Sure. Who's available? And how do you sell someone on joining this dumpster fire in the offseason?
The 2024-2025 Roster Thread
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Our savioir is still sitting out there without a contract.
Fjordy
It's a disaster
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I didn't say trade them for a low price, and I didn't say trade them all. Look for hockey trades, stop coddling them, we haven't accomplished anything that way in years. When have we traded young players and they broke through on other teams? Eichel, Reinhart, that doesn't count, they weren't young anymore and we didn't need to start another rebuild that's been going on for five years.
I bet some of them will bring back good players, we need to get older and more experienced, we have too many young players in the line up.
Trades, like other teams do. Like Florida, Caps, Devils, Canes and other good teams do. We have assets, we have a lot of futures.
No, that's not true, we haven't traded young players, the last time was under Murray, when he just ruined all our futures and traded for the wrong players.
Well I'm all for it, but we need 3-4 good and legit top 6 and top 4 players, our defense sucks and we don't need three LDs PMD. We need to add two top 4 RDs who are good at defense and will play with Dahlin and one of Power/Byram. We don't have a 2C, we don't have another good top 6 wing. When these issues are fixed, maybe then the team will make the playoffs.
Fjordy
It's a disaster
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TommyDangles
Registered User
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What do you think you're getting for guys at their lowest value? You can't just keep saying they suck & at the same time say "trade them for top 6 guys." Makes absolutely no sense. Why would a good team give up one of their core players for a young guy struggling?
Were Mitts, Montour, and Erod old when we traded them? Were Eichel, ROR, and Reinhart old? What do you mean?
Good teams don't trade away their promising young talent. That's a Sabres thing.
Fjordy
It's a disaster
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This is a myth, where do you see a low price? Have you seen any offers? I bet there are GMs who will pay a good price for our players because some GM might like a certain player, plus everyone knows if a player struggles in Buffalo it doesn't mean anything. It could also be a package deal.
You said young players, meaning players like Quinn, Peterka, Cozens, Power for example. Mitts was good, he didn't struggle and we just traded him, although we should have kept him.
We are not a good team because we don't have enough good players and we need to get these good players somehow. You haven't offered any reasonable option and only whine that we shouldn't trade our players, this is silly, good luck with that.
debaser66
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let him sink with his ship of stupidity. he also did nada last season to change course, could have fire Granato in December to send some kind of message, instead we got the sulking Okposo talk.
I think if they do it they would also need to get their D in order. cannot pay Marner, Power and Bryam and still need a 2C.
debaser66
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I was for Mitts and never faltered but I gladly see Cozens gone.
Also you cannot compare the trajectory of these 2 players.
Mitts never had a season like Cozens and faltered, he continually improved after being forced into the lineup in the Boterill era.
Also 2 years ago was Mitts best season, basically his breakout year, its also the same season Cozens had his only sign of life.
Der Jaeger
Generational EBUG
My thoughts about the on ice issues…. one of them was mentioned by Ruff. Center. There are a bunch of other issues, but in terms of what’s structurally happening, I agree with Ruff.
Centers are picked more often than any other position in the top 10-20 picks in the first round for a reason. Modern centers are the single most important skater. They support the puck in all three zones.
My son’s AAA coach said his first task in training camp was finding 2 reliable centers. His #1 criteria was hockey IQ. He coached Bedard at an academy in Vancouver, played pro and coached professionally.
I asked him why hockey IQ. It’s because modern centers, and modern hockey, is all about puck support. Centers are supporting low and along the walls in the D zone. They often are starting the transition after they curl. In the offensive zone, they are supporting the wing’s low, medium, and high depending on the game situation. As the D pinch, the center is most often taking their place.
Think about the Bruins. For 50 minutes a night, every player on the team knew they were backed up by Bergeron, Krejci, or Coyle. It’s a huge advantage for a team.
That’s why I advocated hard to take Lundell and then Beniers. It’s why teams take centers high. It’s why Adams traded for McLeod. It’s why Ruff said what he said about Thompson and Cozens.
I don’t see the hockey IQ on the roster to make the team go. Now and again, you can have a center who doesn’t support quite as well and get away with it. Think Briere and Hecht.
Right now the Sabres could get away with having Thompson if they had a 2nd line center who could shore everything up and a winger who could cover for Thompson. A great line for Thompson would be him with Tuch and Greenway, because Greenway can cover. But there’s a gapping hole at 2C, and McLeod is a 3C with some limitations.
This is why you’ll never see me include Ostlund or Helenius in any trade proposals. I’ve watched both play and they both have the hockey IQ to play center.
The team has big issues right now but structurally center is where I’d start.
Centers are picked more often than any other position in the top 10-20 picks in the first round for a reason. Modern centers are the single most important skater. They support the puck in all three zones.
My son’s AAA coach said his first task in training camp was finding 2 reliable centers. His #1 criteria was hockey IQ. He coached Bedard at an academy in Vancouver, played pro and coached professionally.
