Hey ! I'm doing my preparation for some hockey pools. I'm a habs fan, but I want to know the other teams better. I have some questions :

1. Where will Buffalo finish in the ranking?

2. What will most likely be the PP?

3. Who is likely to have a breakout year or who will surprise in terms of point production? Who is advantaged by the line combinations?

4. Who is likely to have a bad year in point production?

5. How many games each goalie is likely to play?

1. Where will Buffalo finish in the ranking? I could see anywhere from 5th to 7th in the Atlantic as the most likely.

2. What will most likely be the PP? top unit (Tuch, Mittelstadt, Skinner, Thompson, Dahlin) 2nd unit (Cozens, Krebs, Quinn, Olofsson, Power) those are my best guesses but Okposo will also see PP time.

3. Who is likely to have a breakout year or who will surprise in terms of point production? Who is advantaged by the line combinations? This is difficult. I think Cozens could break out as he looks like he really stepped up his game since the WC's. Mittelstadt could also potentially, but he's risky to me as he's looked ready to break out for 2 seasons now.

4. Who is likely to have a bad year in point production? I think Skinner and Okposo regress a bit. Skinner is historically up and down, and Okposo may see less PP time with other options available.

5. How many games each goalie is likely to play? Best guess is Comrie - 42 , Anderson - 20, UPL - 20

You'll probably get vastly different answers from most fans though as many of these questions are subjective or just guesswork.

1. I think they finish 4-7 in the Atlantic.

2. PP1 will probably look like
Cozens
Thompson Tuch. Olofsson
Dahlin
But skinner and Quinn might sneak in there, or switch mitts and tuch if they wanted a more balanced PP lines

3. I think Dahlin puts Norris type numbers up. Cozens has a big jump. And dark horse pick Mittelstadt makes a surprise jump if he stays healthy.

4. Based off of expectations I think Power might be underwhelming to many, but has an overall solid year.

5. Comrie 40-50 Anderson 20 UPL 10-20

Thompson should regress. He doubled his career shooting percentage. He's gonna get opportunities, so he will put up some numbers, but I expect totals to drop. Olofsson played through an injury that he probably should have sat out for. 30 goals is not a stretch for him, he has talent, just has to stay healthy. Jack Quinn is another guy to watch, 61 points in 45 ahl games.

1. 5th or 6th, likely in the conversation for a playoff spot until March-ish is my guess.

2. PP1 will likely change all year. We have a lot of offensive weapons and offensive prospects that need experience, so my guess is Granato won't shy away from swapping things around to get guys like Cozens, Mitts, Krebs, hell even Quinn or Peterka PP1 time. Expect Dahlin, Thompson, and Olofsson to be mainstays though--having guys who specialize in one-timers on both dots is very nice.

3. Cozens is probably the most obvious choice. He played a very good game last year and only picked up steam as the season went on. He just needs to be willing to shoot more, and that's something he seems to be working on. With better wingers to play with too, I think he should see a sizeable jump from his 40pts last season. Mittelstadt is another, he just needs to prove he can be consistent (both production- and health-wise) as his flashes of talent have been very good over the past two years. He was our best player coming out of camp last year, and seemed destined to be our 1st line C, but got injured in the first game of the season.

4. Okposo is my guess. He was shooting almost too well last season, and I think he'll come back down to a 12G + 18A year. Outside of that, I think the NHL world is expecting Power to put up Makar rookie-esque number which is unfair. He won't be getting top-pairing nor PP1 minutes anytime soon, so I can see him having a "good" rookie season and not a "great" one.

5. Like the rest, Comrie gets 40-45 games, and the rest end up being a split between Andy and UPL. I don't see it being an even divide either, I think UPL gets those games through injuries elsewhere, or he earns a spot later in the season and takes over 1B duties.

@Funksoljah
@RoyalBlueSabres
@AudioCats
1. Where will Buffalo finish in the ranking? 5th 90 plus points, in the hunt until the last two weeks.

2. What will most likely be the PP? Last year 11 forwards who played at least 40 averaged more than 1:00 min/gm of PP TOI, I am sure Granato will deploy his players similarly this year.

3. Who is likely to have a breakout year or who will surprise in terms of point production? Who is advantaged by the line combinations? Cozens and Mittelstadt for sure, each will exceed 50 points and 20 goals.
Dylan hit a wall over the last 11 games recording only two assists, Casey on the other hand, playing healthy, had 4 goals and 13 points over the last 20 games.
My dark horse for a break out season will be Asplund. He could exceed 15 goals and 40 points 8 goals and 27 in the NHL last year and 6 goals in 10 games at the WC - 2021-2022.
My darkest horse to break out is Luukkonen. While it is a small sample of 9 games he had a 0.917 SV% last year.
I will leave it up to Granato to find the best line combinations.
IMO the teams end of season surge gave everyone a taste of victory and they will want to feast on it this year.
Power and Quinn will both be strong candidates for the Calder Trophy, Dahlin will be a finalist for the Norris, Granato will get many votes for the Jack Adams Award.

