dudacek

Or even 9

Scott Wheeler of The Athletic offers this on Olivier Nadeau's play at the Memorial Cup: Oliver Nadeau (Buffalo Sabres): I thought Nadeau was tremendous. He exceeded my expectations and I’ve watched a lot of him. He was making the decisions with the puck. He was around puck shift-to-shift. Took some draws on his strong side to free up Bourque as a top-of-the-circle shooter. He was great along the cycle. He saw through layers for several nice passes, both at five-on-five and on the power play. He’s a PK1 guy for them. He goes to the middle and the front of the net and scored a team-leading four goals because of it. He’s still got a bit of a pitchfork in his skating, but I like the rest as far as B-level prospects go. I’m not sure if he’s an NHLer long term but the Sabres are smart to have signed him.

Friedman says Ryan McDonough is on the market as the Lightning try to negotiate the cap. Still a warrior. 3 years left at $6.7. He’s 33. Left shot. Good buddies with our coach, Dan Girardi. Interest? Under what circumstances?

Not really. If they were 27, 28, and 29, they would presumably have nearly identical scores on my board. In that case who we have in the system - including who we picked at 9 and 16 and who looks to be available at 41 - would factor in to my decision-making. Now if I had Gaucher ranked significantly higher than Chesley, that would be a different story. I believe in tiers, as opposed to a firmly demarcated pecking order.

This, minus undervaluing Joki, is more or less true. It in no way means the Sabres have to pick defencemen among their top 4 choices this year. The same thing could be said about centres and goalies. Right now, UPL is in Buffalo, Levi and Portillo are unsigned. Right now, there is no burning need for those defence replacements. Nor should there be for a few years, given the age of our existing group. Mark Pysyks can be signed to fill out the depth chart as well as Craig Andersons. I’d take Chesley at 28 too. Good example of taking what the draft gives you.

Don’t forget the Sabres have 5 defencemen who were top 32 picks from the past 5 drafts, including 2 that were 1st overall. You’d be hard-pressed to find another team that has invested so much draft capital into the position during that span. Sure there is a need to ensure a pipeline behind that group, but it’s going to be your core for the foreseeable future. There are 7 other picks available after pick 41 and another 4 1st and 2nd rounders next year. Take what this draft gives you. There is no need to force anything.

If we were to walk away with Savoie and Yurov that would probably the biggest injection of forward talent we could possibly hope for. Each has mitigating questions that pushes them down, but in terms of raw offensive skill I don’t see either as being significantly different from the big 3 forwards at the top of the draft.

It’s also good GMing. He is now covered with a fallback and won’t be left scrambling for scraps if he fails when the real action begins. He’s doing what he failed to do last year and was rightly criticized for.

Can’t believe I overlooked Quick after touting him just a few days ago on here. Personally, I think he might be our most realistic target, all things considered.

No

Mackenzie Blackwood, John Gibson and Semyon Varlamov are the ones I've seen discussed.

I don’t interpret this as we are NOT definitely getting another goalie as many of you are

I don't see how this can be considered anything other than good news. I'm not sure we could ask for a better scenario than Anderson and UPL in the 2 and 3 positions. Anderson is perfect for the room, good in low-use situations, capable of carrying the load if the starter falls and won't go all Al Smith if UPL passes him. UPL gets to play a ton in Rochester and hopefully forces his way into the NHL before the season is over. Not a single prospective new starter has been scared away and not a single asset has been squandered. Good to see Adams making a move early, getting some insurance in place, and setting himself up to be a player for multiple possibilities over the next 2 weeks. Much better than being caught with his pants down and looking for scraps after the frenzy like last year.

Good. Now go get a starter.

Probably doesn’t mean anything, but the Sabres own website profiled: Savoie, Kasper, Kemmel, Lekkerimaki and Gauthier as possibilities at 9 Kulich Yurov, Snuggerud, Geekie and Korchinski at 16 and Miroshnichenko, Lambert, McGroarty, Firkus and Hutson at 28

I think a team targeting a D might want to be giving Adams a call to vault up to 9. I think it’s likely there’s a run shortly after Buffalo’s pick. Wonder what teams picking between 11 and 15 might give up to move up. We could move down and still pick up a good forward.

I think I'd be happiest with Yurov at 9, but I don't think the Sabres will go there. I think they will pick either Kasper or Savoie. I like both. Given the choice (which you nailed), I'm going with Savoie for the ceiling. But I'm not sure which one will end up the better player. I've taken a closer look at Lambert and do see a few elements that might attract the Sabres to him: he plays fast, he's got a competitive streak and he might be the best skater in the draft. But he just doesn't strike me as a guy who understands the game well enough or makes his teammates better. There are too many other interesting players at 9 or 16 to make him a consideration.

It’s going to take a few years to play itself out, but I am really interested to see how the Sabres analytics department impacts this draft. Forton had a interesting quote about how Ventura’s team was statistically “watching” every player everywhere and every time a player popped, Forton’s team would hone in for a closer first-hand look.

I don't see any world where Savoie busts. Can't think of a top 10 pick with with his profile who has He's probably going to be a Nik Ehlers level, but he's also got a chance to be Danny Briere. He's fearless and hyper-competitive. Of the players who look like they could be there, he's the one I seem to be gravitating to.

I think the Sabres have a greater chance of being a cap facilitating 3rd party in a Fiala trade than an actual fit for Fiala. I think the presence of Jeff Skinner probably precludes the acquisition of an expensive scoring winger.

High-character core Amerk with the skill set I can still see filling an NHL 4C role. Good signing.

I’ve always thought the opposite: It was McCrimmon trying to piss off Calgary to get them off the chase and get Adams to cave on his 4th piece and take a 2nd for a 3rd instead. I wonder how many of the people who don’t want to invest in Mittelstadt, Olofsson or Thompson have paid attention to Fiala’s first 5 post-draft years. Sweden, minors, 16 points, 48 points, 39 points.

Right after confirming Johnson is planning to come, Adams said “everybody” is expected to come. He then immediately followed that up by specifying Power, Samuelsson, Peterka, Quinn, Krebs and “everyone who is eligible.” So even though Portillo had specifically been mentioned by Hamilton just moments earlier, it was not clear if “everybody” included Portillo or was just meant to be a catch all for “even players who have already made the Sabres.” Adams did not address the subject of Portillo directly at all. He addressed a question about goaltending by repeating how much he believes in UPL and talking about how Levi is special. Read into that what you will. I am. *** Further to Johnson, Adams gave the impression that none of his 3 options - signing now, going back to college and signing later, or opting for free agency - has been definitively ruled out and that’s testing his patience a bit, because it affects other potential moves. I wonder if Johnson is looking at development camp as a way to test his fit and help him make up his mind. It’s literally been 3 years and a lot of changes since he was last here, has it not? *** Related, the idea of Samuelson and Power and the rest taking part is exciting. Adams talked about the bonding being important to the growth of the team and central to his plan. The bridge that guys like Krebs can help map from prospect to player for guys like Rosen and Kisakov (who will be there if his visa comes together) and the class of 22 is invaluable. As is the introduction to Appert and Donnie and the vibes being created by and around them.

Underrated tidbit from Adams on WGR today: They are working hard right now on an Olofsson contract and he hopes to have something done soon. He says Victor did a lot to round out his game this year beyond being a PP specialist. What would you like to see happen in terms of Olofsson’s contract?

Adams said they are heavy in talks to help out a cap-strapped team. Not sure if I heard this part correctly, but I thought he said for assets, plural.