The 2024-2025 Roster Thread

How do you know a better center than Norris (or deal) would of been available in the summer or they have the ammo to get one ? Maybe Norris was the guy they wanted all along after Petterson came off the market.

I'm disappointed we have not seen much of Norris but you have to give it longer than 2 weeks. If it continues into next year then there's trouble.

90% of posters here wanted a hockey trade if possible at the deadline and Cozens gone. You can't have it both ways no matter your agenda.

Good counter argument though and like left for common courtesy!
Norris has a history that can’t be ignored. It is why Ott wanted to dump him. They couldn’t count on him being available if they made the playoffs. We didn’t need a c for c trade. We could have shopped Cozens when other teams were also contemplating make up changes. It was a scapegoat move by an someone who was panicking. I don’t care what posters want. I want a competitive team run by competent people. We don’t have that.
 
Norris has a history that can’t be ignored. It is why Ott wanted to dump him. They couldn’t count on him being available if they made the playoffs. We didn’t need a c for c trade. We could have shopped Cozens when other teams were also contemplating make up changes. It was a scapegoat move by an someone who was panicking. I don’t care what posters want. I want a competitive team run by competent people. We don’t have that.
The Sabres doctor said there was no worry about the shoulders.

This injury is another issue. All players get hurt, it's not twiddly wings. Lets hope he can get and stay healthy. You have to give it more than 2 weeks

Who would be another realistic center you would of targeted in the summer ?
 
The Sabres doctor said there was no worry about the shoulders.

This injury is another issue. All players get hurt, it's not twiddly wings. Lets hope he can get and stay healthy. You have to give it more than 2 weeks

Who would be another realistic center you would of targeted in the summer ?
Dudes made of glass. Never played a full season. You think next year will be different?
 
The Sabres doctor said there was no worry about the shoulders.

This injury is another issue. All players get hurt, it's not twiddly wings. Lets hope he can get and stay healthy. You have to give it more than 2 weeks

Who would be another realistic center you would of targeted in the summer ?
Why are you limiting the discussion to center? Cozens was obviously sought after. We need D and veterans who play the right way. They may have been able to address those needs when more teams were willing to move roster pieces. It was not a necessity to move any contract players at the tdl. It was a pr move.
 
Why are you limiting the discussion to center? Cozens was obviously sought after. We need D and veterans who play the right way. They may have been able to address those needs when more teams were willing to move roster pieces. It was not a necessity to move any contract players at the tdl. It was a pr move.
Did you watch the F'in video ? Adams says exactly "its hard for me to trade a center without getting one back". Are you living in reality or fantasy land ?

Who were your other player targets this summer ?
 
Hoping, if not you traded a lunkhead for him and move on to the next GM.
I get it. But I have run out of charity when it comes to giving the benefit of the doubt. They have not earned it. And I hope Norris heals up and is productive. But he has not been able to stay healthy for whatever reason. Not a gamble I would have taken when I didn’t need to.
 
Really hope Adams uses these flashes of young players looking good as an advantage to add trade value to their names. The only two young players I'm glued to are Benson and Kulich. The rest of them should all be on the block to add talent to the roster and rebuild the center spine. Rossi would be an excellent addition.

Rossi, Norris, Kulich/McLeod down the middle with Kulich/McLeod and Tage in the reserves to fill-in when Norris has his typical injury riddled season looks enticing. I like the idea of Kulich playing third line minutes as a C surrounded by legit top-9 wingers. It'd be an interesting debate between him and McLeod holding down the 3C spot.
 
Really hope Adams uses these flashes of young players looking good as an advantage to add trade value to their names. The only two young players I'm glued to are Benson and Kulich. The rest of them should all be on the block to add talent to the roster and rebuild the center spine. Rossi would be an excellent addition.

Rossi, Norris, Kulich/McLeod down the middle with Kulich/McLeod and Tage in the reserves to fill-in when Norris has his typical injury riddled season looks enticing. I like the idea of Kulich playing third line minutes as a C surrounded by legit top-9 wingers. It'd be an interesting debate between him and McLeod holding down the 3C spot.
Its only 2 games but I'm sold on kulich, Benson, tage on a line.

Peterka, Norris, tuch could then be our second line. that's 2/3 of our former first line which seems like it should be capable as a second as long as Norris is halfway decent
 
I’ve done a bit of a 180 on Thompson since he moved to wing. We still get the weird hockey decisions at times, but he’s using his natural size and power a lot more now.

