Taro T Posted March 1, 2022 Report Share Posted March 1, 2022 14 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said: I have no problem beginning to prune and it may happen. I don't see Bryson, Fitzgerald,. Asplund or Olofsson as long term pieces. Who do you want to prune? Last year everyone would have said we could probably prune Thompson and Jokiharju. Oops. Good analogy, but I think the ratio will more likely be 8 to 13 vets to younger players. Each forward like will have least one vet (Skinner, Okposo, Tuch and Girgensons), On the backend KA is going to add a veteran goaltender and at least two veteran D just to get us cap complaint. He'll also likely add a 4th line center. I think the roster will look something like this Vets - 8 - Girgensons (500+ games), Okposo (900 games), Skinner (850 games), Tuch (300 games) plus 4th line center, 2 veteran D and 1 vet goalie Some NHL experience 7 - (100 to 300 NHL games) - Mitts, Thompson, Cozens, Dahlin, Jokiharju, VO, and Asplund, Rookies - 7 - UPL, Samuelsson, Fitzgerald, Quinn, Krebs, JJP, & Power I can see Bryson or Bjork returning, but I hope KA moves on from both. With Girgensons availability the past 3 seasons can't see how he gets relied on as part of the veteran presence. He'll be back, but find it hard to believe he'll be relied on. Which is a shame, because he is good at what he does. Also, a minor quibble, does UPL still count as a rookie next season? With the shortened season last year his combo of games played then & this year might have him over the threshold. Expecting it does, but not positive on that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudacek Posted March 1, 2022 Report Share Posted March 1, 2022 Mix up the lines, substitute different vets, but I'd be fine with something like this next year: Skinner Thompson Tuch Krebs Mittelstadt Drury Quinn Cozens Okposo Girgensons Gaustad Asplund Peterka Mair Dahlin Numminen Power McKee Samuelsson Jokijarju Bryson Fitzgerald UPL Biron Levi 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Posted March 1, 2022 Report Share Posted March 1, 2022 2 minutes ago, dudacek said: Mix up the lines, substitute different vets, but I'd be fine with something like this next year: Skinner Thompson Tuch Krebs Mittelstadt Drury Quinn Cozens Okposo Girgensons Gaustad Asplund Peterka Mair Dahlin Numminen Power McKee Samuelsson Jokijarju Bryson Fitzgerald UPL Biron Levi Oh good, the Sabres only need to add a top-6 C with leadership skills, a shutdown bottom 6 C with leadership skills, two top-4 RHD, and a starting level goalie. Piece of cake. At least you don’t ask for much. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GASabresIUFAN Posted March 1, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2022 15 minutes ago, Taro T said: With Girgensons availability the past 3 seasons can't see how he gets relied on as part of the veteran presence. He'll be back, but find it hard to believe he'll be relied on. Which is a shame, because he is good at what he does. Also, a minor quibble, does UPL still count as a rookie next season? With the shortened season last year his combo of games played then & this year might have him over the threshold. Expecting it does, but not positive on that. Yes, UPL is still a rookie. He's need to have played 25 games this year or at least 6 games last year and at least 6 games this season to no longer be considered a rookie. Samuelsson however with 12 games last year and 16 this year won't be a "rookie" officially next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taro T Posted March 1, 2022 Report Share Posted March 1, 2022 1 minute ago, GASabresIUFAN said: Yes, UPL is still a rookie. He's need to have played 25 games this year or at least 6 games last year and at least 6 games this season to no longer be considered a rookie. Samuelsson however with 12 games last year and 16 this year won't be a "rookie" officially next year. Again, couldn't find anything stating that 6 games was the threshold LAST year and IF the # of games to work towards that threshold was pro-rated like the ELC kicking in threshold was prorated in the COVID affected years then his 4 games last year was like 6 this year. Not positive he actually will be a rookie next year. If you've seen something official that definitively states that, cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorny Posted March 1, 2022 Report Share Posted March 1, 2022 9 minutes ago, Curt said: Oh good, the Sabres only need to add a top-6 C with leadership skills, a shutdown bottom 6 C with leadership skills, two top-4 RHD, and a starting level goalie. Piece of cake. At least you don’t ask for much. And do those additional players even WANT to be here? 