Let's talk about how bad Mattias Samuelsson has been

[Sabres Fan in NS]

3 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Couldn’t we start a thread like this for nearly every Sabre coach, player, and administrator?  

We are watching the collapse of an entire organization; again.  

Don't forget Sabretooth.  Terrible mascot.  Needs to be fired immediately, if not sooner.

3 hours ago, phil_soisson said:

Listening to Samuelsson, I've always thought his heart is in Philly, to the point that maybe subconsciously, he doesn't really want to be in Buffalo?

This is not a thing.

[Thorny]

Gotta say I feel pretty vindicated here especially considering opposition I got in thread..

On 10/12/2022 at 3:45 PM, Thorny said:

What an absolutely wild deal.

Incredibly risky. As far as I know we haven’t seen anything like this in the NHL, could be precedent setting if it DOES work out. 

Should have extended Dahlin when we had the chance  

 

On 10/12/2022 at 4:02 PM, Thorny said:

Klingberg had just come off a breakout season of 40 points, though. When looking at contracts, points are always what’s going to cost you. Klingberg would never again return to a point total as low as 40 over a full season, proving the logic of their initial decision.

Samuelsson is a defensive d-man which puts a significant ceiling on his potential earnings, as well, right off the cuff. He doesn’t have a career goal and had 10 points last year. We just went and paid the likely *ceiling* for what we’d ever have to pay a player of his ilk, in the next several years, and did so over an exceptionally long term for someone who had not proven themselves in the NHL yet. 

They went ahead and spotted him the deal he had a reasonable chance of earning down the line, but hasn’t yet. May very well work out fine, but those acting like anyone taking a non-positive view on this are doing so just for the sake of being contrarian (which is unbelievably being said) have lost the plot. 

 

 

[SDS]

14 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Gotta say I feel pretty vindicated here especially considering opposition I got in thread..

 

 

[Thorny]

1 minute ago, SDS said:

[Pimlach]

I have been unhappy with Samuelsson all season.  He is a turnover machine.  

I do think it is risky to make a final judgement any player on this roster this season - Every player on the team except for Peterka is playing worse than last season.   Reasons all point to coaching and lack of preparation.  The team does not play with any kind of structure.  Team defense is non-existent. There are so many roster problems, injuries, and unpreparedness that Adams could blow a trade by being to close to it.  

First, let just follow the age old tradition, keep the 23 underachievers and fire the entire coaching staff.  Bring in someone that has won in the NHL.  Let that person decide how to tailor the roster.   They will figure it out. 

I  would like a coach that can cover some part of the GM role too.   Not responsible for contracts, scouting, draft - just coaching (including the staff), and a role in creating the NHL roster.   Adams has failed to bring in impactful veterans, let someone with more credibility work that.   

Edited December 20, 2023 by Pimlach

[Weave]

37 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Gotta say I feel pretty vindicated here especially considering opposition I got in thread..

 

 

 

On 10/12/2022 at 10:23 AM, Weave said:

A bit of a gamble, like TTs contract.  Hopefully KAs evaluations are spot on.

 

Meh.  I said essentially the same with like 1/3 of the sentences on page one of that thread, and I bring nothing of value to this board.

😃

[Thorny]

5 minutes ago, Weave said:

 

 

Meh.  I said essentially the same with like 1/3 of the sentences on page one of that thread, and I bring nothing of value to this board.

😃

Always consider it a boon when our takes align- leaves me more confident mine is in good standing.

[Weave]

2 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Always consider it a boon when our takes align- leaves me more confident mine is in good standing.

Like a stopped clock, we are.

[PASabreFan]

We'll leave the light on for you two.

And yeah I am incredibly envious of Weave.

[Weave]

Just now, PASabreFan said:

We'll leave the light on for you two.

And yeah I am incredibly envious of Weave.

PAs not lying.  I have the DMs.

[Thorny]

13 minutes ago, Weave said:

Like a stopped clock, we are.

Speak for yourself. Me, I cannot seem to distance myself from the fact time seems to continually be turning 

14 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

We'll leave the light on for you two.

And yeah I am incredibly envious of Weave.

You should be.

 

They’re real.

..And they’re spectacular. 

