Archie Lee

What 18 year old would choose to leave his NHL team and teammates? It has nothing to do with what he wants, it has to do with what is best for him (for the record, I don't think they have made this decision based on what he wants). Benson is 17th in rookie scoring. He is not on the radar for the Calder Trophy. If the NHL had an all-rookie team, he would be on its 3rd line. I recognize that he has a mature two-way game, but does this team's season really hinge on the performance of the 17th highest scoring rookie in the league? Things have gotten so bad that an 18 year old who is not on the Calder radar and is not in the top 15 of rookie scorers, is one of our best and most consistent players? We had to burn a year of his entry level deal, deprive him of not one but possibly two opportunities of a lifetime (the World Juniors and a chance to win the Calder next year), just so he could be one of the best players on an underachieving team. Nobody, outside of a narrow group of Sabre fans who have decided they are fine with the team rushing this prospect, would fault the Sabres for sending Benson back to junior.

Benson has been great and we got a steal. He plays a very mature game and overall, at both ends of the rink, has been one of our top 3-4 forwards (maybe higher). But, with the games he missed, he is on pace for 33 points. He is not producing offensively like a top 6 player (few of our guys are). Are things so bad with this organization that we couldn’t find a middle six veteran this off-season who could get us 30 points and be solid defensively? That is the most frustrating thing to me. Benson had a great camp and looked ready for the NHL. Why was there room though? He should be terrorizing the WHL and leading Team Canada into the world jrs. Of course an 18 year old will chose the NHL and his teammates over a JR tourney. But 4-5 years from now, playing in the NHL will just be what he does. The world jrs are a once in a lifetime opportunity for a small group of kids. I’ve been a huge supporter of Adams/Granato. This is just a mistake. The Sabres right now are like a bad MLB team. That we won a game in Vegas, sandwiched between losses in Colorado and Arizona, doesn’t mean we are good and need to find consistency. The Oakland A’s can get a strong pitching performance and a couple seeing eye doubles and take a game from the Astros. Our forwards are getting healthy. We are going to need to make decisions. We are the 7th worst team in the NHL by points %. Let Benson go back. We just don’t need him here this year.

We are one of the 1 or 2 youngest teams in the league. Our average age does not place us as being a team on the cusp of its prime. The middle spine of our team (Thompson, Mitts, Cozens, Krebs, Dahlin, Sammy, Joker, Power, UPL and Levi) started the season with an average age of 22.8. It will be 3-4 years before they reach their collective prime. We are augmenting this group with players like Peterka, Quinn, Benson, R. Johnson and likely soon Kulich, Rosen and Savoie, only making us younger. Removing Okposo does not improve our PP, it doesn’t make our goalies more experienced, it doesn’t improve our D structure and it certainly doesn’t make up for the fact that Thompson, Tuch, Cozens and Olofsson are on pace to score less than 1/2 of the 142 goals they scored a year ago. Okposo is most likely in his final year here. I would not have any great concern if he was moved via trade. His time as a Sabre is passing to be sure. But moving on from Okposo as the captain does not begin to address the issues with this team. Okposo’s presence on this team is not the problem.

Yesterday while I was commuting, NHL Radio had a member of the Capitals broadcast crew on. They asked him about the motivation for the Caps’ signing of Ethan Bear. He stated that the Capitals had become an older team and they were making a conscious effort to bring in younger players, basically doing a bit of a reset on the go. It occurred to me at that moment just how young the Sabres are. If Ethan Bear was signed by the Sabres he would be our 3rd oldest D-man. The Caps, who had 3 veteran right shot D already, brought him in as a step towards getting younger. We are too young to seriously compete in the NHL. There are many things wrong with this year’s team, from bad off-season decisions to poor play and bad coaching. Kyle Okposo’s leadership and on-ice performance has not been one of the problems.

That’s disappointing. We really don’t need an 18 year old to have a 30 point season for us this year, do we?

Here’s hoping Benson is Canada’s 23rd player. There is no need for him to be in Buffalo learning how to underachieve. Go be the big man on the big stage and then help Savoie lead the Wild to a potential Memorial Cup. The Sabres can finish 23rd overall without him.

I didn’t hear it but was just thinking: what is that supposed to mean? Thanks. I should have kept reading.

My apologies. I have edited my earlier comments.

I have no insider information, so I don't know. The current situation, post-covid, might be different. We were a cap team under Botterill and in year one under Adams. Prior to the most recent tear down and trading of Eichel, Risto, Reinhart, I don't think there is a lot of evidence that our GM's were told they can't spend money or utilize assets in order to get better. Unless we are planning to trade some of our more established young players in the next year or two, we will inevitably be a cap team again within 2 seasons. RE: Botterill, my point really wasn't that he should have made a bold move at that time, but rather that he made the unusual choice to actually voice that he didn't think the team was as good as its record and therefore a bold move would be wrong. That was a bizarre message to send to your team. Adams, right now, seems to be doing the same thing but with inaction rather than words. As you seem to imply though, maybe Pegula is a such a terrible owner that there is little hope for us to have success under his stewardship.

