Rating the defence
- Thread starter CatsforReinhart
- Start date
Close, IMO it's
Dahlin
McCabe
Bogosian
Nelson (with Dahlin)/Beaulieu
Risto
Scandella
Dreakon13
Registered User
Dahlin
McCabe
Bogosian
Risto
Nelson/Beaulieu
Scandella
Looks about right to me.
McCabe
Bogosian
Risto
Nelson/Beaulieu
Scandella
Looks about right to me.
Zman5778
Moderator
Dahlin, McCabe and Bogo have been easily and clearly our 3 best defensemen. The order in which they go largely depends on a number of things, but in my mind, it goes:
Bogosian
Dahlin
McCabe
Then you've got Nelson when paired with Dahlin.
Then probably Risto.....he's had a mix of solid and bad.
Then Beaulieu, who really hasn't been notable one way or the other.
Then Scandella, but he's looked fine the last 3 games in general.
Then Nelson when paired with anyone but Dahlin.
Bogosian
Dahlin
McCabe
Then you've got Nelson when paired with Dahlin.
Then probably Risto.....he's had a mix of solid and bad.
Then Beaulieu, who really hasn't been notable one way or the other.
Then Scandella, but he's looked fine the last 3 games in general.
Then Nelson when paired with anyone but Dahlin.
Team Cozens
Registered User
Sabre the Win
Joke of a Franchise
- Jun 27, 2013
- 12,297
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Bogo Dahlin McCabe Beaulieu Risto Scandella Nelson
Bogo is playing some good hockey, but Dahlin will be playing better hockey soon.
Bogo is playing some good hockey, but Dahlin will be playing better hockey soon.
I wish someone would tell the coaching staff how terrible Risto has played, because he is currently averaging 5+ minutes more than any other Sabres skater. You guys are fooling yourselves if you don’t think he is solidly our best defender RIGHT NOW. At worst he is second to McCabe.
Currently:
Risto
McCabe
Dahlin
Bogo
Scandella
Nelson
Currently:
Risto
McCabe
Dahlin
Bogo
Scandella
Nelson
Dahlin honestly. Amazing what difference a player of his ability on the back end will do for you.
Props to Bogosian for not totally sucking this year too. Although his next major injury is only ever a game away.
Risto/Scandella - must do better.
Props to Bogosian for not totally sucking this year too. Although his next major injury is only ever a game away.
Risto/Scandella - must do better.
Gabrielor
"Win with us or watch us win." - Rasmus Dahlin
If we're talking how they've performed this season, not including potential and projection:
Zach Bogosian
Rasmus Dahlin
Jake McCabe
Nathan Beaulieu
Casey Nelson
Rasmus Ristolainen
Marco Scandella
Zach Bogosian
Rasmus Dahlin
Jake McCabe
Nathan Beaulieu
Casey Nelson
Rasmus Ristolainen
Marco Scandella
itwasaforwardpass
I'll be the hyena
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nickdawg95
scoutdawg
- Jan 7, 2016
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exactly this. risto gets a lot of hate but he plays 25+ every night, if he gets injured we gonna be in trouble
joshjull
Registered User
I’m as giddy about Dahlin as anyone but he is not the best dman on this team at the moment. He is 18 and gets a pass for a lot of stuff that the other dman get hammered for. As he cleans those things up and plays tougher minutes he will grab the title of our best dman. But he isn’t there yet.
joshjull
Registered User
Bogo
McCabe
Dahlin
Risto
Scandella
Beaulieu
Nelson
Some of you are giving Dahlin the benefit of the doubt because he's young and will learn, and are doing the opposite for Risto and Scandella.
McCabe
Dahlin
Risto
Scandella
Beaulieu
Nelson
Some of you are giving Dahlin the benefit of the doubt because he's young and will learn, and are doing the opposite for Risto and Scandella.
CatsforReinhart
Registered User
Risto gets a lot of hate because Risto is asked to be a number 1 and he is not. He is definitely a top 4 and 30 other teams would be happy to have him.
tsujimoto74
Moderator
- May 28, 2012
- 29,917
- 22,080
Bogosian -- Whole new player this year. I just hope he stays healthy.
Dahlin
McCabe -- Another huge bounce-back year, and since when does McCabe contribute to the offense? Since now, apparently.
Risto -- Housley's still relying on him to do more than he's capable of.
Nelson
Scandella -- Wish he'd start playing like the solid D he was last year for us. He's had a couple decent games, but it's been a rocky start.
Beaulieu
Dahlin
McCabe -- Another huge bounce-back year, and since when does McCabe contribute to the offense? Since now, apparently.
Risto -- Housley's still relying on him to do more than he's capable of.
Nelson
Scandella -- Wish he'd start playing like the solid D he was last year for us. He's had a couple decent games, but it's been a rocky start.
Beaulieu
struckbyaparkedcar
Guilty of Being Right
I think it's fair to project his performance with Nelson out a little bit. While they're currently a sheltered third pairing, they're driving the type of overwhelming results that can scale to more difficult situations, think Nate Schmidt's transition from Washington to Vegas.
And given his competition has been Bogosian and McCabe, they have the same sample size of games as good NHL defensemen. Tiers for the season probably look like:
Dahlin/Bogosian/McCabe
Nelson
Scandella/Risto/Beaulieu
It's hard to rely on 75% of the current top 4 by performance to sustain things rest-of-season. Pilut/Guhle definitely help guard against some of the expected regression, but they're most likely to replace Bogo/McCabe, which means high leverage minutes with one of the team's bottom-rung defensemen. Even if they're swapped in for Risto/Scandella, it's not like McCabe and Bogo are historically easy to play with either. Pilut for Scandella/Nelson is probably the one move that makes the blueline definitely better.
Long-term, there are two smart plans and one dumb one. The first good idea would be to swap Scandella for a player who can take on tough minutes on the right side. Scandella's expiring contract might be more valuable to a bad team that wants cap space, plus he could be a better deadline asset than a multi-year deal. That would get Risto away from shutdown minutes and into an offensive role with one of Dahlin, Pilut, or Bogosian. The other two (plus possibly Nelson) would play clean up.
The second, is getting a high end partner for Dahlin and cutting him loose in top pairing-ish minutes (we should probably keep things more offensively skewed than your traditional "top pairing" for now) with the proper support. That at least keeps 55's minutes down if he's going to stay in a shutdown role, or slots him in as a #5 who can play up the lineup on his good nights.
The dumb idea is pumping assets into the Ristolainen pairing, either by trying to get him a shutdown partner, or a puck mover to drag him along in transition. The team is dangerously close to living the dream of not playing Risto out in every situation, and it would be disappointing to find out they still view him as the Pronger to Dahlin's Niedermayer (or whatever).
Beerz
Registered User
- Jun 28, 2011
- 35,442
- 11,050
Agreed.
I think Bogo and McCabe have played better....
Dahlin is by far the smartest Dman we have and will be soon at the top of this list.
Dreakon13
Registered User
It's a close race after Dahlin. Enough so that a couple putrid games from Scandella to start the year has legit earned him a spot below most of our other D... though it wouldn't take much for him to legit earn a better spot on the list, or for McCabe to drop. IMO. The bar is pretty low still.
darcyRegier
Registered User
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Ace
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