LGR4GM

I can get here for sure. I think Savoie is more likely to fit the Briere role. Krebs needs to take a big step this season because all the drafted centers will close on him quickly if he does not.

We own Vegas' 2nd rounder so anything that keeps them bad is good for us. picking 40th will be way different than 55th in this draft.

I love the optimism but Brawndo is right. We aren't drafting in that 26-32 range and the best bet is somewhere in the 12-16/18 range. This team could surprise us but it is still the hardest division in hockey and we still have questions throughout the lineup for guys. This draft is going to be very deep at the top but right now, these preliminary rankings should be viewed as nothing more than "hey here are some guys to watch". Don't take too much notice of where players are ranked until January/February lists come out. Sure some of the top guys won't move but I think everything from 6 down could move around as much as 10 more slots. There is a lot of talent and will be a lot of movement in this draft before the end. 4-10, 11-22, and 23-32 are the tiers that Wheeler currently has so maybe that helps some but still, gotta wait until after the WJC before we get a real feeling for these players. My feeling is we finished in a 14th place tie but drop to 13th because of the tiebreaker. Win the lottery and draft Fantilli at 3.

I really like Cozens. He is big, fast, has good instincts, active defensively, and is a leader. That said, he hasn't earned a massive or long term deal yet. We could argue that you pay him before he earns it to keep cost down but his possession quality needs to go positive, his sh% needs to come up more, and he needs to figure out a way to be a 55pt 2 way player to be really effective. I think he can do that but I might wait for him to do that before talking a long term deal. Good news. Everyone in Buffalo spent a chunk of last season trying to figure out Granato's system, unlearning Krueger, getting comfortable in the NHL. This year the majority of the team knows the system. Sure Quinn and Peterka are rookies but the rest of the team isn't and they were all here last year. I think that gives someone like Cozens the ability to grow a bit more this year compared to last year.

You ever think about how crappy his lawyer was? Dude gets jumped in a bar parking lot by 3 guys (who clearly want to do awful things to his wife) and it was considered unreasonable force to toast one of them. Also now I want to watch Con-Air

It is amazing to me that even though he started in the d zone 72% of the time, he still managed a positive xgf. What's interesting about that +/- stat you mention is that only Carson Soucy topped it and basically only Soucy and Sheahan played a full season for Seattle and ended up with a + number. Of the top 20 skaters on that team in games played, they are the only positive guys with the loan exception being +1 Will Borgen with only 36 games played compared to 69 and 64 games.

And there is absolutely no reason for Owen Power, the 2nd best defender on the Sabres, to play in a kids tournament 1 month before NHL training camp starts.

I feel like the article covered what you are referring to and I have heard Forton and Adams discuss similar things. I get the impression some of you didn't read the article based on comments.

It is interesting that they had Kulich and Östlund right on top of eachother. What is also interesting is that they tried to trade up and no one would. Sometimes other gms save you from yourself which is always good to see.

Definitely should be hesitant. Östlund and Kulich could always end up bottom 6 players. Time will tell.

Okay, we disagree. Nope. Ventura is clearly too stupid to look at score effects on player stats. You should email him about it.

Owen Power Not sure how you can see Komarov and Novikov as good picks who are defensively responsible and then be mad they were not in the top 3 rounds with the next sentence. Who cares where they get them as long as they get them.

Considering Ventura didn't speak about all they look at, I would assume they look at entry denial, shot charts, breakouts to gauge some of the defensive metrics.

They are looking at primary points (goals and 1st assists) and even strength (p1/ev). They are looking scoring relative to the team you are own (that's how you get Seth Jarvis). They are looking at age compared to scoring. They are looking at league strength as a variable (which might be why the Q isn't a place they seem to draft out of a ton recently). They are looking at playmaking which is probably some combination of passing stats (hd passes, passes leading to hd chances, passes that result in zone entries, and also controlled entries etc...) Basically it sounds like they spent most of 2021 building the models they want for drafting going forward and now they can focus on tweaking those models and updating them. Outside of the Leinonen pick, I can see how this was used. That Leinonen pick though is still really odd.

https://theathletic.com/3475314/2022/08/11/sabres-analytics-sam-ventura-nhl-draft/?source=emp_shared_article This is a fascinating read and something if you are curious about the draft you should definitely take the time to go through.

I must have missed where you vigorously reviewed the CV of the previous director of Hockey Canada to make sure he had suitable qualifications of, "played hockey", too.

"At Cornell, she played four years of varsity hockey and was captain during her senior year... Andrea’s hockey involvement includes refereeing at the highest levels of women’s hockey in Canada, including the 2014 Esso Cup and 2014 Clarkson Cup, as well as acting as a mentor referee with the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association. She was an assistant coach with the University of Ottawa varsity women’s hockey team while in law school at the University of Ottawa."

Scott Wheeler's top 32. He has full write ups on each but if you want that, subscribe. https://theathletic.com/3470428/2022/08/08/top-nhl-prospects-draft/ Connor Bedard Matvei Michkov Adam Fantilli Zach Benson Dalibor Dvorsky Leo Carlsson Brayden Yager Eduard Sale Matthew Wood Calum Ritchie Cameron Allen Mikhail Gulyayev Andrew Cristall Nate Danielson Will Smith Riley Heidt Charlie Stramel Oliver Moore Otto Stenberg Ryan Leonard Colby Barlow Kasper Halttunen Daniil But Alex Ciernik Quentin Musty Gavin Brindley Jayden Perron Koehn Ziemmer Gabe Perreault Caden Price Hunter Brzustewicz Theo Lindstein

Linus Sjodin Isak Rosen Both on Sweden for wjc from what I know.

Kevyn should be very careful who and what he pursues in ufa. I think Kadri is interesting but only for about 2 years and idk if he'd sign up for that. There's also teams that aren't cap compliant that we could or should work with still.

Yup. With Dahlin and Power, so we really need an offense only defender? If you brought him in to play with Power, Power would spend all game defending. Not interested and I doubt he was interested in us. He has a 10 team ntc that kicks in January 1st. Before that is a full ntc.

I might take that bet. Kulich is going to be fun to watch if he is in Rochester this season.

It's not. Mostly chl guys. They can't muster a roster because they barely have drafted anyone in about a decade.

Just quoting for posterity