How would you use all these centres?

[dudacek]

Carrick, Danforth, Dunne, Helenius, Kozak, Krebs, Kulich, McLeod, Norris, Östlund, Thompson.

As Jarmo pointed out in his presser, the Sabres are overloaded with players who can play centre. 

Who are your starting four? In what roles?

Who becomes one of the 8 starting wingers to complement (or replace) Benson, Doan, Quinn, Zucker, Greenway, Tuch and Malenstyn?

Who sits in the press box, remembering the Sabres seem likely to carry just one spare and won’t carry more than two

Who gets waived (Östlund, Kulich and Helenius are exempt) or traded?

What would you do with all these bodies?

 

[Nacho Libre]

 

[DarthEbriate]

1 minute ago, dudacek said:

Carrick, Danforth, Dunne, Helenius, Kozak, Krebs, Kulich, McLeod, Norris, Östlund, Thompson.

As Jarmo pointed out in his presser, the Sabres are overloaded with players who can play centre. 

Who are your starting four? In what roles?

Who becomes one of the 8 starting wingers to complement (or replace) Benson, Doan, Quinn, Zucker, Greenway, Tuch and Malenstyn?

Who sits in the press box, remembering the Sabres seem likely to carry just one spare and won’t carry more than two

Who gets waived (Östlund, Kulich and Helenius are exempt) or traded?

What would you do with all these bodies?

Opening night 5-on-5 ice time, not how they'll be numbered:

Benson - Norris - Doan
Thompson - Östlund - Krebs/Kulich (I play TNT on LW so he can come off the boards on his forehand)
Zucker - McLeod - Quinn
Malenstyn - Carrick - Greenway

Trade candidates: nearly everyone except Benson & Doan
ROC: Helenius, Kozak (likely lost - prioritize keeping him as 13/14 over Dunne), Dunne, Danforth (or LTIR)

 

[Pimlach]

18 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Carrick, Danforth, Dunne, Helenius, Kozak, Krebs, Kulich, McLeod, Norris, Östlund, Thompson.

As Jarmo pointed out in his presser, the Sabres are overloaded with players who can play centre. 

Who are your starting four? In what roles?

Who becomes one of the 8 starting wingers to complement (or replace) Benson, Doan, Quinn, Zucker, Greenway, Tuch and Malenstyn?

Who sits in the press box, remembering the Sabres seem likely to carry just one spare and won’t carry more than two

Who gets waived (Östlund, Kulich and Helenius are exempt) or traded?

What would you do with all these bodies?

 

assumptions:   Tuch leaves for more money, Greenway gets moved to free up money, they carry 14 forwards

Östlund - Norris - TNT 

Benson - Helenius - Doan 

Zucker - McLeod - Quinn

Malenstyn - Carrick - (A guy that punches people)

Spare:  Krebs, Kulich

Probably gone :  Dunne, Kozak, Danforth

Alternate Plan to start with Helenius in  Rochester: 

Benson - Norris - TNT 

Kulich - Östlund - Doan 

Zucker - McLeod - Quinn

Malenstyn - Carrick - (A guy that punches people)

Spare:  Krebs, TBD

One makes it to spare FW slot:  Dunne, Kozak, Danforth

[Brawndo]

Helenius is starting with the team imo 

McLeod has been mentioned as a trade candidate. I do not agree with that though. 

[Skibum]

Who would have thought we would be sitting here talking about what to do with all these centers. 

[Porous Five Hole]

Tuch walks. Krebs is traded. 
 

Benson-Norris-Tage

Doan-Östlund-Quinn

Konsta-McLeod-Kulich

Zucker-Carrick-Malenstyn 

Greenway is 13th forward. Dunne and Kozak are whatever. 

[Pimlach]

28 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

Helenius is starting with the team imo 

McLeod has been mentioned as a trade candidate. I do not agree with that though. 

The team gets younger again with Tuch and McLeod out and Helenius and Östlund in.  

[Taro T]

2 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

The team gets younger again with Tuch and McLeod out and Helenius and Östlund in.  

And the youngest team in the league has a 1 game lead in the eastern conference final.

If the right guys are young, it seems to be ok.

[Big Guava]

Why is this a problem? Some play wing and then when a center gets kicked out of the faceoff circle they have someone that can actually win a draw.

