Jakob Chychrun scratched for trade related reasons

[Buffalonill]

Probably arziona   Scratched him  So teams would panic and send a better offer.

 It looks like that backfired.

[Thorny]

11 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

The Sabres added a center and a goalie. If you hate this team and Adams so much why keep coming back? Also Detroit is trash and they added all those overpriced ufas you wanted. 

Wouldn’t call Detroit “trash” personally as we are sitting at an identical 56 points though 52 games 

[Marvin]

1 hour ago, Buffalonill said:

Probably arziona   Scratched him  So teams would panic and send a better offer.

 It looks like that backfired.

I just read that it is possible that Chychrun requested being sat because he was getting higher ice time than most 1D's.

[PerreaultForever]

8 hours ago, Thorny said:

I get we are on the Levi timeline and all the eggs are there but we certainly need a plan B if he doesn’t work out (so I hope there’s a contingency) and realistically we need someone for next season, too, if he’s not ready to be a 45 game starter year 1. 

we’re whistling dixie through a battlefield if we enter into a season next year, where the EXPECTATION is playoffs, with our current goalie configuration. Don’t think playoffs could be reasonably predicted in that scenario. We don’t have a goalie currently who can carry the mail 

I think Adams is all in on Levi as well but it's a mistake. Levi won't be ready for a while and shouldn't be expected to be ready either. Goalies take time. UPL's inconsistency will continue as well I think. He's being asked for too much too soon. Eventually both might be exceptional and we will be all set in a Sauve-Edwards way or maybe even better but not for several years. 

A solid reliable veteran goalie signed for the next 3 years is what this teams needs more than anything else. 

[PerreaultForever]

8 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Which center should the Sabres have added in UFA who is better than Cozens or Tage? Which one? Please tell us. 

Comrie was it. There wasn't anyone else that was coming here. He didn't play because for some reason everyone thinks upl is even decent. Or Anderson should get starts.

You're nonsense is the worst. You talk about wanting to be a kraken fan because Adams hasn't personally written you to tell you his plan. 

I know his plan. It's a long term one, that's obvious. It's homegrown. It's Levi and UPL in goal (Comrie before Levi temporarily) with another Swede or Finn or somebody else drafted after that.

It's Kulich and Savoie and Rosen and whoever else. (they had better draft a few more D soon though as that talent pool is substantially thinner than forward)

This is not hard to figure out. 

It didn't have to be UFAs by the way and still doesn't. We are in fact talking about whether or not TRADING for Chychrun would be a good idea. 

As for the Kraken, as I said before, it is interesting to me to compare the two plans and builds/rebuilds. They started from scratch and we dumped the old core so essentially started over as well at the same time. I am interested to see which plan gets it right and faster. At the moment, they are in the playoffs. At the moment.

and it's your not you're. 

Edited February 16, 2023 by PerreaultForever

[tom webster]

3 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

I know his plan. It's a long term one, that's obvious. It's homegrown. It's Levi and UPL in goal (Comrie before Levi temporarily) with another Swede or Finn or somebody else drafted after that.

It's Kulich and Savoie and Rosen and whoever else. (they had better draft a few more D soon though as that talent pool is substantially thinner than forward)

This is not hard to figure out. 

It didn't have to be UFAs by the way and still doesn't. We are in fact talking about whether or not TRADING for Chychrun would be a good idea. 

As for the Kraken, as I said before, it is interesting to me to compare the two plans and builds/rebuilds. They started from scratch and we dumped the old core so essentially started over as well at the same time. I am interested to see which plan gets it right and faster. At the moment, they are in the playoffs. At the moment.

and it's your not you're. 

You keep repeating this narrative that Buffalo and Seattle are in the same place in their development and this is not true. Seattle has one of the older rosters in the league and is spending to the cap. They are at least two years ahead of the Sabres timeline and are fortunate to be playing out west.

[LGR4GM]

5 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

I know his plan. It's a long term one, that's obvious. It's homegrown. It's Levi and UPL in goal (Comrie before Levi temporarily) with another Swede or Finn or somebody else drafted after that.

It's Kulich and Savoie and Rosen and whoever else. (they had better draft a few more D soon though as that talent pool is substantially thinner than forward)

This is not hard to figure out. 

