rakish

17 players drafted by the Buffalo Sabres have their name engraved on the cup. One player was first signed as an undrafted free agent by the Sabres before winning a cup elsewhere, to make 18. Of the 18, 4 did not make the requirements to be engraved on the cup, but were engraved anyway. additionally 2 more (so we are at 20) played for the cup winning team that season, but were not included on the cup. I think this should be a group effort, since it's very difficult.

But not alone

I agree with your assessments of Karabecek and Kirkland, but in retrospect, I think the play at 49 should have been what Vancouver did at 50, trade the pick to LA for Linden Vey. The Sabres had another shot at Kirkland in round 3 before Nashville ended up taking him.

The quote will often be two numbers, like 380/400, because in your example the house would not get a cut. So the line would likely be bet 400 on the Pens to win 100, and 100 on the Sabres to win 380 (or whatever, depending on how much the house takes) On preview, there was a Sharks game relatively early in the year (I was still playing) that everyone was excited about the line being high, and the Sabres won that one. I remember it being 330/350 or something like that.

If I had the data, I'd explore the issue, sure. I'd love the combine tests, I've never seen those results, don't think I will

Jordon Schroeder scored very well at 17, but he's too small, you can be small, but you got to score more. Thus when you are looking at 17 year olds, Schroeder has to be compared to players his size. A player like Deslauriers (he's very heavy) can have a NHL career without being a big scorer. Playing style is a valid argument. I don't think it's true though. For me, the question is how accurately can the model predict, forwards are pretty easy, defensemen are much harder. We (Tank and I) disagree on the how good watching works. My best argument is looking at the results of the Combined Scouting Service. (2003 I use a Sports Illustrated prediction because I haven't found the CSS). If you take the highest rated North American player at the Sabres draft position 2003-2011, you get: good player: Dustin Brown, Myers An OK player with Pysyk, Chipchura and Emmerton Nothing: Eminger, Schroeder, Vagner, Wharton, McArdle, Collins, Nigel Williams, Shutron, Cross, Bashirkov, Robak, Stefanovich Yet each season everyone talks about the importance of CSS list.

The model can be described in one sentence, do you score enough based upon your size. Larkin didn't last year. Score needs to be adjusted for your age, for who you play with, for 2 or 3 other variables to get a fair valuation. Grigo didn't have the best of years last year, he was OK, but no better than the year before. Baptiste and Fasching were very good last year.

I spent some time looking at the Detroit pipeline. No charts as of yet because it needs more work, but I can talk about what I believe. From my model's point of view, the Red Wings have terrible early round picks, yet wonderful late round picks. This implies to me that the person watching Youtube of Dylan Larkin highlights selecting the first round pick is a different person than whomever is finding Axel Holmstrom in round 7. I haven't been through every pick, but Holmstrom (featured on the 2014 rakish draft board), Mattias Janmark, Julius Vahatola, all great late round picks. The model doesn't like Larkin (for where he was picked), Turgeon (the son), Bertuzzi (the nephew) I think the easiest way to do this is to do a Sabres/Red Wings pipeline mashup, not counting Nyqvist, because he's out of the pipeline. 1 Reinhart 2 Risto 3 Mantha 4 McCabe 5 Baptiste 6 Sproul 7 Fasching 8 Grigo 9 Compher 10 Holmstrom So who do you want if you're trading with Detroit? I like Sproul, Holmstrom, Janmark, Vahatola, Athanasious, but enough to give up Myers, no thank you.

Does Nolan hold the line-up card, specifically with Mesz?

The Oil writer on Hockeybuzz writes the early MVP favorite is Dallas Eakins. http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Matt-Henderson/G4-Oilers--Coyotes-Throwing-Games/191/63101

I don't think there is any chance it will fry your computer. I think there is a big chance that the site gets shut down and you would lose the money you had put in. Another option is using VPN (about 5 bucks a month) to hide where you are located (Josie recommended Tunnel Bear to me), then use NHL's product to watch the Sabres.

Eleven, if you read through this reddit page, I think your questions will be answered.

I like to be unique

Sabre ? prospect Joseph Blandisi leads the OHL in scoring. I expect the lead to disappear when the Erie Otters play their 5th game. Blandisi was drafted by Colorado in 2012, unsigned, invited to the Sabres' camp this season, assigned by Buffalo to the OHL. Is he Sabre property? I don't know. He's not one of the 50 contracts. Eliteprospects.com says Blandisi reminds them of Steve Ott.

I expect a waiver wire pickup this week, McNabb if he's exposed. Taking Freeman's list, move Foligno or Weber down a line, then Flynn, Mitchell or Strachan to Rochester.

