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We are an hour away from puck drop here in Buffalo.
Once again, the Winnipeg Jets have sent their Director of Pro Scouting to watch Sabres-Sharks tonight.
The same person was here during the last Buffalo home stand. Presumably, the Jets are looking to deal one of their left shot D men in Toby Enstrom or Mark Staurt.
The Sabres D Corps received good news and bad news on Friday when Zach Bogosian was upgraded to day-to-day. Bogosian has been sidelined for the past eight weeks with a lower body injury. The former Winnipeg D-man participated full go in yesterday's team practice. It was the first time in three weeks that Bogosian joined his teammates on the ice.
The bad news was that veteran D Mike Weber went for surgery on Friday to correct a chronic left knee ailment. Weber is now listed as week-to-week and may be lost for up to six weeks.
Before the Weber surgery, Tim Murray was scouring the NHL searching for a veteran left shot D. My guess is that Murray's level of urgency has amped up in recent days.
Murray and Dan Bylsma are not content to stand pat at the .500 mark. An infusion of a veteran D-man could propel the Sabres to higher heights in the NHL standings. Why stand pat when the Eastern Conference is so wide open right now? Aside from the NY Rangers, Montreal Canadiens and Washington Capitals, there are several middling teams that the Sabres could be passing in the standings with a prolonged winning streak. The Sabres have won five of their last six games and are looking to add more wins to their record.
Bogosian and Evander Kane should be returning to the starting lineup shortly. Adding another experienced left handed D to the D corps would certainly fortify an already solid back end.
Toby Enstrom who will earn $5.75 million for the next 4 seasons. Enstrom has high end speed, a fantastic first pass and he plays a complete game.
Mark Stuart has 3 years remaining at $2.65 million. Stuart is a Mike Weber style D in that he is a salty veteran who likes to lay the lumber and block shots. A Stuart-Bogosian pairing may be in the offing as the two D played together previously in Atlanta and Winnipeg.
Murray could not go wrong with either one of the Winnipegers.
Question is: are they available?
My guess is that Enstrom and Stuart are available.
Both lefties are 31 years of age.
The Jets have $11.2 million in available salary cap space today, however, they have five substantial financial commitments that they have to make to core players who are pending free agents. Two of their top four D that will put a ton of pressure on their cap moving forward. One will the belle of the ball come unrestricted free agency. The other is perhaps to top RFA young D in the NHL.
Dustin Byfuglien is a pending UFA and will command north of $7 million per season. It's not likely that Byfuglien will see the open market next summer. Word out of The Peg is that the Jets want to re-sign him to a long term contract extension.
Captain Andrew Ladd will be UFA in July. The Peg want to lock him up long term.
Jacob Trouba's entry level deal expires in July and the pending RFA will be in line for a massive pay raise in the $4.5 to $5 million range per season.
The Jets' number one center Mark Scheifele will be RFA in July and will require a substantial bump in hi spay check.
Energy forward Adam Lowry will be RFA come July. He has earned a bump in pay moving forward.
The need to re-sign Byfuglien and Trouba will likely render Enstrom or Staurt expendable.
The Sabres and Jets would benefit from a trade at this point. Murray would get a dramatic upgrade for his top four D group while Cheveldayoff would create $23 million in salary cap space that he will nee to re-sign Byfuglien and Trouba to their new back-up-the-Brinks-truck contracts.
Other teams scouting Sabres-Sharks tonight are Calgary, Nashville, Montreal, Carolina, Columbus, NY Rangers, Boston, Colorado, NY Islanders, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Chicago.
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Are the Rangers here to scout Sharks wing-center Patrick Marleau?
It was reported earlier this week that Marleau would green light a trade from San Jose to one of three teams: LA, Anaheim or Chicago.
Marleau has a full no move clause.
Sharks grey beard Joe Thornton played on the same line together during the past two lockouts with his best friend Rick Nash. Thornton and Nash tore up the Swiss League during the last two work stoppages.
Food for thought.
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Two 8-8 teams will face off in the Queen City tonight.
The Sabres slept in their own beds last night while the Sharks arrived in their Buffalo hotel rooms at 2:30am after having played in Detroit on Friday night.
They have lost eight straight in Buffalo (0-7-1), and are just 1-15-1 there all-time.
The Sabres are heading north up the Eastern Conference standings, having won five of their past six games. Buffalo are 6-4 in its last 10 games. The Sharks are 4-6 in their last 10 games.
Dan Bylsma said Friday that he and his staff are evaluating their team's performance on a 10 game segment basis. The Sabres went 3-7 in their first 10 game segment. They are in the midst of a 5-1 stretch in the season's second ten game segment.
The Sabres are 6-4 in their past 10 games played. That's where Bylsma wants to be for the rest of the regular season.
“We were looking at 6-4 in a 10-game segment and to do that the rest of the way through the year,” the Bylsma said.
“This segment right now, we’ve won five games in the first six of this group. That means were .500.
It is significant.”
The Buffalo Sabres scouting report for the San Jose Sharks:
Get out to a fast, hard start and score the first goal of the game.
The Sharks have surrendered the first goal in seven of their past eight games.
On Friday night in Detroit, San Jose allowed the first goal of the game, however, scored three unanswered goals of their own to preserve a clumsy 3-2 win over the Red Wings.
The multi-talented Sharks landed just 14 shots on Jimmy Howard in the Detroit win.
