The Sabres have addressed one glaring weakness, but is another still there

Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres went all in on trying to be a harder team to play against and Kevyn Adams has accomplished that on Monday. First on Friday, Adams traded for Beck Malenstyn. As free agency opened Monday, Adams signed Sam Lafferty and Nicolas Aube-Kabel. It certainly makes the Sabres a better team because they will be much harder to play against, but there’s still more work to be done.

Buffalo is in desperate need of a top-6 forward and signing Jason Zucker doesn’t give them that. Adams likes Zucker and between him and what they already have, Adams thinks that will take care of the scoring,

“He can play up and down the lineup, very competitive, he can play a higher skill game or play a more physical type game if you need and just felt that was the type of guy we were looking for that could be in that mix of the group of nine somewhere, wherever Lindy decides to use him.”

So that would mean either Zucker, Zach Benson or Jordan Greenway are in your top 6, that’s not good enough. Adams said,

“I’m not concerned about our talent or skill level or our ability to score goals, I believe we have that in our room.”

So many would say from that, Adams is hoping that Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch and Dylan Cozens will just find their scoring touch again, or hope that Jack Quinn stays healthy or JJ Peterka improves to 30 goals. Adams said,

“You have to have substances to what you’re trying to do and after a lot of conversations with the players and different coaches, there’s a belief is the better word (than hope) the Tage Thompson’s of the world and Alex Tuch and Dylan Cozens and Jack Quinn and these players are going to take steps to improve their own individual game and some of it will be the way we’re going to play which is the predictability and playing a faster, more direct game.” Meaning having Lindy Ruff will help the offense.

Adams didn’t sound overly optimistic that they’ll be getting a top-6 guy. He said,

“When the dust settles a little bit, we’ll see where different teams are, but I really like our group now, I like it a lot. I like the look of our team, we had goals in this off-season that we were trying to achieve and I think we’re a much better team today than we were a couple of days ago.”

The Sabres are still around $21 million under the cap with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Peyton Krebs, Henri Jokiharju and Beck Malenstyn still needing to sign contracts. Adams said,

“Part of it is when you have some younger players, there are just going to naturally be some different cap numbers. There are players on entry levels and I’m pretty sure Jack Quinn and JJ Peterka will have contract numbers that will look different, (you can add Bo Byram, Ryan Johnson and Devon Levi to that too), so we’re trying to build a team, and I don’t get overly focused on exactly what that looks like today, like are you going to spend up to the cap, we’re going to put the best team we possibly can on the ice.

“You can go get other guys and contracts that you may regret too and then you’re trying to figure out how do I get out of this, and that’s what we’re trying to avoid, we’re trying to build this the right way with discipline, but also we recognize that this team needs to win, I understand that and that’s why we focused our attention on how we were looking to improve in the off season which I think we’ve done so far.” Adams added,

“We have to hold up our end of the bargain here and win more hockey games and become a playoff team, but we’re on that journey now and that’s where we have to take a step.”

Early in the press conference Adams said,

“I want players that want to be here and players that give me a quick, ‘I’m not sure I want to be a Sabre' because of whatever, I then move on to the next, I don’t even give it a second thought.”

Later, when asked about what he said, he did give it a second thought,

“Anytime you’re recruiting a player, it’s more of a conversation of here’s what we’re trying to do in Buffalo and here’s why and here’s the people like Lindy Ruff, you’re explaining the philosophy, I mean you’re never just going to say ‘I’m moving on, because you might not want to be in Buffalo', you’re going to at least try to help them understand what the great parts of this city are away from the rink and all the different part of being a Sabre and what that means.”

Here’s a look at what the Sabres could look like:

Peterka – Thompson – Tuch

Benson – Cozens – Quinn

Greenway – Krebs – Zucker

Malenstyn – Lafferty – Aube-Kabel

DEFENSEMEN :

Dahlin – Power

Bowen – Jokiharju

Samuelsson – Clifton

Bryson

GOALIES:

Luukkonen

Levi