GASabresIUFAN

Not every player on a first line in the NHL is a 30 goal scorer or pt a game player. 51 pts right now is a top 96 scorer in the NHL, that's about .69 pts per game. That player is Chandler Stephenson (who has 51 pts in 75 games) and he never had more than 38 points in the AHL. So if Kulich is able to produce at a similar level in the NHL, then yes he would be an 1st line player. I also think Kulich will be a better player in the NHL than Stephenson for example. Kulich and Benson also bring a significant amount of forechecking and back checking effort. Their skill set seems to really compliment TNT. I also think your getting hung up on 1st line vs 2nd line vs 3rd line. Ideally the Sabres top 3 lines all are able to score at a good level. Zucker, for example, is in the top 96 scorers in the NHL and he is not exactly a top line player. Right now we have a 40 goal scorer on the "1st" line, a 34 and 24 goal scorers on the "2nd" line and a 21 & 19 goal scorers on the "3rd line." That's a pretty balanced attack. The Sabres are also 3rd in 5 on 5 scoring and 3rd in all EV situations. Something is working on the offense.

This is a very misleading statement and needs some serious context. His 46 points came in only 62 game (.74 pts per game) and his 45 the next season came in only 57 games (.79 pts per game) He also had 48 pts in 35 games as a U16. His draft year (2022) he had 37 points in 32 games in international competitions.

That's the current alignment, so yes! I didn't say it was ideal, but it is working right now. I also wrote that if I can get a playmaking top 6 center for Norris, I'd make the deal.

^ has been the organization’s philosophy for 14 years. How has that worked so far? Samuelsson needs to move on.

Now add Power's current deal. If you could only have one of Power, Byram or Dobson which would you keep? I don't want Dobson for that kind of money. I also think we can re-sign Byram for less on a smaller term contract like 5 years for around 6.5 mill.

That's why he gets bought out.

This is fair, but it’s not unusual to see coaches survive a GM’s firing. Often times that’s a discussion with the owner and GM and incoming GM wants to keep a veteran coach. It also wouldn’t surprise me if a new GM insists on sweeping out all the coaches. For my plan, I kept Lindy but am not married to the idea. I figured Lindy has one more year on his deal, the new GM would play it out and re-access the HC after next season.

We lost both trades just like we lost the ROR trade even though we received TNT in return. Granted in each situation the player we gave up ended up on a better and deeper roster, but other than Tuch, none of the guys received paid immediate dividends and none have helped us become a playoff team.