[dudacek]

38 minutes ago, Big Guava said:

Why is this a problem? Some play wing and then when a center gets kicked out of the faceoff circle they have someone that can actually win a draw.

Who called it a problem?

I'm curious how people re seeing all these guys getting used, within the context of our cap crunch and the fact we have at least 4 more forwards than we can roster on opening night.

Edited May 22 by dudacek

[Rusty P Viaduct]

40 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

The team gets younger again with Tuch and McLeod out and Helenius and Östlund in.  

Agreed- Helenius and Östlund are Sabres now.

[French Collection]

1 minute ago, Rusty P Viaduct said:

Agreed- Helenius and Östlund are Sabres now.

Kulich will need a clean bill of health and a summer of training to get back his strength and cardiovascular endurance. I think he can be just as impactful as the other two guys.

Having so many centres is a luxury imo. You can use them as wingers and have the advantage of strong side faceoffs on a couple of lines if you balance them out. They all need to get better at draws mind you. The first C can get aggressive on the draw knowing there is another C ready to take a draw if he gets thrown out. More guys who can help out and understand the D zone responsibility of a C and can rotate this role during shifts. Another bonus is being able to fill injury slots on the C spine.

[French Collection]

47 minutes ago, Taro T said:

And the youngest team in the league has a 1 game lead in the eastern conference final.

If the right guys are young, it seems to be ok.

I was more concerned about age and experience before this season. There were a lot of unknowns. The young guys, even Helenius and Östlund have gained some playoff experience now and that is worth a lot. The young veterans (Power, Quinn, Benson, Krebs) will be a year older and stronger.

Veterans can always be found at the trade deadline if Jarmo deems it necessary to add depth and experience.

[Taro T]

Just now, French Collection said:

I was more concerned about age and experience before this season. There were a lot of unknowns. The young guys, even Helenius and Östlund have gained some playoff experience now and that is worth a lot. The young veterans (Power, Quinn, Benson, Krebs) will be a year older and stronger.

Veterans can always be found at the trade deadline if Jarmo deems it necessary to add depth and experience.

Yep.  Most all of these kids now have 10+ playoff games under their belts, including a game 7 OT game.   Believe that significantly advanced their development.

But wanted so much so for them to win that game so they could see what it's like to be on the other side of that in the next round.  At minimum, a missed opportunity at additional learning experiences unfortunately.  And had they won it, they could honestly tell themselves the next time they're in that situation that they know what is necessary to pull that victory off because they'd been in that situation before and got it done.

And at that next round, you're one of only 4 teams left.  EVERYBODY is watching.  Hoping they all now have a burning desire to take at least that next step.

[Ogelthorpe]

Does Kulich have to clear waivers? If he does not, he may be the odd man out due to his injury and sent to Rochester 

[_Q_]

Benson-Norris-Doan

Tage-Helenius-Quinn

Kulich-Östlund-Zucker

McLeod-Carrick-Malenstyn

[Big Guava]

4 hours ago, Taro T said:

Yep.  Most all of these kids now have 10+ playoff games under their belts, including a game 7 OT game.   Believe that significantly advanced their development.

But wanted so much so for them to win that game so they could see what it's like to be on the other side of that in the next round.  At minimum, a missed opportunity at additional learning experiences unfortunately.  And had they won it, they could honestly tell themselves the next time they're in that situation that they know what is necessary to pull that victory off because they'd been in that situation before and got it done.

And at that next round, you're one of only 4 teams left.  EVERYBODY is watching.  Hoping they all now have a burning desire to take at least that next step.

Well...just think that we got farther than the Montreal team from a year ago that went out in the first round.

[thewookie1]

4 hours ago, French Collection said:

I was more concerned about age and experience before this season. There were a lot of unknowns. The young guys, even Helenius and Östlund have gained some playoff experience now and that is worth a lot. The young veterans (Power, Quinn, Benson, Krebs) will be a year older and stronger.

Veterans can always be found at the trade deadline if Jarmo deems it necessary to add depth and experience.

One huge thing we saw within the Boston series were players like Power, Benson and Doan find their playoff rhythm. Doan and Benson found their new line in the sand with penalties and Power found what he needed to do in order to be successful.

Byram and Tuch being vet playoff players showed up immediately, granted they both more or less vanished in Rnd 2.

