Getting better defensively

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Created by: AntiAnalytics

Team: 2024-25 Buffalo Sabres

Initial Creation Date: Mar. 20, 2024

Published: Mar. 20, 2024

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Description

For the Defense:
I obviously kept Jokiharju. He’s played well & i think him & Samuelsson could compliment each other quite nicely- especially if it’s just on the 3rd pair.
Added DeMelo for his defensive zone presence & grit to round out what i think could be a very good defensive group. I love Ryan Johnson as our 7th for when injuries occur, and when everyone is healthy he can rotate in.
Also brought back Stillman & Bryson to play in AHL to give us NHL quality depth

At Forward:
Idk that WPG really wants to trade Iafallo, but I’ve seen his name on here a lot & he makes all kinds of sense for the Sabres. He’s from WNY, and plays a strong 2way game. Our team defense can use some improvement at the forward position imo. He can also move up & down the lineup and play either wing, so that’s beneficial.
This bumps Greenway down to our “checking line” but he can also be moved up & Iafallo slides down- either way.
Sturm is a good 2way Center who can win faceoffs, which we obviously need.
And for the other checking line winger i looked for some physicality who can also forecheck & play defense. Duhaime could be an underrated target for us, but there’s plenty of others who work for our checking line- Lafferty, Trenin, etc etc

What to do in goal ?
With UPL taking such a big leap forward, but still no sure thing, i wanted to snag a decent backup who can play if UPL does take a step back.
That ideally keeps Levi in the AHL as the unquestioned #1 for a full season (unless injuries). He’s got the talent to surpass UPL at some point, but there’s no need to rush his development either.

Overall,
I think this looks more like a “team” as opposed to just a collection of great young talent.
A few tweaks here n there to fill specific roles & i think we could really be into something

GO SABRES !

Free Agent Signings

RFA	YEARS	CAP HIT
Luukkonen, Ukko-Pekka	3	$3,300,000
Krebs, Peyton	2	$2,200,000
Stillman, Riley	1	$1,100,000
Bryson, Jacob	1	$1,100,000
Jokiharju, Henri	4	$4,000,000

UFA	YEARS	CAP HIT
DeMelo, Dylan	4	$5,000,000
Duhaime, Brandon	2	$1,750,000
Nedeljkovic, Alex	2	$2,000,000

Trades

BUF

2025 3rd round pick (BOS)

Additional Details:

Could go anywhere, back to Boston was just kinda obvious to me- but no idea if they’d need/want him

BOS

Clifton, Connor ($1,000,000 retained)
2025 4th round pick (BUF)

BUF

Iafallo, Alex ($1,000,000 retained)

Additional Details:

Idk if WPG would retain, but it’s only for 1 year and i added a 4th on to the typical trades i see where he’s sold for just a 3rd

WPG

2024 4th round pick (BUF)
2025 3rd round pick (BUF)

BUF

Sturm, Nico

SJS

2024 4th round pick (PHI)

Buyouts

Christian Ehrhoff: $0

Retained Salary Transactions

Connor Clifton: $1,000,000 (30%)

Draft	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7
2024
2025
2026

ROSTER

LONG-TERM OUTLOOK

EMBED

TEXT-EMBED

ROSTER SIZE	SALARY CAP	CAP HIT	OVERAGES	BONUSES	CAP SPACE
22	$87,700,000	$87,097,737	$0	$1,500,000	$602,263

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
Skinner, Jeff $9,000,000$9,000,000 LW, RW NMC UFA - 3	Thompson, Tage $7,142,857$7,142,857 C M-NTC UFA - 6	Iafallo, Alex $3,000,000$3,000,000 LW, RW UFA - 1
Quinn, Jack $863,333$863,333 ($850,000$850K) RW, LW RFA - 1	Cozens, Dylan $7,100,000$7,100,000 C, LW UFA - 6	Tuch, Alex $4,750,000$4,750,000 RW, LW M-NTC UFA - 2
Benson, Zach $950,000$950,000 ($650,000$650K) LW RFA - 2	Krebs, Peyton $2,200,000$2,200,000 C, LW RFA	Peterka, John-Jason $855,833$855,833 LW, RW RFA - 1
Greenway, Jordan $3,000,000$3,000,000 LW, RW M-NTC UFA - 1	Sturm, Nico $2,000,000$2,000,000 C UFA - 1	Duhaime, Brandon $1,750,000$1,750,000 RW, LW UFA
		Rousek, Lukas $775,000$775,000 RW RFA - 1

Left Defense	Right Defense	Goaltender
Byram, Bowen $3,850,000$3,850,000 LD/RD RFA - 1	Dahlin, Rasmus $11,000,000$11,000,000 LD/RD UFA - 8	Luukkonen, Ukko-Pekka $3,300,000$3,300,000 G RFA
Power, Owen $8,350,000$8,350,000 LD/RD UFA - 7	DeMelo, Dylan $5,000,000$5,000,000 RD UFA	Nedeljkovic, Alex $2,000,000$2,000,000 G UFA
Samuelsson, Mattias $4,285,714$4,285,714 LD UFA - 6	Jokiharju, Henri $4,000,000$4,000,000 RD RFA
Johnson, Ryan $925,000$925,000 LD RFA - 1

Mar. 20 at 2:16 p.m.

