Do the Sabres have a Mattias Samuelsson problem?

Do the Sabres have a Mattias Samuelsson problem?

The Sabers lose Matias Samuelson for the rest of the season how did the season go and do we have to start worrying about this contract above all others that’s coming up here in the locked on Sabers Podcast your locked on Sabers your daily podcast on the Buffalo Sabers part of the locked on podcast Network your team every Day And thanks for making lock on Sabers your first listen every day we have free and available wherever you get your podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day today’s episode is brought to you by sleeper download the sleeper app use the promo

Code locked on NHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit terms and conditions apply see sleepers terms of use for details not a fun show to be doing on the Monday out of the allstar break and a big reason why is the sabes despite the fact that they haven’t

Played games in over a week still ended up losing something in defenseman Matias Samuelson important questions to be asked about Sammy squares who hey we had that pool and if you did participate if you’re a listener that took part in that pool we’re going to be donating the

Entire pot to charity as there will be no second winner as one goal is all we got Samuelson season but we’ll go through what the season looked like and whether we have to start to wonder about the contract being a problem for Matia Samson we will also get into a mailbag

Edition of today’s show so all of that is coming up here on the lockdown Sabers podcast if you want to become a sorty go ahead into our group chat and sign up at join sub.com locked ons saers that’s the only time you have to ever go to the

Internet for our group chat is just to sign up there and then from there on everything is through your phone like a normal text line if you used to participate in the wgr text lines back in the day uh pretty much shooting for the same thing and we’ll be running

Through it uh come tomorrow night when the Savers play the Dallas Stars at home that’s what’s next up on tap for the Sabers in terms of their schedule but uh samelson is the big loss and before I get into him specifically I do want to point out that he’s a part of a

Overall thought that I’ve had on the blue line which is I don’t really think anybody has overachieved on the Sabers Blue Line this year save for one guy and that’s gotta be Ryan Johnson Ryan Johnson was not even expected to be in the NHL this year it was expected to be

A Rochester season and not only has he played a lot of minutes in the NHL this year but he’s also been really good I think his role should even be higher than it’s been and that might now ha might now happen because of Samuelson being out although I say that and what

Did Don Granado have at practice on Monday afternoon he had Jacob Bryson in the top four with Owen power and he had three defenseman sharing a spot on the third pair between Eric Johnson Ryan Johnson and Conor Clifton now what Granado said is that going forward they’re going to try seven defensemen

Back to this nonsense which not my favorite but they don’t want to call up Isaac rosan they don’t want to call up Yuri Kik they want to keep those guys developing I guess in Rochester I’m at a point now where I guess fine whatever the season’s over anyway let them cook

Down there but I would have called him up I would have called Kik up if you were asking my opinion specifically uh with all of the uh the roster maneuvering especially now seven defenseman and samuelson’s not one of them Jacob Bryson has got to be in the

Lineup not my favorite uh at all so samuelson’s injury we don’t really know what it was that’s you know they they’ll play koi whenever they have the opportunity to not tell you what an injury is and this is one of those times where we don’t specifically know what he

Is having a procedure on we know it’s an upper body injury um and that he’s going to have surgery but we don’t know what it is I mean you have to assume I mean it’s surgery it I mean be anything it could be the shoulder it could be the

Wrist it could be a forearm it could be the neck I feel like if it was the neck we would find out because of how severe that would be or how serious that would be but I don’t know nobody nobody knows with the NHL these days and injuries

Like that so they don’t get Samuelson the rest of the way and that is becoming a big part of his game is a big part of his story I should say is the injuries and it’s hard to not look that direction when this year he plays exactly half a

Season 41 games out of 82 last year he played 55 games you missed 37 games out of 82 the year before that he played 42 games now he played a little bit in Rochester that year uh actually scratched that no he didn’t sorry I was one year off so missed 41 games this

He’s gonna miss 41 games this year he missed 37 games the year before that he missed 39 games the year before that and in his first season that was the one where he played 12 in Buffalo and um played 23 in Rochester even there I mean

Between the AHL and the NHL you might expect well if you played 12 games in Buffalo you got a little bit more than that right but nope 35 games was all he got and now you’re looking at it and if I include Rochester 173 games of pro hockey experience in Four

Seasons Four Seasons I mean we are talking like 320 available games for him to be played not quite to that extent because of the first year was a little bit of a co co shortage shortage but he’s playing like half the games a little over half the

Games that he could be playing and that’s not good he’s a big body 6’4 230 PBS he likes to block shots you know he’s a he’s a big he’s a physical penalty killer he try he plays a semi-physical style he’s not Scott Stevens you know trying to run people

Down but he plays a physical style he’s banging bodies out there a lot um and he gets injured so I I’d say well the guy’s got to change his style or else he’s not gonna ever be able to stay healthy but uh what What’s he gonna do he’s not a

