Yeah Sabres are looking really good these days, only thing worrying me is that goalie tandem.

Levi will be on the team as well
Plan is to carry 3 goalies to start & hopefully Levi asserts himself as our “#1”

We’ll just have to see how it goes

Time will tell how Clifton and EJ impact the D-core. Hopefully they prove to be helpful additions. The goalie tandem is anyone's best guess. You either see Levi be a Calder candidate, see him be hot/cold all season, or have him get sent down to the AHL for periods of time. UPL is a flyer, he's been very streaky. Comrie is a backup at best when healthy. Having 3 wild-cards as options in goal concerns me a bit, but if the D-core is truly improved over last year it will help ease the workload of the goalies.

The offense is going to be such a beast. Even if Kulich and Savoie don't make the team, this squad is going to score a lot of goals

I don’t think the plan is to carry 3 goalies. They have too many defenseman right now for that. I think they carry 8D and 13F leaving room for 2 goalies. I expect Levi to start with UPL and Comrie battling it out in camp.

If Comrie has a great camp I can see 13 7 and 3 goalies to start season. UPL can’t go down with out being claimed and he won’t make it through waivers. If Levi struggles I can see him starting in Roch and coming up when he is ready and UPL and Comrie starting the season as the goalies. Lot of internal competition. Which Adams believes and says it is healthy.

We’ll see
I don’t think we waive UPL, bc he’ll likely get claimed
I know there’s some “fans” on here who don’t like him,
but the Sabres obviously do- and i highly doubt they’d wanna lose him for nothing

I suppose they could waive Comrie, but he’s the goalie with the most experience- & besides that being helpful to the kids, the Sabres like his analytics & I’m sure think he can be much better with better health

Levi could get sent down, but unless he has a horrible camp he’s probably a lock for the roster


That adds up to us carrying 3 goalies imo
I’d expect a defenseman or 2 to either be sent down or traded
We could also start with just 12 forwards & go from there

If you mean through the draft then yeah, absolutely. That tends to happen when you draft 1st overall twice. If you mean through trades or FA, they are 0 for 2 with Jokiharju and Lyubushkin. Johnson is a thousand years old and isnt very good.

I genuinely like clifton so it pains me that he's being forced into a top 4 role. He could be a terrific third pair option that takes the pressure off of the top 2 pairs. Alas, can't have anything nice.

That right side is pretty scary

Oh yeah how stupid of me, forgot about Levi for a second 🙂 Hope he keeps developing in the right direction and becomes a serious #1.

Lol, no worries

Sabres fans do have high expectations for Levi,
but it’s way too soon to tell about him
Young goalies are so hard to project
But hopefully he works out for us!

That defense will give the scoring, but they have a LONG long way to go to prove that they can actually defend

What's scary is how many hockey fans overlook how weak their right side is because they're so distracted by Power and Dahlin on the other side

I personally think that if Levi ever cements himself as the no-doubt no 1., it won't be this season. Maybe the season or two after, but I don't sense he's an early spring chicken. I don't think Connor Clifton is anything more than a 3rd pair defender who was blessed to cash in when free agency came simply because he shoots right, because his hockey IQ isn't great. Hope you and your fellow Sabres fans aren't expecting too much from him, cause I don't see Dahlin, Power, or even Samuelsson for that matter being able to compliment Clifton the same way Hampus Lindholm did, and now after seeing the Bruins choke like they did, who knows how much of THAT dynamic was real to begin with

Part of why the right side is overlooked is because Dahlin is more than capable of playing on the right side, with much of his best hockey coming from there. Samuelsson and Power are good top 4 defenseman, and the right side has good depth (Jokiharju, Lybushkin, Clifton, and Johnson). Joki and Clifton are both very good for a 5 and each still has potential to become a solid fourth defenseman (Joki has flashed and is young still, and Clifton played well up the lineup for Boston this past year.

Jokiharju came from a different regime, Kevyn Adams didn’t bring him in, he just didn’t move him. I think he’s a solid 3rd pairing defender at this point, but a lot of defenseman hit their peak late so he may yet become a second pairing guy.
Clifton was brought in for 3 years because Kevyn Adams viewed him as someone who has 2nd pairing potential. He had terrific analytics last year playing with Lindholm for Boston when injuries caused the need for it. He was the 5th defenseman in TOI/G on the best regular season team in history. It’s definitely not a stretch to think he could be a 4th defenseman.
Owen Power may not yet be an elite defenseman, but he was a high end 2nd pairing guy last season, and Clifton brings a hard nosed defensive game that complements Power’s skill set well. What Clifton lacks in size/reach, Power compensates for. Power lacks some physicality (yet), but Clifton brings a heavy game. Clifton also produced well when playing with Lindholm, and playing with Power should help that element as well.
I think the 2nd pair mainly will depend on Power’s development. He had a great rookie year, if he seed a sophmore slump (Seider), the 2nd pairing will struggle. If he improves upon last year, it will be a high end 2nd pairing.

I think Samuelsson is an average 2LD at best, but I do think that's good enough by his standards. I personally wouldn't hold my breath on Jokiharju taking a big enough step to becoming a no 4., but I agree that both he and Clifton can be competent no 5. D-men at best. I certainly don't think the Sabres issue is depth on the back end, it's just when you plug Samuelsson next to Dahlin on the top pair, I definitely feel that Owen Power deserves a more talented partner than the likes of Joki, Clifton, or Lyubushkin if they want to properly legitimize their D-core

Well yeah thats just another way of saying that pair will be entirely driven by the first overall pick's performance, not what clifton does. Sorry but everyone had strong analytics in the bruins system, especially defensively. Every single forward on that team committed to structured play in their own end, most were pretty good at it too (this bergeron fella i keep hearing about in the news was apparently okay at it too)

Clifton isnt going to have that luxury here. Massive learning curve for him. I bet his offense takes a step forward at the expense of his defense. We will likely be having the same convo in January about needing a defensive D because clifton couldnt handle it. Not his fault, even by his own admission in his radio interview, he called himself a strong 3rd pair d-man.

@Stadel
@sabresparaavida
@Knuckl3s
Great conversations all excellent POV.
Let me begin, it should be obvious that neither Clifton nor Johnson are top pairing defensemen as they both signed slightly less than 2nd pairing contracts .
Let's cut tp the chase, last season Bryson, Clague, Pilut and Fitzgerald played 132 games.
This season those 132 games will be played by Stillman, Clifton and Johnson.
So that trio does not need to be top pairing just better than AHL performance and that is clearly evident.
If you wish since Samuelsson, Power, Dahlin and Jokiharju all played over 21 min/gm, Johnson and Clifton are upgrading our third pairing TOI performance who played only 14 min/gm.

And regardless of whether Clifton or Jokiharju prove to be great 2nd pairing guys, I expect our 3rd pair to get more ice time than last year. This will let our 4th defenseman play a bit less which should help with playing consistently and be better overall.

I'm still skeptical that this is raising the bar high enough to get into the post-season, considering how relatively low it has recently been