The Roster Thread, Summer 2024

[joshjull]

Either of them could have a huge breakout this year. I wouldn't do it now.

But I could see it happening next summer. Or maybe at TDL.

I would argue Peterka just had a breakout year

Rookie year —-> 77gms 12g 20a 32pts
This past year -> 82gms 28g 22a 50pts

I would love if he did even more. But just producing like last season while rounding out his game would be enough for me.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

Honestly, I could not care less what people in the media predict for this team.

Nobody in the media would have predicted that they would have been 1 point out of the playoffs in 2022-23.

Adams is placing big bets on Lindy making a huge difference, having a real energy line making a huge difference, bounce back seasons from Thompson, Tuch, Cozens, and Quinn, growth from guys like Peterka, Benson, Krebs, Power, and Byram, and he's betting on UPL+Levi giving them solid goaltending.

That is a big parlay that is less than 50% to pay off. But, given where the team is at with regards to their reputation around the league, this is about what I would expect.

I know that you and most people on here don’t care what the media predicts - but they have a much better track record than folks here, and they're probably right (again).

People on here can't allow themselves to acknowledge that this is the 14th year of being a lottery team. But this year is worse because a lottery team that will likely be $10.5m under cap ($9m + $1.5m Skinner dead cap).

 

[Jim Bob]

I know that you and most people on here don’t care what the media predicts - but they have a much better track record than folks here, and they're probably right (again).

People on here can't allow themselves to acknowledge that this is the 14th year of being a lottery team. But this year is worse because a lottery team that will likely be $10.5m under cap ($9m + $1.5m Skinner dead cap).

How many times during the past 13 seasons have people been really high on this team heading into a season?

And in case you haven't noticed, plenty of people are expecting this Sabres team to be a lottery team again and they want Kevyn Adams fired before the fireworks shows on Thursday.

I do not care what the media predicts because so often it is driven by the need for engagement. Or, it is national people that don't really know what is going on in Buffalo.

I would be more pessimistic about their chances this year if they hadn't moved from Granato to Ruff.

I think there is like a 30% chance that they make the playoffs. But, Lindy having a Jack Adams season and this team making the playoffs is not outside the realm of possibility, either.

 

[Dubi Doo]

That trade is still a "hockey trade" and not a "buying an impact player" trade.

And personally, I think they are likely to be worse for that trade this season than better. I am not a Krebs Stan. And Krebs needs to take a huge step forward for that deal to not bite them in the rear this season.

Absolutely. I fear that trade will bite us in the ass. Let's hope Byram can make it worth it.

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

I'm would still be interested in Roslovic depending on the price, which I think would send Krebs down to 4C and maybe NAK to 13th F.

It would have to be a good contract though. As much as I'd also like another experienced C, I don't want them overpaying a guy for more than 3 years if they don't think he's really going to be good.

This offseason seems a little strange in that it seems like there are fewer sellers than usual. While I'd rather start the season with a roster that's ready to go, I wonder if more opportunities come in December if some teams are out of it early.

Similar to my notes. There were very few sellers this year, and there's even fewer left now. There was a bubble created by several years of cap stagnation, and now that it's growing quickly teams are feeling like they have future cap to spend.

Roslovic is probably the best option, but he's going to be underwhelming to everyone. It's a little surprising he hasn't signed anywhere yet, so it must be a matter of contract.

Pinto would be a great gamble, but there's no way Ottawa and Buffalo are going to make that trade. Even if the Sens would prefer to parley him into futures, it's just a long-shot trading present talent to a divisional rival. Take the under on this.

Absolutely. I fear that trade will bite us in the ass. Let's hope Byram can make it worth it.

I wonder how much was Mitts telling them he didn't want to come back? It seemed like he liked it here, but he wasn't even invested enough to buy a bed.

Or may he's just sleeping on a floor mattress cause he's a young guy. I'm not here to cast dispersion.

 

[TageGod]

Absolutely. I fear that trade will bite us in the ass. Let's hope Byram can make it worth it.

My assumption was Krebs tryout would determine if they needed a 3C replacement this offseason. He was bad, we do. Is he really believing Krebs is 3C or is that just smoke. Better be smoke.

 

[Weltschmerz]

A thought that I've had here that makes a bit of sense, though I don't think people will be all that open to it.