It didn't have to be UFAs by the way and still doesn't. We are in fact talking about whether or not TRADING for Chychrun would be a good idea. 

As for the Kraken, as I said before, it is interesting to me to compare the two plans and builds/rebuilds. They started from scratch and we dumped the old core so essentially started over as well at the same time. I am interested to see which plan gets it right and faster. At the moment, they are in the playoffs. At the moment.

and it's your not you're. 

Got it. You don't know and have no options or answers. 

You couldn't even answer one of my questions. 

The second ur correcting grammar on a message board we know ur argument is trash. 

1 hour ago, tom webster said:

You keep repeating this narrative that Buffalo and Seattle are in the same place in their development and this is not true. Seattle has one of the older rosters in the league and is spending to the cap. They are at least two years ahead of the Sabres timeline and are fortunate to be playing out west.

Bingo. But hey, facts ruin his narrative.

Edited February 16, 2023 by LGR4GM

[JohnC]

On 2/15/2023 at 6:52 AM, LGR4GM said:

The Sabres added a center and a goalie. If you hate this team and Adams so much why keep coming back? Also Detroit is trash and they added all those overpriced ufas you wanted. 

Listen to @Thorny. Check the standings. Why do you say Detroit is trash? They have the same number of points in the same number of games as we do. 

Edited February 16, 2023 by JohnC

[Sabres Fan in NS]

On 2/14/2023 at 8:10 PM, Thorny said:

One of us 

one of us 

Gabba Gabba Hey !!

[Sabres Fan in NS]

On 2/14/2023 at 11:22 PM, Broken Ankles said:

Hilarious.  Did not know the origin until now.  Gooble Gobble.  

https://medium.com/@thegreatinbetween/one-of-us-one-of-us-freaks-finally-finds-fame-baf8e7268597

No man, you gots that all wrong.

It's this ...

 

[LGR4GM]

14 minutes ago, JohnC said:

Listen to @Thorny. Check the standings. Why do you say Detroit is trash? They have the same number of points in the same number of games as we do. 

Go look at their underlying metrics, goal differential, and who is contributing to that teams success. That's why. 

[JohnC]

7 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Go look at their underlying metrics, goal differential, and who is contributing to that teams success. That's why. 

The metric I'm most interested in is the RECORD! When you say the other team stinks when your own team has essentially the same record, you are, if you are applying your own logic, saying your team stinks! As it currently stands, Detroit and Buffalo are in the same strata. If one team stinks---so does the other. Listen to @Thornyon this subject. He's being logical and you are not. 

[LGR4GM]

7 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

I know his plan. It's a long term one, that's obvious. It's homegrown. It's Levi and UPL in goal (Comrie before Levi temporarily) with another Swede or Finn or somebody else drafted after that.

It's Kulich and Savoie and Rosen and whoever else. (they had better draft a few more D soon though as that talent pool is substantially thinner than forward)

This is not hard to figure out. 

It didn't have to be UFAs by the way and still doesn't. We are in fact talking about whether or not TRADING for Chychrun would be a good idea. 

As for the Kraken, as I said before, it is interesting to me to compare the two plans and builds/rebuilds. They started from scratch and we dumped the old core so essentially started over as well at the same time. I am interested to see which plan gets it right and faster. At the moment, they are in the playoffs. At the moment.

and it's your not you're. 

I decided to do your research for you. You couldn't be bothered but I thought, let's take a look. 

The top UFA centers signed this summer according to spotrac were:

Nazem Kadri - 31yrs old signed 7x7

Vincent Trochek - 29yrs old signed 7x5.625

Andrew Copp - 28yrs old signed 5x6.625

Ryan Strome - 29yrs old signed 5x5

Claude Giroux - 34yrs old signed 3x6.5

Patrice Bergeron also signed as a UFA but he was always staying in Boston so let's exclude. Those were the top guys and we should take a quick look at them. Giroux wanted to go home to Ottawa so he was not signable. Ryan Strome has 26pts in 55 games so he that's basically slightly better Jost and again, we aren't tied to Jost (who is younger) for another 5yrs at 5mil. Trochek, a player I do like, he is doing well in NY with 39pts in 54 games but he isn't doing better than Dylan Cozens at 47pts in 52 games and Cozens is signed for slightly more but 7 years younger. Nazem Kadri, who I also like has 40pts in 54 games which isn't bad but he is 31 already and will be 38 when that deal ends so no thank you, not with Cozens only being 29/30 when he next deal ends. Okay so that leaves Andrew Copp, 28pts in 53 games so he is below Cozens while being 6 years older. Signing him then wouldn't make sense. 

