I dont see Reinhart ever playing a center.. other than that its not that bad

Girgensons on the top line with Olofsson on the 3rd hmm

That's a bold strategy cotton lets see if it pays off

The idea is that girgensons can act as the garbage man for hall and eichel, digging pucks out, keeping in defensive position when eichel and hall take offensive chances, forecheck etc.

it leads to an actual lineup and not a collection of misfits as a 3rd line.

The last time the sabres were contenders, their third line was vanek (84 points including 43 goals) Afinogenov (61 points in 56 games) and roy (63 points in 75 games)

If ruotsalainen can handle center in north america then put him there and olofsson LW and reinhart RW.

I think sam can play center and I think it makes sense to try it.

I dont see it happening, not because the idea doesnt have merit, but because the season is going to be short season, we have a murderous division, and any experiments would be brief unless they paid off right away. Who would carry the puck on that line- neither reinhart nor olofsson are particularly fast, i think both need somebody to make space for them, and zone entries have been a sore spot away from eichels line. Maybe swap ruotsalainen and skinner, so skinner can get the puck into the zone with speed.

I hope he didn't suggest those pairings though - neither Dahlin nor Miller has played above 3rd pairing at the NHL level. This is akin to throwing them to the wolves.

It's nice to see Buffalo is gathering talent though... they could be a force in the near future.

I dont mind reinhart at center but looking at what ruotsalianen is doing rn. I would to see him try center and he would bebsheltered with reinhart and olofsson. But I like girgs on the top line because I think reinhart skinner or olofsson would be shadowed on that line and we could use the talent in other areas of the line up

If Dahlin isn't playing the most minutes amongst defensemen then Krueger needs to be fired.

FYI, Dahlin played over 21 minutes a night as an 18 year old and 19 minutes a night as a 19 year old when the coach played 7 defensemen often due to horrible roster management by the GM.

skinner is pretty much penciled in next to staal for sure...they have chemistry and thats exactly what skins needs to get back on track and bounce back

I think I'd try Hall with Staal/Cozens on the 2nd line. We know Skinner can be a 40-goal guy next to Eichel, I don't think you should put both your play drivers on one line.

Ruotsalainen - Staal - Skinner
Olofsson - Cozens - Reinhart

Sabres probably wont need him at center and he's small for an NHL center

I think thats pretty good, I was just going off Matt Bove's idea.

at the end of the day, kreuger will trot out:

Hall/Eichel/Reinhart
Skinner/Staal/Olofsson
Girgensons/Eakin/Thompson
Rieder/Lazar/Okposo

keep ruotsalainen in AHL to make him "earn it" and make cozens go back to the WHL

and play ristolainen 25 minutes a night and wonder why we miss the playoffs again.

Dahlin was on the 2nd pair, he was also not even 20 yet. Youre saying that like hes an actual 3rd pair scrub

Ah Maxim, one of my favourite goals ever!

I think a lot of people assume the reason that hall signed here was specifically to play with eichel, so he can maximize his next contract. I dont know what the conversation sounded like when they pitched him on playing here, kreuger may have pitched him on playing with eichel. Kreuger was the guy that wanted skinner to carry his own line, unfortunately the gm only gave him marcus johansson, connor sheary, and evan rodrigues to play with, so we dont even know for sure that he cant carry a line.

He didn't only give him Johansson, Sheary and Rodrigues to play with.

He also gave him Sobotka, Lazar, Vesey, Simmonds and Frolik to play with.

Poor Jeff.

5v5 TOI:

http://naturalstattrick.com/playerteams.php?fromseason=20192020&thruseason=20192020&stype=2&sit=5v5&score=all&stdoi=std&rate=y&team=BUF&pos=D&loc=B&toi=500&gpfilt=none&fd=&td=&tgp=410&lines=single&draftteam=ALL

He's being sheltered on the 3rd pairing. No shame in that - pretty sure Hedman didn't start playing 1st pairing comp until he was 25 IIRC.

See post #19 above. It's not a slight, its a fact.

They did a youtube video on the Hall signing, that has the majority of their pitch to Hall. Hall also facetimed Krueger later that weekend.

Based on TOI that means nothing, Dahlin missed 10 games and that list is missing players as well

That list is TOI PER GAME, so yes, it means something. And here's his TOI vs Elites...

http://puckiq.com/woodmoney?season=20192020&tier=Elite&positions=d&team=buf&group_by=player_season_team&min_toi=100

Im curious to see how much Ruotsalainen's production drops when they loose their best player to training camp

putting Reinhart on the 3rd line is a surefire way to see him out of Buffalo.
real good idea, go with that.