Who are the final cuts?

[dudacek]

Make your predictions here

[Weave]

It's damned near unanimous so far.

[pi2000]

Larsson, Baptiste *should* be cut, but won't.

I forecast Mittlestadt, Nylander and Thompson get sent down to Rochester because they're waiver exempt and probably could use some pro-level seasoning.     This regime is all about developing the young guys, and those 3 will play top line in Roch... in all situations while learning the Housley system.    I know we all want to see them on the big club, but we'll just need to exercise some patience. 

[Formerly Allan in MD]

Girgensons may be a cat = nine lives.

[woods-racer]

I'm in the same mind set with those that believe a bunch of young ones will be set  down just for seasoning. Bailey/Baptiste may be in the big club just to fill roster positions. There appears to be no hurry to win now. There does seem to be some competition for spots though that we have not had for several years. 

We're getting better. Botterill is doing it the right way. BUT I JUST WANT TO WIN!

[Thorny]

So for the kids, the consensus is that Mittelstadt, Thompson, and of course Dahlin make the opening night roster, with an outside chance at Nylander making it, too. 

Seems about right to me. Not a minimal infusion of youth. 

Edited September 28, 2018 by Thorny

[dudacek]

Am I the only one who thinks Nylander has been better than Tage?

Ive like both, and Tage has more of a wow factor, but he hasn’t been as smooth or as complete or as versatile in  my view.

Nylander 4/1/3/4/-1 13:33 ice time

Thompson 4/1/2/3/-5 16:29 ice time

[3putt]

2 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Am I the only one who thinks Nylander has been better than Tage?

Ive like both, and Tage has more of a wow factor, but he hasn’t been as smooth or as complete or as versatile in  my view.

Nylander 4/1/3/4/-1 13:33 ice time

Thompson 4/1/2/3/-5 16:29 ice time

No you are not.

[nfreeman]

Nylander has made it a competition, but I think TT has been more consistently effective.  And the difference in ice time likely means that Howie favors TT.

I voted Nylander, Baptiste and Larsson, and Pilut, Tennyson and Guhle on D.  The 3 D choices are pretty self-explanatory. 

On offense, I wouldn't be unhappy if they kept Nylander and waived Zemgus or Wilson or Bailey, but it seems unlikely.  They probably want to keep one of Zemgus and Larsson for the experience and grit (and I have them waiving Larsson), Wilson is their guy and Bailey has been getting a pretty long look -- more than Baptiste it seems (although I didn't check the stats on that so could be mistaken).

[jsb]

Another good article in The Athletic by Joe Yerdon on his thoughts of the final roster to begin the year.

It'll all depend if Sheary and Bogosian are ready to start the year IMO. What the lineup looks like October 4th and who's on it in January should be interesting. Hopefully whoever gets sent down doesn't see it as a permanent demotion and keeps their attitudes up.

[Eleven]

1 hour ago, jsb said:

Another good article in The Athletic by Joe Yerdon on his thoughts of the final roster to begin the year.

It'll all depend if Sheary and Bogosian are ready to start the year IMO. What the lineup looks like October 4th and who's on it in January should be interesting. Hopefully whoever gets sent down doesn't see it as a permanent demotion and keeps their attitudes up.

I'm not going to post his whole article, but his predicted lineup is here:

 

 

[dudacek]

Nylander leads the Sabres in pre-season scoring, a goal and four assists in five games.

Rasmus Dahlin had 3 points in 4 games. Thompson 3 in 5. Casey Nelson 3 in 4.

For some reason Casey Mittlestadt is missing from the list. Not sure if he had a point in preseason.

[nfreeman]

FWIW, on the WGR post-game show last night, both Hammy and the host (I think Brian Koziol?) said that they think Nylander has made the team.

[Doohickie]

Bailey, Baptiste and Tennyson have been waived for reassignment to the AHL, according to Die by the Blade.

[inkman]

Interesting. Need to see if anyone gets picked off of waivers. 

[Ross Rhea]

2 hours ago, Doohickie said:

Bailey, Baptiste and Tennyson have been waived for reassignment to the AHL, according to Die by the Blade.

Time to cut bait with Bailey and Baptiste, they've had more than enough chances to stick and can't. Enough already.

[7+6=13]

Finally our organization is getting healthy.  This is another step towards that process.  Players without NHL talent being moved on from. 

[French Collection]

Kind of expected those two forwards to get waived, they haven't stood out this camp or for any of their stints in the NHL.  I've followed Baptiste since his Sudbury Wolves days. I thought he could be a fourth line PK guy at this level, still could happen.

This doesn't mean the end here, they may get sent down and called up occasionally. This speaks well of our depth at forward, a couple of wingers with some NHL experience may remain with the organization.

[Weave]

Bailey and Baptiste getting waived is justification for their not being on the team last season despite the calls to "play the kids".  They never forced their way on, and they never belonged up here.

Sorry Eleven.  I know you're pulling for the kid but he's an AHLer.

Who among those left has forced their way on?  Nylander is the only one IMO.  Never thought he'd get there.

[Huckleberry]

according to TSN.  Lawrence Pilut, D - Sent to minors Rochester (AHL)

Edited September 30, 2018 by Huckleberry

[hockeyhound]

I thought Bailey might of had a chance making it on the 4th line but, I was wrong.

He didn't do enough to get notice or he was noticed for all the wrong reasons.

 Baptiste... gone with the wind.

I'm sure glad that they've made it more competitive and redefined what kind of a Buffalo Sabres * NHL* player will be stepping out on the ice this year.

I'm encouraged to see we're going to look less and less like the AHL team we've been watching for the last 18 years.

 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2018 by hockeyhound

[Eleven]

On 9/29/2018 at 7:50 PM, Weave said:

Bailey and Baptiste getting waived is justification for their not being on the team last season despite the calls to "play the kids".  They never forced their way on, and they never belonged up here.

Sorry Eleven.  I know you're pulling for the kid but he's an AHLer.

Who among those left has forced their way on?  Nylander is the only one IMO.  Never thought he'd get there.

I'm pulling for the kid but I'm not going to say he's been treated unfairly.  He's been told what he needs to do.  He hasn't done it.

[Rasmus_]

Joined a little late to the party, I truly believe that they'll carry Beaulieu until he's ready, which is a shame.  He's terrible in every sense of the word.  Sure he has an okay shot and can skate, but when you cannot read the open ice and make countless turnover's as well as are useless on the PK, get out of here please!

[LGR4GM]

We talk about Beaulieu's giveaways a lot and I realized I never bothered to look them up. In the last two years he has given away 101 times and only had 22 takeaways to balance that out. He had 30 giveaways last season in only 941minutes of ice time. Compared to Risto's 47 in 1934 minutes of ice time. 

If my rough math is correct, if Bealiue had played Risto's minutes he would have had 62 giveaways last year. That doesn't even account for the tougher minutes Risto played. 

[Taro T]

12 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

We talk about Beaulieu's giveaways a lot and I realized I never bothered to look them up. In the last two years he has given away 101 times and only had 22 takeaways to balance that out. He had 30 giveaways last season in only 941minutes of ice time. Compared to Risto's 47 in 1934 minutes of ice time. 

If my rough math is correct, if Bealiue had played Risto's minutes he would have had 62 giveaways last year. That doesn't even account for the tougher minutes Risto played. 

Which is why we some of us are hoping the experiment of putting McCabe and Bogosian back together in the game that Bogo reverted to Nogo was due to even Coach Housley realizing that his dreadful play FAR outweighs his good.  And that those pairings were his attempt to find a way to give Dahlin easier minutes initially than he'll get paired w/ Jake.