Martin Jones faced 29 shots and made 26 saves in the much needed win. Jones, who started the season like a house afire had been tanked in two of his last three starts, including Tuesday against the Islanders in the Sharks’ most recent game.
I'm expecting Dan Bylsma to send Linus Ullmark to the Buffalo crease. Martin Jones will likely counter for the Sharks.
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The Sharks are 0-for-14 over the last six games with the NHL's power play percentage.
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Friday night in Detroit, Patrick Marleau started at center for the first time since a three-game stretch last January. He skated with Joel Ward and Nikolay Goldobin.
Trade rumors continue to swirl around Marleau who allegedly gave a list of three teams to the Sharks GM Doug Wilson--- LA, Anahaim, NY Rangers-- that he would waive his no trade clause for.
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In October and November, the Anaheim Ducks were scouting the Buffalo Sabres rather aggressively.
At that time, the Sabres were trying to sort out their starting goaltending situation. Robin Lehner suffered his high ankle sprain injury in the second period of the season opener against Ottawa. Sabres GM Tim Murray has been looking to add another top four, left handed, veteran defenseman since the summer time.
There has been discussion recently about Buffalo-Anaheim trade talks that began last summer.
Ostensibly, the Sabres and Ducks spoke last summer about a Freddy Andersen trade.
Tim Murray's modus operandi is to be patient and to operate under the radio. Murray is a stealth bomber who keeps to himself. He is always looking to improve his roster. He has shown a propensity to make big, impactful trades like the Evander Kane and Ryan O'Reilly trades.
In the first couple of weeks of the season, the Sabres were a team looking for its primary and secondary goal scoring to emerge. Inconsistent starting goalie play and an erratic offense were symptomatic of a 2-7 start to the season.
Since then, the Sabres have won five of their last six games to even their record at 8-8. The Sabres are now at the .500 mark since the last day of the 2013 calendar year. The Sabres have since gelled as a team and are playing really inspired hockey.
Dan Bylsma and Tim Murray were careful not to push the panic button on their goaltending when the Sabres were struggling. Murray won't say it publicly, but he was interested in upgrading his goaltending. Today, rookie Linus Ullmark and veteran Chad Johnson are playing exceptionally well and ate largely responsible for the recent winning streak.
While they may have found their two-pronged goaltending solution and their primary,secondary, and tertiary scoring, their D corps could still use an added infusion of talent. On Friday, Zach Bogosian skated in practice for the first time on three weeks. Bogosian is nearing his return to the Buffalo lineup. When he returns to the lineup on or before the Thanksgiving holiday, Bogosian will be counted on to play 20+ minutes per game. When you add Bogosian to a talented D corps that already includes Sabres second leading scorer Rasmus Ristolainen, Josh Gorges, Cody Franson, Mark Pysyk, and Jake McCabe.
The Sabres were dealt a fair bit of bad news on Friday when it was announced that veteran D Mike Weber would be undergoing surgery to repair a chronic knee ailment.
How will Murray proceed from here?
I think that Murray will be making a trade. I think that Anaheim will be his trade partner.
Cam Fowler (6'3" 210 lbs.) is the left handed D that Tim Murray is said to be interested in acquiring.
Fowler fits Murray's criteria to a tee:
He is young at age 23. He has term left on his contract at 3 years and $4 million. He also is in need of a change of scenery.
Why would Bob Murray trade away a young, difference making defenseman?
Three reasons:
The emergence of left D Hampus Lindholm.
The desire to move 20 year old top D prospect Shea Theodore to the NHL ranks.
If the Ducks are going to make a trade proposal for San Jose forward Patrick Marleau, they will have to create salary cap space in order to do so.
Theodore was the 26th overall pick out of Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL) in the 2013 NHL Draft.
Fowler was the 12th overall pick in the 2010 NHL Draft. He has been averaging 23 minutes TOI per game this season. He has performed well at both ends of the ice in his six year NHL career. Fowler is a 35-40 point producer. He is a PP and PK standout.
Where would Fowler fit in on the Buffalo blue line?
He is a top four D man who is a 20+ minute per game man.
Dan Bylsma would seemingly love to write the names Bogosian, Ristolainen, Fowler, Pysyk, McCabe, Gorges, Franson on the dry erase board on a daily basis. My guess is that Jake McCabe would be made the seventh D-man, or, would be sent back to AHL Rochester. Personally speaking, I have loved the way that McCabe has played ever since the rookie development camp in July. I feel like McCabe has done everything to earn the respect and trust of Dan Bylsma. McCabe is playing a confident, skilled, physical brand of hockey right now. I'd hate to see him leave the Buffalo lineup.
If and when you get a chance to acquire a defenseman of Fowler's pedigree, you make the trade then work out all of the ice time and special teams assignments on another day. In other words, get your man then build your D pairs accordingly.
The bigger picture view is that the 8-8 Sabres now find themselves in 10th place in the Eastern Conference standings. Tim Murray seemingly has his sights set on earning one of the eight playoff berths in a general speaking wide open Eastern Conference.
Don't tell Tim Murray that his team is not a playoff team this season. He will likely give you a look that will kill and then scoff at your assertion. Murray and Bylsma have assembled a team that can score, defend and stop the puck. Murray seemingly wants to add a difference maker to his blue line to make a real, solid push for the playoffs before all of the other NHL GMs make their trades after the Christmas holidays.
Murray likes to make his deals before the market forms.
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