I asked him why hockey IQ. It’s because modern centers, and modern hockey, is all about puck support. Centers are supporting low and along the walls in the D zone. They often are starting the transition after they curl. In the offensive zone, they are supporting the wing’s low, medium, and high depending on the game situation. As the D pinch, the center is most often taking their place.
Think about the Bruins. For 50 minutes a night, every player on the team knew they were backed up by Bergeron, Krejci, or Coyle. It’s a huge advantage for a team.
That’s why I advocated hard to take Lundell and then Beniers. It’s why teams take centers high. It’s why Adams traded for McLeod. It’s why Ruff said what he said about Thompson and Cozens.
I don’t see the hockey IQ on the roster to make the team go. Now and again, you can have a center who doesn’t support quite as well and get away with it. Think Briere and Hecht.
Right now the Sabres could get away with having Thompson if they had a 2nd line center who could shore everything up and a winger who could cover for Thompson. A great line for Thompson would be him with Tuch and Greenway, because Greenway can cover. But there’s a gapping hole at 2C, and McLeod is a 3C with some limitations.
This is why you’ll never see me include Ostlund or Helenius in any trade proposals. I’ve watched both play and they both have the hockey IQ to play center.
The team has big issues right now but structurally center is where I’d start.
Fjordy
It's a disaster
- Jun 20, 2018
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It's not that I disagree, but our defense is also very bad, it needs to be redone.
But drafting a center sometimes can come back to bite you hard:
- Strome over Marner or Rantanen
- PLD over M. Tkachuk
- Kotkaniemi over B. Tkachuk/Hughes Hayton over Hughes
- Patrick over Makar or Heiskanen
- 2019 draft more questionable top 10 picks while guys like Boldy and Caulfield thrive
- 2020 draft, well, I want Rossi, you were for Lundell. Although Byfield hasn't lived up to his draft status yet. On the other hand, there are guys like Raymond and Jarvis.
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I'm with you. I just thought it was a little odd that a sarcastic tweet about the value of Cozens and referencing Marner, started an earnest discussion about us trading for or signing Marner (and also that the tweet itself made no sense). I would love to have Marner.
Fjordy
It's a disaster
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Call Preds about Novak or Parssinen. Novak has 88 points in 122 games the last two seasons, he's a center, he could be a good buy for change of scenery. I read about Parssinen, he's a good player, but he's hardly got a chance, mostly somewhere on the fourth line. While drunk Barry Trotz continues to weird, this is a good chance to get some interesting players at a low cost.
Why I hated the Mitts trade so much. Not because he's a defensive stalwart, but just battles enough to win pucks and is so creative in the O-zone, keeping possession and not allowing easy transition the other way. That, and the fact that Thompson and Cozens just don't have the experience at C from where they grew up playing, or just flat out intelligence enough to be a safety net for his team. So yeah...until Ostlund or Helenius can somehow save the day, this team isn't going anywhere.
Fjordy
It's a disaster
- Jun 20, 2018
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Why should we wait until Helenius and Ostlund are ready? Go and get a center in different ways.
Fjordy
It's a disaster
- Jun 20, 2018
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I don't understand what fans have to do with it, but okay, forget it.
Fans will have to suffer, waiting for Adams or some new GM to do anything effective for this team.
Fjordy
It's a disaster
- Jun 20, 2018
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Well, we are suffering anyway, so there is nothing new. But I still have a small hope for a new competent GM.
Dreakon13
Registered User
This group is just broken at this point. One or two adds/upgrades doesn't fix the fact as a whole they fundamentally can't play hockey at this level. Even if you take confidence out of the equation... which I think will continually drag these players down further the longer this goes on... they're gonna lose more games than win because they aren't fast, smart or strong enough as a team to force errors. They just hope for bounces or wait for the other team to make their own mistakes.
No one or two players they bring in is going to be able to single handedly make this an NHL team. There will still be 16 other skaters on the ice that don't know what they're doing.
No one or two players they bring in is going to be able to single handedly make this an NHL team. There will still be 16 other skaters on the ice that don't know what they're doing.
Fjordy
It's a disaster
- Jun 20, 2018
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- 10,162
Dreakon13
Registered User
There is no solution. The only way this ends is if the NHL awards us a courtesy expansion draft where we can drop this entire group, and build again with players who have won an NHL game before through something besides dumb luck. I can't think of another way, even if Adams was fired tomorrow and replaced with the best GM out there. There isn't a single redeemable piece here anymore.
Fjordy
It's a disaster
- Jun 20, 2018
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Dreakon13
Registered User
It's not really an approach since it would never happen lol.
I'm not really sure who on this team is worth keeping. Probably Dahlin and Thompson, though they're both part of the problem, perhaps to some extent due to injury. Keep Byram and Power, but only if you plan on some really defensively sound partners for these guys. Keep Malenstyn and Greenway.
Beyond that you're just straight up buying a whole new hockey team.
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