Roster thread: Get To Work (2022-2023 Season)

[WhereAreTheCookies]

Seems like a lot of us are on board with us getting a Top 4 d-man this offseason....Who do you guys think we could sign as a FA that would be a good fit ? Or, acquire through a trade.

For UFA's I've said before I hope they look at Graves or Soucy for 3LD and one of Severson or Mayfield for 2RD. If they are looking at being more budget conscious, or can't get one of Severson/Mayfield they could look at a guy like Holl or maybe Clifton. I've also seen people mention Dumba, I just think his ask will be higher than those I mentioned.

I think they have some solid options they can look at in UFA. Those guys will be a little older, but they will also provide a little more veteran leadership for the team which they need in that top 4 with how young Dahlin, Power and Sammy are. If you have to sign them for a couple of extra seasons who cares, as they age they can slide down to your bottom pairing like EJ in Colorado.

 

[Chainshot]

Seems like a lot of us are on board with us getting a Top 4 d-man this offseason....Who do you guys think we could sign as a FA that would be a good fit ? Or, acquire through a trade.

UFA would be Clifton from the Bruins if he's priced out. He plays a hard game on their second pair, fits the handedness and style I would want to inject next to Power.

There is also a whole thread on just the quest for defensemen off the beaten path - Player Discussion - Buffalo Pickers - The Search For Serviceable Defensemen, Summer of '23 Edition

 

[EichHart]

Sabres are 5-21 without Samuelsson.

 

[Jim Bob]

Alex Killorn Contract, Cap Hit, Salary and Stats - CapFriendly - NHL Salary Caps

Alex Killorn contract, salary, cap hit, salary cap, aav, career earnings, lifetime earnings, aav, advanced stats, transaction history, trade history, and rfa or ufa free agent status

www.capfriendly.com

I wonder what Killorn gets on the open market this summer?

 

[Chainshot]

Alex Killorn Contract, Cap Hit, Salary and Stats - CapFriendly - NHL Salary Caps

Alex Killorn contract, salary, cap hit, salary cap, aav, career earnings, lifetime earnings, aav, advanced stats, transaction history, trade history, and rfa or ufa free agent status

www.capfriendly.com

I wonder what Killorn gets on the open market this summer?

I've thought he takes the Maroon/Perry style deal and sticks around in Tampa for less.

 

[Jim Bob]

I've thought he takes the Maroon/Perry style deal and sticks around in Tampa for less.

I have a feeling he will have way more of a market than those two will, though.

 

[Chainshot]

I have a feeling he will have way more of a market than those two will, though.

I don't think he wants to leave Tampa and would take less to stay a year or two more.

 

[Jim Bob]

I don't think he wants to leave Tampa and would take less to stay a year or two more.

Maybe. But, I would expect his agent to push for him to at least look around and see what kind of offers are out there.

And if a team is offering $4-5M per for 2-3 years, the gap could be too big to turn down.

 

[EichHart]

Would love Killorn.

 

[Chainshot]

Maybe. But, I would expect his agent to push for him to at least look around and see what kind of offers are out there.

And if a team is offering $4-5M per for 2-3 years, the gap could be too big to turn down.

Would love Killorn.

33 with almost two full seasons of additional playoff wear and tear on him for that sort of price is a buyer beware situation.

 

[Der Jaeger]

Ok. We are getting somewhere.

I will concede that replacing all 13 of the people I identified is not all that realistic in one offseason. One reason I wanted more movement this past deadline. I even agree that the group you kept, Jost, Greenway, Boosh, Stillman and Mitts are players they likely keep at least this time around. That said, let me challenge a couple thoughts.

The first one is keeping Jost. We need a better/different type of bottom six center than Krebs or Jost is. We need a veteran, physical possession center. So only one of Krebs or Jost stays. The other gets dropped or traded.

I still struggle to find a place for both Greenway and Mitts. Every way I look at it, they both end up at third line LW. Anywhere else seems like playing them out of position just to keep them.

Let’s look at the options aside from Jost, Mittelstadt, and Greenway.

Jost: if we’re looking for a 4C, there aren’t great options that are far more compelling than Jost. Most of the decent centers aren’t coming to Buffalo to be a 3 or 4 C.

