The offseason so far - Are the Sabres better?

[Taro T]

26 minutes ago, dudacek said:

If I was coaching any member of this defence corps I would be entirely comfortable saying “you’re not a kid anymore, you should know better by now”

And the response back should be, "why?  YOU sure as #### never showed us any better."

[dudacek]

1 minute ago, Taro T said:

And the response back should be, "why?  YOU sure as #### never showed us any better."

Oh I would have. I’m a Sabrespacer, we know better.

😜

[dudacek]

After the “core four” I see three groups of three battling for ice time and to carve out a specific role for themselves.

The third group is the easiest to identify: Krebs, Danforth and Malenstyn, the energy guys. These are the role players who will typically get 4th line minutes and bump up the roster to keep the rest honest. Think Mair, Gaustad

Group 2 is the scorers Zucker, Quinn and Kulich who will battle for PP time and offensive opportunities. Think Dumont, Afinogenov

And group 3 is the “hard-to-play against” group of Benson, Greenway and Doan who will battle for shutdown time and the dirty work with skill guys. Hecht, Grier.

Im really curious how much scoring we can get from Group 3 and how much defence from group 2 - I think rounding out their games will be key to their ice time, and how Lindy will mix and match in terms of lines and deployment. I see those 6 with more or less equal opportunity to fill out the top 9 in myriad ways based not only on how well they play, but what kind of identity Lindy wants to establish.

Some will sink and some will swim.

Edited 9 hours ago by dudacek

[dudacek]

I still think Benson is the best choice to complement Norris and Tage: netfront presence, passing, puck possession, puck retrievals, defensive zone coverage - he’s got proficiency in areas the other two lack and he’s got enough untapped offence that he won’t slow them down in that area.

Doan might work for similar reasons but I think he’s not as smart or skilled. Same with Greenway.

Quinn is plenty skilled but too similar to Tage in his approach and too lacking in the off-puck areas.

Kulich is too similar to Norris.

Tuch would make for the strongest line, but that would expose vulnerabilities elsewhere.

Zucker might work nicely.

[Taro T]

45 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I still think Benson is the best choice to complement Norris and Tage: netfront presence, passing, puck possession, puck retrievals, defensive zone coverage - he’s got proficiency in areas the other two lack and he’s got enough untapped offence that he won’t slow them down in that area.

Doan might work for similar reasons but I think he’s not as smart or skilled. Same with Greenway.

Quinn is plenty skilled but too similar to Tage in his approach and too lacking in the off-puck areas.

Kulich is too similar to Norris.

Tuch would make for the strongest line, but that would expose vulnerabilities elsewhere.

Zucker might work nicely.

Personally, don't like Kulich with Thompson because he isn't ready for true 1st line usage IMHO, but expect he meshes better with Tommer than Norris will.  Would have Norris with Tuch and Tommer with Juri and then figure out the LWs from there.  And expect Benson would fit very well with those 2, especially if he managed to put on some more upper body strength (not that he was weak last year, but he is smallish and should be able to put on muscle pretty easily at his age).  Then it becomes which of Doan, Quinn, or Zucker do you want working with Norris and Tuch.  And expect that could very well vary on a game by game or even period by period basis.  Kind of the way how Roy bounced from Drury and Grier to the RAV line depending upon health and circumstances.

And, with that said, do expect you are correct that Norris is pencilled in with Tommer.  Just personally would rather those 2 be on different lines.

[Wyldnwoody44]

One more top 6 F would really help us theoretically shuffle the lines without the fear of not having the right mix. 

Unfortunately, we have a GM that is unwilling or incapable of making such a move. 

I still have a nagging feeling that this season we are going to deal with some injuries and we simply don't have the quality depth at this point to insulate the team from anything that is going to be medium term in nature. 

Overall, I do think this offseason was a failure in the grand playoff scheme (would Love to be incorrect); this coming after a season ending meeting where our franchise Dman was clearly Unhappy, this is what you do to placate?! 

Maybe Ras is happy with the moves and he just wanted some better D and JJ gone, hard to speculate, but that's like me going to admin and asking for more help and instead they upgrade the fridge in the break room.