GASabresIUFAN

Can anyone play? Has there ever been a Sabres to develop as quickly as Cozens? .31 p/gp year 1, .48 p/gp year 2, .88 p/gp year 3

By the way former NHLer Anson Carter is a part owner of the Atlanta Gladiators.

So what! It’s garbage, not funny and this is no place for that BS. Want me to list every stupid comment from a NY politician from both parties? We’d be here for the next 10 years.

@Doohickie 5 minutes between posts. Nice.

My daughter lives in knoxville and we like to visit except football weekends. There are good restaurants and a growing local brewing culture. The public schools aren’t great. The main downtown area is fun. It’s also still pretty easy to get around. Do what my daughter did, live and work in Knoxville and proudly put UGA memorabilia all over your office 🙂 The Ice Bears and Tenn Ice Vols often play double headers.

Oh it’s going to the wire, but the more wins we bank now, the more pressure we can put on the teams behind us. Det has already folded. Wash is on the verge. Ott has played their way back into it. It seems like a 4 team race, but Fla can also play their way back in.

I think you’d be surprised how hockey is played here and the quality of the adult leagues. I’ve attended games for 3 local colleges, GA, GA Tech and Kennesaw St and they are fun to watch. The Gladiators average about 5000 a game for an ECHL team. Atlanta has everything including many smaller communities that are surprisingly close to the city. Traffic can be terrible, but it’s not 24/7 bad. The Waze is very helpful. There are also great college cities like Athens GA or Knoxville, TN that are worth checking out if you want a smaller but vibrant community. You will have to adopt a college football however. Ask @LGR4GM what a college football weekend in Athens is like.

Alpharetta is a city in the North central part of Metro Atlanta. The ECHL Gladiator’s arena is not far from Alpharetta in Duluth GA. Duluth is NE Atlanta. I live NW. It would be a great place for a stadium. There is a major N/S highway (GA 400) that runs next to Alpharetta and connects to the rest of the metroplex.

Two huge games coming up the next two nights. Tomorrow is our game in hand over Pittsburgh and then on Tuesday we play a rested NYI team while Pitt plays CBJ. Two wins by the Sabres, puts the Sabres into one of the wild card spots. 2 wins coupled with a Pitt loss puts us into the 1st WC spot.

My kids asked about moving the Yotes to the ATL. The Gladiator’s arena hold a max of 13k. It would certainly be a better capacity than the ASU arena.

Do the Amerks have to sit a vet or two to stay within the player development rules?

The Braves and Bulldogs are certainly 1 and 2 in the city Another genius comment. Take your political garbage elsewhere. I didn’t live here then. I was still in Buffalo, but people say the Flames were a lot of fun.

It’s wasn’t so much sabotage as disinterest, incompetence and a lack of proper marketing. One of the principal owners was Ted Turner’s son in law who I know well and he and his partners had little or no knowledge of hockey. The group also was fractured from Day 1 as none were rich enough to be the primary owner. You had different pieces of the group running the Thrashers vs the Hawks. Like the Braves in Buffalo, Hockey was secondary. GM Don Waddell also did a horrendous job. When you get a chance go look at how the Thrashers drafted. Not one 2nd rd pick in 11 years made an impact on the team except a goalie briefly. Many of the 1st picks were busts and the team failed to win, making the playoffs just once. Hard to build a following that way. The stadium and the atmosphere in it were awful. 50 % of the lower bowl was sold to and arranged in corporate sections which were rarely utilized making the stadium feel dead. Add the downtown location when most of the fans lived North of the city and you have a recipe for failure. Downtown is even worse now than then, although they have fixed the seating issue. Fan location is why the Braves moved North. So what’s changed since 2010? Obviously the local population has continued to grow. The area is about 50% larger than when the Thrashers arrived in 1999. Another big change is the growth of youth hockey on the North side of Atlanta. We have tripled the number of rinks and there are very successful youth leagues all the way up to and beyond high school age players. I actually live within 10 miles of 3 different rinks, two of which were built in the last 5 years. My son-in-law came through these leagues and played some lower tier Jr hockey. He ended up becoming Captain and President of the U of Tenn club hockey team. In fact most of the local universities in the ACC and SEC as well as others Southern Universities have successful club hockey teams and some schools, like UGA are beginning the fund raising and push to become D2 or D1 NCAA programs. All this because of the Thrashers, Canes, Pred, TB, Dallas. Southern hockey is growing like crazy and has for the last decade. Another piece of the puzzle is the Gladiators ECHL team. They are highly successful, have a strong fanbase and would be a great base to re-establish hockey in the ATL. So should it happen? Maybe! I think Houston and Atlanta are the biggest markets without teams. For a new franchise to succeed, the team needs knowledgeable hockey focused local ownership and a building on the Northside of town. Those are significant hurdles. I do agree that 2 failed attempts are a terrible legacy, but the 2nd attempt was set up to fail. We have seen failed markets like The Bay Area succeed when done properly and unlike 1999, there is a local hockey educated fan base that would adore having their own team.

