PerreaultForever

I was only referring to the forwards. I like the starting 6 D as an upgraded D. I don't think we have good depth at D and the prospect pool for D is less impressive than forward, but it's upgraded and, if healthy, maybe good enough. The forwards, yes, I'm not sold on Krebs or Greenway and wish we'd moved on from Kyle and Girgs. Peterka would be good on a 3rd line bottom 6 but at the moment he's top 6. Your lines to start are likely: Skinner-Thompson-Tuch Olofsson (place holder for Quinn) - Cozens-Peterka Mitts-Jost-Greenway Girgs-Krebs-Okposo I hate line 3 and line 4 is not very good either. If they deviate from that and Mitts is in Quinn's spot line 3 is a disaster. That's my opinion, and yes, I guess that's where we disagree.

Honestly, do we really have an argument aside from wording and semantics? I'm not sure what it is. I like a lot of the players we have. My only problem is the spots around them. The grunts. The support roles. Aside from the issue of veteran solid goaltending (going with a rookie is rolling the dice on a season) I don't like the bottom end of this roster. If we'd added (as an example) Compher and Hathaway I'd be pumped for this season and only goaltending would concern me. As is, I'm not sure. We may still be a few pieces away.

Krueger's plan was outdated. He wanted to balance every line and the players we had made that impossible in any era. He was just a bad coach. Granato has checked the boxes on offense, but the team will have to play better D and that remains to be seen. Hopefully we see that this year, even if it means a little less offense as a result. I've seen Clifton play more than anyone on this site I think. I really like him but he has 2 flaws. One, he's not big. This is okay, but not ideal. Two, he does tend to over pursue and can get caught out of position. On the Bruins he got away with this more often than not as their forwards always come back and his D partners were usually where they should be. On the Sabres, we have a lot of guys who think offense first (and some only offense) and many who over pursue so I'm not sure if, in our system, someone will cover for him. We shall see.

I'm not "underestimating" it, what I am is in the SHOW ME stage rather than the blind belief and optimism stage. I have HOPE for this group, but until I see it on the ice I'm going to consider it a potential weakness and stumbling block. I look at what the competition added and I think what will this team do if Jeannot runs Dahlin into next week? What if Lucic runs Levi? We have no answer. And yes, I know it's 2023 and the league isn't what it was and all that, but the teams around us all seemed to think they needed beef, and I just wonder what IF???

It's not that I didn't buy into what they were doing - I've always believed in building by drafting well - it's that I felt they had a timeline that was unnecessarily longer than it had to be. You can take that core, but when you add some key missing pieces you move things along with a nudge in the right direction. The development plan continues, but we could have already been in the playoffs imo. This year we'd be discussing if we can catch and pass Toronto. Also, that core is what it is, but no matter how good this offense gets, even if we win the President's trophy, we are going out first round just like Tampa did to Columbus unless we make the supporting cast tougher and have a better defensive system (and goaltending, although Levi remains to be seen). I was one of the first to advocate deconstruction and what this plan ultimately is, so I'm happy with all that and think things are pointed in the right direction finally BUT I just don't want them to blow it again and without making the key additions I see a pathway to doing just that - again. I just can't handle another failure.

Well sure, but you still have to be realistic. The point is this year (and every year from now on) should be about winning and not development.

One step at a time though right? The point is what's the goal for THIS season. No more talk about development years imo. Get in the playoffs and then get in them every year after that until you do win that cup.

My view is we asked too much of him and in doing so his game fell apart. The same thing might happen with Clifton. Clifton's better than Bush by far, but if we ask too much from him idk how he will respond as it hasn't happened before. Really tired of hearing "Granato's system" as an explanation for anything though. Hockey is hockey and his "system" so far is severely flawed in terms of defense.

Well we're not going to agree on Bush and I don't care what the right thing to do for the player is. If he can't play well even to be a 5 or 6 guy so what if he sits? Move him at the deadline if your depth holds up. idc. Stillman arguably is sort of as good but Bryson and Clague no way. Both are crap for different reasons. On the pairings, I just don't want to hear about experiments and learning this year. No more development years. Continual development and coaches working with kids of course, but behind the overall idea of winning and making the playoffs now, this year. Not some talk about a dynasty in 5 years. Playoffs. Just playoffs.

If Power signs for Sanderson money and term you do it. If Power wants more (likely) you bridge him and see if he becomes better than Sanderson (likely) and then you pay him more than Sanderson (and hope the cap has gone up as projected). That's really all you can do.

So your position is that Stillman or Bryson or Clague are better than Bush? and do you believe we have adequate D depth?

"In addition to Hart, several other players on the 2018 Hockey Canada World Junior team have also gone dark on their Instagram accounts. Twitter users noticed that Brett Howden of the Vegas Golden Knights, Dillon Dube of the Calgary Flames, Jonah Gadjovich of the San Jose Sharks have also done the same, although some have claimed that Dube and Gadjovich were private already." pulled from another site, possibly related to the 2018 junior team issue. Something could be brewing.

