WildCard

I've thought this for awhile, but I think Chayka is in over his head. Reminds me a lot of Murray/Doug Whaley. I'm very interested to see if Dubas pans out the same way

Well yeah I know him and Kruger. That's about it

I don't know any of those people really

Well they've been wrong before ?

Our local media that's been watching him every day has been as down as him as we are. People on this board that have went there have lambasted him. Granted pros are probably more qualified to hold these opinions, but I don't think Friedman or LeBrun are watching Nylander night in and night out

I'd be interested to see if other boards (reddit, hf, etc) feel the same about him so far

Somebody made this joke earlier, about Arizona taking on Hossa's contract. Believe it was actually you Brawndo

I mean there's a difference between not making it and not even having a pulse True, they all did. But again he is supposed to be better than that. Not only wasn't he, but he was benched. Was anybody else benched?

You're gonna be disappointed then Agreed

In his 1st AHL year he had .83 ppg, at age 20. Nylander hasn't had his age 20 year yet, granted. But he hasn't come remotely close to that and he's had 2 years AHL experience. On the other hand, William already eclipsed that, twice. Do we think Alex hits .83 ppg this year? Edit: I commend your conviction, dudacek, but I just don't see a single reason to be remotely hopeful about this kid

How does it not? Expectations of higher draft picks are you will be here sooner and contribute more at your peak, no? A nice little stretch for him, which he then did nothing with in the playoffs when he was benched, correct?

Are we going to act like higher draft picks don't have higher expectations?

Again though, why are you comparing him to Pominville? Let's compare him to his brother, who spent two seasons in the AHL, at the same age, and was drafted at the same spot William: 1st year: .86 ppg 2nd year: 1.18 ppg Alex: 1st year: .43 ppg 2nd year: .53 ppg Now you can say all you want that William is the better brother. And he very well may be. But not only did he blow Alex out of the water in both years, he significantly improved in his 2nd year too. What's crazier? William put up more points in FEWER games than Alex! I really see no reason to be optimistic about Alex outside of his WJC performance, and there have been plenty of players to dominate that tournament and never pan out in the NHL

How well he played over the last 6 weeks of the season? The dude was benched during the playoffs, no? I don't mind players like Nylander with his skill set. I just don't think Nylander is smart enough to be Pacioretty I'd rather cut my losses now and trade him for someone else But the expectations for Nylander aren't the same as they are for Pominville. We drafted Nylander thinking he'd be a force in the NHL, that we'd get a scoring winger like Skinner to finally play with Jack. We drafted Pominville at the end of the 2nd round just hoping he'd make it to the NHL. If Nylander puts up a PPG like Pominville did in his 2nd season in the AHL (this will be Nylander's 3rd, but he will be at the same age Pominville was for his 2nd), then I'll believe. Does anyone really think that happens though? Same. It would make no sense

Some things in life really are as simple as you think they are. For the Sabres organization, going back to the original royal blues is right there next to drafting Dahlin in terms of no brainers

Was Gourde drafted as high? Did Gourde look completely lost at every level as every report of Nylander has said?

That is a true point. Well played. Personally I've been waiting for the switch back to the royal blues anyways, so I got kinda lucky

You gotta stop buying jerseys of players that aren't A) Legends B) Guarantee to be here for 10+ years

That's insanely aggressive for a guy with 1 great year and 3 years in the league

Mittelstadt is the #1 overall ranked prospect?

This is a really good point. I mean I could almost believe it just because at this point I'm 99% sure Stevie Y sold his soul to the devil for his wizardry, but if they have 10 prospects that are that solid...why the hell aren't we calling them? Granted we could be and we just don't know, but I have a real hard time believe we don't have something that they want to win now and get cap relief

Fwiw I've read some Carolina fans' reports on him, and they seem to attribute a lot of their young defense to his coaching. It's so hard to really know until we see it live though, and even then I'm not sure we're ever really going to know. I mean, how much exactly did Housley contribute to making their defensemen in Nashville what they are now? Far as the special teams goes, don't we already have a coach for that? Always appreciate the insight though ? Damn, that new beer emoji is...not great

That seems like an insanely high number

Automatic topic locking? These new features continue to surprise me; got some really cool stuff on here now

Yup, that's the trade off. I like it a lot more than hourly to be honest. As long as I get my work done, I'm good to go