What are you confused about

My comment wouldn’t save… Neither addition today is a true second pair defender. Logjam at bottom pair rhd. No room for Kulich who is better than Greenway, Jost, Krebs and Okposo.

Kulich isn't a 4th liner, not sure why you'd want him there. These are upgrades.

It's also 142 pm on July 1st

I don’t nor never said I wanted Kulich on the 4th line…

Skinner Thompson Tuch
Mittelstadt Cozens Peterka
Kulich Krebs Greenway
Girgensons Jost Okposo

Trade Olofsson or Greenway. Also, yes it’s July 1st but they added 2 more 5-6 rhd. Hopefully Clifton can play like a 4

I don’t nor never said I wanted Kulich on the 4th line…

Skinner Thompson Tuch
Mittelstadt Cozens Peterka
Kulich Krebs Greenway
Girgensons Jost Okposo

Trade Olofsson or Greenway. Also, yes it’s July 1st but they added 2 more 5-6 rhd. Hopefully Clifton can play like a 4

Put Dahlin on his left side and all is well. Pretty solid D pairings if you ask me.

My comment wouldn’t save… Neither addition today is a true second pair defender. Logjam at bottom pair rhd. No room for Kulich who is better than Greenway, Jost, Krebs and Okposo.

I believe you're technically correct when you state that neither Johnson nor Clifton (yet) are top-4 defensemen.
Yet! Boston had 4 very good D-men ahead of Clifton.
When MCavoy was out, Clifton was paired with Lindholm.
Neither may be top pairing but as you alluded, they are an improvement over Bryson, Stillman and Lyubushkin.
It was great that Buffalo now has more than adequate D-men depth.
But I do believe these were good signings for a few reasons...

1) Clifton may yet prove himself to be a top-4 defenseman, limited opportunity in Boston and he does have good analytical number
2) Johnson adds a veteran presence this team needs on the back end. Last season Lybushkin was their most veteran D with about 200 careeer Games Played.
3) Clifton & Johnson may have cost a bit more than some thought he would, but the term, (3yrs for Clifton & 1yr for Johnson) allow the team to build young depth behind these players, while not being stuck with them long term either.
4) It must also be considered that when you have 3 defensemen like Dahlin, Power, and Samuelsson, you have to consider that about 70-75 minutes per night are covered by those three. 120 minutes need to be played in a typical game by a teams' defense group, but cut it down another 5min bc on PP's there's usually only one defneseman. So 115 minus 70 is 45 minutes to be played by the other three. That equates to roughly 15min each for the bottom 3 defensemen on our team. Johnson & Clifton, and whomever of Jokhiharju, Stillman, Lybushkin, & Bryson that they keep & dress can cover that.


on your other statement regarding the forwards I believe you're incorrect, particularly when you take the Quinn injury into consideration.

1) At this point, without any more roster moves I'd suspect that Bryson & Comrie are placed on waivers and sent to Rochester Completely agree, they will run wth Levi and Luukkonen.
2) that leaves you with 8 defensemen & 13 forwards

Skinner-Thompson-Tuch
Peterka-Cozens-Mittelstadt
Greenway-Krebs-XXXX
Girgensons-Jost-Okposo
extra skater) YYYY

X & Y can be covered with multiple options:
Olofsson
Rousek
Kulich
Savoie
Rosen
To a much lesser extent:
Murray
Weissbach
Cederqvist

The Sabres have time because Quinn will start the season on LTIR.
That allows them to keep two of the above mentioned players.
Personally my bet, barring a trade would be Olofsson & Rousek or Savoie if they give him the Shane Wright treatment.
But... I do expect Olofsson to be dealt. They have so much forward depth that I don't believe they want Olofsson to be the answer to a Quinn injury. They want one of these younger guys to step up and grab that role. OK, I am crazy here, but Adams sits on a horse shoe.
Benson miraculasly fell into his lap, he tried to trade up to get Wahlberg and he was available at 39, then McCarthy should have been taken in the second round but was available at 86.
Quinn's injury could open up a spot for Olofsson.
Granato got Skinner to play a 200 foot game if Olofsson can do the same, he will return much more at the TDL.
That could be another horse shoe moment.

Well thought out nice job.
See my comments in your text.