Drag0nDan

Try the cheese grater!

Skinner is a full NMC so i doubt he is traded so i lumped him in too.

You built a core - it isn't a good one. Time to try and make some changes imo. Coach is one. Getting rid of some players another. And figuring out how to adjust your team. FWDs: Tuch, Skinner, Thompson, Mitts, Cozens, Benson, JJP, Quinn - Would move on from 2024: Greenway, Krebs, KO, Girgs, Jost, whomever. This has no value in a trade though - Do you like Quinn/JJP more than all of the other prospects teams might covet? That's the real long term decision. Is it Quinn or is it Kulich? Is it Kulich or Rosen? Savoie? Östlund? Some of these guys have to be moved in trades to bring in NHL players and upgrades. Dmen: Dahlin, Samuelsson, Power. R. Johnsons played pretty well, but he should be available in a trade. Find takers for EJ and Clifton this season if you can. G: Levi

Right on. Deep prospect pool means 1 - find your untouchables in that group. We seem to determine... that they're all untouchable. 2 - future NHLer's who are blocked by a current player, or aren't as good as the untouchables. These are the trade chips to help fill out a roster. 3 - Identify the players that you don't see having a future, and move them earlier rather than later. Move them when the thing next to his name says "2nd round pick", not "13 points in 60 AHL games". We just drafted a ton of people... and now have a ton of prospects in basically the same spots. Not enough spots at AHL, and not enough NHL ready talent - and an unwillingness to part with any of the future pieces to help fill out the NHL roster. The main core of this team is extended - Dahlin, Power, Samuelsson, Thompson, Cozens. You can probably add mitts to that list. There are a few competent vets in Tuch, skinner, and greenway. Then you have young players on the roster in JJP Quinn Krebs and Benson. The problem is that the rest of the roster is filled out with UFA's who are passed their prime (Johnson, Girgs, Okposo), or never had a prime (clifton looking a lot like a product of a sick boston team). Add in fringe players like Jost and Olofsson. Nothing was done to complement that core. Our forward depth is all young prospects - and we already have quite a few of them on the roster. There were players available for trade - but the majority of contracts these days have some level of NTC which hurts us. Debrincat. Duclair. Desmith. All would be upgrades over players like girgs, jost, olofsson, okposo, and comrie. I'm at that point, seen enough. Move him.

this moves the needle not at all. I assume he's here until we get some reinforcements. Then he's the extra skater. Then he's probably waived. Fun times.

Pretty much - there needs to be considerable roster turnover going into next season - and you can't replace them all with rookies. They need to make a couple of trades to shake stuff up. The only players i probably wouldn't move are the 8 listed below. Okposo girgensons olofsson and johnson for sure. Probably Jost. I'm pretty good if krebs isn't here. Skinner - Thompson - Tuch JJP - Mitts - Quinn Benson - Cozens - ??? ??? - ??? - ??? Ideally 1 of those holes is filled by a young player - Kulich, Rosen, Savoie, Östlund. I think you have to move 1 of them too.

My issue with firing him? It's basically a punt on the season. There isn't an experienced assistant on the coaching staff who I'd have any confidence in righting the ship. And if you hire someone outside the organization, you have a team trying to implement a new system mid-season. The chances of that happening are pretty low, and you don't get a full array of options since other coaches might be available in the offseason.

I liked that Murray took chances to try and put the team over the top. At the same time... we were basically where the blackhawks are now. A couple trades doesn't take you out of the cellar when your "core" is like 20. So i think he was a tad short-sighted in his roster construction, and the "leaders" he brought in didn't seem to translate well on the ice. Adams is taking a more long approach - its frustrating to say the least. But i think he knows (and probably rightly so), that to have a sustained success they really need to build from within the organization. We also have got to still be on a ton of players no-trade lists (and like anyone worth a damn has negotiated some level of trade clause), and it isn't just... the team. It could be the city (players want more night life or something), it could be the arena and facilities (half empty and a dump), medical reputation (eichel and lehner didn't exactly give it a glowing endorsement), or just that anyone who goes there seems to be worse than when they play anywhere else. It complicates FA negotiations, and makes trading for players more difficult since you have to find out if the agent will even let you trade for them. Why we were unable to waive comrie though makes no sense to me. Waive him in the offseason and try and sign someone. Me? Its playoffs or bust for granato - the team needs to get better with the pieces they have. We need to prioritize back-checking, zone responsibility, and playing with speed. Make it easier on our poor goaltending, and shoot the puck more. My biggest gripe with him is that teams know how to play us, and we do the same stuff anyway. No dump and chase game against trap teams, we just turn it over and create odd man rushes. Slot and High slot is like never covered or tied up so teams know they'll get us to chase and surrender that space. I'll give adams another shot with a new coach in 2024-2025. Hopefully he can get it right.

