2020 Off-season gameplan

[Curt]

You know, this offseason has shown so clearly what an NHL team can do in one offseason.

Botterill was sold as a calm calculated guy, but it really looks like he was just too cautious and too often sat watching the league make moves around him.

GM Kevy at least doesn’t seem afraid to make a move or stick his neck out on a player he believes in.

[Taro T]

17 minutes ago, Curt said:

You know, this offseason has shown so clearly what an NHL team can do in one offseason.

Botterill was sold as a calm calculated guy, but it really looks like he was just too cautious and too often sat watching the league make moves around him.

GM Kevy at least doesn’t seem afraid to make a move or stick his neck out on a player he believes in.

An interesting thing from tonight's conference call was that Adams essentially said that all 3 of Eakin, Reider, AND Irwin were guys they targeted and they have belief in all 3.  Am wondering if that means they see Irwin in a top 6 role?  If he's the 7, fine.  But if he's top 6 that lends further to the belief a RHD will be traded.  Perhaps to C-Bus or AZ as the key piece of a package to bring in a goalie.

But am curious why he/Krueger believe Irwin will be useful.  Don't know a lot about him, but haven't gotten the idea that was a good add.

[SDS]

3 minutes ago, Taro T said:

An interesting thing from tonight's conference call was that Adams essentially said that all 3 of Eakin, Reider, AND Irwin were guys they targeted and they have belief in all 3.  Am wondering if that means they see Irwin in a top 6 role?  If he's the 7, fine.  But if he's top 6 that lends further to the belief a RHD will be traded.  Perhaps to C-Bus or AZ as the key piece of a package to bring in a goalie.

But am curious why he/Krueger believe Irwin will be useful.  Don't know a lot about him, but haven't gotten the idea that was a good add.

It could also be true that they were targeted as players they desired that came under a certain dollar level. 

[Taro T]

1 minute ago, SDS said:

It could also be true that they were targeted as players they desired that came under a certain dollar level. 

It absolutely does.  But still, based on Adams' comments am starting to expect Irwin in the top 6 and really expected he was going to be either 8 or 9 on the depth chart.

[Radar]

5 hours ago, Radar said:

Agree. I think if they can find a top six wing  along with the addition of Stall and Eakin then I'd be satisfied. Think they can find an upgrade in goal by trade. Would prefer the forward position need be found via free agency.

 

 

 

Done!!!!!

[thewookie1]

I went for the following 

https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/2024958

[GASabresIUFAN]

If we are really going for it as the Hall deal implies, how can we sit tight with Hutton as the backup goalie?

[SDS]

1 minute ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

If we are really going for it as the Hall deal implies, how can we sit tight with Hutton as the backup goalie?

Maybe this deal buys the FO some breathing room?

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 minute ago, SDS said:

Maybe this deal buys the FO some breathing room?

FO = Front Office?  

Maybe.  I certainly don't think they want Montour playing out of position again for another season.  That implies to me that a trade or two is coming to upgrade the goaltending and re balance the defense.

Kudos to TP and KA for the Hall deal.  I guess the Bills' success made TP and KP re-think their cost cutting strategy for the player part of the Sabres organization.    

One other quick note:  The Sabres are likely to protect 3 D for expansion, Dahlin, Risto and Joker as things stand.  If Miller is traded they won't have a D to expose who is signed beyond this season.  

[Flashsabre]

Now go get Kuemper, Raanta or Korpisalo and we are talking.  I have a feeling that Bryson is going to push for a LHD position this year.

One of Risto, Miller, Montour,  plus Mitts, Asplund, Johnson, Davidsson, Hutton (if anyone would take him) would all be pieces to move to upgrade in net and anywhere else.

Hall Eichel Oloffson (he has played RW before and is set up for the one timer)

Skinner Staal Reinhart

is as good a top 6 as the Sabres have had in years

[GASabresIUFAN]

6 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:

Now go get Kuemper, Raanta or Korpisalo and we are talking.  I have a feeling that Bryson is going to push for a LHD position this year.

One of Risto, Miller, Montour,  plus Mitts, Asplund, Johnson, Davidsson, Hutton (if anyone would take him) would all be pieces to move to upgrade in net and anywhere else.

Hall Eichel Oloffson (he has played RW before and is set up for the one timer)

Skinner Staal Reinhart

is as good a top 6 as the Sabres have had in years

I'm perfectly OK with VO as the 2 RW as long as Cozens plays center.