One thing we've talked about is leaving space for Jack Quinn's/Peterkas contracts.

Well, if we move one of them...we don't need to anymore.

An example deal would be Quinn + Pick for one of Konency or Boeser and extend them. Both RWs. Both are basically who you hope Quinn becomes.

You are getting immediate veteran impact, you avoid having to give them a bridge deal, you essentially are giving out that money now. You are changing the locker room dynamic a bit, and hopefully, you are allowing the next level of talent underneath them to bubble up naturally.

The risk, of course, is what if Quinn breaks out this year and produces more elsewhere.

That's a risk. But, its an interesting exercise in roster planning. And you still have more long term salary to play with.

What kind of math is this?
You don't need to pay Quinns extension, so Konecnys extension doesn't count any more?

 

[Djp]

Only Tarasenko and Roslovic remain in UFA, who may be of some interest.

I think Adams did a good job on the fourth line, but otherwise, nothing. Our central axis still looks weird and very thin (if there is an injury). But Adams still has time to trade for a 3C and possibly a top-6 forward.

I don't think they need a top 6F. They have internal competion st midlr 6 winger spot with thr ELCs

Ok, I've cooled down a bit and it's time to get to work. I think Adams will have no problem getting 3C/2C and top 6 forward. I think the center position is more important, but we also have the assets to get a top 6 forward.

A winger who can di center such as

colrman
Zegras
Rolovic -' unsure if he signed
Laughton

I think we have too many prospects in Rochester already and some of them will be at a disadvantage playing smaller roles. I'm also a little confused by the presence of so many LDs. We have Johnson, who looked okay on the third pairing, and Adams signed Gilbert and re-signed Bryson, not to mention Davis and Clague for Rochester. Jokiharju is a very strange guy here.

They could trade Joker and go with RyJo in yop 6 and have power on R

Byram could be 7D

Who am I looking at to add a center to our lineup.


Carolina has Aho, Kuznetsov, Staal, Kotkaniemi and Drury. I think we could get one of KK and Drury.

No on JK, fine with drury

Vegas has Eichel, Hertl, Karlsson and Roy, maybe one of the last two could be available.

Karlsson I'd probably more available dur yo cap hit and age

Kick the tires on Frost.

Seattle signed Stephenson and they have Beniers, and maybe they'll give Wright the 3C role. Then Gourde would make sense for us.

I'm fine with Gourde. Could also try to get Borgen

Pinto seems like an obvious choice.

Ottawa isnt trading him within division

Oilers above the cap, McLeod was a good target.

Maybe players like Hartman, Schenn, Colton, Granlund, Dickinson, Eller and Suter.


Top 6 F:

I think the Necas story has died down. But who else is there? Ehlers would look perfect, even if for one year. Konecny, Zegras, Farabee, Laine, Coleman, Crouse, Schmaltz, Boeser, Vatrano. Tarasenko in UFA.

I think Adams has the assets to get one center and one top 6 forward, if he wants to. Also, trading Joki and Krebs would give us about 5 million in cap space. Not to mention that our UFA will free up more than 10 million in cap space after season.

The problem I see ...looking at top 9 ignoring the new 4th line
3C krebs or someone rldr they get
LW JPP, Benson, Zucker
RWtuch, Quinn, xxx/ELC

I'm concerned on acquiring a fill in RW. Maybe it could be done at deadline or mid season

Why not? We have cap space and roster space. We have assets. We need 3C and top 6 forward.

We dont have that space beyond this year.

We can acquire a 1yr rental player

You always have a place in the team.

Better depth and competition are still there, it's better than worrying about one of your top 6 forwards getting injured and us having no one to replace him, especially if it's Thompson or Cozens.

Krebs can be traded or play as a 4C. NAK was a healthy scratch at times last season and played in the AHL. Lafferty can easily play wing if needed. They could also trade Krebs in some kind of deal if that's what it takes.

xxxx/Peterka - Thompson - Tuch
xxxx/Peterka - Cozens - Quinn
Zucker - xxxx - Benson
Malenstyn - Lafferty - Greenway (if they keep Krebs, he 4C, Lafferty/NAK 4RW)

Benson can play both sides.
Krebs could be thr 13F master sub who could be subbed anywhere and not change lines

They can use Kulich in bottom line too

Because Rosen is on 2nd elc year, I see him getting s 20 g tryout at start of Dresden. Also used in marketing him to trade

 

[Fjordy]

A thought that I've had here that makes a bit of sense, though I don't think people will be all that open to it.