Other than Reimer, the entire Sabres roster is under contract or control next season. So any real change will come from trades primarily. Forwards: (14) Signed: TNT, Norris, Tuch, Benson, Kulich, Zucker, Greenway, plus Malenstyn, Lafferty & Krebs RFAs: McLeod, JJP, Kozak, & Quinn Near ready Prospects: Östlund, Rosen Other valuable prospects: Helenius, Wahlberg Defense: (7) Signed: Dahlin, Power, Samuelsson, Bryson, Clifton, RFAs: Byram and Bernard-Docker (plus Ryan Johnson) Top Prospects: Komarov, Strbak and Novikov Goalies: (2) - Signed - UPL, RFA - Levi, UFA - Reimer The plan 1) Fire all the assistant coaches and fire Adams, Forten and Jakubowski. I don’t who to replace them with, but I want Lindy to hire his own staff and I want veteran NHL people running the team. 2) Re-tool the defense a. Buyout Samuelsson. I don’t think he has any trade value and the buyout only puts about 700K on the books. b. Use his money to sign Gavrikov. This is @LGR4GM’s idea and it’s a good one. Biggest issue is he’ll probably be in huge demand this summer. Signing him will he a real coup. In the alternative Dimitri Orlov. 33 year vet is an LHD but can play either side, still logs big minutes and has a championship pedigree. He’d also be a good mentor for our young D. c. Trade Power or Byram for the best offer, but a stay at home D has to be in the package. If Power is traded, then re-sign Byram for 5 years for hopefully $6 mill per season. If Power is traded the package should include a 1st and a stay at home D. I’d then use the 1st to add another top 4 D if Gavrikov/Orlov doesn’t work out. d. Trade Clifton. He’s physical and …. That’s about it. I think he’s easily replaced by a veteran FA like Jan Ruuta. He’s a 3rd line D at this point, but is still good defensively and add another proven vet and a good placeholder until Novikov and or Komarov are ready. 3) Tinker only with the Forwards - There is much to like in our forward group. TNT and Tuch are studs. JJP is developing into a terrific scoring forward. Benson and Kulich are contributing now, play the right way and have massive upside. Greenway and Zucker add veteran presence and are good in their roles. McLeod has run with his opportunity in Buffalo after a slow start. That’s 8 of my 12 that I’m not messing with. I also like Kozak as the 4th line center. a) Re-sign all 4 RFAs - McLeod 3 years $4.5; JJP 5 years $6.5; Quinn 2 years $2.35, Kozak 2 years $1.25 b) Trade or keep Norris, that is the question. A healthy Norris adds more fire power, but Norris is healthy only 3/4 of the time. Also what can we get for the oft injured $8 per season? Is he a long-term fit here as well with guys like Wahlberg, Helenius and Östlund soon to be pushing from below. If I were the Sabres GM I’d entertain offers for him. The one skillset were are really missing in our top 6 is that of playmaker. Tuch, Benson and JJP have good passing skills, but none are pure playmakers. If I could get a playmaking center for Norris I’d probably make the deal. c) Quinn is the other major question. Injuries have hurt his development and he is a defensive liability right now. Quinn is the 10th top 9 forward right now if we assume Greenway is slated for a top 9 role. However, given Greenway’s and Norris injury histories, having someone with Quinn’s offensive skills is a nice luxury to have. Again I’d listen to trades and would pull the trigger on the right deal. If we can’t sign guys like Rutta, Orlov and/or Gavrikov for the defense, we’ll have to consider putting Norris or Quinn in deals to accomplish the defensive re-tooling. d) The 4th line: Kozak is the one player I want to return here, but realistically, Malenstyn and Krebs are almost certain to return. I’m trading Lafferty for whatever. 4) Goaltending a) re-sign Levi 2 years 1.25. It’s now or never for the kid. b) Trade UPL - This isn’t happening if Adams returns, but it’s time to move on. He’s had one good pro season. Still last year was good enough for someone to take a shot on him. The question becomes, who is his replacement and Levi failure insurance policy? I’m thinking Jake Allen? Benson Kulich TNT JJP Norris Tuch Zucker McLeod Greenway Krebs Kozak Malenstyn Dahlin Gavrikov Byram New Player JCB Rutta Levi-Allen I know this isn’t enough “change” for some here, but I don’t see wholesale change of the entire team as productive. I also admit the goaltending is complete suspect, but that’s no different than out goaltending since Ullmark left town and at least Levi has a chance to make a Ryan Miller type impact in his first full NHL season.

He is certainly the Sabres best all-around forward. He is probably our best playmaker, one of our best 2 ways forwards, best penalty killer and top 3-4 goal scorers.

I guess, but it was a nice win against another backup goalie. Still there are some positives coming from the recent play. I really like Kulich, TNT and Benson together. They play off each other very well. Not a traditional "1st line" but such is life. Tuch is an excellent all-around hockey player. I'm also a JJP fan. Maybe the big trade this off-season is to trade Norris.

Weren’t you the biggest advocate for Quinn about a year ago?

Everyone get your President of hockey ops hat on. Please be reasonable and keep the cap and NMC/NTCs in mind. What changes would you make to the roster, coaches and management? I have been adamant that I'd start with the defense and coaching. I'd like Adams gone, but don't think it's realistic; but fire Adams if you must. Cap projection is about $96 million. 22-23 man roster. Who are you trading and for whom? What UFAs are you signing and for what $ and term? Which RFAs are you retaining and for what $ and term? What areas do you most want to fix? Goaltending? Defensive D, top 6 center or playmaker? 4th line makeover again? Please be specific if you can.