That means that realistically in the UFA market Trochek would have been okay-ish for Buffalo to sign even though I think 7 years is too long. He would be Buffalo's 3rd center which seems like a poor way to structure a roster having 3 centers all tied up to 7 year deals costing you 20mil against the cap but at least there is some logic there. 

Okay... let's look at the trades because as you said we could trade stuff for things. 

Bo Horvat... no. That deal is too much money for a guy that is too old and is having the best year he will probably ever have goal scoring wise. 

Sean Monahan, 28 and in the last year of his deal. He currently makes 6.375 against the cap and is LTIR right now. Before that he had 17pts in 25games which isn't bad at all. Still he would be a ufa so if you traded for him, what's the point? Are you going to sign him to a long term deal? Is he better than Cozens? Probably not at this point. 

The conclusion here is there wasn't a great fit at center to upgrade this roster. Adding Jost as a waiver pickup was actually very smart and has paid off. This roster currently isn't lacking at center and there are 4 center prospects I can name and 3 of them are first rounders so there is a pipeline too. Adams didn't need to add a center but he did. Claiming whatever it is you are that he is incompetent or doesn't want to win or whatever it is, isn't true and it doesn't deal with the reality of the sport or where this team is at. There is almost no player listed here I would want to invest the money and years in more than I want Cozens or Thompson slotted in as 1st and 2nd center. I have no desire to pay a 3rd line center all that matter either when this team as you have rightly noted lacks defense. 

Goaltending, we aren't going to agree on. Adams tried and got what he could. The position isn't set and needs upgrades but they aren't happening in season, that's the reality of the NHL. 

 

[LGR4GM]

8 minutes ago, JohnC said:

The metric I'm most interested in is the RECORD! When you say the other team stinks when your own team has essentially the same record, you are, if you are applying your own logic, saying your team stinks! As it currently stands, Detroit and Buffalo are in the same strata. If one team stinks---so does the other. Listen to @Thornyon this subject. He's being logical and you are not. 

Ok, I am not. Mainly because that is currently a very incomplete metric. Detroit stinks, they are living on borrowed time because they filled a bunch of holes with overpriced UFAs that aren't that good. Chariot is a good example and hate to say it but Copp is another. Their best center and captain is currently set to become a UFA. Buffalo is ahead of Detroit, the standings will show that by the end. 

[DarthEbriate]

1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:

... The conclusion here is there wasn't a great fit at center to upgrade this roster. Adding Jost as a waiver pickup was actually very smart and has paid off. ...

We also need to remember the notable center acquisition this offseason. The Sabres needed a veteran center to take d-zone draws and play defensive-minded hockey. That was Sheahan. And while his legs were shot and Jost made him expendable in the best way, he did win 70% of his draws this year (miniscule sample size).

The issue remains that they still need a defensive center who can take a draw and negate top scorers and players going to the net. Jost (37.2% in the dot!) and Mitts (46.7) taking many of the draws for the 3rd line are not really that guy. Cozens is OK in the dot (49.3%) and he's going to get Selke votes, but he wasn't deployed as a defensive forward this year like he was last season. Last year, he'd get matched against the opposition's best. This season, 'til recently he's been with JJP and Quinn and while their underlying numbers are good, Granato hasn't been matching them against the McDavids of the world. Cozens will be that guy going forward (and especially as his linemates mature).

Krebs (45.7%) could also become a  decent bottom six center and he has been deployed as the defensive center this season with Girgs/Ok. The upside of Cozens/Krebs is they can become better defensively quite easily and that's what the team needs.