That's not the point though. The point is Stillman. Bryson, Clague. I would feel better about our D if Bush was #7 , not Stillman etc.

As I've been saying in other replies I do worry about the depth after dumping Bush. imo we are one top 4 injury away from a D problem. I do believe Clifton will pair with Power well. I liked him in Boston and I was for signing him in free agency way way back as I knew Boston wasn't going to pay him since they have a deep D with another guy still coming. To the bold though, I'm not sure. Cliffy really likes to jump into the rush more than you might think and if Granato green lights that he might be far more offensively minded than he has looked in his old system. I still think it's a good pairing though. Power should learn to use his body more and as he does that pairing will be quite formidable.

I disagree with the bolded as a good idea. Juggling forward lines is different from D pairs. D pairs need stability. They need to learn how to play with each other and communicate well. Forwards do as well, but to a much lesser extent. I'm a big believer in finding line chemistry more than just 3 high end guys together. But slotting a different forward into a line is a lot simpler than mixing D pairs. I think last year we saw a good fit between Mule and Rasmus and so I would leave that alone. Dahlin had his best season ever on that side. The key is finding a match for Power. You have Joker, which imo failed. You also have the new additions. So you are either going with the veteran/mentor or the younger guy who fits the system and adds a missing element. To me, I go with the younger guy (Clifton) and have the old guy with less minutes in the third pairing but still in the room to pass on the wisdom. Depth isn't great though, which is why dumping Bush was not smart imo despite his flaws and limitations.

Well yes, he might be better suited to our style, but I would counter that our "style" on D is really lacking. If we do not improve our GA this year we will not make the playoffs. So while I like Clifton a lot, and I think it was very good value in terms of adding talent, I have a small question mark beside him as that rigid structure you mentioned covered up for some of his errors. Will someone on the Sabres fill that gap if he gets caught out of position? That could make him look worse than he did in Boston. The feistiness and effort should be off the charts though. He is a real competitor and a decent scrapper too (even with his size). He blocks shots and hits (a lot) and we have been missing that. When Power fully grows into his body our D should end up being very good. For the time being I hope they pair Clifton with Power. I think that combination will work. Jokiharju and Power I have my doubts.

I've watched him for years and he was the underdog who wouldn't go away. Bruins were never sold on him but he always kept playing his way on to the roster despite their bias. "fast and fearless" is his forte with the only caveat being sometimes gets caught out of position as a result so his pairing is important, as is the system. It is possible (NOT PROBABLE) that he resembles a smaller Risto with us and the way we play in our own end. But, I do think he will be a welcome upgrade.

If this is true, and they are talking to division rivals I would call them. He would be ideal at 3C.

Couldn't find any stats on this for 2022=23 but he was top in 2019. https://www.icydata.hockey/vizzes/penalties-dashboard/7 Interestingly, looking around and mostly getting penalties taken stats, Dahlin was tied for most in the NHL. Had no idea. I knew he took quite a few, but didn't realize it was this many. No wonder PK stats suffer when your top D man heads to the box this often. https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/ask/most-penalties-drawn-by-nhl-player-this-season

Can't see us looking for any kind of rentals. We haven't done that, and it just doesn't fit the plan they have outlined. I would think if they talked at all it was trade and sign. However, I would also say just because Michael Russo said that does not mean Sabres called the Jets or pursued that option. Could just as easily be Winnipeg called up KA, asked him if he was interested, he asked the price, and then they listened while he laughed hysterically and then said good luck with that. Levi is the plan and the expectation.

If you can get Power to sign for this now you do it. I suspect however that he will bet on himself (being better than Sanderson) and will either not sign a long term deal now or will want more now. The reality of the prospect pool is that yes, it's rich looking, but ultimately the window closes fast and we will not be able to pay them all so if you want to win now the GM should be looking at trading a few to balance the roster. imo

This is weird. I thought the whole thing was Dubas wanted complete control? https://www.nhl.com/news/topic/news/doug-wilson-hired-by-pittsburgh-as-senior-adviser

idk what it is, maybe just nostalgia, maybe the colours, but we look bigger and tougher in the goatheads and it seems to bring out the best in them. Wish it was more than 15. Not the white though, the dark.

It is, and although it is definitely a "sign of the times" there could of course be incompetence in there as well. Hard to say. It's kind of just the way it is now though. I used to work for Hydro and 20 plus years ago contractors would make bids on the construction of new sub stations (that sort of thing) and there was a ton of competition and these guys all cut to the core and were desperately trying to land the contract. Last few years I worked there (4 years ago plus) we had less bids and many of them didn't seem to care if they won or not. They all had busy schedules. There's definitely a shortage, and the power dynamics have shifted in their favour so I think if they come in and say "sorry, price of the lumber/concrete/steel/whatever went up so it's now x dollars" there's not much that can be done.

If the U.S. is anything like Canada (and I think it is) that's really hard to do these days. There are huge labour shortages and all the power is in the hands of contractors. They all have more work than they can handle and quotes they give have short time limits. It's not how it used to be. There just isn't enough competition in the workplace right now. You're kind of at the mercy of the contractors and suppliers.