Östlund, Kulich, Helenius: who helps the most this year?

[French Collection]

3 hours ago, JohnC said:

Helenius has experience playing with older players. When I watched him at the end of the last season he played as if he belonged. Seeing how this young trio plays makes me look forward to this upcoming season.  

His stint at the World Championships on Barkov’s line was a great experience for him and scoring the winning goal should boost his confidence.

[JohnC]

59 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Tage may be more of a shooter than a passer, but he had 41 assists last year.

Only 18 NHL centres had more.

He had a lot of assists because he had the puck on his stick much of the time. That's not a criticism as it is a description of how he plays. The Sabres have a number of players who are versatile. Kulich can play wing and center. And the same goes for Tage. Ruff has a lot of options to tinker with for his lines. That's a good situation to be in. 

[pi2000]

Junoko Helkulund

[Sabres73]

Wouldn’t it have been simpler to just ask to rank the three players?

[triumph_communes]

Great question. I honestly have such a high opinion of all 3 this is really hard to judge. 
 

we’ve all forgotten about Kulich, but if he steps in as a middle of the league top center then holy ***** that’s an add from last year

 

Östlund I think will rank lowest but he will have the best analytics. He makes everyone he plays with so much better

 

helenius will be solid. No slump in his future

 

We used to hate relying on kids, but these guys aren’t 19yo kids with nothing around them. And they aren’t defenseman. This season is going to be better than last 

[Nacho Libre]

Östlund 

[Nacho Libre]

For the record I see Tage’s assist total as relatively low, not high. Mid pack for 1Cs maybe but not mid-pack for a team’s best F. Tage led our F in assists and finished 39th in the league for forwards. So solidly on the weaker end when it comes to a team’s highest assist getting F. On some teams they’d have 2 better 

Dahlin certainly helps, but I did account for that by breaking it down to just forwards 

I don’t think this discrepancy is something that manifests in terms of overall team 5 V 5 play, as Tage also snipes and I don’t think we are losing relative to average top forward all things considered (unless he has another below average defensive season)

Where I still maintain stringently that it manifests is in special situation circumstances. see: the powerless play: That specific skill of dishing required, I’d argue specifically FROM a forward, any forward, is something that’s a key component to any successful PP

- We have a below league average primary disher on the PP. - This is something I barely see mentioned that, to me, remains strikingly Occam’s razor-ish in terms of identifying the issues with the PP

Edited August 18 by Nacho Libre

[Pimlach]

All guesses at this point -

1. Östlund will have a chance to make an impact immediately, probably a steady middle 6 that can hopefully help the PP as a strong passing forward   

2.  Kulich will get a top 6 opportunity but can he pick up where he was 2 season ago? 

3. Helenius might start in Rochester simply due to numbers, but he will be in Buffalo for most of the season.   He strikes me as the guy with the highest ceiling.  

Edited August 19 by Pimlach

[JohnC]

4 hours ago, Pimlach said:

All guesses at this point -

1. Östlund will have a chance to make an impact immediately, probably a steady middle 6 that can hopefully help the PP with a strong passing forward   

2.  Kulich will get a top 6 opportunity but can he pick up where he was 2 season ago? 

3. Helenius might start in Rochester simply due to numbers, but he will be end in Buffalo and have the best finish to the season.   He strikes me as the guy with the highest ceiling.  

What’s interesting is that your assessment of this trio is consistent with the consensus of the posters. Almost everyone believes  that Helenius has the highest ceiling of the trio. And although the majority of people don’t believe Östlund has the highest upside, they do believe he is most ready to contribute right away. 
 

Where I diverge from you is that I believe that Helenius is going to make the roster right from the start. The little that I saw him at the end of the season and playoffs is that my takeaway is that the NHL is not too big for him. He looked like he belonged.

[Pimlach]

4 hours ago, JohnC said:

What’s interesting is that your assessment of this trio is consistent with the consensus of the posters. Almost everyone believes  that Helenius has the highest ceiling of the trio. And although the majority of people don’t believe Östlund has the highest upside, they do believe he is most ready to contribute right away. 
 

Where I diverge from you is that I believe that Helenius is going to make the roster right from the start. The little that I saw him at the end of the season and playoffs is that my takeaway is that the NHL is not too big for him. He looked like he belonged.

He looked like belongs and he got to play and win with Barkov in the Worlds.   So he could win a spot, if not he will be back up in the NHL quickly. 

Edited August 19 by Pimlach

[Doohickie]

1.  Kulich - picks up where he left off in 2024-25.  I rated him #1 because I think he will fix the power play from the bumper spot/the crease/ the low slot.  If you forget where he left off, here you go.  

2.  Helenius - We got just a glimmer of his impact last year and it was impressive.  I think there will some learning curve and he may start out in Rochester simply because he's waiver exempt.  By the end of the season he may very well be competing for the 1C.

3.  Östlund - I think we know what we've got here; he played 60 games last year.  I think his contributions will be significant, but I still expect Kulich and Helenius to outshine him.

 

[LGR4GM]

42 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

1.  Kulich - picks up where he left off in 2024-25.  I rated him #1 because I think he will fix the power play from the bumper spot/the crease/ the low slot.  If you forget where he left off, here you go.  

2.  Helenius - We got just a glimmer of his impact last year and it was impressive.  I think there will some learning curve and he may start out in Rochester simply because he's waiver exempt.  By the end of the season he may very well be competing for the 1C.

3.  Östlund - I think we know what we've got here; he played 60 games last year.  I think his contributions will be significant, but I still expect Kulich and Helenius to outshine him.

 

OMG the "Jiri COOOOL" thing by Dan needs to die. Just eww. 

[LGR4GM]

After watching the highlights here is my main concern. Yes Kulich has a great shot, and yes he is in positions to unleash it. Both of these things are skills, but, Kulich very much needs someone else to give him the puck in places to shoot. I think you see he is not a play connector really and is very much more of a keep the cycle going and find a shooting spot. IDK if he will play like that after being off an entire year and idk if these highlights are just coloring my perspective. I also think a player like that could be effective with a Benson or an Östlund or a Doan or even a Thompson. He is such a curiosity to me this year. 

[Night Train]

They have to give Helenius a clear path. He'll get stronger. 

 

 His hands and speed. Great passing.  Obvious to me. 

[Taro T]

44 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

After watching the highlights here is my main concern. Yes Kulich has a great shot, and yes he is in positions to unleash it. Both of these things are skills, but, Kulich very much needs someone else to give him the puck in places to shoot. I think you see he is not a play connector really and is very much more of a keep the cycle going and find a shooting spot. IDK if he will play like that after being off an entire year and idk if these highlights are just coloring my perspective. I also think a player like that could be effective with a Benson or an Östlund or a Doan or even a Thompson. He is such a curiosity to me this year. 

Would love to see him on the wing with Helenius and Doan.  (Realize he's likely going to start the year with Benson and Thompson, but still.)  That could be very fun to watch.

Then the "responsible" line could be some form out of Quinn - Norris - McLeod - Zucker and they still end up with a very solid "energy line" of Malenstyn - Carrick - Krebs.