GASabresIUFAN

3rd Sabres goal tonight. Smart play and great accurate shot by Johnson

Here is the real issue. These 5 players are definitely in the top 6 Eichel, Hall, Staal, Reinhart and Skinner. If we shift VO to RW 2, where are we playing Cozens when he makes the team? Do we want him as Eakin’s RW? I don’t. If he isn’t playing in our top 6, I want him playing center.

Divisional wingers depth chart according to Capfriendly Buffalo L - Hall, Skinner, Girgensons, Lazar R - Reinhart, Olofsson, Thompson, Okposo Washingon L - Ovie, Vrana, Hagelin, Panik R - Wilson, Oshie, Sprong, Hathaway Philly L - Giroux, Farabee, JVR, Lindholm R - Voracek, Konecny, Aube-Kubel, Raffl NYI L - Lee, Beauvillier, Dal Colle, Johnston R - Eberle, Bailey, Komarov, Clutterbuck Pitt L - Guentzel, Zucker, McCann, Tanev R - Kapanen, Rust, E Rod (that’s right), Sceviour NYR L - Kreider, Panarin, Lafreniere, Lemieux R - Buchnevich, Kakko, Gauthier, Rooney Boston L - Marchand (IR til mid Jan), DeBrusk, Ritchie, Bjork R - Pastrnak (IR til mid Feb), C Smith, Kase, Kuhlman NJ L - Johnsson, Wood, Zacha, Seney R - Palmieri, Gusev, Boqvist, Merkley

FyI: Mitts had 11 pts in 2018 in his draft year and was named Tourney MVP and best forward. We need to enjoy what JJP and Quinn are doing, but understand that they still could be years from being NHL ready.

So you want to put Cozens with Lazar or Eaken? Wouldn’t you prefer to have Cozens in the best position to succeed? Eakin is good enough to support VO 5 on 5. Not ideal I grant you, but I want Cozens in a better position to succeed and show his skills. VOs real value to this team is on the PP. I have projected VO for months in the top 6, but if Cozens is making this team, I’d prefer him to play wing in the top 6 or 3rd line center. Otherwise we are wasting his talent.

Who says VO plays in the top 6 at every strength? Hall Jack Reinhart Skinner Staal Cozens Olofsson Eakin Thompson/Mitts Girgensons Lazar/Sheahan Okposo

I’m going to assume most if not all AHL teams play. It’s a developmental league and teams won’t want their kids not playing.

Russia Sweden 2-2 in the 3rd. Are we rooting for Sweden? Now 3-2 Russians with 5 minutes left. If Russia wins in regulation they secure the 1 seed in group B. We, USA, need Sweden to tie it up and get the game to OT. 3-3 with a minute left. OT. Now a USA victory in regulation over the Swedes secures the top seed.

When I saw the headline of the thread I was hoping it was to teach the guys positional defense. Oh well.

One of the biggest issues with evaluating the Sabres playoff chances in this division is the Sabres have more question marks then our competition. For example: At forward we’ll have at least 5 new forwards plus these questions Hall - do we get MVP Hall or last year’s Hall Eakin - do we get the 22 goals Eakin or 5 goal Eakin or something in between Staal - How much does the 37 year old have left? Skinner - Do we get 2019 Skinner or 2020 Skinner? What If anything will we get from Cozens, Thompson, Mitts and or Rieder. Will Lazar step up and replace Larsson as the shut down center? On Defense How much improvement will we see from Dahlin and Jokiharju? In Goal Will we get decent play from Hutton? The Sabres were 24-24-8 at 56 games last season. The Sabres need another 9 points in those 56 games to be a playoff team. That means turning 5 of those losses into 4 wins and an OTL. With so many question marks it’s hard to get a real feel for what we have. We all agree that the offense has to be better with the additions of Hall and Staal. How much? Will it be enough to get us basically 5 extra wins? Honestly, we are going to need Staal, Eakin Skinner and Hall to be closer to their peaks for this to work.

JJP has been excellent for the Germans and Quinn is looking as good or better then Rossi or Perfetti. Johnson is looking better. Cozens vs Zegras is a great debate that is going to carry over into the NHL. It looks like we couldn’t have gone wrong with either player. I think i wanted Cozens on draft day, but I remember a pretty big debate about the top Americans (Turcotte, Zegras) vs the top Canadians (Dach, Cozens, Krebs). I’ll say this, there is a lot to like about the guys drafted 12-18 in 2019 in Boldy, Knight, York, Caufield, Newhook, Krebs, Harley. I love York’s game and hate to think of him in a Flyers uniform sooner then later.