What’s disingenuous is that there is no experience at the position. Yes Kozak and Kulich have limited NHL experience, but TNT has 442 games, McLeod 292, Norris 239 and Krebs 290. Lafferty has 343. We could have a spine of TNT, Norris, McLeod and Krebs of next year without utilizing Kulich or Kozak. That’s plenty of experience. I’m sorry, we have the 9th best offense in the NHL. Despite some of our forwards being mediocre or poor 2 way players, they aren’t the issue with this team. The problems are the defense and goaltending. I understand wanting Adams gone (I’m in that camp), but even a new GM isn’t going to delete the entire roster and start again. Pegula isn’t going to hire someone who wants to try rebuild 4.0. Dahlin and a top 10 offense is a good place to start building a competitive team. Fix the defense and goaltending and create a competitive team. Fire the coaching staff and hopefully the new staff fixes the special teams.

That’s a little bit disingenuous. Kozak and Kulich were callups and Norris was a deadline acquisition (who admittedly promptly got hurt). That said Kozak, Kulich and Norris have played 168 games this season between the NHL and AHL. I have zero issue with the idea of Kozak being a 4th liner next season, Kulich in the top 6 and Norris giving us 60 games. We have enough other “centers” with Krebs, Lafferty and Thompson plus McLeod to have flexibility when injuries occur. In fact, this flexibility reminds me of Hecht, Drury, Connolly, Roy, Briere and Gaustad, who all could play center or wing as needed (although Gaustad was pretty much only a center). In 2005/06 Gaustad and Roy were moving up from the AHL. Roy had 49 games of NHL experience and Gaustad 1. Hecht, Drury, Connolly and Briere were all trade acquisitions like TNT, McLeod, Norris and Krebs. In 2005/6 - Connolly, Briere, and Hecht all missed significant time with injury. The biggest differences between that team and this one is 05/06 had Miller (an NHL rookie) in net and McKee, Tallinder and Lydman (an off-season acquisition) on defense.

9th worst team in the NHL. Yeah! Need to go 5-1-0 in the last 6 to match last year's level of "success.."

The Bruins have Jokiharju and were playing their backup goalie. Their D was like watching the Sabres. Terrible positioning. Terrible decision making and terrible in zone processing. Kulich, Thompson and Benson look like the real deal. I love watching Benson dig out pucks in the corner and look for Thompson. Such a pleasure to watch someone who actually know how to play hockey and gives the requisite effort.

These are exceptions. Historically, the higher the pick in the first rd the better the player, especially in the top 15.

No question on an NHL level, but organizationally would you rather take away from another failed season a top 4 pick or a top 10 pick? All winning right now does is f’up our draft position and convince TP and Howdy Doody to run it back one more time. To make it even worse, the more counting stats the RFAs pick up, the bigger their next contract. This is one time where winning hurt more than it helps.

Because they aren’t good defensemen. They literally have no idea how to in zone defense. They can’t kill penalties. I don’t know how else or how many times I have to say this, outside of Dahlin no one in our D group is capable of playing solid consistent defense. It may be the worst group of “defensemen” in the NHL. We need to flush the lines and re-think how we approach the defense, otherwise it won’t matter how many goals we score or how well our goalies play; this team will remain a loser picking 8th.

7-3 in our last 10, winners of 3 straight just in time to F-up our draft status and again pick 8th. This is also going to give Adams and Pegula the false impression that the team is on the right track.

For this team to win the goalie needs to stand on his head. That's what UPL did last year. That's what Levi did when he joined the team after college and that is what Reimer is doing of late. FIx the defense, fix the team.

A teenage girl wants to go to a hockey game with her dad. I’d have been buying tickets and making dinner reservations as soon as the conversation had ended. Those moments are precious. Grab them with both hands. May I suggest in the future to take her on college visit trips. My daughters say they were some of the most fun we had. We did the standard tour stuff, but we also tried to something fun on campus. At an IU visit we saw a basketball game or a football game, at Miami of Ohio we saw a D1 hockey game. At Florida St they have a student circus. You get the idea.

And stupid.

You don’t bring up an offensive creator and staple him to the 4th line. It looks like Kozak is day to day. Krebs or Lafferty can take over the 4th line center duties. I suspect Östlund will center the 3rd line possibly between Zucker and Quinn