The offseason so far - Are the Sabres better?

[Drag0nDan]

289 goals allowed was 2nd worst in the East, and 4th worst in the league.  One playoff team allowed more than 250 goals - and that was Montreal who also had a -20 goal differential and most seasons doesn't make it.  The top 7 teams in fewest goals allowed in each conference made the playoffs.  

If you can't get a new goalie (not sure who was wanted but demko/allen re-upped, and gibson had a M-NTC), then you have to improve the players up front.  Most of the players they moved on from - Clifton, Cozens, Jokiharju, peterka, lafferty - were not putting in the level of effort needed in my opinion.  

[Thorny]

Cannot believe they are going with “we won’t be spending to the cap this year to protect against an offer sheet.” Not even hiding it. 

the over / under on how many fall for this has to be set at 1, no? 

Edited 23 hours ago by Thorny

[Weave]

5 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Almost in shock 

Cannot believe they are going with “we won’t be spending to the cap this year to protect against an offer sheet.” Not even hiding it. 

the over / under on how many fall for this has to be set at 1, no? 

Did you have someone in mind?  Lol

WE WANT NAMES!

[Thorny]

2 minutes ago, Weave said:

Did you have someone in mind?  Lol

WE WANT NAMES!

For the “1”? I honestly just picked it cause I thought it was the lowest possible (maybe it’s 0.5) and felt literally nobody falling for it would be a reasonably likely result. It will be a farce if we don’t spend it (as it has been)

Edited 23 hours ago by Thorny

[DarthEbriate]

Haven't listened. Has EEE won again?

[Thorny]

1 minute ago, DarthEbriate said:

Haven't listened. Has EEE won again?

We need to save space to match Byram’s 13 million dollar offer sheet 

[Trettioåtta]

3 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

Haven't listened. Has EEE won again?

 

[HumanSlinky39]

Are they better? I haven't seen anything tangible that makes me feel they are.

[GASabresIUFAN]

2 minutes ago, HumanSlinky39 said:

Are they better? I haven't seen anything tangible that makes me feel they are.

They aren't any better at all.

Lyon replaces Reimer - that's a wash

Norris replaces Cozens - that's an improvement only if Norris actually plays 70 games.

Joki and Clifton have been replaced with Kesselring and Timmins.  An upgrade, but not really enough to move the needle

Doan replaces JJP.  This is a significant downgrade and there is no honest argument that the offense will be better with Doan over JJP.  

Ultimately, the players chiefly responsible for the terrible in zone D play and goaltending are still on the roster - Power, Byram, Samuelsson and UPL.  That $25 mill of wasted cap space on bad players once Byram is re-signed.  

Congrats Kevyn, all you did this off-season is make a bad team worse.  

[mjd1001]

If they get 'league average-to-slightly above league-average' goaltending (and no catastrophic injuries), they will be better, maybe considerably.

If the goaltending is as bad as last year, they won't be.

[Trettioåtta]

1 minute ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

They aren't any better at all.

Lyon replaces Reimer - that's a wash

Norris replaces Cozens - that's an improvement only if Norris actually plays 70 games.

Joki and Clifton have been replaced with Kesselring and Timmins.  An upgrade, but not really enough to move the needle

Doan replaces JJP.  This is a significant downgrade and there is no honest argument that the offense will be better with Doan over JJP.  

Ultimately, the players chiefly responsible for the terrible in zone D play and goaltending are still on the roster - Power, Byram, Samuelsson and UPL.  That $25 mill of wasted cap space on bad players once Byram is re-signed.  

Congrats Kevyn, all you did this off-season is make a bad team worse.  

It's clear Adams et al are banking on young players improving. It's not an unfair hope, but I would like us to actually improve the roster and then have the internal improvement move us from bubble to competitor.

Power should be better in his zone. Quinn should bounce back. Benson and Kulich should improve. Kesslering may have a breakout with more opportunity.

