisition. EJ has been better than Lyubuskin and Stillman. Where he failed was not getting a partner for Power, although Ryan J is looking to capture that role. Overall, between EJ, Clifton, and Ryan J our defense has been upgraded year over year, just not enough.
2. Better goaltending. We demanded better goaltending. Nearly everyone outside the Sabres brain trust (and @JohnC), wanted a proven goalie. Adams was pretty clear he was counting on UPL, Levi, and Comrie and wasn't looking for upgrades outside the organization. This was a huge failure on his part as all 3, especially Levi and Comrie. struggled to start the season and that helped sink the team for the season. UPL has improved throughout the season and Levi's game has been better as the season has worn on but inconsistent to say the least.
3. In Adams' mind Greenway was the big "off-season" forward acquisition. He then brought back everyone else, while Benson made the team at 18. I guess he assumed that everyone who had career years last year would simply build on last season instead of regressing. Injuries have been a huge factor in the regression, but KA again failed to build the necessary depth to weather the injuries. It was clear late last season that Jost wasn't very good and VO got benched. Neither guy should have returned. Also, it was time to move on from at least one of Z and or KO, but that didn't happen either. The Sabres are paying the price for the lack of real depth as all these guys failed to step up as the injuries occurred. It would have been nice to get additional center help and at least one more physical forward to help make the team tougher. Hopefully, Adams will learn from his mistakes and make more of an effort at better forward depth at the deadline and in the off-season.
Deadline and off-season plan
1) Continue to fix the defense. Move on from EJ and Jokiharju and find a top 4 D to play with either Dahlin or Power. Ryan J will take the other role.
2) Clean out the dead wood at forward and get a physical forward and a 3/4 center. KO, Z, Jost, and Krebs need to be replaced.
3) Don't expect any changes in goal, except Comrie will be gone. UPL/Levi are almost certainly the goalies for next season, unless Levi struggles for the Amerks down the stretch.
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With the playoffs out of reach and UPL playing pretty well, time to make Levi the starter in Rochester. With 33 games left UPL will probably play 23 of them. I have zero problem will letting Comrie play a few starts and Levi getting a spot start here and there. However, I want to maximize how many games Levi plays the rest of the season and to accomplish that he needs to be w the Amerks.
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1 hour ago, TageMVP said:
Alex Nylander 2.0 incoming
Casey Mittelstadt 2.0
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Don’t let the last 11 games fool you. This is still a bad hockey team. They just came through their easiest stretch of the season and only one of the 7 wins was against a team (the Kings) currently in a playoff spot. The Kings only have 22 wins on the season; one more than the Sabres 21.
Also they still can’t start a game to save their lives. On the road trip, they gave up the first goal in all three games and trailed by 2 goals or more in all three games. This is not how good teams play. Do what they did against good teams and you lose. In fact, in the last 6 losses by the Sabres, they gave up the first goal in 5 of the games and gave up the first 2 goals in 4 of the 6 games.
They also have yet to win 3 in a row.
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59 minutes ago, Brawndo said:
As expected. The Amerks play 3 games from 1/31 to 2/3. Levi will be starting at least 2 of those games. No benefit to having Levi sit during the NHL all-star break.
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12 minutes ago, Two or less said:
I know there is a lot of frustration being thrown at the lack of moves by Adams, by me too, but there is no way they are running it back next season. Absolutely no chance.
What in Adams' history as the Sabres' GM makes you think he'll be aggressive to improve the team?
What RFA did he not re-sign? Since the TM core teardown, what important player has he traded away? Asplund? What top 6 forward or top 4 did he acquire? What prospect did he trade away to substantially upgrade his current roster?
Since the teardown, the best assets he acquired were Greenway (for a 2nd) and Clifton (a 3-year UFA contract). Both are solid depth players, but neither has elevated the team. The rest have been junk in Eakin, Stillman, Lyubushkin, Comrie, Clague, Subban, Anderson, Dell, Pysyk, Bjork, Hagg, Hinostroza, Butcher, etc.....
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24 minutes ago, Norcal said:
So, nothing lol
and now you know why KA isn't able to build a winner.
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Let's see, our GM's motto is to do the absolute minimum and take the least amount of risk with FAs.
Thus I expect
1) UPL/Levi to be the goalies next season
2) Defense - with 5 guys under contract and a 6th (Joki) an RFA, I expect more of the same with one depth signing.
3) Forwards - 8 are under contract - Skinner, Thompson, Tuch, Cozens, Quinn, JJP, Greenway and Benson. Mitts and Krebs are RFA. He'll re-sign Robinson and promote at least 1 of Savoie, Rosen, or Kulich. Those 12 will be the forwards for 2024/25 with again one FA depth signing.
Don't you feel better already about next season? Didn't think so!
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Do I have to answer?
I don’t know if this is a “better,” but I have really liked JJP since I watched him at the U18s.
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The reason for the slower play is the move to try to improve the defense. I don't think they realized that the move to be more defensive would sap the offense as much as it did.
Ralph Kreuger would be proud.
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1 minute ago, Weave said:
The difference is, the Bills had demonstrated the ability to go on a run. The Sabres, not so much.
The only runs the Sabres are going on is in the bathroom.
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He should have been fired already. How many slow starts do you have to watch until you realize that the coach can’t motivate the team? How do you keep a coach who can’t make adjustments to try to get his PP working? How do you keep a coach whose team has regressed so substantially?
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8 hours ago, GoPuckYourself said:
Iagree those players you mention should get moved but they would garner next to nothing.
