dudacek

If the Sabres need to add salary, there's always that handy little $5 million cap $750,000 real money Bishop contract.

I wouldn’t pay Dylan Strome $3.8 million. And NHL GMs obviously feel the same way, or someone would have traded for him. It must be awful to be a Blackhawks fan.

It will be hard for the current group to actually best that group. But in terms of projecting how the group looked in 2004 versus projecting how this group looks now, I’d take this group. Levi and Quinn parallel Vanek and Miller very closely. Pominvile Roy and Stafford translate nicely to Peterka, Krebs and Kulich Sekera, MacArthur Paille maybe Johnson, Nadeau and Poltapov? That still leaves the current group with Östlund, Portillo, Samuelson, Rosen. And, most importantly, Power.

I don’t know, I think we tend to conflate two groups looking at 2015. Zadorov Risto and Pysyk were already on the team in 2014 and then we kinda emptied the pool a bit (Grigorenko, Compher, Armia, Lemieux, picks) in the Kane and O’Reilly trades. I mean having Eichel and Reinhart up top certainly adds weight to 2015 but after those 2, the 2022 group is filled out with higher picks with objectively better pedigrees. Id say guys who aren’t even included in the 2022 list like Poltapov, Portillo and Johnson stack up better than say Baptiste, Peterson and Guhle. It wasn’t really that close, IMO.

My snapshot of what I think these guys are most likely to be, based on what I’ve seen to date. Includes NHLers who haven’t finished developing. First line: Dahlin, Power, Levi Top 6, 2/3 D Thompson, Cozens, Quinn, Samuelsson, Savoie Middle 6, 4/5 D Krebs, Mittelstadt, Jokiharju, Asplund, Peterka, Kulich, Östlund Should play in NHL: Bryson, Lukkonnen, Johnson, Rosen, Poltapov Could play in the NHL: Fitzpatrick, Portillo, Nadeau, Neuchev, Bloom, Kisakov, Novikov Might get NHL games: Biro, Lindgren, Leinonen, Rousek, Murray, Ruotsalainen Id be surprised if he makes it: Laaksonen, Kozak, Cedarqvist, Weissbach, Costatini, Huglen, Karlsson, Richard, Komarov, Lyckasen, Berntsson, Van Barnekow, Pekar, Sardarian, Konecny, Marjala, Sjodin

You’re expecting Rosen in the SHL again, rather than the AHL?

Ruotsalainen no longer a prospect under your definition?

I know this is your take, you weight towards NHL-readiness and you don’t take where the Sabres took them much into consideration. But Poltapov outside the top 20? His scoring in the Russian junior league’s is comparable to Nadeau and Bloom, he’s more skilled than either, and he’s a pain in the ass to play against. The idea that he’s behind Tyson Kozak is bizarre to me

He’s on the wait and see what else happens list

There’s another school of thought to be considered as well: Adams thinks the difference between Anderson/UPL and Husso or Mrazek or Georgiev or Vanecek is too negligible to warrant the prices paid. And he’s set his sights on holding fast until he finds better bargains or better goalies. I mean he will get another goalie, but why pay if the guy is just going to be another guy in a 3 or 4 headed monster?

Östlund blew Cooley and Gauthier out of the water in the U18 final. Kulich carved Canada like a Christmas turkey in the same tourney. Maybe it’s the Euros who are well ahead?

Looking at the roster, he should be a first-liner, but we shall see.

One of the Insiders (I think Pagnotta) Tweeted that Kane and his agent would be sitting down to discuss his future with management soon.

Here’s a surprise: Sjodin was named to this summer’s WJC team, along with Rosen.

Did you think Afinogenov played with Tony McKegney and JF Sauve?

Holy hell was this kid productive. His P/G is comparable to the highly-touted Trikozov, and to Kisakov, who is a full year older. He was one goal off of leading the entire league in goal scoring with 40 in 61 games. And he did it by himself. He had 40 goals and 67 points. Next highest guys on his team had 16 goals and 40 points respectively.

