msw2112

I always thought Asplund had a future as a solid bottom-6 defensive forward. A 7th round pick isn't worth much, but as others have said, a few things about this deal make sense: 1) Give him an opportunity to play elsewhere where he might get some ice time - goodwill with players is good for the organization's reputation throughout the league; 2) team needed to get under the apparent limit to number of players under contract at one time (I was not aware of this before today); 3) break up some of the gridlock in the forward pipeline; 4) the trade for Greenway and the presence of Jost, both of whom are defensive forwards. I would have preferred a long-shot defense prospect or bottom pairing depth defenseman to a 7th round pick, but it's better than a bag of pucks (slightly), and I guess we already got that in Stillman.

Agreed. I have watched other teams' broadcasts, and although Ray is pretty bad, it seems to be pretty similar across the board. Most teams' color guy is an ex-player and often a player that was a "goon" or a "grinder" in their playing days. Not sure why this is the case, but it's true for at least a few teams. Not a lot of English majors in the mix, or even guys who have communications degrees. Just some ex-players.

Good move. Give a veteran guy an option to get some playing time in the league. Doesn't really cost the Sabres much of anything. Helps the team's image throughout the league that they treat players as people, treat them fairly. I do realize that this does not help the Sabres defensive issues.

During my last visit to Buffalo, I went to Bar Bill in Clarence. My first time at a Bar Bill. As suggested above (pure genius), we ordered both. Both were good, although I would agree that as good as the Beef on Weck was, I've had better elsewhere in WNY. I'd order it again, but if I was going out strictly for Beef of Weck, I might pick another place.

True, but not for the same reasons that guys didn't want to sign in the past (dysfunctional bottom feeder playing in an empty arena).

The beauty of this deal is that Portillo could still play out his college career, become a UFA, and sign with the Sabres. It's highly unlikely, but could happen. In the meantime, let's get Levi signed as soon as the Northeastern season ends and hopefully the Euro goalie the Sabres drafted in the 2nd round last year develops into something (and UPL continues to develop at the NHL level). Given that Portillo was highly unlikely to sign with the Sabres, this was a smart move by the team. I'm a Michgan Wolverine, so I'm disappointed that one of my guys isn't going to join his former teammate Owen Power in Buffalo, but this is objectively a good move to get something for what would likely have amounted to nothing.

As stated by at least one other poster above, Granato has a track record of developing young players (Dahlin, Thompson, Cozens, etc.) and also for getting the most out of veteran players coming off of a down season or seasons (Skinner, Okposo). Maybe he sees somthing in Stillman that he can develop. That's what he says. If so, the Sabres have acquired a younger bottom pair defenseman with NHL experience who brings a physical element to the team that is sorely lacking. To do that, they had to give up a bottom-six forward prospect whose chance of making the Sabres team as a regular contributor was pretty low. It seems like a reasonable risk to take. I don't follow the Canucks at all, but I know that they are not a very good team right now, so perhaps they were either a) improperly utilizing Stillman; or b) doing a poor job developing him. One final thought on the trade - if the Sabres have any injuries on defense, who can they call up from Rochester that would be better than Stillman? Maybe Pilut? Clague and Bryson are already with the team. So this trade also adds some depth to the roster.

We are in agreement. The intent of the comment was to praise the team for NOT folding their tents and I agree that they have NOT done this during the Grantao era. All teams lay eggs from time to time (such as the Kings getting beat 6-0 by the Sabres in Buffalo recently), but good teams put those performances in the rear-view mirror and move forward with better performances. Granato and staff do a good job in this regard, whereas Sabres teams of the recent past would go into downward spirals from which they couldn't recover. Pretty much from November on....

Yes, but should have been a 5 minute major and/or be looked at by the league. It was a total cheap shot in the middle of the ice when Dahlin didn't even know he was there. This is far more egregious than a cross check when a defenseman and forward are battling in front of the net or fighting for the puck in corner. In that case, the player getting cross-checked is battling and knows that someone is behind them making contact. They can establish position, push back, brace for the hit, use the boards to absorb some of the hit (if in the corner). In this case, he hit him in the back in open ice and Dahlin had no ability to defend, brace or protect himself. He's very lucky that he didn't sustain a serious injury.

