PerreaultForever

Maybe he's a Jethro Tull fan.

Really? You don't see Savoie as future 3C? Better at what? He's definitely not a better penalty killer or face off guy than Nosek.

Ya, I don't remember talking about Graves but it's possible. I don't think he's the direction we go so I might have said that before.

Stepan is no longer of value imo. I think they go with Krebs as 4C again but myself, I would look hard at Nosek. VERY good on face offs, has lots of speed, and is a good penalty killer. Lacks some of the 4th line grit I'd prefer, but he's very good value.

You poach Swayman (although I suspect the Bruins would match the offer and then trade either him or Ullmark but you never know) and you have a goalie competition but the lean is Swayman 50+ games Levi 30+ , If their play changes that ratio so be it. If not you continue developing Levi as a back up and maybe 2-3 years later the ratio is different or you have one of them to trade. It's simply an option worth exploring. Sabres shouldn't really care if they piss off Boston, they're a rival.

Offer sheet on Swayman was my idea way back when we first started the off season goaltending chat. Puts Bruins in a really hard spot and Swayman is a lot better than some people here think he is.

Line combinations are a later discussion. I'm simply looking at upgrading the team from Zemgus rather than icing the same team and simply saying "well we have Levi now so that's all we needed". If Wood is on your 3rd line then Greenway or Jost or whoever else we sign is on your 4th line. I want to be better, markedly better, not the same. (just as an aside, I advocated signing Pat Maroon when he first left St. Louis and people here laughed at me and called me a neanderthal and well, he got 2 more rings - and ran over our goalies a few times for extra measure)

Too many options to list. Miles Wood was stop number one. (and yes, he might even go up the line up unlike Zemgus).

Oh man that's a sad list and best forgotten.

(sigh) I have nothing against the guy but this is downright depressing.

Well as we've both said, he's likely to go to a contender for their bottom end. Just don't see a guy like that being motivated to do much on the bottom end of anything less than a top contender, so not a good influence on the young players imo. I'd rather go with a Gudas type if we can't land a Pesce or an Orlov or some other higher end guy. Clifton's still my cheaper fall back alternative if all else fails. I would not be unhappy adding TWO D men tbh. We won't though.

First off this is a non issue. If he's going to sign for a vet minimum deal it'll be on a top contender as a depth guy. Teams like Boston, Toronto, Florida maybe. They'll kick those tires to add him for depth in their cap situations. I don't see him going to any lower tier teams (even if they are up and coming) unless it's for more money (mid range D level). So no. It's a non starter and non issue. Second, Bogo's a different type of player and fits a bottom end role there because of his physicality. Tampa won the cups when 2/3 of their roster was talented. Now with cap issues they are only 1/2 talent and the bottom end is all cheap physicality. How the Sabres messed up on Bogo I don't even want to get into aside from saying he was never as bad as he was painted here BUT he was also never as good as the team wanted and expected him to be. I'm going to keep hoping for the Pesce deal until it does or doesn't happen. It's the best one on the table at the moment.

At this stage I don't think he's any better than Mike Reilly, and we passed on him as a waiver pick up for less money. I want big mobile D with reach and shot blocking ability. OEL is just aging meh.

Ya, I talked about the goalie thing when it happened. That was strange I agree. Line juggling idk. We weren't a deep team and have a lot of guys that are similar so there weren't really tons of options for anything different stylistically than what he tried.

I agree with this, except I'm not sure if it was Granato's inability to adjust tactics in game or the team's, and thus his knowing there was no point to trying that. He has young, and presumably malleable players on this roster so if he can't teach them a defensive system this training camp and into this season, well then he needs to be replaced. We shall see.

cause we like Michael Peca.

What are ANY assistant coach's strengths? One presumes he brings (and teaches) some of what he was. Physical 2 way player that did things the right way. If some of our young guys become more Peca-like we'd be in great shape.

I'm CAUTIOUSLY optimistic. It depends what they do in this off season. I still firmly believe when this season started management had zero thoughts about making the playoffs. Good draft coming up, development year, not a "tank" but also no real ambition to make the playoffs (yet). A few things went right and maybe better than expected so near the end when they found themselves close maybe they shifted their focus a bit but it was too late and they didn't get the addition(s) done so it is what it was. Now I truly hope they will set their sights on playoffs. I've heard a number of "experts" and "insiders" saying they think Buffalo will make some big moves this off season. I'm hoping they're not just pulling that out of their butts for summer chatter. If we make the necessary moves then we should contend. As for Granato, he hasn't done a good job on the defensive side so far. What I don't know is if he's not good at designing and implementing that OR was it just an offense first then we do defense philosophy. I know that's been said, but it still remains to be seen. The biggest question for me will be IF we do employ a good defensive system next year, how much will the offense suffer? Balancing that is Granato's job and we will see how he does or doesn't do it.

It seems too early to give him this much but then again, having him locked up long term also feels right.

No reason not to have another Sabres assistant. Teach some of these guys how to win a face off for one.

Bryson might be generous but the point is well made. Buffalo is not a horrible city by any means, but ranking it far ahead of Vancouver for lifestyle is just silly.

Oh ya, I'm sure Trevor Linden worries a lot about Fentanyl when he walks out the front door of this place:

I've seen real estate related sites list Raleigh as #1 a few times and I'd wondered about that but they factor in cost of living and crime rates and stuff and none of that applies to ultra rich people like hockey players who live in the "good" part of town. Buffalo's not a horrible city (aside from the snow) but anybody who says it's a better place to live than say Vancouver (among others on the list) is smoking crack (while eating wings in Buffalo's case).

He's great, but his price will be at an all time over inflated high. That might be pushing it, but I don't want him either.

This is Vancouver's Karmic payback for this: https://www.capfriendly.com/players/christian-ehrhoff