How many goals did Olofsson score on Eichel's wing in ES? 5-6? This is very few.

Olofsson doesn't need Eichel, at least one could try to play him in RW, as he played in Sweden and was successful. Hall will definitely be in the top 6 with Eichel or Staal, Mittelstadt is rumored to be unable to get fit again and it is not clear what he has been doing all these months, not sure if he will even be on the team.

"Olofsson needs Eichel to score." thats definitely not true "While he has a great release he needs someone to get the puck to him" their are now plenty of Sabres capable of getting him the puck. Hall isnt Kessel, putting him on the 3rd line is a recipe for disaster. Mittelstadt needs to start in the A. Also that 3rd line is a liability in the dzone.

What are you talking about? He scored very few goals at even strength with eichel because he scored all his goals on the power play with eichel.

he only had 9 even strength goals.

Eichel assisted on 15 of Olofssons 20 goals.

Thanks for your input.
I hope this answers your question.
Of the nine goals Olofsson scored at even strength Jack assisted on seven of them.

PP Victor Olofsson (1) Jack Eichel, Rasmus Dahlin
PP Victor Olofsson (2) Jack Eichel, Rasmus Dahlin
PP Victor Olofsson (3) Rasmus Dahlin, Sam Reinhart
PP Victor Olofsson (4) Jack Eichel, Rasmus Dahlin
PP Victor Olofsson (5) Rasmus Dahlin, Jack Eichel
PP Victor Olofsson (6) Sam Reinhart, Jeff Skinner
Victor Olofsson (7) Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart
Victor Olofsson (8) Sam Reinhart, Jack Eichel
Victor Olofsson (9) Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart
Victor Olofsson (10) Jack Eichel, Marco Scandella
Victor Olofsson (11) Brandon Montour, Jack Eichel
PP Victor Olofsson (12) Sam Reinhart, Jack Eichel
Victor Olofsson (13) Brandon Montour, Sam Reinhart
PP Victor Olofsson (14) Rasmus Dahlin, Jack Eichel
PP Victor Olofsson (15) Rasmus Dahlin, Marcus Johansson
EN Victor Olofsson (16) Sam Reinhart, Jack Eichel
PP Victor Olofsson (17) Jack Eichel, Rasmus Dahlin
Victor Olofsson (18) Jack Eichel, Rasmus Dahlin
PP Victor Olofsson (19) Rasmus Dahlin, Jack Eichel
Victor Olofsson (20) Marcus Johansson, Rasmus Dahlin

20 goals 15 assists from Eichel.
@Shibbal18

Hall can run his own line, we know this from the past performance.
Cozens will be better than Sam, I moved him to the second line to balance the scoring.
Mittelstadt IS NOT A BUST given better linemates, he will exceed his freshman performance by a long shot.
I like these lines for the stated reasons, balance, Hall and Eichel need the puck to be at their best, DO NOT PUT THEM ON THE SAME LINE
This give Buffalo three lines that can score.
Finally, I like Right and Left handed shots playing of their correct side.

Olofsson is going to perform best on Jack's wing. Eichel is an elite playmaker, Olofsson is a sniper. That's just a good fit.

I don't think we can really say how effective he'd be without Jack, but it certainly would be less.

That is exactly my point.
With Jack next year playing a full season he may reach 30 goals.
Without Jack, most likely less than half of that as you alluded.
I am salivating at the idea of having 3 scoring lines.
Giving Skinner a better center and winger, he gets back to 30+ goals.
Hall driving is own line gets back to his MVP performance as he does not face top defenders every shift.
If Hutton could regain the magic he demonstrated in the beginning of last year,
Jokiharju, Ristolainen and Dahlin continue to improve, this is a playoff team.
Boston lost Krug and is a year older, Florida may lose Dadonov and Hoffman, Tampa has huge cap issues
MTL and Toronto are better.
Suddenly Skinner, Eichel, Hall. Reinhart, Olofsson, Staal and Cozens compare well against Tavares, Matthews, Nylander, Marner etc.
Buffalo lost too many games to the Bolts and Bruins, turn that around and that 13 pt gap from the playoffs may disappear.

Hall on the third line?! The Sabres aren't THAT deep!

Well, this is too few heads in ES. You don't have to consider 5v5 and PP. Especially after Skinner scored 40 goals without PP on Eichel's wing.

Mittelstadt got to work on themselves, why are Dahlin and Cozens doing their physical fitness, but Mittelstadt not? Is he having attitude issues or is he too lazy?

