RochesterExpat

I bought a t-shirt from there and I wear it every time I visit Rochester/Buffalo just to see how many people catch the "Southlake, TX" part. To answer your question though, pizza is hit or miss and a lot more miss than hit here. We have one local (for me) one that's decent enough, but it isn't worth the drive for you (I live where my neighbor across the road has 4,000 acres). Funny enough, the lack of decent wings here is the reason I've got quite good at making wings. I don't know why I don't try making pizza. If you want a wood-fired, non-"traditional" pizza, this place in Fort Worth is pretty good and the beer is decent. Although, honestly, the sandwiches are the best thing on the menu.

I'm not the biggest fan of Ryan Johnson, but I will add one other underrated skill he has: a pro mindset. If you look at any of the interviews with any of his coaches or the development staff, they all stress just how serious he takes the game. More often than not, coaches are saying he takes it too seriously. That's one thing that can't be easily taught or improved on through practice.

Not sure it's a good idea since half the time I post I'm on the toilet.

I love his vacant expression.

Random side note, his historical look back videos / career videos are interesting. Parts of hockey I’ve forgotten or never knew.

Absolutely agree, but it's still useful for some "bigger" takeaways. As I said earlier in the thread, to me those takeaways would be Novikov's mature level of play and Neuchev's stickhandling. The same could be said for the prospect challenge last year which, granted, is certainly a step above prospect camp, but is still ultimately just a scrimmage. There's still some takeaways that can be made. The biggest one last year for me was that Juraj Slafkovsky played with his head down and relied too much on his size and I went so far as to say his play was "near suicidal in the NHL." You had the same takeaway about his play not being at the NHL level in the thread as well. Slaf played in 39 games. In those 39 games, he was injured against Arizona and missed a few games. The injury occurred because he was skating with his head down. His season ended due to an injury against the Rangers where he was just staring at his skates and got bumped down in the offensive zone. But that overlooks the fact that he missed shifts due to injury when playing the Canucks, the Wild, and the Sens. He damn near killed himself against Chicago. He was reaching for a puck with his head down... in the NHL. Not to mention he got a game misconduct and two game suspension for boarding in a game against the Red Wings. All in 39 games. I'd say we were both right on that big takeaway from a scrimmage.

Murray came off LTIR at the end of last season and was considered healthy enough to be a rostered player. If he goes on LTIR again, the league may actually investigate that one because there's no reason (other than it's Murray) for him to be on LTIR.

Neuchev's stickhandling reminded me at times of Afinogenov and I don't say that lightly. He was doing some pretty wild stuff--and not always successfully. The kid has some serious hands.

Not a lot of takeaways since it's 3 on 3 and a fun tourney for prospects. Probably the biggest one is that Novikov strikes me as a professional hockey player. It's the little things on the ice (like the previously linked stick lift play) coupled with the relatively big things often overlooked in something like this. First and foremost, if you watched him closely, he was actively directing his teammates in the defensive zone. Considering last year at the draft he spoke zero English (no idea on his current language skills), I'm impressed that he has the confidence to even try. He's known these guys for a week and he was already comfortable managing them on the ice--and the players respected him enough to respond. That's a really good sign for things to come.

Capfriendly’s FAQ suggests you can exceed the 10% via LTIR.

So at that rate we've got about 3 years to go lol

Curious to see how Kisakov does this season and how much his 150lb listed weight on eliteprospects changes. He had a disappointing freshman season in Rochester, but sometimes it's hard to remember they're just kids and, in Kisakov's case, he moved half a world away from his friends and family to play a sport in foreign country where he doesn't speak the language. That's mentally tough. Case in point: you can see him in the video say he's excited to "make new friends who can speak Russian."

That was a good one. Never would have got it.

Just because of the last question, I want to say Mike Ramsey, but he wouldn't have joined the team until after the Winter Olympics in February. I can't imagine it was him because he could only have played in a dozen games or so. Honestly no idea. Lindy Ruff?

