With Anderson out for a couple more weeks, is it smart to keep UPL in Rochester?

[Eleven]

Per this morning's Buffalo News, Anderson is out for a while.  (The article is paywalled as usual.)  The team wants to keep UPL in Rochester for development.

I don't like this.  Surprisingly, this team actually could make the playoffs with good goaltending.  I have little faith in Tokarski, and none whatsoever in Dell.  I don't have that much in UPL, either, but he's not as bad as the other two.

I just think they're wasting an opportunity here.

 

EDIT:  I was unclear.  I don't think Adams should trade for a goalie.  I do think that UPL, while not great, is better than the other two options, and I think he should be in Buffalo.  

SECOND EDIT:  Changed thread title to clarify what I'm getting at.

Edited November 16, 2021 by Eleven

[Thorny]

Goalie everyone expected to have durability issues has durability issues. 

It’ll be interesting to see if Adams takes a more proactive approach than the other GMs we’ve seen recently - with regards to aiding the roster in season. 

I can’t imagine we’ll see some sort of move, I have to think Adams knew Anderson going down was reasonably likely to happen, yet he was still ok with him being the starter. But you never know. 

[nucci]

shocking that a 40 yo goaltender would have injury issues?

[PromoTheRobot]

13 minutes ago, Eleven said:

Per this morning's Buffalo News.  (The article is paywalled as usual.)  The team wants to keep UPL in Rochester for development.

I don't like this.  Surprisingly, this team actually could make the playoffs with good goaltending.  I have little faith in Tokarski, and none whatsoever in Dell.  I don't have that much in UPL, either, but he's not as bad as the other two.

I just think they're wasting an opportunity here.

So you have little faith in our best goalie. Okay. 

Adams is not making a trade for a goalie.

[Zamboni]

Ryan Miller… You’re the next contestant on “ The price is $750,000!”

😂

[Eleven]

5 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

So you have little faith in our best goalie. Okay. 

Adams is not making a trade for a goalie.

I didn't suggest that he should make a trade.  I think he should call up UPL.

[PromoTheRobot]

Just now, Eleven said:

I didn't suggest that he should make a trade.  I think he should call up UPL.

I read that article you referred to. That's unlikely as well. Seems like they are determined to keep Rochester intact for as long as possible. Frankly I'd give Hauser another try.

[bob_sauve28]

Depends on what the trade is...a second rounder for a useful goalie? I might jump at that 

[Eleven]

5 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

That's unlikely as well. Seems like they are determined to keep Rochester intact for as long as possible.

Yeah, that's what I'm disagreeing with.

[PromoTheRobot]

Just now, Eleven said:

Yeah, that's what I'm disagreeing with.

Once we get our injured players back, get Tuch in the lineup, and call up Krebs, Quinn, Peterka and Samuelson, and maybe add Power, we'll have a pretty nice team.

[Amerks8796]

Aside from the last week, UPL has been one on the worst goalies in the AHL over the last 3 years. Calling him up would be a terrible idea. 

[Curt]

Leave UPL in Rochester.  He has only played a handful of good games in the AHL.  He has been super inconsistent and overall has been bad in the AHL.

Not only is UPL not ready, but you should have more faith in Tokarski than UPL.

[inkman]

8 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Once we get our injured players back, get Tuch in the lineup, and call up Krebs, Quinn, Peterka and Samuelson, and maybe add Power, we'll have a pretty nice team.

So next season 

[SABRES 0311]

I say bring the kid up for a few games.  Seeing some big league action could help his development and give some motivation.

[GASabresIUFAN]

If KA wanted better goaltending he wouldn’t have signed Dell and Anderson in the off-season.  UPL should stay where he is.  

The only real solution is to find outside help but that is nearly impossible at this point.  KA isn’t going to do it anyway.  

I fully understand and agree that looking at a Tokarski/Dell combo makes one want to retch.

[PromoTheRobot]

4 minutes ago, inkman said:

So next season 

Probably.

[darksabre]

Running the Tokarski-Dell tandem for a few more weeks is going to be dangerous. Tokarski has played well, but he really needed to be splitting time with Anderson. Carrying more of the workload is more likely to end with him injured because he's a cusp NHL talent who's body will break down at this pace and playing behind this roster.

We might get to see UPL soon anyway.

Edited November 16, 2021 by darksabre

[PromoTheRobot]

1 minute ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

If KA wanted better goaltending he wouldn’t have signed Dell and Anderson in the off-season.  UPL should stay where he is.  

The only real solution is to find outside help but that is nearly impossible at this point.  KA isn’t going to do it anyway.  

I fully understand and agree that looking at a Tokarski/Dell combo makes one want to retch.

It's not like there were a bunch of decent goalies sitting around available. 

[Thorny]

1 minute ago, inkman said:

So next season 

Pretty much. 

