GASabresIUFAN

This is a much better role then becoming a goon. I'm kinda hoping he continues to work on his O so that he can become a guy who can play up the lineup when needed and contribute. With him, Tuch, Samuelsson, and Thompson, this team could become much more physically imposing. I also like Dahlin's added feistiness. I wish Murray was playing here right now over Bjork and Hayden.

We know that Thompson is the biggest bargain Sabre, but it’s a pretty good battle between Butcher and Eakin for most overpaid Sabre.

Because DG and KA need their collective heads examined. I can't wait until Z and Vinnie return so 2/3 of the turd line can be sent to the pressbox.

Team looks much better with a healthy and active Mitts and VO. Those two’s best game in weeks and weeks. That allows us to roll at least 3 good lines. Now if they could play with that fire every night. Just think those Leafs fans paid $500 per seat to watch that beat down. No way the Leafs come close to the Cup with that defense.

No idea.

They are sinking like the Russian stock market.

The first move should be to renovate the damn building.

The Sabres aren’t moving regardless of who owns the team. I hate to say this but if TP does sell the team I wouldn’t be happy about bringing in another new administration despite my dislike of how KA has handled the goaltending and defense. At some point we are going to have to stick to a plan and see what happens. KA is the 4th GM to have hand in this rebuild. It’s time to stick with it

This is what I wrote last off-season. It was obvious what needed to be done and of course he did none of it. Ullmark and McCabe walked (rightfully so) and instead of using his cap space to do the necessary upgrades, he gave us Anderson, Dell, Hagg, Butcher and Pysyk. Continued mismanagement. No wonder we never win and make no real progress up the standings.

Hard to win with goaltending like that. No surprise that our record is 2/7/1 during that period. We have allow 3 or more goals in all 10 games and 4 or more goals in all 8 losses. Dear Kevyn, goaltending matters.

no question.

Here are a couple of interesting RHD that would be a good fit for us this summer and would help in the leadership role. They are also young enough to be here for more then one season. 1) TB's Jan Rutta. 31 and has won a Cup with TB. Stay at home D who would be an excellent addition. Why would he come here. Simply put $ and a chance to play with a Dahlin or Power. Has only been in the NHL 5 years. Skates about 17 minutes a night for TB. Current cap only 1.3. 2) Washington's Nick Jensen. He's 31 and has a current cap 2.5 and one year left on his deal. Could easily be a cap casualty in Washington with 71 mill spent on only 16 players and two RFA goalies. I'd love to see KA work out a deal to get Vanacek and Jensen from them.

I was researching on capfriendly for the goaltenders with one year left on their deal who we may be able to acquire this offseason in a reasonable trade 1) Quick - age 36. ytd 30 games 2.54 . 913. Cap hit $5.8. Why he might be available. He lacks a NTC or NMC. Petersen was just extended for $5 mill starting next year and is their starter long-term. They already have $58 committed to 12 players (including Quick). May want to spend their money elsewhere. 2) Varlamov - age 33. YTD 15 games 2.67 .914. Cap Hit $5.0. Sorokin the starter. NYI have 67 mill committed to 16 players (including Varlamov). They need help on D and Dobson a costly RFA to re-sign. Maybe Varlamov will waive his M-NTC (16 team list) for a chance to start again. 60 games of playoff experience including the NYI run the last two years. 3) Talbot - age 31. YTD 31 games 2.94 .910. Cap Hit 3.667. Min needs all the cap relief they can get with Parise and Suter costing them 12.743 next year against their cap. They also need to give Fiala a huge raise. Kahlkonen (also in line for a big raise) is the starter next year. FYI Goligoski is having a huge comeback year with Min and is a UFA this summer. Quick is a lifetime King and I doubt they'll trade him, but he'd be a great mentor to our young goalies and would have instead credibility in the lockerroom. That said I'm pretty sure Varlamov and Talbot will be available. Sadly, I'm sure teams will try to get Varlamov at the deadline driving up his price. Still I'd inquire if I was KA as their aren't many teams that can take on his cap hit. The NYI need depth at LHD. Sounds like a good place to send Bryson? How about Bryson and a 4th? That leaves Talbot. Min will have to dump him this summer, but they need him for the playoff chase this season. What is he worth? A 3rd in 2023. Would you trade Bryson for him or Asplund? Also I'd make an offer sheet to Washington for Vanecek. Both Vanecek and Samsonov are RFAs and they probably can't afford to keep them both. Vanecek is 26 and in 24 games has a 2.39 .915. I'd offer him a three year deal with an average cap hit of 4.2. Washington would have to match or we only give up a 2nd rd pick. It would be a steal for us as I doubt Washington would be able to afford to match the deal. This gives us a 26 year old goalie who has proven he can play in the NHL who is young enough to earn the starting job long-term or become a trade asset if UPL can beat him out.

Yes, UPL is still a rookie. He's need to have played 25 games this year or at least 6 games last year and at least 6 games this season to no longer be considered a rookie. Samuelsson however with 12 games last year and 16 this year won't be a "rookie" officially next year.

