dudacek

If Terry is willing to pay, wouldn't taking on and buying out a albatross contract be a strong option for Adams? For example, Florida could spend $3.5 million to buy out Patric Hornqvist, save that much on this year's cap and add $1.7 to next year's cap. Or they could flip him and Radko Gudas to the Sabres for free, save $6 million in real money, and on this year's cap, and not worry about a buyout eating up cap in 23/24. The Sabres add a nasty 3rd pairing Dman for a year at the cost $3.5 million in real dollars and cap space they aren't otherwise planing to use.

No way I would spend $30 million on winger Mik if I could have centre Copp for $23.

Maybe I’m underrating Mikheyev? To me, most of those guys are better, and the ones who aren’t got $15ish million deals.

Seems a lot for a 40-point, 27-year-old winger who’s never actually hit that total. NHL seems to have gone away from paying middle-6 guys in the flat cap.

What is Ryan doing these days? Smart dude, always thought he might get into the management side of the game.

Guess we should be paying close attention to whether Johnson and Portillo attend.

Looking forward to this. The Sabres have traditionally included older prospects on the cusp — basically unsigned prospects and ELC prospects who haven't full "made the team" yet. That means top projected Sabres Quinn and Peterka, top goalies Portillo and Levi, college prospects Huglen and Johnson, new signees Rosen and Kisakov, AHLers Rousek and Weissbach, CHL surprises Nadeau and Bloom, plus our first looks at more low-profile guys like Sardarian, Van Barnekow, Costantini, Cedarquist, Konecny and more, including the coming 2022 haul with (presumably) at least 4 exciting new additions. Lots of guys we've not seen much of, or never seen at all. If a Power or Krebs or UPL shows up, or Novikov and Poltapov can sneak out of Russia, so much the better.

Yeah, I don't think Campbell is worth $5 million, but I do think the market is such that someone (us or New Jersey, most likely) will give him that. Like us, Toronto is probably going to have to overpay to get a goalie in free agency. Unlike us, they can't afford to do that. It will be interesting to see what Dubas comes up with. I just hope we don't overpay too much on term.

I find it odd that Leaf fans seem to think they can let Campbell walk and upgrade their goaltending, despite their cap situation. Not sure how they pay for (contract and acquisition cost) a better goalie without making their team worse.

Not sure if we had our Gauthier discussion in this thread or the other one, but Wheeler has a piece today were he rates the prospects purely on upside — basically their tools alone. Gauthier was 3rd, after Cooley and Slavkovsky. Also of interest: Miroshnichenko was 5th and Lambert 25th.

It's entirely possible they will pick someone at 9 we would have loved at 16, someone at 16 we would have loved at 28 and someone at 28 we would have loved at 41. Kasper/Nazar, Chesley/Ostlund and Rinzel/Lorenz, for example, would be a draft like that for me. It's more likely we will be raving over some guy who 'fell' to us at one of the slots, disappointed with a "reach" at another and fine with the 3rd. I need McKenzie's final list to give me a better picture of how guys are actually going to line up.

One weird thing about this draft is how hard (or easy) it is to say "that guy is great value for where he's projected" because the projections are all over the place. If they get a guy like Geekie or Nazar or Ohgren or McGroarty or Lambert or Miroshnichenko or Howard or Kasper or Mintyukov or Kochinski or... at 16, they are getting a guy who some people think should be going in the 20s and others flirting with the top 10. Reactions are going to be mixed. And if you picked an Ostlund or a Mesar or a Kulich or a Chesley or a Snuggerud there, most of us would be disappointed because they are less hyped. But those guys are possible because we know some people have them in that tier. And they probably only seem outrageous because they would leave someone from the first list on the table that someone on here really liked.

i loved both sets of answers because they leave so much open to interpretation. He comes across as somebody who legit doesn't give a *****. Bad because it shows lack of respect for others? Good because he's not going to let outside noise affect him? Nazar was the opposite; he clearly got a little pissed about what was being said about him. Bad because hes self-centred and can't handle criticism? Good because he's got confidence and competitive fire? You almost have to see how these guys delivered the quotes, rather than just reading them.

And Lekkerimaki's: Lekkerimäki is a skilled winger who has various offensive elements in his game, but the clear strength of his game is his shot. He’s a goal-scoring threat from the face-off dots, with a hard, accurate wrist shot and a one-timer that projects to be a weapon in the NHL. He has good speed, hands and vision to generate clean entries and make plays, but those aspects don’t pop like his shot. Like a lot of shooters, he leans too much on his best asset, and plays too much on the perimeter, which isn’t ideal for a player who lacks size. Lekkerimäki projects as a quality top six winger. What do you think of that? I agree. Completely? Yeah, I think so. Even the parts that you lean too much on the shot? Yeah, maybe sometimes. It also grades your individual tools. So skating, NHL average; puck skills, NHL average; hockey sense, NHL average; shot, high-end; compete, below NHL average. Do you think you have below NHL average compete? Yeah, I think so. I can improve it more.

