Summer time is officially here, and with it comes warm weather, vacations, and most importantly, no hockey to watch. While there are still one or two things that we’ll be keeping an eye on (Johnny Oduya signing, Ryan O`Reilly’s punishment, a few RFA contracts) for the most part the Buffalo Sabres and the hockey world in general are closed for business until September.
So what do we do until then?
Plenty! Here’s our Die By The Blade meta update for the summer, letting you know what we’ll be doing in the coming months, and asking for your suggestions on what you’d like to see.
Welcome Ryan Evans
Before we get in to all that, however, I wanted to introduce a new writer to our staff, Ryan Evans. Ryan has written for SBNation’s College Hockey blog, College Hockey News, and The Daily Cardinal, among others, and graduated with a journalism and mass communications degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013. I’m excited to have him on board, and to start reading his work with us.
You can check out more of Ryan’s work here, and make sure to follow him on Twitter @ryanmevans.
Top 25 Under 25
In the coming weeks we’ll begin a series that’s quickly becoming a summer tradition ’round these parts, the Top 25 Players Under 25. Our staff is currently voting now, and let’s just say that with the addition of new prospects and young players like Evander Kane, this year’s list is much more difficult to parse than previous years.
We’re also excited to include Kris Baker of the fantastic Sabres Prospects in this year’s voting. Kris’s informed opinion will help flesh out many of the lesser known players in the Sabres system, and we’re excited to have him on board. You can check out last year’s series here, and look for this year’s series to begin in the coming weeks.
Buffalo Beauts coverage
Buffalo is one of four cities that will have an NWHL team next season, along with Boston, Hartford, and New York, and we’re considering finding a way to host regular Beauts coverage on this site. Let us know in the comments if coverage of another professional Buffalo hockey team is something you’d be interested in reading.
Community Guidelines
We’ve had a big influx of new users over the past few months with the excitement of the race to 30th, the hiring of Dan Bylsma, the draft, and free agency. If you’re a new user who recently joined DBTB, welcome! If you haven’t had a chance (or if it’s just been a while) make sure to check our our short, simple Community Guidelines for how we want this place to run. We don’t treat the comments section like the black hole that is the rest of the internet, so let’s be sure to keep this a fun, friendly, and intelligent place to talk Sabres hockey in the coming months.
What else would you like to see?
The summer is a time for hockey fans everywhere to relax, but it also means we can do some things that would be much more difficult or time consuming to do during the season. What would you like to see us do on DBTB this summer? I can’t promise we can or will do everything, but if you’d like to see more statistical analysis, feature pieces, fantasy GM posts, bracket-style voting contests, or just general silliness, now’s the time to let us know.
This site is as much yours as it is ours, so please share your thoughts on how we’re doing and what you’d like to see more of in the comments, and make sure to keep coming ’round all summer for your Sabres hockey fix.