[Taro T]

11 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

FO = Front Office?  

Maybe.  I certainly don't think they want Montour playing out of position again for another season.  That implies to me that a trade or two is coming to upgrade the goaltending and re balance the defense.

Kudos to TP and KA for the Hall deal.  I guess the Bills' success made TP and KP re-think their cost cutting strategy for the player part of the Sabres organization.    

One other quick note:  The Sabres are likely to protect 3 D for expansion, Dahlin, Risto and Joker as things stand.  If Miller is traded they won't have a D to expose who is signed beyond this season.  

Pretty sure they don't have to expose a D though almost everybody will have at least 1 exposable one under contract.  Thought the rule was only that they HAVE to expose at least 1 G.

[Broken Ankles]

13 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

FO = Front Office?  

Maybe.  I certainly don't think they want Montour playing out of position again for another season.  That implies to me that a trade or two is coming to upgrade the goaltending and re balance the defense.

Kudos to TP and KA for the Hall deal.  I guess the Bills' success made TP and KP re-think their cost cutting strategy for the player part of the Sabres organization.    

One other quick note:  The Sabres are likely to protect 3 D for expansion, Dahlin, Risto and Joker as things stand.  If Miller is traded they won't have a D to expose who is signed beyond this season.  

....or it was never anything but a bad rumor by Servelli.  

[GASabresIUFAN]

Just now, Taro T said:

Pretty sure they don't have to expose a D though almost everybody will have at least 1 exposable one under contract.  Thought the rule was only that they HAVE to expose at least 1 G.

This is the requirements for LV expansion.  I assume Seattle's will be the same. https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-expansion-draft-rules/c-281010592?tid=281011650

Quote

 

i) One defenseman who is a) under contract in 2017-18 and b) played in 40 or more NHL games the prior season OR played in 70 or more NHL games in the prior two seasons.

ii) Two forwards who are a) under contract in 2017-18 and b) played in 40 or more NHL games the prior season OR played in 70 or more NHL games in the prior two seasons.

 

 

[Broken Ankles]

3 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Pretty sure they don't have to expose a D though almost everybody will have at least 1 exposable one under contract.  Thought the rule was only that they HAVE to expose at least 1 G.

What about Borgen?

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 minute ago, Broken Ankles said:

What about Borgen?

RFA after this season and if he doesn't get 40 games next season he won't satisfy the expansion requirement.

[Taro T]

5 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

This is the requirements for LV expansion.  I assume Seattle's will be the same. https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-expansion-draft-rules/c-281010592?tid=281011650

 

Thanks for the info..

It'll be easy enough to satisfy that requirement.  By the time puck drops this December/January they may already be there.  If somehow they haven't, they'll sign some sort of Meszaros to a vet minimum deal for Ra-cha-cha wasting one of their 50 slots but at no huge price tag.

Waaaay too early to worry about that.

[Gabrielor]

Also like:

 

Hall Eichel Olofsson

Skinner Staal Cozens

Thompson Eakin Reinhart

Girgensons Lazar Okposo

[Taro T]

1 minute ago, Gabrielor said:

Also like:

 

Hall Eichel Olofsson

Skinner Staal Cozens

Thompson Eakin Reinhart

Girgensons Lazar Okposo

Cozens is NOT starting the year as the 2RW.  If he earns it during the year, awesome.  But he's not starting there.

[nfreeman]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I wonder if the Hall signing will give the Sabres a good reason  to start Cozens at center?  Hall is a player that likes the puck on his stick.  Therefore he probably isn’t a good fit with Jack. 
Also Rieder was brought in to kill penalties and will make this team.

Skinner Jack Reinhart

Hall Staal KO

Girgensons Eakin Rieder

VO Cozens Thompson 

Lazar

This way no one is forced to play out of position.  KO will be a nice physical presence on Staal’s line.  The three kids gets sheltered minutes and get used as a 3rd O line.  Eakin’s line gets to kill penalties and defend other teams top scoring line. 

This move puts us at 80 million.  My guess is a RHD is being voted off the island.

I think it's pretty unlikely that KO pushes into the top 6.  He is in a pronounced decline IMHO and will get about 10-11 min per night on the 4th line with Zemgus and either Lazar or Reider. 

