LGR4GM

I will disagree with Quinn being included here as I think he very much engages physically.

Kulich made the AHL all prospects team:

Anton Wahlberg is 6'3" and plays a power game. The other issue is that since Buffalo is so young, there isn't any room for prospects and shouldn't be in the top 9 for a hot bit. Tage, Cozens, Quinn, Tuch, and JJP all are either physically big or play with a physical edge. Benson is in this mix too but not quite yet. Greenway for now is also there and big with some snarl. I guess my point is I don't really care about the prospect pool as much because there are so many guys in Buffalo who are 23 or younger and have elements of what you want in their games. Tage might be the most finesse one out of the guys I listed. Do they need to up their grit/physicality/motor, in general yes. But I don't really spare any thoughts about Savoie, Rosen, Östlund in terms of if they can bring that since at this stage, we could trade all 3 and it wouldn't do much to our prospect pool other than thin it out a bit. None of those 3 necessarily have to hit or play prominent roles for Buffalo is my end point. I will say that Helenius, Iginla, and Stiga all intrigue me in the draft because they have some of that battle I think you want and each could be available at 11 or 43 (Stiga)

What giant hole is that? I think I may be one of the few who expect a healthy Tage and a year older Cozens to produce better this year with Ruff.

Then Adams failed. There should be no spot in the top 9 for Kulich or Savoie barring injury.

Name a small skill forward on the Sabres. I get jeff Skinner and that's about it. The Panthers are 26th in the NHL for weight and tied for 30th for height. Size doesn't equal toughness, grit, or physicality.

Ruh roh

Did... did you not see how he scored his goal? By driving the net. Something he did in Buffalo.

We go live to Edmonton's defense...

Sam Reinhart, driving nets and scoring goals.

Explaining ones position is not freaking out. Although on this board, it is almost always perceived that way. I also didn't intend to imply your response was a "freak out"

BTW, I hope ppl realize I have nothing against Alex Tuch who I like a whole hell of a lot. I just think he should get an A not a C.

I hope and think Benson will be better than Briere. The only thing they are similar in is size. I think Benson plays the game stylistically different even though if the effect is similar.

Accept this has been RAMMMED down everyone's throat about Alex Tuch since just about the time he got here. Could very well be Tuch, but I am here to tell y'all it should be Dahlin. He's the guy and Tuch can be an A with Cozens the other A. To expand on it you say in your closing paragraph the same things everyone keeps repeating ad nauseum here. In fact, I bet if we look at the poll something like 70% of this board (Edit: I looked, it is 40% and more wanted Dahlin so I am wrong here) wants Tuch as captain. Meanwhile all the stories about Dahlin working extra before in after practice or taking in Benson or genuinely being the best player on the team last year bar none are pretty much ignored. Tuch came in and went "RAH RAH! BUFFALO! 06! Party IN THE PlaZA!!!!" and everyone was like "HE'S CAPTAIN!" and it hasn't stopped and it won't until the next captain is named. Hell last offseason there were loud and repeated calls for Okposo to pass the captaincy to Tuch and the RJ thing was cited about 200 times in it. That is a great moment and it shows how much Tuch cares, but that isn't IMPO some sign from the Hockey Gods that this guy has to be the Captain. The Captain isn't defined by a moment but by 1000 little moments we will never see and probably never know. They might make Tuch captain but this boards literally freak outs every time someone mentions another candidate at this point make me cheer for Dhalin harder. In the end, I don't actually care who the Captain is because I am not on the team, it is just a letter on a sweater. I only care if this team finally stops being the laughing stock of the NHL. I will however point out what I have about Tuch, he isn't the best on the team and others do just as much.

Yup, we need to make enough upgrades so that Kulich and Savoie are callups this upcoming season.

I've seen nothing from Tuch that indicates he communicates in that locker room more than Dahlin.

Yup, and he improved still. We should be excited for Kulich and it is why I suggest buying Skinner out next year instead of this, you get Kulich another year of development so when you move on from Skinner, Kulich is more able to replace that level of production (not all but between Benson and Kulich, I think you can replace Skinner's goals).

