Jorcus

Comparing Dahlin to Makar is like comparing Messier to Gretzky. Both great but in different ways. Dahlin has more power and 2 way play. He will fight you and throw you on the ice. Makar is better with his stick. He is quicker and handles the puck with speed. Both exceptional talents. I think most people around here under rate Byram. He is only 23 years old and has played 232 NHL games. Dahlin started earlier but he really started to blossom after he played 200 games. Byram is fast, He carries the puck well, he is a very good passer. Considering he is on the 2nd power play unit he plays a lot of minutes. At 30 years old you could say Devon Towes is better than Byram right now. Towes never even started playing in the NHL hockey until he was 24 years old. He is about as good as he will ever be. In the long run If Byram stays healthy he will have a way better career. I am pretty convinced we are going to lose Byram. Adams or whomever better get something really good in return. We can't give him up for draft picks. He is worth a lot.

When you look at the criteria used for the rankings it rewards the cities that have the most pizza places, the cheapest prices and how many on line searches there are. So too me that indicates we are lazy and cheap. Kind of like our hockey team at the moment.

Checkers played a very good defensive game. As soon as a puck got to an Amerk someone was on them. Amerks eventually got pressure on the Checkers but much like the Sabres they just can not get a good power play going. The one goal the Checkers scored on Levi was as a result of a 2 on 1 when the player was sprung at the end of a penalty. I think the Amerks were caught unaware the power play was over. I don't think Levi was banging his stick loud enough if at all. Rathbone punched old friend Rasmus Asplund in the face.

There are some rumors around the internet that the Penguins and the Black Hawks may be willing to go up to 8.5 Million for Peterka on an offer sheet. The return would be a 1st a 2nd and a 3rd in 2026. As I have said before even though the offer sheet has been seldom used, I think it is becoming too compelling to ignore. The return for getting someone taken is not enough and it takes too long to recoup the return. In other words it will keep the bottom teams on the bottom. Whether this happens remains to be seen but with McCloud, Byram, and Levi vulnerable as well it's might be a big problem for the Sabres.

I did not advocate sending him down. I think he can play a third line role and play on the PK where it is more of a half court game. I just can't see him scoring a lot of goals unless there is physical improvement. I don't think the role model thing is going to change how anyone else plays on this team.

I counted 7 times he was off his skates in the 1st period of the Las Vegas game. You just can't play in the NHL on your knees or your ass. He is willing to go to the net but he gets tossed around a lot. I would say his lack of physicality is holding him back among other things like being slow going end to end and having one of the slowest shots in the NHL. There are some positives he good on his edges and can dog pucks. He plays a smart game. He can play a good half ice game. Going end to end he gets caught on break a ways or seems to trail on 2 on 1 breaks unless he has a big head start. Can he develop a harder shot? Maybe. Can he get faster? That's a lot harder to do.

Like most players there are good and bad parts to his game. In physical terms he is certainly capable. He is fast enough, strong on the boards and a good fore check. He certainly puts forth effort on most nights. He will attack players in the D zone instead of just waiting for a puck to come to him. The main problem is his passing seems to be pretty bad. He plays erratically in the offensive zone. It's like the other players seem to have no idea what he is going to do with the puck. He does not shoot enough when he has open looks. I am not sure how well he sees the ice. It's like he has to calm his offensive game down just a little in order to make better plays. He could turn out to be a pretty good player if he can settle the offensive game down some.

A lot of this is mechanics. You make your decisions with the final roster cut down and then if you have players that have to clear waivers you are kind of stuck with what you have until post trade deadline. To replace Quinn you have to do something with him. Then if you bring up a veteran Amerk you have to keep him or waive him. Sure it's frustrating for the coach to keep playing guys who don't produce. If your GM is not going to help the situation it gets worse. They keep bringing up Kozak and Rosen because they can clear waivers. Or GM is scared of losing anyone or getting ripped off so there were very few moves. I think Rousek would have helped this team more than Kozak because he is a good puck distributor. He would have to clear waivers so we get Kozak. I mean if we lose Rousek then we lose him. I don't see a plan for him anyway. When thinking about setting up the team in the summer having rotational parts are important. I don't think we started the year with anyone that could go back to the Amerks. Kulich got up due to injuries. Well Benson could go to Jr's but they were not going to do that. The competition takes place in the summer. After that you are patching holes. I think it comes down to dealing with you problems via trade or replacement as opposed to waking a player up with competition. If it ain't working you just have to move on.

The Ottawa Senators.

I don't know what they based this on. But since Aliaksei Protus is not on this list I don't agree with it. I could Argue Connor McMichael should be on the list as well but left wings are always deeper than right wings so could let that slide.

Murray had the fewest shifts and less than 12 min. of Ice time. Playing with Krebs and Quinn he did what he was supposed to do and get in front of the net. There was not much opportunity for him in that game.

Nothing against any of the moves Maclellan has made but Washington is where it is due to the continuing improvement of McMichael and the explosion in the output of Protas the giant. From 6 goals last year to 29 already. That second line with Dubois is as good as any ones right now. Picking up Thompson was a solid move though. They have a lot going on.

