Player Discussion Mattias Samuelsson, LHD, He's Sick -- no, no really ill

[StrompTroller]

I'd love to see the prospects polls on him the last few years and who stuck by him(granted Johnson and others havent had their chance yet of course)

 

[beerme1]

i was at the game yesterday and 3 separate plays stood out to me by him. just completely negated good chances. he has good enough size to smear players out on the boards and seems to have good stick work to go with it.

Seeing him do this routinely now. He's been pretty impressive to me. Saw it again today. He looked like he was beat at the dot and just snuffed a guy out. Tremendous reach and uses it effectively.

 

[Keaganizer]

Seeing him do this routinely now. He's been pretty impressive to me. Saw it again today. He looked like he was beat at the dot and just snuffed a guy out. Tremendous reach and uses it effectively.

i’ve been noticing it more and more every game. today he had the best stick work i’ve seen in a long time by a sabres defender. insane reach. i don’t think he’s horribly positionally, but a little more work on that and some pressured puck decisions and he’ll become a great second pairing option. he’s a good one as he is now IMO

 

[Jim Bob]

 

[EichHart]

Thought he was fantastic yesterday. His positioning is amazing.

 

[Jacob582]

Samuelsson pairs well with a puck mover like Bryson. Fitzgerald isn't the best fit at the NHL level.

 

[Diaspora]

Thought he was fantastic yesterday. His positioning is amazing.

He looks close to being a second pairing D. We keep talking about Power being on the 2nd pair next year, but maybe that should be up for debate. Most rookies, even 1OA guys, benefit from less pressure and TOI in their first NHL year. If Samuelsson can handle the job, Power gets time to come up to speed against lesser competition.

After a year or two, obviously, we would be expecting Power to take big 5v5 minutes.

 

[dasaybz]

This dude is a beast. I didn't realize how good of a skater he is. He seems to always be in good position to make a play, and he's quite capable at swooping the puck away. Really liking his game so far.

 

[Jim Bob]

This dude is a beast. I didn't realize how good of a skater he is. He seems to always be in good position to make a play, and he's quite capable at swooping the puck away. Really liking his game so far.

His skating has really improved from the time he was drafted until now.

That was always the #1 issue for the people that doubted him as a prospect.

 

[Jacob582]

He looks close to being a second pairing D. We keep talking about Power being on the 2nd pair next year, but maybe that should be up for debate. Most rookies, even 1OA guys, benefit from less pressure and TOI in their first NHL year. If Samuelsson can handle the job, Power gets time to come up to speed against lesser competition.

After a year or two, obviously, we would be expecting Power to take big 5v5 minutes.

It's a good thing to have LD established for next season to have that as an option (Power as 3rd pair).

 

[Satanphonehome]

His skating has really improved from the time he was drafted until now.

That was always the #1 issue for the people that doubted him as a prospect.

I think a lot of people saw him described as big and defence first and assumed that meant he couldn’t skate.
His skating has always been fine.

 

[Jim Bob]

I think a lot of people saw him described as big and defence first and assumed that meant he couldn’t skate.
His skating has always been fine.

Plenty of people that have watched him from pre-draft to now have mentioned that his skating is vastly improved from where it was at WMU.

 

[Dingo44]

Always loved him on the NTDP. Guy was a leader back then, then in World Juniors, then in college. Always thought he was getting overlooked after we drafted him.

 

[Chainshot]

This morning's comments from Granato on Samuelsson was fascinating - that he missed Mattias every day after Mattias went down with his injury and credits a bit of being able to spread the defensive load out to Samuelsson to allow Dahlin to flourish. Absolutely gushing over the kid.

 

[Jim Bob]

 

[Team Cozens]

At the end of the day we will only need 10-12 minutes a night from Samuelsson. Dahlin and Power will be splitting up 45 +

 

[tsujimoto74]

I thought last night vs. the Pens was the best game of his career so far. I'll take more where that came from.

 

[sabres4ever]

Just think: He just turned 22. Imagine in a couple of years when he has 200 games under his belt?

We should be pretty good on D for the foreseeable future.

 

[Fjordy]

Just think: He just turned 22. Imagine in a couple of years when he has 200 games under his belt?

We should be pretty good on D for the foreseeable future.

Well, Tampa has Hedman, McDonagh and Sergachev on LD, we can at least have no worse in the future.

 

[Chainshot]

 

[Abraham de Lacy]

Yes, I have a total man-crush on #23 Samuelsson. I too suspect that he's the catalyst that made the defensive pairings gel. Didn't like him at first, too big and slow I thought. But he has been nothing short of a revelation so far.

I've watched the Penguins game twice today -just looking at the defense- and things are looking bright for the future.

 

[Gabrielor]

7 years, 3.5 mil per please.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Kjell 2.0 is becoming an amazing find right before our eyes. And crazily, he’s still technically a rookie at the NHL level, seeing he has less than a season’s worth of games.

 

[GrierIsGod123]

7 years, 3.5 mil per please.

I'd love a heady move like that someday. We've for too long been reactive and it's burned us more times than not.

That Tage contract is looking pretty good about now, which was one of the few gambles the Sabres have made in years.

 

[sabres4ever]