When thinking about drafts you need to hit on your first rounders in 8-9 out of 10 drafts. Your second rounds in 5/6 out of 10 drafts. Third rounders about 2-3 out of 10 and after that if you get 2 guys every 10 drafts or so that aren't just replacement level, you've done fairly well. One of the issues we and everyone has is that we measure a successful pick by games played which is bad. There's lots of big bottom line guys drafted in the 5th who get like 250NHL games between 4-5 teams over a 5 year career but that doesn't mean they were super impactful. I think top 9 forwards and top 5 defenders are really what you need to be drafting and what I am thinking about when I created those numbers. You basically need 2.2 NHL players per draft (which is actually fake because when you get a Dahlin that counts because he won't have a 7yr career barring injury so he's the equivalent of finding 2 players because he's gonna play until he's 35 or so). This means that you need 2 players from each draft and then every 3rd or 4th draft you need a third to keep your team well stocked with cheap incoming talent. So 2018 you get Dahlin who again is going to play so much and have such an impact you can get away with that being your only guy. However Buffalo gets Samuelsson so there is 2 guys. 2019 you get Cozens and hopefully R Johnson so again you have 2 guys, you are doing okay. 2020 you get Quinn and Peterka and that again is 2 guys and 2 guys that are top 6 so you nice drafting. We gotta be careful now though because we haven't gotten 3 yet and we are at the 4th draft in a row. You get Owen Power and maybe Rosen and Novikov... there's a chance there for 3 and that would be perfect. 2017 is the last 3 for with Mitts, Bryson, UPL. 2022, Savoie and Kulich are def playing NHL games with Östlund and Komarov as potential too. You get 4 here, great job, you get 2, you still did good. 2023, Benson is already in the NHL because he's a top 4 guy who fell and Wahlberg has a good chance of playing NHL games with Strbak also with a good chance, again, you might have 3 but even if only 2 hit you are fine. That is how to really think about drafts. Did you get 2 players? Good if they are even middle 6 or 4-6 defenders, and great if they are above that (Quinn and JJP). If you get 3 players, excellent. You need to hit on your 1st round pick basically 8/9 out of 10 and 2nd rounders 5/6 out of 10. The rest if you can manage to find a guy every 3rd-ish draft, sweet, you are drafting great. You can hit AKA Bryson or you can really hit AKA Peterka, so context will always matter with these numbers. Edit: I want to note that trades can make that 3rd player every 3-4 drafts irrelevant and guys like Dahlin or Benson who barring injury will have 15year or more careers, also can off-set needing that 3rd guy from a draft. I think since 2022, Buffalo's drafting looks better and if Forton truly is in charge, than credit to him. The Leinonen picks really hurts what could have been just a phenomenal 2022 draft (there's 3-4 guys right there that will be NHL guys) where Buffalo could have walked away with 4-5 players. You get 5 NHL players from 1 draft, holy *****, have a beer.

Considering the first draft this applies to is the 2022 draft, there should be no surprise that those guys haven't made the NHL yet. Only 9 players from that draft have even played more than 10 NHL games. The lowest drafted being #54 who is also the only one outside the 1st round to play over 10 games. I'd argue against counting the 2021 draft due to Covid and the 2020 draft, Adams had 5 picks, 3 of which were pick 131 or later. Obviously Quinn and JJP hit which has really helped the team because if either missed you would have had a very meh draft.

Hope Power learns a thing or two about Dahlin's growth and development and takes that next step. Dahlin, IMPO deserves the C.

I always turn up by that Honda dealer or whatever is and loop out and around and come back in by Charlie's to avoid downtown. Then up over the hills and into PY. I would note that Keuka lake is busy but during the week (Mon-Thurs) even in the summer, it is much more chill. It has the advantage of not being as close as Canandaigua to Rochester or as close to the 90 as Seneca. I remember being on Keuka in the summer during the week and on a calm day with almost no boats out, I could see 200ft down to the bottom just off the bluff. All I can say is whoever you are, protect the lakes and urge others to use them responsibly. As someone who has spent time outside of NYS, the lakes we have are truly rare and precious things.