[GoPuckYourself]

21 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

I didn't like the contract to be honest. I thought it was about 500k too much and about 3 years too long. At the time though, I like others, gave Adams the benefit of the doubt. The team looked like it was improving and Samuelsson looked like a solid top 4 stay at home defender. Still, he hadn't played a lot of games and if memory serves, hadn't scored an NHL goal when he signed or something like that. 

Let's look at his numbers. 

His rel corsi% has never been positive. That's right, if you look at his 3 half/full (he gets injured a ton) seasons, he has never once finished with a positive  rel corsi% and it isn't particularly close. This measure on ice corsi for - off ice corsi for at even strength. Samuelson has this: -8.6%, -11.5%, and -9.7% and just so you have some perspective, Dahlin's last 3 years (this year included) are: 9.1, 9.4, 12.9% so those of you who feel as though Dahlin is actually trying would be correct. The team is better when he is on the ice than when he is off and for Muel it is inverted. In fact the only Sabres defenders with worse numbers are!?!? You guessed it, Big Johnson with -15.8 and Clifton with -9.4... sorry connor I guess you are 3rd worst. 

But wait, that's just shot attempts at even strength and we all know that shot attempts don't always mean good shots right? So let's look next at xgf% which is XGF/XGFA... Here we get some better news! So that's nice right? Now he has never had a positive xgf% and this year he ranks... 4th behind Jokiharju, Rasmus Dahlin, and Ryan Johnson. Erik Johnson btw is a SHOCKING -20.9 to this point in the season. No other player is within 10 of that for their career. Anyways back to Muel who is at -1.9. He is terrible at preventing shot attempts but seems to be okay at preventing xgf attempts. Shots on net each equal a tiny percentage and add up to goals, he seems to stop the most dangerous ones which is good! There is hope. 

The bottom line is this, he isn't one of our top 4 defenders. He certainly is not good enough to play with Dahlin. He keeps getting rolled out there due to a perception based on no actual stats, eye test, or magic eye ball analysis. I would make this thread about Erik Johnson who is literally a black hole but he's as good as gone where as we have Samuelsson for another 6 years after this one. 

Now if you want to say he is a defensive defender so that explains the shot issues... no. If he was so good at defense, he should be shutting down plays and turning the puck up ice. Instead, he is not shutting down plays and his passing is atrocious. 

You want a young guy who should sit, I give you Mattias Samuelsson. Ryan Johnson is flat out better. If anyone has the player cards for Johnson and Muel I would love to see them. I let my subscription lapse cuz money so don't have access currently. Either way the coaches are not making decisions to win, they are making decisions because veteran status, favoritism, perception, and emotions. It's time for this staff to grow up or get out because the players aren't the only ones acting young and childish.

 

I truly believe once we get a real NHL coaching staff (one can only hope) that he can become the player he was looking like last season. All the defenders look lost and scared out there, they need direction and discipline or again at the very least a defensive assitant to help his game because whoever is teaching defense now, shouldn't be!

[phil_soisson]

19 hours ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

Don't forget Sabretooth.  Terrible mascot.  Needs to be fired immediately, if not sooner.

This is not a thing.

Think what you want, but it was a "thing" with Ryan O'Reilly, Jack Eichel, Taylor Hall (whatever you may think of him), probably Linus Ullmark, and probably Sam Reinhart.

Edited December 21, 2023 by phil_soisson

[PASabreFan]

18 hours ago, Thorny said:

Speak for yourself. Me, I cannot seem to distance myself from the fact time seems to continually be turning 

You should be.

 

They’re real.

..And they’re spectacular. 

But would Torts admire them?

[Carmel Corn]

IMHO - Muel needs to stick to being nothing but a STAY AT HOME defender.  Maybe crazy, but I want him to stay in FRONT of our net more and venture less behind our goal line....let somebody else chase people back there.  When he has the puck, quick passing...nothing fancy.  Focus on protecting the high danger parts of our ice and neutralize forwards in the crease.   

[kas23]

I’m not going to join this parade. Outside of Dahlin, every 23 year-old defenseman should look like poop. This is why I’m not getting down on Power either. In the past 5 years, even Dahlin played some very miserable games. Package that up with the whole team sucking right now. Besides JJP, every player has regressed, but especially the defense.