GASabresIUFAN

Oct. 16th 2021 … Sabres claim D Christian Wolanin off Waivers - Waived Nov 30 2021.

Free is a relative term. $2.8 mill for Butcher ain’t exactly “free.”

Would that make him Malcolm in the Middle?

Memo to Friedman, Adams should still be looking for goaltending. Subban isn’t exactly help.

.893 with a 3.38 in 5 AHL games. No wonder he was free. Dell .905 with a 3.01 in 3 AHL games. .862 with a 4.56 in 5 NHL games. Doesn’t look like an upgrade. Just more cannon fodder. I also thought $750 K was the max we spend on goaltending. $850 K for Subban is way to much.

Of course, why get something for free when you can pay for it instead.

#secrettank

Yeah? Shows how desperate KA was when Subban is an upgrade. The really sad part is we are probably going to keep Dell in Roch to backup UPL.

Sabres win 5-3 but Reinhart scores for the Panthers. Mitts has a goal and a helper in his return. Asplund scores on a Mitts setup. Eakin gets an empty net goal to seal the win. Skinner and Miller also score for Buffalo. Barkov and Bennett score the other Panthers goals.

He did sort of. It was more a case of a bad team with 2 star players (Turcotte and Caufield) and Weissbach getting shuffled down the lines. I do think that season turned his career around. He couldn't rely simply on his skill level, but had to work harder. The next season, he and Caufield made a lethal 1-2 punch and turned a bad team into a good team despite losing Turcotte and K'Andre Miller. It also helped that they received much much better goaltending from a senior transfer.

Based on what? I follow Big-10 hockey pretty closely and all Weissbach has done is improve every season. Yes he is being over-shadowed by the 3 kids, but his development is following a similar script as Olofsson. He's undersized, but strong on his skates, sees the ice very well, skates well, shots well and passes well. If the 3 kids weren't in Rochester, we'd all be singing his praises because he'd be the best O prospect on the team. Even with the 3 kids, Murray and 3 top AHL vets playing (Malone, Mersch and Jankowski) in front of him he still has 8 points in 14 games. With Murray and Jankowski now in the NHL (but R2 returning) maybe he'll get more opportunity to show what he can do. I do agree that it maybe hard for him to make the Sabres long-term because of our young depth at forward. Similar players such as Gerbe, Byron and even Olofsson all found their place in the NHL, I'm pretty sure Weissbach will as well.

He really didn’t have a place to play consistently. We had Ullmark and Hutton in Buffalo and UPL and Tokarski in Rochester. That left JJ in limbo so they traded him for a draft pick. In retrospect we should have waived and released Hutton, gave Tokarski the NHL backup job and let JJ backup UPL.

Bye Bye

I agree that making the playoffs is a long shot even with good goaltending going forward. However to me this season was less about making the playoffs and more about growth, development and building a winning culture. We are seeing the first two, but KA’s inability or unwillingness to fix the goaltending and give the kids a shot at winning most nights is hurting the “winning culture” objective. When I’m talking about salvaging the season I’m really focused on the building a winning culture. To me the first step is management showing the kids that they are pleased with the nightly effort by fixing the goaltending now.

So here we are at the quarter pole and the goaltending and defense have floundered. Not a huge surprise but disappointing. Still there is much to be hopefully for besides the domination of Quinn and JJP in the AHL. Our offense has remained good despite losing Mitts for much of the season, VO for a long spell as well and having to play JAGs Hayden, Bjork, Eakin and Caggiula every night. The Sabres currently are in the top 16 in GF with 64 or 2.9 per game. That comes to about 240 goals for the season. Last time the Sabres reached 240 was 2010-11. Skinner and KO finding themselves under DG has been great, but Thompson has been the real revelation. Cozens is finally emerging as a good NHLer and Asplund is showing his growth from last year was no fluke. EDIT: I forgot to add the improvement in VO's overall game and that he's a point a game player YTD. Now imagine what getting Mitts back now coupled with getting a healthy Tuch in January will do for an already good offense. So how do we fix the other side of the equation? When Anderson was healthy we were a very good team. Without him were are defensively challenged. How does it get fixed? We need an upgrade in goal. Matt Murray seems like the target. Given his recent struggles and injury history he’s an expensive gamble but one we probably need to take if we can get him at 50% of his cap. I’d also like to see Miller and Butcher sent packing ASAP and upgraded. Samuelsson in for Butcher would be step one. I doubt KA will replace Miller until the deadline but one can hope. I maybe in the minority, but with 60 games left there is still hope for this season.

I’m not sure I agree with this statement. I suspect they sent R2 down because he was asked to play a role that he’s not built for with JAG linemates. It will be interesting to see if they bring him back up now that Mitts is back.

The JAGs are there too in Hagg, Butcher, and even Pysyk. With only Jokiharju and Dahlin signed for next season, KA has a clean slate to work with. There are lots of internal candidates 1) Power (LHD) tops the list obviously assuming he signs 2) Samuelsson (LHD) - Physical D that this D 3) Bryson (LHD) has played pretty well most of the season, but with Power and Samuelsson coming into the lineup can he keep his job. He’s an RFA. 4) Pysyk (RHD) has played pretty well with Dahlin, but not sure he is part of the solution next season. I’d like to see an upgrade here. He’s a UFA. 5) Laaksonen (RHD) offensively minded D has thrived in Rochester, but is his D zone play NHL ready. 6) Fitzgerald (RHD) more of a stay at home D, but offense is coming along. At 24 his ship may have sailed. 7) Johnson (LHD) likely to be signed this off-season. Probably starts next year in the AHL, but he could also surprise. In theory, KA could go with the first 6 and see what happens, but I suspect he’s going to bring in at least one proven vet.

I don’t think one has anything to do with the other. He’d be more worried about Levi signing as he is younger and frankly outplaying Portillo in the NCAA right now. We as an organization need to layer our goalie prospects. After reading about Portillo in the Athletic I’m not worried he won’t sign regardless of who else we sign.

We need goaltenders at all levels. Our organization as it stands has one goalie and that is UPL. Mann is a few years older then Portillo and would be competition for UPL. The worst that can happens is that he isn’t very good.

I do kind of like the idea of signing Strauss Mann this off-season.

https://theathletic.com/2985102/2021/11/30/by-the-numbers-ranking-the-nhls-top-25-puck-moving-defensemen/ They have him currently as the 10th best puck moving D in the NHL. Enough already. Yes, he has bad games and makes mistakes, but after reading this article I’m more convinced then ever that all he needs to be in the Cale Makar class of player is consistent coaching and a better partner. His metrics are all better since being paired with Pysyk.

Wolanin waived + Jankowski in the lineup++ Murray playing ahead of Hayden +++ Mitts’ returns ++++ Tokar hurt - - - No other real goalie in the organization worth playing - priceless.

I was just looking at Saturday’s box score. 4-2 Amerks. 5 goals scored on the PP and one empty net goal. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game with no even strength goals that wasn’t a very low scoring game.

Can you say roster spot for Jankowski? or Samuelsson?

He needs stable coaching and a good partner.