Speculation: Sabres Roster Speculation - Pre-season 2023 Edition

[Djp]

Ahh

I really didn’t see anything of him once he left. What the heck happened? Is there any chance it’s totally his fault for forcing his way onto a roster well before he was ready and it mentally crushing him as a prospect? Cause then I can say comeuppance without feeling that guilty that a guys dreams are dying like I would for a player that just reached the limit of his skills.

I think he initially showed promis in LA given the high contract he got signed to. Like goalies and weird stuff mentally happening to their play…he’s just another example.

 

[Chainshot]

Ahh

I really didn’t see anything of him once he left. What the heck happened? Is there any chance it’s totally his fault for forcing his way onto a roster well before he was ready and it mentally crushing him as a prospect? Cause then I can say comeuppance without feeling that guilty that a guys dreams are dying like I would for a player that just reached the limit of his skills.

More the upheaval around the front office and the team in general. He'd gone from a Regier draftee to being under Murray's stewardship to Botterill's. I've heard that they lost the relationship. *shrug*

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

No, funny if we picked him back up after all this time. Under contract to his drafting team whether he likes it or not.

No, no ,no.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

Yeah they'll be good but a lot of people are assuming it's a foregone conclusion and I'm not sold either

Reilly - Brodie
McCabe - Klingberg
40-yr-old - Liljegren

McCabe is their #1 shut down guy, and we've all seen plenty of that. Klingberg is Risto with a better shot, so they're basically rolling with an older version of our second pair from our last place season.

 

[EXTRAS]

Who is left at camp that needs to be cut?

 

[Reddawg]

Who is left at camp that needs to be cut?

This article just came out about five mins ago, looks like there's 31 players still in camp and we have to get down to 23:

'Everybody in this room matters' | Granato sends message to team as regular season approaches | Buffalo Sabres

Notes from Tuesday's practice at KeyBank Center.

www.nhl.com

Forwards

53 Jeff Skinner – 72 Tage Thompson – 9 Zach Benson

12 Jordan Greenway – 37 Casey Mittelstadt – 89 Alex Tuch

77 JJ Peterka – 24 Dylan Cozens – 71 Victor Olofsson

28 Zemgus Girgensons – 19 Peyton Krebs – 21 Kyle Okposo

15 Brandon Biro – 17 Tyson Jost – 13 Lukas Rousek

81 Brett Murray – 20 Jiri Kulich – 63 Isak Rosen

Defensemen

26 Rasmus Dahlin – 75 Connor Clifton

25 Owen Power – 10 Henri Jokiharju

23 Mattias Samuelsson – 6 Erik Johnson

61 Riley Stillman – 38 Kale Clague

33 Ryan Johnson – 78 Jacob Bryson

Goaltenders

31 Eric Comrie

27 Devon Levi

1 Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

 

[My Cozen Dylan]

Who is left at camp that needs to be cut?

Definitely going to Roch:
- Murray
- Rosen
- Kulich
- Clague
- Johnson

Probably going to Roch:
- Bryson
- Rousek
- Biro

 

[Dingo44]

Unless Benson returns, I think those top four lines are it to start the season. I like it a lot. Olofsson is the only one I'd like to move but he's in the lineup for a while.

53 Jeff Skinner – 72 Tage Thompson – 9 Zach Benson

12 Jordan Greenway – 37 Casey Mittelstadt – 89 Alex Tuch

77 JJ Peterka – 24 Dylan Cozens – 71 Victor Olofsson

28 Zemgus Girgensons – 19 Peyton Krebs – 21 Kyle Okposo

Biro has to clear waivers so I'm not sure if they don't keep both him and Jost around and go with 7 D.

 

[Beerz]

Definitely going to Roch:
- Murray
- Rosen
- Kulich
- Clague
- Johnson

Probably going to Roch:
- Bryson
- Rousek
- Biro

Wait we are definitely sure Johnson is going?

 

[My Cozen Dylan]

Biro has to clear waivers so I'm not sure if they don't keep both him and Jost around and go with 7 D.

7 D is a given. 3 G or 14 F is the question.

Wait we are definitely sure Johnson is going?

I don't see a reasonable path to the roster as of now for him.

 

[TheBarnIsElectric]

Unless Benson returns, I think those top four lines are it to start the season. I like it a lot. Olofsson is the only one I'd like to move but he's in the lineup for a while.

53 Jeff Skinner – 72 Tage Thompson – 9 Zach Benson

12 Jordan Greenway – 37 Casey Mittelstadt – 89 Alex Tuch

77 JJ Peterka – 24 Dylan Cozens – 71 Victor Olofsson

28 Zemgus Girgensons – 19 Peyton Krebs – 21 Kyle Okposo

Biro has to clear waivers so I'm not sure if they don't keep both him and Jost around and go with 7 D.

These definitely seem like the lines.

I'm in the keep "your known best line together and experiment elsewhere camp" because I don't want to find out with a couple L's that none of the new lines are clicking when we already have a combo we know without a doubt works really, really well....

...but I also trust Donny to know his guys, and we've probably got enough talent that many line combos can work.

 

[Dingo44]

These definitely seem like the lines.

I'm in the keep "your known best line together and experiment elsewhere camp" because I don't want to find out with a couple L's that none of the new lines are clicking when we already have a combo we know without a doubt works really, really well....

...but I also trust Donny to know his guys, and we've probably got enough talent that many line combos can work.

For sure.

There was a lot of mention last year about how Donny liked pairs - and this is definitely in that same vein.

