dudacek

Iginla would be the home run pick for me but I struggle to see him slipping out of the top 10. 13, 12, 12, 3 and 10 gives me hope. But I’m betting at least one of the teams ahead of us loves the kid like Button does and pounces early.

Your attempts to try to characterize Byram as some kind of Marc-Andre Gragnani are getting tedious. He played nearly 22 minutes a night in the same lineup as Dahlin and Power and averaged 20 as a baby on a Stanley Cup contender featuring Cale Makar and Sam Girard. He led all Avalanche defencemen in even-strength ice time in the Stanley Cup finals. How, in any way shape or form, is a player capable of that redundant? The implication he’s a one trick PP specialist is ridiculous. He’s never got significant PP time in his career. What he’s been used for is significant ES time. He was 34th in the entire NHL last year in ES points by a defenceman, and 8th in ES goals. He was also 81st in hits and 111 in blocked shots - solid second-pair numbers in each category. The implication he’s a train wreck defensively is a function of a 15-game run at the end of this season as he adjusted to a different system, city and teammates while going through some form of family issue. For his career, his 5-on-5 Corsi is 51.1%. Maybe the trade works out, maybe it doesn’t. But let’s not lose sight of the fact that Byram was the 1st defenceman taken in his draft class and excelled in the Stanley Cup finals. One-way players don’t do either. Or that he’s proven to be a good all-around NHL defenceman since then, despite injury setbacks. He’s an elite skater, with great hands and he competes. He is more talented than Mittelstadt and has accomplished more than Casey did at age 22. Time will tell if that translates as a Sabre, or if it was worth the price paid, but let’s not diminish who he is already, never mind what he may become, or pretend there’s no possible way a player like him could help this team.

What gets me is not that Yzerman is clearing space or that Walman was the guy he moved. What I can't grasp is that they had to give up a 2nd to move him. He's an NHL player who can play on any team, and he's on contract that is hardly onerous. There's a piece missing in this puzzle.

Don’t know the prospects or situations enough to have informed opinion there, but that’s the type of trade you don’t see often. The value seems reasonably aligned with where Gibson was picked, so the why is hard to grasp. I can’t imagine the Sabres flipping Wahlberg or Strbak in that kind of deal just because. Got to be something more to the story.

Our GM thinks he’s worth a little less than Bowen Byram.

Our first look at what reliable 2nd-pair stay-at-home guys will get after the flat cap lifts. This is why the Samuelsson contract made sense if he can stay healthy.

Good deal for the Avs. Kept the term down in order to keep the AAV down, which makes sense in the Makar/MacKinnon window. Casey probably could have got $7Mish with term, but he'll be unrestricted at 28 and can probably cash in then if he continues his good play. And yes, I think he would have taken something similar in Buffalo. He's an easygoing dude who just wants to play hockey.

Lindy was fired because his best defenceman was injured most of the year, 2 more from his his top five left in free agency and got replaced with rookies, and he had some of the worst goaltending in the NHL. But you're right, Lindy is no Mike Keenan and he's a different coach from the guy who coached Jay McKee

He’s definitely got a presence very few other Sabres have had. Im also probably projecting how that presence overshadowed Darcy’s but never seemed to affect the boundaries of their roles, or their relationship.

Not saying this is you precisely, but I’ve seen a few posts that intimate Lindy’s goals and principles are different than those of the organization, coupled with a hope he will force the organization on to the right track. I haven’t seen any signs that Lindy and Kevyn aren’t on the same page, that Lindy got the job in spite of their differences, or that Lindy has usurped the power structure in the front office. I know people are going to read into things like a Skinner buyout as Lindy’s doing, but I’ve never seen Lindy as a Ted Nolan. He’s always been a coach who works well with his bosses and understands the coach’s role in the hierarchy. From what I’ve seen so far, he and Kevyn appear to be aligned.

Lehner ended up a mistake because of his personal issues. Based strictly on talent, he was worth the pick we gave up. People remember hating the trade when it happened and how bad he was at shootouts. They forget he went .924, .920 and .908 in 3 Buffalo seasons playing behind the likes of Risto, Bogosian, Gorges and Franson and a team that couldn’t score if their lives depended on it. He’s got a career save percentage of .918. The guy Ottawa took with that pick, Colin White, is a spare part with 44 career NHL goals and has topped 23 points once in his career. The guy the Sabres were going to take, Samsonov, has played roughly half the NHL games Lehner has since the trade and has a career save percentage of .903. The trade was nowhere near as bad as people made it out to be.