😉 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broken Ankles Posted March 1, 2022 Report Share Posted March 1, 2022 39 minutes ago, dudacek said: Dahlin Numminen Power McKee Samuelsson Jokijarju Exactly what should happen to the face our Defense this summer. Joki and Dahlin as a pair makes no sense. Imagine how much better Joki will be as a 3rd pairing (not facing top lines) and with a bigger stay at home defender as his partner. And how much better Dahlin will be with a Numminen type. I wouldn't be surprised if Mitts is traded to obtain this #2 defender in the off-season. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudacek Posted March 1, 2022 Report Share Posted March 1, 2022 2 hours ago, Curt said: Oh good, the Sabres only need to add a top-6 C with leadership skills, a shutdown bottom 6 C with leadership skills, two top-4 RHD, and a starting level goalie. Piece of cake. At least you don’t ask for much. Yet that’s how far away we are. And the thing is, we have the cap space and the assets to acquire those pieces, if Adams had Darcy’s player acquisition skills. This is roughly what those assets cost, translated to today’s market Numminen - 1-year $2.8 million (today’s dollars) UFA Gaustad - Vegas first McKee - 4-year $5.3 million UFA Drury - Olofsson and Sabres 2nd Biron - Fla 1st We’ve got the assets, we just need to identify the players and make the right deals happen. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrangeSeatVertigo Posted March 1, 2022 Report Share Posted March 1, 2022 On 2/27/2022 at 10:33 AM, GASabresIUFAN said: Casey’s bonehead play against St Louis is still bugging me. As soon as I saw the bad pass I knew it would cost us the game. I also was annoyed that Granato failed to pull the goalie earlier when we had them hemmed in their zone with two minutes left. These are the types of errors that good teams with good coaches don’t make. So I ask when do we stop making those mistakes. Why didn’t Casey just send the puck in deep in a tie game? Why wasn’t DG aggressive when the team has nothing to lose? Obviously personnel remains an issue. We are fielding the worst line in hockey each night. Our defense outside of Dahlin and Jokiharju is either young or exceedingly mediocre. The goaltending remains bad. Despite these handicaps we are in most games most nights. When do the lights go on and we start winning those close games? Is Granato part of the problem or is this mostly a roster issue? Does he know NHL skills but not NHL strategy? Is his and KA’s attitude that wins and losses don’t matter right now part of the problem as well? Do we not have the right vets here to teach the kids to win like Drury did? Probably be a couple of seasons from now. It's totally a roster issue. UPL, Levi, Power, Samuelsson, Quinn, Peterka need to have replaced the career AHLers on the ice now and have a season or two of NHL play and conditioning under their belt. Took a long time to break it and will take a long time to build it back. Granato is like a teacher/mentor , the team is buying into the fact that W/Ls are not the goal this year, they have a ton of young talent and that the inflection point is coming. Sure they could play the trap all game and eek out a few wins and hold back the players growth (ie, go back to KruegerVille) , but they are going for a fast exciting scoring team full of talent. They are doing it the right way. Pegs should be giving the tickets away this year and next, but that's a different issue. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvin Posted March 1, 2022 Report Share Posted March 1, 2022 2 hours ago, OrangeSeatVertigo said: Probably be a couple of seasons from now. It's totally a roster issue. UPL, Levi, Power, Samuelsson, Quinn, Peterka need to have replaced the career AHLers on the ice now and have a season or two of NHL play and conditioning under their belt. Took a long time to break it and will take a long time to build it back. Granato is like a teacher/mentor , the team is buying into the fact that W/Ls are not the goal this year, they have a ton of young talent and that the inflection point is coming. Sure they could play the trap all game and eek out a few wins and hold back the players growth (ie, go back to KruegerVille) , but they are going for a fast exciting scoring team full of talent. They are doing it the right way. Pegs should be giving the tickets away this year and next, but that's a different issue. Welcome to the board. I love your user name. I used to joke that the one end of the Aud appeared to have been designed by a dare-devil skier. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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