Lineup 2021-22

[GASabresIUFAN]

Who stays and who goes? At this point Rasputin stays until season’s end so the Pegula’s can save a few bucks at the expense of the franchise’s value, fans interest, and while enhancing league wide opinion that the Sabres are a dysfunctional franchise.

Honestly the first steps are to replace Rasputin with a real coach, not another rookie.  They also need to give KA some real help unless they replace him (and they should).

That said the majority of the players will be back.  Who’d want half of them anyway?

Of the core players Eichel, VO, Risto, Reinhart (RFA), and Dahlin (RFA) should all return.  Kids Cozens, Mitts (RFA), and Bryson will be back.  

Of the contracted vets, I’m going to assume Skinner returns along with Girgensons and Lazar.  That’s 11 players I expect back.  I think there are or should be serious questions about bringing any of the other signed players like Miller, Eakin, Thomspon or Okposo back next season.  It won’t pay to buyout KO, but he should be sent to the minors like we did with Moulson.  Thompson may still be salvageable with the right coach.   

I except none of UFAs Hall, Staal, Montour, Hutton, or Irwin to return.  Other UFAs, like Ullmark, McCabe, Rieder or Sheahan, I can see the team wanting them back, but are they interested in returning? I’d like McCabe back (so would Risto).  

So what about young RFA’s Asplund, Borgen and Jokiharju?  Obviously the team would like to keep all 3, but the expansion draft could change that scenario.

The expansion list probably looks like this: F - Eichel, Reinhart, Skinner, VO, Mitts, Lazar and Thompson (?)/Asplund. D - Risto, Dahlin and either Borgen or Jokiharju.  My guess is Jokiharju gets the nod despite being demoted to the taxi squad.  Obviously trade deadline moves could change this scenario.  

There is an opportunity to still salvage this rebuild. Sadly Kim Pegula and Kevyn Adams aren’t up for the task.

Edited March 18, 2021 by GASabresIUFAN

[PerreaultForever]

Damn I know you're trying to be a good fan and I guess that's admirable but I have to say I just do not care who comes back or who we lose in the expansion draft. It won't make a damn bit of difference if we don't make some major moves. 

[bob_sauve28]

Ullmark will be interesting to see. Good player but injured a lot. 3 yrs x 4 mill a season 

But they also need to add another or two goalies

The defense will be interesting. If we get Powers or another of the top D-men in draft, do they play immediately? 

Risto, Dahlin, Bryson, Borgen, Joki, McCabe? and ? 

Hopefully a healthy Jack leads a resurgence of offensive, but they should try and find help in free agency. 

Is it too early to get out of Skinners contract in a way to save cap space? 

[#freejame]

I posted a few days ago in another thread about where things currently stand going into next season but here’s how I more or less see things. Since he’s almost certainly going to be here I’ve included Skinner but who knows maybe there is a way out. All this means nothing if Ralph is here. 

Skinner-Eichel-Reinhart

x-x-Cozens

VO-x-x

Girgs-Lazar-x

I would like to see a move made for Saad and Danault, but there is almost a 100% chance that both sign regrettable contracts. Coleman is a good option from Tampa as well. If for whatever reason Landeskog doesn’t re-sign with COL we need to throw everything we have at him. I’m interested in Laughton as well and he may come cheaper than Coleman and fill the role similarly. I think our best case scenario in FA with $34m of space would look something like this (who tf knows what kind of contracts we will see this summer so I’m not going to bother with them since we’ve got the space anyway):

Skinner (meh)-Eichel-Reinhart

x-x-Cozens

Saad-Coleman-VO (Victor will be fine on his off wing, he’s all shot anyway)

Girgs-Lazar-x

One more season spending time at both RW/C for Cozens before taking over 2C full time and Quinn moving into his 2RW slot after spending the year as first man up from Rochester. Maybe R2 can slot in as our 4C and push Lazar to 4RW. That still leaves 2/3 of the second line that we can’t fill. Maybe Tage and Casey find some sort of magic beans this off-season and become top-6 talents overnight. More likely that isn’t the case and we open up with this:

Skinner-Eichel-Reinhart

Saad-Cozens-VO

Mitts-Coleman-Tage

Girgs-Arttu-Lazar

Its better than what we have up top now, but there are still holes and players improperly spotted. Having Saad and Girgs will give us a bit more physical play

