GASabresIUFAN

We already have 4 1st rounders from the 2019 draft. We drafted Cozens (7th) and Ryan Johnson (31st) plus we added Byram (4th) and Krebs (17th) in trade . There is now talk of adding 9th overall Trevor Zegras in trade as well. 2nd overall pick Kakko is also rumored to be on the trading block. 6th rd pick Lukas Rousek has played 17 games for the Sabres so far and 3 rd pick, Eric Portillo, who Adams traded away, is looking very good for the AHL's Ontario Reign and should be in the NHL sooner than later. This draft was known for the great US NTDP squad with 7 guys going in the top 15 picks plus an additional 10 players taken in the rest of the draft. The 2018-19 U-18 team featured Jack Hughes, Zegras, Matt Boldy, goalie Spencer Knight, D Cam York, and Sniper Cole Caufield. The Canadian U-18 2018-19 team was also loaded with Cozens, Krebs, and Newhook and Thomas Harley. The top 11 in games played are Hughes, Kakko, Cozens, Seider, Hoglander, Krebs, Newhook, Dach, Zegras, Caufield and Boldy. All 11 have played 200+ games. Byram is 16th with 164 games. Hughes and Kakko have played 306 and 300 games respectively. Dylan is at 280. The top 11 in points (90+) are Hughes, Boldy, Cozens, Zegras, Caufield, Seider, Kakko, Maccello Newhook, Dach and Hoglander. Byram is 12th with 72 pts. Krebs is 16th with 66 pts. Hughes has 281 points over 110 more than Boldy in second place. The top goal scorers, with 50 or more are Hughes (114), Caufield (81), Boldy (75), Cozens (66), Kakko (57), Zegras (55) and Hoglander (50) Overall there are only 26 skaters to reach 100 games and only 2 goalies to play 50+. Kochetkov leads with 69 and Knight has 57 but is currently dealing with personal issues. Who would your top 15 be 5 years later? My top 15 so far are [original pick no. in ( )] 1 - Hughes (1), 2 - Seider (6), 3- Boldy (12), 4 - Caufield (15), 5 - Zegras (9), 6- Cozens (7), 7 - Maccelli (98), 8 - Harley (18), 9 - Byram (4), 10 - Pinto (32), 11 - York (14) 12 - Newhook (16), 13 - Dach (3), 14 - Hoglander (40) and 15 - Kochetkov (36) So far there is one bona fide super star from this draft and that is Jack Hughes. Seider is also a star. After those two there seems to be 15-20 good to really good players. Guy who will play 10+ in the NHL, but after that it's looking a little thin. Still these guys are 23 and there is still time for more guys to make an impact.

The Sabres should give each fan on opening night a coin with a cameo of Lindy on the front with "in Lindy we trust", and the Sabres logo on the back.

I knew Wahlberg was here for the playoffs, but I didn't know if he was staying for next season. Helenius will be interesting. I think they should bring him over as well, but Rochester already has a pretty full compliment of forwards.

I looked at Ruff's term with the Sabres, Dallas and NJ and there isn't really a pattern to how he deploys his D. I've seen seasons where all 6 D played a similar amount to seasons where 4 D dominated the PT to ones were one guy dominated. I was looking as you were to see how he might deploy the 6 we have. The only conclusion I can draw it that Dahlin will probably play the same 25 minutes a night. I suspect Power will also play 21 to 22 as he did last year. I hope Ruff encourages the big man After that I think Ruff will see how it goes.

Just read it. It’s actually a good discussion of our pipeline and draft picks without really putting a grade on it. It’s more about where our depth is and what their upside potential is.

One nice thing about the acquisition is that we didn’t have any Sabres prospects in the age 21-23 range last year. Tullio turned 22 in April. Kulich, Rosen, Neuchev, Kozak and Kisakov were all 18-20. (Wahlberg, Östlund, Nadeau and Savoie as well). Murray, Weissbach, Rousek, and Biro were all 24-25. With Biro and Weissbach gone, there is a real opportunity for the kid to earn some ice time. At 22, he has 2 years of AHL experience and a decent amount of production (57 points in 117 games), he could be in line for 3rd line duty and maybe higher in the lineup when injuries or other issues occur. The biggest hurdle he faces is the talent depth in Rochester that will be ahead of him on the depth chart. Rosen (50 pts/ 67 games) Kulich (45/57) Neuchev (28/57)and Östlund will be in Rochester’s top 6 in the fall. If Wahlberg and Helenius also come over, that’s a deep group of talent to overcome for a top 6 role. Kisakov (13/32) will be in the mix as well. Amerks leading scorer Jobst (50/64) and frequent callup Rousek (41/50) are also under contract as is AHL stalwart Murray (32/54)

https://thehockeynews.com/news/nhl-prospect-pool-overview-2024-25-buffalo-sabres-stays-strong-despite-trading-savoie Worth a read

Casey was actually are most versatile forward and maybe our most useful forward. I do agree with your assessment of Byram. Our defense is starving for defenders who can defend and Adams gave us a lite version of Dahlin 4 years ago. The questions are will Byram step up and become defensively aware and if he does can Adams even afford to keep him? His Q offer is nearly $4 mill with Arbitration rights. If you sign him long-term, you’ll be paying him likely more than we would have paid to keep Mitts and we are still searching for a good player to replace Mitts’ production. All in all a stupid trade.

