dudacek

Actually it's not the volume of the assets that I focused on, it's where they are in terms of being able to play. Girgs and Risto and Girgorenko and Zadorov were tossed to the wolves as teenagers in 2013-15. Quinn and Power and Peterka and Rosen shouldn't be. Dahlin, Joki, Mitts, Cozens etc. aren't entering next year as raw rookies, but as guys who have already been developed and have some basic understanding of life as an NHL pro. We had no one with the upside of Dahlin or Cozens in 2013. And instead of TWO years dedicated to the sole purpose of losing as many games as possible with all the damage that does, we get one year (fingers crossed) that should be one big 82-game teachable moment where the goal is steady, measurable improvement and team-building that provides the proper foundation for increased success each year to come, with proper environment for the guys following to join when they are ready. And if it results in another top-3 pick in 11 months, great. If not, that's great too. It means that our guys developed.

But is something you can observe. We all know the Granato Sabres were still objectively not very good, but it didn't stop people from enjoying them more.

I don't want to revisit the debate you guys already have had, but your comparisons change drastically when you adjust your dates to account for the correct timing of the great sell-offs. I think we can agree Adams started at the deadline this year. The young players already playing pro were Cozens, Dahlin, Samuelsson, Pekar, Mittelstadt, Luukonen, Laaksonen, Bryson, Jokiharju, Asplund and Ruotsalainen The previous one began at the deadline in 2013 when Darcy shipped off Jason Pominville. The young players already playing pro were Girgensons, Armia, Catenacci, Sundher, Pysyk, Kassian, McNabb and Foligno I think that's notable difference in both top-end talent and depth.

I know this isn't where you are, but you've read it from countless posters: "I don't like this team and I don't like these players, give me a team I can love.' Effort helps, wins help, but basically for a lot of people, it's just about being likable.

The Sabres prospect depth on the wing (Quinn, Rosen, Peterka, Poltapov, Kisakov) defence (Power, Samuelsson, Johnson, Laaksonen) and goalie (UPL, Portillo and Levi) is suddenly outstanding.

Are the Sabres looking into any of these cap dump deals? The amount of room they have is ridiculous and it doesn't seem like they are planning to go to town on free agents.

Forgot Sexton was now with the Wild. He will been leaned on hard for intel about Jack and other Sabres pieces that might be included.

LET ME SEE THAT BOARD!!!!!

They are going to acquire at least a 3C. Not going into next season with a spine of Mitts Cozens Eakin

Your vision for what is going on right now is my favourite.

If a trade isn't done soon, I would imagine Jack's camp starts the ball rolling on contesting his treatment plan. I suspect there is a current agreement to backburner that discussion until a trade, but that will expire very soon.

Agreed. But what else are they giving us to take on 4x$8 for Couture, or 3x$5 for Martin Jones?

We'd have to take on a contract for sure and they have some terrible ones.

Anyone think the Eklund pick puts the Sharks in the conversation? They've been aggressive in the past.

Nope, but he is kicking my hockey team. The team may have earned the kicking, but they’re still mine.

Poltapov will be Aho to Raty’s Puuljarvi. Best Sabre 2nd rounder since Danny Gare. Because I want him to be. It was in part relative to position and opportunity - the gained little for taking the obvious in Power and lost a bit for taking Rosen, according to the Athletic board.

Adams said in his post draft presser that McCabe will test FA, but said no such thing about Ullmark, rather he said they are still talking and implied that he hopes to sign him before free agency. Did you hear him say something different elsewhere?

VO put up his numbers in the SHL, R2s were in Finland in a weaker league, but point taken.

I’m not sure what you’re saying here, that if you put R2 into Vic’s PP slot, he’d have better numbers? I think that’s probably true, but it’s also the same for Cozens, or Thompson, or Bjork, or pretty much any of them. None of them can shoot as good as Victor and wouldn’t score as many as Victor IMO, but that wasn’t really my point. My point didn’t really have anything to do with Olofsson. It was that I hadn’t seen anything from R2 that suggested 60-point scorer, in response to GA essentially saying that’s why he ranked him at 4. My point was I haven’t seen R2 demonstrate the skill

He’s scored some nice one-timers, but VO’s is purely elite and I don’t see many other similarities to their game. I like R2, but he scored 6 points in 17 games as a 23-year-old rookie. I didn’t see a thing in those 17 games that said 60-point potential to me.

Running the national team PP and dangling? Not a bad start. I heard #23 is available.

The spoiled child was promised he would get what he wanted if he behaved, but it’s already past lunchtime and it hasn’t happened yet. He’s starting to get angry. It pretty hard not to see this quote as anything but ^^^^ “just take what they are ***** offering you Kevyn, you little *****! For ***** sakes! I want it now!”

I see Alex Pietrangelo upside in Power. It’s not Hedman, but it’s top-10 NHL defenceman. Do you think Dylan has top 10 upside? I need to revisit WJC game tape, because maybe I’m spending too much time thinking about the kid that hit a wall hard over the last 20 games.

One guy didn’t play at all last year, and the other struggled due to a bout of COVID. Looks like the Sabres were tracking them from earlier in their careers, did some homework some other scouts didn’t and decided they were worth it. Those are the kind of bets you need to make to unearth some hidden gems. Be interesting to see where each goes.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the 01 run of picks from Rosen to Nadeau progress this year. There will be some risers in that group of 6. Considering how only Cozens is expected to play the bulk of the season in Buffalo and Power will likely be the top overall prospect on many lists, the Sabres really flipped the script this weekend on the depth of their pipeline and will climb pretty high up a number of lists. That's even without the Eichel return. Ryan Johnson at 10 or 11 isn’t ridiculous, but he could just as easily be 4. Peterka, Samuelsson, Johnson, Poltapov, Kisakov, UPL, and R2, likely topped by Rosen is a pretty deep, varied and on a tier. And I wonder where the Sabres would place Levi on that ladder. It’s pretty big leap from behind Albert Lyacksen in the fall to the top 10 now, one good tournament and training camp later, but the brass sure seemed high on him yesterday and paid a big price for him. No longer waiver-exempt, same with Joki.