PerreaultForever

I'd be happy if Krebs became Gilmour-like, as long as he stays away from the underage girls.

That might not be the way to look at it though. It's not "accommodating" Mitts it would be looking at what we have and constructing lines that have players that fit together and compliment each other so that the line, as a whole, has maximum effectiveness. Sniper-Playmaker-Power Forward. Cozens moves the puck and gets it onto Thompson's stick who takes the shot while Greenway moves in front to screen the goalie. That was perhaps the idea. Who you play with matters, how you are used matters, the player's size and physicality matters. Injuries set some back as well (eg. Mitts). I think Krebs is compared to Cozens since they came up together as leaders on the Canadian Junior team. Cozens being way above Krebs makes Krebs look like something less. In general the rule still holds. At 21 is when top players usually break out. Thompson's development path was kind of a weird outlier. Probably due to his size and growing into his body and then finding his niche. Mitts on the other hand had to grow physically and mentally and also overcome injuries. Tuch just loves being a Sabre.

It depends on how much money we are talking about. If he is willing to sign a Cozens type contract by all means sign him up now. If he wants more then bridge. Dahlin imo will want 10+ over 8 years. Or hopefully upgrade and make him irrelevant. If Jokiharju isn't bottom pairing (or less) our D won't be good enough.

Well, Winnipeg isn't quite the same as they were and have a different coach. I have not watched them all year aside from when they played Buffalo and Boston (and maybe I saw them play Seattle, don't remember) but in this game they looked more like a playoff ready team than Vegas. Can they sustain it? I have no idea, but Vegas will clearly have to be better than this. My most hated team is (and always has been) Toronto. There's no bias on Jack. It comes from years of watching him. I said numerous times over the years when he was here that he didn't elevate for big games, floated at times, let others do the heavy lifting, etc. It's not a new thing. (I said the same things about his buddy Reinhart too and that is also proving true). jack is, and always has been a lazy prima donna and so far in his career that has not changed one bit. I'm a happy man after game 1. All 8 teams that I wanted to win or expected to win won. Even the ultimate longshot Kraken. Everything could of course still change.

Well yes and no. In a cap league you can only pay so many before you run out of cash. You do not want to be Toronto where you cannot put a bottom roster together without a little LTIR voodoo on deadline deals. You also likely don't get the luxury of a team like Tampa (who gets cheaper signings because of the state tax laws) or like Boston (who just seem to get hometown discounts because players love it there). You'll have to overpay initially to get free agents because of the (recent) history and it'll take time and winning seasons before players (outside of those drafted) want to be here. Our main prospects are offensive types and if they pan out those type of players generally want more money than 2 way role players. It'll be hard to sign everyone in time. A new problem for this team for sure, but it'll happen if they keep drafting well. You can only ride rookie contracts for so long.

Winnipeg has a lot of grit and good goaltending. Do not underestimate their ability to pull an upset. Also, there are players who elevate come playoff time (Winnipeg has some of those) and Jack does not seem to be built in that way. He is VERY similar to Austin Matthews in that regard. But really, we all know why Vegas isn't a top team any more. They traded away Alex Tuch. I suspect Dahlin will want 10 million plus with maximum term.

"That's Kraken hockey baby!"

True, but we will have to dump BIG money at Dahlin and later Power. We can still easily end up with too much talent that wants to be paid. Hopefully KA extrapolates his cap properly and balances things out. I still think some "talent" will have to be moved out for low cost grit.

This is true, but although we have Power and Dahlin the D will have to be improved as a whole. If Levi is a star we will have that covered as well, but stylistically there are similarities. KA has to look at Tampa's history and build a tougher bottom 6 to go with the top 6 offense. Guess we really won't know if we have playoff guys or guys who become invisible (like some of the leafs) until we actually make the playoffs. Hopefully this'll be next year.

When I turned on the Leafs broadcast so much pregame hype and the darlings of the Canadian sports media were shining again. This is the year! Then they played the game............... Leafs be Leafs. Nothing new. Their best players were McCabe and O'Reilly. Guys they brought in at the deadline. Their "stars" got invisible as they always do come crunch time. Tampa thumped them with solid playoff hockey. Series isn't over though, Tampa's D depth is in question and if Hedman and Chernak can't play at close to 100% this thing can still shift. This game shows my fear for the Sabres plans too. Leafs are a high octane, offense team that love to play a puck possession game. This is what we are building AT THIS POINT. I have to hope KA watches this and realizes he's going to need a different make up to the team as a whole than he has building now. When we make the playoffs (finally) I don't want to be a decade of first round exits. I want a team that'll do some damage and eventually win the cup(s). Now back to watching Eichel (lose?) and maybe the Kraken.

