Curt

Yeah, this is a good signing. Price tag is a little high for a 4/5 kind of guy, but Sabres needed stability at the position. Granato knows the person so I’m not worried about how he will fit with the group, and he brings an attitude that the team needs more of. Nice addition.

Connor Clifton

That’s a full group. One of Stillman / Bryson getting traded or waived.

Feels like this is the RD add.

Yeah, it does seem slightly high, but Sabres aren’t spending to the cap this season anyway so it’s not going to hurt.

He is a 3rd pair guy. He doesn’t play 20+ mins. I don’t think he is up to playing top 4. He just isn’t that good. Plus it’s his age 34-36 seasons.

Devils did not qualify Michael McLeod. I think he wants more money than they are willing to give him. Worth signing to play 4C? Basically would be a Jost replacement. He is big, fast, plays good defense, can play PK and is a great face off guy.

Honestly not a bad idea, if they do trade Olofsson.

Hasek didn’t just ask out. I’m pretty sure he strong armed himself into going to Detroit only, and didn’t want Detroit to weakened the team in the deal. Detroit knew it and took advantage.

Agree. Should focus on players who have actually successfully played RD.

Yeah, they got fleeced. Hasek basically held the Sabres hostage and forced the trade.

Those stats are just from after his mid season trade. For the full season he had 52 pts in 68 games.

As it stands now, assuming they just hold the status quo (they probably won’t), Sabres project to have about $13M in cap space for the 23-24 season, $3M for the 24-25 season, and project to probably be right at the cap for the 25-26 season. This is factoring in the projected $4-5M jumps in the cap during each of the 2024 and 2025 off seasons.

They have plenty of cap space to bring in someone for 2 years. After that it gets a little tight. If the bridge deal Power, they will have more space. Not advocating for that. Just saying.

I think Benson needs a year at least. He needs to gain strength because he is on the small side. Just because I’m very optimistic about Benson doesn’t mean that I don’t have patience or am rooting for the player instead of the team.

Agree, Poltapov plays a game that should translate well to an NHL bottom 6 role. I don’t think that’s ever going to be true for Kisikov and I’m not sure on Neuchev.

You guys have patience. I gave up after like 2 replies. I think this guy broke a record for me. Learned of existence to blocked in under 12 hours.

Maybe, or he could stay 6’0.5”. Who knows. It’s ok if he doesn’t grow taller.

I think he dropped a little because teams thought he was a little bigger. He was listed at 6’1” or 6’2” different places, but then measured 6’0.5” at the combine. It’s not much, but I do think it dropped his stock a little.

He is one of only 9 (I believe) players who have been granted exceptional status, giving them a waiver basically to play in the CHL at 15 years old. As a 15 year old, when most kids are not even allowed to play in the league, he put up 20 pts in 24 games. As a 16 year old, he put up 63 pts in 58 games and 23 in 15 during the playoffs. Then this year, as a 17 year old, he put up 98 pts in 60 games. He has been considered a truly elite talent for years and has fully lived up to the billing, both in terms of raw production and his overall play. It doesn’t make any sense to me that he dropped to 13. I don’t mean to beat the point to death. I just think there are a fair number of people who actually don’t realize this stuff. I feel like Benson has somehow been flying under the radar of people only paying casual attention to draft stuff because of Bedard’s next level brilliance, Michkov’s drama, and the fact that small winger was not a position of need for Buffalo.

Yup, exactly 25-33%. If you need confirmation just ask me, I’ll confirm it. Seriously though, less than 50% for sure, but more than 10% for sure.

I honestly don’t think that anyone outside of the top 4 and Michkov is even close to Benson. None of those other guys were a reason for Benson to fall to 13. For him to go after Reinbacher, Simishev, Danielson, But, and Willander is ridiculous in my opinion. He is a guy who could be the #1 pick in say 25-33% of drafts and should be a top-5 pick in like 85% of drafts. I think he should have been #6 at the very latest this season. I feel like a lot of people are not regarding him in that way. They just regard him as a top 10 option in this draft who happened to be there at 13 and is a pretty good pick. I don’t think it’s even a question whether or not he is now Buffalo’s top prospect.

I would say so. At least in terms of talent level and upside. Kulich has a bit of extra certainty because we’ve seen him play well in the AHL, but still. I don’t think a lot of people are appreciating how high of a pedigree Benson comes with. A year ago he was considered a no doubt top 5 pick from this class, and it’s not like he had a disappointing season. He is one of only like 10 players ever granted exceptional status to play CHL hockey in their age 15 season. Benson is really really good. Drafting him at 13 is a huge deal.

This stinks!

Strbak has no accent and sounds like a native North American English speaker.