We’ll see if Bryan becomes the top 4 D everyone here think he is. His metrics at Colorado deteriorated the last couple of years and he was terrible here. I’m sorry but there is plenty of reason to worry he won’t become the star you and Adams think he can become.

Not in the offseason and maybe not at all.

2022 grade: F for failing to bring in adequate goaltending or legit D help. No additions were better than depth players 2023 grade: D for again failing to get goaltending help, bringing back failed leaders KO & Z and for again failing to bring in anyone above a depth player. Clifton’s turnaround midseason is the only reason the grade isn’t an F. 2024 grade: C to C+. Depth overhaul looks ok on paper, but the 4th liners are not much better than replacement level players according to their metrics. Zucker may not have much left in the tank and McLeod better have O upside to justify the price. Again no, top 6 or top 2 pair help and we need both. Looks like a volume version of the same off-season plan from the last 2 years.

Depends on the goaltending and if he can find 4 reliable D. People need to remember that Lindy is flexible. He went to the Conference finals rolling 4 lines and went to the Cup Finals with a bunch of grinders and the best goalie ever. The common thread was he coached the 2 best goalies in Sabres history in Miller and Hasek. Right now the team is half and half; 6 scorers and 6 grinders up front. Not sure what the defense is, but UPL is the key. If he plays well, Ruff will find something that works. A quick note on Lindy and the D. https://www.naturalstattrick.com/pairings.php?fromseason=20072008&thruseason=20072008&stype=2&sit=5v5&score=all&rate=n&team=BUF&loc=B&toi=0&gpfilt=none&fd=&td=&tgp=410 If you look at 07/08, the oldest season the site has data on, this is how Lindy deployed the D 1. Lydman Tallinder 991:38 minutes 2. Soupy & Spacek 758:03 minutes 3. Pratt & Paetsch 304:06 minutes That’s huge drop off. It will be interesting to see what other 2 D, besides Power and Dahlin, Ruff believes in.

Why not sign Daniel Sprong at this point? The guy has had back to back 40+ pt seasons scoring 39 goals over the two campaigns. He made $2 mill last year and it seems a discount amount for a 40 pt player. Is his issue that he's a less talented version of Skinner? I haven't his D metrics, but he seems to be a dangerous EV scorer.

That so far is KA's undoing.

I fixed McLeod, but Johnson is in no longer a Sabres. He needs to be in the out column and the current Sabres with a Cup in Byram and he was a rookie that season; not exactly part of the leadership core.

I know, right!

@dudacek good list, except Savoie is no longer a Sabre. Also I suggest adding 4th rd pick 2024 Osburn. 2024 7th rd pick Leenders and 2021 3rd rd pick Sardarian to your list. Leenders is probably in the Levi mold and he is probably a better player than Leinonen and maybe Ratzlaf. He was part of the Canadian U18 team. Baker had some nice things to say about Sardarian's growth as a player the last few years. He may never play in the NHL, but I can easily see him being a solid contributor in the AHL who gets occasional callups. As to Osburn, he looks like a very good value pick up. Here is what Dobber said in April. https://dobberprospects.com/player/luke-osburn/ He is also very young as he doesn't turn 18 until Sept. I think this kid has chance to be a McCabe or Chris Butler.

current off-season grades from the Athletic. I thought the synopsis of the "competition" would be an interesting read. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5618498/2024/07/06/nhl-free-agency-grades-every-team-2024/ I skipped Fla, Bos, Tor and the NYR because I think they are playoff teams. I also skipped Mon and the CBJ because I don't think they'll be competitive. These 9 teams and the Sabres are the ones likely competing for the 4 remaining playoff spots. IMHO Car and TB are candidates to take a step back. I also think Detroit and Pitt have not improved so far this off-season. Washington looks improved on paper as does Ottawa.

