LGR4GM

I don't have a problem with moving on from Mitts, my concern is the lack of team building that the move gave us. If we trade Mitts for a 6'3" RHD with a 30-40pt record and physical nature, great cool. We didn't do that though. We traded for yet another LHD. It would be like having Josh Allen and trading for idk Justin Herbert, what's the point? Are you going to give Byram PP2 time? That means you aren't giving it to Power then.

The Sabres had 3 top 6 centers, the now had 2. The Sabres had 2 top 4 LHD, they now have 3. They also have another top LHD that can't stay healthy so they have 3 top 4 LHD. Now with Byram they have only 2 top 6 centers so god forbid their is an injury and 4 LHD for their top 4... on top of alllllll that, the Sabres cut loose another top 6 forward. So they cut 2 top 6 forwards and added yet another top 4 LHD. I hope Byram is awesome to be truthful but from a team building perspective, the trade isn't logical when you have Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power already here.

Difference between Bills revenue at 29th and Seattle revenue at 16th is 51million or about 10% so I don't think the NHL is worried about the Bills producing revenue. Especially as the Bills themselves have become more of a brand under Josh Allen and the Bills Mafia. The real concern IMPO for Buffalo is not the Pegula's selling but the post Josh Allen era. I don't think the NFL would do well if the Bills were bad for a long stretch because that would impact the brand of the Bills. I don't understand enough about how they calculated EBIDTA to comment on that at all. That said, I bet the new stadium helps more than we realize considering the old stadium is... let's say rough around the edges.

Zach Benson even strength pts per 60mins was 1.9 last season. Bedard's was 2.2 p/60 at even (so 3v3, 4v4, 5v5). Bedards 5v5 was 1.9pts/60 and Bensons was 1.8pts/60. What this means is that if I adjust for time on ice and remove all the PP points Bedard got because Benson was given almost no time on a terrible pp, at 5v5, Zach Benson was almost equal to Connor Bedard. I will say that again, at 5v5 Zach Benson posted similar production to Connor Bedard. I am not here to say that Bedard and Benson will forever be this close and Benson is equal to him, but there are elite aspects of Benson's game that have already translated for an 18yr NHL player and he kept pace with a guy many think is the second coming of McDavid. Now I think Benson will have some limits due to his overall speed that Bedard will not. I also think Bedard has an incredible shot but Benson has incredible manipulation and passing abilities. Here's a quote from his EP during his draft year: "This skill (elite hockey sense and passing) is visualized in Brown’s manually tracked data set. Benson’s expected primary assists and slot pass success percentage check in at the 100th percentile, in a sample that includes 700 forwards from this season. In a multi-year data set of over 3000 forwards, his underlying playmaking data is second to only Connor McDavid." That's right, Zach Benson's playmaking when compared to a dataset of 3000 forwards (Bedard btw is in that set) is 2nd only to Connor McDavid. Btw, Benson is closer to McDavid than the 3rd place guy is to Benson. Simply put, Benson is better than Helenius, JJ Peterka, and possibly Jack Quinn although I have a sneaky suspicion that Jack Quinn is about to show us his best. Pronman ranking him 62nd is a process of not understanding what Zach Benson is doing shift in and shift out. Zach Benson at 13th overall is going to look sillier and sillier as time moves IMPO. As early as this season we could see Benson ascend to the level of top end 2nd liner. I understand the tier of "bubble top and middle of the lineup" that Pronman put him in, and I am saying it is at least 1 tier too low and possibly several.

The Byram trade may just be the final nail in Adams coffin. It still doesn't make sense.

Open air stadium, no roof needed. Saves t-pegs more yacht money

8k has their name on the cup.

it's higher def going from 10mm between pixels to 4mm. It's about double the size of the old board. There's panels on the bottom so those up close in the lower bowl can see things too.

Won't be open after we look back on this season.

The goalies will need to be above NHL average and consistently be in the top half of gs expected.

Peterka: .51ppg Quinn: .56ppg And I'd argue Quinn is better defensively as well.

I'll bet the over on Quinn and Benson

14mil a year is the rough AVV

Levi is short, so Pronman hates him. It's petty simple really.

No reason to grumble much. Pronman is a hack who can't evaluate skating for crap and thinks the anyone under 6ft is too small for the NHL and all goalies have to be 6'9" or they are undersized. His size biases are brutal, blatant, and not based on the realities of how NHL hockey is played. Read EP or if you have the Athletic, read Wheeler but EP is just worlds better with real insights into a players abilities. It isn't just "they are under 6ft and their straight line speed isn't elite so they skate bad and are too small" which is 50% of Pronman.

Pronman being this low on Zach Benson has convinced me he's a complete hack. Just does not understand the elite level problem solving Benson brings and why that is going to make him a great hockey player.

The thing with Worlds is twofold. First is most teams are men's teams so an 18yr old there is a big deal, see konsta helenius. Second, it happens right before draft time so you get recency bias at play too. My issue with worlds is it is short. The best players aren't there although many good ones are. Finally some teams give lots of opportunities to their young guys and some don't. Just like ffb, opportunities or targets matter. It's why Benson is so under the radar, he has almost 0 pp opportunities but was very good 5v5. When scouting it's better to see someone play well here but if they don't it doesn't really mean that much imo.

Well Quinn might be top 20 but Benson would be another year before he's in that conversation. 75 is the cutoff for top 15 winger, I could see Quinn around that.

It did. NHL teams over value the world's a bit. Again, I don't have issues with Power. I like him, he's gonna be a solid #2 guy and if he adds about 25% physicality that will be fine.

@JohnC I find it pretty disingenuous for you to use the terms "dominant" and "elite" for his college play and then accuse me of red herring when I said "talk about him like a super star" considering elite and Dominant is how you'd talk about a super star. So the bottom line here is your red herring comment is bull hockey. Owen Power wasn't Dominant or elite in college. He was good. Ftr, I like Owen Power a lot. He's a good hockey player.

Zach Benson is better Seth Jarvis. Remember that.

First, I used the language you and other did. Elite and Dominant, which is incorrect. I'll prove you said that below. Second, he shouldn't have been the consensus #1 and I vehemently argued against that with data in his draft year. So far, it is starting to come to fruition that he was indeed not the best player in his class. We'll see if that changes. Third, there is no red herring. You just want to dismiss my argument without any type of proof. It's an old trick, but it gets used a lot. You used the term "elite player in college" which is not accurate. He was a good, not elite player in college. Here's 2 references. First it implies he'll be a star, second he's called dominant in college, which he wasn't. Final nitpick, you claim "He was an elite player in college in his short stint there" but Owen Power played 59 games over 2 years. That's not really that short and while his 2nd year was very good, he was not dominant or elite. Rasmus Dahlin is elite, Power is a level below that. I really hope he grows up and becomes dominant but so far, he's the nhl version of his college self; a steady positional defender with little physicality who uses his length to take away space and uses his passing for good outlet passes. He's a solid #3 right now and can become a 40pt+ #2 defender. My issue is that's not how he's being described.