elijah

Also, Dahlin & Power were a pairing for a little bit at the end of the second there. I don’t know what the answer is right now, but I don’t think that’s it. Feel like Dahlin didn’t come off the ice for the last 10 minutes of the second

The energy was there for a little bit in the second before the PP goal for Seattle Do they win or even force a point? Unlikely. Worth watching still for a little bit into the third just in case? I’d say so

What a piece Asplund would be to have if he keeps producing like this and is a solid 40 point guy in addition to being one of the better defensive players in the league Such a quality complete type of depth player that this teams seem to have been lacking forever

Yeah he didn’t look very good, seemed scared to move when he was on the ice and then was very wobbly when he was coming off the ice

Hope we go 82-0 for no other reason than for people to continue to complain about when a thread gets posted 😭

0 goals allowed in a 3OT win

Also what I went straight to thinking, but with different numbers. With Cozens I feel there’s too much potential there for his agent to allow him to sign $4.75Mx7yr without getting blasted to the moon. Good (hopefully?) for GMKA and the Sabres if that’s what the deal were to come in at, but we’re still talking about a player that many people think is capable of being 2C or even better on the wing? Now I’m not too well versed on hockey money yet, but wouldn’t that be a historical type of steal if he reached 2C level? My initial thought was it’d be something like 7yr/$40M if GMKA got it done early in similar fashion to these two, but I don’t actually know anything so maybe I’m way off

Krebs - Cozens - Peterka is a bit nerve wracking as a line Would love to see Asplund and Krebs switch spots, just seems like a lot of inexperience that could get destroyed in their own zone

Learning moment for me here..? Why are the lines different in matchups depending who’s at home and who’s on the road?

If this is the price you don’t say no imo

What are we thinking the price is for Kane? I was under the impression of 2 B-level prospects and a 2nd or 3rd for him but then I’m also seeing suggestions like Oloffson, a 1st AND Peterka? Absolutely not, at that price I’m out. But if you can send Portillo, Ryan Johnson and a 2nd? Why would there be any reason to say no to that? I don’t see how the price can get very high for a 1 year rental, with a NTC, at 33-34 years old, and a team that is clearly tanking and should be desperate to move him for anything they can get

I think the key here is the original quote said since

Arizona just keeps loading up on picks, it’ll be fun to watch their pipeline play out

You’ve got $35M-$40M in cap space, I’m sure overbidding the market by $2M would sway a player or two this way. Again I understand we want the cap flexibility for when the core contracts and ELC’s expire in 2-3 years, but with the sheer amount of money there is to be thrown around I don’t understand the opposition to essentially ‘buying’ a year or two from contributing players by overpaying EDIT: This is of course all preliminary talk seeing as there’s still a long offseason for more cap dumps with good returns, along with the possibility the return on this is better than expecting. As well as possibly actually adding players at those positions of need and/or the short term moves I’m talking of, but the point is that this solo move doesn’t instill any confidence in me that any of the above is going to happen

1 year remaining on the contract and still eligible for LTIR if I’m reading correctly Sounds like we won’t be getting much more than maybe a 6th round pick with him if that 🤦‍♂️ I hate it here I understand the ‘maintaining flexibility’ mantra, but why can’t we just sign short term high money FA’s that contribute and actually improve a desolate team? Short term maintains flexibility no? Or why not take on more serious cap dumps where the extra assets are atleast a 3rd round pick? Personally I’ve been very pleased with GMKA this far, but if we play a second season in a row at the cap floor without utilizing the cap, whether through cap dumps or short term FA, I’m going to be very soured on him. Hell, even if we’re a 50 win, 110 point team next year, there’s still no excuse for leaving $20M of cap on the table without adding any assets wth it.

Came in this thread for some unwarranted blind optimism on the possibility of adding Wright to an already stacked pipeline .. Left rather disappointed and curious where my mind was during high school math

I just don’t view it as rushing the plan if you’re adding a short term guy with your extra cap space. Rushing the plan to me would be adding someone on a long term big money deal, or packaging assets in a trade for an upgrade. Maybe that’s the difference in opinion? Short term cap space is expendable. Have a thorough vetting process and you’re bound to find at least one guy that you can overpay for a year or two to not only produce, but also be a mentor.

