RochesterExpat

1) Team MVP - Dahlin 2) Rookie of the Year - Samuelsson 3) Comeback Player of the Year - Okposo or Skinner 4) Unsung Hero (player who doesn’t get enough credit) - Asplund if we're talking on-ice. Okposo if we're talking off-ice. 5) Top Forward - TT 6) Team Norris - Dahlin 7) Team Vezina - Houser, technically. Otherwise it has to be Andy followed by UPL.

People seem to be forgetting the cap will go up again. We're not in a flat cap forever. Signing him for 6 @ 6.5 would be a good deal for Buffalo for a Top 6 player (assuming he continues to fill such a role) who gets 55+ points in a season (when balanced toward pucks in the net). If he matures into a PPG player then it's a steal. At some point you need to gamble on players. TT has been consistently good this season playing against top lines in the league. Should he regress, it won't be on the scale where paying him Okposo numbers when the cap is going to increase again is a bad thing. I understand reservations people have because Buffalo signed Skinner to an overpay with too much term (which, even then, at the time of expiry the contract won't be all that bad because the cap will go up), but you can't live forever in a bridge/'prove it' deal world. Say Buffalo signs him for 3 years at 5 million to bridge him to 27/28 and he continues to develop into a true 1C putting up PPG numbers, Buffalo could be looking at a massive hit to re-sign him when he's a pending UFA. It goes both ways, but it could be hurting more because the cap will have gone up in three years. GMs right now can play the "we don't know what the cap will be in three years" card. That ace-in-the-hole is going to go away sooner rather than later. Sign him this offseason or early into next season. Lock him up for 6 years. Make a statement that you're done doing never-ending short-term contracts. Sign VO for 4-5 years. The only player getting a bridge/short-term deal this off-season should be UPL (not counting Murray/R2/Biro or however those get handled).

I thought it was a bad draft choice. Glad it looks more and more like I was wrong.

I was under the impression the patching was necessary to tow it to a dry dock for further repairs, but now I can't find any real information regarding the repair plan. I might have been confusing the repairs with those of the USS Texas. Honestly, there's not a ton of information out there about the long-term plan for the ship.

Someone point me where I'm wrong, but--as far as I know--it's a three year contract. He is 20 years old and two year contracts are for 22 or 23 year old players. 24 year old's sign 1 year contracts. If he had signed this year it would have burned a year leaving him with two. My guess is he signs when the season is over so he gets the full three years which is presumably what the Sabres want.

Mittens control in the zone and his confidence to play heads up and wait to see what develops is really promising. Krebs needs to work on his shooting.

I like this kid and I was honesty not that hyped about him.

Asplund is having a solid showing so far on offense. Nice to see.

Shooting is up which is resulting in more pucks going in the net. Hence why SV% has been in line with last year all season while number of goals has gone up.

Are there any goalies Buffalo could conceivably offer sheet on? The only one I can think of is Jake Oettinger and I suspect Dallas may not match if Buffalo did a $4m x 3 year contract. He'd expire as an RFA in Buffalo at the cost of a 2nd round draft pick in 2023. On the flip side, if Dallas matches, there's zero chance they can afford to re-sign Klingberg when they have to sign Robertson this year and Hintz next season... so maybe there's a right-shot defensman that can be picked up as a result. Not that anyone does offer sheets because of some bs "gentleman's agreement."

I watch a lot of Amerks games via AHL.tv and JJ's "defensive liability" is lessening as the season continues. Quinn has a much better two-way game and they're not at all at the same stage in development, but JJ continues to get better and should be starting the season in Buffalo next year. Peterka mentioned in an interview that he struggled when he first arrived in Rochester because the changes in the rink size. The DEL plays on a sheet of ice that is something like 20% wider than an NHL rink. This allows for substantially more real estate on zone entry (the old "finesse" vs "physicality" argument) and players tend to carry the puck for longer stretches. If you watch the Amerks, you'll notice he has a tendency to overcommit on man and he doesn't position well in zone. It happens a lot with EU skaters when transitioning to NA hockey. When Asplund first came to Rochester, he was a similar defensive liability for the majority of the season and even into his second year because he would be incorrectly positioned on zone coverage. I would hardly think anyone will argue he's a defensive liability in Buffalo at this point. Considering JJ was billed as a two-way, physical skater during the draft, I believe his game will adapt--as it did with offense--and he will figure out the defensive aspects to North American hockey in due time. It's something he's clearly been working on as it is already.

