GASabresIUFAN

The NFL should vacate the Fish’s win over the Bills for violating the concussion protocols. Only way to make sure they are properly adhered to and it wouldn’t hurt the Bills either. Also I think the NFL, the Bills and the Fish failed to adequately protect the Bills from the heat. It seems to me that they needed to have a shade over the entire benches for both teams.

I think this is going along way toward answering the key camp questions: 1) Who will partner with Power? The answer somewhat surprisingly is Joki. I thought his negative analytics would give Bush a chance to take the job, but I guess DG liked Power w Joki late last year and is going with what worked. 2) How to integrate JJP and Quinn into the forward group. DG doesn’t coddle young players. He played Power 23 minutes a game his debut last year and he looks to be doing the same with Quinn and JJP. That said I really like the JJP Cozens Krebs line. I don’t love the TnT line as it combines 3 shoot first players. I would swap Tuch and VO. 3) Who will play center? There has been much talk about Mitts and Cozens being better on the wing and Krebs more comfortable at center. Also who will replace Eakin as the 4th line center. I think this lineup answers the questions: TnT, Mitts, Cozens, and Girgensons. Not really a surprise. 4) What is a surprise is the 3rd a d 4th D pairings. Is this a hint that Bush could be a spare part to start the season, or an attempt by DG to get Bryson and Fitz going by pairing them together again? As to who Davies is, he is a AAAA puck moving D who has played 22 NHL for Nashville the last few seasons. Like Clague, Pilot, Fitz, and Priskie, he is a decent spare part who can play in the NHL in a pinch and is still a developmental player by AHL definition. They also are all young enough to possibly earn a 7th or 8th role in the NHL.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I expect Tage to regress a little this season, not in terms of his play but in terms of production. I think he'll score around 30 and add 25-30a this season. I think his shooting % will decrease to a more sustainable 12% or so and with others doing well he may actually lose a little PT at DG spreads the wealth and rolls 4 lines. None of this is a criticism of Tage, it's just how I see the team being constructed. When you look at the Sabres, obviously Tage and Skinner can put up 60+ pts. However, I see Mitts, Cozens, Quinn, Tuch, VO and even JJP and Krebs having that kind of potential. That's a huge amount of talent to have floating around and if Mitts and Cozens fulfill that promise this year as I suspect they might, we are going to be a matchup nightmare for many teams.

25g 35a. 2nd line PF.

I'm not sure what Weekes means. Are we bringing back Desjardins? Are we acquiring a goaltender in trade? Are we signing a long lost veteran goaltender?

First things first, Dallas can afford to re-sign him. They have 6+ in cap space and another 3.3 in LTIR. Why would Robertson want to leave a Cup contender to come here? KA just signed a similar one year wonder for 7 mill per year, why invest in another one year wonder (JR's 41 goals came on an 18% shooting percentage), when he has potential 30-40 goal guys like Quinn and JJP on ELCs. While I think Robertson is an excellent player, I just don't see the urgency to acquire him and put another big contract on the books when we be attempting to re-sign our own breakout players this year and next. I think it's much more likely that Dallas re-signs Robertson to a 3 year bridge deal and KA trades Bishop back to Dallas for Khudobin's contract and a draft pick. Dallas then uses Benn's money in 3 seasons to pay Robertson long-term.

I think you read something into my comments that wasn't there. I never said he wouldn't trade prospects to fill roster holes once we were a good team. We are talking about today and KA has been very clear about his rebuild strategy. He won't block prized prospects and he isn't trading away his pipeline. I doubt that changes until we are a playoff team. That said, I do think his value oriented approach will remain. We are also talking about making an acquisition for Roberston for this coming season not 2-3 years from now. Given how many of KA's young roster will need new contracts in the next couple of years, my guess is that KA is very leery of investing 8 mill a year in a player that isn't from our development program and wants to be here.

Why would the Sabres put Comrie in net for his first game behind a bunch of AHLers as his defense? I thought they wanted to put their guys in a position to succeed.