Now back to the thread question, Is this a playoff caliber roster? Despite being general happy with the 5 new bottom of the depth chart forwards, I think the team is still a few pieces away from playoff contention. We still need 1-2 better defensive defenseman. None of our 6 starting D is a shutdown D. Dahlin is the closest. Mule has that pedigree, but can't stay healthy. Clifton throws the body around, but as we saw early last year, he can be a train wreck in the D zone. Joki was the easiest place to upgrade this off-season. but Adams choose to bring him back one more time. We also still need a top 6 forward. As much as I like Benson's long-term upside, I'm not sure he is ready for a top 6 role and I'd like better scoring depth upfront. After TNT, Tuch, JJP, Cozens and Quinn, the best of the rest of 13 forwards had 32 points (Zucker 14g 18a). Benson and McLeod had 30 pts each, Greenway 28, Lafferty 24, Malenstyn 21, Krebs 17 and Kubel 16. Other than Benson, I don't expect the other 6 to really exceed last year's totals.

They certainly need tough love and accountability.

I don't think Adams is arrogant, but I do think he has a rigid adherence to his "plan" until he gets beaten over the head. He has hasn't learned that no plan survives first contact. For examples: His failure to get legit veteran goaltending help for years. This decision directly lead to the team missing the playoffs 2 years ago. His failure to bring in help mid-season when injuries occurred or to bring in help when Quinn got hurt. This likely helped cause us to miss the playoffs two years ago and was a direct contribution to the team failing last year. His failure to make the team tougher to play against for years. Adding 1 or 2 bottom of the depth chart guys like Lyubushkin, Clifton and Greenway, doesn't solve the problem and none of these players ultimately made us harder to play against. We needed an entire rethinking of the bottom 6 and it only happened this off-season two years too late. His reliance on bottom roster leadership. For kids to grow, asking KO and Z to lead a group of kids was doomed to failure. What winning experience did they bring to the table? We needed bring in, and still do, winning veterans who can contribute higher on the roster, to teach these kids how to win. Bringing both of these failed leaders back last year was huge error in judgement. This team is crying out for someone like Teppo or Drury. Unfortunately it's probably to late this off-season to add such a player. Even now we are still waiting for legit help in the top 6 and the top 2 D pairs. This off-season again brought in 5 depth forwards (including Zucker and McLeod, and only McLeod has any important playoff experience. The swap of Mitts for Byram made the team even younger and coupled with Byram's poor play once he arrived, raises serious questions as to whether or not he is a top 2 pair D. At least he's been on a Cup winning team as a rookie. The only conclusion is Adams is still on his develop or bust plan despite paying lip service to desperation to make the playoffs. Some might call this arrogance, I call it incompetence.

I'm all for a Zegras deal. We lost our best playmaker in Mitts and need to replace that production. Zegras would be a great fit in that way. The other issues with him Adams and his team need to figure out, but the price is now substantially less than it would have been a year ago. I like the idea of Zegras on the Cozens line. TNT has Tuch as his playmaker. Don't forget that Tuch had the same number of assists as Mitts over the last 2 years. I think I need to clear the air. I really don't care if Adams specifically acquires Necas, Ehlers, or Zegras. My point is we have to change this team even if we have to overpay to get it done. Until we have a winning team, attracting top talent as UFAs or with NTCs is next to impossible. To make the necessary changes Adams (or his successor) is going to have a take a risk or two. We are fortunate that we have assets to get a deal done.

You are simply wrong. We have to begin to take risks to get this team better even if we have to overpay like we did for Zucker. We can no longer shop only at Bargain Mart for our outside players. We have to change the culture of this team. Wanting to be here is not a culture. Winning and accountability are. We have to create a winning team to change the perception in the league. Getting an Ehlers in here would significantly help this team. He'd also be playing for a big UFA contract. Both sides get what they want. I do agree that you can't empty the pipeline for one year of Ehlers, but we may have to overpay some to get an upgrade. It's Adams job to figure out the balance. I thought he did fine with McLeod. Again we are basically making deadline moves now because we have to be in playoff mode for opening night.

It was a joke, dude. Relax. That said, you have to build a shopping list from somewhere. He wanted to build team speed. Here is a list of fast players. You then do you do diligence from there, but you have to start somewhere and it's pretty clear that speed was central to that shopping list. Maybe he just went to ChatGPT and asked "show me a list of NHL players who are fast, have high hit totals and good defensive metrics."

@Archie Lee Considering that I started the thread, I kind of know the intent of the thread and the question. The intent was a guy who can play center in our top 9. I was hoping for a guy who could compete with Cozens for the 2C, like Ericksson-Ek or Karlsson, but also realized that I'm dealing with Kevyn Adams and we must lower our expectations. McLeod is a perfect Adams acquisition. Cheap $, is a legit 3C and can play up if needed. He isn't ideal, but he ticks most of the boxes.