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The 2024-2025 Roster Thread

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jcbeze said:
He's always doing that....kid sounds entitled to me and I don't like it one bit
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There's a different mental game for goalies, they are taught to focus on the next save and not what they let in. Talking about Roch in past tense kinda tracks. But there is a let-down risk that he'll need to manage. If he doesn't come in and establish himself as the clear #1, or there is no clear number one, they are going to focus on getting UPL going, and may send him down to get him going as well.

Overall, I liked his interview. He's young, and he definitely has developed a media persona, so you don't really hear any new ideas from him or get insights. But he remains positive, and even is deferential to his goalie peers when the interviewer frames the goalie situation in Buffalo as a two-horse race.
 
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Djp said:
How I see it...

In 2025

RFAs are Quinn, peterka, mcleod, byrum, levi
UFA Greeneay, NAK, Zucker

Assume 92M cap in 25/26. Sabres have about 30M in space. Targetting a 13f/7d/2g roster

Keep Greenway or a similar vet you sign for 3M for 3 yrs

NAK and Zucker replaced by ELCs=1M over the next 2 yrs

McLeod. Quinn, peterka signed would be 13F.

For D/G
Levi signed for 1.75 for 2 yrs replacing Reimer
Bryson/ vet signed for 1M as 7D for next 2 yrs
RyJo replaces Joker at 1.5M for 2 yrs in a top 6D


25/26 buffalo has about 21.5M in space for Peterka, Quinn, McLeod, and Byrum

If you sign Byrum for 6M per for 6 yrs
Quinn and Peterka for 2yr bridge at 5M
McLeod signs for 3.5M for say 4 yrs.

They are left with about $2M in space

The next summer in 26/27..
Clifton leaves and repkace by ELC RD at 1M
Tuch resigned for 6M for 4 yrs
Benson resigns for 5M ( same as quinn and jpp)
Krebs is replaced with a 1M elc/vet
Malenstyn is resigned for 2M
Lafferty is replaced by ELC/vet at 1M

The net effect is -2.33+1.25+4.1-.0.45+0.65-1=-3.78+5=1.25M

The cap increase covers mainly the higher cap penalty for skinner buy out.

If the cap is 95M buffalo will have about $1M in space

things will be very tight in 25/26 and 26/27 ,unless s big trade is made where buffalo moves out more as li ary than what comes in. Maybe you trade Peterka or benson for ELCs/ picks/ futures or trade Byrum or Power for a RD making less of about 4-5M

If you sign JPP/Quinn to something higher snf longer you will be handcuffing the team team later like benson being exposed to a $4M OS that buffalo cant match
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That math is mostly fungible and you get find space. Greenway signing seems excessive with Malenstyn here.

Moving on from Krebs gets you another 1.4M next year as well.

This is a pretty academic exercise because, as @Irie has pointed out...the evaluation is going to change next year.
 
Irie said:
FIFY

Belief 1 and 2 are both realities in my world.

80% of the GMs in the league make poor decisions when it comes to UFA signings. It isn't that 80% of GMs are bad GMs, but more likely most GMs are just sorta average, and it takes a pretty exceptional GM to regularly play the UFA market and consistently come out ahead. Adams is not an exceptional GM.
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I understand this argument when it comes to the Bills. McDermott might not be good enough to get us over the hump of KC and win a Superbowl. But he's almost certainly better than whoever the next guy is that Terry would hire.

But when it comes to Adams I can't really imagine doing meaningfully worse. We've already missed the playoffs every year of his tenure. The more shots Terry takes at hiring a GM the higher the likelihood he'll eventually luck into a good hire.
 
Irie said:
FIFY

Belief 1 and 2 are both realities in my world.

80% of the GMs in the league make poor decisions when it comes to UFA signings. It isn't that 80% of GMs are bad GMs, but more likely most GMs are just sorta average, and it takes a pretty exceptional GM to regularly play the UFA market and consistently come out ahead. Adams is not an exceptional GM.
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While you are correct Kevyn has been wise to mostly avoid the UFA market. But the reasoning is that the team has been so bad in such an undesirable market, the volume of overpay required on the top end players would be debilitating.

