GASabresIUFAN

On paper, he looks a lot like Jokiharju, but I've not seen his advanced analytics, except what's on hockey-reference.com. I think we can do better, but he fits the age parameters that Ka seems to be looking for.

Button was a terrible GM and his draft rankings usually stink. While possible Moore drops to 13, he and Leonard are much more likely to go in the top 10.

.... and with the 13th pick in the 2023 NHL draft, the Buffalo Sabres trade the 13th overall pick (& 173) to Chicago for 18, 52 & 131. With 18th selection, the Sabres draft Hamburg native Quentin Musty. The Sabres then trade 39 & 52 to Stl for 30 & 106 With the 30th pick in the 1st rd, the Buffalo Sabres select Swedish defender Tom WIllander.

The Amerks still have my favorite hockey Uni.

Ultimately all acquisitions are going to have to fill a hole in the roster that won’t or can’t be filled by someone already here. Also don't expect long-term deals for any acquisitions unless we have a complete void in the pipeline such as top 4 D. As to Kane where does he fit? We have scoring forwards on the roster and under contract. In addition we have a pile of them in the pipeline as well. KA acquired Greenway to add a more physical player to the forward group. He added Lyubushkin and Stillman to add physical depth on the backend. What we lack is a defensive capable center but Krebs may be able to take on that role. We also lack a partner for Power on the roster or in the pipeline. We lack legit experience in net, but that doesn’t seem to phase KA. We also lack significant playoff experience across the entire roster. The hope is KA can fill the void of veteran experience with a top 4 did acquisition.

And someone here thought we had a lot of Miles Wood discussions.

But where would he play?

It depends on how he got to the CHL. Nylander drafted out of the CHL, but was eligible for the AHL the following season because he loaned to the CHL while under contract to a Swedish team. I went and looked at the Ramparts website and Komarov was taken in the 2021 import draft. This means he was drafted out of the CHL and won’t be AHL eligible next season.

Can we stop with Kane please?

Which is why DG desperately wanted him. Apparently they have a great relationship and Greenway is a unique type of forward that we didn’t have in our system. DG thinks he can be a physical presence who can score 20+ here while creating space for guys like Mitts and Savoie. Mitt’s dramatically improved as a forechecker last year. He is also a pretty big guys. Having two guys with size and skill and then add Mitt’s passing ability and Savoie might score 30 as a rookie. This is also going to be the most talented and deep forward group the Sabres have had since the 2005/6 & 2006/7 Sabres.

There is nothing in the eye test or his counting stats or his analytics to suggest Joki is improving. Nothing. That is just the facts. He is the UPL of our defense; young enough to be thought of with upside, but an older young player that hasn’t shown any real progress. I fully acknowledge that both players will likely be back next season and I fully believe bringing both players back is a mistake. The mistake with Joki isn’t that he isn’t an NHL player, he is one marginally, It’s that his skill set isn’t what the Sabres need right now. He isn’t a Jay McKee type and he doesn’t add much help creating offense. His game also doesn’t improve when he plays good players.

This article made me think about the 2019 draft. If we re-drafted today, who are 2-10 after Hughes? I'd start with Seider (2nd), Boldy (3rd), Zegras (4th), Cozens (5th), Byram (6th), Caufield (7th), Maccelli (8th), Dach (9th) and Kakko (10th). Seider is 2nd because he is showing Dahlin-type puck movement skills at 22. Why is Boldy 3rd? He is scoring at a similar pace as Caufield, but adds significantly more assists. He also has a higher pts/gp than Zegras. Why Maccelli so high? Anyone who can put up 49 pts in 64 games as a rookie in AZ and not be a +/- negative is doing something right.

The problem at this point with relying on development to solve the terrible goaltending is the downside risk of another terrible season in net. What if Levi struggles and UPL continues to be sub-par? Is KA willing to throw away another playoff opportunity? Will the fans and ownership stand for it?

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.