Ken Morrow

Speaking of 1,000 game milestones, Jeff Skinner will likely hit his this season. Still has zero playoff games on his C.V. though.

This is a really good point and to further it--all of those players except for Korpisalo played in the AHL or NHL the year prior to their age 21 season. Steve Mason: Age 20 season spent in the NHL with 61 regular season games (plus 3 in the AHL) and 4 playoff games (68 total). Age 19: 47 games (OHL/WJC) Carey Price: Age 20 season spent in the NHL with 41 regular, 11 post-season games + 10 AHL games (62 total). Season prior he played 2 regular + 22 post- season AHL games and 46 WHL games (70 total). MAF: Age 20 season in the AHL for 54 regular and 4 post season games (58 total). Age 19 was 43 games between NHL, QMJHL, AHL and WJC. Luongo: Age 20 season split between 24 NHL, 26 + 6 AHL (56 games). Age 19 was 73 games between QMJHL and WJC Hart: Age 20 season split between 31 NHL, 18 AHL, 3 WWC (52 total). Age 19 was 63 WHL games and 6 WJC (69 total). Korpisalo: Age 20 season split between 38 + 2 in Liiga + 3 AHL (43 total). Age 19 he played for like 7 different teams in Finland for only 20 total games. Ward (worth noting he actually played 51 NHL games his rookie season as he added 23 playoff games): Age 20 was 50+11 AHL games (61 total). Age 19 was 56 + 19 (75 total) WHL games. Devon Levi last season played 34 NCAA games, 7 NHL games and 1 WC game (42 total). The year prior he played 32 NCAA games. Of all the goalies above, he played fewer games than anyone in the season prior and lower than all but Korpisalo for D-2. Buffalo is making one hell of a gamble. Best case? He turns out to be close to Bob who, for his age 22 season, was only 3 months older than Levi will be for his age 21 season. Bob played 35 KHL regular season games and 12 MHL post season games (47 total) before coming to NA. Bob's first NHL season he played 54 games, posted 28-13-8 record with a 2.59 GAA and .915 SV%. Of course, if that happens, I look forward to trading Levi in two years and signing an aging goalie to a 9 year contract that we buy out two years later and spend the next 13 years eating the cap hit.

I'd rather Joki than Johnson and I say that as someone who has a pretty low opinion of Joki.

I'm interested in Novikov for two reasons. First, it'll be a good assessment for how the current, post-Ukraine invasion KHL looks as far as actual competitiveness. Second, while I don't think Novikov has the highest ceiling, he looks like he could be a long-term 5th D / PK specialist. He attacks the puck especially well with his stick and he maneuvers his body into lanes really well for a guy his size who doesn't necessarily have the fancy edgework of players like Dahlin. That's the kind of attributes I'd want in a PK guy.