Can’t Raleigh to close.

I’ve never commented on the Buffalo sports market of today. Nice try.

I find it hilarious that people who don’t live here, don’t know anything about the sports market here and don’t why the Thrashers failed are commenting on whether or not a new team would prosper here.

The cap says you can't keep everyone. Like it or not Bush likely won't be retained after next season. I also feel Joki is likely to be traded at some point for cap reasons. I proposed a Joki for Theodore trade on another thread to get Power a better partner with term.

Bold summer prediction. KA will trade Jokiharju and Olofsson over the summer to raise assets to help KA get a better partner for Power (and or goaltending) and then they'll run with the Malachi Bros (Stillman and Lyubushkin) as the third pair. For example, maybe we can work a deal with LV to get Theodore from them for Joki and Rosen.

That player, if you believe he has upside, is already here in Stillman. Riley is 4 years younger, plays a similar game, and is an RFA after next season. That means when Bush's contract is up, KA can simply re-sign RFA Stillman. The 2024-25 Sabres D could easily be Dahlin Mule Power Joki (although I wish KA would upgrade him) Stillman Johnson

I've added a poll question to see who we think makes the opening night roster next fall. I've assumed Tuch, Thomspon, Skinner, Cozens, Dahlin, Power, and Samuelsson are on the opening roster next season.

Don't you think Tuch, Cozens, and Dahlin are ready to assume the leadership of this team? Don't use think KA acquired Greenway as a replacement for one of Z or KO? KA and KO have a clear line of open communication. I do wonder if KO told KA that he was done coupled with Tuch's injury, precipitated KA's decision to trade for Greenway.

Roster construction is a weird thing. Back in the day, Edm and LA put guys like Dave Semenko and McSorley on Gretzky's line. However, I doubt they put Savoie on the team in anything but a scoring role. It would otherwise be a waste of his talent. I also don't think he makes the team next season either. If Kulich and Savoie don't play in Buffalo next year, their contract slide again. This would give us essentially 4 more years on both players. That said, KA was pretty clear that if they are ready they will play. I see a top 6 next year of Skinner - TNT - Tuch and Mitts - Cozens - Quinn. MItts and Cozens have developed some nice quick chemistry and I don't think it's a coincidence that VO's production has fallen without Mitts. After that, it's going to be who shows chemistry with whom. I'd even experiment with JJP Krebs and Greenway. Greenway's forechecking should help create room for Krebs to create and JJP to finish. Then you might return KO with Jost and Z for an energy line. The more I think about this the tougher KA's job is sorting out the forwards, especially if Savoie and Kulich prove ready. If they make the team who do you ship out? He's certainly not giving up on JJP after one season. Mitts has come on in the second half. He has 3g and 13a in his last 22 games (+1) and 3g 8a in his last 11 games (+3). He looks like he is becoming a fixture in the top 6 and with one year left on his deal, KA can extend the evaluation period another year. VO is under contract. KO and Z are leaders and Pkers, but UFAs. Jost (RFA) has proven he's good depth at center and Krebs is earning DG's trust and has one more year on his ELC. Too much talent is a good thing, but it makes the GM's job very difficult.

Petersen is a perfect proxy for Portillo. Their college numbers are very similar.

I don't think either will be Sabres next year.

How do you pass up on guys like Leonard and Barlow if they are sitting there when you draft 18 or 19? Although I'd say if Reinbacher is available when we draft in the 1st KA would be a fool not to take him. He's a perfect compliment on paper for Power. He's already playing 20 minutes a night in the Swiss league at 18.