Justin Danforth, the forgotten man

[DarthEbriate]

10 hours ago, French Collection said:

I hope he is OK because I see a better NHLer in him than Kozak. The more guys ahead of Conor Sheary, the happier I am. Never liked him and his first stint verified why.

That's 2x Cup-winner Conor Sheary. I wouldn't worry too much: They'll likely carry 13F, 7D, and 3G again this year so Sheary is 2nd on the call-ups list, but 3rd from the lineup. He's Danforth insurance.

[French Collection]

7 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

That's 2x Cup-winner Conor Sheary. I wouldn't worry too much: They'll likely carry 13F, 7D, and 3G again this year so Sheary is 2nd on the call-ups list, but 3rd from the lineup. He's Danforth insurance.

I don’t like his wimpy game. It may be my opinion but he is not a play driver and has ridden the coattails of good players to post his numbers. He can skate to keep up with them but his game is not what I want to watch.

I’ll support him if he dresses in blue and gold but would rather see a prospect or a grittier player as the 13th man.

[dudacek]

Sheary remains one of my least-favourite recent Sabres.

To me, he looks like #16 on the forward depth chart.

Last year we used 22 forwards.

Pretty good chance he plays some games this year.

[LGR4GM]

No interest in seeing Conor Sheary play for Buffalo. Rochester, sure. 

[dudacek]

Danforth started the year as a lineup regular, then missed 78 games due to injury.

Other starters who missed significant time:

• Kulich 70 games
• Greenway 42
• Norris 38
• Zucker 20
• Benson 17

The replacements:

• Östlund 60
• Kozak 46
• Dunne 34
• Rosen 16
• Helenius 9
• Geertsen 4
• Kuntar 1

The team added Carrick and Pearson at the deadline. They played 13 and 4 games respectively.

With Greenway and Dunne gone, Danforth is going to play a lot.

I’ll put the Sheary over/under at 12 games. Cross your fingers for better health than last year, or he’ll get more.

Edited August 18 by dudacek

[dudacek]

Using last year as a template for next man up, Helenius looks like the Östlund.

Danforth and Kozak are the Kozak and Dunne. Sheary looks like the Rosen.

The other guys we might see are UFAs Jason Polin (7 games for the Avs last year, 13 total) and Aidan McDonough (6 NHL games total).

Geertsen and Kuntar are still there as is Carson Meyer, who played for the Amerks last year and has played 41 NHL games.

There’s not much on the depth chart below Sheary at 16. Signing someone else like him as a tweener would be a good idea.

Plenty of last chance guys like Pearson, Tyson Jost and Curtis Lazar without contracts,  if they’re willing to start with the Amerks.

Edited August 18 by dudacek

[Archie Lee]

13 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Using last year as a template for next man up, Helenius looks like the Östlund.

Danforth and Kozak are the Kozak and Dunne. Sheary looks like the Rosen.

The other guys we might see are UFAs Jason Polin (7 games for the Avs last year, 13 total) and Aidan McDonough (6 NHL games total).

Geertsen and Kuntar are still there as is Carson Meyer, who played for the Amerks last year and has played 41 NHL games.

There’s not much on the depth chart below Sheary at 16. Signing someone else like him as a tweener would be a good idea.

Plenty of last chance guys like Pearson, Tyson Jost and Curtis Lazar without contracts,  if they’re willing to start with the Amerks.

Riley Fiddler-Schultz may have worked his way into the 4th line call-up category.  He is on an NHL contract (two-way, I imagine), and was one of the black-aces in the  playoffs. 

[Indabuff]

What are the chances of getting this up to 83 pages?

[Eleven]

3 minutes ago, Indabuff said:

What are the chances of getting this up to 83 pages?

 

We can do this.

Remember when the in-period ice scrapers were sponsored by the Danforth engineering company?

Edited August 18 by Eleven

[PerreaultForever]

6 hours ago, dudacek said:

With Greenway and Dunne gone, Danforth is going to play a lot.

Will he though?

In a fully healthy line up is your fourth line not  Krebs -Carrick-Malentstyn?

Danforth only plays if 2 or more of the kids struggle and Krebs gets moved up like Lindy had him last year.

[dudacek]

1 hour ago, PerreaultForever said:

Will he though?

In a fully healthy line up is your fourth line not  Krebs -Carrick-Malentstyn?

Danforth only plays if 2 or more of the kids struggle and Krebs gets moved up like Lindy had him last year.

