Drag0nDan

Going from 11-9-1 (1.1 points per game and an 89-90 points season) to 11-19-4 (.76 points per game and a 62-63 point season) ended the season before Christmas. It's hard to judge progress of players on a team that lost their season so early, you want to stay professional and show drive and initiative, but there's always going to be dips in player quality when you have to play ~50 games with no shot at playoffs. They are not quite a top 10 scoring team, but they are a bottom 5 team when it comes to allowing goals. The defensemen have been poor, the goaltending has been among the worst in the league, and the forwards haven't done enough in their roles from top to bottom. This is a football team that doesn't block and tackle, and it shows in the types of goals they give up. UPL is 3rd in the league in goalie starts, and i cannot for the life of me understand why. 15 starts with a SV% under 85. That's a level of inconsistency that you can't win with. I already believe his extension is bad, but he's looking like a backup goalie to me. I'm not sure if Levi is the answer but if he's not given every chance in the offseason to earn this spot I just see the same stuff happening.

Korpisalo really kept boston in it too, as well as the post. I thought power had a nice game on both sides of the ice. Malenstyn brought some needed juice, same with zucker greenway and tuch.

The 2nd goal was a mistake by Muel, but he played that absolutely terribly.

Similar number of NHL games for Dahlin and... i don't think i had quite as many gripes as i do with power, but dahlin wasn't looking particularly good. I seem to remember Dahlin being sloppy in the zone and making a ton of mental mistakes. Dahlin after that 200ish games improved a lot. He's faster, shiftier, more confident, more structured, more communicative etc. So a lot changes in the 22-24 age years. He didn't have this wholly contact averse game that power has though either. I don't see the extra gear in power's game at times, like i don't know if he's just slow or tentative. Like he never is bringing full speed or power to his game. You also can't be this soft as a hockey defenseman.

I'd lump Krebs, Samuelsson, Clifton, and lafferty (i've seen enough) in on that going into next season.

We signed taylor hall as a result of eichel essentially asking them to do something or he was going public with a trade request. After his injury and subsequent flame out by hall, he still wanted to be traded. He wanted the ADR surgery, and i think adams was opposed simply because he didn't want him to further damage his value. They tried rehab and it didn't work - if he had made any commitment to the franchise at that point i'm sure he would've been allowed to get whatever surgery he wanted. Then Eichel went public with the whole - they wont let me get surgery debacle.

He was literally breaking other players on the team when he played with them - i think he had to go.

Ruff is on a 2 year deal as well, so I kind of always assumed it was a 2 year plan. If it works and the team can make it to the playoffs in year 2, adams gets another couple of years to build and ruff maybe moves into the front office somewhere. If it doesn't work, then they have a fresh balance sheet and both are gone along with hopefully a bunch of other coaches and front office folks.

Jokiharju is a UFA so he's gone. I'd be open to moving on from pretty much everyone but Dahlin. Power's 22 so i'd also say its tough to give up on him - and elite puck movers are harder to come by. Byram was the swap from mittelstadt but he's a RFA and definitely valuable to teams around the league. If you can get out of samuelsson's contract, do it. He's an absolute JAG and i see no reason to be committed to someone like him long-term. Seen enough bryson, jokiharju and clifton too. Scouts and GM's have watched him play enough to know... there's a reason he's available.

So that'd be tuch, jjp, quinn, benson, zucker, greenway? Right now anyway.

HAHAHAHA i know the stats don't say who "won", but this guy gets absolutely smashed every time he fights!

There really is no shortage of random defenseman to include. I've seen enough of joker, samuelsson, bryson, clifton... lets see some new faces back there.

Yeah, i think this is pretty much roughly the price for a 20G scoring winger.

The shooting % is a bit higher though. They haven't really done much to inspire our trust though.

That's another issue entirely - so many L-NTC's on the type of deals that Buffalo would need to be bringing on. So you're looking at a player who had their RFA years bought out, which is unlikely as most teams that signed these guys did so with the plan to keep them in the fold.

The problem is the cap and years he has on his deal. Any acquiring team is committing to 5 years and 35M for him - and beyond that they're adding a 7M cap hit for this season. Any acquiring contender is going to have to send bad money back to stay under the cap. The majority of deadline deals are somewhat short term in thought - you're building to win this season - while in the offseason you are remaking your team.

The length and size is also hugely beneficial on the PK. Not going to blow anyone away on the stat sheet, but he's got some heart which this team is mostly lacking so i don't have any issue bringing him back. From a physical standpoint, he's pretty much the closest thing the team has to an enforcer.

Is a shortage of 3rd round picks really whats damning this franchise though?

Makes sense - they've had overlap at both coach and GM since Regier left. It's one of the many reason's this team is in the red every year. Nolan fired - Bring on Bylsma - at least 1 year paying both. Fire Bylsma after 2 years - Bring on Housley - At least 1 year paying both Fire Housley after 2 years- Bring on Krueger - at least 1 year paying both Fire Krueger 1 year and change (i think he had a 5 year deal too) - Bring on Granato Fire Granato (extended in 2022-2023, so he's paid through 2024-2025) - Bring on Lindy So in 2023-2024 we were paying Krueger and Granato. This year they pay Granato and Lindy. Pretty much every year post tank since Regier and Lindy left, they've been paying coaches not to coach.

I just think you limit your suitors if you do it at the deadline just due to the nature of where a lot of teams currently sit against the salary cap. It also means you likely get some trash contracts coming back. I understand the sentiment of getting rid of him, and i also know he's not going to be boosting his value the rest of the way.

Adams will likely be fired. He was hired in 2020... extended in 2022 so i assume his deal was probably up either this year or next year. He's probably among the lowest paid GM's in the league. He needs to be fired as soon as possible if you're going to do it. I think they avoid any major deadline deals this year other than expiring contracts going out - Greenway, Zucker, Jokiharju, Bryson, Aube-Kubel. If you're going to move one of your young players - Cozens, JJP, Quinn, Power, Byram - new GM has to do it, and while i think deadline value is probably higher, i don't trust the current management to get good value out of it.

They tried that rebuild on the fly thing with Kane. I don't think it was necessarily a bad idea? I just was never a big fan of the player or the price they paid to acquire him. Neither him nor Bogo had the leadership acumen, especially at the age they were brought in.

I always think - at least tage is underpaid for pretty much the same time so it balances out a little bit. Like if Tage got 10M AAV, and Cozens was at 4M it wouldn't feel like such a huge waste of money. I'm just not sure where to go with the player, he's never been a good shooter, his passing is so-so, and his on-ice vision has cratered. Him and Quinn are roughly the same age... but there's 2 extra seasons worth of games for Cozens that just suggests that this is just who he is. With Quinn, he seems small and lost out there (like he doesn't feel confident on where he needs to be). But he is a solid shooter, seems to be a fairly good skater, which is something to build around. He's had some injuries as well that seem to have stunted his development. I'm not sure what you can build from cozens other than a bottom 6 winger, which is not a good use of 49 million.

Watching last night, i tried to really watch cozens when he was on the ice and man... He is really rough. He's sloppy in puck battles. Never has a plan it seems. Consistently trying to pass pucks through the other team. It's a real drag. The entire line he plays with seems to be unable to ever find any space. Even when he makes a nice play on the backcheck - he turns it over on the breakout. It's just a really chaotic (mostly bad) experience watching him right now.