PerreaultForever

The D is almost certainly set as Dahlin-Byram, Power-Kesselring, Samuelsson-Timmins. The forwards idk, I see holes and too much reliance on young players in top roles. Health will be an issue but I'd actually consider Greenway-Norris-Thompson as the top line. Greenway to open up space for the other two and to provide net front presence. More middle six options that way as well. Ideally however, I'd want to add a top 6 forward we don't currently have.

Sure, ya, and they definitely need that money 😉

I just don't think this guy is any better than Clifton but we shall see.

Bored this summer?

We haven't really. Norris played what one, two games for us in a dead season? He's basically a new addition now.

It's edited for effect and I'm sure parts are even added in to transmit a message. I'm sure Kevyn was acting stubborn and wanted an additional player with Kesselring. I'm sure Utah preferred to throw in a pick or something. It's a trade negotiation and we were already told on twitter teams said Sabres were hard to deal with. Kevyn likes to try to win trades. So he got a throw in at the end. Yay. Well to me that is a toss in but we likely define that differently. I wouldn't disagree with the rest of your comment. I initially reacted to somebody having him up on the top line with Tage. I thought that was ridiculous.

Well he hasn't done anything noteworthy in his NHL career yet. We shall see. Again, we shall see how "hard" he is. That was the sales pitch on Malentstyn too. I don't believe a word "embedded" says.

Those are the MAIN PIECES. The other bigger change is Cozens/Norris as I've said repeatedly. The rest is non consequential.

Well that's kind of my point. They threw him in as an extra. They saw him as a replaceable bottom end player. People here are talking like he's going to be a top line power forward. It's a little far fetched to say the least. Doan could be an upgrade from our bottom 3 of last year but I really don't see him above Krebs level. Don't remember the details or perceptions at that time so I can't really say.

You're just wishing and hoping. It's all they leave us with every year. If this guy if that guy maybe him maybe maybe maybe. Rarely doe much of it come to fruition though. Utah obviously didn't feel this way about Doan or they wouldn't have made the deal.

No. You're twisting the words. You include Cozens as well then. You can then make the argument that Cozens production was crap (which it was) but then also Norris was injured and didn't produce much for them. So last year they expected Cozens to step up. This year they expect Norris to stay healthy. There's always a hope and pray aspect and a young guy stepping up aspect to the Sabres. They don't build with established veterans. So if Benson and Kulich step up or Quinn re-emerges then I guess your forwards aren't terrible but as usual we are relying on a bunch of kids to leap forward and the one kid who did leap forward is gone.

We see this differently but there's no real reason to keep arguing it. For me it's a simpler equation. You take the roster that started last season and then you take the roster that starts this season. Compare and contrast all pieces together.

and we know this is a thing we talk about but they never do.

No but you can't look at the roster and say Norris gives us goals to make up for Peterka. That still leaves you filling a forward spot and either Kulich or Benson has to step up and emerge big time. I just think there are too many too young players in our top 6 to make any kind of headway.

We were talking a while back about how several teams this year were leaving cap space and we speculated it was for next year's big list of FAs but now I'm wondering if one or more team was anticipating this result.

Well then you have to factor Cozens back in too.

You went a little too far back for the first two but I guess. Moulson didn't exactly work out though did he? Who was the 1st? Nylander for Jokiharju is a wash, Neither is here. So it's Nylander for Boston's 4th round pick. Which is really a high first round pick ending up as a 4th round pick. Big fail. O'Reilly didn't work out here and just adds to the issues. For all his flaws I think Zadorov would have filled a big need here over the years. Man is a mistake machine but he's also a beast. He wouldn't have stood by when Tage got hit. The high picks can't count because anybody and everybody would have done that. It's a reward for failure. Even in that you have the Reinhart Draisaitl debate. Ullmark sure, but we lost him, and yes JJP was a good pick but he's also gone in his prime years. Kane should never have been brought here and Zucker is meh. Mid level free agent player who got overpaid. It's fine but it's not an accomplishment. McLeod yes, even if Savoie is good, because we needed help now not later. The net loss gain on every season is a loss in terms of moves. If it wasn't we'd be decent and we are not.

I'm trying to think of a list of 10 good moves they made and all I can come up with is the Risto trade and maybe trading for McLeod.

Don't be so sure about Philly. I mean probably, but Ersson can be better than UPL and Vladar can be as good if not better than Lyon. Problem they've had is the 2 Russians were awful and Ersson got burned out. Ersson with a lighter workload could be better than UPL. The possibles are all possibles except for Silovs. I really like him and think he might be pretty good. Other teams would say the same thing you say about Gibson about UPL. I think the bottom line is IF goaltending is the key factor to making the playoffs we won't.

Oh no I'm sure he will score some. Might even have a high scoring stretch, but I don't think anything will be radically different from what we've already seen from him in Ottawa. Oh I know. I like Kulich. Always have if you've noticed, and as usual I do think we are rushing him.

No offense, but these sort of stats comparing a D man to a forward are totally meaningless. The meaningful stat next season will be does Power get more points playing with Kesselring and do the two of them prevent more goals as well. You seriously have Doan in a top 6 role? I must be missing something on him. He's not his dad you know. How is he anything more than a bottom 6 guy?

Well yes, and I've certainly never relied on "numbers". I've always argued about line chemistry and roster make up and imo it's still inherently flawed. I like Kesselring and am hopeful for him. Timmins idk. I'm not so sure he's better than Clifton was. We shall see. There is hope for a Power/Kesselring pairing however. The top 6 is problematic to me though. It's fully reliant on Quinn bouncing back and more and on 2 kids emerging and I think it's too soon for them to do that. Kulich and Benson should be third line players right now not top line, but that's what the Sabres keep doing. Thompson can and likely will score a bunch of goals anytime anywhere, but aside from the relative consistency of Tuch, the rest of the top 6 is a big question mark.

Well that's certainly what Ottawa was thinking. I stand by my prediction that this year's excuse is going to be injuries and a lot of "if only..........hadn't missed those games" and then they stay the course yet again. A self fulfilling prophecy.

I don't think Norris will play more than half the season but maybe I'm just too pessimistic. Peterka on the other hand I think will have a great year as that Mammoth top 6 looks like a really solid group that should fit together nicely. You never know though. He could sit back and just enjoy his new contract.

Really? This is what you choose to put in a tribute thread the day after he dies? Wow. just wow. A favorite song of mine by 2 (now gone) legends of old school hard living rock and roll.