30 / 30 / 20 = 80 25 / 10-15 / 20 = 55-60 10 / 10 / 15 = 35 10 / 15-20 / 15 = 40-45 20-30 250 - 3.04 gpg If everyone doesn’t progress as we’d hope, if Skinner/Thompson have a down year, if Quinn/JJP don’t have the immediate impact expected, if Cozens doesn’t contribute more all of these totals could be even less than this. You’re looking at 3.04 goals per game, which is still a below average offense, while also not having an answer for the goalie tandem yet. You’ve got to add another producer (or two) for a worst case scenario. You can’t just expect that everyone performs as you’d hope. Granted, if everyone develops the way they’re expected then it will probably be more goals than this, and ideally much more. But why risk ‘as expected’ when you have the cap to have a backup plan for when one or two guys have a down year or don’t progress right?

But do we really want to rely on ‘I expect’s and ‘probably’s? If your goal is to be a competitive team and see an overall shift in the organization to one that understands what it needs to do to compete, I certainly don’t want to rely on that. Add another forward (or two) on short term deals and either a) let the rest figure who’s the odd man out and recoup some assets for them, or b) let everyone else progress and the short term guy gets shown the door at the deadline or in the offseason All of the people just expecting the natural progression and development to happen reek of complacency, I want my team to be competitive without having to hope that the kids either sustain their development or in some cases develop further. Not everyone is going to hit in the development that’s expected, we’re fans of a team that hasn’t made the playoffs in a decade and has a recent history of disastrous drafting and development, we of all people should realize this. If we had this current squad and were tight to the cap? Then yeah, maybe hoping for development would be the way to go. But we’re simply not that team, we have the extra assets and the extra cap space. Use it.

How do we feel about Isak Rosen? Not very familiar with his development/the leagues he’s in/how his stats are vs what they should be

I don’t mean to be lumping Quinn with JJP, he’s clearly at a higher level. And yes, both have seemingly earned roster spots with this seasons performance. But either way, why not bolster the talent in the forward group on short term deals with the extra cap space that is there just to add competition and talent? Even if it means a Mitts or an Ollie getting flushed out, there’s no reason not to add more talent. Suppose they don’t fit in the top 9 because we suddenly have too much talent, and we traded them for more assets, is that a bad thing? I’m not suggesting to add a Gaudreau at 7x$9.5M. I’m simply saying to add a 40-50 point forward or two to that middle 6 on short term 1 or 2 year deals with maybe $4.5M-$6.5M AAV. A team that hasn’t made the playoffs in 11 years shouldn’t exactly be afraid of a log jam of talent. You’re not sacrificing the future by adding short term deals when you have an abundance of cap space, you’re just adding short term talent to try and make the team better.

Do constraints actually exist though? As a Bills fan first, I feel like I’ve heard that story too many times and then suddenly when you’re good and you get a competent GM those ‘restraints’ are no longer spoken of. Not too mention at the deadline he said there were no restraints and he could use the cap space freely. Granted it didn’t turn into anything, but I’m going to choose to take his statements as truthful. Also, maybe I haven’t listened to enough of his interviews but regardless of his stated plan, shouldn’t the plan at the end of the day be to win? They have LOADS of cap space and it just doesn’t make sense to not use it. Does Peterka look great? Absolutely. Does that mean he should have a penciled in roster spot? Absolutely not. I don’t see any issue with bringing in a middle 6 40-50 point guy on short term, 1-2 years, and an inflated contract with the extra cap space we have to build competition and talent. If we want to see Peterka so bad, and we think Peterka is so good, then he should reasonably earn a spot on his own without being penciled in, no? So he earns a spot and gives us another forward as an expendable asset to trade for more roster improvement, what’s the problem with that?