It’s not about what assets we receive it about clearing the dead wood from the roster and opening up roster spots for better players assuming KA can figure out what an actual good player looks like.
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3 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:
I can't quite decide if the Sabres horrible start lulled the Kings to sleep, or the Sabres woke up after no doubt being yelled at. Maybe a bit of both.
This was more like a proper hockey game but as you all know we don't get that every night. We get the opposite more often than not.
Peterka was obviously very good but I found myself thinking it's the kids who don't have the long term deals yet leading the way again. Cynical? Why yes, it's what this team's done to me.
They still suck.
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Sabres wake up in the 2nd and win as LA falls apart. Good thing they didn’t play yesterday or they wouldn’t have had their legs in the 3rd.
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5 minutes ago, Thorny said:
I hope KA remembers this when he pencils in rookies to plug roster holes this offseason. I hope the board remembers it
I wanted Benson sent back to Jrs. I argued then that keeping him was a 2 year commitment because he is still to young to play in the AHL next season. However, had he gone back to Jrs, it would have been his 4th CHL season and then would have been exempt from the age rules and could have been AHL bound next year. Oh well.
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Much easier to fire the coaches and see if the team responds.
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Just now, GoPuckYourself said:
Will we ever see playoff hockey again?
No, not with this coaching staff and GM.
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Rock meet Bottom. I've been fighting it for weeks, but DG must go. I wouldn't mind KA going with him, but sadly that's not happening. We have too much talent to look this inept. They have no structure, no jump, and they are giving no effort, just gliding along in circles trying to run out the clock.
It's now time that the clock runs out on DG, his coaches, and the guy in charge. Enought!
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34 minutes ago, Weave said:
My biggest concern is, how many more of this core are we going to lock up when they haven’t shown that they are at minimum a playoff level core?
Not that I am saying Mitts isnt a playoff caliber player, but man, none of these guys have demonstrated it.
I agree with you in general. It's a legit issue. How do you keep paying guys when they have accomplished nothing from a team standpoint? I guess it comes down to whether the GM thinks a player is part of the solution or part of the problem. Given how many of our forwards are allergic to 2-way play, I'd argue the problem lies elsewhere. IMHO Skinner, Cozens, and Power are players we could trade to create cap space if necessary. I don't like not bridging Power. Of all the guys we signed an extension to, his contract seems like the biggest miscalculation so far.
Regardless of whether we pay Mitts 6 or 7 per season, there are no cap issues next season. They may start in 2025, but I don't think we can worry about that at this point.
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I’m not sure how KA navigates the cap issues he created, but see how this team moves forward without Mitts. As TBN points put, he is our best forward along the boards, our most versatile forward, one of if not the best 2 way forward, our leading playmaker and this season our leading scorer. I think the News is wrong about not being able to afford another long term deal.
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5 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:
No big bruisers and/or shutdown guys.
Those guys always come later in the draft. McNabb was a 3rd. Cernak a 2nd. Samuelsson was a 2nd. Strbak a 2nd. Novikov fell to the 6th.
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How to retool the Sabres forward group?
in The Aud Club
Posted · Edited by GASabresIUFAN
The biggest disappointment about this season is the fall off of the offense. We are scoring 2.98 g/gp vs 3.61 g/gp last season. Much of the issue can be traced to the PP. On the PP, our GF/gp dipped from .77 ppg/gp last season to .41 ppg/gp this year.
However this isn’t the only issue for the forward group. We still need improved two way play from most of the forwards. I also think many of our guys get moved off rhe puck to easily. Youth is part of that, but effort is more important.
So how can KA fix the forward group? Given the raw talent on most of our top 9 forwards, KA has nearly an impossible decision to move on from any of these guys.
I honestly don’t see how KA can trade any of the top 3 centers, unless he has a firm plan to replace them. Mitts needs to be re-signed, and has earned a new deal. TNT between injuries and family issues has been distracted this season, but given his cheap contract, improvement on the PK and ability to score, I can see a reason to move him. As to Cozens, he seems to be finding his game of late paired with the blossoming JJP scoring 9 pts in his last 7 games. At only 22, I find it hard to believe that last season will be his most productive of his career.
If we aren’t or can’t move a center, who can we replace on the wing? Skinner’s contract isn’t tradable, even if he did’t have a NMC. (At least he score 30+ still). Tuch is a local heart and soul guy on a cheap deal who is finding a place with Mitts and Greenway. JJP is blossoming before our eyes and is on his ELC. Greenway is one of few Sabres that plays a physical game, kills penalties but can also contribute in the top 9. Benson is a kid who made the Sabres at 18. He isn’t going anywhere. Quinn is also blossoming (12 pts in 17 games - 58 pt pace) but has been limited by injuries this season. Hard to argue that any of these guys should moved.
However, someone needs to go. More kids are pushing from below, we need a top 4 D, and we need to shake up the forward group sending a message that the lack of two-way play isn’t acceptable.
In the short term, I don’t see KA moving on from any of the top 9 I listed above. What I do see is him taking a fresh look at his 4th line. I’d move on from Krebs. He has no chance in Buffalo to play a top 9 center role once Mitts is re-signed and he isn’t a energy center. It’s time to move on from KO and Z also. What I’d like to see here, is KA acquire a former top 6 center who still has some game, can play up if necessary, but has the tools to be an effective Pker and energy center. Someone like Sean Monahan for example. I’d then like to see another Greenway-type player acquired.
I have suggested in another thread to trade Quinn for a top 4 D and if that came to pass, I wouldn’t be too angry.