two ufa signings

Created by: GMTD

Team: 2022-23 Buffalo Sabres

Initial Creation Date: Sep. 8, 2022

Published: Sep. 8, 2022

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Legend

Left Handed

Original Team

Waivers Exempt

Right Handed

Position

Trade Clause

Max Perf. Bonus

Expiry Status

Term Remaining

McDavid, Connor

$12,500,000 ( Performance Bonus

$250,000)

NMC

UFA - 5

Description

Strålman will be an on ice mentor for Dahlin and Pilut
Milano would be an insurance policy in case Peterka needs additional time in Rochester and is an upgrade over Sheahen.

The defense will be better as Power and Samuelsson will be on the team an entire season while adding Lyubushkin and Strålman.
I do not expect Pilut to get much ice time, but he would be the first call up and second replacement after Bryson.
Overall the defense and GK received huge upgrades.
If Comrie/Anderson/Luukkonen could keep the GAA at 2.9 the Sabres would only give up 238 goals, a decrease of 52 goals from last year.
Considering only Anderson’s GAA was higher than that, it is not an unreasonable expectation.

I do not see Granato breaking up Skinner/Thompson/Tuch.

Mittelstadt had been handcuffed by poor coaching (Krueger) and injuries over the past two seasons, but still managed to produce 16 goals and 41 pts over 81 games.
I expect him to have a breakout season and produce 20 goals and 50 points.
If Olofsson can stay healthy, he should be close to 30 goals and Hinostroza between 15 and 20.

Krebs is a great passer and should help Quinn achieve 20 or more goals while netting 15 to 20 himself.
Asplund will demonstrate his offensive prowess and have a career year with 15 goals while allowing Payton and Jack to press harder in the offensive zone.

People will question Cozens on the fourth line, but I see him as a Mike Peca style center, hard checking while adding scoring.
He could easily get 20 goals with Girgensons (12 goals) and Okposo (18 goals) as his wingmen.

Over all this line up with the improvements on defense and GK, and more mature forwards, the Sabres will see a surge in the offense and add 40 goals to last year's total and get 272 goals.

While past Sabre teams have disappointed me, with Granato as coach, the future will be bright.

272 goals for, 238 goals against for a 34 positive goal differential the Sabres will be in contention for the playoffs.

When the Sabres were healthy they were 16-9-3 over the final 28 games.
35 pts would be 103 projected over 82 games.
With a more mature line up, upgrades at defense and GK, 100 pts is achievable

Free Agent Signings

UFA		YEARS	CAP HIT
Milano, Sonny		2	$1,500,000
Strålman, Anton		2	$1,800,000

Buyouts

Cody Hodgson: $791,667
Christian Ehrhoff: $0

Draft	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7
2023
2024
2025

ROSTER

LONG-TERM OUTLOOK

EMBED

TEXT-EMBED

ROSTER SIZE	SALARY CAP	CAP HIT	OVERAGES	BONUSES	CAP SPACE
23	$82,500,000	$58,466,667	$0	$3,537,500	$24,033,333

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
Skinner, Jeff $9,000,000$9,000,000 LW, RW NMC UFA - 5	Thompson, Tage $1,400,000$1,400,000 C UFA - 1	Tuch, Alex $4,750,000$4,750,000 RW, LW UFA - 4
Olofsson, Victor $4,750,000$4,750,000 RW, LW UFA - 2	Mittelstadt, Casey $2,500,000$2,500,000 LW, C RFA - 2	Hinostroza, Vinnie $1,700,000$1,700,000 RW, LW UFA - 1
Asplund, Rasmus $825,000$825,000 LW, C RFA - 1	Krebs, Peyton $863,333$863,333 ($412,500$412K) C, LW RFA - 2	Quinn, Jack $863,333$863,333 ($850,000$850K) RW, LW RFA - 3
Girgensons, Zemgus $2,200,000$2,200,000 LW, C UFA - 1	Cozens, Dylan $894,167$894,167 ($850,000$850K) C, LW UFA - 1	Okposo, Kyle $6,000,000$6,000,000 RW M-NTC UFA - 1

Left Defense	Right Defense	Goaltender
Dahlin, Rasmus $6,000,000$6,000,000 LD/RD UFA - 2	Strålman, Anton $1,800,000$1,800,000 RD UFA - 1	Comrie, Eric $1,800,000$1,800,000 G UFA - 2
Power, Owen $916,667$916,667 ($925,000$925K) LD/RD UFA - 2	Lyubushkin, Ilya $687,500$687,500 RD UFA - 2	Anderson, Craig $1,500,000$1,500,000 ($500,000$500K) G UFA - 1
Samuelsson, Mattias $925,000$925,000 LD UFA - 1	Jokiharju, Henri $2,500,000$2,500,000 RD RFA - 2

Scratches	Injured Reserve (IR)	Long Term IR (LTIR)
Bryson, Jacob $1,850,000$1,850,000 LD/RD RFA - 2	Subban, Malcolm $850,000$850,000 G UFA - 1	Bishop, Ben $4,916,667$4,916,667 G M-NTC, NMC UFA - 1
Milano, Sonny $1,500,000$1,500,000 LW, RW UFA - 1
Bjork, Anders $1,600,000$1,600,000 LW, RW UFA - 1

Taxi Squad
Pilut, Lawrence $750,000$750,000 ($0$0$0$0) LD UFA - 1

Top Comments

Sep. 8, 2022 at 4:08 p.m.

