LGR4GM

We should never draft this high again, trading Helenius or Östlund makes more sense than trading 4th overall. Here's a good talk about Martone v, McQueen with some Misa in there.

Sabres only have McLeod, Quinn, and Peterka (all RFAs) up front to sign. Everyone else is under contract. Byram, Docker are RFAs with Bryson a UFA. So right now, we have 1 open depth defender spot. Everyone else is signed so Adams would have to be very aggressive from a trade standpoint to change this team at all.

Good video summarizing the last few weeks

Zach Benson is nowhere close to what Jack Quinn is or was. Zach Benson will be fine, he's not a concern.

Not impossible but unlikely unless McQueen just goes off in the last bit here. McQueen is 6'5" and that is going to attract a lot of teams to the "what if?" factor. What if McQueen is an 80pt all around center. At 6'5" that would be quite a player. Chicago taking McQueen at #2 would surprise me with Martone around but maybe. They could view McQueen as a deterrent for Bedard.

Let's mock the top 5, because why not. We will assume the order is unchanged. San Jose: Matthew Schaefer LHD, while SJ was able to add LH Sam Dickinson in last years draft as well, they have primarily acquired offensive talent. Celebrini, Smith, Musty, Chernyshov, Bystedt, Eklund etc. They have a ton of really good offensive players on the team or in the pool. In 2-3 years they are going to be a nightmare team to play. They have an achilles heel though, defensively they are thinner. They do have some LHD depth which means they could decide they want more offense but they don't have a guy like Schaefer. Schaefer is very very good and was only getting better before his injury. His age coupled with how he can already play and this is a franchise LHD in the making. With their offensive pipeline including Celebrini and Smith, I think they use this to really add a piece to the defense. Chicago Blackhawks, Michael Misa C/LW, this was almost Martone. I see a world where Chicago looks at there roster, and says, okay we want the 6'3" winger for Bedard who will "protect" him. However, I am not convinced with what Misa has done that they will let him slide. There won't be a defensive player and they will want to add someone who can skate in their top 6, the solution is Misa. Now Misa also isn't small at 6'1" so they go to that well and get the best offensive player in the draft. He has the skating to move with Bedard and they can also slot him in at 2nd line center. It would be one of the best forward groups no matter who they pick. Nashville Predators, Porter Martone RW, this is a team that wants to draft big guys who are decent at hockey (matthew wood) and Martone is big and really good at hockey. He is the perfect type of player to slide into their top 6 within 2 years as Nashville will massively rebound next season. I think there's an outside chance they go with Hagens as they could use a playmaking center in the pipe but I have seen this play out in the draft before. Martone is going to measure like 6'3.5" at the draft and 205lbs compared to 5'10.75" Hagens at 178lbs and that's going to push Martone ahead of Hagens. Especially when some team with big forwards does really well in the playoffs. Also, Martone is a right shot right wing and teams love them some right shots. Buffalo Sabres, James Hagens C, He's 5'11" maybe (I want to see his combine numbers) and he has a lot of great 2-way skills. He supports the puck on both ends of the ice. He has all the high end playmaking brains and skills you want. He was the projected #1 pick just about everywhere going into the draft cycle in August. So... here's the thing. Go watch some NCAA games of his. You will see playmaking and nice skating. He will backcheck really well and then you will notice on the walls especially how he gets just shoved off the puck. He is simply not strong enough. His size impacts his ability to play at the NCAA level. He needs to get stronger and learn how to play off contact much better. He needs a summer or two hanging out with Benson learning how to deal with contact and also to get stronger. I would send Hagens back to the NCAA for at least 1 more season. He reminds me a bit of Östlund in tems of good skating with strong 2-way ideas but needs to get stronger. I don't love him sliding to Buffalo but we would be silly not to take him. There's just going to be a couple years of ppl doubting him before he figures it out. Jack Hughes is my comparison. Seattle Kraken, Roger McQueen C...or W, if his back is cleared, I think Seattle goes there. If not, I could see them going after Eklund or Desnoyers here. McQueen would be a slam dunk if he had played all year. His handling and playmaking is only okay but his shot and ability to drive inside is great. He is big and he uses it well. Again, if this guy is healthy, and we get a good look at him the last 10 games of his jr season, he may even crack the top 4. If not, I think Desnoyers is a real possibility here. Desnoyers is a 6'2" playmaker out of the Q and his 200ft game is pretty good. There is not a flaw that Desnoyers has, he just doesn't flash a ton of really high end ability. Instead he is just good, which is a good thing. Engages physically, gets pucks to the HD areas, backchecks very well. If I had to give him an elite skill, I think his playmaking is still developing and it is already on the cusp of being amazeballz. Go watch some of his stuff, he's going to be a good NHL player especially if paired with a shooter. Honestly if I could draft Desnoyers and Misa, that would be perfect.

Yes. Martone needs more consistency in his game but he's got playmaking and uses his size well. Hagens worries me. I've seen some of his ncaa stuff and he's fine but you can tell that level is just a bit too much for him physically, he's gotta add the muscle and find ways to get inside. I'd leave him in the ncaa another year. He reminds me a Jack Hughes and does have a good 2way game. Now if they fall to 5th, the question becomes so you risk McQueen or take one of ***** 6 guys that are roughly similar?

The guy who just got suspended 20 games for PEDs?

Lol what? He's 24 and a first round pick. Of course he's in the NHL. What's with the "already" nonsense. I'll take that bet. He's gonna be like the forward version of Ristolainen. He'll bounce around Ottawa’s middle 6 for the rest of the contract. He'll have some good stretches and his offense will probably be around 55ish points. His defense will continue to suck.

Oh man Cozens scored a goal, Ottawa wins the trade now!? Ahhhhhhh

William Eklund.

This is what I get for not paying more attention. Good call.

Good play by Samuelsson and Dahlin at the end. Josh Norris 2nd star and an assist, clearly we won the trade! Lol I'm playing, we'll see what happens

Woot, we won! Also... holy ***** we suck at empty nets

Norris has been solid

Misa plays with Chernysov and Epperson a lot as their center. Even if Misa were to be an nhl wing, I'd take him over Hagens

Misa? He's played center all year. Maybe at the start he did some games at wing but I think it comes from last year when Misa did play wing. I think he's a center, the details, the skill, the skating, all lead me to think he's a center.

Misa is bigger, better shot, more direct, more physical. Hagens reminds me of Jack Hughes.

Benson needs to be better offensively. Defensively, I don't worry about him. We're all frustrated

He spent 2 months on the 4th line cuz Lindy isn't that good.

Musk blames Ukraine without evidence that they took down Twitter today. Why? Because he's a supporter of authoritarian regimes Because he thinks it will make him money.

But how many hits did Norris have!? He's gotta be 2nd star!

Norris point