According to Capgeek, this is what the contracts look like for borderline NHL players. The first list is players that must pass through waivers. The second list are exempt players. 2014-2015 AHL NHL 2015-2016 2016-2017 Flynn: $650,000 $650,000 McCormick $2,000,000 $2,000,000 $1,500,000 $1,500,000 $1,000,000 $1,000,000 Mitchell: $2,500,000 $2,500,000 Foligno: $1,500,000 $1,500,000 $2,250,000 $2,250,000 Kaleta: $1,250,000 $1,250,000 Weber: $1,500,000 $1,500,000 $2,000,000 $2,000,000 Benoit: $800,000 $800,000 Deslauriers $625,000 $625,000 $650,000 $650,000 Delpe $275,000 $700,000 Strachan $250,000 $650,000 Reinhart $925,000 $2,650,000-Bonus $70,000 $925,000 $2,650,000-Bonus McCabe $70,000 $925,000 $70,000 $925,000 Ruhwedel $70,000 $625,000 $675,000 $675,000 Pysyk: $67,500 $810,000 Grigorenko: $70,000 $925,000 Larsson: $67,500 $810,000

It looks like Tkachev will make my draft board again, these two links from hockeybuzz are amusing.

Yesterday's lines Brian Duff via twitter Hodgson-Grigo-Stafford Moulson-Ennis-Gionta Deslauriers-Girgensons-Mitchell Dalpe-McCormick-Flynn Foligno-Reinhart-Stewart Rochester bound: Ellis-Schaller-Armia Chris Ryndak ‏@ChrisRyndak via twitter Defensive Pairings Gorges/Myers Weber/Ristolainen Benoit/Meszaros Bagnall/Strachan McCabe/Petrecki Zadorov rotating in

As I've posted before, as a 16 year old I have Eichel 4th behind Gretzky, Lemieux, and Crosby. Do I have him too high, or too low?

Regarding Victor Olofsson It took me a while to realize why I missed him, it's because he was an overager, as such, CSS doesn't put him on the list of players available. He's Baptiste's age. He's a bit small. I have Olofsson north of Luke Adam, so I think he'll be a marginal NHL player, which is pretty good for a 7th round pick. Would I have taken him? Not with Engvall(Toronto 7th) and Holmstrom(Detroit 7th) still on the board, but if I was chosing, neither Engvall nor Holmstrom would have been there in the 7th. But comparing him to Stamkos? No. I won't produce any charts right now, it's all a mess, Christmas at the earliest, May is more realistic.

I think the Toews comparison is good.

My understanding is that CHL players cannot play in the AHL unless they turn 20 before December 31 of that season. Reinhart is a relatively old draft pick(November born) and turns 19 in about 6 weeks, thus this will be his last season he must go to the CHL if he doesn't make the Sabres.

For me, hockey is mostly played between the ears. A team down by one goal will dominate a much better team the last few minutes, a killed penalty will change momentum, goals seem to come in bunches, maybe it's confirmation bias, I don't think so. It's more-so for goaltending. My assessment of St. Louis last year is that Hitchcock got Miller out of his comfort zone, and that cost them a cup. Each year the Pittsburgh costs them a cup because their goaltender plays poorly. Nolan has demonstrated that he can get goaltenders to play big games, Kristers Gudlevskis had a very nice Olympics. Some people on this board think the goaltending will be much worse this season, I don't think so. We've seen what getting your players into a bad mindset can do. Why was Tyler Myers getting worse each year? Why can Drew Stafford be either very good, or very bad. As I've posted charts before, when Stafford is playing well (scoring), he is shooting mostly from 10 feet. When he is playing poorly (not scoring) he is shooting from 34 feet. Why does this change? The idiot coach telling him to shoot more, because shots indicate possession, and possession indicates you ought to be winning. Now whether you want to believe in analytics is up to you, many of our finest media personnel believe in it, but you cannot have Drew Stafford believing the number of shots is important. What Nolan and Stafford need to talk about is heart and cod, and getting to the net. Nolan gets players into the right mindset, that's his job, I think he's the best asset the Sabres have.

I looked at Pronman's list for 2012 and 2014, he has Grigo 3 in 2012 and Reinhart 5 for 2014. On my Sabres pipeline chart, I have Reinhart well ahead of where Grigo was at his age. So I think I agree with everyone, except Pronman

It's a bit late, but I wrote about Kevin Hayes this morning, if you want to noodle with the chart, it's: http://www.limedata.us/blog/b47.html I compare Kevin Hayes to twelve relatively random recent NCAA players. I didn't use anyone that was very small, so no Gaudreau, no Grimaldi, they complicate the analysis. I understand that while big, Hayes is a scorer not a power forward, so I tried to avoid power forwards, but I don't know enough about each player so I may have failed on that point. Based on their NCAA years, I would value the 13 in this order: Toews Jaden Schwartz Gustav Nyquist Brock Nelson Reilly Smith Drew Shore Nick Bjugstad Erik Haula Chris Kreider - His big NCAA year was similar to Hayes' big year, but a year earlier Chris Wagner Kevin Hayes Matt Frattin - His big NCAA year was better than Hayes' big year, but a year later Brian Flynn The players most comparable to Hayes are borderline NHL/AHL players. Therefore, I believe that signing Kevin Hayes would have been OK, promising him ice time would not.