The 2024-2025 Roster Thread

[Fjordy]

Also I know people were giving Chad a hard time I the gdt for talking about XG, but I think UPL is escaping some real criticism because he's had some very good games.

When we're leading we're middle of the pack in shot attempts against, xg against, high danger attempts against, but bottom 5 in save%.

It's not perfect but our defense and forwards who don't want to play defense looks like a joke, look at that fifth goal from AVS, what were Tuch and Malenstyn doing when Drouin was shooting at UPL?

 

[Beerz]

Vancouver isn’t even scouting us, Adams clearly isn’t pursuing him. I agree that it should be priority #1 but it’s not happening.

Could be the salary, could be the injuries, could be the player, could be the trade cost, but something is scaring Adams off.

Just because they aren't scouting us doesn't mean he isn't being pursued ..

It could be that they haven't worked out a frame work of a deal yet.. once they agree on players they will know who to scout.

 

[Tijuana Donkey Show]

Byram agent said he wants to be 1D?

At the risk of beating a dead horse, this was always the downside of the Byram trade. Even if he reaches the top of his potential as a prospect, there’s no room for him on the Sabres come negotiation time.

Not without moving Power. But then you’re in the same spot. Nobody is picking up that Power contract right now, not without retaining some of it. So lump that onto the Byram cost.

And if Power magically turns it on and hits his projected ceiling then we aren’t extending Byram.

Byram was always a redundancy.

 

[Faceboner]

So where do we think Zucker is going at the deadline and how much will he fetch? At this rate it’s got to be at least a 2nd. Do we think he could get a late first if he keeps up the scoring pace?

More than that not to many wingers who are having better seasons will be available he would be worth a 2nd and a decent prospect or just a 1st would rather keep him because it looks like he regained form as a mid six winger on pace for 50+ points and 20 goals is pro B ably worth more than hall is at this point even with 50% retention would rather keep him as he is a producing vet but if we are out by deadline I would flip him for a first and use that as part of a trade for a bigger acquisition that can play right away

 

[jc17]

Just because they aren't scouting us doesn't mean he isn't being pursued ..

It could be that they haven't worked out a frame work of a deal yet.. once they agree on players they will know who to scout.

how many games to these guys try to see in- person?

Always seems a bit archaic to me that a handful of in- person viewings could sway things over multiple seasons worth of stats or video scouting tbh

 

[Dirty Dog]

I think the last thing any of us should want is Adams trying to pull off a huge trade. He’s not a good GM. I’d rather wait until the next front office is here before any major trades take place

 

[Beerz]

how many games to these guys try to see in- person?

Always seems a bit archaic to me that a handful of in- person viewings could sway things over multiple seasons worth of stats or video scouting tbh

Does seem odd.. you would think you would get better information thru video scouting tbh

I think the last thing any of us should want is Adams trying to pull off a huge trade. He’s not a good GM. I’d rather wait until the next front office is here before any major trades take place

I mean you're not wrong.. but .. means you could miss out.

 

[DapperCam]

At the risk of beating a dead horse, this was always the downside of the Byram trade. Even if he reaches the top of his potential as a prospect, there’s no room for him on the Sabres come negotiation time.

Not without moving Power. But then you’re in the same spot. Nobody is picking up that Power contract right now, not without retaining some of it. So lump that onto the Byram cost.

And if Power magically turns it on and hits his projected ceiling then we aren’t extending Byram.

Byram was always a redundancy.

I disagree, Power has a lot of value even with the contract. Actually his contract is pretty good for his production. He’s 22nd in the league in points for a defenseman and 4th in even strength points. He was a first overall pick not that long ago, which teams will still value. Also the cap is going up and he’s locked in for a while.

To be honest if he could improve his play in front of the net he would indisputably be a good first pair defenseman. It’s the only major hole in his game (other than his shot I guess), and I bet a team would believe they can coach him up on that aspect considering the typical development curve for dmen.

 

[Faceboner]

At the risk of beating a dead horse, this was always the downside of the Byram trade. Even if he reaches the top of his potential as a prospect, there’s no room for him on the Sabres come negotiation time.

Not without moving Power. But then you’re in the same spot. Nobody is picking up that Power contract right now, not without retaining some of it. So lump that onto the Byram cost.

And if Power magically turns it on and hits his projected ceiling then we aren’t extending Byram.

Byram was always a redundancy.

