dudacek

The price surprises me. Thats a lot for a waiver pickup, no matter that he’s an actual NHLer. Guess the term makes it easier to swallow.

Was just about to post that I expected this to be the Sabres first move.

I’m proud of you. Free agency is 27 minutes old and you haven’t given up yet!

People were upset we traded Bloom. If he does nothing else, Miedema replaces Bloom’s profile in the pipeline: bigger and more skilled than Josh, but less consistent.

With Quinn’s injury I would be all over this.

This was guy I wondered if we might be looking at. Kinda glad he’s headed elsewhere because I wanted better.

This guy looks like this year’s version: https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/201792/t.j.-semptimphelter Pretty sure he was the prospect who left Northeastern because he was stuck behind Levi.

From what I saw last year, the Reaves and OEL signings should be applauded. Two players who were frequently exploited.

Added four amateur free agents signed this spring to Amerk contracts: Defenceman Nicolas Savoie and centre Riley Fiddler-Schultz out of the CHL, and Zach Metsa and Chris Jandric from the NCAA. Although none are officially Sabre property, I think they should be considered to be as much part of the pipeline as any unsigned draft picks.

Not seeing Savoie or Kulich or Rosen or Levi on that list. Not really surprised about Levi, and they hinted that players who had a long run might be exempt. I don’t have like it though. Looks like we will have to content ourselves with Benson and Russian watching. We get our first looks at Novikov, Sardarian, and Neuchev, and I’m really curious to see whether Kisakov steps up after getting his feet wet last year. Leinonen is another mystery box that intrigues me this year.

Looking forward to Tuch and JJ painting him orange next winter.

I expected this. They wanted to re-sign him, but below his qualifier. He may still sign.

Good list @GASabresIUFAN. I think my first 7 slots would be identical, and we’ve already hashed out our divide on Poltapov, who would probably be my 8. I think I’ll do mine after dev camp.

Cozens, Quinn, Krebs, Savoie, Benson, Power, Levi - best collection of young Canadian talent on the Sabres since the French Connection days?

I think this hurts more than people realize. The reason this team isn't going big game shopping is because it is counting on internal improvement. Quinn is second only to Power in terms of being able to provide that. it also means we may not get help from an Olofsson return because he is the most likely person to fill the hole, and he is probably not going to fix his flaws if he gets those minutes. If we do trade Vic, Kulich and/or Savoie are probably not going to be able provide even what Quinn providedlast year. It's a blow.

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."