I don’t think we are taking a run at the playoffs like last year. But when Tuch, Greenway and Quinn are back we will be better and will start to look, I think, more like a playoff team. Maybe a coaching change is what shows Adams has expectations. I don’t have a specific thing that I want Adams to do. I just think there is a point in a team’s upward trajectory where it’s appropriate for a GM to do something that makes clear the time is now. I’m not looking for a “the rebuild is over” public statement or for a firing or a big trade. I’m just wanting evidence that the plan is not to simply augment the existing young core with even younger players, because if that is the plan then there is no end in sight.

The current situation reminds me a little of the bizarre press conference that Jason Botterill gave shortly after the 10 game winning streak in 2018-19. The team was still positioned high in the standings and playing reasonably well. Expectations had been raised that the organization would make a move or two to address what were clearly team weaknesses. Botterill then tamped all that down by stating (and I'm paraphrasing) that while they were happy with what the team had shown to that point, they were not actually that good and there were no plans to do anything aggressive or irresponsible. Expectations were lowered and the team sagged from there. I'm not saying that Botterill's comments sunk the team's spirit, but I have to believe they did nothing to raise them. Similarly now, Adams can't quite seem to get himself to commit to the expectation that the Sabres are supposed to be good. If not now, then when? When Kulich, Rosen, Savoie and Östlund are good? When Levi and UPL are no longer young goalies who, understandably, struggle with consistency? When our top four D (Dahlin, Power, Joker, Sammy) have an average age of 26 to start a season (which won't be until 2027-28; it's true)? The good news is that Kevyn Adams is a rookie GM. Being patient and thoughtful are not bad traits. He has done some really good things and there is the possibility that he is learning from observation and from mistakes. To his credit, his approach has resulted in the team not being saddled with any disastrous contracts (Cozens and Power are going to be fine). My bet is that they get healthy and play a lot better in the 2nd half of the season and look more like the team that we thought they might be. The young core of players who in April looked ready to take the next step are all still here and ready. Now, we are just waiting for the GM to show he is ready too.

What they do with Levi shouldn’t impact what they do with Comrie. Honestly, Dustin Tokarski is a better option than Comrie. He just is. If they want to send Levi down, that is reasonable. But they need to find an alternative to Comrie and at this point I would prefer Tokarski.

The answer is: we don’t know. In hindsight, for me anyway, the start to the season shouldn’t be surprising. Our centre spine of Thompson, Mittelstadt, Cozens and Krebs has an average age of 23. I still think they could be the centre spine of a contending team, but it is likely a shock to very few people outside of fans like me, whose hope and excitement got a little in the way of reason, that it hasn’t turned out that way this season. Add in that Tuch has been less than 100% or out of the line-up, that other vets have been injured (Greenway, Girgs) or ineffective at times (Okposo, Olofsson, Jost) and that the roster is otherwise full of youngsters (Peterka, Benson, Rosen, a top four D with an avg age of 22, and a top goalie pair with avg age also 22) and maybe the odd thing is that any of us imagine they could be consistently good. I don’t know the answer, but replacing our 4th liners (Okposo, Girgs, Jost) and Olofsson with out best prospects won’t make us better anytime soon.

It was intentionally non-specific. 😀 I’m not 100% sure. Maybe some toughness. Maybe a goalie. Maybe a d-partner for Power. Maybe a new coach. Maybe all of these.

I haven’t listened yet. The thing that seems very different to me with this current mix of players, is that the issues seem quite fixable. Not “snap your fingers” fixable, but fixable. I wrote in another thread that the Sabres could be last year’s Canucks. I look at what our healthy roster would look like next year without additions and with everyone a year older and it is a good roster that needs a couple of things. I’m very disappointed with how this season has gone thus far. But I don’t feel the same sense of despair that I did in the last year of Botterill’s tenure or in the Krueger era. A lot of really good pieces are still here and are very young. As long as we can keep Dahlin, Thompson, Cozens, Power, Peterka, etc. from losing hope, I think this iteration of the team gets there. It is getting tough to hang in though.

Last year the team had some injuries on the defense, but stayed remarkably healthy up front until Thompson’s injury late in the year. This year we did not get off to the start we needed and the forward injuries are piling up. If Tuch is out Tuesday and nobody is back, we will be down 5 of our projected starting 12 forwards. If we had gotten off to a good start we might be able to “weather the storm”. But we are no longer in “weather the storm” territory. The storm is wiping us out. Honestly, it’s time to get Benson, Rosen and R. Johnson out of here. No need to let the losing-stink get on them. Let Johnson and Rosen and Kulich and Levi have a long run with the Amerks. Let Benson go play for Canada and take a run at a WHL championship with Savoie. The kids aren’t going to bail us out so there is no need for them to learn how to lose.