It's pretty awesome that we can have this debate right now. We may have more highlights to choose from this season than the 5-10 seasons before it combined! After the poor showing against the Leafs, the Sabres could have folded their tents and said "we're a good young team, but aren't ready for the big boys yet." Especially when Tampa took early control of the game and the 1-0 lead. But they fought their way back into the game. They lost multiple leads and then were on the wrong side of some terrible officiating in the final few minutes of the third period (borderline too many men, missed call on elbow against Okposo, borderline delay of game at the end), but fought through it and came out with the win. I was impressed (and pleasantly surprised). I liked the fire of the team after the Okposo incident, including Granato going ballistic on the bench. Tampa tried to intimidate the Sabres, but failed.

The Sabres laid an egg against the Leafs and have typically stuggled against the better teams. That said, they have fairly recent wins against Boston, Washington, Winnipeg, Dallas, and Minnesota, so anything can happen. Go Blue and Gold!

But perhaps better than what we have in the bottom pairings. I agree that the situation in Buffalo is best for his shot at regular playing time soon and the opportunity to burn the year of his ELC and get to his 2nd contract a year sooner would be attractive. Also, he has familiarity with the organization and may like what he sees. Most of the other young guys really like being a part of what's happening. He could also solicit input from Owen Power, a fellow (former) Big 10 defenseman (and Johnson opponent) who recently came to the Sabres and could offer some valuable insights.

If you are saying that they should first focus on being good enough to make the playoffs before focusing on being a successful playoff team makes sense. I think that's where this team is at. If being offense-focused can get them to reach the playoffs at all, let the chips fall where they may after that. In the future, they can worry about advancing through the playoffs and adding playoff-style play to their repertoire. I think that's what the Bills did. In McDermott's first season(s), they had a "playoff caliber" mantra. After reaching that level, they switched it to a "championship caliber" mindset. Unfortunatley, they got over the first hurdle, but are a little bit stuck trying to get to the next one. For the Sabres, merely reaching the playoffs would be a huge step in their development as a team (different from individual player development, which is clearly happening).

Yes, I believe he's on record saying that offense is eaiser to teach with younger players and that the focus on that is intentional to get the team to improve/develop/gain confidence. It also may have to do with the team's personnel. Right now, there is just more offensive talent than defensive. Signing Samuelsson to a long-term deal was a big step in the right direction. Dahlin's defensive game has advanced quite a bit and Power's needs some work, but again, he's gaining confidence as a full-time NHL player by skating the puck up the ice and getting invovled in the play. I think that the focus on veterans in free agency should be on defensive defensemen. I think that Granato will start to incorporate more defensive concepts into the team as the team matures and/or gets more defensive personnel. I certainly hope so. As to special teams, all Power Plays have ups and downs, but the Sabres' has been good overall and I don't see much of an issue there. They could stand to take more shots to create rebounds, rather than always looking for the perfect pass, but they seemed to be doing that last night, so maybe they've figured that part out a bit. The Penalty Kill is terrible, for sure, but I think that ties directly into the defensive conversation. More time and focus, with some better defensive personnel, should improve the PK.

Jost had been with 3 different NHL organizations and Comrie with 4, so I think their opinions mean something. Jost is getting plenty of icetime and Comrie was given an opportunity to be the guy earlier in the season and is still getting some games now. If he got hot, I think they'd let him take over the crease. I trust their sentiments and opinions to be genuine. As a fan/observer, I am very impressed with Granato. Young players have developed (Dahlin, Thompson, Cozens, Olofsson, Jost) and veteran players have improved or re-gained their form (Skinner, Tuch, etc.) Mittlestadt may be in the next wave of developed/improved players. The team has also climbed the standings each season that Granato has coached. Is the the BEST coach in the NHL? I can't say, but I am happy that he is the Sabres coach.

My guess is that he's more concerned about Levi than Comrie or UPL. There's also the young Euro goalie they drafted this past season, but I believe that Portillo is well ahead of him on the development curve. I don't monitor other NHL teams' pipelines, but I'd have to think the Sabres offer as close to a good goaltending opportunity as any NHL team.

Did the Earl of Bud appear in Rochester too? His dance on the rail at the old Aud in Buffalo was the stuff of legend.