Joki holding the line.

I'm more afraid of going on the power play again than 5v5.

That's one way to draw a penalty lol

Sabres look lazy right now. I swear this team just quits too easily when Tokarski is in net.

Krebs needs to work on his one-on-one game this off-season. He's too reliant on passing.

Yeah, I have a few acres outside of town on the Fort Worth side. I saw Yuri's location which is why I mentioned it.

At least Granato was waiting in the wings. If nothing else, we can thank Krueger/Botterill for hiring Donny. Also, howdy from Granbury.

I watched several regular season KHL games this year (ESPN+ had streaming rights to some of the games) and Novikov was very impressive as a stay-at-home defenseman (playing 3rd or 4th pairing--KHL rolls 4 pairs of defensemen for those who are confused at this) and I'm glad you have him listed here as high as you do. He knows how to use his size to his advantage and does a very good job disrupting the play with his stickwork. If the current political climate doesn't prevent it, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Buffalo trying to bring him into Rochester at the end of next season. Frankly, I'd have him above Kisakov as well, but assessing the value of stay-at-home D-men is incredibly difficult. Especially when he is only playing 5-10 shifts a game.

He wants to win a championship and is not happy with the outcome of his last season. Rather than whine, complain and ask for a trade, he's going back to the same mediocre team to give it another chance because he's clearly a very driven player. Instead of quitting and jumping ship, he's foregoing hundreds of thousands of dollars and the limelight of professional hockey to try and win a championship. Maybe I'm just an optimist, but isn't everyone else here tired of people who either accept losing and become complacent, or else jump ship and request a trade because the team is underperforming? I'd much rather have the guy who shows up at the start of the season having spent the entire off-season analyzing how he could improve and what he needs to do to get the team to the next step. Is this the best move from a development standpoint? Highly unlikely. Is this the best move to stop the Chicken Littles? Not at all. Is this a move that tells us if he is the kind of personality we want on the team? In my opinion it absolutely is.

https://www.nhl.com/news/five-questions-entering-nhl-central-scouting-final-meetings/c-332592714 Curious what the "can skate well and has impressive speed" really means or if they're just biasing it because the first item (that he's "big").

I understand why people are pretty pessimistic, being Buffalo and all, but I don't think the Sabres will have an issue signing either Levi or Portillo. Levi is a UFA in July of 2024. That means two more seasons of NCAA hockey before he's able to sign with a different team. There's a huge opportunity cost to waiting those two years and he has to be aware of that. His agent, friends and family are all going to be telling him the same thing. He's also friends with a bunch of the young guys in Buffalo already who are (presumably) telling him to sign. It's a difficult decision for someone who is competitive to walk away without winning a championship, especially when your season ended as disappointingly as his did. He's only 20 years old. I don't blame him for wanting to give it another run. It's also a good sign that he has the attitude we all want in players. Also, as said above, the guy went on a Sabres' fans podcast. That's a good sign he wants to be in Buffalo as he would have nothing to gain from it otherwise. Portillo is a UFA in July of 2023, but the Michigan hockey team is going to be gutted by players turning pro this offseason and Portillo has to be aware of that. UMich hockey is very much in a "win now" scenario. I can't imagine he goes back there when it's almost guaranteed his numbers will be worse going into the free agency and the team has a moonshot at a championship. He has a real opportunity to get time in the AHL next season if he signs now. I'm sure he's aware of that.