I have no problem beginning to prune and it may happen. I don't see Bryson, Fitzgerald,. Asplund or Olofsson as long term pieces. Who do you want to prune? Last year everyone would have said we could probably prune Thompson and Jokiharju. Oops. Good analogy, but I think the ratio will more likely be 8 to 13 vets to younger players. Each forward like will have least one vet (Skinner, Okposo, Tuch and Girgensons), On the backend KA is going to add a veteran goaltender and at least two veteran D just to get us cap complaint. He'll also likely add a 4th line center. I think the roster will look something like this Vets - 8 - Girgensons (500+ games), Okposo (900 games), Skinner (850 games), Tuch (300 games) plus 4th line center, 2 veteran D and 1 vet goalie Some NHL experience 7 - (100 to 300 NHL games) - Mitts, Thompson, Cozens, Dahlin, Jokiharju, VO, and Asplund, Rookies - 7 - UPL, Samuelsson, Fitzgerald, Quinn, Krebs, JJP, & Power I can see Bryson or Bjork returning, but I hope KA moves on from both.

I think we generally agree that vets like Eakin, Hayden, Anderson, Miller, Hagg and even Girgensons aren't the right guys to move this team forward. Skinner, Tuch and KO seem like the only ones delivering the right message on and off the ice. Truth be told, there will probably even less veteran presence on next year's team as Power, Quinn, Krebs, Samuelsson, UPL and possibly others become full time NHLers. So it makes it more imperative then ever for KA to make good decisions on how to get the Sabres cap compliant next season with vet who are proven winners. I think where we basically disagree is quantity of outside help. From my research the best teams seem primarily home grown. However even on successful teams home grown players can range for kids to vets. In 2005/06 the Sabres picks on the team ranged from the 1995 draft (McKee and Biron) to the 2003 draft (Vanek). Only 1996 wasn't represented.

Carolina in 2019 had the same number of vets we have now, except their vets were 26 and 27 and many were home grown. Only 3 players on their roster were over 28; Williams (36), McElhinney (35) and Staal, J (29). Again, the answer to the question is having the right veterans, not just a large number of vets.

I'm not so sure. I went and looked at the average age stats from 2018-19 and the three youngest teams were Buffalo, Colorado and Carolina. Today 2/3 of those teams are at the top of the NHL standings. It looks like they allowed their kids to grow together and then supplemented to fill roster holes. Obviously their rebuilds worked and ours didn't. I think this is KA's strategy. I'm hopeful that KA will use this off-season and his considerable cap room to start filling roster holes not filled with players in our system. Even our good teams in 2005/05 and 2006/07 were build mostly on the backs of our draft picks and developed players. Miller, Biron, Noronen, Max, Kotalik, McKee, Vanek, Roy, Campbell, Kalinin, Gaustad, Peters, Novotny and Paille were all Sabres picks. Outside talent was under 25 like Connolly and Pyatt or in the middle of their prime like Briere, Drury, Lydman, Dumont, and Hecht. Only 30+ players were Grier and Numminen. In fact, the Sabres, according to Elite Prospects, they were the 2nd youngest team that season at 25.91. Amazingly they were even younger the next season at 25.62. I don't think the number of vets really matter. It's having the right vets and the right leadership to insure accountability who set a standard that losing is un-acceptable. We haven't had that since Drury left town. Maybe Tuch resets that standard here.

When Chicago won their 1st Cup they only had 7 players over 25. Kane was 20 and Toews 21. Each rebuild is different, but one of the keys for Chicago was the playoff experience of Hossa and Campbell to go with the talent of Kane and Toews. Tuch is the first such guy for us. We need more.

We don’t lack vets. Up front KO is nearing 900 games, Skinner over 800, Z is in his 8th season and Eakin is nearing 700 games. Vinnie is in his 7th season. On the back end Pysyk is in his 10th season and Miller his 7th. Anderson has played in over 650 NHL games over 19 seasons. We have the wrong vets. What we are missing in leaders who know how to play winning NHL hockey. Tuch is the playoff leader on this team with 66 playoffs games. Eakin is second at 50 and Anderson 48. Skinner has never reached the playoffs. KO has only played in 24, Pysyk 4. I think Tuch is the only guy on this team that truly knows what a winning effort looks like. Tuch’s presence has already evaluated Thompson. Of the vets listed odds are that only KO, Skinner and Z will be returning. We need to supplement them with vets who have Cup experience and command respect in the dressing room. That’s where a goalie like Quick and a D like Orlov come in. Guys who understand winning and will hold the kids accountable.

Nevermind, I just saw a graphic on Sabres.com that we had Hayden, Eakin, Bjork, Hagg and Pysyk on the ice at the same time. Obviously talent is a huge issue. One other thought, to build a winning culture, the players, coaches and management need accountability. We have none.

Casey’s bonehead play against St Louis is still bugging me. As soon as I saw the bad pass I knew it would cost us the game. I also was annoyed that Granato failed to pull the goalie earlier when we had them hemmed in their zone with two minutes left. These are the types of errors that good teams with good coaches don’t make. So I ask when do we stop making those mistakes. Why didn’t Casey just send the puck in deep in a tie game? Why wasn’t DG aggressive when the team has nothing to lose? Obviously personnel remains an issue. We are fielding the worst line in hockey each night. Our defense outside of Dahlin and Jokiharju is either young or exceedingly mediocre. The goaltending remains bad. Despite these handicaps we are in most games most nights. When do the lights go on and we start winning those close games? Is Granato part of the problem or is this mostly a roster issue? Does he know NHL skills but not NHL strategy? Is his and KA’s attitude that wins and losses don’t matter right now part of the problem as well? Do we not have the right vets here to teach the kids to win like Drury did?

Depends on what they say and do. IF the government deems them a risk to public safety they will be sent home.

Was it just me last night, but did anyone else think DG should have pulled the goalie when we had them hemmed in their zone with about 2 minutes left?

Actually John, as non-citizens who are here on work visas, they actually don't have the same constitutional rights as citizens. The 2nd amendment doesn't apply. They can be sent packing because they support Putin.