Have we not learned anything about KA during rebuild 3.0? He isn’t bringing in any outside assets in the organization unless he has no choice such as goaltending and an RHD and even then they’ll be value oriented transactions. While bringing Robertson is certainly interesting, no way KA trades any of his precious young talent for him.

Camp thoughts so far, mostly from the post Flyers game practice lineup 1. Skinner & Thompson are a pair, despite TNT’s goal scoring popping (28 of 38) once Tuch joined the line 2. I found it interesting that DG played his top 6 D for next season against the Flyers, except Bryson and Joki got the first crack as Power’s partner. From all reports, they played pretty well as a group. From the Sabrespace posts, people here really like Bush’s play. 3. Girgensons as the 4th line D. Not a big surprise and I suspect he’ll be there opening night, but will Asplund also got a look there in upcoming games? 4. VO - Mitts - KO; Was this another indication of where DG is taking the lineup? Or was this just getting vets ice time together to see if there was some chemistry there? The reports from DG, KO and Skinner on Mitts from the Day 5 notes are very encouraging. 5. If TnT is the no. 1 center, Mitts the 2 and Z the 4, who is 3? Krebs or Cozens? Given Cozens success on the wing at Worlds, will DG experiment with him there as well? 6. We have seen UPL, Subban and Anderson. Comrie in net next? Any reports on how he has looked in camp so far? 7. Are Biro and Rousek the first 2 AHL recalls if needed? 8. Who is leading the battle for the 7th D slot? Pilut leading Fitz?

Wait until the recession hits.

One of our best AHLers last year. Any way to watch a rebroadcast of the game?

You don’t think they also have Dahlin, Power, Samuelsson and Cozens inked into the core. The only unknown is how much they are getting paid when re-signed. i think there is a great deal of pressure on Mitts and Krebs to perform this year and next. Both are RFAs after 2023-24 and could easily be bypassed in the lineup by Quinn, JJP, Savoie, Kulich and possibly others. If I had to project a top 9 for 2024-25, I see Cozens, TnT, Skinner, Tuch, Quinn, JJP, Savoie and Kulich and maybe Kisakov or Rosen or VO if he continues at a high level. That doesn’t leave much room for Krebs or Mitts, unless they seize the opportunity now.

I don’t know if this was already discussed in this topic, but Girgensons’ roster spot is in danger beyond this season just from talent coming up from below. The Sabres have the following forwards on expiring contracts; UFA - Vinnie, Z, KO and Sheahan; RFA’s - Bjork, Asplund and Cozens. I think this is Bjork and Vinnie’s last season with the Sabres (or Amerks in Bjork’s case). Assuming for arguments sake that Cozens, KO, and Asplund are re-signed, that gives us a forward group for 2023-24 of Tuch, VO, KO, Skinner, Cozens, Mitts, TnT, Krebs, Asplund, Quinn and JJP. That literally leaves one starting forward slot and one 13th forward slot with the following candidates: NHL - Vinnie, Girgensons, Sheahan AHL - Rousek, Kulich, Rosen and possibly Cederqvist, Kisakov or Kozak CHL - Savoie The funny thing is I think Savoie is the most likely candidate for the starting job, if he has a great year in juniors this coming season. Because of his age, he must return to the CHL for 2023-24 unless he makes the NHL club. I suspect he dominates, the Sabres decide he has nothing left to prove in the CHL and he makes the club in 2023-24. Rousek is my second choice. I think the rest of the kids will play at least 2 years for the Amerks. So where does that leave Girgensons? IMHO KA isn’t going to pay Z 2.5 to be a 13th forward. Sheahan or someone like him can fill that role for the NHL minimum. The real issue is that Z is part of KA’s leadership group, but with Tuch and Cozens stepping into leadership roles, KA can afford to move on from Girgensons. By the trade deadline, KA should know where the Sabres stand playoffs wise and if we are out of playoff contention I can easily see Girgensons’ getting traded for futures. PS I love roster speculation questions.