On the back end I see things currently like this:

x-Risto

Dahlin-x

x-x

I think there is a good possibility of Borgen being able to slot in with Dahlin and maybe Bryson being able to slot with Risto. Dougie Hamilton is one of the only worthwhile free agents, but I’m not even sure he becomes one as everything I’ve read says he and Carolina both want him to stay. He’s also a bit of a weirdo. Maybe he re-signs and it forces Carolina to move one of their d. If that’s the case we need to pounce. Not a hypothetical I’m willing to bet on so I see us looking at:

Dahlin-Borgen

Bryson-Risto

x-Miller 

We will almost certainly be drafting a D with our first pick, but while I think there are top-4 defensemen in the draft, I don’t think any belong in the NHL next season. Maybe Samuelsson can slot with Miller? That would more or less put a big man with a little man on every pair (Dahlin isn’t little but he isn’t a Risto, Borgen, or Samuelsson). I’m guessing we probably open with him slotted on the bottom pair so we’ll see:

Dahlin-Borgen

Bryson-Risto

Samuelsson-Miller

To me, that’s a big boom or bust situation on the backend. Without a trade, there’s no FA help coming and our pick won’t be ready. It will be live or die by our player development. I’m not sure I trust that but what’s there to do.

Now in net going into next season we have:

x

Ullmark 

If for whatever reason Colorado lets Grubauer walk (injury concerns most likely) he is my ideal signing here. We should have been able to outbid Colorado when he first was traded there but for whatever reason we sat on our hands. With his injuries, he’s not a guy I want playing 65 games, but a 50-32 split with Linus works for me. Linus is also more than capable of of filling in due to injuries. 
 

Now this can’t be complete without talking about the expansion draft. We will keep 7 forwards, 3 d, and 1 goalie. Players to be kept:

Forwards: Eichel, Skinner (NTC), Reinhart, Olofsson, Mitts, Tage, Girgs

Defense: Dahlin, Risto, Borgen 

Goalie: Ullmark

That probably leaves Joki getting taken, but whatever someone has to go and I would rather keep Borgen. Ideally we make a move to get Okposo off of the books, but a year in the A and then a buyout probably makes more sense with the likely cost of them taking a contract. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, my best case scenario for the Sabres (no trades included):
 

Skinner-Eichel-Reinhart

Saad-Cozens-VO

Mitts-Coleman-Tage

Girgs-Arttu-Lazar

Dahlin-Borgen

Bryson-Risto

Samuelsson-Miller

Grubauer

Ullmark

Is it a playoff team? Maybe with an entirely turned over coaching staff led by someone who knows what they are doing. Is it better than what we have now? Maybe with an entirely turned over coaching staff led by someone who knows what they are doing. A trade for a top-6 player at literally any position would go a long way. Bringing in more D depth is crucial as well. There’s a few other FAs that could be of interest as well but I’m not trying to shell out a bunch of money in the market and don’t trust Adams to make good signings based on his current ones.

 

 

[Thorny]

What I come back to a lot is how much we are relying on Cozens. It’s mildly terrifying, there’s really nothing at C after him. We need him to hit in a big way. Adding to that is the idea it’s probably unlikely, given the draft year, that we end a high end C draftee this year. 

A young legit C prospect on the verge should be the goal if it’s in any way possible to achieve in any upcoming series of moves. Much preferable to draft picks. 

Fingers crossed Cozens bounces back from this injury with no complications. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

6 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Damn I know you're trying to be a good fan and I guess that's admirable but I have to say I just do not care who comes back or who we lose in the expansion draft. It won't make a damn bit of difference if we don't make some major moves. 

I understand where you are coming from. I have been Johnny Raincloud all season and I thought a little hope for the future might now be a bad thing.

@Thorny Mitts and R2 can be centers as well.  That said the off-season game plan has to be upgrading goaltending, another 2c, one vet stay at home D to play with Dahlin and a proven RW.  
 

LW is Skinner, VO, Mitts & Girgensons 

C is Eichel, 2C, Cozens & Lazar

RW is Reinhart, ????, ????, Sheahan?

D - Dahlin & Risto.  Hopefully McCabe returns and we somehow keep Borgen and Jokiharju.

Edited March 14, 2021 by GASabresIUFAN

[Zamboni]

Depending on the return, I wouldn’t be against building around Reinhart, Cozens, Dahlin, Olofsson, Miller, and Ullmark. Move everyone else for as much as you can get.