Bruins should get slapped by Gary. But maybe they were hoping to get the trade overshadowed? I think it’s a questionable return because they had to take Korpisalo and his contract back. The drop off from Ullmark to him is considerable IMO and that’s not a huge cap saving in return. But I guess that’s only way they were going to get a 1st? I’ll say pick 25 is about as much as legit starter ever seems to get these days though, so I guess the Bruins did alright on that level? Ive been saying for a while those who think goalies are going to get top 10 picks just don’t pay attention to the market.

A longtime Boston reporter just tweeted Ullmark to Ottawa is about to go down. Nothing on the return. Two teams we will have to be better than this year. Washington and New Jersey have also made significant moves.

I have absolutely no idea what kind of big picture the Sabres data crunchers have painted of Cole Eiserman. But I find him the most fascinating player likely to be available when they pick. I don’t think casual draftniks understand how prolific this kid is. And I very much want Sam Ventura to supply the proper context. Eiserman is the all-time leading goal scorer for the USNTDP. He scored 127 goals in two years in the same circumstances that saw Auston Matthews score 79 and Patrick Kane 84. I’ve seen people dismiss him as Oliver Wahlstrom. Wahlstrom had 72 goals - that’s not even 2/3rds Eiserman’s totals. It’s a different sort of ‘yeah, but’ but I see some Zach Benson parallels here despite the fact they are completely different players. With Benson, 12 teams saw the kid’s terrific all-around game and said “yeah, but” he’s small and not fast. With Eiserman, teams see his unprecedented gift for scoring goals and also say “yeah but” that’s all he cares about. Could this be another case of scouts missing the forest for the trees? I don’t have an informed opinion on how good Eiserman will be. But I remember when the Sabres made “a complete game” their priority and picked Ric Seiling right before the Islanders took Mike Bossy. I don’t want that to happen again.

He’s a bit of a risk and not the best fit, but agreed. This draft is packed with guys who might drop that could be top 5 some years and he’s one of them.

In a trade? Not a ton of comparables and the goalie market is generally soft, but: Husso went for a 3rd Georgiev for 2 3rds Vanecek for a 3rd and moving up 7 slots in the 2nd. Husso would probably be the best UPL comparable at the time of the trade and signed for 3x$4.75 as soon as he got to Detroit.

Ullmark was an unrestricted free agent and signed that contract after a bidding war. UPL is restricted.

Agreed, although term makes a difference. Also be hard-pressed to convince me UPL should get less than 4.

Never been a fan of Strome and see Wilson as a depreciating asset. They would make the team better next year.

Athletic has the Sabres as one of the 7 most interesting situations to watch this off-season, citing the drought, the asset base, Adams open willingness to make deals and his job security, https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5579546/2024/06/23/nhl-marner-trade-goalies-free-agents/ All the signs are there for the Sabres to be big players and yet there’s still a pathway for an underwhelmingly quiet offseason. It isn’t always easy attracting top free agents to Buffalo and while you’d expect them to be aggressive in exploring the trade market, sometimes the prices don’t make sense or you simply strike out. In any case, there will be a ton of pressure on Adams to position the club to battle for a playoff spot next season. Senators, Utah, the goalie market, the centre market, Marner and Carolina are the others.

That’s exactly what it feels like to me. This reminds me of 2019 when thought Jason Botterill was in a position to put his stamp on the Sabres. And he came through with Marcus Johansson, Colin Miller and Jimmy Vesey. We’re conditioned to feel this way.

The Dubois Kuemper trade came out of nowhere too. i think the vast majority of “insider” rumours are simply the result of an agent or a GM trying to leverage something. If it’s not coming out I think that’s because the people privy to the talks have nothing to gain. But it’s not exactly quiet around Buffalo either. The word from the combine was Buffalo was working on “something big” which tells me people know Kevyn has been shaking a lot of trees with exactly that message. It’s just that the gossips don’t know whether his intent has led to serious conversations. But like @Taro T said, we should know soon.

Don’t think this is where you’re going with that, but I was talking about highly-drafted defencemen in general, not Byram in particular. More to your point, Byram is not a prospect and it’s not just about the long run. I look at Byram kinda like I look at Power, in the sense that even though I expect them to get better, I still think they are skilled enough and experienced enough that they should be good right now. Byram is 17 months older, but he’s got 72 points in 164 games with very little power play time. Power has 71 points in 163 NHL games with very little power play time. Byram also played 20 minutes a night for the Stanley Cup champions and led that team in possession #s at the highest level of competition in the NHL. We know he can play and play well.

(For the record, if Tom says they are chasing him, I believe him. But if they actually acquired him, I’d be shocked as hell. Like I was with the Byram deal.)