Greenway and Mittelstadt: if you look at Capfriendly for forwards who will be available this off season who have 40 or more points, and will play 3rd line minutes, the list gets real small fast. Sort the list by points and you’re down to about 10 forwards, most of who aren’t coming to Buffalo. Same with power forwards. Even less of them.

Improving the roster isn’t the issue. When we look at available and possible options, who are upgrades and would come to Buffalo, the list gets small.

Hanging onto Jost, Mittelstadt, and Greenway, and banking on their personal improvement seems to be the best option. And if it doesn’t work, Savoie, Kulich and the rest of the forward prospects aren’t far off.

 

[Jim Bob]

33 with almost two full seasons of additional playoff wear and tear on him for that sort of price is a buyer beware situation.

Absolutely. But, he is the kind of guy that plenty of GMs love to overpay as UFAs, too.

 

[WhereAreTheCookies]

Jost: if we’re looking for a 4C, there aren’t great options that are far more compelling than Jost. Most of the decent centers aren’t coming to Buffalo to be a 3 or 4 C.

I do think there are some equivalent options for a 3/4 C that can do a little better on face-offs. If Okposo retires maybe you can slide Jost to the wing and bring in someone like Nosek, Haula or Kampf.

 

[TehDoak]

That all looks great on paper, but bringing in 5 quality pieces in an offseason is super unrealistic. especially for a team like Buffalo.

There is going to be a ton of competition to sign any of the good and even above average UFAs, and The Sabres are going to have to grossly overpay to get any of them to come to Buffalo,

Quality pieces that are under contract are not available, and would cost a ton to even get a conversation started.

What's left is:

-Trading for guys that are on bad contracts that have some flaws but have some skills the team lacks
-Grossly overpaying older UFAs
-Signing more bottom of the UFA barrel patch-work solutions.

So.... if Adams wants to get the quality that would really help the team, he would probably have to circle back to the "overpay via trade route", but that would require mortgaging the future and most likely shortening the years the competitive window would be open. Do you give up Kulich or Peterka plus some valuable picks for a guy like Crouse? Because that is the type of deal we are likely talking about here.

There are only two hard to obtain pieces in my list. Top 4 right side d-man and a goalie. The 4th line pieces should be easy assuming the front office is aggressive enough on the UFA market. The last LHD piece is something you can probably wait until the trade deadline for. If Johnson signs you might be able to hold off on that last piece to the trade deadline and see if its needed.

As for difficulty to sign in Buffalo. I'd wager the goalie will be harder than the D-man. However, for either, the team is going to have to spend. Nobody is going to sign here while we are a cap floor team. You can sell a good story to the D-man that they will play either with Power or with Dahlin, and you want them to help mentor and improve the teams defensive play. In goal, no one is going to want to get hung out like UPL or Comrie have been in the last few games. So, you will probably have to pay a premium for that, either via Dollars or assets.

Part of the issue is that the team has failed to address any of these issues over the last 2 off seasons, even though they have had mostly the same issues (defense, goaltending, PK). If we would have spent a little more the last two years to add pieces when good values came along, the shopping list for this summer wouldn't be as big and the scope of the problem would seem so drastic. Mariano is a guy who was available and went for peanuts because of his salary last summer. In division even. Could we have paid a little bit more and gotten Nico Sturm last summer?

A big part of the issue here is there doesn't seem to be much of a cohesive plan in filling specific roles.

 

[Ehran]

Is Lindy ruff a good coach ? Devils going good and he took sabres always to playoffs mostly .

You're going to get a variety of answers to that question around these parts.

I always thought he was a really good coach, but unfortunately he sort of wore out his time here and got caught up in the merry-go-round of GM/Coach firings, etc.

I'm glad he's doing well these days. Always liked him back to when he was a player.

 

[Der Jaeger]

I do think there are some equivalent options for a 3/4 C that can do a little better on face-offs. If Okposo retires maybe you can slide Jost to the wing and bring in someone like Nosek, Haula or Kampf.

Possibly. But that doesn’t require a team tear down. Which was my original point.