[Thorny]

There’s really nothing in the centre prospect pipeline right now, though - it’s very weak.

Ruotsalainen is an NHL unproven pro now - the likelihood of him being able to provide top 6 centre production down the line is unlikely. He’s nice to have in that he may help with centre depth in the future, but it’s nothing we can count on. 

Casey to me is also more 3rd line scorer than anything, maybe he fills a 3C role but again top 6 isn’t the most likely result in the forecast.

The top 6 likely C list starts and ends with Cozens. We need to add a 2C yes and like I said be on the lookout for C prospects as it’ll be tough to add legit guys there in the upcoming draft. 

Edited March 14, 2021 by Thorny

[jahnyc]

This is not a good team now, and it likely will be worse next year.  Hall and Staal likely will be gone, and the bottom six will continue to be awful.  The Sabres will continue to have the same needs as  in recent years: a quality second and third line center and better bottom six, goaltending and coaching.  Without virtually nothing in the pipeline at center or wing, I have no idea how this team will improve in the near term.

[Flashsabre]

Someone who can drop the gloves and some size, heart and physicality in the bottom 6. A competent goaltender would do wonders. Move Cozens to C permanently.

Bryson, Borgen and Samuelsson should all be in the lineup on the backend.

 

[Carmel Corn]

1 hour ago, Thorny said:

There’s really nothing in the centre prospect pipeline right now, though - it’s very weak.

Ruotsalainen is an NHL unproven pro now - the likelihood of him being able to provide top 6 centre production down the line is unlikely. He’s nice to have in that he may help with centre depth in the future, but it’s nothing we can count on. 

Casey to me is also more 3rd line scorer than anything, maybe he fills a 3C role but again top 6 isn’t the most likely result in the forecast.

The top 6 likely C list starts and ends with Cozens. We need to add a 2C yes and like I said be on the lookout for C prospects as it’ll be tough to add legit guys there in the upcoming draft. 

I find it so irritating that management has failed to address this over multiple years.  We could have addressed this in the last draft with either Rossi or even Perfetti.  Nothing against Quinn, but the lack of attention to the center spine is frankly negligence IMHO.

[BuffalOhio]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I understand where you are coming from. I have been Johnny Raincloud all season and I thought a little hope for the future might now be a bad thing.

@Thorny Mitts and R2 can be centers as well.  That said the off-season game plan has to be upgrading goaltending, another 2c, one vet stay at home D to play with Dahlin and a proven RW.  
 

LW is Skinner, VO, Mitts & Girgensons 

C is Eichel, 2C, Cozens & Lazar

RW is Reinhart, ????, ????, Sheahan?

D - Dahlin & Risto.  

I think C is Eichel, Cozens (he's shown enough already), Lazar and X

[Curt]

26 minutes ago, Carmel Corn said:

I find it so irritating that management has failed to address this over multiple years.  We could have addressed this in the last draft with either Rossi or even Perfetti.  Nothing against Quinn, but the lack of attention to the center spine is frankly negligence IMHO.

They drafted 1st round C’s in 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2019.  I would not say they have been negligent in that regard.

[dudacek]

27 minutes ago, Carmel Corn said:

I find it so irritating that management has failed to address this over multiple years.  We could have addressed this in the last draft with either Rossi or even Perfetti.  Nothing against Quinn, but the lack of attention to the center spine is frankly negligence IMHO.

What’s irritating is not the lack of attention to the centre position, it’s the lack of judgement in the players they have selected.

In the past 9 years they have invested six high first round picks on centres (Cozens, Mittelstadt, Eichel, Reinhart, Grigorenko and Girgensons) They’ve also used five second-rounders on centres (Davidsson, Asplund, Cornel, Compher and Hurley) and traded a large package of picks and prospects for another (O’Reilly).

I would be surprised if there is another team that has invested the draft capital the Sabres have into centres over that period.

Jack Eichel and some hope is all they have to show for it.

[Thorny]

43 minutes ago, Curt said:

They drafted 1st round C’s in 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2019.  I would not say they have been negligent in that regard.

First two years there are ancient history at this point. Not relevant to our current C pipeline. 

2017 has not yielded a C with likely top 6 upside at this time - 2019 is accounted for in Cozens. 