Bruins_Guy613

Joined: Apr. 2016

Posts: 654

Likes: 49

Boston has Peeke now so wouldn't be interested in taking cliffy back at all

Gofnut999 and AntiAnalytics liked this.

Mar. 20 at 2:16 p.m.

DangleCat

Joined: Aug. 2017

Posts: 1,133

Likes: 1,358

That is a lot of money for a lot of years to be paying a third pair....

AntiAnalytics liked this.

Mar. 20 at 2:21 p.m.

AntiAnalytics

Thread Starter

Joined: Jul. 2023

Posts: 5,614

Likes: 3,744

Quoting: DangleCat

That is a lot of money for a lot of years to be paying a third pair....

Yep, did that on purpose
Hence the name of the ACGM

Wanted to see what it would look like

Mar. 20 at 2:23 p.m.

AntiAnalytics

Thread Starter

Joined: Jul. 2023

Posts: 5,614

Likes: 3,744

Quoting: Bruins_Guy613

Boston has Peeke now so wouldn't be interested in taking cliffy back at all

Word. Like i said, didn’t know what they would or wouldn’t wanna do & he could go anywhere.
I don’t think we actually trade him
Just wanted to see what the defense would look like with DeMelo & Jokiharju.
Had to make some Cap Room too

Bruins_Guy613 liked this.

Mar. 20 at 2:23 p.m.

DangleCat

Joined: Aug. 2017

Posts: 1,133

Likes: 1,358

Quoting: AntiAnalytics

Yep, did that on purpose
Hence the name of the ACGM

Wanted to see what it would look like

If you went this route the much more difficult part would be when those forwards on rookie deals come up. I am also very curious to see Tuch's next deal....he loves it in buffalo, but he has also been really friggin good.

AntiAnalytics liked this.

Mar. 20 at 2:25 p.m.

AntiAnalytics

Thread Starter

Joined: Jul. 2023

Posts: 5,614

Likes: 3,744

Quoting: DangleCat

Doing something like this would mean bridge deals for Quinn & Peterka, and (likely) shipping out Skinner before his contract is up

It could work, just wouldn’t be “easy”

DangleCat liked this.

Mar. 20 at 2:29 p.m.

DFinn91

Joined: May 2021

Posts: 511

Likes: 190

Sharks accept.

Letsgosharks and Swusc1026 liked this.

Mar. 20 at 2:48 p.m.

CF18GM

Joined: May 2021

Posts: 627

Likes: 408

I've loved Iafallo this season. He's so good defenseively and can strip the puck off anyone! I feel like if WPG moved him, it would be purely to relieve salary, so I dunno how keen they'd be to retain even just $1M considering they might have to retain on/buyout Schmidt too.

Windjammer and AntiAnalytics liked this.

Mar. 20 at 3:05 p.m.

Howie

Joined: Jan. 2022

Posts: 3,986

Likes: 1,440

Jets keep demelo

Mar. 20 at 3:29 p.m.

#10

AntiAnalytics

Thread Starter

Joined: Jul. 2023

Posts: 5,614

Likes: 3,744

Quoting: CF18GM

Fair
I’m sure we could make it work without retention

Mar. 20 at 3:31 p.m.

#11

Celtics21

Joined: May 2023

Posts: 3,765

Likes: 1,172

Curious. It seems like you are trading Clifton to allocate his money to a backup goaltender. Why not just Levi a shot?

BUFF742 liked this.

Mar. 20 at 3:34 p.m.

#12

AntiAnalytics

Thread Starter

Joined: Jul. 2023

Posts: 5,614

Likes: 3,744

Quoting: Celtics21

Curious. It seems like you are trading Clifton to allocate his money to a backup goaltender. Why not just Levi a shot?

Did u read the description?
I think Levi’s future will be better served by him being the #1 in AHL as opposed to playing sporadically in the NHL
No need to rush his development

Mar. 20 at 3:45 p.m.

#13

AntiAnalytics

Thread Starter

Joined: Jul. 2023

Posts: 5,614

Likes: 3,744

Quoting: DFinn91

Sharks accept.

Idk that we’d actually give up a 2nd
But i figured better to overpay than to waste time arguing about his value

Mar. 20 at 4:04 p.m.

