Digger

I chose Mittlestadt and Cozens. Both should be ready to take a real step this season. I hope that the team is blessed with great health this season. It would be nice to see.

Here's my suggestion. Still see Cozens and Mittelstadt as 2nd line centers and sometime this season we'll see which lines work together. I like Krebs and Cozens together (maybe even switching at center from time to time or game). With what's available right now on the roster I see Peterka pushing Asplund and Hinostroza for playing time. Skinner Thompson Tuch Krebs Cozens Quinn Asplund Mittelstadt Olofsson Hinostroza Girgensons Okposo Peterka

I think Mittelstadt and Cozens fight it out as 2nd line centers 2A / 2B. I like the idea of him playing with Krebs and Quinn or Peterka. Mittelstadt with Olofsson and Peterka or Quinn. Hopefully the boys all stay healthy this year. Lots of potential on all the lines.

Where's Aaron Huglen for the 3 on 3 games? I thought Peca mentioned him during his interview (but the sound was poor for the reporter asking questions). Perhaps he's hurt?

With all the talk of the Chicago Blackhawks rebuilding isn't the biggest remaining question Seth Jones? They paid a big price to get him (July 2021) and signed him to a long term deal to 2027-28 ($9.5M Cap Hit) with NMC. That's the big contract on the books as both Kane and Toews contracts end after this upcoming season. Jones can't be happy with the latest developments. What a difference a year makes.

I agree that Levi had the best interview of our 3 college guys aiming to return to school. Levi has well thought out answers, high character young man. Great attitude. That being said I did not hear anything bad from Ryan Johnson or Erik Portillo's interviews. Maybe they are a bit less polished but I still have hopes for both to sign with the Sabres. From all accounts the Development Camp is going well and they are all getting a chance to see what kind of group they can join and develop with.

Interesting to look back on the Poll now that Victor Olofsson signed. The leading vote was 4 years @ $4.5M. Actual 2 years @ $4.75M.

I'm happy with the signing of Eric Comrie. I hope that he stays healthy and gives us some good games this season. I agree that he has some upside. With all the talk about analytics being at play with this signing, I do wonder if our analytic guys were on vacation last year when we signed Aaron Dell. 😏 With this signing we are not blocking UPL (because he can come to camp and win a spot). We are not giving UPL a spot (because he needs to beat out Comrie). The combo of Anderson and Comrie will most likely require someone to come up from Rochester to play some games (and I hope that UPL is ready when he gets his chance). We keep a spot for Levi / Portillo because Anderson will be done playing after this season. An opening will be there in Rochester too. My prediction is Anderson plays for 25 games, Comrie plays for 35 games, UPL plays 19 games, Subban 2 games, and we need to sign Houser to play at least 1 game (emergency call up from the ECHL). Total is 82 games. I think we improve but miss out on the playoffs. Baby steps forward.

Chris Pronger is the one that I remember as being an eye opener from a few years back (link below). https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2226616-why-the-nhl-made-the-wrong-move-by-hiring-chris-pronger

I don't know but here's my thoughts about Ryan Johnson signing with us. Looking at our depth chart I would think that he can eventually beat out Bryson (and no offence to Bryson intended). I would really love to hear a player share his true thoughts (instead of our assumptions) about the pros and cons of signing with a team. First he needs to sign a contract then he needs to win a job in the NHL immediately out of camp to have to worry about who he's beating out on the current roster. It's more likely that he needs to play in the AHL for a season or part of a season before earning a spot in the NHL. Rosters can change quickly for all kinds of reasons (injuries, salary cap, trades, etc.). Predicting any NHL team's roster spot opening is pretty short sighted. He should first focus on making a NHL team and then his play will determine his future. The development camp should give him good exposure to the Sabres improved culture and talent level. If I were him I would have confidence in my abilities and would buy into the vision and want to be a part of the team. Same goes for Portillo in my opinion. Have confidence in your abilities, be humble, work hard and win your spot.

