Lance Lysowski and Mike Harrington analyze Sabres’ free-agent signings

Lance Lysowski and Mike Harrington analyze Sabres’ free-agent signings

free agency is underway or it’s essentially over right I’m Lance leasi the Buffalo News he’s Mike Harrington unrestricted free agency started on Monday and the Sabres they got a hle of players that we could talk about don’t they they got a fourth line I you do look at it let’s be honest let’s cut to the chase I know everyone wants to jump on where’s the Big Fish we’ll get there we’ll get there the fourth line is going to be tremendously better tremendously more difficult ult to play against in Kevin Adams’s favorite catchphrase when you bring in guys like they got Beck malinin from Washington over the weekend and not today when you bring in Nicholas Obe kubel a guy who’s won the Stanley Cup in Colorado Sam lafy who will go to the net who’ll win you some faceoffs they’ve improved over the names you’ve come to love like Jost and Robinson and gurgenson and even Kyle ooso went on to win a Stanley Cup so they are going to be better at the bottom of the lineup yeah they’re be they’re going to be yeah it’s a physical Group which is what they needed laford is going to start out as a center he won 51% of his faceoffs last year with Vancouver had you know a pretty good season all things consider a kubel’s really good defensively I’d like you know it gives them the option KBS could slot in on that fourth line but like you know if if he doesn’t perform up to a third line Center standard Jason zooker is probably the the guy that I think everybody’s going to be keeping maybe the closest eye on since he did get the biggest contract one year $5 million he scored 20 plus goals six times in his career but Mike since about 2020 the trade from Minnesota to Pittsburgh the consistency has not been there the Sabres are betting that he could be somebody who could play in their top nine and give them a different skill set gets to the front of the net responsible defensively fast right and more experience a different player than Jeff Skinner that’s for sure yeah he’s going to be more responsible than Jeff Skinner he is 32 years old one thing Kevin Adams said which is true on this team he played 52 playoff games in his career already they don’t have a ton of playoff experience on this roster right now so that’s a little intangible there but is Jason zurer really a top six guy no he’s a top nine guy he’s a third line guy they may slide him up to that second line um I’m not a big fan of that but it could work it could work I think he fits really nicely next to Dylan cousins the question is what version are you going to get now you look last year Arizona it’s difficult to evaluate any body who played for Arizona because in that R in the way that they play right it’s very defensive minded team they don’t have a lot of skills so they’re coached to be more responsible sitting back a little bit more but you go back to Pittsburgh Jason zooker skated next of Genny Malin and Brian Russ during a 27 goal season he was very good that year physical he had almost 200 hits that year as well which is odd because that’s such an outlier in his career so the Sabers are really banking on the underlying numbers they saw last year especially the time in in Nashville when Z ER was very well-liked in Nashville was a good deadline ad and played well during his short time there they think he can do that more so than what they saw in Arizona and bounce back in a big way but again like this is a team 23rd in the NHL and goal scored per game last season you take out Jeff Skinner who despite all of his flaws as a player scores goals has a lot of flaws has a lot of flaws Victor olon has even more I’m Pro Jeff Skinner Bou just for the record I think it was simply time I think it is it was as well really like what they did on the opening date of free agency I know that fans are immediately going to be outrage and guess what they have reasons to be skeptical after 13 years they do I do think though this team made steps in becoming more mature and more well-rounded in the way that Kevin Adams said the big question though Mike is is it enough because they are banking on their own guys to to perform like they did two seasons ago and even take another step guys like Tage Thompson Dylan cousins a healthy Jack and an even better year from JJ petka who even though he had 28 goals Mike there’s a lot that JJ petka can accomplish especially with a coach like Lindy R and and to me Jason Zucker you talk about the Sabers betting on him Jason Zucker is betting on himself it’s a one-year deal for $5 million he knows what could happen going forward whether it’s with the Sabers or someone else if he has a big year here if he has a big year he knows he could even go with the trade deadline if the Sabers aren’t going anywhere so there’s a lot in it for Jason Zucker as well but you’re right the biggest thing we’ve taken away from today in my mind is that Kevin Adams believes internally this team can be better from coaching and it can be better from guys playing to their level we saw in 2022 23 I think the Sabers mostly are looking at the 23 24 season as a bit of an outlier and dropping it at the feet of Don Granado and saying our players are going to be better because we now have a better coach in Lindy Ruff and we’ll be better in 202 2425 and I think they’re taking a huge risk on that because right now as you see what’s going on in the Atlantic division and look at roster construction of some of the other teams do the Sabers today and it’s still July 1 it’s early and they still have $21 million to spend if you take out the money we expect them to give UPL Yoki har up Payton Krebs and Beck M are they a playoff team right now probably not but they could be at some point based on future roster moves yeah we we shall see Martin hes of course is still the big fish that’s thought to be available in the trade Market I don’t know if he gets moved now Mike the Hurricanes lost J Jake gensel to the Tampa Bay Lightning and free agency and the Hurricanes want to win I don’t know if he’s actually going to get moved now Nikolai eers and wiip Pig’s not getting moved right now the tradem market in my opinion you look around the league is at a standstill it it’s it’s very tight right now you have to look at teams that might have some cap trouble you know where is Colorado right now with the cap where’s Nashville where’s Washington you know another week or so a lot of these teams are going to really do a heavy reassessment of where they are with the cap they might Circle back to teams like the Sabres but we’ve seen it before trades happen later in the summer Jeff Skinner was acquired in August ma Matthew kachuk was traded from Calgary to Florida about three weeks after free agency so it’s not over by any stretch but it’s the Sabers and there’s a recruitment issue here and there’s a lot of extenuating circumstances to see if Kevin Adams will actually make that big move yeah we will we shall see I do think that at least I think the reaction would be different if we got to the end of the day July 1 and they didn’t have cap space right and they didn’t have assets they could trade they’re in a position now where if a player becomes available you you could make a very significant offer so we shall see if NIS becomes available maybe something unexpected you never know there’s teams around the league Mike who have cap trouble right now right they’re going to have to unload guys there are guys who are going to be available we don’t know what Vegas is going to do yet we don’t know what Colorado is going to do yet it’s still going to be very interesting in the days and the weeks ahead and guess what they still have the door open for one of the prospects to take a jump as well they do I mean you look at roll or or if there’s an injury Kik seavoy and uh and rosan are still around so we’ll see where it lands he’s Mike Harrington I’m Lance lowski talk to you again next time

The Sabres revamped their bottom six Monday and added veteran winger Jason Zucker.