Dahlin fully embraced playoff awareness, in that Boston was targeting him to shut him down so he just focused more on his defensive play and let Muel and Byram bring the offense. Thats not always easy for a high end scorer to accept. In some ways Thompson seemed to struggle with that but it’s hard to tell if outside of Game 2(where he was a legit train wreck) he was fighting the situation or just his back injury. Plus when Tuch stopped producing anything, Krebs went invisible and he looked challenged. 
 

McLeod is hard to garner an opinion on. He was a solid PKer as always and played mostly alright against MTL but looked overmatched against Boston 5v5 and terrified of any form of contact. It concerns me because that was his issue in Edmonton and we can’t have our 3C evaporate at any sign of physicality. Hell, even typically soft Owen Power seemed to embrace it more as the playoffs rolled on. Not dishing them out, but using the opportunity to sidestep and make plays. 
 

Both Helenius and Östlund showed that they were uncanny in their comfort levels in high intensity situations. And also proved Ruff can trust the youth when it comes down to it. Using Helenius, burning the slide, and putting him in Game 4 was ballsy. And it just about won us the series as it suddenly made Zucker and Quinn look alive again. 

[Night Train]

I'm sensing some trades. 

[Huckleberry]

Östlund and Helenius are pretty much untouchable for me.   TNT can move to wing and Norris might get traded for cap room.

McTavish is available from the ducks if we need to replace Tuch on the RW.

[Scottysabres]

Trade material. We need upgrades, not many, but pivotal positions, at least, imho.

A true #1 center. A true #1 netminder. The rest of the lines and D are stable or near stable, but putting a Thomas for example and a Hellybuck for another example, in those critical positions would go a long way to stabilizing the roster.

And yes, I’m fully aware the cost would knee cap our asset availability, but when looked at objectively if we want to move beyond a 2nd round exit we definitively need a true #1 goaltender. The #1 center can be somewhat optional I suppose, but man, I would love stability in both areas. Just my 2 Pennie’s is all.

[Huckleberry]

With the injuries we had this year, I don't see a problem having so many centers.   The only trade bait for me are Kulich and Norris.

[Archie Lee]

Assuming no big veteran acquisitions (like Thomas) or departures (like Norris or McLeod), then if healthy my centre spine would be:

Norris

McLeod*

Helenius*

Carrick

Kozak

* Flop these two between 2nd and 3rd line depending on who their wingers are and the situation.

After that, what incredible depth to also have Thompson, Krebs, Östlund, Kulich, and Danforth.

I was listening to the latest Baker Fairburn podcast yesterday, and was surprised at how down on McLeod they were.  McLeod is perhaps our only truly reliable mid-top-six-centre.  Thompson is maybe not a true centre. Norris has to prove he can stay healthy. Ditto for Kulich.  Ditto for Östlund. Helenius will still be a rookie. The others are bottom-6 or 4th line options. I understand that McLeod's playoff performance left something to be desired, but you still have to get to the playoffs. McLeod has put up back to back 50+ point seasons (4th on the team this season), is an elite skater and strong penalty killer, and can be counted on to be available (5 missed games in the last 3 seasons). Edmonton made the mistake, I think, of focusing on what McLeod doesn't do rather than on what he does do. I hope we do not do the same. 

 

[Jorcus]

Given the assumption Tuch is gone and only using the existing players here are some random thoughts. 

Ok if Tuch is gone I think you are moving Doan up to take Tages right wing and hope he can handle the tough assignment that is. I am pretty sure he can grow into it but first lines get the tougher match ups and his production could step back. He is the only logical replacement. for that spot. 

If it wasn't painfully obvious already, by the end of the Habs series Krebs was exposed as not being the answer as the left wing for the first line. In my opinion the only choice  we have for that spot is Östlund. A skilled left hander that can score. Still it's another play who has had limited NHL time being asked to be a first line player. I feel for Thompson. This team can not seem to put together a steady top line that that gets rolled out year after year where familiarity with the other players is automatic. 

Norris and McLeod are still my other centers with Helenius filling the right wing spot on the second or third line vacated by Doan. You really can't take McLeod off the penalty kill with Tuch being gone and expect that to be anywhere near as effective as it was.  Mcloud did have a strange arc to the season where he was not that good early, he got very good in the middle then tailed off at the end. 

The 4th line you have Carrick, at center, Kulich on the left, Malenstyn on the right. Kozak fills in. 

The big concerns will be if the young players can go at a high level for a full season and can the intermediate guys still be as effective when moving higher up in the line up.