GASabresIUFAN

Unless a miracle occurs and Jack is traded before the season and we get a proven center in return, R2 will center our 3rd line, get PP time and surprise with a 35-40 pt season.

Not at all. Being professional and learning how to win are completely different things. This organization needs both. Sadly KA decided to ignore trying to win. Instead he went for effort only

You seem to have ignored the bolded part of my post. However, you can’t instill a winning culture if you create a roster that can’t because of poor goaltending. In fact this delivers the opposite message.

who said anything about changing the culture. I said KO was a real leader. KO is a hard worker and a pro's pro. His work ethic is a great example for the young kids about how to be a pro. The only way to change the culture is to build a winning team. The winning brings the positive culture not the other way around. That takes more talent then we currently have. You don't change the culture by putting a C on someone's chest and you also don't change it by putting crap like Anderson and Dell in net and tanking the team. However you can instill better work ethic in the team and hopefully as more talent arrives that eventually leads to winning.

Two recent events must be taken into account, plus I neglected to mention Asplund's contract Good. 1) Asplund's contract. 2 years at 825 each is a serious bargain. He'll easily outperform that contract. The question is how far can he take his game and will he become part of the core. 2) Dahlin's contract. 3 years @ 6 is a little short on term and more $ then I expected, although I thought we'd be in the 5.5 range. 7.2 in the final year insures at least a 7.2 qualifying offer for his RFA status. Hard for me to believe that he won't outperform this contract. This is his team now. Time for him to step up and lead by example and become a Norris contender. Ugly 3) Jack saga continues, now with a failed physical and the loss of the captaincy. Hard to see a resolution happening any time soon.

I appreciate your enthusiasm. Sadly his 2 prior seasons were 25 games (2018-19) with 3.17 gaa with a 886 save % followed by 33 games (2019-20) with a 3.01 and a 907. Not exactly a great trend of accomplishment. We should feel lucky if Dell comes close to the 2019-20 numbers. There is a reason we were his best offer.

Like Skinner? Interesting lines Skinner Cozens VO Bjork Mitts Thompson Asplund R2 Hinostroza Caggiula Girgensons KO (if healthy) I'm not sure I like Skinner and VO with Cozens. I see Cozens as more goal scorer then playmaker. The mighty mites line of Hinostroza, R2 and Asplund is interesting.

100k per point is usually a pretty good reference point for FA contracts. Mitts proved in Rochester and last season in Buffalo that he is no longer a train wreck as a two way player.

no one

at 100K per point, he needs 25 pts for the team to "breakeven". You don't think he'll score 25 pts? What is he goes 18g 27a for 45 pts? Won't a contract of 2.5 mill be a huge value?

All the articles have talked about Dahlin’s contract being 7.4% of the cap and the 3rd highest cap hit on the team. They seem to forget it’s not about the money, it’s the value for the money. Jack is injured, Skinner a waste and KO is now a bottom 6 player. We are getting little or no value out of any of these contracts. However, with Dahlin, it’s the only big contract on the team we actually have a chance of getting real value for the money. He is going to run the PP, lead the team in ice time, lead the team in points by a D (possibly even the whole team). This is his team now. Odds are the Sabres will get great value from this contract. What other contracts should give the Sabres legit value or put another way who will outplay their contract? The obvious ones are Mitts and Asplund. If Mitts reaches his potential and puts up 50 points and plays a decent top 6 center, his contract will be one of the best values in the NHL. I feel much the same way about Asplund. I’m unsure of his role this season, but something tells me he’ll play up and down this lineup and be effective in any role they give him. I’m hoping he continues as Mitts’ LW, but I suspect he’ll play either 3 LW or 3C and kill penalties. Either way we get great value for his 800K. Any others stand out?

Eichel Situation Un-Resolved, Losing Streak at 20, Pegulas Meet With Bettman.

@dudacek We may need two threads a day if we are going to get through the roster.

Eichel Traded to Toronto for a Tim Horton’s coupon book.

The mistake wasn’t the tank itself, it was how TM used the assets from the tank. For example we traded away our organizational depth and he failed to draft well. He also used the key assets on acquiring malcontents and injury players like Kane, Bogo, ROR and Lehner. We have never recovered. Sorry!

Rebuild vs Tank. We are rebuilding in general. However, KA is clearly tanking this season in order to draft a replacement for Eichel. No other way to explain pivoting from Ullmark to Anderson/Dell. This is going from playoff caliber goaltending to AHL level goaltending.

Adams Kicked Upstairs! Karmanos Named Interim GM

KO is real leader. I liked that DG said the Skinner’s personality is coming out more. Maybe this is a hint that Skinner is ready to assert himself more as a leader. Do we need to add the removal of the C from Jack to the bad or ugly?

I expect DG to insert him early in the season on Cozens' RW. I think DG will want a 2 way presence from this line and KO will respond with some excellent play until he gets hurt, again.

No price point. He wants max flexability.

If Jack took this to arbitration and won, he'd get the surgery he wants. He hasn't taken it to arbitration because he has been advised that he's likely lose. Had the Sabres said he can't have any type of surgery that would have been an unreasonable use of their power. Instead they said, rest and get therapy and if that doesn't work, we'll authorize ACDF surgery.

To prevent unreasonable use of the team’s power to make medical decisions for the players. I don’t think this is one of those cases.

Truthful none of it matters until we get competent goaltending.

As we have discussed, I think at least one of Poltapov, Kisakov and Rosen should have been a center. I would have drafted Lucius or Svechkov over Rosen. I wanted JJP and agree that Rossi or Perfetti should have been the choice over Quinn. I agree that grabbing the talent out of the MHL last year was smart, but then they ignored making choices with updated info in the 3rd by going off the board for two more wingers. Like Quinn here, there is also talk of Rosen being moved to center. Depth at center has been an issue with this organization since DR was in charge. It's been 20 years since we drafted and developed a good center not drafted in the 1st rd. 20 years. That's a horrible track record and a primary reason we are where we are. This organization never learns and I'm going to keep on harping on this until they actually fix the problem. Trying to convert Rosen and Quinn is not fixing the problem.