Aladyyn
they praying for the death of a rockstar
Have we gotten so accustomed to losing that we don't see the downside of having yet another terrible season?
Roster Speculation thread - the season is almost upon us.
- Thread starter joshjull
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Dreakon13
Registered User
You have to understand that the only reason anyone would be okay with Buffalo being bad, is the idea that Rochester will be good. If they weren't our farm team, and if that didn't have a direct impact on the future of the Sabres, I'd be right there with ya.
EDIT: I should probably say that I actually think the Sabres will improve this year even with most of the kids getting sent down.
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sabrefan27
Registered User
Sure. Pilut is definitely the reason they’ll either be good or bad. Starting him for a couple of months in Rochester no doubt is the difference between the Sabres having a good or terrible season.
Aladyyn
they praying for the death of a rockstar
Doubling the amount of smart defensemen on the team has pretty high impact, yes.
sabremike
Friend To All Giraffes
I can see a downside: the terrible player who gets the roster spot instead becomes a major contributor to yet another season flushed down the toilet by December.
Little decisions add up though. If Beaulieu, Larsson, Wilson, and Pommers get ice time they wouldn't otherwise because NHL-ready players who aren't anchors are sent down, well, these players are ALL verifiable in their ability to get shelled on the ice.
If this happens, this board, which is already cancer to read, will be utterly unbearable by week 3 when the season is effectively over just like last one was. It's not that the kids would suddenly make us cup contenders, but the net addition of fast guys with puck skills that make mistakes over verifiable anchors can absolutely be the difference between a young team starting 5-6 and establishing chemistry early, getting better and better as time goes on, playing in a healthy environment both in the locker room and KBC, versus literally exactly what happened last year (make a lineup wit this scenario and tell me with a straight face it's better than the best one we iced at any point last season) which was apparently so bad for our culture we had to blow everything up.
[QUOTE="IMO, I think a Skinner-Reinhart duo would work very well.
So if that was the case a Top 6 skeleton of:
Sheary-Eichel-xxx
Skinner-Reinhart-xxx
Would balance out the talent in the top 6 potentially.[/QUOTE]
This! Probably the teams best chance at having more than one line that can drive play is to try 23 at C again. Mitts was a great idea, but, he has not looked ready.
Otherwise, the Sabres are likely signing up for a year where the puck is in the defensive end all game again. Try this or just bring up the young talent and let them put on a show - mistakes will happen, but, so will highlights and hopefully improvement.
So if that was the case a Top 6 skeleton of:
Sheary-Eichel-xxx
Skinner-Reinhart-xxx
Would balance out the talent in the top 6 potentially.[/QUOTE]
This! Probably the teams best chance at having more than one line that can drive play is to try 23 at C again. Mitts was a great idea, but, he has not looked ready.
Otherwise, the Sabres are likely signing up for a year where the puck is in the defensive end all game again. Try this or just bring up the young talent and let them put on a show - mistakes will happen, but, so will highlights and hopefully improvement.
Aladyyn
they praying for the death of a rockstar
We're talking about Nathan Beaulieu here: that's not the downside, that's the only realistic outcome.
sabrefan27
Registered User
If you’re going to exaggerate things, I’m not even going to bother. You want to dumb it down to black and white, go ahead.
Dreakon13
Registered User
Are they actually NHL-ready, or are they just more NHL-ready than those anchors? There's a difference.
Holy run on sentence, Batman.
If last year happens again, we'll have those same 5-6 young players with a season of pro development and success in Rochester as a notch in their belt, ready to take their jobs after things blow up.
EDIT: I don't see any reason to believe this years team can't be better than last years.
Aladyyn
they praying for the death of a rockstar
struckbyaparkedcar
Guilty of Being Right
You really don’t get how bad the Sabres are.
They’re so far away from the diminishing returns of incremental talent that any marginal upgrades will have maximum impact.
Additionally, asking the core of Eichel, Skinner, Reinhart, Mittelstadt, Risto, Scandella and Dahlin to produce enough to overcome bad depth in addition to their head-to-head matchups is pretty much the worst thing for their development.
Dreakon13
Registered User
EichHart
Registered User
I hope Reinhart gets the 2C spot but don't see it happening. Eichel and him have great chemistry.
Aladyyn
they praying for the death of a rockstar
Meanwhile Eichel and Reinhart go through another powerless garbage season, their 4th. That must be fun.And they will... when they rip the AHL a new one and be the first ones called up.
sabrefan27
Registered User
Yes I do. I watch them too. But I’m not interested in getting into one of this boards obnoxious debates, that the usual suspects engage in daily. I was talking specifically about Pilut and that’s all I’m going to discuss. And my position isn’t changing. He better benefits starting in Rochester. That’s my opinion.
Dreakon13
Registered User
I personally think adding Skinner, Sheary, Dahlin, Mittelstadt, Hutton, Ullmark, Berglund and a healthy McCabe is enough to make things a little less dire than they were the last few years. It's not like nothing has changed.
But it's all a crapshoot at this point. Adding all the kids could blow up in their faces too... and then we wouldn't even have troops from Rochester to look forward to.
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Jim Bob
RIP RJ
How many new players did they have on the roster entering last season?
And things got worse.
Different doesn't guarantee better.
Dreakon13
Registered User
Same logic applies to the kids people are clamoring for.
But either way, I think those guys are better than the Pouliot's and the Nolan's and the Josefson's.
struckbyaparkedcar
Guilty of Being Right
If the kids are that bad, giving them an extra season doesn’t transform them into good NHLers.
Dreakon13
Registered User
One season struggling in the NHL is worse for them than one season succeeding in the AHL. IMO.
Aladyyn
they praying for the death of a rockstar
And what does 4 seasons of struggling in the NHL do to Eichel and Reinhart? What about 6 seasons for Ristolainen?
struckbyaparkedcar
Guilty of Being Right
Sticking to Pilut, 22 is the age that good NHL defensemen start being full time players. The idea he needs a significant adjustment period is pure fiction.
Keeping him down to give known bad players another season to prove what hundreds of games say they are is pointless.
Dreakon13
Registered User
Bad things.
Too bad we didn't have all these kids making headway in the AHL for the first time 6 years ago, eh?
Jim Bob
RIP RJ
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