The liability at center is Thompson. Per the Athletic Player Cards (it's fine as a 30,000' view summary), Tage is in the 100th percentile offensively. That's amazingly good. And he's in the 3rd percentile defensively. That's absolute garbage. He's a 41.3% faceoff guy which is awful for someone taking as many draws as he does. He's loses coverage constantly in his own zone despite his reach. The saving grace is this is his 2nd year playing center since college. He'll get better in all aspects of defense... but he'll probably never be truly reliable in his own zone. If he could get to... say... 45% draws and 33rd percentile defensively...  then he'll be a superstar and he'll be safe to play against the best opponents and survive in playoff-style hockey games. (But I still believe Cozens will be the 1C and Tage will be the protected 2C and I'm fine with that if Tage scores 35+ goals each season.)

[Marvin]

20 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

...

The liability at center is Thompson. Per the Athletic Player Cards (it's fine as a 30,000' view summary), Tage is in the 100th percentile offensively. That's amazingly good. And he's in the 3rd percentile defensively. That's absolute garbage. He's a 41.3% faceoff guy which is awful for someone taking as many draws as he does. He's loses coverage constantly in his own zone despite his reach. The saving grace is this is his 2nd year playing center since college. He'll get better in all aspects of defense... but he'll probably never be truly reliable in his own zone. If he could get to... say... 45% draws and 33rd percentile defensively...  then he'll be a superstar and he'll be safe to play against the best opponents and survive in playoff-style hockey games. (But I still believe Cozens will be the 1C and Tage will be the protected 2C and I'm fine with that if Tage scores 35+ goals each season.)

This is important.  Tage is sometimes a complete disaster in the defencive zone.  The top line gives up an awful lot of goals when matched up against other teams' top lines; he is where most of the positioning problems start.  He has not learnt that part of the centre position yet.  Luckily, a lot of what is wrong with him is learnable.  However, he may not make it too much farther than Skinner for defencive awareness and, unfortunately, we might have to accept that.

[Pimlach]

2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

I decided to do your research for you. You couldn't be bothered but I thought, let's take a look. 

The top UFA centers signed this summer according to spotrac were:

Nazem Kadri - 31yrs old signed 7x7

Vincent Trochek - 29yrs old signed 7x5.625

Andrew Copp - 28yrs old signed 5x6.625

Ryan Strome - 29yrs old signed 5x5

Claude Giroux - 34yrs old signed 3x6.5

Patrice Bergeron also signed as a UFA but he was always staying in Boston so let's exclude. Those were the top guys and we should take a quick look at them. Giroux wanted to go home to Ottawa so he was not signable. Ryan Strome has 26pts in 55 games so he that's basically slightly better Jost and again, we aren't tied to Jost (who is younger) for another 5yrs at 5mil. Trochek, a player I do like, he is doing well in NY with 39pts in 54 games but he isn't doing better than Dylan Cozens at 47pts in 52 games and Cozens is signed for slightly more but 7 years younger. Nazem Kadri, who I also like has 40pts in 54 games which isn't bad but he is 31 already and will be 38 when that deal ends so no thank you, not with Cozens only being 29/30 when he next deal ends. Okay so that leaves Andrew Copp, 28pts in 53 games so he is below Cozens while being 6 years older. Signing him then wouldn't make sense. 

That means that realistically in the UFA market Trochek would have been okay-ish for Buffalo to sign even though I think 7 years is too long. He would be Buffalo's 3rd center which seems like a poor way to structure a roster having 3 centers all tied up to 7 year deals costing you 20mil against the cap but at least there is some logic there. 

Okay... let's look at the trades because as you said we could trade stuff for things. 

Bo Horvat... no. That deal is too much money for a guy that is too old and is having the best year he will probably ever have goal scoring wise. 

Sean Monahan, 28 and in the last year of his deal. He currently makes 6.375 against the cap and is LTIR right now. Before that he had 17pts in 25games which isn't bad at all. Still he would be a ufa so if you traded for him, what's the point? Are you going to sign him to a long term deal? Is he better than Cozens? Probably not at this point. 

The conclusion here is there wasn't a great fit at center to upgrade this roster. Adding Jost as a waiver pickup was actually very smart and has paid off. This roster currently isn't lacking at center and there are 4 center prospects I can name and 3 of them are first rounders so there is a pipeline too. Adams didn't need to add a center but he did. Claiming whatever it is you are that he is incompetent or doesn't want to win or whatever it is, isn't true and it doesn't deal with the reality of the sport or where this team is at. There is almost no player listed here I would want to invest the money and years in more than I want Cozens or Thompson slotted in as 1st and 2nd center. I have no desire to pay a 3rd line center all that matter either when this team as you have rightly noted lacks defense. 