My entire point is that we will not have a fully healthy lineup. it doesn't happen.

Last year's 13th and 14th forwards played 60 and 43 games.

[PerreaultForever]

4 hours ago, dudacek said:

My entire point is that we will not have a fully healthy lineup. it doesn't happen.

Last year's 13th and 14th forwards played 60 and 43 games.

Okay that's fair. So I would hope we have well defined roles though and in that regard Shery might be the call up for a scoring forward (assuming all 3 kids are playing already) and Danforth is a bottom line guy only. 

I guess I really just don't see Danforth as overly relevant and if he wants to fight it out with Kozak for 13th or 14th man have at it but he's not important.

[Taro T]

49 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

Okay that's fair. So I would hope we have well defined roles though and in that regard Shery might be the call up for a scoring forward (assuming all 3 kids are playing already) and Danforth is a bottom line guy only. 

I guess I really just don't see Danforth as overly relevant and if he wants to fight it out with Kozak for 13th or 14th man have at it but he's not important.

Considering Ruff has no compunction over sliding Krebs up into the lineup; wouldn't automatically assume Sheary gets a callup before Danforth/Kozak does.  It mght be the case, but especially if they're home when they need to bring another skater up, could see them leaning away from Sheary initially and only grab him if even 1 more top 9 skater gets injured.

(On the road, they might not want the spare F to be Kozak/Danforth with Malenstyn, Carrick, and Danforth/Kozak already in the lineup because none of them project higher than 4th line.  But at home, with the easy availabilty of Sheary should a player get injured/ sick in the morning of a game; it'd be easy enough to call him up in a pinch.)

[PerreaultForever]

4 hours ago, Taro T said:

Considering Ruff has no compunction over sliding Krebs up into the lineup; wouldn't automatically assume Sheary gets a callup before Danforth/Kozak does.  It mght be the case, but especially if they're home when they need to bring another skater up, could see them leaning away from Sheary initially and only grab him if even 1 more top 9 skater gets injured.

(On the road, they might not want the spare F to be Kozak/Danforth with Malenstyn, Carrick, and Danforth/Kozak already in the lineup because none of them project higher than 4th line.  But at home, with the easy availabilty of Sheary should a player get injured/ sick in the morning of a game; it'd be easy enough to call him up in a pinch.)

idk I think Ruff sees krebs as a unique asset. His swiss army knife he uses somewhat like Florida uses E-Rod. Has just enough speed and skill to play with the big boys. I don't see Danforth having that ability.

But hey, I actually have to see him play more. Maybe there's more there than i think. We don't exactly have much of a sample size to work with. 

[Taro T]

6 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

idk I think Ruff sees krebs as a unique asset. His swiss army knife he uses somewhat like Florida uses E-Rod. Has just enough speed and skill to play with the big boys. I don't see Danforth having that ability.

But hey, I actually have to see him play more. Maybe there's more there than i think. We don't exactly have much of a sample size to work with. 

That was the point.  If a top 9 player goes out after all 3 kids are up, they can move Krebs up and bring up Danforth/Kozak (whichever one that gets sent down when camp breaks) and still have the top 9 covered.  They don't necessarily have to bring Sheary in to fill that role because Krebs can and likely will move up in that situation.

And if ANOTHER top 9er goes down after that, THEN Sheary gets brought up.  Particularly if they're at home.  If they're on the road, could see them bringing Sheary up before that so they don't get caught for a game where they need to play Carrick or Malenstyn in the top 9 because Zucker needed a day off when they're playing in Calgary or SJ.  But if they're home it's way easier to get an Amerk into the lineup in a pinch on less than a day's notice.

[msw2112]

If he's fully recovered, I expect Danforth to spend some time in the press box, but to also get quite a few games in as guys are injured.  I expect him to play well in a 4th line checking role, similar to Malenstyn, with some occasional offense.  His presence in the lineup will not hurt the team and his gritty style will be a plus.  I barely remember Danforth playing last season in the few games before his injury and I don't remember him with Columbus, so all of my expectations are based on what I've read (mostly here on Sabrespace).  He may be a replacement-level player, but every NHL roster has those kids of guys.  Cup champion Carolina had former Sabres 4th liners Robinson and Jankowski contributing to the effort, who dressed and played in all 6 games in the Final.  Interestingly, their 3rd linemate was former Sabre William Carrier, who also played 4th line minutes for the Sabres before being acquired by Vegas in the expansion draft and winning a Cup there.

Edited August 19 by msw2112