One play illustrates my point. In the Sens game, he had a play along the offensive goal line where he won the puck in the corner and had a free lane to the net. In the past, he would do something head scratching. But on this play, he went straight to the front of the net and powered in for a scoring chance.

No one is stopping him at his size and I think he’s using that to his advantage more and more every game. I still like the fancy play every now and again as a change up but his power game has taken a huge turn upwards.

He’s also the first guy to jump in the scrum any time he’s out there.

If the Sabres get this type of play out of Kulich and McLeod next season, and Norris is healthy, I think there’s a lot of hope.
 
Its only 2 games but I'm sold on kulich, Benson, tage on a line.

Peterka, Norris, tuch could then be our second line. that's 2/3 of our former first line which seems like it should be capable as a second as long as Norris is halfway decent
Having 2/3 of the top line being that young is worrisome to me. A huge part of the issues the past 4 seasons has been relying on guys that are young and inexperienced.

Counting on 2/3 of the top line being guys in their 20 & 21 year old seasons...
 
Another way to look at it would be "does suter provide 2M additional value than Lafferty?".

I think there's a chance that having a 4th competent center could have some snowball effect. For example, my opinions of jack quinn are well documented, but his numbers away from cozens this year aren't terrible. Imagine if having a reliable center brought out the better part of Quinn's game, it would be massive swing.

If we drop Lafferty and add suter, that brings our forwards to about 56% of the current cap (even factoring in an 8M Peterka extension). 56% is league average.


(Side note: That's part of of the issue I have with Norris I guess. Before we paid him 8 we had a discounted C spine, and could overpay a 4th line guy.)
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The fancy stats say one of them is a bottom 10 forward in the entire league. The other is top 50.

Suter would be like adding another McLeod in terms of impact.
 
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Having 2/3 of the top line being that young is worrisome to me. A huge part of the issues the past 4 seasons has been relying on guys that are young and inexperienced.

Counting on 2/3 of the top line being guys in their 20 & 21 year old seasons...
I understand the hesitancy to youth but I think it's a case by case thing.

Benson has played well for 2 seasons. Some guys have the ability at 21 and others don't. Because Quinn, cozens and Krebs couldn't figure it out that early doesn't mean Benson hasn't. We're watching him play well pretty consistently, which I don't think ever happened with the other guys even when they produced points.

The sample size on kulich is smaller, and I feel less certain there but I feel like tage-benson could be pretty reliable and I don't think age is a huge hangup for the 3rd player because Benson doesn't play like he's inexperienced
 
My great worry with the Norris situation is that they consider him a top 6 center. While he has that ability (based on other posters opinions) I don't think you can build your top 6 around fragile players.

I'd feel much better with:
Rossi
Norris
Mcleod
Krebs

With Kulich and Thompson being able to step into Norris spot when he's unavailable.

Peterka for Rossi would really be an ideal trade.
 
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The fancy stats say one of them is a bottom 10 forward in the entire league. The other is top 50.

Suter would be like adding another McLeod in terms of impact.

Some fancy stats might say Suter is a top 50 player but I'd be suspect of them. He's a slightly positive 5v5 player who's on a heater scoring almost 80% more goals above his shooting talent.

But yes I'd him on the Sabres over Lafferty (or Krebs, or Mal) 7 days a week and twice on sunday.
 
I understand the hesitancy to youth but I think it's a case by case thing.

Benson has played well for 2 seasons. Some guys have the ability at 21 and others don't. Because Quinn, cozens and Krebs couldn't figure it out that early doesn't mean Benson hasn't. We're watching him play well pretty consistently, which I don't think ever happened with the other guys even when they produced points.

The sample size on kulich is smaller, and I feel less certain there but I feel like tage-benson could be pretty reliable and I don't think age is a huge hangup for the 3rd player because Benson doesn't play like he's inexperienced
Has Benson been consistent?

He started out the season really slow going pointless in his first 8 games.

And he's been producing at less than 0.5 pts/g.

Benson plays with the spunk like you like from a bottom 6 forward. But, I don't know if he is the type of player yet that you can count on for first line production.

This would be another example of playing young guys too high in the lineup because you don't have quality veterans, especially legit first line talents, to allow them to play the role that is in line with where they are development-wise.
 
Has Benson been consistent?

He started out the season really slow going pointless in his first 8 games.

And he's been producing at less than 0.5 pts/g.

Benson plays with the spunk like you like from a bottom 6 forward. But, I don't know if he is the type of player yet that you can count on for first line production.

This would be another example of playing young guys too high in the lineup because you don't have quality veterans, especially legit first line talents, to allow them to play the role that is in line with where they are development-wise.