Puck mover he’s not a great skater uh he’s not a scorer like there’s nothing else he can do his value comes in that physical style of defensive defenseman hockey uh he doesn’t he can’t do anything else and be an NHL player so you kind of have to just keep playing

Him the way he’s been playing maybe they think okay well let’s at least restrict his minutes a little bit rather than playing him over 20 minutes a night which has happened each of the last three seasons last year was over 22 minutes a night maybe just to keep him

Healthy we have to make him more of like an 18 minute a night defenseman and I think his play maybe even warrants that I think his play does warrant that a little bit of a reduction in minutes I don’t think he’s been terrible but if he played 18 19 minutes and somebody else

Was capable of playing above him on the top pair um I think that probably would be a good place to end up that would mean the Sabers Blue Line got better in the last month I’ve done two trade shows on this podcast that you can go back and

Find in the feed wherever you’re listening or watching you can watch on YouTube and I did a show on Rasmus Anderson who right now if the Sabers acquired him from Calgary would play Above Matias Samuelson in the lineup and David Urich I did a show on last week

Out of Columbus top prospect by the way he’s not even like a super offensive defenseman scored a hatrick in Cleveland in the AHL during this off week so that dude is showing I’m I need to be in the NHL Pronto and I don’t know he’s certainly got the potential to play

Above Matias Samuelson and to even do it at some point soon so there’s moves to be had out there that could be the right type of fit for guy that either would or would project to play Above samelson in lineup you knock him down to the second

Pair you play him a few less minutes and you hope that helps keep him healthy I don’t know what else you do that’s the only thing you can do other than cross your fingers and assume that he’s just got and hope that he’s just gotten unlucky in the past couple of years what

Does it mean though for the story of his contract do we have a problem do we have a our first anchor on the Sabers cap since Jason botol was the general manager because Kevin Adams has avoided those big anchor contracts we have to ask the question if Matia Samuelson is

About to become an anchor that’s coming up here on the locked on Sabers podcast thanks for making us your first listen every day we are presented here on the show by sleeper it’s past the halfway point of the season it’s not going well 10 points out but that’s okay remind you

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For the rest of the 2023 24 season and if you look at the season that he just had he did see an improvement in his defensive numbers in his own and and my eyes I thought he was fine solid in terms of his play in the defensive Zone

If you look at some of the chart stats that do it by percentile in the past he’s been right around 70 percentile in the defensive Zone and this year he was at the 80th percentile League wide incl including being a great penalty killer getting a lot better um in certain defensive areas

And was a very good penalty killer now where he saw a downgrade if you could believe it this already was not a strength of his game he went from an average transition defenseman in the neutral zone getting the pass up to his forwards sometimes carrying it if he had

To although carrying it I guess he was he was okay this year to my eyes but his transition game through the neutral zone went way down he went from an average transition defenseman to a bad straight out bad transition defenseman and even his play in the offense Zone whether

It’s how many passes he connected on whether it’s let me straight up points whether it is you know getting pucks to the net because the one thing he really could do in the offensive zone was just try to get it a wrist shot through to

The net all of that has gone down um so not impressed in terms of the overall game this year versus last year it’s not too different but I think what we were hoping for was some more progression right he was 22 years old last year he

Still hadn’t played a full season in the NHL and I think I was hoping all right well there’s so there’s a little bit more here right I mean there’s not going to be a super high ceiling but give me a little bit more become that shutdown defenseman on a night toight basis the

Consistency is something that really had been lacking for Samuelson so you have him if I’m being kind I’m going say plateauing but in reality it’s really more like regression for him as much as all these other guys have regressed has2 and on top of it I got another injury

I’ve got another major injury that’s going to keep him out and he’ll miss half the season a guy that they paid a seven-year deal for $ 4.28 five million per year Matias Samuelson is under contract until 2030 he’s here for the Long Haul and you

Know what I’m not even going to call him a Miss yet on this contract but what rule of thumb rule of odds you sign enough guys early like they did with Tage like they did with cousins like they did with uh Power like they did with samelson you’re gonna have a Miss

You’re gonna have a miss or twoo and this is not looking good this is not looking good because if he can’t stay healthy big problem very big problem because that’s a that’s a nice little chunk of your C of your blue lines cap that you are investing in him to be a

Top four defenseman on a year-to-year basis on a game- to game basis a week to week basis you can’t go half the year without him that’s not going to work so I don’t know what you do about it I mean I don’t think anybody’s gonna want to

Take that contract I threw him in as an idea for Calgary before he got injured I could have thrown him in as an idea for Columbus teams that would like to acquire a player on term because they historically have problems getting guys to sign but why would they want samelson at