Except in this case. 😉

I was talking about development. To me once a guy is in the system, his performance dictates how quickly he moves up regardless of where he is drafted. Kozak is a great example of what I'm referencing. Given what he did in the CHL last year and how he has performed in training camp, do the Sabres care at all where he was drafted? No obviously not, they care that he is a quickly developing player that's going to suit up for Rochester next season.

I think your view is to limited. Looking at guys from 2015 draft and asking why they aren't over 100 goals is asking to much for a guy who just maybe getting his career underway. In 2015 for example, 14 guys played in the NHL last year. 5 are currently over 200 games, a 6th, John Marino is nearly there. VO was taken in the 7th round of 2014. Don't you think he'll easily get to 100 goals? I better way to look at late from picks is to look at the decade prior, even though many of the best ones are still making an impact in the NHL. This gives a better view of the possible upside because there guys have had time to play a career's worth of hockey. From 2000-2009 6th and 7th rounders have produced 16 players who have played 400-599 NHL games, another 13 with 600 to 799 and another 10 with 800+. 14 of these guys have 100 plus goals with Joe Pavelski the leader with 421 and still going. 2 others, Bryon and Spurgeon are a goal or 2 away. Hall of Famers like Henrik Lundqvist and Pavelski were drafted in the 7th. Plus good to excellent players like Byron, Hornqvist, Stralman, Lee, Spurgeon, Atkinson and Haula among many other familiar names.

I think Kozak is proving his scoring ability is just fine. Maybe he is destined for a depth role, but guys mature at different rates. We might just end up being VO 2.0. I’ve learned the lesson that once a guy is a year or two from the draft, where he was selected, outside of 1st rd picks, has little to do with where they end up. Go look at the 2005/06 team and research where guys were drafted. Kotalik, Max, Soupy, Goose, and Miller were all after the 2nd rd picks. Hell we took Peters in the 2nd rd in 1998 and Kotalik in the 6th. Kozak is already a better player with a better future imho than 3rd rd pick Sardarian

https://www.nhl.com/news/buffalo-sabres-2022-23-season-preview/c-335501386 https://thehockeywriters.com/sabres-3-bold-predictions-2022-23-season/

I thought there was a lot to like in the game. Defense wasn’t one of them. I thought the kids carried play for extended periods although spacing was an issue. I liked Kozak and Cozens. I thought JJP brought a good deal of energy. UPL looked ok, but good in the shoot-out. I like that they are trying to win every game when they play, be it prospects games, preseason games or regular season. Create that mindset and hopefully it will translate to the standings in April.

We’re just going to have to get to the QB to protect the young secondary. The good news is that Miami’s OL is banged up.

That’s the point. Bush knocks Joki down to the 3rd pair and thereby Joki getting 3rd pair minutes.

Again no Bush last year. I believe Joki’s PT was more a reflection of him being the best of a bad lot on the right side. The other options were Miller, Pysyk and Fitz and as you can see from your chart, DG thought they were lousy options and now they, along with Hagg and Butcher are gone. These options were so bad they moved Bryson to the right side and then moved Dahlin over when Samuelsson got healthy. Outside Samuelsson and Dahlin, Joki was our 3rd best D last season. This year we’ve added Power and Bush, which IMHO knocks Joki down to 5th. Frankly, when you look at Joki’s metrics, thats about where he should be in this lineup. His best chance to earn 20 plus minutes is to beat out Bush to be Power’s partner, but given how bad his analytics are, I’m favoring Bush in that race.

But that was before Lyubuskin was a Sabre and the alternative on the right side was Fitz or someone worse. The math doesn’t work otherwise. If the 1st pair is Samuelsson and Dahlin (24 min) and the second is Power and Bush (22 min) that doesn’t leave more than 14-15 minutes for the 3rd pair. As talent is added to the lineup, marginal players move down the depth chart. Unless Joki’s play takes a huge leap forward, he is a 3rd pairing guy at this point.