Diaspora

Joined: Jul. 2021

Posts: 249

Likes: 88

Stralman's not a bad add. I don't see them in on Milano.

I like the rosey picture you're painting, but things would need to run smoothly for pretty much the whole season.

We can dial back some expectations and be satisfied with a real-world .500 record, can't we? That's more wins than losses, excluding shootouts and loser points. Somewhere around 90-93 points? Barring bad luck, that's where I see them landing. Just 2-3 wins shy of the playoffs.

GMTD and gretzkyghosts liked this.

Sep. 10, 2022 at 7:15 a.m.

gretzkyghosts

Joined: Apr. 2018

Posts: 5,352

Likes: 4,799

Quoting: Diaspora

Stralman's not a bad add. I don't see them in on Milano... Somewhere around 90-93 points? Barring bad luck, that's where I see them landing. Just 2-3 wins shy of the playoffs.

Strålman adds veteran leadership and balances RHD with LHD.
When a forward gets hurt it would be nice to have a player who scored 14 goals last year as a replacement.
93 points is certainly achievable with healthy GK.

During their late season surge over the last 28 games the Sabres finished the 2021-’22 season with a 16-9-3 record, only five games were against teams with losing records Chicago, New Jersey and Philadelphia winning all five games.

Nineteen games were against playoff teams Florida, Florida, Florida, Carolina, Carolina, Toronto, Toronto, Toronto, Los Angeles, Calgary, Rangers, Tampa Bay, St. Louis Boston, Edmonton, Pittsburgh, Washington, Nashville, and Minnesota compiling an 11-9-3 against those playoff teams.
If we include Las Vegas who was fighting for a playoff spot, the Sabres were 12-9-3 during the 28 game stretch against top teams.
12-9-3 v playoff contenders alone would result in 92 pts over an 82 game season.

Let me add, removing the 5-15-4 record of the back up GK from the team's overall record of 32-39-11 leaves 27-24-7 61 pts in 58 games or 87 pts over 82.
Considering how many games their 3rd, 4th and 5th GK played, presuming they could have had 87 pts last season is not unreasonable.

Adding Comrie, Lyubushkin, Power (as well as signing Strålman and Milano) and Quinn while dropping only Miller, Pysyk, Hagg, Butcher, Dell and Houser it should not be difficult to imagine a 13 pt improvement over that 87.
My optimism is based on past performance and not false promises.

GMTD liked this.

Sep. 10, 2022 at 9:00 a.m.

Diaspora

Joined: Jul. 2021

Posts: 249

Likes: 88

Quoting: gretzkyghosts

It could work out the way you're playing it. My optimism is tempered knowing that it's rare for a team to avoid bad news for an entire season: injuries at thin positions, slumps and regression will hit. I don't think they have enough depth to overcome those inevitabilities this year. Milano doesn't move the needle -- I'd rather see Peterka as the first call-up to be ready to push for a permanent roster spot

Just a little more patience is needed. Barring abject mismanagement, 2024 sees the Sabres squeak into the playoffs, followed a long contention window lasting past the end of the decade. Sadly, I don't think KO and Zemgus see the promised land.

gretzkyghosts liked this.

Sep. 10, 2022 at 10:06 a.m.

gretzkyghosts

Joined: Apr. 2018

Posts: 5,352

Likes: 4,799

Edited Sep. 10, 2022 at 10:39 a.m.

Quoting: Diaspora

It could work out the way you're playing it. My optimism is tempered knowing that it's rare for a team to avoid bad news for an entire season: injuries at thin positions, slumps and regression will hit. I don't think they have enough depth to overcome those inevitabilities this year. Milano doesn't move the needle -- I'd rather see Peterka as the first call-up to be ready to push for a permanent roster spot. Just a little more patience is needed. Barring abject mismanagement, 2024 sees the Sabres squeak into the playoffs, followed a long contention window lasting past the end of the decade. Sadly, I don't think KO and Zemgus see the promised land.

First, thank you for you comment.
I think Milano and Strålman would fit into Pegula's budget and would add depth.
Sure, Peterka could be ready, but Sonny is an insurance policy.
The subs played 187 games (Bjork 58/5; Murray 19/2; Caggiula 18/2; Jankowski 19/2; Ruotsalainen 18/2; Hayden 55/2 gm/gl).
Milano would certainly be an upgrade over nearly everyone I listed as he scored only one less goal than those 6 forwards combined last season.
He could replace nearly any forward other than Skinner, Thompson, Tuch or Olofsson and there would not be a huge drop in the talent.
Maybe they will go after Evan Rodrigues or Daniel Sprong, but I doubt they would sign or want to play in a back up role.

I could envision Okposo signing a series of one year contracts at a very modest AVV until he retires.
Remember he moved his family to Buffalo after he signed here even though they stayed in St. Paul the nine years he played on the Island.
Girgensons may do the same, it is really difficult to know what Karmanos will do.
We can disagree as these are not major issues, just minor differences.

GMTD and Diaspora liked this.

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