One thing we've talked about is leaving space for Jack Quinn's/Peterkas contracts.

Well, if we move one of them...we don't need to anymore.

An example deal would be Quinn + Pick for one of Konency or Boeser and extend them. Both RWs. Both are basically who you hope Quinn becomes.

You are getting immediate veteran impact, you avoid having to give them a bridge deal, you essentially are giving out that money now. You are changing the locker room dynamic a bit, and hopefully, you are allowing the next level of talent underneath them to bubble up naturally.

The risk, of course, is what if Quinn breaks out this year and produces more elsewhere.

That's a risk. But, its an interesting exercise in roster planning. And you still have more long term salary to play with.

We don't really even need to trade one of them because we'll have a lot of cap space. I think guys like Jokiharju and Krebs could give us about 5 million in cap space. Zucker and the rest of the UFAs after next season will give us another 10 million in cap space. We have 19 million in cap space right now. That's a ton of space.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

How many times during the past 13 seasons have people been really high on this team heading into a season?

Literally every season there's a huge contingent that is very optimistic. Same people who are optimistic this year. You're probably not noticing them as much because they don't bother you and cause you to respond like the negative ones do.

 

[truthbluth]

Well…if this is Adam’s trying to save his job, we’ll see how it works. He’s all in on getting more hits.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

Well…if this is Adam’s trying to save his job, we’ll see how it works. He’s all in on getting more hits.

He got two guys who hit, and they won't be on the ice much, so I don't think the overall team will be hitting that much more when all is said and done.

He's going all-in on development and Lindy.

 

[Jim Bob]

Literally every season there's a huge contingent that is very optimistic. Same people who are optimistic this year. You're probably not noticing them as much because they don't bother you and cause you to respond like the negative ones do.

In all my time as a Sabres fan, I have been annoyed that Buffalo fans have been overly optimistic about the Bills and pessimistic about the Sabres in general.

It was even that way 15-20 years ago when the Sabres were markedly better than the Bills were.

I think most Sabres fans have been on a teeter totter based on the last game, the last period, what happened in the past 24 hours of the off season, or what hasn't happened in the past 24 hours.

And right now, the pessimists are a ton louder than the optimists wherever you go. Here, Twitter, xBuffalo Discord, podcasts, or the responses to any articles that Buffalo Sabres media put out there.

 

[SabresFanNorthPortFL]

I think Quinn has shown superstar skills so far, his issue has been injury. When the puck is on his stick, anything can happen. He’s impressed me more than any other Sabre in a long time, including Eichel.

We have 3-4 of the same player….Rosen, Kulich, Ost, Savoie, Benson and JJ….Quinn is different. We’ll need to turn some of those “kinda same player” into something else. Tage and Cozens are fine, just about to hit their primes….wouldn’t it fit our needs to turn a redundant player into that third line center, which if we’re going to, it needs to be JJ….as Kulich or Savoie could potentially step into the JJ role pretty seamlessly.

I mean dangling a 22/23 year ecl player that just scored 28 goals for the Sabres should get you something good. Carolina? Vegas? And if things have really soured in Ottawa, they might not wanna trade division but I don’t wanna send a 22 year old there either.

 

[Jim Bob]

He got two guys who hit, and they won't be on the ice much, so I don't think the overall team will be hitting that much more when all is said and done.

He's going all-in on development and Lindy.

I believe it was Fairburn that said that Malenstyn, Lafferty, and NAK each had more hits last season than any player on the Sabres last year.

I could see between Lindy demanding more physical play (cue @Chainshot pointing out that Granato told guys NOT to finish checks) AND having a real energy line that hits anything that moves, you see guys in the top 9 finishing more checks this year.

 

[Zman5778]

He got two guys who hit, and they won't be on the ice much, so I don't think the overall team will be hitting that much more when all is said and done.

