dudacek

The ranking should be in order of how they would be picked today in a league-wide dispersal draft. Power is one. Ordinarily I like it when people don’t buy the hype, but in this case one would be foolish to ignore it. It would be pretty hard to find many people who aren’t Sabres fans who would rank Cozens over him Jack Quinn is #3. Pretty easily. R2 is intriguing but I think you are way overvaluing his proximity to making it in this case. I’m not sure he’s in the top 10 Putting Sandarian behind two players who were drafted after him is an odd choice.

Wilfred van barnacle Liechtenstein is rivaling Morris Titanic, Taro Tsujimoto and Jean-Luc Big-Stones for the best name in Sabre history. Our 1st Russian pick? He’s P(random syllables)ov.

Every couple drafts a pick just catches your eye on 1st impression and just becomes your guy, right or wrong. Cant wait until he gets here.

Save the Power selection, I think this was his draft, not Kevyn’s. And he certainly put his stamp on it. Most clearly calculated and interesting list of picks since 2012 in my view.

I really expected to scroll along and see this post quoted next to a Sabremike gif

We are having a hard enough time getting an “equivalent of 4 first-rounders” return. If we are asking that without taking on salary as well - as Russo implies - we’re *****. It’s a hand we can’t win. Is this another Terry ultimatum like “trade him but I’m not paying the bonus?” Only it’s accompanied by a “And don’t embarrass me either, like the O’Reilly deal?” So Kevyn’s left looking like an unreasonable a-hole to his peers?

😂 Still worried about our reputation… That's so 2019 pleasant dreams

Who cares? We gotta pay someone to get to the cap and need someone to take all the tough matchups. Two years, $26 million. What do we got to lose?

LOL, the prospect pool is fine. We have two of the best U22 in the world plus three more guys all picked around 30th overall. Trouble is we only have two defencemen over 22.

@thorny further to the above, Peterka, Quinn, this year’s large crop, and next year’s two first rounders all avoid next year’s tough season and hopefully join and augment a team on the way up when they are ready.

If it wasn’t clear, I wasn’t saying they are doing this, only that if they are committed to this path - which I believe they are -it’s the way they can and should do it. As the prospects themselves, I might be wrong but I perceive starting a sell-off in 2021 with the first group already in the system with at least one pro season under their belts is preferable to the 2nd in 2012. We’re talking completely different time periods. Mittelstadt, Asplund, Thompson, Cozens, Bryson, Samuelsson, Jokiharju, Lukkonnen, Dahlin, Ruotsalainen, Girgensons, Kassian, McNabb, Foligno, Myers, Ennis, Adam

Yeah, and we all seem to have variations on what we think a tank is - or maybe I should say The Tank was.

But it was after selling off Vanek and Pominville and really everyone else of value save Miller. The tank started with Darcy and was well underway when Patty was hired. He left apparently when disagreeing with Murray (and Terry?) on how to finish it

It will be a crime if he doesn’t wear #4.

I think you took that as a slight, when it was not intended to be anything other that what was said: a coach both good at and willing to focus on the development. More below. It absolutely feels different. Tank is such a loaded word around here, but in this case it simply means short-term pain for long-term gain, dare I say “tank with dignity” It’s an attempt to strip away the last vestiges of the failed Murray tank and this time do it properly with four key differences: 1) don’t gut the team without having a good farm system already in place. Mitts, Dahlin, Joki, Asplund, Tage, Bryson and to a lesser extent Samuelsson and Cozens already have pro experience under their belt and some sense of the NHL; they aren’t young kids being thrown to the wolves for the first time like Girgs and Risto were. UPL, Levi, Laaksonen, Johnson, Quinn, Peterka, Power, Rosen, Poltapov, Sardarsian, Kisakov etc. will be already in the system, but playing in the appropriate places and not moving here until they are ready. 2) bring in a coach focused on making our talented young players better, with a manager who holds him accountable for doing that, not a coach (Nolan) focused on trying to stay alive with an non-communicative GM who just wants you to lose, or a coach (Bylsma) with no development history tasked strictly to win for a GM with no larger vision or overall plan. 3) make sure your kids are kids with the proper mindset and you surround them with veterans capable of providing them with the leadership they need. No more Kanes and Bogosians mocking Gionta and Gorges to impressionable and maybe entitled Eichels and Reinharts. 4) once you’ve finished deconstructing the roster, try to win, be happy when you do and push for constant improvement. None of this two years of salted earth. Once Eichel is gone, every step becomes a step forward. If next year you end up finishing 10th like Ottawa did, that’s a good thing. You’re still getting another piece in the draft and that piece will be coming in to a better situation. It means you are further ahead on your path than you thought, the pieces you identified were the right ones, and you are on the right path.

Think about it This team currently has a cap hit of $43 million with only 4 RFAs to sign. Those UFAs will cost $10-12 million which barely gets them to the floor. The just traded their #1 defenceman by usage and their highest scoring forward for a sixth defenceman and a bucket of assets that won’t see Buffalo for two more years at the earliest. The guy they just took first overall is not likely playing until next spring. Their franchise player will not be playing for them next season and they are working hard to trade him for a package of futures. Their top two remaining defencemen have not seen their 22nd birthday. Their next two have played 50 NHL games combined. Their top two centres have a combined for 31 NHL career goals They promoted an inexpensive development specialist to be head coach And they do not have an NHL goalie under contract. Next year promises to have some elite talent at the top of the draft. In my view, they haven’t announced it, and they may pick up the odd veteran to soften the blow, but we would be foolish to think they are doing anything but tanking next year while possibly preparing a clean, fresh slate for a new buyer.

There was a report (Modo?) that Ullmark wanted to see what the team did in the off-season before deciding whether to re-sign. Anyone think he’s happy?

Elite prospects calls him a winger too…😂 The only thing I can thing of is Kim called in the marketing department in a panic and said this city needs a team it can identify with. Work with the hockey department to make it happen. And somebody said “well, Buffalo is known for its wings…”

This thread just gets sadder and sadder.

I’m still struggling with the fact we just picked 6 consecutive wingers in the space of a little over two rounds. Don’t bother telling me they were doing anything other than taking the highest player of their list, especially after taking wingers with their top two picks last year. Also, 7 picks, but not a single American, let alone USNDTP player? Talk about crushing the stereotypes.

The two CHL kids (!) both seem like attempts at 3rd liners after the 3 Russian swings for 2nd liners. I see more size and ability to play in traffic.

This is about taking a kid who missed a year due to COVID because he was a stud in midget. Similar numbers in the Greater Toronto league to 1st-rounders Zach Dean and Wyatt Johnson, but struggled in his rookie OHL season. Would have had been heavily scouted this year to see is he had progressed. Power forward type who can skate and score from what I gather.

To be fair, Levi’s numbers were ridiculous the previous year, although admittedly in a low league. His scouting reports in terms of athleticism, positioning and tracking are all excellent, and he was obviously high on Hockey Canada’s radar. You don’t get to be Team Canada’s goalie by being the Zamboni driver when the regular guy gets sick. He’s talented and seems like a great kid. Seems like the main reason he wasn’t a mid-round pick was his size. The NHL wants goalies who are 6’3” or more. Which is fair, because Juse Saros types are few and far between.

I’m thinking the Russian kids in particular are going to be heavier than their listed weights already. We may be seeing their 16-year-old weights there.

Great find. This certainly inspires hope from the “overlooked ‘cause COVID file” His numbers the year before COVID are sick: 28 goals and 85 points in 24 games?