sabresparaavida

Such as?

Part of it is the language that you used in your earlier post. “We mighta blown that one” really comes off as he might be a bust. As a reader, it definitely a lot closer to Quinn being a possible bust than “at this point he might not be the best choice”. In the NHL draft, you can’t expect a GM to pick the best remaining player on the board. There are great players that fall every year, some going in the 3rd-7th and in a redraft years later would end up top 5, but that doesn’t mean that the good players picked before them are “blown picks”. Back to your actual points, I am still very content with the selection of Quinn. He had .51 PPG last year, which is a solid rookie season. Along with that, the history of his development has always been a moderate first year in the league, and an explosive second year. Hard to say that would continue in the NHL, but I still would have expected an uptick in production pre-injury. I’m not expecting a ton this year, but I have confidence he’ll be better than 3/4 of those players next year.

One thing here: hockey players typically have quicker returns from Archilles injuries, as the skating boot gives a lot of support so that there is less chance of a re-injury, and cuts down on the strain.

Wrong Blue team.

I disagree here, while that line did play well together, I think the lineup is better served with Mitts and Benson on different lines. Both Mitts and Benson, while they do have goal-scoring ability, their passing and set up ability are their biggest threat. They are the closest the Sabres have to pure playmakers among the forwards. Thompson, Skinner, Cozens, Tuch, Quinn and Peterka all range somewhere between balanced (passing vs shooting), and more on the goal scoring side. I think their abilities would be better suited separate, to set up our various goal scorers.

Expected goal percentage is the ratio between the expected goals for and against while a player is on the ice. Team relative expected goal percentage is standardizing that based on the team average. expected goals for/against are calculated by taking past data on how likely shots of different types (slap shot, clean breakaway, wrister, etc.) from different areas of the ice are to be goals. So if there’s a 20% chance of a clean slot shot going in, a slot shot would give an expected goal of 0.2. Adding up the expected goals of each shot over the course of a game would give your expected goals.

I don’t get how 3 players jumped him and not one roughing/instigating

I’d assume Tage to IR.

And?

Toronto didn’t have the prospect pool that the Sabres have. they have enough talent coming up to have three skilled scoring lines in the future. If one of the young players (Quinn or Peterka) breaks out to where you can’t afford him, do a Kevin Fiala style trade to reload the prospect pool and keep depth. And we may not even need to move one of them, with Skinner coming off the books shortly after they need their next contracts. This would also be locking them up early with a rising cap. At the time of the Tavares signing, Matthews and Tavares accounted for 27% of the cap. With projections for next year, Mitts at 7 mil, Thompson and Cozens would be ~24% of the cap at the time of signing for 3 players which is significantly better.

It is difficult to have 3 top level centers, easier if you have 2 for 14 mil. If you can lock up Mitts at 7 mil, you do it IMO. It’s not as if any of them will be a typical 3C, they’re all going to be getting top 6 minutes, and it gives us a chance of having 3 effective scoring lines. We have plenty of young talented wingers in the system that won’t be breaking the bank for the next handful of years (Quinn, Peterka, Savoie, Rosen, Kulich, Benson). And all 3 of Thompson, Cozens and Mitts can play wing. Toronto has had Matthews and Tavares together at a more expensive rate than Thompson, Cozens and Mitts would be (if he signed the Cozens contract).

No, a non ‘hockey trade’ would mean the Sabres are trying to go for a cup, not rebuild. It would be moving futures for the best player in the league, instead of moving Dahlin and Tage for McDavid and Kane (which would be closer to the hockey trade)

In my opinion, that’s not the main issue with the powerplay. The zone entries need a lot of work, they have been having a lot of trouble establishing possession in the Ozone. When we have gotten established, we often get good chances. Get better at entries at the shots will come.

Er is also a somewhat common addition

Tonight’s victory hardly counts as facing a backup. Toronto has pretty evenly split their net. Samsonov has played 6 to Woll’s 5, but the stats are in Woll’s favor by a great margin (low sample size I know). Samsonov: 3.56 GAA .871 sv% Woll: 1.89 GAA .942 sv %