It's a lot easier if you have proven vets to sell. I did not really make my point well but a bottom team has to operate in a different way than a top team. There are different kinds of prospects and you have to give up a lot to get one so it's not all that easy. Tampa gambled big last off season and it may or may not end up well for them. They let Stamkos go and traded Sergachev. They have not been a very deep team this year. At one point Girgensons was on the 2nd line. If they wanted to try for another run they had to make trades to get Bjorkstrand and Gourde. So once again they are all in. They are all interesting moves but we don't really know if it's going to work. A lot of people were upset that we gave next years second round pick to get Norris. In my mind who cares about that pick. It's getting to the point short of keeping our lottery pick there just isn't a whole lot of need for marginal chance players around here in the near future. I think we all know we need mature players around here next season. The question becomes what picks prospects do we keep as we attack the problem from the bottom up as opposed to the top down.

Not letting Adams off the hook here but Tampa trading away late first round picks year after year is the way to go. someday they will turn into Boston and have to start restocking picks by selling off older parts. Picks and prospects are easier to come by than solid NHL players.

Murray is not a goon but he will throw the gloves off once in awhile. I think if he hits the ice he is just here to play hockey. He has improved his AHL game each of the last 2 years. He is 26 which is about as prime age wise as he can get. Like most veteran AHL call ups if things go well he will give us 10 good games before the reality of NHL grind catches up with him. He is at least a big net front presence so I would expect that much from him. He is the first call up this year that will have to clear waivers to go back. They don't have to send him back at all now that the trade deadline is past. I am certainly not going to hold the 19 games he played 3 years ago against him. I am curious to see him.

The Amerks announced the passing of Claude Verret recently. I remembered the name but was shocked at the numbers he put up in the AHL in his short 4 year stint. He played 229 games and put in 111 goals with 259 points. He was the AHL rookie of the year in 1983-1984 with 39 goals and 90 points. He even spent 11 games as a Sabre that year getting 2 goals and 7 points in 11 games as a 20 year old. His next year as an Amerk was just as good with 93 points, only got 3 games with the Sabres with no points to show. His 2 remaining years seemed to be cut short. He was effective year 3 for the Amerks with 51 points in 52 games but year 4 saw 25 points in 36 games then he was off to Europe. Not much information on his circumstances. I guess it was pretty tough to get an NHL slot in those days if you could not do it with those numbers. RIP Claude

I can't see him as a top 4 my self. He has had a strange journey. 6th round pick, 4 years of college and all of 14 AHL games to full time NHL player. For all the conversations about growing in the AHL this guy did not have to do that. Of course spending 4 years in college allowed physical maturity but to be able to make the jump is a pretty solid testament. His performance numbers on NHL edge seem about average and he is playing for a better team so there is always a worry about regression moving to a team like ours. It would be nice to screw Tampa out of a player though. If the intention is to play on the right side of Power I think I would want someone better but I guess he is an option if a number of other things fail.

I believe Duff mentioned that Metsa was out sick.

The PK seemed odd last night when Norris was on it. At least twice there were two men deep in the opponents zone when they were setting up for the break out. Norris seemed to stay very deep at times. I don't know if it was by design or just not adapting to the system. Have to wait and see what happens next time.

Ullmark made some crazy saves in that game.

I don't have the numbers but I think the dynamic of the 4th line must tilt more positive when Krebs is playing center. I can pick apart a lot of Krebs game but his best asset is the forcheck and when Malenstyn and Lafferty are on the ice with Krebs they seem to be effective. They do need to finish more chances but they often get the puck deep and at least force a save for a line change and a face off. In their own end they are about as bad as everyone else on the team. I think that is more about structure than talent.

I don't think Vegas will move off of Whitecloud. He is cheap and has term. You do have some interesting candidates. There are not many so called proven UFA right handers out there. Cody CeCi being the main one. Not sure how I fell about him. The Oilers kind of ran him off. Evan Bouchard is an RFA for the Oilers but they are not going to let him go without a fight. Then you get into mostly real old guys or very young ones.

Yep, I got mixed up between Pelech and Pulock. So Pulock seems like he would be a target. He is 30 with 5 more years at 6.15 M per year. If Lou wants to get younger he is more likely to deal him than Dobson. But there is a no trade clause and what the return would look like? Still has good NHL edge metrics. Certainly a solid player as far as I can tell.

Instead of discussing the need for a top 4 right handed D man in the abstract it's time to identify who might be available and discussing at what It might cost us. An interesting article in Yardbarker showed up where Lou Lamoriello is talking about a retool and a need to get younger over all. The article goes on to speculate that 3 D men might be available for a trade. The 2 right handers mentioned are Noah Dobson and Adam Pelech. Dobson is 25 and an RFA but is projected to get a huge contract. Projections are an 10 mil by 8 year contract. The only way that would work is if Power goes the other way which would kind of defeat the idea of getting a righty to play beside him in the first place. Adam Pelech checks a lot of boxes. at 30 years old he has 4 years left at 5.75 Mil per year. I can't say I have watched his play over the years but according to NHL edge he still has speed and a hard shot, certainly experienced. He has a limited no trade list but unknown if we are on it or not. The question is what do you give up for a guy like that? To be honest there are not a lot of options out there for this type of player. https://www.yardbarker.com/nhl/articles/islanders_goaltender_semyon_varlamov_is_likely_out_for_the_rest_of_the_season/s1_14825_41877776

Best at what?