PerreaultForever

So why do you feel having him LEAD an AHL roster would be a bad thing for his development?

Samuelsson. Wasn't that obvious? Power looks lazy a lot too, but there's a whole development argument there.

We've heard this locker room coming together stuff in other years too. There's a lot of sameness to this season.

I view it differently. I don't see it as a demotion but as a necessary and useful part of long term development. A year where he is the #1 guy in all the big responsibility roles. If he's too good for the AHL he comes back up before the season ends but he'd grow more there than on a 3rd line role in the NHL imo. It helped Tage and Mitts. Point being I want to develop him into a top 6 forward not a utility player. I also want veterans on our NHL roster and there's only so many roster spots.

and I didn't even mention Will Borgen 🙂

Defensive D men. The guys we all hoped Samuelsson would be, but he is not. Wouldn't hurt if one or two of them put a little fear into attacking forwards as well. As an example if our D was a group roughly equivalent to Dahlin, Power, Braydon McNabb, Jake McCabe, Zadorov and Ristolainen we'd have a pretty damn good D core wouldn't we? Now you can find individual faults with those players (like most players) but they were all Sabres at one time and they are all in the league and they'd be a balance of puck movers, thumpers, defensive stalwarts, size and speed and thus a very solid and balanced D. We have 4 puck movers, I lazy piece of crap and a mighty mite who tries but is marginal at best. In addition our 4th line is garbage. Too soft to have an impact or energy shift like Ruff said he wanted and unskilled as well. Adams gave us a downgrade with the moves he made there not an upgrade and it's just about the easiest line you can make.

That's good to hear. He's not really an offensive threat yet but if he's developing a good 2 way game that's promising. He is my favourite prospect but I do still consider him a prospect and still think a year in the AHL (next year when his age allows it) would do him good. Tuch's 50/50 but they are probably the best that's fair.

I don't think that's true. I would call that depth. Having guys who are flawed in one area or just not quite NHL regular. You also need veterans in the AHL to teach the kids how to be pros before they even get the call up. Consider the Washington plan.

Weird to see all that old stuff but then Jack White gets in there. I have no real comment here that just stuck out for me.

Is Larry Gowan still in that?

I wouldn't say Risto is "good" but he's certainly competent second pairing. Let's not forget Brayden McNabb though. The D in shambles starts there. So if you have a different team and you have McNabb and McCabe along with Zadorov and Risto, well it's just a whole different thing isn't it? Would Brayden McNabb not have been the perfect veteran D partner for Power? The franchise has made a lot of mistakes.

Imagine if we'd kept those guys? We'd have one of the biggest D's in the league. Not to say their D is perfect, far from it, but it is something we lack desperately. I have a hard time with these wish list posts because sure I'd love a Sam Bennett etc. but I know damn well I'm not going to get one.

Hey come on, you're forgetting they have Mittelstadt 🙂

Well there you go, the Bruins have torn down to Sabres level. That was a dead even hockey game between two teams clearly not playoff bound. I guess next year and beyond we see which team rebuilds faster or falls further. Greenway held his own on Zadorov. That was good.

Ya, that was kind of my point. Saying Peterka was bad defensively is fine but so are the rest of them. I don't consider McLeod an actual offensive scoring forward. He played a 2 way role in Edmonton and that's where he actually belongs on the third line. Forechecking is not defense imo, it's part of an attack and yes, Tuch does that, and I wish more of them would as well. I think this team needs more of that. Okay. I don't consider Greenway or Krebs as offensive players but fair enough. Zucker has played in proper systems so he definitely has more of that.

Which of the Sabres offensive players is good at defense?

Bruins depleted roster is pretty weak so Sabres should be able to win if they give any sort of effort at all. Zadorov-Jokiharju is their top D pairing right now and the bottom pairing of Wotherspoon-Mitchell is really bad. Korpisalo in net.

I'm certainly not opposed to a complete change, but power has to be given to a new person and can't stay with the owner.

Definitely true. I'm not convinced he isn't an idiot, but he definitely lacks imagination. He has not found ways to work around his obstacles and he hasn't reacted quickly to problems (and has definitely not seen those problems coming).

Never saw him that way. "Fine with being mediocre". I saw him as confused a lot but lack of effort wasn't a critique I'd put on him. Power on the other hand, well, yes, sometimes he looks like he just doesn't care.

More than you.

Oh he has the "coinage". Question is will he use it? He puts too much faith in the existing players reaching their ceilings than in going out and getting immediate help. I think he believes too strongly in his draft picks (and their ceilings) and doesn't critically analyze what he actually has on the ice very well. Good GMs adapt and change when things do not go according to plan.

I wonder if Lindy has been frustrated by a situation where he has no veteran call up possibilities. As a coach what power does he have to sit a Quinn (as an example) if that just means calling up a Rosen to replace him? The lack of internal competition for roster spots has to make the life of a coach near impossible.

Is Adams in a lame duck position? One can hope. idk, if it was true that Adams wanted Appert as coach and Terry told him to hire Lindy then there's a relationship there and that's good. Not good for Adams, but good for everyone else. The question is what is Lindy saying or asking for? I'd hope he gets to fire all his assistants and bring in his own but I suspect that's unlikely. Are we too young? Obviously. Is the whole waiting for prospects not blocking prospects thing dumb? Obviously. Do we need veteran leaders on the roster? Obviously. Can we get them? Good question.

Ya I think it's probable that Risto is thick as a post. Give the big Viking simple straight forward structure and he can still be effective. We constantly create new holes with the moves we make to fill holes. It does become a rearranging deck chairs kind of scenario. The one decent move Adams made was Savoie for McLeod. Now maybe down the road Savoie is a good NHLer but he got immediate help now and that was good. Imagine where this team would be at center if we were going with Savoie now instead? We need to make some big moves using the prospects and draft capital to make this roster better now. Get Power a veteran defensive partner at whatever cost it takes. There's more needed but that's the first biggie. If this team just tinkers around the edges again and waits for prospects we will just be prolonging the misery and Dahlin will in fact want out (among others).