Porous Five Hole

UPL to arbitration made my month. The Sabres need to know if UPL is the .910+ guy he played to be last season (or not). This is a short-term cost-controlled way to find out. He gets paid in a year where the cap is not of any importance to this team’s cap max. I hope he rakes the Sabres over the coals and earns his long term deal. And if not and he returns to his .898 or injured form that he was displayed to be every year prior to 23-24, then the Sabres are protected and Levi gets the keys to the kingdom. It’s a perfect scenario for the Sabres.

I think this is the best move for all involved. The Sabres get more runway to see if UPL is “him.” UPL gets a raise and if he runs it back, will have a nice long term contract waiting for him (here or somewhere else). Swayman elected for arbitration last year and it has gone well for him. He’s about to get PAID.

Konsta doing Konsta things

I’m not sure of the new folks being brought in, but the guys being brought back aren’t built that way in the traditional sense. ROC got bounced out of the playoffs by a stronger and more mature Syracuse team (all one goal games until the goalie was pulled late in the last one). But, they won four playoff series the two previous years combined before that (including beating that same Cuse team the year before). They have had a strong team vibe in that they stuck up for each other. But no police or enforcers.

Benson’s total goes up and Tarasanko/Zucker do the rest. I have zero evidence that Tarasanko is coming here, but it would do the trick.

The Sabres also re-signed Mason Jobst, which is welcome news

Appert loved Murray. Good character guy and hard worker.

Welp, today sealed it for me. UFA day is the most depressing.

Serg makes 8.5MM. Do you really want to take that on? That would make the Sabres have the highest D payroll in NHL history. And Marino isn’t good. I get what you’re saying, but I haven’t seen a top six forward get traded that I’m jealous of (so far).

Agree with you on you cannot keep everyone. But Buffalo better not be promoting any of these guys to a top six role next year. Let them fight it out in ROC.

You quoted Ostland. He just got to North America during the AHL playoffs and was all tourney at the Worlds shortly before that. How about we wait and see on him?

Similar size to Power. Hope he isn’t allergic to contact like OP.

So we got the guy KA would have drafted 11th at 14, and got a bottom six NHLer for the move down. All I can assume is that no move clauses are murdering the Sabres right now.

A chart from RMNB shows every NHL forward from the last decade and how often they started in the defensive zone versus the offensive zone. Malenstyn ranked 7th for most defensive-zone starts (behind this season’s Dowd and 2018’s Jay Beagle). Out of 3046 player-seasons, Malenstyn ranked 3045th in offensive-zone starts (ahead of only this season’s Nicolas Aube-Kubel). That ratio is simply the most extreme defensive deployment for a forward since the NHL started tracking zone starts. That’s wild. https://russianmachineneverbreaks.com/2024/05/17/beck-malenstyn-2023-24-season-review/

Look at his usage courtesy of RMNB.

That’s what I was thinking.

An idea of what it looks like inside.

Here’s what’s going on it’s Stammer, per LeBrun. It’s interesting…Tampa is saying you’re going to make 21MM on the open market (figure $7MM X 3). After factoring in the FL state tax discount, Tampa is saying let us pay whatever the net figure would be ($18MM) over a long period of time and we will front load the deal with bonuses. It was worth a shot.

I watched a lot of the Amerks last year and I would welcome Cecconi & Davies back. This signing is confusing to me because they didn’t make Cale eligible for the AHL playoffs. I assumed the Sabres felt like sending him home instead of to ROC was for the best. So I’m surprised here.

I think it is a combination of Kevyn being a little too honest and also trying to portray the “GMing is hard” trope he’s been on recently.

Not to my eyes. He ate 20 min a night last year, but almost 60% of his zone starts were in the offensive zone…while his goals above expected is not impressive. Florida was awesome last year and his starts were very protected. His foot speed is on the decline and he was never fast or agile to begin with. He only has one year left on his deal at 7.5MM, so Buffalo could afford that next year. But he’s not a defense first type that we could partner with Dahlin or Power.

Well that’s your bad lol 😉 It is probably similar in some way.

I can help. When you upload a pic, choose this option: Then, select the size that fits (less than 500KB)

I’ve been thinking about this specific to Casey. Mitts netted the Sabres a top four D, which Buffalo doesn’t have anywhere near their current pipeline. But the Sabres do have potential top six forwards to play Casey’s role very soon. If we can agree that Tage, Tuch, Skinner, Cozens, JJP are locked as top six forwards (let’s see what happens with Skinner—but the financial commitment remains either way), it’s a lot easier to elevate Quinn to the top six and not lose much…than it is to elevate Ryan Johnson to the top four. I think you lose a lot there & Byram is a huge upgrade over RyJo. But Mitts is not a huge upgrade over Quinn (assuming Quinn’s trajectory continues). Maybe this is a hot take? But not to me. Mitts being a near 6MM player is a luxury this team won’t be able to afford. To use him to acquire Byram was a good move. I understand this take may not be super popular, but I get what the Sabres are trying to do.

You make a great point. No way to move on from a dynamic player like these guys. But there’s risk in so many eggs in only a couple baskets.