Well, I’m talking about that and saying that Olofsson doesn’t have to play with Eichel in ES, let him play only on PP.

Yeah he had 80% of his shifts with Eichel. That doesnt prove he needs Eichel. 12% of his points came away from Eichel in that 20% of shifts away from him. I also didnt make a claim about his stats, All I said is Eichel is no longer the only playmaker on the team, which is true. Staal is a much better playmaker than Johansson was and that would mean hes playing with Skinner as well. Or if you want to spread out the scoring put Olofsson with Cozens, even as a rookie Cozens is better than Johansson or Larsson. If you think Eichel is the only playmaker still, youre not acknowledging the improvements or you have 0 faith in the players theyve acquired and the franchise should just fold. Hall can run his own line, Im sure he doesnt want to do it in a reduced 3rd line role with 3rd line minutes. Cozens may be better than Reinhart, I agree but I dont know what that was referencing. Mittelstadt is not a bust, yet. He needs to start in the A and not be jammed into the NHL because theyre desperate to make it work. He clearly has personality issues and refuses to put the work in, in the gym, to make him an NHLer. He is also a defensive liability and needs to work on that game if hes going to be a Center in the NHL.

Only on RW, not LW.

Yeah, he'd have to play RW. But he has history playing the right side in Europe, and it does look like that's the plan for him this year.

I think we would be smart to keep them together.

My point is he hasn't proven he can score away from eichel and he has proven to play well with eichel. not everyone plays well away from the puck with a superstar. olofsson does. dont mess with it.

Well, we'll have a chance to watch Olofsson play away from Eichel. I have no idea yet how Krueger sees the lines with the arrival of Hall, Staal and Eakin, but they will probably change. Maybe Olofsson will play on RW, or maybe Krueger wants to put Olofsson and Reinhart with Eakin, it's hard to say.

Personally I'd make the lines:

Skinner-Eichel-Olofsson
Hall-Staal-Reinhart
LW-Eakin-Cozens
Asplund-Lazar-Okposo

But if you wanted the fun lines:

Hall-Eichel-Cozens
Skinner-Staal-Reinhart
Olofsson-Eakin-Thompson

I'd also be good with playing Cozens as 2nd line or even first line RW. It's weird cause now we finally have a legit top 6 and none of us know what the lines will look like. I agree with playing Hall and Eichel on different lines but I sure hope they play some ES time together, they would be unstoppable.

you forgot Girgensons.
Id do:
Hall- Eichel - Reinhart
Skinner - Staal - Thompson
Olofsson - Cozens - Okposo
Girgensons - Eakin - Rieder
If they get the current line up signed. IDK how they do that without moving Risto or Okposo TBH so I think theirs still a move coming down the pipeline

Your lines are good as well, and maybe you have demonstrated that there is room for Kahun as well.

Skinner-Eichel-Olofsson
Hall-Staal-Reinhart
Kahun-Mittelstadt-Cozens
Girgensons-Eakin-Okposo
Asplund/Lazar

As a Sabre fan it is really exciting to be looking forward to a season in which we are trying to fit 7 or even 8 solid top line players into six spots.
We all have our opinions which it is nice to share.

I do not like to have left/right handed shooters play their off wing.
It is much easier to accept a pass on the proper wing, but the shot comes more from the center of the ice when on the off wing.

I know Hall came here in part because of Krueger, but I have little faith in him.
You probably have read this from me but 7 skaters all had career worse seasons last year, Sheary, Vesey, Rodrigues, Montour, Miller, Skinner and Okposo.
If the team as whole did better than last year, I would not care, but they did worse than last year after adding Jokiharju, Miller, Vesey, and Johansson and Montour for an entire season.

Maybe Hall and Staal make sense, but then who is the sniper on that line? That line has two playmakers IMO, unless you want to call Staal the sniper.
Just a comment about Eakin, I know he is a PK center but he only had 5 goals and 15 pts in 49 games, Mittelstadt who is a BUST in everyone's mind had 4 goals and 9 pts in 31 games.
That is why I put Casey at #3 center and Eakin on the fourth line.

But to win, we need to develop a better PP, everyone stands around and watches Jack play with the puck.
We need to improve the PK, we are too passive, we need to actively challenge the puck carrier and force errors.
Did you know that among the NHL GK who played 34 games or more only Rask, Grubauer, Hellebuyck, Vasilevsky and Crawford had a higher SV%?
No one had a better SV% than Linus on shots over 30 feet.
The penalty killers allowed too many high percentage shots to be taken.

Well that is my rant of the day.