dudacek

Pretty sure Dorion said the Debrincat deal was happening regardless of the Murray deal. Apparently it was pick 16 and prospect, rather than pick 7.

Will we actually see this this October? If our 12th forward is Girgensons/Hinostroza and our 6th defenceman is Bryson, I believe we will. First time in a decade that would be the case.

Zadorov and Grigorenko.

I'm not on board at all with how the popular narrative has soured on Jokiharju. Yes, his underlying numbers slipped slightly, but the kid was injured to start the year, then was thrust from an 18-minute 4/5 to a 22-minute 1st-pairing role. His counting stats doubled without serious PP time and his +/- was among the best of the lineup regulars despite his tough usage. If he ends up as a 4/5 as this team moves forward, I think he will be a very good one.

I agree with this. I think the Sabres would happily add a "real" veteran NHL defenceman in a cap dump. But if it's a forward, he's more likely to be flipped or bought out. Not that a Compher type would be rejected outright, but I don't know that they'll pursue that.

And wait and see what that look like after Anderson gets hurt.

Wish Brett used his size more. He had his chance. With the influx of more talented kids, I’m not certain he’ll get another.

I’m highly skeptical of Ottawa and Detroit’s performances down the stretch. Couldnt even win during garbage time? 😜

Sometimes when I’m deep in B.C. rainforest where @PASabreFan, @Weave and the other cool kids on Sabrespace can’t hear me, I crack open another Lucky lager, and I look at JJ’s hockey build, his skill set, his back story, and his trajectory and ask myself “why can’t this kid become Nikita Kucherov?”

I was thinking about this a little more. I see two major differences between this year and 1983: the depth of the pipeline; and the way the prospects are being filtered in. The current Sabres rode a first wave (Thompson, Tuch, Olofsson, Dahlin, Jokiharju) of youngish players around 4 years into their pro careers who have emerged as legit NHLers, but have yet firmly establish their ceilings They are introducing a second wave of players just starting to establish themselves (Cozens, Krebs, Asplund, Peterka, Mittelstadt, Quinn, Samuelsson, Power, UPL) who have yet to show what they are capable of. And they have a 3rd wave coming (Levi, Portillo, Johnson, Rosen, Poltapov, Kisakov, Savoie, Östlund, Kulich, Leinonen, And maybe more) that they can afford to have percolate until they force their way into, or past, the first two groups. Compare this to the summer of 1984, when the Sabres had: Foligno, Ruff and Ramsey in the 1st group Andreychuk, Housley, Barrasso, Cyr, McKenna, Moller, Virta in the 2nd Tucker, Patrick, Creighton, Lacombe, Andersson, Trapp, Anderson, Johanssen, Dudacek All three groups seem deeper now. The 2nd group now is older than the teenagers filling it then. And the current group includes 2 1st overall picks.

Regardless of whether you agree with @nfreeman’s conclusions, that’s ^^^ the proper way of looking at the competition.

Ottawa is not in this conversation if Josh Norris and Drake Batherson did not suddenly emerge as top 6 players at 23. Detroit is not in this conversation if Raymond and Seider didn’t make a dramatic impact as rookies last year. So it would not be shocking if Casey Mittelstadt and Dylan Cozens took a step next year, nor would it be if Owen Power and Jack Quinn were good right away. Should we count on it? Of course not. Neither should we count on Ville Husso to be a strong starting goalie, or for David Perron to score 60 points at age 34 playing with Pius Suter. Player for player, there are lot of similarities between the 3 teams. It will be interesting to see which players pop and push their team up with them.

I’m optimistic too, but the Bowman teams weren’t bereft of veterans. They had Ramsey and Foligno in particular in the young vet role, plus Ramsay, Perreault in the senior role, but he also blew off young vets like Savard and McKegney and targeted wasted talents like Cloutier and McCourt. This group feels deeper and more purposeful, but we shall see. I know Taro and Weave are correct on the odds, and we can probably mock this post in 5 years, but I get good feelings about Kulich, Östlund and Savoie. They just seem wired the right way.

You’re correct about the surrounding drafts not working. Kids weren’t ready as quickly as we wanted them and the Sabres didn’t do a good job supporting them with veterans. Bowman also was probably stretched too thin and a little too smart for his own good.

Those years are a great cautionary tale to what is happening now. Five years later we were dead last and hitting the reset button. And it wasn’t because those drafts failed. Andreychuk and Housley were Hall-of-famers. Barrasso won the cup. Cyr, Lacombe, Creighton and Tucker had decent NHL careers. Puppa, Ruuttu and Krupp were late round steals. We hope the current draft period gets close to that kind of success. But it takes a lot more than good drafting to win in the NHL.

I thought Kozak looked good in the scrimmage and Peca was certainly pumping his tires. Im a little surprised he hasn’t signed.

I think the bottom 4 in the division should be objectively better and the top 4 objectively worse. Whether that will be enough to alter the standings seems unlikely given the gap, but at least we now have reason to wonder. You know some moves will backfire and some leaps will come out of nowhere. That’s always the case.

They aren’t nearly as smart over there, but 113 people have voted in a 13-team poll about this on HFBoards. It’s a landslide. The #2 team (Jersey) has 17 votes. Buffalo has 76.

I can’t recall 1st-year pros having seasons like Jack and JJ had and not graduating. (I also can’t remember 1st-year pros having seasons likeJack and JJ had, period, but that’s beside the point) With all due respect to JT Compher, is he really going to be significantly better than those two?

Rousek popped for me during the Amerks playoff run. Other “unknowns” I noticed during the 3-on-3 were Lindgren (skating) Kozak (hustle) and Costantini (just generally being around the puck in traffic). He’s not exactly “unknown” but Portillo was also very good: composed and imposing.

And the trust of their players.

I think the unspoken plan is that this is the year UPL stays healthy, puts it together and graduates to the big club full-time. Anderson holds the fort until he gets there. I think that was the plan last year after Ullmark surprisingly walked. Comrie is them hedging their bets with a 2nd potential breakout guy, rather than more stopgaps like Dell and Tokarski. I don’t think they are favouring one guy or the other, they’re hopeful for both. Its put up or shut up for UPL basically. Unless either completely implodes, he and Comrie will be next year’s duo in some fashion and the Sabres are hoping it happens sooner.

How old can PIttsburgh get?

He came as advertised. Smart, good pace, always moving himself and the puck where it should go. Also, not physically strong.

Was that the Count? Nice hands there Power sure has turned it up for the final.