RochesterExpat

Put another way (and to reiterate what @LGR4GM already alluded to at the end of his post): as a second round pick, making the list is even more of a noteworthy accomplishment. He’s one of only six non-first round picks in the last decade with similar performance at age 21 (I’m adding one if you check these numbers because I’m giving Jason Robertson the benefit of the doubt as he hit 45 points in only 58 games). Those players? - Aho - DeBrincat - Point - Kucherov - Gaudreau And the aforementioned Robertson. That’s some pretty good company to be in. Good for JJ.

To the point about the weak power play and JJP having room to grow there, he was tied with Sidney Crosby and Brady Tkachuk for 5-on-5 goals this season—good enough to have only eleven players league-wide with more 5-on-5 goals.

It’s not just first period. It’s readiness in general. I said this in the Oct 17th GDT against Tampa: From the outside looking in, I will say I think Granato made a mistake with his handling/allocating the preseason games. The Sabres gave too many games to rookies and too few games getting the top lines together. The organization is too far along in the rebuild to give this much ice time to evaluating rookies. I don’t see this being an issue under Ruff. I will be shocked if the preseason roster isn’t a much shorter list this season.

+1 future Sabres fan. Mom and baby are healthy and everything went well. Now to hope the kid grows up in an era of a winning hockey team in Buffalo.

$3.3 to $4 million for three years ($10-12 million contract value). That’s market value for young goalies with less than a full season of solid performance. Oettinger, Gustavsson, and Georgiev being comps.

It’s not about making room it’s about the kids competing for jobs and winning—exactly what you want to see happen. Quinn and Peterka were guaranteed to make the jump after their rookie AHL seasons and GMKA / Granato said as much that they “earned it” the year before. I don’t see Ruff having that mentality at all. It’s going to be real roster spot competition. He waived Pominville in 2005 because he didn’t meet the expectations set for the offseason. A lot of this hinges on what moves are made in the offseason. Buffalo needs to add to the right side on defense. They also need to add a scoring winger for the top 6 and overhaul of the bottom 6. I think Johnson is a trade piece because he has the 1st round pedigree and he has time in the show from this season. I realize it may not be a popular opinion—or a correct one since public advanced stats for the AHL are nonexistent and the eye test is subjective at best—but I believe Novikov is ahead of Johnson based on watching the last two months of Amerks games. But, again, I’m not suggesting that Novikov deserves a roster spot. I’m merely saying that I think he earns one at camp because of how he plays hockey and what Lindy is likely looking for. I also want to clarify that I do not believe for one minute that Novikov is a top pairing defenseman or will become one. He’s a bottom pair and 7th D guy, but he plays a mature game and plays the style that Lindy likes. He’s fast. He moves the puck well. He breaks up plays well. His status as a rookie shouldn’t preclude him from the roster if he earns the spot. Vanek was a rookie in 05-06. Paetsch and Stafford were rookies in 06-07 (side note, I will never forget Stafford dropping the gloves against Neil for Campbell). Kaleta would have been a rookie in 06 too I think. Of course those were forwards. Anyway, at the of the day, it’s a fun thought exercise to project Lindy’s impact while I’m sitting in the hospital delivery room, but also somewhat meaningless until the summer roster moves are made. If we roll it back next season instead of making meaningful changes, I think I’ll lose my mind.

I agree it’s going to be the defense. As for specific players, it’s going to kick open the door for Novikov to fight for a roster spot because he is the type of D-man that Lindy loves. If Novikov plays well during the playoffs and comes to camp prepared, I will not be surprised to see him earn a roster spot. Even if it’s as the 7th D. One of the changes I see is Lindy is going to put an end to “it’s better to have a weaker player on the NHL roster so the stronger player can get more ice time in the AHL.” That’s not how it was handled in NJ. I don’t expect it to be different in Buffalo. You build the roster to in win first and foremost. The other player I think will be the boom or bust will be Clifton. He did well in Boston’s system and started to get his feet under him after a pretty bad start to the season. I look forward to seeing him under Ruff and back to playing on a team with a system where he has an explicit role. I also have a strangely optimistic feeling about Peyton Krebs next season. If he is on the Sabres, I can see him finding a real role with expectations under Ruff. Not just a “we’re not sure where to put you so welcome to the fourth line” spot.

I don’t think you can fault people for favoring the names they know. Especially when he is being touted as highly as he is by the national media. I said Vinny Prospal because he has the type of mentality I want to see in a coach. What do I mean by that? The Amerks do coaches vs player scrimmages on occasion. Vinny was upset the coaches weren’t winning enough that he started bringing full equipment to the rink to put on for the scrimmage—just so he could skate at full speed. I want coaches that want to win and the fact you have a 50 year old coach (or close to it, I’m too lazy to look) putting on his equipment because he hates losing to his own players in a meaningless scrimmage tells me Vinny hates losing. Not to sound like every other person on repeat, but Buffalo needs to fix the culture of losing. It starts by bringing in the right coaches. I’m sure there are plenty of names I haven’t thought of that fit that type. Those are just the players I want to see. McKee is mentioned because he would do everything he could as a player to get a win. Peca the same and we have Peca’s public comments as a coach to back it up. It’s the mentality that I care about. Not the name. It’s not “it’s okay to make a mistake” Granato anymore. It’s “you should be pissed off you lost a game and out there playing every minute to win it.”