Again, there is nothing there in the pipeline - the current administration has not yet done anything to address that, that the Sabres drafted JT Compher 6 or 7 years ago has no bearing (or I guess in your example, Jack Eichel - but again I was talking current system not long time vets, even there we only have one guy, Jack.)

- - - 

We'll have to see how they draft this year. They didn't add a legit C prospect in their one draft so far, or a prospect since, definitely can't go a second straight draft year without adding a legit C prospect to a bare system - if they can't find that in the draft they should be trading the pick, or something else, to address that area of need. 

Edited March 14, 2021 by Thorny

[Curt]

13 minutes ago, Thorny said:

First two years there are ancient history at this point. Not relevant to our current C pipeline. 

2017 has not yielded a C with likely top 6 upside at this time - 2019 is accounted for in Cozens. 

Again, there is nothing there in the pipeline - the current administration has not yet done anything to address that, that the Sabres drafted JT Compher 6 or 7 years ago has no bearing (or I guess in your example, Jack Eichel - but again I was talking current system not long time vets, even there we only have one guy, Jack.)

- - - 

We'll have to see how they draft this year. They didn't add a legit C prospect in their one draft so far, or a prospect since, definitely can't go a second straight draft year without adding a legit C prospect to a bare system - if they can't find that in the draft they should be trading the pick, or something else, to address that area of need. 

Ok,  If you are only talking about prospects added in the past 6 months, then yes, they have not added to the C pipeline. 

[Pimlach]

9 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Who stays and who goes? At this point Rasputin stays until season’s end so the Pegula’s can save a few bucks at the expense of the franchise’s value, fans interest, and while enhancing league wide opinion that the Sabres are a dysfunctional franchise.

Honestly the first steps are to replace Rasputin with a real coach, not another rookie.  They also need to give KA some real help unless they replace him (and they should).

That said the majority of the players will be back.  Who’d want half of them anyway?

Of the core players Eichel, VO, Risto, Reinhart (RFA), and Dahlin (RFA) should all return.  Kids Cozens, Mitts (RFA), and Bryson will be back.  

Of the contracted vets, I’m going to assume Skinner returns along with Girgensons and Lazar.  That’s 11 players I expect back.  I think there are or should be serious questions about bringing any of the other signed players like Miller, Eakin, Thomspon or Okposo back next season.  It won’t pay to buyout KO, but he should be sent to the minors like we did with Moulson.  Thompson may still be salvageable with the right coach.   

I except none of UFAs Hall, Staal, Montour, Hutton, or Irwin to return.  Other UFAs, like Ullmark, McCabe, Rieder or Sheahan, I can see the team wanting them back, but are they interested in returning? I’d like McCabe back (so would Risto).  

So what about young RFA’s Asplund, Borgen and Jokiharju?  Obviously the team would like to keep all 3, but the expansion draft could change that scenario.

The expansion list probably looks like this: F - Eichel, Reinhart, Skinner, VO, Mitts, Lazar and Thompson (?)/Asplund. D - Risto, Dahlin and either Borgen or Jokiharju.  My guess is Jokiharju gets the nod despite being demoted to the taxi squad.  Obviously trade deadline moves could change this scenario.  

There is an opportunity to still salvage this rebuild. Sadly Kim Pegula and Kevyn Adams aren’t up for the task.

I can’t do this ... after another shutout, and yet another 3rd period with the game in reach and seeing no effort, 6 measly shots on goal and no fight in them.  Let’s start over with a new person at top of the Hockey Operations and a rebuild. Not a tank, just a targeted rebuild.  Like McDermott and Beane did in 2017 and 2018.  

Like McBeane showed us, you cannot change the culture and keep The Core.   IMO the core is the a main contributor to the culture, the players set the culture   - Risto, Eichel, Reinhart, Skinner, and Dahlin.  I’m tired of blaming coaches, these guys are coach killers.  They are the best players and they set the tone   That tone is to quit when it gets hard, to back away from confrontation, to play selfish, to hang heads and accept losing.  

Using the Bills as a model, some of the core needs to go.   It’s time for a fresh start with a new experienced GM that actually hires the coach and works with the coach - like normal teams do.  Move Adams to business front office, he can keep Kim informed.    