Although they will say it, I don't want to hear about how proud they are of this year, how bright the future is, how the plan is working. I don't want to hear about 3-5 years, or the word development, or anything about steps and progress. I want to hear one simple sentence, Our goal next season is to make the playoffs. Anything less should be considered failure. That's the spot to set the bar and they need to make the moves needed to make that happen. It's time for this team to make losing unacceptable.

Lucky? idk. They were built for the playoffs and they played playoff hockey. The game had ebbs and flows and at times one side or the other dominated. Minnesota looked more beat near the end and if it had gone another period I think they'd have lost, but their PK saved them and they grabbed their opportunities. This should be a good heated series. On the Dumba hit, it was arguably SLIGHTLY late, but it's hard to time hits perfectly as a D man. Hit was shoulder to shoulder, not head, he basically wiped him out in a solid playoff hit. We could use some of that. Refs made the correct call reviewing and dropping the major. On the Canes, I've never hated them as a Sabres fan. I don't hate Brindamour either. Outstanding coach. Passionate guy. That team plays a solid 2 way system and will be hard to beat. They have fast offense but also can play tight checking hockey. We need to be more like them. I think I might be the only guy I know who felt LA has a solid chance in their series. They are also more built for the playoffs and have solid 2 way checking players that can shut down or at least limit offensive opponents. More balanced in the way they are rebuilding. At this point, their rebuild plan/strategy is looking pretty sound. It's the same for me every year. Game one of the playoffs reminds me of how good playoff hockey is and the regular season gets forgotten as a warm up to real hockey. Love this stuff.

This Minn Dallas game is a marathon. Playoff hockey is a wonderful thing. I imagine all you western New Yorkers are all tucked in and dreaming of VO trades so I will just say that was a great hockey game.

I saw him get belted by Clifton on one play. That's Clifton, Conor Clifton.............Sabre hit leader in 2023/24 (a man can dream)

but but but......................he rescues animals.................................. idk, Nick Foligno had nothing but praise for Torts and Nick is a leader and a stand up guy from a solid lineage. There are other examples of players who also liked Torts a lot. He is abrasive, he does not tolerate slack, but I think his persona to the media gives people the wrong idea about his coaching. I wonder how Risto feels these days?

I wouldn't be surprised if that actually happened.

Some think that, others don't. Just an example of a D system coach. Would be the same problem with Cassidy and others. I just don't see him being wanted by a D first team.

Unquestionably. He led the Bruins in hits. Not big, but tougher than any D man we have now. He'd be a good compliment/pairing with Power for a few years while we (hopefully) draft and develop a young Samuelsson V2 at which time he could drop down to the third pairing if he was given long term. He's under the radar to the extreme. Bruins have thought he was too small for years and brought in other guys but Clifton keeps beating people out and keeping his job. They won't be able to pay him anything reasonable though so he can be obtained I would think. Sure, I'd rather they signed Orlov, but that'd be expensive. Clifton is a high return bargain.

But who's to say Cozens won't be our #1 center next year and so a line with Thompson Cozens would be our #1 line. I honestly don't think a non playoff team should consider ANY line or pairing as a guarantee for the next season. Anything is possible.

Problem with that is teams with strong defensive systems usually don't like one dimensional players like him. Take a guy like Torts for example. Philly desperately needs scoring talent but how long do you think it would be before Torts has him in the doghouse for missing a check? I'd give it about 2 weeks of the season max. I see very few landing spaces, unless you are talking a low return deal that makes that team take the low risk high return gamble.

So if Thompson goes back to 1C is Mitts 3C? Second line wing? Is there a spot for Savoie? Does he go to wing? It's possible we will be looking at something we aren't used to. TOO MANY good forwards and not enough spots for them. Maybe not next year, but when Kulich etc. comes up what then? Seems to me somebody has to get traded for a D man as the best option.

I'd really like this. If they move VO out, it'd be the ultimate end of Murray era move too. Trade for Zadorov as well and I would fall off my chair laughing.

I'm going to keep on this one up until he signs elsewhere. Conor Clifton.

Skinner took draws for him before. He sucks on face offs anyway. Well, anything's possible. I guess if I knew what the injury actually was it might make more sense.

Well sure, and Dahlin will want some big money, but there's not much they have to deal with outside of what every team deals with. I mean eventually if ALL your prospects are great you end up with too much talent and you'll have to move somebody out in order to pay somebody else. But this is why one or two salaries like Reilly next year don't matter (to the future of the team) as they will come off the books when they need the money for Dahlin etc. even if the cap doesn't go up (although it probably will). Remember also Kyle comes off the books and if they move VO out for a pick or a prospect that will of course be even more room.