We aren't going to see a move for a goalie, now. I'm sure Adams would take a viable starter, for free, if the contract wasn't a handicap, but who's offering one of those? My reading is that there isn't one iota of the future that Adams is willing to sacrifice in the name of the team being better THIS season. Be it even a second round pick. I think we can tell this because of what the roster looks like, but more importantly, that he could have upped his offer for Ullmark and that deal would still have been reasonable - certainly around here it doesn't seem like the terms he got from Boston would have been met negatively. But rather than make what I'd argue to be only a small "future sacrifice" by locking up Ullmark, he was sooner ready to rely on Dell and Tokarski and Anderson. Those were the goalies we could have here that didn't cost any kind of future asset. 

What will be most telling is how he goes about managing the position for next season. If it's more of the same in net, we will know the plan isn't to win that year. 

[LGR4GM]

59 minutes ago, Eleven said:

Per this morning's Buffalo News, Anderson is out for a while.  (The article is paywalled as usual.)  The team wants to keep UPL in Rochester for development.

I don't like this.  Surprisingly, this team actually could make the playoffs with good goaltending.  I have little faith in Tokarski, and none whatsoever in Dell.  I don't have that much in UPL, either, but he's not as bad as the other two.

I just think they're wasting an opportunity here.

 

EDIT:  I was unclear.  I don't think Adams should trade for a goalie.  I do think that UPL, while not great, is better than the other two options, and I think he should be in Buffalo.  

SECOND EDIT:  Changed thread title to clarify what I'm getting at.

UPL played a couple good games. That doesn't mean he is ready for a call up and he needs the full season in Rochester. 

As to the bold, up until last week UPL was assuredly worse than Tokarski and the numbers bare that out. UPL should 100% not be in Buffalo and I would be 100% against such a knee jerk call up simply because he played several good games. If we get to January and UPL's play has been steady, sure. 

15 minutes ago, SABRES 0311 said:

I say bring the kid up for a few games.  Seeing some big league action could help his development and give some motivation.

It hasn't in any of his previous Buffalo trips. Also at this stage if he needs motivation, we should be concerned. 

[darksabre]

2 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Pretty much. 

We aren't going to see a move for a goalie, now. I'm sure Adams would take a viable starter, for free, if the contract wasn't a handicap, but who's offering one of those? My reading is that there isn't one iota of the future that Adams is willing to sacrifice in the name of the team being better THIS season. Be it even a second round pick. I think we can tell this because of what the roster looks like, but more importantly, that he could have upped his offer for Ullmark and that deal would still have been reasonable - certainly around here it doesn't seem like the terms he got from Boston would have been met negatively. But rather than make what I'd argue to be only a small "future sacrifice" by locking up Ullmark, he was sooner ready to rely on Dell and Tokarski and Anderson. Those were the goalies we could have here that didn't cost any kind of future asset. 

What will be most telling is how he goes about managing the position for next season. If it's more of the same in net, we will know the plan isn't to win that year. 

It's compelling, though, that Ullmark has been pretty mediocre for Boston so far this season. At the moment Adams' choice to walk away looks shrewd. We'll see how it looks as the season goes on but...

[bunomatic]

I’ll stay out of this one

[Thorny]

4 minutes ago, darksabre said:

It's compelling, though, that Ullmark has been pretty mediocre for Boston so far this season. At the moment Adams' choice to walk away looks shrewd. We'll see how it looks as the season goes on but...

Ya I thought about that, but I'm not giving Adams credit for somehow expecting a drop off - he was still trying to sign Ullmark for what, 3 years? 

I doubt he'd be trying to sign him, if possible, if he thought he wasn't good enough. Adams backed off the Boston deal because of term, not talent analysis. 

Regardless, it was never walking away from Ullmark that wasn't "acceptable" (from a trying to be good this year sense, if that floats your boat) - it was that just because you didn't get Ullmark doesn't make it ok to not have capable goaltending 

Edited November 16, 2021 by Thorny

[LGR4GM]

1 hour ago, Eleven said:

Per this morning's Buffalo News, Anderson is out for a while.  (The article is paywalled as usual.)  The team wants to keep UPL in Rochester for development.

I don't like this.  Surprisingly, this team actually could make the playoffs with good goaltending.  I have little faith in Tokarski, and none whatsoever in Dell.  I don't have that much in UPL, either, but he's not as bad as the other two.

I just think they're wasting an opportunity here.

 

EDIT:  I was unclear.  I don't think Adams should trade for a goalie.  I do think that UPL, while not great, is better than the other two options, and I think he should be in Buffalo.  

SECOND EDIT:  Changed thread title to clarify what I'm getting at.

You have to go back to 2012 to find an AHL season from Tokarski as bad as UPL and even then Tokarski is better. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

7 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

It's not like there were a bunch of decent goalies sitting around available. 

There is always someone available especially in the off-season.  The question is cost.  KA didn’t want to spend anything on goaltending and got nothing.