Goaltending, we aren't going to agree on. Adams tried and got what he could. The position isn't set and needs upgrades but they aren't happening in season, that's the reality of the NHL. 

 

Good summary. 

In pre-season I was on record to be in favor of adding a center too.  That was before Cozens took his step up of course.  I was looking to replace the face-off skill and the 2-way game of Eakin (I know most people here did not appreciate him) because I did not think Mitts/Asplund/Zemgus could do it.  

In hindsight, Jost was the perfect guy for that role.  He is low cost, he does ok in the face off circle, he is willing to play a 2-way game, he is very good in the room, and it appears he still had something in his game that was untapped and can get better.   

Adding Jost should tell us that Adams is looking at everything.   

Our future at center is bright.  Tage and Cozens are 1 and 2.   Krebs is definitely hungry and getting better and he could be a 3, at least a 4.  Jost handled 3C  and his inspired play helped wake up Mitts and Olofsson; but Jost is probably a 4 on this team.  Our pipeline has Savioe, Östlund, and Kulich.  Some of these guys might be better at wing but overall this is a rich situation. 

Since we were unwilling to invest in Trochek, a guy like Jost has really fit the bill.  

I still want to add a 4/5 RHD right now for the playoff run.  My requirements are: big, mobile, and with some term left at a decent price.  Joel Edmundson is a good fit, not sure his game today is what it was in St Louis, but if Montreal is selling I  would give up a 2nd rounder.   From what I remember of his game, he could settle things down and help the younger guys a lot.  His presence will help Dahlin from having to police the team too.  

[mjd1001]

2 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

The liability at center is Thompson. Per the Athletic Player Cards (it's fine as a 30,000' view summary), Tage is in the 100th percentile offensively. That's amazingly good. And he's in the 3rd percentile defensively. That's absolute garbage. He's a 41.3% faceoff guy which is awful for someone taking as many draws as he does. He's loses coverage constantly in his own zone despite his reach. The saving grace is this is his 2nd year playing center since college. He'll get better in all aspects of defense... but he'll probably never be truly reliable in his own zone. If he could get to... say... 45% draws and 33rd percentile defensively...  then he'll be a superstar and he'll be safe to play against the best opponents and survive in playoff-style hockey games. (But I still believe Cozens will be the 1C and Tage will be the protected 2C and I'm fine with that if Tage scores 35+ goals each season.)

Ok, a lot of variables here, and I don't understand 100% the analytics/fancy stats, but I don't agree with him being a disaster defensively, especially about his positioning. What I am about to say is that I think his 'positioning' is actually pretty good. Maybe he is late getting back. Maybe what I think is good positioning is not expected but regardless.....

I have posted on this very forum examples of goals against the Sabres have allowed, and what I have seen is FOR THE MOST PART when comparing Cozens and Tage, Thompson is much, MUCH less likely to leave the Defensive slot open compared to Cozens.  Does that mean he is better defensively? No, but to me positioning is staying where you are supposed to be.

And in the past month or so, Cozens has been getting better at not doing this compared to earlier in the season, but he is still aggressive in the D-zone that way.

Go back and watch the highlights of goals allowed by the Sabres over the past couple months.  Goals against when Cozens is on the ice are a LOT more likely to be scored from the slot..where you expect your Center normally be. Often times Cozens goes down low to help the D-men, the puck comes in front of the net 10-15 feet out and the eventually goal scorer has no one there as he lets the shot go and a goal is scored.  When I watch goals allowed when Tage is on the ice....he is much more likely to be in that center area between the tops of the circles.

So again, I'm not sure HOW The fancy stats are showing Tage's positioning is bad, because to me it isn't not.  That doesn't mean he's not late getting back, or maybe he SHOULD vacate the slot more and chase pucks into the corner...or anything else he isn't doing that he should be. But again, as far as not leaving the slot open for goal scorers, he is much better than the other centers on the team (including Cozens) in that one aspect.  Videos of goals allowed by the Sabres show that.

