Sabre trend no one is talking about

[SwampD]

36 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Hmm i strenuously disagree 

 

[Archie Lee]

On 8/16/2025 at 10:01 AM, dudacek said:

Not sure there is a bigger collection of defencemen in the league right now than what the Sabres have, both on the ice and in the pipeline.
 

• Power 6’6”
• Kesselring 6’5”
• Samuelsson 6’4”
• Timmins 6’3”
• Dahlin 6’3”
• Byram 6’1”
•  
• Mrtka 6’6”
• Kleber 6’6”
• Bedkowski 6’5”
• Novikov 6’4”
• Komarov 6’4”
• McCarthy 6’3”
• Strbak 6’2”

 

Is this intentional? Does it matter?

I think it is clearly intentional. I think it does matter, but it can be hard to follow the logic. Adams seems to become focused on a certain area or trait related to asset acquisition, rather than focus on acquiring a collection of traits that will equate to a successful team.  

He started with acquiring picks, then the focus was on skilled forwards, an insistence on building out the pipeline, then it became tall defensemen, then upgrading the 4th line, then being tougher to play  against, and now tall AND right-handed defensemen. 

Perhaps this is the year where he has finally put together the needed combination of skill, toughness, and experience that equates to a playoff level team. It seems there are more conventional ways to do this. 

[TheAud]

So in a league-wide basketball tournament made up of each team's defenseman, we just need a point guard? Or is that why Kevyn keeps Bryson around? It would explain it, at least.

[Broken Ankles]

4 minutes ago, Archie Lee said:

I think it is clearly intentional. I think it does matter, but it can be hard to follow the logic. Adams seems to become focused on a certain area or trait related to asset acquisition, rather than focus on acquiring a collection of traits that will equate to a successful team.  

He started with acquiring picks, then the focus was on skilled forwards, an insistence on building out the pipeline, then it became tall defensemen, then upgrading the 4th line, then being tougher to play  against, and now tall AND right-handed defensemen. 

Perhaps this is the year where he has finally put together the needed combination of skill, toughness, and experience that equates to a playoff level team. It seems there are more conventional ways to do this. 

  Interesting hypothesis.  Where does goaltending acquisition fit?  Really it’s just Levi, right?   And if he thought that was sufficient then he must have had supreme confidence is in tenure as a GM, because that was over 4 years ago.  And, there was no path to Devon being a 60 game starter by now.  Did he lose focus too quickly? 

[Archie Lee]

13 minutes ago, Broken Ankles said:

  Interesting hypothesis.  Where does goaltending acquisition fit?  Really it’s just Levi, right?   And if he thought that was sufficient then he must have had supreme confidence is in tenure as a GM, because that was over 4 years ago.  And, there was no path to Devon being a 60 game starter by now.  Did he lose focus too quickly? 

I’m not sure about “60 game starter”, but I think it is abundantly clear that Adams was certain Levi would be his starting goalie by now. When asked prior to 23-24 about whether Levi needed AHL time he was rather dismissive and referred to Levi as “special”. They then gave Levi four straight, mostly ineffective, starts to begin that season; there is no question in my mind that he believed Levi was his starting goalie two years ago. 

I think this ties in to my point. Adams hasn’t been able to address multiple loose ends at one time. He, largely, focuses on one element and seems caught off guard when another issue inevitably rises.

[DarthEbriate]

1 hour ago, Archie Lee said:

I think this ties in to my point. Adams hasn’t been able to address multiple loose ends at one time. He, largely, focuses on one element and seems caught off guard when another issue inevitably rises.

Historically, he does bug/defect triage and works only the priority fix, rather than manage the entire deployment, which is his role. His product is under budget. But he’s never reached a milestone and hasn’t deployed a product (to playoffs/market). At some point you’d think the investors would wonder where all their dollars have gone to.

[PerreaultForever]

10 hours ago, tom webster said:

Like I have said previously, I don’t post other people’s work but if you look up an article by Jonathan Willis, the numbers don’t back up your assertions, especially amongst playoff teams. The median height has remained constant and the mean weight has gone down. Florida was the third lightest team in the playoffs last year, ahead of only Tampa and Colorado. 

Proving only that these stats mean nothing. 

Third "lightest"?  Florida was obviously brought down by E-Rod being there 🙂

Owen Power's 97 kg. Sam Bennett's 91 kg. Who you got in that battle?

Strength, fortitude, compete, and general nastiness do not show up in the stats. They do however, mean everything on the ice. 

[Night Train]

Awesome. They could win the charity basketball tourney. 

[tom webster]

50 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

Proving only that these stats mean nothing. 

Third "lightest"?  Florida was obviously brought down by E-Rod being there 🙂

Owen Power's 97 kg. Sam Bennett's 91 kg. Who you got in that battle?

Strength, fortitude, compete, and general nastiness do not show up in the stats. They do however, mean everything on the ice. 

That’s a while different argument. And Willis points out that the numbers are actually inflated by lesser used players so EROD only balances it out.

Florida only proves that it’s not all about size. Like LGRM says, teams are drafting bigger defenseman but it still hasn’t manifested itself with the leagues elite.

[Pimlach]

On 8/16/2025 at 11:01 AM, dudacek said:

Not sure there is a bigger collection of defencemen in the league right now than what the Sabres have, both on the ice and in the pipeline.
 

• Power 6’6”
• Kesselring 6’5”
• Samuelsson 6’4”
• Timmins 6’3”
• Dahlin 6’3”
• Byram 6’1”
•  
• Mrtka 6’6”
• Kleber 6’6”
• Bedkowski 6’5”
• Novikov 6’4”
• Komarov 6’4”
• McCarthy 6’3”
• Strbak 6’2”

 

Is this intentional? Does it matter?

I like big.   I like big, skilled, and tough even better.   Hoping to see more physically presence and toughness to go with the height.