 

[CowbellConray]

I dont believe Killorn is that effective of a player anymore. He would look a lot like Okposo in this system. He has mentioned wanting to play his entire career in Tampa, so I could see him getting a 2X2 deal to stay until he is 35.

Not a prime target in my eyes

 

[Jim Bob]

 

[Ace]

Are we better off if Johnson doesn’t sign at this point? Take away Adams reliance on not doing anything to block players and force him to add a quality veteran player? Plus we get a pick at least.

I just see this guy getting Johnson signed…having Joker, Bryson, Stillman and Lyubushkin under contract already and just going back to sleep.

 

[Zman5778]

Are we better off if Johnson doesn’t sign at this point? Take away Adams reliance on not doing anything to block players and force him to add a quality veteran player? Plus we get a pick at least.

I just see this guy getting Johnson signed…having Joker, Bryson, Stillman and Lyubushkin under contract already and just going back to sleep.

"Are we better off not bringing a potential top 4 defenseman into the organization"?????

No. There's no timeline in the multiverse where the answer to this question is yes.

 

[Chainshot]

I dont believe Killorn is that effective of a player anymore. He would look a lot like Okposo in this system. He has mentioned wanting to play his entire career in Tampa, so I could see him getting a 2X2 deal to stay until he is 35.

Not a prime target in my eyes

I'm not sure he's down to Okposo of this year levels yet, but he's a fit where he is in Tampa due to being committed to their system and having played so long with his linemates. There would be the question of if he A) wants to leave Tampa (there has been no indication), B) wherever he goes using him in a similar role (no guarantee), and C) how much more does his play fall off? Three years ago, sure, but now? Nah.

 

[sabresfan129103]

You know what type of player they could desperately use right now? Paul Gaustad. Big, physical, fights, can win faceoff, kill penalties, chip in some goals. The guy could do so much. I guess you don't appreciate those types of players until you don't have them.

 

[TehDoak]

You know what type of player they could desperately use right now? Paul Gaustad. Big, physical, fights, can win faceoff, kill penalties, chip in some goals. The guy could do so much. I guess you don't appreciate those types of players until you don't have them.

I love the prototype of player you are talking about....but I doubt goose would make the NHL now. He was slow 15 years ago, but brought enough else he made it work.

He'd get absolutely left in the dust today.

He kicked off our rebuild with his trade.....11 years ago.

 

[littletonhockeycoach]

There are only two hard to obtain pieces in my list. Top 4 right side d-man and a goalie. The 4th line pieces should be easy assuming the front office is aggressive enough on the UFA market. The last LHD piece is something you can probably wait until the trade deadline for. If Johnson signs you might be able to hold off on that last piece to the trade deadline and see if its needed.

As for difficulty to sign in Buffalo. I'd wager the goalie will be harder than the D-man. However, for either, the team is going to have to spend. Nobody is going to sign here while we are a cap floor team. You can sell a good story to the D-man that they will play either with Power or with Dahlin, and you want them to help mentor and improve the teams defensive play. In goal, no one is going to want to get hung out like UPL or Comrie have been in the last few games. So, you will probably have to pay a premium for that, either via Dollars or assets.

Part of the issue is that the team has failed to address any of these issues over the last 2 off seasons, even though they have had mostly the same issues (defense, goaltending, PK). If we would have spent a little more the last two years to add pieces when good values came along, the shopping list for this summer wouldn't be as big and the scope of the problem would seem so drastic. Mariano is a guy who was available and went for peanuts because of his salary last summer. In division even. Could we have paid a little bit more and gotten Nico Sturm last summer?

A big part of the issue here is there doesn't seem to be much of a cohesive plan in filling specific roles.

Important and thoughtful post on what arguably is the biggest hole in the Sabres roster and likely future. Solving this position is critical else even the committed to Buffalo will start looking for greener pastures.

Teams that don't deploy halfway competent defense schemes rarely attract quality net minders.

 

[Chainshot]

Are we better off if Johnson doesn’t sign at this point? Take away Adams reliance on not doing anything to block players and force him to add a quality veteran player? Plus we get a pick at least.

I just see this guy getting Johnson signed…having Joker, Bryson, Stillman and Lyubushkin under contract already and just going back to sleep.

No. They very much need players who have NHL ceiling and waiver exemption.