Not sure I could disagree with this anymore. Granato is on record as saying that he told guys to not finish checks. We know Dahlin, Clifton, Sammy, Cozens, Krebs and maybe even Byram will hit people given the chance. Tuch too on occasion. That they didn't last year is pretty much all on Granato drilling into their skulls not to hit.

Of all the decisions Granato and co. made last year, this is the one that is most baffling to me.

 

[Fjordy]

Just go and get this 3C

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

Not sure I could disagree with this anymore. Granato is on record as saying that he told guys to not finish checks. We know Dahlin, Clifton, Sammy, Cozens, Krebs and maybe even Byram will hit people given the chance. Tuch too on occasion. That they didn't last year is pretty much all on Granato drilling into their skulls not to hit.

Of all the decisions Granato and co. made last year, this is the one that is most baffling to me.

I've never heard him say that, and I rarely miss an interview or presser. The only place I've heard this is from Andrew Peters.

Do you remember when he said this?

 

[Zman5778]

Just go and get this 3C

You might not like it. Many people might not like it.

But I feel quite certain that Krebs is the 3C going into the year. I think DG and crew kinda neutered his pesty nature with the whole "don't be physical" bullshit.......so I think Ruff and Adams believe that he'll be much more engaged this year. Which hopefully means better.

We shall see. I'll be pleasantly surprised if we get an experienced 3C.

 

[Fjordy]

You might not like it. Many people might not like it.

But I feel quite certain that Krebs is the 3C going into the year. I think DG and crew kinda neutered his pesty nature with the whole "don't be physical" bullshit.......so I think Ruff and Adams believe that he'll be much more engaged this year. Which hopefully means better.

We shall see. I'll be pleasantly surprised if we get an experienced 3C.

Ok, good luck with that.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

I believe it was Fairburn that said that Malenstyn, Lafferty, and NAK each had more hits last season than any player on the Sabres last year.

I could see between Lindy demanding more physical play (cue @Chainshot pointing out that Granato told guys NOT to finish checks) AND having a real energy line that hits anything that moves, you see guys in the top 9 finishing more checks this year.

I'll believe it when I see it. I don't buy that the team was soft because Granato told them to be soft. I'm glad we finally have an actual 4th line, but so does every other team. I disagree that Adams is going "all-in on hitting," which is the only point I was disagreeing with.

 

[jc17]

Well…if this is Adam’s trying to save his job, we’ll see how it works. He’s all in on getting more hits.

See that's the thing, he's not trying to save his job. Inactivity doesn't benefit him

There were quite a few contracts given out yesterday that probably could have helped us towards the playoffs this year, and screwed us pretty soon after. So a reasonable part of me respects the guy for sticking by something he knows he's going to get heat for, because he cares more about the future of the team than people liking him right now.

 

[joshjull]

Not sure I could disagree with this anymore. Granato is on record as saying that he told guys to not finish checks. We know Dahlin, Clifton, Sammy, Cozens, Krebs and maybe even Byram will hit people given the chance. Tuch too on occasion. That they didn't last year is pretty much all on Granato drilling into their skulls not to hit.

Of all the decisions Granato and co. made last year, this is the one that is most baffling to me.

I’m pretty sure he was talking about not looking for hits, as opposed to simply not hitting. That would translate on the forecheck to the forwards trying to jump passing lanes instead of following through on dmen and finishing hits.

 

[Fjordy]

See that's the thing, he's not trying to save his job. Inactivity doesn't benefit him

There were quite a few contracts given out yesterday that probably could have helped us towards the playoffs this year, and screwed us pretty soon after. So a reasonable part of me respects the guy for sticking by something he knows he's going to get heat for, because he cares more about the future of the team than people liking him right now.

There were almost no centers there and we don't need those Stevenson and Monahan contracts. Although there were players I would have liked better in the bottom 6. He just needs to go and get a center, via trade.

 

[Jim Bob]

I'll believe it when I see it. I don't buy that the team was soft because Granato told them to be soft. I'm glad we finally have an actual 4th line, but so does every other team. I disagree that Adams is going "all-in on hitting," which is the only point I was disagreeing with.

And I was disagreeing with your take that these moves, along with the coaching change, won't change how physical the other three lines will play.

We saw this during both Nolan's first tenure and Lindy's first tenure that team toughness is a thing and that more physical play can be contagious.