This is why Peca is on the wishlist for so many. He’s the obvious crossover between the two lists even if he’s “light” on experience. I guess in my mind, I’d like to see the coaching staff consist of something like: HC - Ruff, obviously Associate Coach - Peca (probably necessary title to pull him from the Rangers assuming they grant permission to speak with him). Assistant Coach 1 - NHL assistant level experienced candidate (or AHL HC). Or Peca if you can bring in a probably-ready-to-be-a-HC Jay Leach type candidate as the associate. Maybe Cory Stillman doesn’t want to move to Utah? Although he’s another candidate that would probably want the associate title. Does Joe Sacco want to leave Boston and come back to Buffalo? Doubt it, but that’s the kind of candidate I want to see. Assistant Coach 2 - Vinny Prospal/Jay McKee. I like Vinny as an assistant coach in Rochester and I think this is the coaching position you open the door to experimenting with the “rookie” candidates. Vinny has enough player experience and he’s not a young kid so I think he would be fine. McKee is also “inexperienced” at the NHL coaching level, but he has the coaching bona fides from lower levels and also the NHL/Sabres experience. Goaltending - Mike Bales. It ain’t broke. Don’t fix it.

No argument from me, but it’s uncommon around the league to have your goal scoring 1st line center killing penalties because the injury risk from blocking shots.

Yes, but his contract might be up this year. Assistant coaching contracts aren’t public information so people are speculating (or hoping in my case) that he might be available.

Muel should be used as a PK specialist and get third pairing minutes time for 5v5. Nothing is guaranteed, but I think changing his minutes from 20-25 a night to 15 would go a long way to helping reduce his injuries. And it’s not like I think that’s a poor utilization for him either. I think that’s to the best benefit of both the team and the player. Then again, Granato had Thompson blocking shots on the PK, so who knows what Ruff might do or how the team will look.

The season isn’t even over. That’s the kind of change that should be done in the offseason.

I’m just glad GMKA hired him in April instead of May/June so this forum can fully utilize the extra time to debate the logic of it in a friendly and enjoyable manner.

I’m strangely indifferent about this hire. He wasn’t in my top 3, but he wasn’t at the bottom of my list either. Jeff Skinner is really about to hate hockey though.

Weren’t the Sabres at like a 75 point pace when he signed and the Wings were in a playoff spot? It’s weird to try and argue he made a poor choice when you have the benefit of hindsight. At the time he signed, Buffalo was nowhere close to Detroit. I don’t think we’d even won consecutive games yet. I can’t fault him at all for looking at Buffalo and turning us down for a better opportunity.

The failure to promote Peca internally is one of the biggest “little” failures of this organization recently. For what it’s worth, Gallant was my choice for coach when DG was hired as the full-time HC. He is still my choice today. I’m not against Lindy and I don’t see Rod “the Bod” Brind-mi-amor as available. Gallant and Peca behind the bench would be my dream scenario. Gallant gets his run and then the reigns get passed to Peca eventually once Gallant leaves.

Quoting myself to post (what I hope) is an answer.

I really hope Mike Bales is not going anywhere. I realize he's not mentioned, but he came here in 2019-2020 so this would be his fifth season. Considering the normal contract length is 3 years to bring someone in--and it seems that Pegula likes two year extensions--his contract could be up after this season. Of all the assistant coaches, he's been the one I have the least complaints with. That's in spite of the fact I've got a lot of complaints about how goaltending has been handled since he's been here.

Are they both on expiring contracts? It's not public, but if you look at dates joined, it's entirely plausible.

Alternatively, Adams finally got Pegula's approval. I really want to know the actual dynamic between the two.

Did they fire the wrong Matt? Also, happy to have been wrong about this one.

I didn’t go this year and I’m quite happy with the decision considering ticket prices. The crazy bit for me is my parents didn’t even go after moving here this year—making this the first season they haven’t attended a single game since before Ryan Miller was drafted (excluding the COVID season). I know my mom dropped her season ticket package after 2020-21 and she has been pretty vocal about not liking the team, but it still blew my mind when my mom said they weren’t going because it wasn’t worth it.

Consistency is the key to success.

Everyone here complaining about Pegula and he’s not even the worst owner of a sports franchise I’m a fan of. Sabres fans, behold your future: https://triblive.com/sports/mark-madden-pirates-could-try-to-be-a-real-baseball-team-but-they-dont-have-to/ “Well, the Pirates have been hard to watch for a long time. They haven’t won a playoff series since 1979 and have had four winning seasons since 1992. They dismantled a 98-win team following the 2015 season in the name of financial gain. (That’s the definition of a despicable betrayal.) But the Pirates never disappoint because they always disappoint. Some fans actually defend owner Bob Nutting’s thrift. Nutting’s greatest trick is making customers care about his money like it’s their money even as he takes their money and makes it his money. It’s an amazing phenomenon.”