The team starts 5-2-1 with KO on the taxi squad you won’t hear a word of complaint. The team starts 2-5-1 and KO is on the taxi squad everyone will complain. Winning cures all ills. Frankly I don't understand why finding away to move on from a $6 mill 4th line player is so controversial. Teams do it all the time through burying guys in the minors (Wade Redden, Matt Moulson), buy outs (Andrey Sekera in Edm, Corey Perry), salary retention (Milan Lucic), or using excess cap to take on bad contracts to get prospects or high draft picks or taking on the cap hit of injured players. If I had to guess nearly ever team in the NHL currently is using at least one of these strategies.

That’s BS. The Bills dumped many players, some very good, regardless of locker-room so that they could open cap space to rebuild the team. Which they did. Dawkins is the only OL that was here 2 years ago. Management brought in players in FA and the draft that fit the system they installed. It’s why we have 11 ex Panthers from McDermott’s time there. Diggs was a troublemaker in Minn because he wanted out of a run oriented system. He came to Buffalo and he fit what they were trying to do and surprise surprise he is a model citizen. I got news for you, if management can find away to get rid of a $6 mill 4th line player without a substantial cap hit, they will, locker-room be demanded, especially if dumping him will help them retain Hall or Dahlin or Reinhart etc.. Build a winning team and the locker-room will sort itself out just fine. Jack may call KO Yoda, but if Hall and Jack become a dynamic duo this season and we have to dump Yoda to keep Hall, Jack will wish Yoda well.

Big win today for USA. Beat Sweden they probably get the No 1 seed in the group. Then again when was the last time Sweden lost a prelim game

KO disrespect who cares. If he isn’t helping the team win who cares that people like him in the locker room. They liked Matt Moulson also. Players care about winning and if Sheehan, Thompson or Mitts help us win over KO not one player will complain.

What a great period of hockey by the USA. I thought Johnson was much more noticeable in a positive way except the one terrible giveaway. I do really like Bobby Brink. He is the guy I would have taken over Johnson, but agree Johnson has a nice future in our top 4, probably as Samuelsson’s partner. Cozens vs Zegras? Who is better?

Kind of affirming what I’ve been saying for months. He has a real shot at this roster and he improved during his time in Rochester. We have 4 wingers, maybe 5 guaranteed a roster spot; Hall, Reinhart, Olofsson, and Skinner and maybe Girgensons. However after that you can makes for and against everyone else. Thompson got a 3 year deal, but hasn’t played in well over a year. KO is on a fat contract but can really be sent down this year because of the taxi squad. Mitts needs to prove his stint in the AHL made him NHL ready, R2 needs to show he can play on the smaller ice surface. Cozens and Quinn have no pro experience and may still be in quarantine when the season starts. That’s a lot of question marks but also flexibility.

He has a one way NHL contract. He gets paid his NHL salary regardless of injury, waivers, playing in the AHL etc.. We save 1.1 million in cap if he is waived. KO has a modified NTC. He can be waived without his consent. Skinner and Hall have NMC, which means they can’t be waived without their consent.

So Cozens, Quinn, Johnson and JJP won’t be available until Jan 12/13 at the earliest?

My first reaction to KO on the taxi squad was ‘What! That’s crazy talk.” Then I gave it some more thought. We’d save 1.1 million if he is waived and “sent down”, but most of that savings would be lost with the cost of his replacement. However, if he proves not to be one of the 13 best forwards in camp, I can defintiely see him waived to be part of the taxi squad.

Riley Sheahan PTO - more C depth is always a good thing. Nice addition to the taxi squad at the worst. From @dudacek RK should admit that he failed to give Skinner proper linemates, like Reinhart or Eichel, to get him going.

Probably should be in a Sabres training camp thread

Talk to both of their employers, they may have some Covid benefits in place.

Hands of Stone?

Just providing a different point of view. While D rankings are interesting, they don't tell the entire story. Injuries, field position, special teams all play apart in the D effectiveness. Look how different the Bills are now that they are healthy on D. Milano and a healthy Edmunds turned a mediocre D back into a top D. However what are our rankings? Middle of the pack?