I mean - if the team is in a playoff race with 20 games left - I don't see how you can give Comrie starts. He's just not very good.

I was interested just based on the performance of some of the buffalo forwards, but it's tough to determine the impact he can provide. He's coming off a major injury and surgery, and almost all the evidence points to him not being able to play for very long. He's looking to re-establish value to chase a bag (or cup) next season - and detroit probably gives him the best chance to do it.

I tend to agree - there's a time and a place for the "toughen up" conversation. When the effort in practice and the attitude is lackadaisical, you need a card to pull. That way when you flip out and start yelling there's a bit more of an effect, than just coming off as a constant hard ass. You bring back a KO to be the driver in the locker room - he's there to set the example and the other players see that and understand. If that message isn't getting through you might need to step in, but in most professional sports you need to have players holding one another accountable.

I didn't think he was that bad to start the year - just got overworked (team wasn't playing well in front of him either), then injured. Since his return he just has struggled. Some good games and some bad, little consistency. Give him some games in rochester to try and find that this year. Ideally he gets back to form, and you can bring him up again for a stretch run potentially.

9 Shots... in 17 games. You really can't score if you don't shoot.

Or perhaps he was waiting for Krebs to give the OK on talking about it at all.

The power play's struggles have largely been gaining the zone. I don't see how he's going to help you gain the zone, and i'd suspect the second he touched the puck that the PK is going to pressure him into a turnover.

Can he enter the chat next year? Once Oloffson, Girgs, Okposo, and Jost are likely all off the books? Might be nice to have a veteran winger on a line with a younger player. Truly depends on how he looks after hip surgery though. Skinner-thompson-tuch JJP-Cozens-quinn Kane-Mitts-Savoie/Benson Greenway-Savoie/Benson-Kulich Even then you still have no space for Krebs and Rosen. At the same time, a healthy kane is better than krebs and rosen at putting the puck in the back of the net. You could start Savoie or Benson in the AHL potentially. This lineup doesn't contain a defensive line or anything either. Dahlin, Muel, R.Johnson, Power, Clifton, Joker on defense. I think there's space to upgrade here.. goalie is pretty obvious too.

Dahlin?

He doesn't shoot well or often enough to be anywhere near a teams top 6. He brings some juice and forecheck/backcheck that you want to see in a bottom 6 forward, but the lack of any scoring touch is going to hurt him even if he has some playmaking chops. Playmaking chops don't go that far when the shooters are guys like Girgs and Okposo.

Just watching UPL the last couple games: He's still huge. Cover's a lot of space just being big and i think it helps a lot on PP's when they have you moving side to side Rebound control has improved - seems to be kicking them off to the walls much better than before Puck playing - still a work in progress. Improvement here helps the defensemen get the puck moving out of the zone more effectively Levi on the other hand has struggled with both rebounds and puck playing. He's quick as hell and definitely can make some of the harder saves. He did get hung out to dry to start the year i felt as we were giving up a lot of slot chances and that's usually on forwards and back-checking. All the line jumbling in preseason seemed to harm some of the cohesion to start the year, and some players like thompson and tuch started really slow.

It's alright - that reckless style is fun to watch. Gets under teams skin. Great for playoffs. But Brady and Matt for that matter, will both eventually break down faster than the average skill player. Just send them both for 2 and a misconduct or something. Basically saying "cut it out"

Absolutely terrible officiating at the end of the game. You rewarded a team for cheap shots... to me I just give out equal roughing penalties.

My buddy is a ticket broker, and another broker who used to work for the Sabres would buy... a ton of seats and re-sell them. The key was because he was doing such volume that the Sabres were basically selling them for 30 cents on the dollar. That guy lists them - probably makes money on some, and on others he'd just dump them for the minimum. I forget the name of the guy the Sabres fired, but after that they adjusted their ticket model considerably and stopped giving seats away. It really de-valued the product at the end of the day, and people were shocked when they couldn't pick up a ticket for 10 bucks on the day of. Also thousands of season tickets opened up mysteriously at the same time.

The only taco bell in amherst is such a terrible location. Regularly leaving food off of my order (almost seems intentional at this point).

I got the tlayuda there and it was very good. Wouldnt shock me. I lived right over there for like 3 years and i feel like there were never cars there in the front.

Jeeze no one said it was going to be so emotional! 😭