LGR4GM

Quick note, Gavin McKenna won't be draft eligible until 2026. He may lead the WHL in scoring this year anyways.

Lol @Thorny a second time.

If by Adams you mean Ventura and Karmanos, yes.

By the Paddle of Ethron. The Ryan Miller wtf wave

DeLuca .500

No, but nfreeman was.

Lol @Thorny

4 seasons but point still stands.

Good luck intimidating Novikov. That's 6'4" and over 200lbs of angry defender. If he improves his foot speed he's gonna be a lot of fun. Also, Helenius, Östlund, Kulich, Rosen have all played previous seasons either in the AHL or against men so I don't worry about that for them. R Johnson came from College so he's not getting intimidated either.

Don't tell this board that. The meltdown over calling Helenius small like Benson and Savoie was all based on the fact he wasn't 1 inch taller. It was and is the dumbest example of bias we have for this place.

List of current RFAs https://dashboard.puckpedia.com/?q=VATEPN#&sort[table0]=23-1&c=[2,3,4,7,10,13,15,16,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36]&

Tappara issues statement that makes it appear as though Helenius will be playing in NA this season. They wished him good luck. I would count on Helenius then opening the year in Rochester.

Being critical of a GM who's failings are self evident doesn't make anyone a troll, ftr. Whether or not that's your point with the opening sentence, I just wanted add that in. We should be critical of a guy who for 4 years couldn't get this team to the playoffs.

Correct, Benson is not AHL eligible. Tbh, I just don't believe a scenario exists where Benson isn't better than last year. If he struggles, you bench him for Krebs or Kulich and Benson figures his ***** out at practice.

No you don't. Again, you don't clear a spot in your NHL roster for an 18yr old who is playing well in the AHL. Of course I think Helenius will probably start slow in the AHL and will take a couple months to adjust anyways but that doesn't mean that if he is a ppg player in the AHL you go "oh man, gotta find a spot for him, sorry McLeod or idk Benson or whatever, we are going to sit you for this kid". No, he simply stays in the AHL and continues to work.

Only thing I want to add here is the Sabres do not need to "figure something out" because the answer is simple, if he is lighting up the AHL, leave him the AHL until injury requires him. Sabres shouldn't open a spot in their NHL lineup for an 18yr. That's what teams planning to miss the playoffs and continue building do. He isn't and he won't be.

Far more likely Kulich would take that spot over Helenius if Benson were to struggle.

Playing in the KHL this season due to the pending sexual assault litigation.

This is the guy Helenius would need to be better than because Tage and Cozens aren't sitting. I don't think it even remotely likely Helenius can be better than this at 18. At 22, sure but not at 18 playing for the first time the NA style/ system

Quinn has 2 NHL seasons, the first he played 75 games.

He's an exceedingly good defensive forward with speed. He's also not 18 which gives him a major advantage. I love Helenius, He's a good kid. He's not Benson though.

Helenius is going to have to adapt to NA ice and pace. Benson did not. Further, which of McLeod, Cozens, Thompson, or Lafferty are your benching for Helenius? Granted, playing an 18yr old rookie on the 4th line you just deliberately created would be dumb so really just McLeod, Cozens, Thompson, who's Helenius getting in over? That also ignored having to jump Kulich.