Started this thread right after I posted a little rant in the other offseason thread, figured this one would be better to relocate that post to.. I don’t understand the hesitancy to add a forward because the Sabres ‘already have their core.’ That’s utterly ridiculous in my eyes, why is a team with an 11 season playoff drought granting roster spots to guys that’ve played less than 3 games in the NHL? JJP has looked fantastic, Quinn has looked even better but neither has played any substantial time in the NHL yet and yet I keep seeing fans/media alike wanting to stay away from a forward in free agency. Say you resign Olofsson, UPL, Anderson, Bryson and Hinostroza, you should still be roughly around $25M-$30M in cap space with a lineup of Skinner - Thompson - Tuch Krebs - Cozens - Quinn Olofsson - Mitts - JJP Girgensons - Asplund - Okposo Bjork, Hinostroza Dahlin - Jokiharju Power - ? Samuelsson - Bryson Fitzgerald ? Lukkonen Anderson From there you can still add a 1A/B goalie for what, $5M-$8M AAV? (Husso, Keumper, Campbell). Add that other top 4 RHD for $4M-$8M AAV? (Letang, Manson, Gudbranson). Say you’re adding two guys at $8M AAV at those two spots on the high end, and you STILL have $10M-$15M in cap space. Why are we so against adding a Reilly Smith or an Ondrej Palat on low term with that extra money? Force JJP and Hinostroza to your 13th & 14th forwards spots instead of just handing it to them. There’s loads of cap space AND depth on the team for the first time in forever. Even the 13th and 14th forwards this year played 44 and 36 games respectively — granted there was a lot of turnover and injury this year. But still, what’s wrong with JJP playing ~40 games while growing into a role and comfort, rather than forcing him onto the team just because we have a perceived core. What’s best case scenario? JJP shines and we have more depth and talent and have to force someone out for more assets, or a package out to bring back some star power to tag along with the depth? Worst case scenario? Skinner, Olofsson & Thompson could all realistically regress scoring and Quinn & JJP may not translate immediately, Cozens, Mitts & Krebs could have a stagnant develop year and not keep progressing forwards. It’s easy to sit here now riding a hot streak and say the forward core is set, but imagine the outlash if the kids don’t develop at the same pace right now and we’re sitting here at game 80 with 70 points next year. Why not use this extra cap to bring someone in on short term and create more competition and depth. Just doesn’t make sense to me the willingness to sit still with the talent we have now rather than building more with the cap space we have. You don’t have to ‘build’ the team through FA, you can sign players on short term. If they don’t want to come to Buffalo without long term, the caps still there to utilize and overpay for a year or two with out effecting long term plans 🤷‍♂️

Also to add to this a little bit, I’m relatively young (23) and wasn’t a big Sabres fan for most of my life. I paid attention the best a 7 and 8 year old could in 05-06 & 06-07, and loved the team from 09-12 because of chel the video game. As a die hard Bills fan (and diehard sports fan in general) and Buffalo resident, I decided around ‘17 that there was no reason I should be a diehard Bills fan and not support my other local team. I jumped from one drought that ended, to the middle of the next one. I like to claim I’m rather smart with the X’s and O’s of football, but still know jack s**t about hockey even though I’ve been watching the Sabres rather religiously for close to 5 years now. I look to this board for insight and knowledge to learn the game and the team. This game was the first time I’ve been to a sellout arena, and the first win I’ve witnessed in person out of about 10-15 that I’ve attended. I wasn’t sure how much money I wanted to spend on the game earlier in the week when the tickets seemed high, and they only went up from there. At the point I bought the tickets there were only 5 available left on Ticketmaster around 4:00 today. My girlfriend found some in the 100 level, 104, right next to the Sabres tunnel and bench for a decent bargain — though still a pretty penny. My god can I say it was worth every penny. I thought I paid attention enough the last 5 years to be a diehard fan on the level that I am a Bills fan, but this really sealed it. The environment was electric, and honestly comparable to ‘The Perfect Game’ against New England in the playoffs as a Bills fan. Even not quite the live or die Sabres fan, I still knew what RJ meant to the team and that only escalated the emotions. Just being a ‘casual’ fan for most of my life, knowing the big moments but not quite embracing them, the tributes still almost brought tears to my eyes. The organization really pulled off this night perfectly and the team just added on by showing continued improvement and hope for next year. This night really got me and I’m certainly tied to them with the same commitment I am to the Bills forever now. The arena was something to behold tonight and I’m very happy I was there.

Watching the game in person, this was one of my biggest takeaways from the night. Nothing too hockey related, no spectacular input on anything — but about halfway through the second I turned to my girlfriend and pointed out that every second Krebs is on the ice, no matter what’s happening, the kid is playing and skating with a smile on his face