$4.25 million 4.28 they’re going to sign up for seven years of this guy when they don’t know how healthy he’s gonna be that entire time so it doesn’t look like a good contract in fact I’d say right now it’s the worst contract on their books now I think somebody’s out there

To to argue that power is the worst contract on their books because of the added capit I mean pow capit is double of what samuelson’s is but I am still entrusting Powers Talent first overall pick the Victor Hond comparisons the better skating ability better passing ability better offensive

Instincts younger by three years than Matias Samson I’m going to trust that power will figure it out Dalene had some a sophomore slump and even a third-year slump it can take defenseman a couple of years I’m not impressed by what I see by power at all I don’t want to be

Defending him too much here but because of the talent level I’m going to and trust that power is going to figure it out samelson this might be what he is but as the player like power could get 80% better as a player he really could

He could he could get Triple as good as he is right now samelson might get a little bit better but like 10% better 15% better it’s not going to be a lot this is a about what he is and if I add injuries on top of that this is the

Worst contract they have Skinner at the very least only has three more years after this season I know it’s nine million and Skinner produces you know he might not produce at a $ n million rate but he produces the samelson contract as long as he continues to get injured and

Doesn’t provide them consistent top pair production or even second pair production uh he’s the worst contract that they have on their books at at this point in time if you uh if you ask me so I don’t hate the player I am hoping he’ll get back healthy for them next

Year um and to be fair to him a lot of the blue line has stunk this year dalen’s had a down year Clifton’s had a down year Johnson has been shot all year if you ask me uh Jacob Bryson’s even been worse if if you could believe that

Uh who else I think Yoki Haru maybe has gotten a little bit better power’s gotten worse from last year everybody in the Blue Line’s kind of gotten worse kind of amazing right that they’ve actually given up fewer goals goal tending is the reason that’s been happening by the way um blue Lon hasn’t

Been producing Samson’s a part of that got to get better in the future uh if he’s going to be a part of this core for the long term and they’re not going to try to cap dump him or something at some point I don’t even know so that’s it on

Samelson we’ll uh see him in October right and we’ll fire Sammy squares back up for next season we’re gonna be donating that whole thing to charity we are I’m figuring out how would which don’t charity we’re going to donate that to still so if you’re interested in where we’re

Going to send that money uh keep it locked to this podcast and also I’ll show everybody on Twitter at sneaky Joe Sports when we end up doing that uh sometime soon here uh time out here when we come back mailbag I asked for some questions on Friday I got overzealous I

Got excited about the Olympic announcement so we’re going to dive into your questions from the weekend uh on the Sabers as they return to action on Tuesday coming up here in the locked on Sabers podcast we’re brought to you by FanDuel sports book make Super Bowl happy Super Bowl to all who celebrate

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Lock on Sabers podcast it is time to look through the mailbag as we go to our text line if you want to jump in join sub tex.com slocked saers sign up today I think the most fun we have is usually during games I send practice updates in terms of line

Combinations and PowerPlay updates before anybody else gets them Scoops that I have once in a while I always like to throw in there as well and when we do mailbags you can get your questions uh through uh quicker uh if you want to do it there let’s start with

Our text number one from the weekend do you think the exposure to losing and fan dis dissatisfaction is going to have a long-term effect on the growth of the young players this is a thought I wonder a lot and a lot of it is because all these young players that have cycled

Through here and have been called out for their compete level or something go to other places and they’re just fine Reinhardt tremendous in Florida eel won the cup O’Reilly won the cup Leonard was a vzna finalist of Vander kanes won like seven playoff series since he left Buffalo

There’s I I hope this isn’t true and I hope it’s just something you think about when times aren’t going well but I wonder if there is just a dark actually leoner said this once upon a time there’s a dark cloud in that Arena and it brings everybody down it’s the logo

On the Jersey it’s the colors it’s the the fan atmosphere which is not on the fans I mean there they have no they have no reason to be cheering loudly and creating a giant atmosphere I think maybe it does wear on players a little bit it kind of to to

Borrow from another former saber O’Reilly it can suck the life out of the game for you I worry that that happens because of just the team and then you know the drought right like it was it’s a Snowball Effect it just keeps growing and growing and growing until it’s it’s

So big and going so fast down hill that you can’t stop it and I really hope that’s not true and that I’m just making something you know I’m just trying to explain away all this misery but I worry about that I worry that this this whole Aura of the Buffalo Sabers gets the

Worst out of people and that Casey mdstat hey look pretty nice player right I worry that he would go to another team and become a 70 80 Point player I worry that oh Tage Thompson you know now he’s gonna be a 253 goal guy and he’s you

Know going to be falling all over the place and then he’s going to leave and he’s going to go score 50 again these are pretty dark and depressing uh types of subject matter uh next question say they missed the playoffs this year which gonna happen do you think Adams caves