4. Who is likely to have a bad year in point production? Bjork! While many are predicting production drop off from Thompson and Skinner, Alex will not allow that to happen, leading to his earning the "C". Tuch was a huge factor to driving both Skinner and Tage to higher levels. Pre-Tuch Skinner and Tage were on pace for 25 and 30 goals, post-Tuch that jumped to 40 and 48 respectively.

5. How many games each goalie is likely to play? Comrie 50, Anderson 18, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen 14. If the Sabres ONLY need to play 3 GK next year, it would help the team to add a dozen or more points to last year total.

LOL maybe Subban will see more action as well. It was a very smart move to sign him for another season. He gives Buffalo four options at GK in case the skies fall again as they did last year.

Many will consider me an optimist, but Power, Lyubushkin, Peterka, and Quinn will do more for the Sabres than Tkachuk, Giroux, and DeBrincat, will do for Ottawa.
Power and Dahlin on the ice for over 50 minutes a night will apply tremendous offensive pressure for nearly the entire game.
Finally, this team has significantly more depth than last year with Pilut, Bryson, Fitzgerald, Laaksonen all adding defensive depth and Rosen, Kozak, Bloom, Kisakov ready to take the next step to the NHL either this year or next year.
Having Tuch, Samuelson, Krebs, and Mittelstadt for an entire season along with healthy GK with the other additions should be enough to add 15 pts to last years total.

Granato is one of the best coaches, just remember the pundits all figured the Sabres would finish last over all with about 50 pts.
He took this young team and fought through the GK and other injuries for the team to reach 75 points quit the achievement.

Let me close, it is really nice to see a fan of another team requesting information, thank you very much.

This is just me, but if they don't have the goalie injuries of the last 2 years, I think they will contend for 1 of the last Playoff spots.

1. Where will Buffalo finish in the ranking?

If the team stays healthy then I think around 20th in the league

2. What will most likely be the PP?

PP1: Dahlin, Olofsson, Thompson, Cozens, Mittelstadt
PP2: Power, Skinner, Quinn, Tuch/Okposo, Krebs

3. Who is likely to have a breakout year or who will surprise in terms of point production? Who is advantaged by the line combinations?

Dahlin (60+ points), Quinn (rookie, but extremely good), Cozens should breakout and Mitts/Olofsson should be consistent producers all season long (40-50 points each). Everyone is advantaged by lines, that's just the way Granato does it. All lines get good ice-time and he balances the talent well.

4. Who is likely to have a bad year in point production?

Thompson. Not like bad bad but not as good as last season imo. Pretty much all our D will be inconsequential point wise except Dahlin and Power.

5. How many games each goalie is likely to play?

Again this is if fully healthy. Comrie should get 40-50 games, Anderson 20-30, UPL a handful.

Very optimistic but I like that. I agree strongly in the quality of Granato as a coach and how much his ability to foster our young players will lead us to be more successful than we "should" be on paper. I really think Quinn is going to blow his rookie season out of the water. He should get a lot of O-zone starts and be playing with some semblance of Cozens, Krebs, Mitts, Olofsson etc. which are all talented players. He can shoot the puck like an elite NHL goal scorer already, and he has the hockey IQ to be in the best spots offensively which will lead him to getting many "easy" goals.

Thank you!
My optimism is based on my eye test and not what the pundits are reporting.
It is difficult to not see the enthusiasm and camaraderie on the ice.
Remove Dell's awful 1-8-1 record from the 32-39-11 season and the Sabres could have been at 82 pts.
Using 82 as a true base line adding Power, Quinn, Lyubushkin and Comrie and Mittelstadt, Krebs, Tuch and Samuelsson for a full season should add an additional 8 pts.

Im completely with you on most of your opinion and am sometimes even more optimistic because of just how good the team actually was to end the year last year. Many people don't realize that Skinner and Thompson where top 15 once Tuch joined the team in 5v5 scoring. Add some power play scoring in and they should repeat or get better EVEN without Tuch on there line.

The only thing I don't completely agree with is the part about Tuch not letting Skinner and Tomer drop. I think he raised there level but he didn't play consistently with them and struggled a bit to finish out the season. This leads me to believe that Skinner and Thompson just found their confidence together and they ended up becoming a great duo.