Don't underestimate Doan being a better forechecker and defensive player than JJP. Actually JJP being a rush player means he actually may not flourish on better teams that dominate possession.

Regardless, this team needs to get another one to two top 6 players and a top 4 D to actually be competitive I think. We should have used 9/26 picks / Byram to do it.

[Thorny]

7 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

They aren't any better at all.

Lyon replaces Reimer - that's a wash

Norris replaces Cozens - that's an improvement only if Norris actually plays 70 games.

Joki and Clifton have been replaced with Kesselring and Timmins.  An upgrade, but not really enough to move the needle

Doan replaces JJP.  This is a significant downgrade and there is no honest argument that the offense will be better with Doan over JJP.  

Ultimately, the players chiefly responsible for the terrible in zone D play and goaltending are still on the roster - Power, Byram, Samuelsson and UPL.  That $25 mill of wasted cap space on bad players once Byram is re-signed.  

Congrats Kevyn, all you did this off-season is make a bad team worse.  

What can you do? They’ve tried it all 

[mjd1001]

4 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Ultimately, the players chiefly responsible for the terrible in zone D play and goaltending are still on the roster - Power, Byram, Samuelsson and UPL.  That $25 mill of wasted cap space on bad players once Byram is re-signed.  

I would say that the players chiefly responsible for the terrible D-zone play....50% of them are gone. The 2 worst offenders are not any of the D-man, rather Quinn and Cozens.  Quinn still here, Cozens gone.

[mjd1001]

3 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Partially incorrect post on "X" by that guy. They have tried to bring in 'high end players'.  Okposo and Taylor Hall were considered at the top of the class in terms of free agents.  They brought them in, they both failed here miserably.

Edited 23 hours ago by mjd1001

[oddoublee]

10 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

They aren't any better at all.

Lyon replaces Reimer - that's a wash

Norris replaces Cozens - that's an improvement only if Norris actually plays 70 games.

Joki and Clifton have been replaced with Kesselring and Timmins.  An upgrade, but not really enough to move the needle

Doan replaces JJP.  This is a significant downgrade and there is no honest argument that the offense will be better with Doan over JJP.  

Ultimately, the players chiefly responsible for the terrible in zone D play and goaltending are still on the roster - Power, Byram, Samuelsson and UPL.  That $25 mill of wasted cap space on bad players once Byram is re-signed.  

Congrats Kevyn, all you did this off-season is make a bad team worse.  

Don't forget....same asst coaches

[Thorny]

14 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

Partially incorrect post on "X" by that guy. They have tried to bring in 'high end players'.  Okposo and Taylor Hall were considered at the top of the class in terms of free agents.  They brought them in, they both failed here miserably.

KO didn’t fail. Using Hall as an excuse to never try to win in the now again (as they seem to have done) is absurd (people also imo sort of misremember the Hall era - he wasn’t horrible here, he only played 37 games it’s barely enough to judge much of anything, it was Jack getting hurt and all the Covid shenanigans that tore that season apart. Hall is essentially viewed as the face/mercenary of that disaster owing to the gaudy plus minus). Regardless - the post is talking about player adds in general not just FAs

Edited 22 hours ago by Thorny

[DarthEbriate]

5 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

Partially incorrect post on "X" by that guy. They have tried to bring in 'high end players'.  Okposo and Taylor Hall were considered at the top of the class in terms of free agents.  They brought them in, they both failed here miserably.

Okposo and Hall were before the timeline, although Hall could be added as like those he was a 1-year contract. Okposo was 9 years ago already.

5 minutes ago, oddoublee said:

Don't forget....same asst coaches

Can't release (what I can only assume are among the most inexpensive in the league) folks while they're still under contract for one more year.

[Weave]

1 hour ago, Thorny said:

For the “1”? I honestly just picked it cause I thought it was the lowest possible (maybe it’s 0.5) and felt literally nobody falling for it would be a reasonably likely result. It will be a farce if we don’t spend it (as it has been)

Oh c’mon.  You know there is at least one.  You know you are thinking of that person right now.