And makes a massive move under the pressure of the fans and possibly ownership I do not think this I wish he would I do not think this part of the reason is hasn’t happened yet I haven’t seen it I don’t have proof I don’t have any

Proof of concept that this GM can go out and make a trade like that I think he should be trying to but when it’s time to pull the trigger on a big deal like that and you got to outbid the opponent and probably out you got to you got to

Overpay a lot right that’s the that’s the that’s the benefit of having more assets than everybody else is when they pay market value you can bid them up a dollar but they’re not just going to give and they know you have more assets you’re GNA have to outbid teams I don’t trust

That Adams can outbid teams until I see it happen I don’t won’t believe that they’ll be a major trade and this kind of goes along with another comment another question that I had in the text line do we think Adams’s plan is still to build entirely from

Within I unfortunately do I think Adams thinks I don’t have to make a big trade this is still the youngest team in hockey it’s not a great season it’s not fun it’s not meeting our expectation but I’m not going to panic not going to panic we’re still the

Youngest team in hockey petka is 22 power is 20 Thompson’s our oldest player at 25 I worry that Adams is gonna think the internal competition internal growth is going to be what drives them hope I hope that works I just I don’t see it I think

It’s going to take too long and players will age out and you’ll miss on some and then at the end of the the day you’ll have missed opportunities on trades and free agents that really could helped you put over the put you over the top uh a

Good question though from both of those guys I talked about Lindy Ru last week and some got a couple textur about Lindy so I want to get one in on that um instead of Lindy Ru being coach make him GM and get rid of Adams would avoid another embarrassment if Lindy doesn’t

Perform good and if Granado gets fired go after Woodcraft uh he is able to Edmonton playoff multiple years okay so one I don’t really have any opinion of Jay Woodcraft he’s just kind of a guy to me um fine I would much prefer him over Seth Apert or Matt Ellis I could tell

You that much um and you’re right he only got fired this year because the goal tending stunk and then he left and the goal tending got good it KN Block in Edmonton is not actually to me that much better of a coach he’s just getting better goal ending um Lindy as a GM

Lindy once said while he was sab’s coach that in the future he’d like to be a general manager he wants to try that before his hockey career is over and he can only do that here you know if he had won more if he had won a cup if

He had won some more playoff series uh I think maybe he would get a shot at it somewhere but because he’s been a little bit up and down since leaving Buffalo I think the only place he would ever get that shot is here and I don’t think

They’re about to move on from Adams unless he gets bumped up the president of hockey operations so maybe Lindy is the sabers g m I have no idea if he’d be good at it but I respect Lindy Ruff a lot I know he would give it his damnedest and uh I mean

Let’s be fair he was as qualified as Kevin Adams was when Adams got the job and Adams’s done a okay job I think he needs to make a trade um could Lindy do at least as good a job as Adams I I think so again more of a track record

For him working in hockey departments and I mean he was in all those meetings with Darcy regir and all those trade deadlines being like the right-hand man in all of those Personnel decisions Darcy so he’s been in those those meetings enough to I think he could he

Could do the job fine um not that I’d be rushing him in there or need to make that happen I love Lindy I don’t need to make it happen uh one more if Casey middle stats only asking for 5.8 million I say you do it and the texter was

Referencing AFP analytics which is a hockey analytics site um and sports site that estimated that middle set’s worth about $5.8 million on a multi-year deal uh .8 million I would lean yes uh I think you could do a little bit better than that I would take that though over

Trading him for Picks and Prospects if I can package middle stat with other stuff and get a better player I would do that over paying him $5.8 million but if it came down to I trade middle stat for a first and a b-level prospect or I sign

Him for seven years $5.8 million I’d rather sign him if you’re asking me good questions thanks everybody for tuning in and or for chiming in and if you want to uh throw us a text question we’ll try to answer it as many as we can on the show

All right that’s going to do it though for us today here on the lockdown Sabers podcast we’ll next talk Sabers and stars the first game back for the Sabers off the allstar break so that’s coming up and yeah we’re back at it they’re wearing black and red against

Dallas let’s get the goat heads going again right what happened to the goat head M momentum they were scoring seven goals every time they wor on and then a couple bad games this year wearing them and like all the magic is gone we got to bring the black and red magic back when

They played the Stars on Tuesday night thanks everybody for listening making us your first listen every day on the lockdown Sabers podcast part of the lockdown podcast Network your team every day talk to you tomorrow

Mattias Samuelsson has a major injury, again, and is out for the remainder of the 2023-24 season. With another injury added to his list, is Samuelsson’s lack of health making his contract one of the worst on the team? How bad contract do the Sabres have long-term with Samuelsson if he can’t stay on the ice?

Plus, where Samuelsson regressed this season, and what his role should be going forward.

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