GASabresIUFAN

While Skinner is grossly overpaid, his contract isn’t an issue for the foreseeable future. We are a cap minimum team now and will be again next season. Hagg, Butcher, Miller and Eakin’s 10.6 mill in contracts expire after this year and KO, Girgensons and Bjork’s 9.8 mil in contracts expire after next season. VO is the only internal player getting “big” after this season, and even with that we are still 9-10 mill below the cap floor for next season. After 22/23 only Thompson and Cozens can expect big raises. Only by 2025 should Skinner’s deal possibly become an issue again assuming KA doesn’t go on some crazy spending spree.

JAGs are JAGs. Pouliot, Falk, Wilson, Chad Johnson were just as effective as guys like Pysyk, Hayden, Caggiula and Tokarski. As I’ve said before as soon as the JAGs are gone the better. Jbot sent most of the JAGs packing in year 2, hopefully KA will do the same in his 3rd season.

Correct. We’d be about 8-10 mill short with the lineup Vogl suggests. Obviously we can make that up with taking on other contracts of injured players like Boychuk’s, but I’d much rather have a solid veteran stay at home D to mentor all the kids and invest in a real goaltender as insurance for UPL and more veteran leadership. I suggested previous going after someone like Orlov from Wash who carries a cap hit of 5.1 for next year.

The truth is the sooner neither guy plays for us the better.

Rarely, but he does kill penalties.

Nice comeback wins. So you wanted a Krebs sighting.

I’m not sure they kept the Hits star during his career. He did have over 1200 PM over his career. I remember him using his 6’6 frame to knock people around.

I’ve been saying that since game one.

It didn’t take Fitz long to jump Miller and Pysyk on the depth chart.

Power does. We’ll also add Samuelsson at 6’4” 217. He is a chip off the block and like his Dad he likes to hit guys.

This is Vogl’s most recent stab at the Sabres next season. https://theathletic.com/3018447/2021/12/17/sabres-mailbag-whats-owen-powers-upside-how-much-impact-will-alex-tuch-have-is-ukko-pekka-luukkonen-up-for-good/ “Here’s a potential opening-night lineup for the forwards: Jeff Skinner-Thompson-Tuch Quinn-Cozens-Victor Olofsson Krebs-Mittelstadt-Peterka Murray-Asplund-Kyle Okposo The Sabres also have forwards Zemgus Girgensons, Anders Bjork and Arttu Ruotsalainen under contract in case a youngster fails to prove himself in training camp. Any signings will most likely be depth defensemen or a backup goalie.” Interesting, but there is zero chance that Girgensons isn’t in the starting lineup next season. We need the veteran presence and physical play. He also has 6 kids on the D with Laaksonen joining Samuelsson and Power as rookies. This lineup, while great to imagine with that many talented kids on the roster, it doesn’t work with the cap.

It’s called “ADS” - Aaron Dell Syndrome.

So donating $ to Roswell Park and PSE sending me a hat in return is stupid?

Any team that loses 30% of it's initial roster is going to struggle. Without those guys teams are able to take away Krebs and JJP. While I think Jankowski and Murray are gone for good, the rest will return and that will help. It will also help when they get back to full strength in goal be it Tokarski with Dell or UPL with Dell.

That is a 26 his old number. My hat with 74 is at the beginning of the thread. I posted the second Asplund autograph for comparison purposes.

We were all wrong. I sent PSE an email and they said they place a sticker with the players number inside the hat. I found the number and it’s “74”, aka our good friend Rasmus Asplund. Now that I’ve seen a Asplund autograph online, it’s definitely him. Thanks for the help.

I'm not sure why everyone is so surprised by Casey's play last night. The kid is from a hockey family and management here has been singing his praises since camp. He has been the steadiest defenseman in Roch and his offense was starting to come around in the AHL this season. Yes, he's already 24, but this is how you develop middle and late round picks that have attributes you like. Will he ever be a top 4 D? Probably not, but could he become a steady stay at home D that can play up the lineup in a pinch, kill penalties and be solid NHL player? I don't see why not. He is also a RHD, that we and other teams definitely covet.

Sorry to be Johnny Raincloud but the six points, while accurate, doesn’t take into account Boston’s four games in hand. We just need to keep winning and earning points.

With Tuch slotting in on Monday, what do our lines look like? I think DG likes what he is seeing with Murray Cozens and KO. Skinner Thompson and VO seem solid as well. So where does Tuch go? Does he slot him with Jankowski and Hinostroza to make a 3rd scoring line or does he bump Murray from Cozens and move VO there opening up Thompson RW for Tuch?

Sorry but those were soft goals, but he was very solid again and was perfect in the shoot out

So UPL has given us 5 straight good games. We are 2-2-1 but should be at least 2-1-2 had NHL done replay correctly. Bottom line, if we get good goaltending we at worst contend and mostly earn points and wins. I don’t know if UPL can keep this up. I hope so but it’s pretty clear what the most important thing is for this young team going forward and that is good goaltending.

@Taro T That was just plain mean.

Thanks. I was thinking that as well after looking again at the number. I think it’s a 21, thus Okposo.

Actually plays both

Here is a close up of the autograph.