PerreaultForever

I do think they are very good liars BUT to the first sentence, that's not necessarily the conclusion. The plan could be it's a soft tank because they know full well that developing young players takes time so they are prepared to TAKE TIME and let them grow together making mistakes and learning but knowing full well that playing so many young players will also lead to many losses. Occam's Razor for me is this, which I've said before and still believe. WE as FANS want to win now and have hope and belief in our youth while THEY know this will take years to come together and the great surge forward is still 2-3 years away. They are actually working towards playoffs 2024/25 (which is where the lying comes in).

Part of my argument rests on the competition and not us. I might think we had a shot at the playoffs if Bergeron had retired, Krejci hadn't come back, Malkin left Pittsburgh and so on but for the most part, the playoff teams still look like playoff teams and even if we have improved, so have Ottawa, Detroit and Columbus so games should be tighter and more competitive but in the end I think goaltending and rookie mistakes sink us and we lose enough of the close ones to end up not much better than we were, and if bad luck or injuries hit us we could be even worse. Create a topic tomorrow and everybody can have their say and then end of year we can see who the biggest fools were. If you want. Might be fun.

It's a valid opinion. For my response take the one I gave LGR with the reply antagonism removed. About 80 points if Comrie is half decent. Less if Comrie sucks. So, give me your projected final standings for the division and conference (ignore the western side) just our competition. Who is in and who is out end of the year?

I've heard Button and others use the term "soft tank" this year for certain teams. Not outright tanking (like Chicago seems to be) but not really wanting to be better either. Quite happy to take one more year and have that shot at Bedard. That's what I think it is. OUR words have NO MEANING for the Sabres and their intentions. Neither of us matter. You honestly think last year's line up can compete for the playoffs given the competition out there? By all means explain how we are better than the 8 who made the playoffs last year. I did not forget them, I think Lybushkin is just okay, nothing special, and I have very little belief in Comrie being anything at all. As I've said many times, goaltending is the big question and I'd be happy to be wrong, but I don't think I am.

Possibly, so what's your 4th line? You have Zemgus at center? I know everybody's optimistic, and the marketing is good, but I still think the Sabres are content (this year)_ to tank for a shot at Bedard etc. I don't think the line up will be a whole lot different than last year. Just a little with Power and maybe one or both of Quinn and Peterka but not a lot will change.

Matthews is saying "I view Toronto as home" right now but it could be negotiating bs. I still think as an American he will want to go to a big U.S. market or a southern Florida/California type team. I doubt Toronto gets any kind of hometown discount.

I don't really follow this logic. Eakin is out, Sheahan is in. That's your 4th line center. Sheahan's a little faster, Eakin was better at faceoffs. Both of them are/were scrubs imo. Basically a wash. What we need is better 2nd and 3rd lines to be competitive. We were pretty much a one line team last year. If Skinner Thompson Tuch is still your top line we need to figure out how to create solid middle lines and that imo is dependent on Cozens and Mitts (with Krebs having an outside longshot).

Ya, I don't see how the Flyers can be better than us no matter what happens. The rankings here must have some sort of blind Tortorella miracle belief or something. They are also obviously assuming the goaltending here will be bad (which is highly possible, but not a certainty). Aside from goaltending, the season imo hinges a lot on how much of a leap forward Cozens and/or Mitts can make and how much immediate impact Power has. If Cozens takes a Thompson style leap forward we will exceed expectations. If he doesn't, well we could easily be in the bottom 5.

Don't forget he's not a guy who grew up loving the Leafs. Like Johnny Hockey, he might even want out to go to a big American market. So he will ask for the big big bucks imo.

I'd agree with this. I'd have given them a 2024 instead. 2023 draft is very very deep and good.

It's a tough town for hockey for sure. They will worship you if you're a star there but the critics do come out fast and furiously too. They're just as vocal in Toronto but more forgiving due to the legacy of losing. Montreal still thinks they should be in the final every year. They think it's their right.

I saw about 2/3 of this. Sabres the much faster team and Ottawa was worn down by the end. Savoie looked good. I know people keep saying Briere, but I'm thinking Martin St. Louis. Very fast and skilled. I see potential in Lindgren. On the right development path he could be a surprise. He definitely has good hockey sense and makes good decisions. Cederquist I have high hopes for. He could be a missing piece we need in time. There's definitely some potential talent out there. Fingers crossed.