That doesn't make him a good GM though.

That is like saying "not playing the lottery makes you smart with money"

Not playing the lottery is smart, but it doesn't make you qualified to manage a large stock portfolio.
 
SabresFan26 said:
Lines for tonight’s preseason game.

Peterka-Thompson-Tuch
Benson-Cozens-Quinn
Rousek-Krebs-Kulich
Malenstyn-Lafferty-Aube-Kubel

Byram-Power
Samuelsson-Jokiharju
Bryson-Clifton

UPL
Reimer
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So no Zucker, McLeod, or Greenway. That 3rd line is Ruff saying "show me what you can do, boys". Not sure that's the best way to see what Kulich can offer.
 
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TehDoak said:
While you are correct Kevyn has been wise to mostly avoid the UFA market. But the reasoning is that the team has been so bad in such an undesirable market, the volume of overpay required on the top end players would be debilitating.

That doesn't make him a good GM though.

That is like saying "not playing the lottery makes you smart with money"

Not playing the lottery is smart, but it doesn't make you qualified to manage a large stock portfolio.
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To extend your analogy nor does winning the lottery make you qualified to manage a large stock portfolio.
 
TehDoak said:
You are missing the point.

The only way we have cap problems with just the roster we have is if we go out of the way to give every player who sniffs success a long term contract....which Kevyn has done multiple times. The only one he didn't do it with was Mittelstadt.
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False. You cant low ball ELCd. Thry will sign 2nd round comp OS.
TehDoak said:
Good management of what we have gives us plenty of room to add long term. And given the volume of Rochester players we have, its OK to go with cheaper vets assuming that 1 or 2 players will bubble up next year. (this is also assuming the plan is to move forward with this core...which another playoff miss might change)
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What high salaries is buffalo trading th o afford this?
TehDoak said:
Adams has repeatedly claimed he's not spending to the cap because he doesn't have long term spending space....even though 5 minutes of crunching the numbers shows is rather easy for him to add a large contract if they wanted to.
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Show your work on this space you think exists and do we call it Enronenomics?

As I said if they are going to sign or acquire a $6M+ player they will need to trade onr of Quinn, peterka, LD, Tuch, thompson, cozens

In a couple years like draft of 2026 or 2027 I do see them doing some moves like this because they will need cap relief and decide who to keep and who to trade.
TehDoak said:
You are correct in saying my assumptions could change as the year goes on, but for planning out long term these are perfectly reasonable. But in the end, if players out play their projections, that is a good problem to have and you adjust accordingly. But its not a good reason to leave resources on the table when you are trying to a cycle of mediocrity that is approaching driving age.
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If players play much better you will nerd to pay them or trade them before they are exposed to Offer sheets? Expect to see what the blues did to be more common.

TehDoak said:
That math is mostly fungible and you get find space. Greenway signing seems excessive with Malenstyn here.

Moving on from Krebs gets you another 1.4M next year as well.
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As I said Krebs gets replaced with an ELC but this doesnt save much cap. You need to have 13F in a roster construct

As I said Greenway or a veteran for $3.5M

Greenway I know can play on multiple lines. I dont know if Malenstyn is more than a bottom line player
TehDoak said:
This is a pretty academic exercise because, as @Irie has pointed out...the evaluation is going to change next year.
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Sure things could change next summer and they make some roster moves bis trades.

As it stands now they do not have the cap space to be in the high end UFA market

Usually the ROI on UFAs of 6+ yrs just isnt there. What UFA has proven their worth over their full contract they signed at 27+ yrs old and for 6+ yrs in length and they changed teams? I cant think of one. No JT has not earned his salary he is overpaid.
 
truthbluth said:
He's not cracking the top 6. So he better be able to handle a bottom six role if he wants to make the team out of camp.
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And I doubt he'll usurp Greenway, Zucker or McLeod out of camp. We've said it a bunch but it will probably be an injury that gets him NHL time and then up to him if he gets more.

Side note, I do think Kulich gets a game or two overseas.
 
Matt Ress said:
And I doubt he'll usurp Greenway, Zucker or McLeod out of camp. We've said it a bunch but it will probably be an injury that gets him NHL time and then up to him if he gets more.

