Lineup 2021-22

[Buffalonill]

After Miller did that welcome to buffalo thing for power I'm pretty sure they will have his number up .

[Doohickie]

ONE MONTH until the first regular season game.  I can't wait.  No really, I can't wait.  After the sh1t show last year and this terrible off-season I want to see some Sabres hockey.

[Curt]

I’m not in favor of retiring numbers for players unless they are true, best player in the league type of superstars, or at least close to it, combined with a very long career with the team.

Retire Miller’s sweater and put it up in the rafters.  Honor him, but you can’t just be retiring all these numbers.  Sabres already have 7 numbers retired, and they should probably only have two.  What are they going do if they ever have a team that is a cup contender for a 5+ year run and/or actually wins a cup?  Retire 5-6 more players’ numbers?

I think teams need to just start “retiring” sweaters and putting them in the rafters to honor the player, without actually taking the number out of use.

[dudacek]

12 hours ago, Thorny said:

Malone must be the longest tenured pure prospect of all time, any team 

I think we drafted him in 1996

I dont know.

I’m still hoping Artem Kryukov can make the jump.

[Thorny]

@dudacekwhat's your confidence level sitting at that Adams is going to be bringing in that additional Henrique-ish C and another G?

[Thorny]

Without winning being the focus unfortunately, I think what I'm most interested in this coming season is Dahlin. I'm not sure how much of the current forward grouping will be here for the long term, Cozens and Mittelstadt the obvious exceptions. I'm excited to see how they progress, but the current lynch pin of our organization assuming Jack is gonzo has gotta be Dahlin. He's got the highest ceiling of anyone currently in the system, and the new rebuild is set to his timeline. Whereas Cozens and Casey are perhaps more suited to the "2C" label down the road, Rasmus Dahlin is a guy we have penciled in for the very top of the line-up. 

Obviously, it's his 4th season in the league coming up, I expect to see a jump, and we need to see a jump. You win in this league by finding a way to maximize your strengths and with the addition of Power to the system, our D unit going forward is imo going to need to be excellent for this build to reach it's potential. 

Maybe Eichel returns Zegras or we get super lucky (lucky being relative here) and snag Wright (or Bedard if this thing mind-numbingly drags out a further year) and we're left eying up a Wright/Cozens/Mittelstadt centre spine, but most likely our greatest strength is at D (particularly LHD) and I need to see huge signs this season, even with a terrible team around him, that Dahlin is ready to be that focal point. 

I think we're in trouble without a true emergence coming up from him anyways, so I wouldn't hesitate to get him locked up to a long term deal this offseason now while there's still a good chance it's a bargain sooner than later. I doubt they do it though and I fear we are going to set him up on that bridge timeline Reinhart got set on. Going short term with Dahlin and subjecting him to a poor team is asking for trouble if you ask me. 

[dudacek]

46 minutes ago, Thorny said:

@dudacekwhat's your confidence level sitting at that Adams is going to be bringing in that additional Henrique-ish C and another G?

Pretty low, given the absolute quiet out there.

Maybe it shouldn't be because the window remains wide open; there are still nearly two weeks until training camp and it is prudent for the teams considering dumping that type of player to see what develops during their training camps first.

But it really feels like Adams wants to see the return from a Jack trade before tying up any loose ends.