Practice and Roster Updates 1/13

[Brawndo]

 

[WhenWillItEnd66]

Krebs needs to stay up and play.... he has been playing well. Thats a huge stupid thing to do unless he is just being moved back tomorrow

[inkman]

13 minutes ago, NJhopelessSabresfan66 said:

Krebs needs to stay up and play.... he has been playing well. Thats a huge stupid thing to do unless he is just being moved back tomorrow

It’s a paper transaction just like Quinn & UPL earlier this week 

[Taro T]

1 hour ago, inkman said:

It’s a paper transaction just like Quinn & UPL earlier this week 

Mainly paper.  Still believe that whichever kid is the "lucky" winner of the demotion for a day lottery isn't allowed to practice w/ the Sabres that day; but haven't confirmed that yet.

[klos1963]

3 hours ago, NJhopelessSabresfan66 said:

Krebs needs to stay up and play.... he has been playing well. Thats a huge stupid thing to do unless he is just being moved back tomorrow

He's got, what, 2 assists in his last 12 games?  I think we need quite a bit more out of him. He's not very effective right now.

[dudacek]

58 minutes ago, klos1963 said:

He's got, what, 2 assists in his last 12 games?  I think we need quite a bit more out of him. He's not very effective right now.

Not sure how the past few games have affected this, but lesS than a week ago he was on a run of 6 points in his past 12 games, while leading the team in Corsi and only being on for 2 goals against.

[klos1963]

18 hours ago, dudacek said:

Not sure how the past few games have affected this, but lesS than a week ago he was on a run of 6 points in his past 12 games, while leading the team in Corsi and only being on for 2 goals against.

he's got 9 points in 34 games, -3.  Aside from a few glimpses a few weeks ago, He's not very effective.

[ShadowOnTheDoor]

All just to manage the workload of a 40 year-old backup goaltender. It might make sense for a serious contender, but not a team in the midst of a rebuild (tail end or otherwise).  A decision should have been made on UPL before the season to have him here or not. He's essentially a first round pick - he's been coddled long enough.

[Taro T]

19 minutes ago, ShadowOnTheDoor said:

All just to manage the workload of a 40 year-old backup goaltender. It might make sense for a serious contender, but not a team in the midst of a rebuild (tail end or otherwise).  A decision should have been made on UPL before the season to have him here or not. He's essentially a first round pick - he's been coddled long enough.

A decision was made.  UPL was not an NHL goalie in preseason nor as the season opened.

After that, Comrie was injured and UPL was forced into action.  After a shaky start, UPL has been solid & playing like an NHLer.

When circumstances change, what was the right decision isn't necessarily still the right decision.  And the decision made by management thusly changed.

How has he been coddled?

[K-9]

34 minutes ago, ShadowOnTheDoor said:

All just to manage the workload of a 40 year-old backup goaltender. It might make sense for a serious contender, but not a team in the midst of a rebuild (tail end or otherwise).  A decision should have been made on UPL before the season to have him here or not. He's essentially a first round pick - he's been coddled long enough.

The coddling stage, if it ever existed, has been over for a while now. UPL has been forced to earn his keep since Comrie went down. And he’s been doing it against some quality opponents to boot. I don’t know if he is the answer, but the team has to find out one way or the other. 

[Pimlach]

38 minutes ago, ShadowOnTheDoor said:

All just to manage the workload of a 40 year-old backup goaltender. It might make sense for a serious contender, but not a team in the midst of a rebuild (tail end or otherwise).  A decision should have been made on UPL before the season to have him here or not. He's essentially a first round pick - he's been coddled long enough.

I think this is to manage the workload of 3 goalies.   Andy gets limited reps, UPL is just now emerging (maybe) as an NHL goalie, and Comrie is still coming back from an injury and is unproven as a starter on top of that.  With Comrie under contract for next year, and Andy's retirement inevitable, we could be looking at UPL and Comrie next year - unless they make a trade for a goalie.  

UPL is 23 years old.  He is getting a serious look.   This is about the time he should emerge as an NHL goalie, if he is going to. 

Of note, Jordan Binington spent 5 years in the minors and was 25 when he made it to the NHL.  Sometimes patience is needed.  

[ShadowOnTheDoor]

Krebs, Quinn, Peterka and (maybe) UPL are more important to the health of the franchise than Craig Anderson. Great career, still plays reasonably well, undoubtedly great in the locker room. But your roster management shouldn't revolve around him. I know they're often times "paper transactions," but it's a needless distraction.  

[dudacek]

17 minutes ago, ShadowOnTheDoor said:

Krebs, Quinn, Peterka and (maybe) UPL are more important to the health of the franchise than Craig Anderson. Great career, still plays reasonably well, undoubtedly great in the locker room. But your roster management shouldn't revolve around him. I know they're often times "paper transactions," but it's a needless distraction.  