I'm not surprised at the signing of Subban but I don't agree that he's a better option than Tokarski for Rochester. Tokarski exceeded expectations for sure. It's a good thing too or we would have had to endure more of Dell last season. Tokarski wasn't expected to be the backup last season, he won the job over the competition (Dell and UPL) who were not ready. I wish Toker all the best with his next team (and yes it goes without say that we need an adequate goalie to play with Anderson).

He had a good bounce back year last season but I'll check back in 2026. I'm not convinced his contract will age well.

Anderson was with Washington before coming to the Sabres. He should be able to provide some insight on Samsonov's attitude and character but I agree he has a better name than his stats.

Patrick Kane had a really good year last season stats wise. 26 G, 66 A, 92 Pts. He's 33, I wonder if our analytics guys can predict his future production or expected decline? I'm assuming a 2 or 3 year deal would be reasonable to expect him to stay productive. But I do wonder about having both Kane and Skinner on the team as our two top paid wingers long term. Next season not a problem. Since we're in fantasy trade land. How about trading for Kane and signing him to a new 3 year deal. No salary retained by Chicago (for next season). But Buffalo sends back Skinner to Chicago retaining $3M of Skinner's salary. So Skinner becomes a $6M player for Chicago. Buffalo gets the better player and a guy with playoff experience in Kane. The stop is that Skinner would have to agree to the trade because he has a no move clause (NMC) and it's doubtful he would.

Yes I had to Google him too. I found it funny that Taylor Lautner does look like him and is the same height 5'9".

I agree that Promo could have chosen a better example than Hasek to make his point. I always remember this save by Hasek on Mario in the playoffs, traded to the Sabres in the off season. Unfortunately too many GM's thought he had no style before he got his chance. Absolutely agree on not needing the Fuhr trade for what could have been.

Maybe? But I was answering your post about free agent goalies "any goalkeeper that would upgrade what we have have not been interested in coming here" . Comparing Detroit and Buffalo we are in a similar state of re-build. I believe we should be better than Detroit next season if we get the goal tending figured out. Husso would have been a good signing.

I thought Subban was a good gamble last year but he didn't look good in the limited time he played before injury (so why re-sign him). I do believe Tokarski is ahead of him in my opinion assuming he'll sign again as an insurance guy.................but still need a goalie vastly better than both for the Sabres to play with Anderson.

I said this in another thread but I'm not sure why any of us care about Subban. His stats are poor and he doesn't look like he's going to make it in the NHL. I would rather sign Tokarski again as a player for Rochester and call up for the Sabres along with UPL (because we have had so many injuries in the past 2 seasons). Still need a viable option for playing 50 games with the Sabres to play with Anderson.

Detroit just traded for Husso and then gave him a contract despite the fact that they drafted a goalie high in the first round last year in Cossa (so not concerned about blocking just looking to win and improve this year). Last season they traded for Nedeljkovic. We can argue about the quality of those goaltenders but at least GM Yzerman has done a better job than Adams two years in a row improving the goaltender position on a team in a similar spot in the rebuild process.

Agree on Comrie. It's getting pretty thin. Any chance on getting a younger goalie like Carter Hart who's coming off a couple of poor seasons? Dan Vladar in Calgary? Overall the league really needs some of these goalie prospects to break in and establish themselves. https://thehockeywriters.com/who-is-the-nhls-top-goaltending-prospect/

Like many, I've been preparing for the NHL draft year after year, researching prospects and trying to project where they might help the Sabres down the road. It's fun and is one of the highlights of the year especially when your team misses the playoffs. There's a couple of players that were on my wish list for this year that did not fall exactly into the spot where we were picking (happens every year) but I can't complain about any of the picks. But what I would like to say is that I believe the Sabres have taken a nice step in drafting players past the first round that have great value and potential for the past 2 years. Time will tell but they really look like they know what they are doing now in the draft. Great job by Jerry Forton and the scouting and analytics staff. It should be a good development camp and fun to watch these players develop.

Seattle has had some pretty good results fall their way in the last two drafts considering they did not have 1OA pick either year. Matty Beniers and Shane Wright are a couple of nice players for them to build with. They should be pretty happy with the way the picks went first round.

WRONG!

Great pick at 28. No complaints.