Edited February 16, 2023 by mjd1001

[Pimlach]

3 hours ago, JohnC said:

The metric I'm most interested in is the RECORD! When you say the other team stinks when your own team has essentially the same record, you are, if you are applying your own logic, saying your team stinks! As it currently stands, Detroit and Buffalo are in the same strata. If one team stinks---so does the other. Listen to @Thornyon this subject. He's being logical and you are not. 

 

3 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Ok, I am not. Mainly because that is currently a very incomplete metric. Detroit stinks, they are living on borrowed time because they filled a bunch of holes with overpriced UFAs that aren't that good. Chariot is a good example and hate to say it but Copp is another. Their best center and captain is currently set to become a UFA. Buffalo is ahead of Detroit, the standings will show that by the end. 

 

I don't think Detroit stinks.  They seem to be a team with some good youth, a bunch of vets, and some middling talent but that doesn't quit and grinds out games.   Detroit is using the more conventional building process that adds vets to their prospects and as the vets age out their next wave of prospects (and next wave of ufa's) can fill the holes.  

Buffalo shows flashes of great play (high levels of speed and skill) followed by periods of errant, mistake filled play.  I think Buffalo's core players (Thompson/Dahlin/Cozens) are younger and better than Detroit's.  Buffalo has less veteran support but their next tier of young talent is already playing everyday (Power/Krebs/Quinn/Peterka) and Buffalo's prospect pipeline looks deeper.   Buffalo is making less moves (so it looks like they are moving slower) and yet still getting the same results in the standings. 

The teams will battle it out this year and probably even next year.   In two years I think the Sabres will pull away and be a contender to win the division (assuming they get the goaltending) and I am not so sure Detroit is on that path.  

[Pimlach]

1 hour ago, Marvin said:

This is important.  Tage is sometimes a complete disaster in the defencive zone.  The top line gives up an awful lot of goals when matched up against other teams' top lines; he is where most of the positioning problems start.  He has not learnt that part of the centre position yet.  Luckily, a lot of what is wrong with him is learnable.  However, he may not make it too much farther than Skinner for defencive awareness and, unfortunately, we might have to accept that.

Tuch compliments Thompson very well.  There will be a day with Skinner is replaced with a two-way winger that can finish.  That will help Tage's game in the defensive zone. 

[PerreaultForever]

8 hours ago, tom webster said:

You keep repeating this narrative that Buffalo and Seattle are in the same place in their development and this is not true. Seattle has one of the older rosters in the league and is spending to the cap. They are at least two years ahead of the Sabres timeline and are fortunate to be playing out west.

The CONTRAST is what is interesting to me. I thought I made that clear but maybe not. The comparison is both start at the bottom or from scratch. We could have signed Berekovsky just as easily as they did for example. People here got all excited after we picked up Jost to fill 3C. We could just as easily have signed Donato cheap in the off season. Pretty much same level of play with arguably more offensive upside. Could have signed martin Jones over Grampa Anderson. We didn't have to spend to the cap, but we didn't have to stay cap floor either.

 As for "playing out west", they keep beating us. 

The results aren't fully in yet as it's only year 2, and maybe the Sabres plan in a few more years will leap frog over them. maybe not. We shall see. At the moment, they are ahead.

[Taro T]

1 hour ago, Pimlach said:

Good summary. 

In pre-season I was on record to be in favor of adding a center too.  That was before Cozens took his step up of course.  I was looking to replace the face-off skill and the 2-way game of Eakin (I know most people here did not appreciate him) because I did not think Mitts/Asplund/Zemgus could do it.  

In hindsight, Jost was the perfect guy for that role.  He is low cost, he does ok in the face off circle, he is willing to play a 2-way game, he is very good in the room, and it appears he still had something in his game that was untapped and can get better.   

Adding Jost should tell us that Adams is looking at everything.   

Our future at center is bright.  Tage and Cozens are 1 and 2.   Krebs is definitely hungry and getting better and he could be a 3, at least a 4.  Jost handled 3C  and his inspired play helped wake up Mitts and Olofsson; but Jost is probably a 4 on this team.  Our pipeline has Savioe, Östlund, and Kulich.  Some of these guys might be better at wing but overall this is a rich situation. 

Since we were unwilling to invest in Trochek, a guy like Jost has really fit the bill.  