#14

Stadel

Joined: Jun. 2015

Posts: 3,278

Likes: 2,097

Sabres aren't spending to the cap next summer after their STH renewal took a hit. Jets probably retain Demelo or he goes to Toronto

Sturm deal I would guess is very likely I think you nailed that.

Iafallo maybe. WNY guy but hes kinda slow, doesnt seem like a good fit but if they strike out elsewhere the odds of this go up.

Ned makes some sense but budget reasons probably have Levi up with the big club as backup next year.

Id guess they just bet on Clifton not being as bad as he was this year and then move him next summer.

Mar. 20 at 4:05 p.m.

#15

DFinn91

Joined: May 2021

Posts: 511

Likes: 190

Quoting: AntiAnalytics

Idk that we’d actually give up a 2nd
But i figured better to overpay than to waste time arguing about his value

It’s probably around a 3rd, but I don’t think the Sharks move him in the offseason unless it’s an overpay, which this is.

AntiAnalytics liked this.

Mar. 20 at 4:47 p.m.

#16

AntiAnalytics

Thread Starter

Joined: Jul. 2023

Posts: 5,614

Likes: 3,744

Quoting: DFinn91

It’s probably around a 3rd, but I don’t think the Sharks move him in the offseason unless it’s an overpay, which this is.

My thoughts were that he’s a guy who’s gettable
If not him, then we could go after another defensive Center
We have the pieces to get someone one to fill that role pretty easily imo

DFinn91 liked this.

Mar. 20 at 8:26 p.m.

#17

sabres89

Joined: Feb. 2017

Posts: 8,252

Likes: 6,238

I like a lot of this. Adding Sturm and iafallo would help with some of the defensive shortcomings of our forwards, and Duhaime, Lafferty, or trenin would all help add some grit up front too. Demelo or Roy would be nice for what our d needs, if we go the ufa route. I think Clifton started off just awful for the Sabres, but he's rebounded nicely, he's overpaid as a #7, but I don't hate the idea of keeping him. Jokiharju is providing a redundant skill set, I know people like him, I don't think the Sabres wanna throw big money at him, he might be out, and I'm fine with that. Speaking of d that I can see being moved- Samuelsson wouldn't shock me as a guy to move- Byram is gonna get paid at some point, and you're giving demelo or Roy money in ufa, they aren't gonna throw money at everybody. Which is probably ryan Johnsons best feature right now- he's decent and he's cheap. That's about the most I would expect from adams- I'd like to imagine an aggressive move like power (plus) for a Tkachuk, but this ain't the guy to do that, sure trading mittelstadt for Byram looks like a huge trade, but mittelstadt wasn't adams pick, he was due to get paid, his skill set (decent offense, suspect defense, no physical game to speak of) was duplicated, and Byram needed a change of scenery. Power was adams pick, that matters, he isnt going anywhere.

Mar. 20 at 8:46 p.m.

#18

AntiAnalytics

Thread Starter

Joined: Jul. 2023

Posts: 5,614

Likes: 3,744

Quoting: sabres89

Not sure where the trading Powers talk is coming from
That’s pretty unlikely imo

Brady Tkachuk would be great, but I’ll believe Ottawa trades him when it actually happens

As far as what we do w the defense,
I know what i did here was t the likely way we go- but i wanted to see how it would look

sabres89 liked this.

Mar. 20 at 9:20 p.m.

#19

sabres89

Joined: Feb. 2017

Posts: 8,252

Likes: 6,238

Quoting: AntiAnalytics

The power stuff was just me. Taking a swing for a Tkachuk would cost big. Depends on what you like of course, but, again, adams drafted power, no chance he's moving him. Your team is much more realistic, no major swings, filling areas of need and paying market value to do it.

AntiAnalytics liked this.

Mar. 20 at 9:21 p.m.

#20

AntiAnalytics

Thread Starter

Joined: Jul. 2023

Posts: 5,614

Likes: 3,744

Quoting: sabres89

That what my typical thought process is here
Fun to dream for guys like Tkachuk,
but i usually try to stay more realistic

sabres89 liked this.

Mar. 23 at 7:49 a.m.

#21

BUFF36

Joined: Apr. 2020

Posts: 5,715

Likes: 4,783

What are you doing with Byram, gonna have to pay him to. Think Samuelsson becomes a trade chip.

Mar. 23 at 11:31 a.m.

#22

AntiAnalytics

Thread Starter

Joined: Jul. 2023

Posts: 5,614

Likes: 3,744

Quoting: BUFF36

What are you doing with Byram, gonna have to pay him to. Think Samuelsson becomes a trade chip.

Might have to find a way to move Skinner bc Quinn & Peterka will need contracts after next year as well

It’s not a perfect plan really
Just wanted to see what it would look like w Jokiharju plus an additional top4 RD

BUFF36 liked this.

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