All Adams said was everyone eligible is expected, but he said that prior to the draft. We know there are questions about Kisakov’s visa, and that Portillo and Johnson are coming. I would be surprised if Neuchev, Poltapov and Novikov are coming, and it’s pretty quick turnaround for Leinonen and the Swedes we took late. I’m expecting a roster release Mondayish

I’m using “need” in the context of what the GM said. Adams said “we were going to take a goalie.” He did not add the caveat of “if there was one with value when our turn came up.” He did not say that about other positions. He did not make other picks dramatically out of whack from consensus value.

2018-20: 18 picks in 3 years, 7 of them in the 1st 3 rounds. 2021-22: 22 picks in 2 years, 11 in the 1st 3 rounds. We’ve certainly bought more raffle tickets.

My post was not referring to the current need. I think others have answered this, but the organization didn’t draft a goalie the past 2 drafts and just 2 in their past 7. A smart organization needs to constantly have someone coming up behind in the pipeline so there are other options when prospects fail like Johansson or move on because of contracts like Husso.

This strikes me as a case where they put need over BPA. Not that he wasn’t rated there on their list - he clearly was - I just think a desire to get a goalie, lack of goalies, his physical tools, good character, and the gap between him and the next goalie all factored in to them not giving enough weight to performance. I’m not overly worried about it because goalies are an inexact science at the best of times. Development matters most, and there is an enormous mound of raw clay to work with.

Scott Wheeler was not talking about the Sabres when he made this quote, but it stuck with me as fitting for this draft: The teams that win the war take chances on talent, the hardest thing to find anywhere. Add in the caveat of competitive talent, and it really describes how they approached this draft. Every pick - at least from what I can see - seems to be talented for where he was taken.

For those who missed this: Winners 1. Buffalo Sabres Pick: 9. C/RW Matt Savoie My ranking: No. 4 (change: -5) Pick: 16. C Noah Östlund My ranking: No. 23 (change: +7) Pick: 28. C/LW/RW Jiri Kulich My ranking: No. 22 (change: -6) If the goal was to draft slick, skilled players, the Sabres sure did with their first two picks. If the goal was to draft centres, they took three kids capable of playing down the middle. I knew that whoever grabbed Savoie in the 8-10 range was likely going to have made one of my favourite picks of Day 1, and lo and behold that’s how I feel about this pick now that the first 32 selections have been made. He’s an explosive skater with maybe the quickest first three strides in the draft, a shot and hands that also grade out right at the very top of the draft, and dogged, high-energy, never-stop-moving approach. For what it’s worth, too: I think he’s going to be a centre, the Sabres’ strong pool’s only real need, to boot. Östlund is a slippery, playmaking centre who is, like Savoie, also one of the better skaters in the draft. He doesn’t skate with the power that Savoie does, but he’s a light, airy skater with soft hands and a standout two-way game. And Kulich is exactly the kind of player who excels alongside players like Savoie and Östlund. He’s got one of the best shots in the draft (especially his one-timer) but he’s also a complete hockey player with a pro build, a driven on-ice approach, soft hands, and impressive balance and control over his skates. Arguably the league’s best pool just got better

I stopped reading after once hit puck with stick…

Forton dropped a nugget that Savoie, Kulich and Östlund were all firmly in the top half of the 1st round on their board. He also said Savoie was one of two players the Sabres were hoping would be there at 9. He also said earlier that he had a very clear top 6. I would bet good money that their top 6 was the same top six that went top six. Im going to guess that the other guy they were hoping for was Kasper, and the trade with Ottawa was to jump over Detroit and ensure they got one of their top 8. Then Chicago moved up instead, took Korchinski and we ended up with Savoie anyway. I wonder what the butterfly effect of moving to 7 would have been? Frankly, I doubt we would have done better than the trio we got. Especially if Detroit had Savoie ranked right after Kasper. Only guy picked between Savoie and Östlund I rank with Östlund is Nazar. Maybe dominoes lead to Kulich not being there at 28? Maybe Matt Murray did do us a favour.