Jake Virtanen gets a PTO with Edmonton. If he makes the roster maybe he can room with Evander Kane.

I don't disagree with this but there's a few points that are in the gray area. "JBot's draft picks" yes, definitely. But that was kind of the point right? The original sentence was finally a GM with a team built through the draft. The reply from me was "not yet". So to the 12 Adams 10 Botterill, that may be true but the main core of this team at the moment is Botterill. the top line is 2/3 Botterill 1/3 Adams. I'm not sure what the lines will be and which rookies might play so for the moment your next group of forwards (Cozens, Mitts, Asplund, Olofsson) is 3 JBot 1 Murray. Then come your Adams kids (Quinn, Peterka, Krebs) but not sure if any are impact players (yet) or not. After that it's Murray leftovers and who cares dregs like Bjork. I'm not counting the bottom of the line up for anybody cause they are all irrelevant. The D is 1/3 Adams because he drafted Power. The rest of it however is all JBot. Goaltending. Well it's Adams, but is that really a good thing??? imo it's been progressively downgraded since the Miler trade. Now if Lehner hadn't been a drug fueled head case maybe we'd have solid top 10 goaltending stability but that's not the way it worked and the current goalies are nothing to rave about. If UPL steps up it's still Botterill to the rescue. Now to be clear, I'm not saying Botterill was better or any good at all. He certainly chose poorly in coaches and his defensive shuffling was mind bogglingly odd. Bogo and Lehner were mishandled. The Foligno trade was just dumb. Lots of errors, but FOR THE MOMENT, this is still primarily a JBot roster. I am hoping in a year or two I won't be able to say that.

It's not really built through the draft though is it? not YET. All the picks from trading the big 3 will build through the draft but at this point it's still mostly JBot's team.

I would imagine the organization as a whole wants to convey a more positive and optimistic spin on things and they are either being asked to do this OR they are simply buying in to the general feeling of optimism that can be infectious. The fanbase is starved after a decade and we're going to grasp on any sign of forward progress. If (hypothetically) this rebuild fails, it could destroy the team in Buffalo imo. I could be wrong, but I think a lot of fans are at the end of the waiting. I know I am.

That was what scouts were raving about and it had him ranked as high as 4th at one point if I remember correctly. The question mark was how would it translate into the NHL because of his size, but his speed and skating was always seen as a strength. A big strength.

From what I read around and about Kulich looked very good. This pleases me> What I saw from him in the World Juniors made me think we might have struck gold with this pick so anything that adds to that works for me. I have very high hopes for this kid.

I like his defensive game compared to many of our players so he's a reasonably decent 2 way player. Fits in for the time being but eventually I see him dropping down the line up. He's really just Mr. Average imo. I doubt he plays much better than we've already seen, but likely won't play much worse either.

I get that, but I think we're all just guessing here. I have no way to know if his shoulder is still an issue or not. He says he's ready willing and able I take his word for it. I'm not going to start making excuses for these guys before they've even come to Sabres camp. That mentality should end. As I said to wookie, no excuses. Let's change the mindset. I want warriors who show up every night, every game, every opportunity and play through pain. No more excuses. For anybody.

You know what, that might be true, but I always want character guys who simply hate losing ALL the time so they give you full effort but maybe that's unrealistic in 2022. Bunch of coddled woke sissies these new players 🙂

I was thinking of Savoie and Rosen. Is the "coming off a shoulder injury" a thing or are you just saying? I read he was all gung ho and ready to go.

The only question on Slavkovsky in Montreal is how he adjusts to North American life (with money) and how he adjusts to a hotbed for hockey like Montreal . There are numerous, shall we say, temptations and unsavory countrymen in that town that can run a young kid off the rails fast if he doesn't have the maturity and support structure to deal with it. I suspect he'll be fine, but time will tell. I'm personally glad to hear that lesser known Sabres prospects looked good, but I'd actually rather read that our top prospects dominated.

A lot of these lists also consider playoff performances. Not making the playoffs gets a lot of players ignored or dismissed.