[Crusader1969]

This season has been a complete disaster from the beginning, actually before the beginning if thats when Jack broke his ribs 

I’ll be an optimist though that this is just one of those years when everything goes wrong 

I would resign Hall if he is willing to take a short term deal 2 to 3 years. If not , I can easily walk away

1) hire BB   This should be a no-brainer   Hopefully he is quarantining right now 

2) put the band back together 

Skinner - Eichel -  Reinhart 

3) fill out your lines with youth 

In the draft I go after either Eklund (especially if Hall moves onor Berniers if  Hall stays 

Eklund immediately goes into the 2nd line winger or Berniers would become 3rd line Center  Both are highly competitive and are NHL ready (from what I’ve read anyways)

I’ll assume Hall resigns   Won’t be much interest elsewhere after this season  

2nd line   
Hall   Cozens  Mitts 

since Hall resigns , they draft Berniers and he steps in as 3C   

 I think Jack Quinn will be in the NHL next season too   Smart all round game   Will be able to play on the 3rd line 

this would give you Olofsson Berniers and Quinn on the 3rd line 

4th line  Girgs , Lazar and Asplund 

Defense 

Risto and McCabe (If he will come back)

Dahlin and Borgen

Miller and Bryson

Goalie   Ullmark and UPL 

young team I know but better than bringing in worthless low cost vets or overpriced Free agents 

At least , Bruce behind the bench will make it exciting! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 14, 2021 by Crusader1969

[Randall Flagg]

We can talk all we want about coaches, psychology, leadership etc. and those are all important things. But one thing that remains true is that building a real, full NHL roster will be the best thing we can do towards ensuring a winning hockey team. We need to get the other things right too, but getting all of those right without getting the roster right severely limits what you can accomplish.

Between Eakin, Okposo, Rieder, Sheahan, Lazar, we have 5 guys on this team with a 4th line role. We thought some of them (Eakin, Okposo) could slot in above that in all likelihood, but that was always unrealistic. That is too many 4th liners on a team that doesn't have a 2C, or a real 3rd line. If you assume we get typical production out of the top 6 that we've gotten no production out of this year, save Reinhart, we still have huge problems.

Given the names that will be available, we have to stop accepting such a flawed forward group year after year. We have to stop doing the bare minimum, with that minimum involving HUGE question marks (Mitts in 2018, Johansson, old Staal). We need a first line with Jack (or Jack trade return) that can outscore its opponent. We need a 2nd offensive line that is capable of sustained production as well. We need a 3rd line with some sort of identity, that is fluid depending on what is available, but it needs to be good at something and competent at other things. And we need a 4th line that can handle heavy matchups (it's a damn shame we may have to build this from scratch, for no reason). The way I view it, the pieces we have right now that I am confident can fill roles in this structure are:

xxx - Eichel - Reinhart
xxx - xxx - xxx
xxx - xxx - Cozens
Girgensons - xxx - xxx 

Zemgus isn't fantastic, but I've seen him play a positive role in this type of 4th line, that was GOOD at defense, and COMPETENT at offensive cycling (and he had 12 goals in 69 games). Cozens might be better than what I show, but the key is RELIABILITY - we cannot guarantee that he will be a top 6 force, so DO NOT assume that it will happen. From what we have seen, he CAN be a good piece on a good 3rd line, right now. He has a nice shot, great speed, good instincts, great effort. 

When Eichel is right, he's a 1C, and if we trade him, we had better get a 1C back, even if they're worse, or have a different plan to get one. so that should be filled. And Reinhart is good, and you'd better get a guy capable of being a winger on the first line if he goes too. 

The rest of this is up for grabs. Among guys on this roster, you are stuck with Skinner, you have Olofsson, you have Hall, you have Staal (these two will likely be gone), you have Mitts/Tage, and you have a crap ton of 4th liners - Eakin, Okposo, Rieder, Lazar, and Sheahan. The easiest thing to look at first is the 4th line. Girgensons is under contract, so you need TWO MORE 4th liners, and then maybe one as a 13F kinda guy. That is IT. PICK TWO, and dump the rest. The pool should not only include those five skaters, but it should also include UFAs and guys you can pick up in a trade. For simplicity, I'll leave a small sample size of potential available names: 

4th Line: Pick two of Cody Eakin, Kyle Okposo, Tobias Rieder, Curtis Lazar, Riley Sheahan, Brock McGinn, Zach Hyman, Jordan Martinook, Cedric Pacquette, Sean Kuraly, Ryan Carpenter, Barclay Goodrow, Mark Jankowski, or others like these guys. Scout them, figure out which ones are still good, and make your move, and have fallback options, and maybe pick one out for 13F. For the sake of this exercise, say you come to an agreement with Sean Kuraly after watching his tape and seeing that he's still got it, and you decide to dump Eakin and buy out KO, while keeping Lazar for 13F. Then, for 4RW, you decide to add Jordan Martinook.