We know that Skinner - Tage work, and we found out Mittlestadt - Tuch work, and Cozens - Peterka played all last year together and JJ is due for a huge breakout. Plus the Gus - Krebs - Okie line was one of our best at the end of last year.

Maybe they play with moving Benson, Greenway, and Olofsson around or if they return Benson then we'll see Jost or even Biro plug in.

Olofsson is the real outlier - which is nuts for someone who scored 28 goals.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Olofsson isn’t too shabby if you think of him as holding down’s Quinn spot

 

[Fjordy]

Olofsson isn’t too shabby if you think of him as holding down’s Quinn spot

I think he's definitely worse than Quinn on defense, which is exactly what we're missing. We need more players to help our defense, not fewer. There's probably a reason Granato made him a healthy scratch last season.

 

[The Blunder Years]

Matthews and Marner are probably better than anyone on the Sabres, but other than that...is anyone else totally not impressed with their lineup? They're trying to play Nylander at C on the 3rd line to try to spread out scoring and I don't think it will work.

If Levi is an above avg goalie...I don't want to jinx it but these two teams do not seem far apart, even on paper. They have the notably better forwards, but we have the better defense, and could end up having better goaltending.

Call me crazy, but we have the potential to finish first in the division

 

[old kummelweck]

Call me crazy, but we have the potential to finish first in the division

you're crazy

 

[truthbluth]

Call me crazy, but we have the potential to finish first in the division

You’re for sure crazy. But crazy things can and do happen.

 

[Dubi Doo]

Unless Benson returns, I think those top four lines are it to start the season. I like it a lot. Olofsson is the only one I'd like to move but he's in the lineup for a while.

53 Jeff Skinner – 72 Tage Thompson – 9 Zach Benson

12 Jordan Greenway – 37 Casey Mittelstadt – 89 Alex Tuch

77 JJ Peterka – 24 Dylan Cozens – 71 Victor Olofsson

28 Zemgus Girgensons – 19 Peyton Krebs – 21 Kyle Okposo

Biro has to clear waivers so I'm not sure if they don't keep both him and Jost around and go with 7 D.

I'm cool with these lines with the exception of Peterka- Cozens- Olofsson. Let's just hope Cozens and Peterka have made big strides in their defensive game because they struggled defensively with Quinn on their line who is a hell of a lot better than Olofsson defensively.

That being said, I understand what Granato's doing. You essentially have two defensively responsible lines in the Mitts and Krebs lines. Last year, we only have one. Tage and Cozens lines should lean more offensive.

My biggest gripe is putting Power with Joki again. I don't expect it to last long if Joki struggles. The good news is, they should get more offensive zone starts with Sammy and EJ holding down a defensively responsible role and Dahlin-Clifton hopefully tilting the ice in their favor.

 

[Matt Ress]

Unless Benson returns, I think those top four lines are it to start the season. I like it a lot. Olofsson is the only one I'd like to move but he's in the lineup for a while.

53 Jeff Skinner – 72 Tage Thompson – 9 Zach Benson

12 Jordan Greenway – 37 Casey Mittelstadt – 89 Alex Tuch

77 JJ Peterka – 24 Dylan Cozens – 71 Victor Olofsson

28 Zemgus Girgensons – 19 Peyton Krebs – 21 Kyle Okposo

Biro has to clear waivers so I'm not sure if they don't keep both him and Jost around and go with 7 D.

That 2nd line has 3 guys that "can" play defensive but with the chops to move the puck up ice quickly and do some finishing. Puts Greenway in an opportunistic situation as well.

When Benson eventually (maybe not) heads back out West, I like how Biro has played a lot but I don't know how much more of a ceiling is there. Savoie should get some games and it will be nice to see what Rousek can do in a bigger stretch.

 

[Aladyyn]

Call me crazy, but we have the potential to finish first in the division

Looking at TOR/BOS/TBL rosters... I'm not sure you're *that* crazy.

 

[Jim Bob]

Looking at TOR/BOS/TBL rosters... I'm not sure you're *that* crazy.

With Boston losing their top 2 centers and the Vasy injury, the door is opening for teams like Buffalo and Ottawa.

But, I would think that Toronto should be the pick to win the division at this point.

 

[joshjull]

I'm cool with these lines with the exception of Peterka- Cozens- Olofsson. Let's just hope Cozens and Peterka have made big strides in their defensive game because they struggled defensively with Quinn on their line who is a hell of a lot better than Olofsson defensively.

That being said, I understand what Granato's doing. You essentially have two defensively responsible lines in the Mitts and Krebs lines. Last year, we only have one. Tage and Cozens lines should lean more offensive.

My biggest gripe is putting Power with Joki again. I don't expect it to last long if Joki struggles. The good news is, they should get more offensive zone starts with Sammy and EJ holding down a defensively responsible role and Dahlin-Clifton hopefully tilting the ice in their favor.

One thing I'd add to the bolded is the minutes should be much more balanced among the 3 pairs. Instead of the coaches leaning really hard on the top 4.

 

[Aladyyn]

I'm very worried about the bottom pairing's ability to move the puck out of the zone. That's as much of a reason I'd set up differently as my distaste for playing Joker with Power.

 

[Jim Bob]

I'm very worried about the bottom pairing's ability to move the puck out of the zone. That's as much of a reason I'd set up differently as my distaste for playing Joker with Power.

Granato is not going to keep the current pairings together regardless of results.

I think we could see a variety of combinations. Whether it is EJ with Power and Joker with Sammy or Sammy back with Dahlin, Clifton with Power, and Joker with Stillman to give EJ rest, there is going to be variety.

Plus, Sammy and EJ are not that bad making the first pass out of the zone.

 

[joshjull]