Rochester Americans 2021-2022

[Doohickie]

 

Movin' on up.

[Doohickie]

Looks like a guy who's paid his dues.

26 years old.  4 years of college (including sitting out a transfer year), a year in Europe, then ECHL and now AHL.  He may not be much but it looks like he's determined.

[Norcal]

 

[JohnC]

For those contributors such as @Norcal, @dudacek, @inkmanand anyone else who watch Rochester games how do you rate Krebs's play so far? Is he playing up to the expectation of some that he will be on the Sabres' roster next year or maybe even sometime this  season? Just curious. 

[inkman]

18 minutes ago, JohnC said:

For those contributors such as @Norcal, @dudacek, @inkmanand anyone else who watch Rochester games how do you rate Krebs's play so far? Is he playing up to the expectation of some that he will be on the Sabres' roster next year or maybe even sometime this  season? Just curious. 

His vision and awareness look off the charts.  He doesn’t physically stand out much.  

[dudacek]

18 minutes ago, inkman said:

His vision and awareness look off the charts.  He doesn’t physically stand out much.  

I’d basically agree. I’ll also add that he engages all the time and loses most of those battles.

He is fast and he plays fast. Knows where to go. Works his ass off on both ends.

He gets chances but can’t bury them worth *****. I’ll be shocked if he gets 20 goals regularly in the NHL. His hands are good aside from that though to go with his vision. 40 assists at his peak wouldnt shock me.

He needs to get stronger but otherwise is ready. He won’t be good until he can win some battles.

Best case scenario down the road would be a Peca or Drury. Worst case Eakin (the Dallas/Vegas version)

Edited December 2, 2021 by dudacek

[Kr632]

On 11/30/2021 at 9:53 PM, Norcal said:

 

I'm pretty sure 98% of hockey players have the same personality. 

[JohnC]

10 hours ago, dudacek said:

I’d basically agree. I’ll also add that he engages all the time and loses most of those battles.

He is fast and he plays fast. Knows where to go. Works his ass off on both ends.

He gets chances but can’t bury them worth *****. I’ll be shocked if he gets 20 goals regularly in the NHL. His hands are good aside from that though to go with his vision. 40 assists at his peak wouldnt shock me.

He needs to get stronger but otherwise is ready. He won’t be good until he can win some battles.

Best case scenario down the road would be a Peca or Drury. Worst case Eakin (the Dallas/Vegas version)

@inkmanand @dudacek thank you for your matching evaluations. How about your respective evaluations of Peterka? Will he be ready to move up by next season? 

[dudacek]

4 minutes ago, JohnC said:

@inkmanand @dudacek thank you for your matching evaluations. How about your respective evaluations of Peterka? Will he be ready to move up by next season? 

You know what it's like with good running backs, how if you don't get square and tackle through them, you're dead in the water?

Peterka is like that on skates.

He just explodes past and through defenders on the rush. Gets at least one breakaway nearly every game. He's powerful and squat and hard on the puck, both carrying it, and on the forecheck. Like Krebs, he is fast and plays fast. Unlike Krebs, he's got man-strength already.

Where he has surprised me most is that, unlike many rocket wingers, he's not a tunnel vision shoot-first type. He will use his speed to create space for his linemates and then find them with accurate passes. Sees the ice very well offensively. Has excellent chemistry with Quinn. i think he can score more goals than he's shown, but circumstances have cast him into a set-up role and he is well-rounded enough to play it.

Of our Amerk trio, he's the one who would concern me most defensively. Krebs is good at that part of the game, Quinn is conscientious about it. It's not that Peterka is lazy that way, it's just that he approaches the game in an offence-first manner. He's still shaking off the vestiges of being the kid relied on to score all the time and never really asked to focus on the other end. He will cheat leaving the zone and regularly extends his shifts too long.

Personally, I think he has the competitiveness and the vision to overcome that and that he will. As soon as he does, he will be in Buffalo.

[JohnC]

4 minutes ago, dudacek said:

You know what it's like with good running backs, how if you don't get square and tackle through them, you're dead in the water?

Peterka is like that on skates.

He just explodes past and through defenders on the rush. Gets at least one breakaway nearly every game. He's powerful and squat and hard on the puck, both carrying it, and on the forecheck. Like Krebs, he is fast and plays fast. Unlike Krebs, he's got man-strength already.

Where he has surprised me most is that, unlike many rocket wingers, he's not a tunnel vision shoot-first type. He will use his speed to create space for his linemates and then find them with accurate passes. Sees the ice very well offensively. Has excellent chemistry with Quinn. i think he can score more goals than he's shown, but circumstances have cast him into a set-up role and he is well-rounded enough to play it.

Of our Amerk trio, he's the one who would concern me most defensively. Krebs is good at that part of the game, Quinn is conscientious about it. It's not that Peterka is lazy that way, it's just that he approaches the game in an offence-first manner. He's still shaking off the vestiges of being the kid relied on to score all the time and never really asked to focus on the other end. He will cheat leaving the zone and regularly extends his shifts too long.