Is it a distraction? To the players, I mean — I know it is to us.

I think the goalies will be fine. UPL is getting a chance to keep proving himself, Andy keeps playing once a week and being a sage, Comrie knows he's going to have to earn his spot back and is used to infrequent starts.

I think the issue is more with the forwards: will the other players think the team is hurt by Asplund and Vinnie in the lineup instead of Krebs, Quinn or JJ? Will any of the the kids think they are being unfairly punished due to a roster technicality?

Donnie seemed to indicate that the gymnastics can work as long as they are not getting in the way of wins.

Edited January 14, 2023 by dudacek

[ShadowOnTheDoor]

Craig Anderson is a thousand times more equipped to handle being waived, getting claimed or not, then dealing with the outcome whether it be going to a new team or Rochester - or even retiring - than a 20 year-old getting ping-ponged around. It's just not worth it  

[Thorny]

Alright. 

Most of this stems from “paper transaction” and the implication of said statement. This is where the confusion is coming in. I don’t believe the board is using the term within the proper spirit or doing service to the nature of why the transaction is happening in the first place. 

Quinn, Peterka, etc..calling their demotions “paper transactions” betray the spirit of those moves: the significance of what “assigned to Rochester” means, *as far as the Buffalo Sabres nhl hockey club* are concerned, remains *in tact*. The transaction isn’t semantically “in paper only” - Quinn can’t play on the team right now (or whenever it was he was “sent down”.) The fact he’s still physically breathing buffalo air is the semantics part of it. It’s not relevant as far as what designating Quinn to Rochester means in the now term: he’s not playing on our team. 
 

The reason Quinn isn’t playing, the reason a player gets “assigned to Rochester”, again, remain in tact: if Quinn was just heating up and settling in to the Calder top 3 as liger predicted recently (sorry liger, love you) he’d be *playing* not getting “assigned”, paper or not. 
 

We aren’t messing around with Quinn Peterka et all to spare Anderson, the sparing of Anderson is a silver lining to the situation transpiring where a few of our young guys, by way of their recent performance, have made themselves “disposable” re: the aim of winning, today. 

Edited January 14, 2023 by Thorny

[Thorny]

44 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Is it a distraction? To the players, I mean — I know it is to us.

I think the goalies will be fine. UPL is getting a chance to keep proving himself, Andy keeps playing once a week and being a sage, Comrie knows he's going to have to earn his spot back and is used to infrequent starts.

I think the issue is more with the forwards: will the other players think the team is hurt by Asplund and Vinnie in the lineup instead of Krebs, Quinn or JJ? Will any of the the kids think they are being unfairly punished due to a roster technicality?

Donnie seemed to indicate that the gymnastics can work as long as they are not getting in the way of wins.

The fact the gymnastics aren’t getting in the way of wins is exactly the point 

They are only being made * because they don’t *

[DarthEbriate]

3 hours ago, ShadowOnTheDoor said:

All just to manage the workload of a 40 year-old backup goaltender. It might make sense for a serious contender, but not a team in the midst of a rebuild (tail end or otherwise).  A decision should have been made on UPL before the season to have him here or not. He's essentially a first round pick - he's been coddled long enough.

Welcome to the 'Space!

Just want to check on the intent of the bolded. UPL was the 2nd goalie taken, but only Oettinger was in the 1st round or near it. UPL was drafted 54th, two-thirds of the way through the second round, with the pick the Sabres got from Minnesota for Chris Stewart as a deadline rental.

Edit: Note, the Sabres had the chance to take UPL almost 20 picks earlier with their own #37 pick, but took Marcus Davidsson instead.

Edited January 14, 2023 by DarthEbriate

[Sabres Fan in NS]

4 hours ago, ShadowOnTheDoor said:

All just to manage the workload of a 40 year-old backup goaltender. It might make sense for a serious contender, but not a team in the midst of a rebuild (tail end or otherwise).  A decision should have been made on UPL before the season to have him here or not. He's essentially a first round pick - he's been coddled long enough.

Welcome.

Sent you a Club Soda that looks like a beer.

UPL was not ready for the NHL at the start of the season.  Close, but not quite.  The right decision was to have him start the season in Rochester.  When Eric got hurt he was promoted and it took a few games for him to find himself at the NHL level.

He was a late second round pick if I remember correctly, which is an iffy at best proposition.

[LGR4GM]

On 1/13/2023 at 2:22 PM, NJhopelessSabresfan66 said:

Krebs needs to stay up and play.... he has been playing well. Thats a huge stupid thing to do unless he is just being moved back tomorrow

It's not a real move. 