[Thorny]

3 minutes ago, Weave said:

Oh c’mon.  You know there is at least one.  You know you are thinking of that person right now.

If you mean in the twitter-sphere, yes I am aware of he who must not be named lol 

[PerreaultForever]

They've made me pretty cynical (as you all know) and negativity is easy with this team but this might just be the most negative I've ever felt about where things are at. It is extremely telling when they critique their tv coverage (which fawns over them constantly) as too negative and they don't even stream their presser. Zero accountability at the top. Pure delusion. 

I think they have broken me. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

35 minutes ago, Thorny said:

What can you do? They’ve tried it all 

They haven’t tried anything but rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.  Every move has been lipstick on a pig.  There has no attempt to upgrade the top 6 forwards.  There has no attempt to upgrade the goaltending.  The feeble attempts to upgrade the defense have all been centered on puck movers or 3rd or 4th pairing guys and have left us one of consistently worst in zone teams in the league for 5 years and counting.  

The top 5 scorers drafted and developed by the Sabres have all been traded away by KA in Eichel, Mitts, Reinhart, Cozens and now JJP.  Hard to build a team that way.  

 

[LGR4GM]

This looks like an 83-85pt team to me. I think Lyons will be able to start more and will get more starts. I think the defense will be better. I think they will score less goals. Another 3 wins seems reasonable but idk why I would expect another 8. 

[apuszczalowski]

6 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

They haven’t tried anything but rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.  Every move has been lipstick on a pig.  There has no attempt to upgrade the top 6 forwards.  There has no attempt to upgrade the goaltending.  The feeble attempts to upgrade the defense have all been centered on puck movers or 3rd or 4th pairing guys and have left us one of consistently worst in zone teams in the league for 5 years and counting.  

The top 5 scorers drafted and developed by the Sabres have all been traded away by KA in Eichel, Mitts, Reinhart, Cozens and now JJP.  Hard to build a team that way.  

 

It's because the plan every season is to have the young kids progress and get better to take over the team. They never want to upgrade over the potential of one of their prospects. It's always about not blocking someone from coming up, and then when they come up it's about making sure they get time and minutes. There is no urgency to get better now because that's always viewed as potentially throwing the franchise into some downward spiral that they can never get out of, when meanwhile every other team in the league seems to be able to navigate through this. 

[apuszczalowski]

41 minutes ago, Thorny said:

KO didn’t fail. Using Hall as an excuse to never try to win in the now again (as they seem to have done) is absurd (people also imo sort of misremember the Hall era - he wasn’t horrible here, he only played 37 games it’s barely enough to judge much of anything, it was Jack getting hurt and all the Covid shenanigans that tore that season apart. Hall is essentially viewed as the face/mercenary of that disaster owing to the gaudy plus minus). Regardless - the post is talking about player adds in general not just FAs

I think Hall was a failure because he didn't seem to come here willingly, and it felt like he was just here to get a paycheck and not work hard. That deal always seemed like the Sabres making an offer to him when others weren't willing to, and him coming here to cash a check until he could be moved somewhere else. I never got the impression he really wanted to be here

[Thorny]

14 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

They haven’t tried anything but rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.  Every move has been lipstick on a pig.  There has no attempt to upgrade the top 6 forwards.  There has no attempt to upgrade the goaltending.  The feeble attempts to upgrade the defense have all been centered on puck movers or 3rd or 4th pairing guys and have left us one of consistently worst in zone teams in the league for 5 years and counting.  

The top 5 scorers drafted and developed by the Sabres have all been traded away by KA in Eichel, Mitts, Reinhart, Cozens and now JJP.  Hard to build a team that way.  

 

To the last point, it’s rather (see: exceptionally) wild that after all this we have ONE top 10 pick forward on the roster. One. Quinn, that’s it.