dudacek

Neither Benson, nor Lindgren are eligible for the AHL yet. Neither has a contract yet either, although that could change tomorrow.

Pure speculation, or have you heard things? Jeep has a nice resume. As far as Appert goes, we probably aren't giving Adams enough credit for this hire. Amerks have had a long stretch where they neither won, nor developed players. Under Seth they do both. Plus the guy is so well-suited to be the face of an organization; you can see the suits falling for him. Next NHL team hitting the reset button with a group of kids has to be very interested.

The thing with Poltapov that doesn’t show up on the stats sheet is his ability to protect pucks, work the boards and the corners, and get under the skin of opponents. Fans talk about a lack of grit in the pool in part because they forget about Poltapov, or have no idea how he plays. Stat watching teenagers in the KHL can be a little misleading. They generally don’t play much and Poltapov was fighting for ice time on the league’s best team. His numbers are in line with last year’s 1st rounders Yurov and Mirosechenko. He’s an NHL skater with a game that works in your bottom 6 and enough skill to potentially be more.

I don't consider him a prospect. He's finished his ELC now without establishing himself as even an AHL regular and is probably not going get a qualifying offer.

Eh, wasn't really supposed to be a firm ranking, more like a general starting point. You might be right on McCarthy. I'd put all three on a tier as likely tweeners for the time being. I'm real curious if the Sabres think as little of Leinonen as Sabrespace does. Reminds me of Rosen, in the sense he was an unpopular pick who had a poor post-draft year. Never seen him play, but I have too much faith in this staff to write him off completely already. I suspect he's better than we know. If memory serves, you've always underestimated Poltapov. Kid's going to walk right on to a 3rd-line role with the Sabres when his KHL contract expires. He's Vaclav Varada reincarnated. The trio you listed probably aren't going to be NHL players.

And Wahlberg and Miedema are enormous kids who can skate and apparently have a silent killer edge to them. Sounds like the middle of this draft could go a long way to add the hard-to-play-against component some think our pipeline is missing.

Updated look at the pool after today: CENTRE Matthew Savoie Noah Östlund Jiri Kulich* Anton Wahlberg* Tyson Kozak William Von Barnekow Gustav Karlsson Matteo Costantini* Jakob Konecny* Riley Fiddler-Schultz WING Zach Benson Jiri Kulich* Isak Rosen Prokhor Poltapov Anton Wahlberg* Lukas Rousek Viktor Neuchev Aleksandr Kisakov Olivier Nadeau Ethan Miedema Filip Cedarqvist Jake Richard Viljami Marjala Aaron Huglen Jakob Konecny* Stiven Sardarian Joel Ratkovic Berndtsson Linus Sjodin DEFENCE Ryan Johnson Maxim Strbak Nikita Novikov Vsevolod Komarov Mats Lindgren Gavin McCarthy Sean Keohane Norwin Panocha Albert Lyckasen Zach Metsa Chris Jandric Nicolas Savoie GOALIE Devon Levi Topias Leinonen Scott Ratzlaff GRADUATED Peyton Krebs Jack Quinn JJ Peterka Owen Power Ukko Pekka Luukkonen Brett Murray Linus Weissbach Matej Pekar Hope it’s a useful reference, and a good jump-off point for prospect ranking and general discussion about the state of the pipeline.

Playing the long game are we? 😁

Sabres fans were hoping for size and they weren’t paying a lot of attention to Benson because he was neither a need, nor expected to be available. I have no problem saying he is a better prospect than any forward taken in 2022 - not just the Sabres trio, that entire draft. Someone said it earlier: most GMs picking after 4 will be kicking themselves in 5 years for over thinking this one. This kid can hockey.

Jason Botterill: "the 7th round is a Norwin situation."

I know this is just more of your usual whining, but it does raise the question of how far away this kid is. Many of you think Matt Savoie is ready now (I doubt it) and Benson was arguably better than Savoie this year, or at least at the same level.

Another big, responsible guy. Very much the theme this year.

Almost perfect for Team Canada in the most recent Hlinka/Gretzky Cup. 2 goals against in 4 games, .976 SV%

Wahlberg, Strbak, McCarthy and Miedema all project as guys who can fill grinder roles in the lower half of the roster if they don't become more. Add the goalie and they are really fleshing out the prospect pool this year.

Are you trolling? Peterka: 1 minor league season, 2 playoff series win, 12 games, 7 goals, 14 points Rosen: 1 minor league season, 2 playoff series win, 14 games, 4 goals, 8 points

It's easy if you pay attention to Adams preferences for compete and upside and believe his mantra of best player available.

And 6’4” 210 at 18 in the 4th. Definitely addressing this concern. Dude’s Marcus Foligno-sized.

Three straight picks with some size. 🤷. Looks like there is some movement to address this concern.

Most predictable pick of the draft

Marchand? Point? Marchesseault? Patty Kane? There’s a pretty long list of 5’10” 185 pound (ish) players who have excelled in the NHL. That includes dead puck era hall-of-farmers lie Sakic, Yzerman and Lafontaine.

Yes, Krebs point a game = struggling Rosen a little over 1/2 a point per game = NHL ready.

Benson? Rosen? As said up-thread, no way I’m trading VO for futures/as a dump right now. If it gets us a D-man, fine.

I know For A Fact! that Kevyn Adams loves Casey Mittelstadt and Peyton Krebs 🙄

I hate the fact we are already trading 22-year-old players. How about we wait until Benson and Kulich and the others are actually better than Mittelstadt and Krebs before we start trading them?

This stuff comes from the mouths of most of the Sabres top prospects. Adams has a type. Put a bunch of players of that type together and you create an atmosphere of constant improvement. And you get the types of jumps we saw last year.