DeBrincat Defense pairings quinns replacement

Debrincat had 27 goals, was -31 and QO $9,000,000

Olofsson had 28 goals, was -23 and has a salary of $4,750,000 to 2023-24

Skinner became a 200 ft forward, Granato can do the same for Victor

Dahlin-Clifton (208 hits, 120 blks)
Connor has a similar skill set as Samuelsson (107 hits, 91 blks) and was paired with Lindholm when McAvoy was out at the beginning of the season.

Power-Johnson (121 hits, 102 blks)
Johnson will be an on ice mentor for Owen
He will not play 20:00 but will be the primary RHD

Samuelsson-Jokiharju
Buffalo now has a defensive-physical defenseman paired with a puck carrying defender on every pairing.

Decided to go with 8 defensemen as they would need to go through waivers which would weaken the defenseman depth.

Johnson may be a mid season call up.

Skinner-Mittlestadt-Tuch
This line was very effective at the end of the season with a 57.8CF%, 56.3SF% and scored 11 goals while giving up only 4 during the 112 minutes that they were together.

Peterka-Cozens-Thompson
This will give Buffalo two top lines forcing oponents to choose which line will get the defensive attention.
Another option would be to put Greenway in place of Peterka.

Greenway-Jost-Olofsson
This line was together for only 17 min last year but they scored 2 goals while only surrendeing 1.
I considered keeping Mittlestadt with Tyson and Victor as that line had a 52.5 CF%.

Girgensons-Krebs-Okposo
Krebs played on this line 47.3% of the time.
While over all they surrendered 15 goals while only scoring 11 they had a 54.4SF% and 54.9CF%

The final forward spot will be filled by who ever excels during training camp

I did not want to trade assets for one year of a veteran GK.

Comrie will most likely clear waivers as he had a sub standard season last year.
He will give Buffalo an third option if Levi or Luukkonen are injured.

Luukkonen needs to develop consistancy.
He needs to perform up to his December 6-2-0 0.908SV% and January 6-2-1 0.907SV%

Devon Levi needs to build on his success of last season:
5-2-0 0.905SV%
Remove the Detroit game and his SV% jumps to 0.921

Buffalo has drafted too well to waste any picks for one or two years of a veteran GK