Jorcus

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?

I wonder what happens after you take an insulting call like that?

When Cozens was playing well and teamed with Peterka and Quinn they were very effective on the rush. Not much defense with that line. I posted the all of Cozens goals video in another thread a while back and he was an equal contributor back at that time. What is apparent is that he scores most of his goals skating toward the net from above but in between the dots. He has not been too effective scoring from other positions on the ice. A lot have things have fallen off since then. I watched some or the Norris videos and and it does seem like he is effective at scoring from different areas of the ice. That should be a plus.

Cozens has not been on the 1st power play unit for 15 or 20 games and it is not any better now. It's kind of like watching a Space X launch with all the breakaways they give up. So replacing Quinn with Norris might be the answer. He is not known as a playmaker so maybe it's not Quinn that comes off. Zucker coming back would help.

The Sabres still need another solid right winger to replace Quinn. They need at least 2 shut down D men to replace the bottom of the line up. They need to fix that 4th line. They also need another reliable goaltender who can play 40% of the games instead of a guy we just use on back to backs.

The Ottawa GM kept talking about improving 5 on 5 play. Not sure how this trade helps that. Still not sure why Ottawa made this trade other than they found a way to save a little money. He did say something about this trade enabled the Zetterlund acquisition.

According to Cap wages Cozens is on Long Term Injured reserve.

Well they lost Miko and Mitts and a bunch of other stuff. I can't blame them for the moves but it's probably going to come down to how well Blackwood holds up.

Maybe he already knew he was getting traded and made a business decision.

A few questions rolling around in my head. 1st. What is Ottawa's motivation for doing this deal? I guess with the Stutzle/ Pinto combo at center they are placing Cozens on the wing? He fills in at center if needed? 2nd What is mjd1001 going to do with all his new free time (just kidding of course).

One thing about Peterka is that he is prime offer sheet bait. Even at a bridge deal he will cost minimum 4.6 mil per year for what ever the term is. Any team that has their own 2nd round pick could poach him if we offer less. Is he worth losing for a first and a third? There could be a team or two who would who could up the anti for a 1st a 2nd and a third at around 6.9 Mil per year. Would we match that? This rule while it helps the players is going to be regressive for bottom feeder teams like the Sabres. A second round pick late in the draft is not worth as much as a second round pick early in the draft. So if the better teams that have the picks and cap space why would they not take advantage of the rules. I expect we are going to see a lot more of this activity soon.

I don't think Penguins can go into full rebuild mode until Crosby and Malkin are gone. So they will try to reload with vets until the inevitable time comes.