I have a very conflicted view of their offseason. Adding Staal and Hall gives then one more scoring line. Until the end of last season they only had one line capable of scoring goals one consistent basis... whichever line with Eichel on it. Now, they have one more, maybe even 2, depending on how they construct their lineup.

That being said, Hutton is still garbage, I don't see Ullmark being able of starting much more than 35 games which will likely overexpose Hutton and the team still lacks another d-man capable of playing top defensive minutes.

The x factors for them are:
-Hutton being good
-Montour bouncing back from what have been 2 very inconsistent years
-Skinner returning anywhere close to that 18-19 level

Here's how I would construct the lineup:
Olofsson-Eichel-Reinhart
Hall-Staal-Skinner
Eakin-Cozens-Okposo
Reider-Girgensons-Lazar

Dahlin-Miller
Montour-Jokiharju
McCabe-Ristolainen

Ullmark
Hutton

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when it comes to the sabres lineup, there's a good thing for every bad things. like you look at the taylor hall signing but then you remember carter hutton is blind and you look at the eric staal trade but then you remember the cody eakin signing. yes they have made a lot of improvements but there are still so many glaring issues that they've failed to address. i'll be honest, after the hall signing i was confident that the sabres would make the playoffs but now in this new division i don't see that happening. also, taylor hall was brought here to play with jack eichel. point blank period. he's going to play on that top line with him for sure.

my ideal lineup:
hall - eichel - olofsson
skinner - staal - cozens
thompson - eakin - reinhart
girgensons - lazar - okposo

dahlin - miller
mccabe - ristolainen
montour - jokiharju

ullmark
hutton

i want to see sam reinhart on that third line so badly. it would create three lines of constant scoring threat and it would spread out the talent so there was solid depth throughout the lineup. if the fourth line was as dominant as they were last season (which is unlikely because of larsson's departure) then they have four solid lines. not great lines but solid lines. the defense is atrocious. i lay up at night thinking about the mccabe - ristolainen pairing and i get disgusted by it. the sabres knew they were in desperate need of a LD and they did nothing about it (lawrence pilut come back to us sweet prince). the goaltending is shaky to say the least. ullmark isn't a starter, more like a 1B guy, and hutton can't stop a beach ball.

idk they may shock us but i see another season of pain in our futures.