I think they think that Eakin will be the 3C with some combo of TT, Cozens and VO and that they'll be able to get much more 2ndary scoring than they have in the past few years.

 

1 hour ago, Gabrielor said:

Fully understand why people wouldn't like the following idea:

Analytics would not be a fan of this at all, but because of Krueger, I wonder if they look at Chara for that 3 LD hole. Respected leader, will stand up for guys, Dahlin mentor, Jack will love Boston captain he watched lift the cup. There's not great analytical reasons for it, but there are great emotional-team reasons.

 

I would love this.

[GASabresIUFAN]

Sabres depth chart (professionals only)

Center

Eichel, Staal, Eakin, Lazar - Cozens, Mittelstadt, Asplund (LW), Routsalainen (LW), Oglevie, Pekar (RW)

Left Wing

Hall, Skinner, VO, Girgensons, Lazar, - Asplund, Smith, Murray

Right Wing

Reinhart, Thompson, Okposo, Rieder, - Pekar

RHD

Ristolainen, Montour, Jokiharju, Miller, - Irwin, Borgen, Laaksonen, Fitzgerald

LHD

Dahlin, McCabe, Davidson (Pilut?) - Bryson, Samuelsson

Goaltending

Ullmark, Hutton, - Johnasson, UPL 

 

[dudacek]

One overlooked element of the direction this team is going: speed.

Staal has slowed, and can't match Mojo, but Larsson, IMO, was our slowest forward.

Hall, Reider and Cozens can flat-out fly. Big upgrade in that area over Kahun, Frolik and Vesey

Edited October 12, 2020 by dudacek

[dudacek]

55 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Kinda hope we upgrade better than Irwin on LD but a nice G upgrade is more important. 

If Rieder plays with Eakin and Thompson, where does that leave Cozens, Girgs and Lazar? Don't really like that. 

It will be interesting to see how Ralph deploys these guys; he seems to have a lot more variables to work with.

Last year, he had to bury Larry's line in tough minutes because neither the Mojo, nor Casey lines could handle the other team's big guys. We basically had one exclusively shutdown line, one all-situations line and two lines we had to be careful with.

I don't think that will be the plan with Eakin or Staal (no matter what last year's analytics say about Eakin, he has a history of being used both ways).

• He could do a traditional 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th line, 
• He could roll three balanced lines Eric/Taylor, Sam/Jeff Victor/Jack and a specialized line.
• He could load two lines and force-feed three of Eakin, Lazar, Girgensons, Reider and Okposo into a LOG line mach II, while using Cozens and Thompson with Eakin or Okposo to replicate last year's setup of one OZ and one DZ specialized line.
• And he can vary his approach from game to game based on the opponent and the arena.

Once you step away from the charts, you also sure can see the hand of the coach in these moves looking for things he felt he didn't have last year.

• He's got his 6 centres: Jack, Eric, Cody, Curtis, Zemgus and Dylan
• He's got two more weapons for the PP (Staal and Hall) and three to kill penalties (Irwin, Reider and Eakin).
• Staal, Eakin and Lazar are better at faceoffs than Johansson, Mittelstadt and Larsson
• Staal has a cup ring, Irwin and Eakin have both played more than 40 NHL playoff games and have been to the finals. All three, as well as Hall are respected vets who will have influence in the room.

Once you start chipping away, you can see how calculated these moves were. There definitely was a plan.

Edited October 12, 2020 by dudacek

[Thorny]

^ A real plan. So that's what that looks like. 

I love how the Hall story is barely mentioned on sportscentre when we all know damn well it would lead off if it was the Leafs or plenty of other teams. Salt. 

I like the idea of loading up an upper echelon top 6. Rely on the bottom 6 for little enough that they have a better chance of success. 

But a lot depends on Thompson and Cozens (and not in a make or break way, what a novel concept). If they don't need to be buoyed up by our best centres, maybe the 2 can buoy up Eakin. 

[MODO Hockey]

Now Taylor Hall give this team a complete new dimension. 

I would really concider lifting up Kyle to play with Jack and Victor. He did really well with John Tavares.
Atleast i would want to see this lineup during pre-season

 

Victor Olofsson - Jack Eichle - Kyle okposo

Taylor Hall - Eric Staal - Tage Thompsson

Jeff Skinner - Cody Eakin - Sam Reinhart

Rasmus Asplund - Zemgus Girgensons - Curtiz Lazar