Personally, I think he has the competitiveness and the vision to overcome that and that he will. As soon as he does, he will be in Buffalo.

Thank you for your terrific analysis. 

I was listening to Paul Hamilton discuss Perterka on WGR awhile back. Everything you stated corresponded to what he said about JJ. And what he emphasized (as you noted) is that he had a way to go to learn the defensive side of the game. He was very positive about him but felt that he had a lot more work to do on his defensive game before moving up to the next level. 

Kevin Adams moved up in the draft to pick him. In the not too distant future that maneuver to select him could prove to be an exceptional move. 

[inkman]

1 hour ago, JohnC said:

@inkmanand @dudacek thank you for your matching evaluations. How about your respective evaluations of Peterka? Will he be ready to move up by next season? 

Agree with a lot of what dudacek has to say about JJ.  He explodes into the offensive zone.  Can absolutely snipe it from anywhere inside 25 feet.  Needs to work on finishing breakaways.  He’s missed a few this season but the good news is that he is getting breakaways nearly every game. 

[inkman]

 

[Norcal]

 

[Norcal]

 

 

Edited December 9, 2021 by Norcal

[Thorny]

21 hours ago, Norcal said:

 

 

Comparables leave a little something to be desired, but that all looks really great.

Can someone explain the second tweet to me? It's purely concerning prospects playing in the AHL, correct?

Edited December 10, 2021 by Thorny

[PerreaultForever]

My question is, although these guys are tearing it up at the AHL level, are they still kids or are any of them ready to step up to the men's league? Will they be able to play their game with the speed and physicality of the NHL or will it take a lot more time? 

[dudacek]

1 minute ago, PerreaultForever said:

My question is, although these guys are tearing it up at the AHL level, are they still kids or are any of them ready to step up to the men's league? Will they be able to play their game with the speed and physicality of the NHL or will it take a lot more time? 

Samuelsson is a man in a man’s league. He’s physically more ready than most of our NHL roster.

Krebs plays a man’s game with a boys body. He’s going to look like Cozens did last year.

Peterka is faster than most of our NHL roster and can skate through checks. He’s close, physically and mentally, but he needs more time.

Quinn is the hardest to project for me, because he still has a boys body, but his hands and his mental game are so far above AHL men his physical weakness doesn’t matter much. It’s hard to say whether that will be the case in the NHL.

To be clear, any of the above is good enough right now to be a Sabres regular instead of some of our JAGs. The question is are they much better?

[Norcal]

45 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Comparables leave a little something to be desired, but that all looks really great.

Can someone explain the second tweet to me? It's purely concerning prospects playing in the AHL, correct?

Yes I think he's referring to the AHL. 

[Taro T]

18 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Samuelsson is a man in a man’s league. He’s physically more ready than most of our NHL roster.

Krebs plays a man’s game with a boys body. He’s going to look like Cozens did last year.

Peterka is faster than most of our NHL roster and can skate through checks. He’s close, physically and mentally, but he needs more time.

Quinn is the hardest to project for me, because he still has a boys body, but his hands and his mental game are so far above AHL men his physical weakness doesn’t matter much. It’s hard to say whether that will be the case in the NHL.

To be clear, any of the above is good enough right now to be a Sabres regular instead of some of our JAGs. The question is are they much better?

Nice review.

Expect Samuelsson would be an upgrade today but really should get an opportunity to be 3rd pairing were he to come in this year but would likely be bumped to 2nd or even 1st pairing were he in Buffalo real quickly.  Am OK whichever way management wants to go w/ bringing him up or keeping him on the farm as there are arguments both ways.

Also expect Peterka would be fine in 2 of the 3 zones and an upgrade on the typical bottom 6 wingers they've used.  But would like to see him improve in his own end before calling him up.  He creates a ton of breakaways at the AHL level.  Will be interesting to see how much that falls off at the next level.

Those 2 likely come up right after the "Olympic break," if injuries don't force them up sooner.  No rush bringing up either of the other 2 this year; would like to see more strength before sending them in.  But expect both to move up last 2-3 weeks of the season for a taste when the college kids show up, too.

Really expect that except for the possibility of a Wright lucking into the organization and onto next season's lineup that all of next year's F's are in house already and that FA will focus on 2 quality D & a quality G.

[Norcal]

Tonight's opponent Laval 🚀 

 

 

 

[Norcal]

 

 

[inkman]

Amerks 2-1 after 1.  Malone and Biro with goals.  

[inkman]

Mersch flings one one net from the half wall and it picks the top corner.  

[inkman]

10 minutes ago, inkman said:

Mersch flings one one net from the half wall and it picks the top corner.  

Amerks 3-2. 

[inkman]

16 minutes ago, inkman said:

Mersch flings one one net from the half wall and it picks the top corner.