[Taro T]

2 hours ago, dudacek said:

Is it a distraction? To the players, I mean — I know it is to us.

I think the goalies will be fine. UPL is getting a chance to keep proving himself, Andy keeps playing once a week and being a sage, Comrie knows he's going to have to earn his spot back and is used to infrequent starts.

I think the issue is more with the forwards: will the other players think the team is hurt by Asplund and Vinnie in the lineup instead of Krebs, Quinn or JJ? Will any of the the kids think they are being unfairly punished due to a roster technicality?

Donnie seemed to indicate that the gymnastics can work as long as they are not getting in the way of wins.

Know that the players like Hinostroza (he's the team comedian appatently) & presumably they like Asplund too.  So, the guys that aren't in the rotation are probably OK w/ it.

Don't see the "demotion" messing w/ Krebs confidence after the journey he's had to date.  Would be surprised if it messes w/ the Kid W's either.

Where this could hurt is it seems the demoted guy can't practice w/ the Sabres while demoted that 1 day.  Doubt it'll matter much for the ST, but if this situation lasts until the trade deadline, it could affect their play and that is counter to the stated goal of maximizing development.

[Doohickie]

On 1/14/2023 at 3:29 PM, ShadowOnTheDoor said:

Craig Anderson is a thousand times more equipped to handle being waived, getting claimed or not, then dealing with the outcome whether it be going to a new team or Rochester - or even retiring - than a 20 year-old getting ping-ponged around. It's just not worth it  

I think at this point we still need Anderson on the depth chart.  We could waive him and send him down to Rochester for a while, sure, and he would handle it fine.  If he's claimed by another team though, you're left with UPL and Comrie as our NHL goaltenders.  If either of them is injured we're looking at Malcolm Subban.  You remember the goalie carousels of the last few seasons?  I don't want to go back to that again.  So Andy needs to stay.  UPL is the only goalie that's waiver exempt so these paper transactions will continue for another 6 weeks (barring injuries) until the roster expansion after the trade deadline.

[Doohickie]

On 1/14/2023 at 5:50 PM, Taro T said:

Where this could hurt is it seems the demoted guy can't practice w/ the Sabres while demoted that 1 day.  Doubt it'll matter much for the ST, but if this situation lasts until the trade deadline, it could affect their play and that is counter to the stated goal of maximizing development.

To be honest I wouldn't have a problem with sending especially Quinn and JJ down to Rochester and let them play for the Amerks.  Give them top line assignments with their best center.  Let them play big minutes.  They're not getting them with the Sabres.  If they got sent down as a pair, played a game or two, then came back up I think it would help their game... and their development.

[PerreaultForever]

1 hour ago, Doohickie said:

To be honest I wouldn't have a problem with sending especially Quinn and JJ down to Rochester and let them play for the Amerks.  Give them top line assignments with their best center.  Let them play big minutes.  They're not getting them with the Sabres.  If they got sent down as a pair, played a game or two, then came back up I think it would help their game... and their development.

If nothing else you need to humble these kids once in a while so that they keep (or learn) a work ethic and come to realize staying in the NHL isn't a given. 

If they go to Rochester they shouldn't always be playing to their strengths either. Place them in positions and roles where they are having to do whatever it is you think they are weakest at and needs work. 

[JohnC]

On 1/14/2023 at 2:07 PM, Taro T said:

A decision was made.  UPL was not an NHL goalie in preseason nor as the season opened.

After that, Comrie was injured and UPL was forced into action.  After a shaky start, UPL has been solid & playing like an NHLer.

When circumstances change, what was the right decision isn't necessarily still the right decision.  And the decision made by management thusly changed.

How has he been coddled?

As you point out expectations on players are constantly changing based on performances. And in my view UPL has been a pleasant surprise in a position of great importance. A good discussion topic can be made on which players are the most pleasant and which players are the most disappointing surprise? I'm not sure who I would put in the negative category, although I know a number of people would want to include Mitts or Olofsson in that category. I'm not one of them. 

[Doohickie]

8 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

If nothing else you need to humble these kids once in a while so that they keep (or learn) a work ethic and come to realize staying in the NHL isn't a given. 

If they go to Rochester they shouldn't always be playing to their strengths either. Place them in positions and roles where they are having to do whatever it is you think they are weakest at and needs work. 

The first part is not what I intended.  I didn't mean that as way to knock them down a peg and keep them humble.  I was thinking more to have them work on their game and get 2X the game action they're seeing in the NHL to do so.

The second part I agree with.  Maybe give them checking line assignments, penalty kill, etc.  They're already seeing some of that in the NHL but an emphasis on that kind of stuff in the A could round out their game more quickly.