Tough to say he doesn't have more than 50 minutes with a first or second line this year. Benson-Kulich-Krebs & Benson-Cozens-Quinn were both mid from a stat standpoint.
 
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The challenge is projecting a 2 game sample size across an 82 game season...

Yeah that's one of the differences between armature spreadsheet prognostication and professional evaluation. That and knowing what to do when you notice a deficiency.

Benson is still a teenager. The best scenario is him unbalancing a 3rd line at 20-21-22 before taking over as a main weapon. It's fair to say that hasn't quite happened yet (not that it'd be reasonable to expect it to).
 
I’ve done a bit of a 180 on Thompson since he moved to wing. We still get the weird hockey decisions at times, but he’s using his natural size and power a lot more now.

One play illustrates my point. In the Sens game, he had a play along the offensive goal line where he won the puck in the corner and had a free lane to the net. In the past, he would do something head scratching. But on this play, he went straight to the front of the net and powered in for a scoring chance.

No one is stopping him at his size and I think he’s using that to his advantage more and more every game. I still like the fancy play every now and again as a change up but his power game has taken a huge turn upwards.

He’s also the first guy to jump in the scrum any time he’s out there.

If the Sabres get this type of play out of Kulich and McLeod next season, and Norris is healthy, I think there’s a lot of hope.
Probably knew who was defending him and what he could do... :sarcasm: (for the record It was Cozens)
 
Has Benson been consistent?

He started out the season really slow going pointless in his first 8 games.

And he's been producing at less than 0.5 pts/g.

Benson plays with the spunk like you like from a bottom 6 forward. But, I don't know if he is the type of player yet that you can count on for first line production.

This would be another example of playing young guys too high in the lineup because you don't have quality veterans, especially legit first line talents, to allow them to play the role that is in line with where they are development-wise.
Benson still can't drink legally. So, I'm hesitant to pencil him into what type of player he is.

His hockey sense and dog-on-a-bone mentality make me think he's more of a Marchand-lite when he's 24-25 and then hitting his peak.
 
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Has Benson been consistent?

He started out the season really slow going pointless in his first 8 games.

And he's been producing at less than 0.5 pts/g.

Benson plays with the spunk like you like from a bottom 6 forward. But, I don't know if he is the type of player yet that you can count on for first line production.

This would be another example of playing young guys too high in the lineup because you don't have quality veterans, especially legit first line talents, to allow them to play the role that is in line with where they are development-wise.
The fixation on points here is a mistake.

He meets the eye test consistently. He played a lot of minutes with guys that don't, which hurts productivity.

This isn't "wow they played 2 games together and scored a lot", it's noticing that their skills compliment each other.



And if points produced next to cozens and Krebs are really that big of an indicator, his 1.6 p/60 puts him with Aho, Larkin, pettersson,beniers, Tkachuk
 
The fixation on points here is a mistake.

He meets the eye test consistently. He played a lot of minutes with guys that don't, which hurts productivity.

This isn't "wow they played 2 games together and scored a lot", it's noticing that their skills compliment each other.



And if points produced next to cozens and Krebs are really that big of an indicator, his 1.6 p/60 puts him with Aho, Larkin, pettersson,beniers, Tkachuk
His 5 on 5 close and tied P/60 take a huge drop off.

And the "eye test" argument doesn't pass muster with me given how things have played out the past 4 seasons. The "eye test" argument said that Jack Quinn would be producing way more this year than he has.

The "eye test" argument said that Cozens wouldn't fall off a cliff.

Banking on Benson and Kulich being 2/3 of the top line for 82 games next season is a bet that is highly unlikely to pay off next season. And going with them as top line guys instead of adding legit veteran top line talent this offseason is going with another year of the Kevyn Adams blueprint.

And we have seen where that has gotten the Sabres the past half-decade.
 
Having 2/3 of the top line being that young is worrisome to me. A huge part of the issues the past 4 seasons has been relying on guys that are young and inexperienced.

Counting on 2/3 of the top line being guys in their 20 & 21 year old seasons...
It would be a problem if Benson didnt play the game like a 10 year vet.

Benson makes every line he is on better - he did it last year with Cozens/Quinn and this year with Krebs/Quinn. And it's not even close.

The way Kulich has played this year, he is a big time breakout candidate for next season if he gets 16-18 minutes a game and PP2 time. 30 goal potential.

I think between Kulich Thompson Benson and maybe Tuch - Norris - Peterka that's a pretty capable top 6, with plenty of options for the bottom six
 

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