Side note, I do think Kulich gets a game or two overseas.
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I feel like it would be kinda shitty if we DIDN'T give him at least one. How many chances will he get to play an NHL game in his home country?
 
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For those worried about the scoring void, here’s a picture of what it might look like to 300 goals this season, which usually puts you in top-3 in scoring. Doesn’t look too unrealistic to me.

Tage - 40
Tuch - 23
Peterka - 34
Quinn - 30
Benson - 17
Cozens - 25
Zucker - 20
McLeod - 14
Greenway - 9
NAK - 2
Malenstyn - 6
Lafferty - 14
Krebs - 9
Kulich - 9
Dahlin - 23
Joki - 4
Power - 10
Byram - 9
Clifford - 4

Is my math right? I should’ve used a spreadsheet haha.
 
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Doug Prishpreed said:
For those worried about the scoring void, here’s a picture of what it might look like to 300 goals this season, which usually puts you in top-3 in scoring. Doesn’t look too unrealistic to me.

Tage - 40
Tuch - 23
Peterka - 34
Quinn - 30
Benson - 17
Cozens - 25
Zucker - 20
McLeod - 14
Greenway - 9
NAK - 2
Malenstyn - 6
Lafferty - 14
Krebs - 9
Kulich - 9
Dahlin - 23
Joki - 4
Power - 10
Byram - 9
Clifford - 4

Is my math right? I should’ve used a spreadsheet haha.
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Not a knock on capability but I think we will see the inverse approach to Granato. With so much emphasis on defending our own zone to start, I think we will see our goal scoring production down, as well as the amount of goals we give up will be lower this season as well.

We need special teams to be very good for this to happen.
 
joshjull said:
Thats not quite true. They had a pretty good one at the start of last season with Benson/Mitts/Greenway. It would have been fun to see how they would have developed throughout the season. But unfortunately the top 6 was playing like complete ass. So they were broken up and spread among the top 3 lines to get those guys going.

EDIT: You touched on that line in your post. I’m lamenting what could have been.
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They were good, absolutely the only reason we weren't the worst team in hockey with how poorly Cozens, Tuch and Thompson started the season.

It's mainly a depth issue on this roster both last year and this. Jack Quinn being out had a cataclysmic impact on their season imo. That's a major fail by Kevyn Adams. Replacing him with Olofsson cratered one of the top 6 lines and didn't allow for a misstep from another. When our top line wasn't able to match the prior year's production, the season was basically toast.

That's a bit of what worries me about this season. We have very little depth of top 6-capable forwards. If anyone gets hurt, we're basically forced to have a prospect in our top 6 or someone who is nowhere near suited for it. When our top 6 is healthy, I think they have potential to be very good. I truly think Benson in the top 6 is a better option for winning than Skinner. The more I think about it, he might be best suited on the top line being the playmaker/brains for Thompson and Tuch. But we also know Peterka works there, so should be in good shape either way.
 
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Mattilaus said:
I feel like it would be kinda shitty if we DIDN'T give him at least one. How many chances will he get to play an NHL game in his home country?
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Matt Ress said:
It would be tragic. No way they do that to the kid
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It wouldn’t be shitty or tragic if they didn’t get to play in a NHL regular season game. I’d be surprised if they did barring injury or beating out others during camp to be in the starting 12. I’m sure they’ll both play in the exhibition game.
 
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GrierIsGod123 said:
That's a bit of what worries me about this season. We have very little depth of top 6-capable forwards. If anyone gets hurt, we're basically forced to have a prospect in our top 6 or someone who is nowhere near suited for it.
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Granted I don't want to do the work, but how many teams actually have top 6 depth? I've seen this discussion but it comes off like kind of a fantasy.

Zucker or McLeod could handle a few weeks on a scoring line. Greenway, while not ideal, can play the role of big body possession guy with some skill. Even Lafferty could fill a role.

Then add in two of the league's better NHL-ready forward prospects in Kulich and Rosen. We're actually pretty deep imo.

Does "Top 6 depth" just mean a 3rd line that is as good as some other teams' 2nd lines? Having 8+ good skilled forwards is just called being a very good team maybe...
 
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