Now the forward group looks like this:

xxx - Eichel - Reinhart
xxx - xxx - xxx
xxx - xxx - Cozens
Girgensons - Kuraly - Martinook
extra: Lazar.

We almost have two lines built. Let's look at line 3 next. You can go a few ways here - do you want another defensive/energy line that can chip in some offense? Or do you want a dynamic offensive line that might not be able to play as good defense, but can feast on worse competition? Some hybrid, something else? Whatever you decide is fine, BUT, you need to put REAL 3RD LINERS on this line. You may decide that we have some we can use (maybe you believe in Skinner, maybe you want Olofsson there). The key here is to NOT use our excess 4th liners in this spot. Let them go. The roster will not be good enough to win if you don't. We are done playing around with this stuff. 

Potential pool: Choose 2 of Jeff Skinner, Victor Olofsson, Brandon Saad, Tyler Bozak, Mathieu Perreault, Casey Cizikas, Scott Laughton, Alex Iafallo, Mattias Janmark, Blake Coleman, Erik Haula, or a trade piece. For the sake of the exercise, I am going to pretend we have come to an agreement with Scott Laughton, and will keep VO. Also, the reality is that Skinner is stuck here for a while. I'm not saying he's earned this or that he's still good, but I would give him one final 2 month stretch with Jack, without the threat of immediate removal, to see if we can't get some value out of him. If this combined with a new coach does not work, I bury and forget about him forever. So I'm going to write him in next to Jack. I'm also going to shift Sam down a line, just to get something established there.

Skinner - Eichel - xxx
xxx - xxx - Reinhart
Olofsson - Laughton - Cozens
Girgensons - Kuraly - Martinook
Lazar

Now for the top 6. Enough messing around at the center position. FIX it. End of story. When you do this at 2C, 2LW does not need to be a 30 goal guy, he can be an effective middle 6 player that can move up/down the lineup and plays a strong 2way game. 

Potential 2C candidates: Sign Danault (I know his numbers are down but I still believe he's good, but it doesn't have to be him), RNH is a UFA but no thanks. You may have to make a trade for this. Maybe you pry Schenn out of STL if they hit a cap crunch. Maybe Hertl can be wedged loose from SJS, or Dvorak in Arizona. You may have to take more risk than I initially deemed acceptable here, but if you add Laughton (who is playing excellent this year), and develop Cozens at C the rest of this year, this risk begins to diminish, which is the point. Still, try to make this your strongest move of the offseason, and come out of it with a guy that the consensus will agree is a 2C. I'll pretend that we are able to pool assets together to get Hertl from a rebuilding SJS (Hall fetches a 1 at the deadline maybe, and they like a prospect or two)

Potential LW for that line: I'm going to leave it open for now and see what we have at the end.

Skinner - Eichel - xxx
xxx - Hertl - Reinhart
Olofsson - Laughton - Cozens
Girgensons - Kuraly - Martinook
Lazar

The reality is, there is probably going to be a big trade this summer, I'm not sure Reinhart is going to stick around, nor Eichel. If one is moved, I envision a couple of the 3 available open spots we'd have (the two xxxes above, and one of those guys) would be filled by the return. And you still have Mitts, Tage, Asplund, Ruotsalainen, and other available UFAs. You can shift guys around as chemistry and injuries dictate, but sticking with

Skinner - Eichel/1C - competent prospect/stylistic mesh/UFA addition
competent prospect/stylistic mesh/UFA addition - Hertl - Reinhart/2RW
Olofsson - Laughton - Cozens
Girgensons - Kuraly - Martinook 
Lazar

or equivalent with different names, gives you 4 established lines that shouldn't be swamped with their usage. 

On defense, with the emergence of Borgen and Bryson, I think the job is easier. I try to keep McCabe. 

McCabe - Risto
Dahlin - Borgen
Bryson - xxx
Jokiharju 

I fire Montour and Miller into the sun, and look for a good player to pair with Bryson (David Savard is a UFA, is he still good?). Add a goalie that is good enough to start for a couple months if Ullmark is out. Maybe that's Raanta.