I think his agent is talking from a point of money as being viewed as a 1d gets him a bigger paycheck than being viewed as the Sabres 3d which he isn't as he and power are both essentially getting top pair minutes and he is an RFA so we hold the cards in regards to Byram as the options for where he would get traded to already have a 1d in place maybe besides Utah but I'm for paying him money as a top pair guy and finding an Owen power compliment on the cheap and filling out the bottom 3d with cheap fits so I'm looking to move Sammy and Clifton which is roughly about 7.5-8 Million in cap space towards byram's contract I fully believe a team could win with 3 elite d men and don't see him as a redundant piece rather a solution for the top pair for years to come with power Manning the 2nd pair also getting top pairing minutes all 3 guys could end up averaging 22+ minutes a night easily in the future our mid six is too inexperienced and our d-core is alright we just need to flip Joker Sammy and Clifton for better/cheaper fits Jokiharju is just not needed on this team although still a quality player, Sammy is hurt too often but is still young and on a questionable contract I would look to flip him to a rebuilding team who needs defense

 

[truthbluth]

I think the last thing any of us should want is Adams trying to pull off a huge trade. He’s not a good GM. I’d rather wait until the next front office is here before any major trades take place

Yeah, this is right, but it belies the point that he needs to be gone yesterday so that a new GM can take advantage of the time they have through the rest of the season.

 

[Fjordy]

I think the last thing any of us should want is Adams trying to pull off a huge trade. He’s not a good GM. I’d rather wait until the next front office is here before any major trades take place

Then we could be waiting a long time, it's not that Adams has made terrible trades, he's just made very few of them. I doubt he's going to overpay much anywhere, he's more likely to walk away from a deal.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

I mean those aren't the only two options. Age doesn't always equal maturity and resilience. I'd still take EP, but not because we'd just raise the average age

You missed my point - and sound like Adams when he said (in bad faith) that he can just sign Anderson if age is the key to winning.

having an ultra young team prevents you from having a chance at having adequate resilience and maturity. I didn’t say that having older players automatically makes your team good. It just gives you a chance.

Just like spending to the cap doesn’t guarantee success. It just gives you a chance, whereas continually spending below the cap will ensure that you will never be a contender.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

Also I know people were giving Chad a hard time I the gdt for talking about XG, but I think UPL is escaping some real criticism because he's had some very good games.

When we're leading we're middle of the pack in shot attempts against, xg against, high danger attempts against, but bottom 5 in save%.

UPL has had some bad games and bad moments, but he’s 100% not the reason the team is faltering so badly. I feel like overall he’s an average goalie, which is nice to finally have.

Btw those stats don’t matter if you watch the game and see what actually happens when they’re up. Someone always makes an insanely dumb mistake, which topples the whole house of cards. It’s usually only one or two mistakes, and don’t show up in the stats you cited, but they’re huge.

 

[jc17]

You missed my point - and sound like Adams when he said (in bad faith) that he can just sign Anderson if age is the key to winning.

having an ultra young team prevents you from having a chance at having adequate resilience and maturity. I didn’t say that having older players automatically makes your team good. It just gives you a chance.

Just like spending to the cap doesn’t guarantee success. It just gives you a chance, whereas continually spending below the cap will ensure that you will never be a contender.

EP is like 26, which is older than most of the team. If you swap him with a 23 yr old, you just got more mature and resilient.

The other option is just to sit here for two more years and wait for them to mature.

Maybe it wasn't your intention, but the in the part I've quoted again you say that Petterson makes us more resilient purely based on his age.

Its not just about getting older, its still about getting the right guys, which Pettersson very well might be. It's just a bit ironic to me that given the discussion surrounding the player, that he would be helping our resiliency issue.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

Maybe it wasn't your intention, but the in the part I've quoted again you say that Petterson makes us more resilient purely based on his age.

Its not just about getting older, its still about getting the right guys, which Pettersson very well might be. It's just a bit ironic to me that given the discussion surrounding the player, that he would be helping our resiliency issue.

I was being snarky when I said “you just got more resilient” by increasing age of one player by three years, just kind of saying it’s a step forward instead of backward in that regard.

Separate from the age part, I feel like the “mentally weak”narrative around EP is likely completely inaccurate - it’s only really a thing in social media. Miller has done this to players his whole career, and seems to have bullied EP for years, based on what Richardson said. Richardson played with both and seemed to say it was more of a Miller issue than a Patterson one.

 

[ValJamesDuex]

Dreger on Sabres Live. Pete talks continue to happen, but contract makes it tough for team to take on and give up major assets.

 

[sabremike]

UPL has had some bad games and bad moments, but he’s 100% not the reason the team is faltering so badly. I feel like overall he’s an average goalie, which is nice to finally have.