That's a bit misleading as it doesn't have qualified RFA's signed and some rosters are missing the minimum player requirement. Just looking at teams ranked around Buffalo: 9th is Minnesota: $7.5m left to resign RFAs Brandon Duhaime ($1m), Calen Addison ($1.5m) and Filip Gustavsson ($3m+). Assuming they sign those RFAs, that leaves them with 11 forwards and 6 defensemen. Assuming they are pulling up Faber ($925K) and Lettieri ($775K) and one of Fogarty/Rossi, we can just go ahead and assume another $2.5m in cap is going to get used to round out the roster from internal callups. 10th is Boston: $6.2m left to sign RFAs Ian Mitchell ($1-1.5m), Trent Frederic ($2m+) and Jeremy Swayman ($4m). Boston is in a very tricky cap situation. 11th is the Rangers: $6.1m left to sign RFAs Alexis Lafreniere (likely around $2.1m that KK got) and K'Andre Miller (who should sign a multiyear at $4m+ AAV). Considering the Rangers need to sign KK, Lindgren, and Schneider next offseason and have 5 of 13 forwards currently making $800k or less a year and will still need another backup goalie next season--ouch! 12th is Buffalo. We have 25 of 23 roster spots filled currently. The Sabres really do have $5.8m in cap space available. Murray and Weissbach need two-ways deals if we are getting really pedantic about it. 13th is San Jose at $5.7m.They've got a full roster right now. So, like Buffalo, this is real cap space. 14th is New Jersey at $5.6m. Assuming they intend to fill the 12th and 13th forward slots with rookie talent, and they sign RFA Kevin Bahl for $1.3-1.6, they've probably got around $2.7m in cap space. That's a good spot to be in for a competitive team. 15th is Edmonton with $4.8m to sign RFAs McLeod ($1.9-$2.3m) and Bouchard ($3.75m per Seravalli so lets say $3.5-4m). Ouch. So, reranking those 9th through 15th slots: 9th - Buffalo: $5.8m 10th - San Jose: $5.7m 11th - New Jersey: $2.7m 12th - Rangers - $0 13th - Minnesota - -$500K 14th - Edmonton - -$600K 15th - Boston - -$800K There really is a cap crunch in the league right now. That's not an invented issue.

This is what I expect as well, but I see a lot of references (especially on Reddit) to Johnson Jr. being a Sabre this season. I thought it odd since at no point over the last year did I think he was going to be an immediately impactful player. I wanted to make sure I wasn't totally off-base. Don't get me wrong, I'd absolutely love it if he made the team this season because it means we're only improving, but I just don't see it happening. I think part of the issue is he played with Brock Faber and Jackson LaCombe who will almost certainly see NHL time next season. Faber is virtually guaranteed a roster spot this season in Minnesota due to the salary cap (they have $7.5m and still need to sign Gustavsson and three forwards). LaCombe is similarly likely to get a crack at the Ducks' roster as the team only has four defensemen signed who played exclusively in the NHL last season (that's counting Drysdale's QO as a signing). One of those signed players is Robert Hägg so we're not exactly talking about an elite D-core. A fifth, Colton White, played the majority of the season in Anaheim, but still played some in San Diego. Of course, the Ducks also have cap space to make moves if they want to. But, as it stands now, LaCombe is likely to play in the NHL.

Honest question, but what makes people so convinced Johnson is ready for the NHL this season? I am confident in his work ethic and seriousness toward the game based on quite literally every interview about the kid I can find, but do we really expect him to make the leap this year? And, on that note, does it really benefit him any from playing third pairing minutes in the NHL as opposed to getting top minutes in the AHL if he’s not a serious improvement over the player he is replacing? Similarly, why is no one talking about Novikov? To me, if we’re talking about a mid-season rookie call up to play 3rd pair, Novikov has the edge on Johnson. Johnson has the higher ceiling, but Novikov’s floor is higher. It just depends on how his game translates to NA. Neither are slide candidates so that doesn’t influence the decision either. But, more importantly, are Johnson or Novikov better as it stands right now than Stillman, Clague or even Davies? Or is that just optimistic bias toward our own prospects? Yeah this one was disappointing. And I say that admitting I like Stillman as a 7th D that a coach can rotate in when his presence matches well against the opposing roster. His addition didn’t make a ton of sense as far as moving the bar—something Buffalo needed to do.

If he’s moved it’s either following the arbitration week when teams have a final cap picture or it’s after the season starts and he shows zero growth to round out his game. I expect him to be on the opening night roster only because the market for wingers appears soft.

I’ll be honest and say I’m in his camp that this is news to me. I’ve heard very little as far as people from Buffalo doubting the pick. Admittedly, I think they drafted well so it’s possible I’m suffering confirmation bias. It could also simply be that it’s the summer and I just spent a weekend building a greenhouse. I’m not following hockey as closely as I do when the season is ongoing.

It’s hard to score goals when you’re not in the lineup because the coach considers you a liability.