Skinner - Eichel - Tanner Pearson or something
Mitts/someone - Hertl - Reinhart
Olofsson - Laughton - Cozens
Girgensons - Kuraly - Martinook
Lazar 

McCabe - Risto 
Dahlin - Borgen
Bryson - Savard
Joki

Ullmark
Raanta

Balance those D pairs, treat them like 3 second pairs. Hire Boudreau and go win some ***** games.


 

[Thorny]

37 minutes ago, Curt said:

Ok,  If you are only talking about prospects added in the past 6 months, then yes, they have not added to the C pipeline. 

Personal preference - I'd make sure to take at least 1 C in the first two rounds every year - it's the most important position. 

[Gatorman0519]

You have to keep Skinner at least two more years before a potential buyout.  Too much of a penalty over the next 13 years that we would take on.   I think a veteran coach can turn him back into a 20 goal scorer and get value out of him.  

Edited March 14, 2021 by Gatorman0519

[Curt]

22 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Personal preference - I'd make sure to take at least 1 C in the first two rounds every year - it's the most important position. 

Yeah, G and C.

Just as a rule of thumb, should on average take, one C in round 1-3, one D in round 2-4 and a goalie somewhere almost every year.

Edited March 14, 2021 by Curt

[PerreaultForever]

3 hours ago, Carmel Corn said:

I find it so irritating that management has failed to address this over multiple years.  We could have addressed this in the last draft with either Rossi or even Perfetti.  Nothing against Quinn, but the lack of attention to the center spine is frankly negligence IMHO.

Doesn't this all go back to Reinhart though? Or maybe even the Girgensens Gregorinko draft.  All supposed to be centers, and then on top of that we trade away ROR and don't get a real center back in return. 

My fear is this team is just hoping Cozens is our 2C next year, Samuelson is our new stay at home D man and they'll rush the goalies too. 

I have no issues with Curtis Lazar, but he should be fighting for a roster spot rather then being our best center (with Eichel injured). 

 

[Curt]

6 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

Doesn't this all go back to Reinhart though? Or maybe even the Girgensens Gregorinko draft.  All supposed to be centers, and then on top of that we trade away ROR and don't get a real center back in return. 

My fear is this team is just hoping Cozens is our 2C next year, Samuelson is our new stay at home D man and they'll rush the goalies too. 

I have no issues with Curtis Lazar, but he should be fighting for a roster spot rather then being our best center (with Eichel injured). 

 

I hope they don’t rush up prospects next year.  They didn’t do that this season.  I guess we’ll see.

[#freejame]

2 hours ago, Randall Flagg said:

Skinner - Eichel - Tanner Pearson or something
Mitts/someone - Hertl - Reinhart
Olofsson - Laughton - Cozens
Girgensons - Kuraly - Martinook
Lazar 

McCabe - Risto 
Dahlin - Borgen
Bryson - Savard
Joki

Ullmark
Raanta

Glad I'm not the only one out here writing novels. Savard was someone that I considered, but I don't have a ton of faith in our ability to read the market and I don't know that his health and play are what they once were. As far as McCabe is concerned, while I would like to have him back, he obviously comes with some risk associated with him, and any plans to include signing him should also involve bringing in a 7th D who is able to log third pairing minutes without concern. I like Samuelsson, or the idea of Samuelsson, but I don't want to see him up here if he isn't going to step in and play. We have seen that enough times where we have guys who should be developing riding pine or viewing from the pressbox and regardless of what Kruger says, I don't think that is best for development. 

I think Laughton should definitely be targeted this offseason, we need to bring in either him or Coleman. I think Laughton might come a bit cheaper and provide the same value so that may be the better signing. While I used to like Pearson, I am skeptical of signing him. I would be very pleased if we were able to get Hertle to come in, but I fear that we aren't going to have a true 2C until Cozens is ready to take that mantle. I don't believe he will be there next season, but he should probably see 30 or so games there anyway to learn the position. I think you are probably right in that Lazar is much better suited for the 13th forward position, but I hate the idea of signing more 4th liners since our recent record leaves a lot to be desired. 

Comparing our two posts, it looks like we are more or less on the same page. A few different players here or there, but our overall assessment of the roster seems pretty in-line with one another. Regardless, there is a lot of work to be done. I also like the way you broke down the roster--looks familiar!