Btw those stats don’t matter if you watch the game and see what actually happens when they’re up. Someone always makes an insanely dumb mistake, which topples the whole house of cards. It’s usually only one or two mistakes, and don’t show up in the stats you cited, but they’re huge.

The fact that he starts almost every game is eventually going to wear him down and result in stinkers like last night.

 

[Fjordy]

Dreger on Sabres Live. Pete talks continue to happen, but contract makes it tough for team to take on and give up major assets.

Eichel had an even tougher problem and a nearly identical contract, but teams found a way. It's not like we don't have some potentially problematic contracts on the roster.

 

[toddkaz]

Eichel had an even tougher problem and a nearly identical contract, but teams found a way. It's not like we don't have some potentially problematic contracts on the roster.

Exactly, also teams like NYR and Boston always find suckers to take on bloated contracts. It's annoying.

 

[Der Jaeger]

Vancouver isn’t even scouting us, Adams clearly isn’t pursuing him. I agree that it should be priority #1 but it’s not happening.

Could be the salary, could be the injuries, could be the player, could be the trade cost, but something is scaring Adams off.

Or they could already have solid files on players…..

I'm still very interested, but I wonder if the desire from sabres fans cools at all. Lot of people back to attributing this team's issues to mental fortitude, a topic on which EP rightfully or wrongly has question marks

I posted about this before. I think Pettersson’s issues are overblown and a cultural thing.

Dreger on Sabres Live. Pete talks continue to happen, but contract makes it tough for team to take on and give up major assets.

The reported deal, Cozens and Byram, have the same cap hit. So I don’t get it.

 

[Ace]

Dreger on Sabres Live. Pete talks continue to happen, but contract makes it tough for team to take on and give up major assets.

Tough for most teams. This one is almost literally built to be the team to make that move.

 

[Der Jaeger]

Tough for most teams. This one is almost literally built to be the team to make that move.

Cap space
Players Vancouver reportedly wants
Legit top line center coming back
Money equals out

Give me the team for the rest of the day. It’ll be done before bedtime.

 

[Fjordy]

I posted about this before. I think Pettersson’s issues are overblown and a cultural thing.

There's some funny situation there. Pettersson had an injury, plus Miller is apparently pressing. His production dropped last season, although it's not every season that players score 100+ points. This season, when Miller took a vacation, Pettersson scored 15 points in 9 games, meaning Pettersson was hot without Miller in the locker room. Of course, it could be a coincidence, but I don't believe in such coincidences. Take him away from Miller and I don't think there will be any problems with him. The whole team seems to be for Pettersson (I read this on the Canucks board), but for some reason the management and coach are for Miller and Alvin for some reason continues to press Pettersson, supposedly "an injury cannot be an excuse." Boudreau said that Pettersson is a great player, but this pressure from management only makes him worse, he needs a carrot and then there will be no problems with him.

So now is the perfect time to get Pettersson. We have the assets, the cap works, he's a great two-way 1C, there's no trade protection, and we already have a good friend of his in a leading role. Just go for it.

 

[thewookie1]

There's some funny situation there. Pettersson had an injury, plus Miller is apparently pressing. His production dropped last season, although it's not every season that players score 100+ points. This season, when Miller took a vacation, Pettersson scored 15 points in 9 games, meaning Pettersson was hot without Miller in the locker room. Of course, it could be a coincidence, but I don't believe in such coincidences. Take him away from Miller and I don't think there will be any problems with him. The whole team seems to be for Pettersson (I read this on the Canucks board), but for some reason the management and coach are for Miller and Alvin for some reason continues to press Pettersson, supposedly "an injury cannot be an excuse." Boudreau said that Pettersson is a great player, but this pressure from management only makes him worse, he needs a carrot and then there will be no problems with him.

So now is the perfect time to get Pettersson. We have the assets, the cap works, he's a great two-way 1C, there's no trade protection, and we already have a good friend of his in a leading role. Just go for it.

That is an interesting point; reminds me a bit of how Cal O'Reilly bullied Alex Nylander into a hole while in Rochester

 

[Fjordy]

That is an interesting point; reminds me a bit of how Cal O'Reilly bullied Alex Nylander into a hole while in Rochester

Well, we don't know what's really going on there, there's obviously a problem, but when one player is missing, the other one plays brighter and flourishes, especially since the team seems to be on Pettersson's side. But Tocchet seems to really like Miller. It seems strange. In any case, I have no doubt that Pettersson is a very good player, and we don't have anyone like Miller who will somehow interfere with him.