JoeSchmoe

I've been around this draft class for many years as my son has played with or against a lot of the Ontario and US kids since AAA hockey started in Novice. I'll go on record with saying Brady Martin will be a far better NHL player than Jake O'Brien. First, look at their respective teams. The Bulldogs are stacked, the Greyhounds are anything but. O'Brien will get points just by playing with these guys. Still, O'Brien is a -2 whereas Martin is a +25. Moreover, all of O'Brien's teammates are far above him in +/- whereas Martin's +25 is far above the rest of his team. Second, O'Brien is the prototypical hockey robot who's been in the GTHL grinder since he could skate, with all the extras and advantages that come with it (non-stop ice and training with the best coaches). Martin was a farm kid first that just happened to be really good at hockey. I've seen Martin put teams on his back Lemieux style whereas O'Brien has always been surrounded by top talent. This is literally a Rocky vs Drago scenario from Rocky IV. Admittedly, I haven't watched either kid much since their U16 seasons, but their +/- and production relative to their teams affirms what I've seen of them as kids. Again, I only know the Ontario and some of the US kids, but I'd be happy if the Sabres reached for Martin with the 7th pick. Edit: this link is a good read. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5897880/2024/11/26/brady-martin-2025-nhl-draft/

Does anyone else besides me think it could just be ankle?

What benefit would there be in the Sabres offering him a contract? Can he walk if he plays out his junior without being signed?

With NCAA as an option for CHL players, I would have told him to find a college team to play on for a year.

Too bad today's Sabres don't have a 5 team division where 4 teams make the playoffs, and one was the Hartford Whalers.

I live in the other side. The closer you are to the border affects the chances of you being a Sabres fan. From people I know from NF and Ft Erie, Sabres fans are more than 50%. St Catharines is maybe 25%. West Niagara maybe 10%. That said, Sabres are most people's 2nd team throughout the region, and when they were good, most were ready to switch allegiances. Unfortunately, they fell off before people could form a long term connection with the team to the point when they're buying season tickets. Same goes with the Bills. During the drought, hardly anybody had the Bills as their favourite team... But it was many people's 2nd favourite. Now they're nearly everybody's favourite. Fortunately for the Bills, they've been good for a while and there's no other teams in Canada to compete with.

They can expand and move teams at the same time. All it takes is the will of an owner to want to make more $ and lose less (though arguably he's still making money on franchise appreciation). Getting a 9-figure bill on an arena for a declining fan base might be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Also keep in mind... When the Sabres season ticket wait list was a mile long, they were dirt cheap... Bottom of the league. And the price could largely be made back by selling your Leafs and Habs games. If prices went up to league average to cover the massive cap increases AND you couldn't sell your "Gold" games to Canadians, I question how well the seats would sell in an average year. Yes, they might do okay if the team is in cup contention like they were in the mid-00's... But say if we were Minnesota Wild level average over an extended period, I don't think people would want to keeping paying.

Impoverished or not, the Buffalo market is small compared to most other NHL markets. It's not about charity to appeal to Canadians, but it's about growing a fan base, selling corporate seats, etc. Stuff a franchise could do by moving to a bigger market like Houston. Hockey is the #1 sport here in Canada, as opposed to being the #2 sport in Buffalo, and done right, there's a lot of potential. Prior to tanking, the number of Sabres fans here in Niagara were getting close to outnumbering Leaf fans. The tank (and the futility since) killed that.

Don't you mean UPL "regression to the mean". He's been bad for almost his entire pro career.

Classic case of telling me you're not watching the games without telling me you're not watching the games!

I always thought goal scoring came so easily early in his career that Gretzky took a much higher interest in setting up teammates. Of course we don't know if that was truly the case, we can all agree he was a pass first player. And while Gretzky was pass first, Ovie is and always has been a shoot first, shoot second, and shoot third type player.

The answer is that you take an AHL guy add in one of our log jam NHL guys, and you package them to a team that's either rebuilding or a team that's in cap trouble and needs to shed a proven top 6 player to get under the cap.

Thanks for all the replies everyone. As an update, a very generous Sabrespace poster has donated some tickets to me so I can spend time with my daughter, while keeping the boycott alive! This place is the best dysfunctional family on the internet! I appreciate the comments about spending time with my daughter. Thankfully, I think I'll always have a close relationship with my her. We're pretty tight. Maybe it'll change in the next year or so... I hope not!!!

I'm not too worried about this. Pretty much every day I'm driving her to hockey (she plays 25min out of town), or to the gym, or over to her friends'... We went on a ski trip to Quebec last month, etc... I have taken a picture of her beside shark girl every year since she was little (the pic in my avatar is cropped from this). Google Photos' AI system recognized this and did a cool collage of her over the years. I should probably keep that going for at least another year.

I like it!

I've had a boycott in place where I won't buy any tickets until the team is in the playoffs. I did go to the Colorado game at the start of the losing streak, but I think they were in a playoff spot (or close) when my friend bought the tix. My 15yo daughter's been asking about going to a game before the end of the season. I think I'll break down and go Tuesday's game... They're practically giving the tickets away anyways. Am I doing the right thing? 😁

UPL isn't streaky- unless you're talking about streaks in your underpants.

You're probably right, but UPL's metrics are so far off league median that if Reimer gives you anywhere close to that, we get enough extra wins to be in the playoff race. Edit: Stated otherwise, of goalies that have played 40 games or more, the median goals saved above expected is 13.4 (Dustin Wolf). UPL is -9.4. if we had 22 less goals against we're in positive goal differential at plus 3.

Too bad he's got 4 years left on his contract. He's going to get all the chances in the world to "succeed" for at least another 2 years.

Why does old man Reimer keep dropping his cane?

There's no saving UPL's season. The book is written. He sucks. But, by seeing how well 37yo Reimer does in the remaining games, we can get a true sense of how badly UPL sucked. With enough sample size, we can see how much a JAG goalie might improve this team.

Lafferty sucks!

Lennye

The point is, if we trade/package him for a proven player this summer, we can end the cycle of being the youngest team in the league whose veterans eventually lose their love of the game and leave.