Who are the 6? If we have 6 regular skaters who would be incapable of playing on a playoff team, then no amount of coaching adjustments will save us.

I understand this sentiment. But Bowman and Ruff had many stretches as coaches of the Sabres where their anger and outrage and efforts to light fires got them nothing. It's just not that simple.

It's hard to know what the issues are. - Do we have enough talent and experience to realistically compete for a playoff spot? If not, then it would be shameful to fire Granato. He has done a great job developing some of our young players. Last year's run wasn't nothing. It would be short-sighted to fire him if there is no reasonable hope for his replacement to do substantively better with current roster construction. He is, by all accounts, as good a man as you could have coaching young men. Or - Is the coaching just not good enough? I think of how often Eichel would race back on the back-check only to end-up over-pursuing or taking the wrong man, allowing the opposition an easy goal. Cozens, right now, reminds me of this. Eichel, I understand, is pretty good at defending. Coaching unquestionably plays a role. Are we icing a team that has too many players who are incapable of functioning on the roster of a playoff calibre team? Or are the coaches just not capable of putting the players in position to get themselves to the next level? Is it one of those things, or is it both? Maybe we are last year's Canucks? They had 92 points in 21-22, thought they were something they weren't, and Tochett was brought in and seems to have fixed the culture. It's a small sample, but the players there seem fine with the ornery Tochett as their coach. Winning will do that. Dean Evason says he's ready to go. The next 5 games are critical. We have 4 at home against Nash, Det, Mtl and Arizona with a trip to Boston sandwiched in between. I'm a believer that the long season means that a team's identity and performance can significantly change mid-campaign. A team can have 40 points at the 40 game mark and rattle of an 8-1-1 stretch and go from being on an 82 point pace to a 93 point pace in a hurry (93 currently gets you in). But we can't fall further behind than we currently are. Cozens is right. This team needs a little FU in it's game. We need to see that starting tonight. I have no idea what my point is.

OHL? Here’s 10: Ryan Ellis, Dougie Hamilton, Mark Scheifle, Ryan Strome, Slater Koekerk, Darnell Nurse, Michael Dal Colle, Dylan Strome, Tyler Boucher, Brandt Clarke. That’s just the OHL. Savoie will be fine. If he turns out to be the Slater Koekerk or Micheal Dal Colle of the 2022 draft, it won’t be because he played his 19 yr old season in the WHL.

I agree with this. Nothing against Kulich or Rosen, but this team could use a couple of Hinostoza and Lazar equivalents at the moment.

A statement/phrase that I read often related to the Sabres is: "If they don't dress (insert player name), the Sabres are not a serious franchise" or "If (insert player name) doesn't play, the Sabres are not a serious franchise". Typically this phrase is used when there is question about whether a young player (Benson, R. Johnson) might sit for a veteran who is not playing as well. Last night was the first time I teetered a bit in the direction of at least asking: are we a serious franchise? Though it was because of all the young players we dressed. If you take the five rookies that dressed and replace them with healthy versions of Thompson, Quinn, Greenway, Jokiharju and UPL, the Sabres still might be the youngest team in the league. I am not blaming our rookies, as individuals or as a group, for what happened last night. In hindsight, though, it was a far from surprising outcome when you consider we took the youngest line-up in the league and made it younger and less experienced. I can't get myself to blame the coach for this. Granato has clearly made this team far better than they were when he took over. He deserves credit for moving us to a point where we can actually be disappointed in the start to the season. I think if he does not get this season turned around, then it is very possible that he will be replaced in the off-season and the next step in the process will be hiring an experienced head coach with a playoff track-record. It's unfortunate though, that we don't have the experience or depth that is needed to say with a straight-face, this should be a playoff team. Last night's line-up was not the line-up of an NHL playoff team. Again, I can't blame the coach for that.

Re: goaltending, I think it is time to send Levi down. If UPL and Comrie can maintain their levels of play with an increased workload, we are a better team just from removing Levi from the equation (for now; I’m not down on Levi’s future). The one point I don’t really agree with is the notion that our 3 goalies can’t be expected to stay sharp in this rotation. Most of us would have agreed at the start of the season that any of our 3 goalies (and particularly Comrie and UPL) would at this point in their NHL careers, be best suited to being a back-up to a true 1A. That would mean playing about every 3rd game. NHL back-up goalies are expected to be sharp and play well, relative to their talent level, when they are called upon. I don’t think we should expect any of our 3 goalies to suffer from their current playing time. Indeed, my bigger worry is that we don’t have one who is ready to sustain a larger workload.

I understand how you feel. It is not likely there are anything more than minor roster moves coming. The season is long.