Curt

What’s missing is probably the junior players that he was going up against. They were replaced by first NCAA players 19-23 years old, then NHL players. Casey hasn’t yet caught up. He will be ok in the end. I feel confident. When I say ok, I mean “not a bust”. It’s entirely possible that he ends up a 40-50 pt, 3rd line C on a good team, or maybe even moved to the wing. That’s probably less than we hoped for from him, but it’s a reasonable outcome.

NHL teams have a fair amount of sway when it comes to CHL teams and how they handle their prospects. Remember that these coaches/managers in the CHL would all probably love to work for an NHL team some day. I think think they go out of their way to not tick off NHL management. NHL teams have been know to force a trade if their prospects are not in a good situation.

Yep. I’m not saying that it was wrong to move him. Maybe he didn’t want to be here and management felt they didn’t want that around a young team. That’s a valid rationale, but it seems that the trade was handled poorly. Buffalo did not get good value for him, especially when considering the fact that paying $6M and waiting a day would have definitely resulted in a better return.

I absolutely believe that GMs, especially 1st time GMs, do this. By getting the job with the understood plan of undertaking some sort of rebuild, you buy yourself time on the job. If Pegula agreed to rebuild the roster a bit, doesn’t that give Botterill at least 3 years guaranteed? Years of experience as an NHL GM is a valuable thing. Botterill has pretty obviously not been going all in on winning and has consistently preached development over results. I’m not saying that it wasn’t what was best for the team, but it probably benefits the GM personally as well.

The O’Reilly trade was bad. End of discussion. The Sabres traded a very good player on a reasonable contract for a bunch of pieces that have not worked out yet. If some of those pieces work out in the future, the trade could conceivably turn out ok-ish, but it’s never going to be notably good. After Botterill took over he changed out parts of the team that he did not like, sort of setting things back a bit in the process. It’s what almost every new GM coming to a bad team does.

Ah, ok, I didn’t realize that you were referencing this preseason. I honestly have watched almost zero preseason action. I feel that it has very little value as far as player evaluations go.

He was an 18 yr old NHL rookie, it makes sense that there bad mistakes mixed in among the awesome plays. You have to think that with experience and age, he will learn to “pick his spots” better over the next couple years. If he was a 24 year old with 4 years of NHL experience under his belt, it would be different, but he was the youngest player in the NHL last season. (I’m 92% that this is an actual fact, I’m not going to look it up, if he wasn’t it was darn close.)

What about actual McCabe? The often and currently injured one.

It’s probably wise not to truly count on any young goalie prospect. However, hip surgery like UPL had is becoming more and more common for young goalies. Did Ullmark not have the exact same surgery? I think it’s a result of the fact that a lot of people’s hips are just not well engineered to do the things that goalies do. I don’t think it will be an issue for UPL going forward.

What I think I would like the opening night lineup to look like: Skinner-Ike-Vesey - Slightly offensively tilted usage Olofsson-Johansson-Reinhart - Slightly defensively tilted usage Sheary-Mittelstadt-ERod - Heavily offensively tilted usage Girgensons-Larsson-Lazar -Heavily defensively tilted usage Okposo,Sobotka Dahlin-Miller McCabe-Jokiharju Scandella-Ristolainen (Pilut)-(Montour)-(Bogo) Nelson/Gilmore -As soon as one of Pilut/Montour/Bogo is healthy, Scandella goes to the press box PP1 Reino Ike-Johansson-Olofsson Dahlin PP2 Vesey ERod-Mitts-Skinner Risto/Miller PK1 Larsson-Girgs McCabe-Risto PK2 ERod-Lazar Dahlin-Miller PK you put out with 30 secs left Ike-Reino Dahlin-Miller

I agree, but unfortunately the bolded is pretty far from being a reality right now.

Well yeah, that’s it’s use. That’s part of what I said.

There is possibly no larger change on the planet from 2007-2019 than the change in the internet and its use. Most certainly the internet has changed many magnitudes more than the Sabres in that time frame.

Not that I really care, but it is a little puzzling. Is it very likely that this former pro hockey player is the most qualified person to be SR VP of Business Administration for a large multi-multi-million dollar company?

Yeah, I get that, and I’m not saying it would be the worst thing in the world for him to spend some time in Rochester. Keep in mind though that his line mates last season were Okposo, Thompson, and Sheary. Two of them were terrible themselves and the other was just ok. I’d like to see him with better line mates, or on the teams 3rd scoring line as opposed to the 2nd, before deciding to send him to Rochester.

Mittelstadt at 3C, move ERod to 3RW, move Okposo to 13th F. Sobotka or Okposo should not force Mittelstadt to Rochester unless Mittelstadt is playing terribly.

It’s true that TB has gotten a more than normal number of good bridge deals done. They have however, committed a good chunk of money and NTC’s on long term deals to 2nd/3rd line players, as well as a massive 9.5M, 8 yr contract to their goalie. It’s not all roses, even if a lot of it is. It would actually make more sense to me if Point and Vasilevskiy switched contracts. Also: Ryan McDonugh for 7 more yrs at 6.75 with a NTC. Yucky

It’s not like we don’t know what Skinner is without a great C. That was his entire CAR career. He was about a 25-30 goal scorer. His first year with Ike, he hit 40. It has a lot to do with the type of player Skinner is. His strength is cashing in chances relatively close to the net, but he isn’t much of a creator or puck distributor. That’s why it makes sense to play him with the teams best creator, to maximize his opportunities to cash in. His current salary does not change the player that he is. Olofsson may turn out to have a similar skill set, but he hasn’t proven that he is a consistent threat at the NHL level. He does look promising though, and may actually turn out to be a better passer and more well rounded player than Skinner. Once Olofsson gets his feet wet, I could actually see Skinner-Eichel-Olofsson as an extremely dangerous top line.

It says that the Sabres’ offense has been average and defense has been worst in the league, but it’s only for the 4 preseason games, some of which had more AHL players than NHL players, so the chart is meaningless. It honestly makes more sense if you just read the numbers and ignore the “good, bad, fun, dull” part.

Rasmus Ristolainen (illness-sick of losing)

I think you got the joke.

My favorite Sabres prospect. Love his playing style, love his personality. I think both are something this team could seriously use. For a 4th round pick to be signed to an ELC less than a year after being drafted, and to rise to prominence as quickly as he has, it says a lot about him I think.

But he was in the USHL when drafted and only went to the OHL after that. Was he even drafted in the OHL or is he considered a Euro player “on loan” to the OHL? Those guys, like Nylander for example, don’t need to complete their OHL eligibility before going to the AHL. Its possible that I’m wrong, but I was always under the impression that Pekar could go to the AHL at any time.

Why not? I thought he was eligible for Rochester this year. He was assigned to Rochester late last season, though he didn’t play a game.

Probably just because they need to fill out a lineup and really only want the veteran NHL players to participate in 2-3 preseason games. It’s from Game of Thrones. He is a big BA from the frozen north.