The Athletic asked a handful of prospects to respond to their scouting reports. here's Nazar's: Nazar brings a lot of speed and energy to his shifts. He lacks ideal NHL size, but he makes up for it with his effort. He is hard on pucks, shows no fear in how he attacks the interior third of the offensive zone. He can make an occasional flashy deke or pass, but most of his offense comes from the high percentage areas. OK. Is that your analysis? It’s not mine, but you can critique it if you want. I think it was a good analysis, a lot of the things that I kind of said in that meeting. I like the way they said I’m not afraid to go to the net, I’m not afraid to get to the inside, and a lot of my plays are in the high-percentage (areas) because that’s kind of how I like to go. From the creative side, I think that’s kind of underrated on me. They don’t really realize too many creative plays that I can make. And I think whatever team drafts me, the more they get to watch me play and the more I get to play with them, I guess, they’re going to realize that it’s up there. And then the last line is, Nazar’s great speed helps him get to the net and turn around a lot of defenders. He projects as a third-line center with a chance to be a No. 2. (Laughs) I don’t know if I’m a big fan of that one. I think it’s a little low-balling it. I feel like for sure I can get at least to a No. 2, and I’m going to push for a No. 1. And kind of like I said, I feel like I can bring a lot of stuff like Brayden Point, and I mean look at him. He’s working out. And teams like to underestimate my size. They say it’s a disadvantage, but it’s really an advantage, because think about it: Those bigger guys aren’t moving as quick as me. I’m going to be harder to hit, because I’m smaller and they’re bigger, so I just end up going around them. And I’m going to just work harder than them and I think moving forward it’s just going to be kind of like Brayden Point. I’m going to bring what he brings to my team, and I’m going to push for that 2 or No. 1 spot.

"He was still showing the effects of the treatment, but the treatment was 100 percent successful," Marr said. "He's been back and cleared to train full-load within his tolerance level. They expect that he's going to continue on. He's not scheduled to go back for any more treatments. He's just training for [the] start of next season." I don't want to diminish the risk — it's cancer. It also a form of cancer that generally has an 85-90 per cent full recovery rate, he's finished his treatment and he's been cleared to play and train again. you get the opinions of several doctors to see how he fits into that track. If its a 90 per cent chance he's going to be the same player he was before he got sick, then he makes as much sense at 16 as he does at 28, in my view. If you've got other guys at or close to his level when your turn comes up, you pick the other guy. But if there is a clear separation you pick Miro.

Actually, Sabres will be first team to make their 3rd pick. It goes something like this: Montreal 1, 26, 33, 61 Arizona 3, 27, 32, 33, 37, 43, 45 Columbus 6, 12, 38 Buffalo 9, 16, 28, 41 Anaheim 10, 22, 42, 53 Arizona has a ton of ammo to move up though, and probably should

Or maybe Cassidy recognized Sweeny’s development program has been handing him Anders Bjorks for years and did what he needed to do to win. The Bruins got immensely lucky with McAvoy and Pastrnak, but other than that they’ve been riding their 2011 core and culture for a decade now, and Cassidy has been a big part of that.

From the way he wrote it up he doesn't seem to have any inside insight on where the Sabres are leaning. But, for what it's worth Pronman dropped a mock this morning: 9. Lekkerimaki (he's hearing a buzz that a lot of teams have him comfortably top 10) 16. Nazar (says some have him higher, some lower, but he makes sense for Buffalo there) 28. Miroshnichenko (3rd 1st-rounder, good spot to roll the dice)

I don’t have a strong opinion because my actual viewings of the players are limited. From what I’ve read though, a lot of scouts seem to think those Gauthier/Nazar percentages are reversed. Production-wise, they both played top 6 minutes with good linemates on a good team and they’re very close. I find it very interesting that McGroarty is right there with them, with forgotten man Snuggerud not too far behind and top 3 lock Cooley not too far ahead. And it’s actually Issac Howard who led the team. It will interesting down the road to see which of these guys are true studs and which were a product of their environment.

And the latter point isn’t talked about enough. Seems to me there’s a pretty good case to be made that Ullmark felt the same way about the Sabres as McCabe, Reinhart and Ristolainen. He just wasn’t as up front about it as they were.

That largely depends on what happens next: who we sign, for how long, how well he plays, how well Ullmark plays, and how much cap space the Sabres have to sign their core guys in 3 years. What Adams foresees is clearly different than you.

This is good. Basically, you don’t think Gauthier has the combination of skill and strength to be a legit top power forward. I see all those guys above as a step down from prime Okposo.

So in your view Gauthier doesn’t have any, say, Landeskog type potential? Can you give me a few examples of the types of players picked outside the top 20 you are referring to?

Did Peter Deboer’s availability cause another team to gas a better coach again? We can only hope.