I still want to add a 4/5 RHD right now for the playoff run.  My requirements are: big, mobile, and with some term left at a decent price.  Joel Edmundson is a good fit, not sure his game today is what it was in St Louis, but if Montreal is selling I  would give up a 2nd rounder.   From what I remember of his game, he could settle things down and help the younger guys a lot.  His presence will help Dahlin from having to police the team too.  

Nice post.

The only tweak it might need is, pretty sure we are already watching Krebs & Jost flip spots from being the 4&3 C's to the 3&4 C's.  And the question becomes are we going to see the lines from last night for a while or are Mittelstadt & Peterka going to flip spots w/ Asplund spelling Peterka periodically?  Or will Quinn & Olofsson flip flop again?

[PerreaultForever]

4 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Goaltending, we aren't going to agree on. Adams tried and got what he could. The position isn't set and needs upgrades but they aren't happening in season, that's the reality of the NHL. 

 

I'm not going to go backwards and go over all the possible options for center because as I have said, it's a GM's job to identify holes and fill them. If there is a UFA that can fill it you fill it and if not, you make a trade to fill it. That's if you want to win now. They don't. (you'd have to look at every team and every roster and their players and prospects and that's his job not mine)

Now to the quoted passage, regardless of whatever else you like or dislike about Adams, and you can be the bigger homer fan and praise and hope all you want, but if you do not acknowledge the simple and obvious fact that he totally screwed up goaltending with Ullmark (and failing to replace him) you are a fool. 

[JohnC]

7 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

The CONTRAST is what is interesting to me. I thought I made that clear but maybe not. The comparison is both start at the bottom or from scratch. We could have signed Berekovsky just as easily as they did for example. People here got all excited after we picked up Jost to fill 3C. We could just as easily have signed Donato cheap in the off season. Pretty much same level of play with arguably more offensive upside. Could have signed martin Jones over Grampa Anderson. We didn't have to spend to the cap, but we didn't have to stay cap floor either.

 As for "playing out west", they keep beating us. 

The results aren't fully in yet as it's only year 2, and maybe the Sabres plan in a few more years will leap frog over them. maybe not. We shall see. At the moment, they are ahead.

To the NHL's credit it created an expansion system where if new organizations are judicious with their scouting and procurement from available player pool, unprotected players, they should be able to be competitive right away. Vegas is the hallmark for that approach. That is a far different system that rebuilding teams such as Buffalo, Detroit, Jersey, Ottawa etc. have to contend with. While Vegas and Seattle can be immediately competitive with their new roster construction, the menu of players that conventionally rebuilding teams have to choose from is not available to them. It's comparing apples to oranges. 

[PerreaultForever]

Just now, JohnC said:

To the NHL's credit it created an expansion system where if new organizations are judicious with their scouting and procurement from available player pool, unprotected players, they should be able to be competitive right away. Vegas is the hallmark for that approach. That is a far different system that rebuilding teams such as Buffalo, Detroit, Jersey, Ottawa etc. have to contend with. While Vegas and Seattle can be immediately competitive with their new roster construction, the menu of players that conventionally rebuilding teams have to choose from is not available to them. It's comparing apples to oranges. 

I don't think that's really true. The Vegas thing was an anomaly and Seattle didn't get any of those side deals and benefits. The roster they managed to cobble together wasn't very good (although they did get Will Borgen from some team or other :)) They got Gourde from Tampa but most of their better players are drafted or signed as free agents. 

I'm not suggesting that we should have signed all the players they did. I do think the draft focus is a good approach and I do think Adams did a decent job clearing out Eichel Reinhart and Risto, but I also think he failed on goaltending and his plan is slower than it needs to be. I wasn't sure if Cozens would break out this year or next, but with his emergence and us being as close as we are despite the goaltending and defensive holes it feels like a wasted opportunity and if we miss the playoffs by a handful of points you have to end up thinking if he'd just made that one trade or signed that one goalie.................

One small example. Remember when Samuelsson was injured and we had a rash of D injuries and came up totally short on D men and then lost a bunch of games as a result. maybe if he'd snapped up Mike Reilly when Boston waived him we'd have had just enough depth to save a few points there and that might be enough right there. (not suggesting Mike Reilly is all that and there is a contract but we are a floor team and it'd be just one more year etc etc)  In other words, while the long term plan might be sound, the timeline imo is TOO slow.