This is a tough one to answer. The Sabres were my first love as a child, but my affinity for the Bills grew as I got older. My family had partial seasons tickets for the Sabres my entire life, so I was on their lap at the Aud when I was a little kid and driving downtown for games with friends when I was a teenager. I didn't start going to Bills games regularly until I was a teenager. I'd say I love them equally, but I have lived away from Buffalo for a long time, and NFL football is way more popular around the country and gets way more media coverage and water cooler discussion than NHL hockey, so I spend more time/focus on the Bills. I also went to a major Big10 school with nationally prominent football and basketball teams (as well as many other sports), so those teams compete for my attention too, but my Buffalo teams come first. Actually, my family comes first, but I do record a ton of sports on my DVR and watch a lot of games after everyone has gone to bed, or on rare occasions when I am the only one home. My wife is not a huge sports fan, so she rarely joins me, but my kids sometimes do, although they don't have the attention span for entire games. My daughter really wanted a Josh Allen jersey, so I bought her one, and she gets excited when the Sabres are on TV and score goals. Maybe she'll want a Tage Thompson jersey before too long....Obviously, the Eichel Tower has toppled over. She just happened to be watching with me when the Sabres had the scoring barrage against Columbus and she really got excited during that game.

Thanks for the info that is bolded and underlined above. I said in the Cozens thread that they need to extend Dahlin ASAP. I now amend that to say that they should extend him ASAP after July 1.

The Sabres are taking some gambles on these deals, but they are worthy gambles. You need to identify the young talent with leadership skills early on and get them locked up. Not doing so cost them guys like Reinhart and Ullmark. They will swing and miss on some of these deals, but if they hit on most of them (and so far Thompson and Samuelsson look like hits, and Cozens, in my opinion, will be a hit) the team will be in great shape for the foreseeable future. To add, they did a "bridge" deal with Dahlin and, in hindsight, a longer-term deal would have been the better route. They need to get him extended again sooner than later. He's thriving under the current regime and if his recent open letter is to be believed, he wants to be in Buffalo.

I was thinking the same thing. I don't have time to look up success rates for drafted players, but I believe that having 3 NHLers in one draft, 2 of whom are having very productive, longer-term careers is a pretty successful draft. It's a bit of a stretch to think back that many years, but I believe that it was consensus at the time that the #2 overall pick was going to be one of the "Sams" and I think the Sabres picked the better of the two. If I'm not mistaken, both Sams are now playing for the Panthers. There isn't much doubt that Draisaitl is having a much more productive career than either of the Sams, but I recall him being projected in the #3-#5 range that year. Also, Draisaitl certainly benefits from being the #2 guy on his team - more than Reinhart benefitted from being the #2 to Eichel. Opponents have to focus on stopping McDavid first, and then worry about Draisaitl. If they are on the ice together, the first guy to control/stop has to be McDavid. Even if they are not on the ice at the same time, a team has to devote its best defensive efforts to when McDavid is on the ice and not when Draisaitl is on the ice.

I realize that goal scorers can be streaky, but I don't think the Sabres should move on from Olofsson. He's been a good goal scorer for a number of years and this year he is taking it to the next level. He's no longer a one-trick pony, scoring goals on a one-timer on the right wall on the PP. He's scoring 5 on 5, he's finishing 2 on 1's, scoring in OT, on breakaways, etc. You don't trade pure goal scorers. There just aren't too many of them. Mitts is playing much better hockey of late and I like what he brings to the table too. He's still young with a draft pedigree. I'd like to keep him too, but I understand that to acquire something of value, you have to give up something of value. I'd be more willing to trade Mittlestadt (+ draft picks), although I believe he has less value on the trade market than Olofsson.

Other guys have developed too: Dahlin, Mittlestadt, Cozens, etc. And vets who were lost have come back much better, such as Okposo (20 goals last season) and now using his leadership "talent" as a huge asset to the team and Skinner (press box to high scoring 1st liner). Granato is an excellent coach. Not only are the guys developing and improving, they are winning games. A coach can be a both great developer of talent and a good game-day coach. They don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Cozens and Samuelsson too! Great news. Hopefully they can play in the one game without furhter injury and then rest up and heal for the post-break push.

Depending on the injury, he might be able to do this competition without any threat of further injury, and sit out the actual games. To reiterate my comments above, I understand that the ASG is meaningless to the Sabres season and Thompson's health and the Sabres' season are much more important than an exhibition game, but it's a career milestone and honor to participate in the game and Thompson has earned it. If he can participate in some way WITHOUT ANY FURTHER RISK OF INJURY, I'm in favor. I don't know the type or severity of the injury, so I don't know whether there's a risk or not.