Pimlach

He needs 2 inches and 35 pounds to be Adam Mair sized. Mair was selected 84OA, Kozak was 193. Since I have not seen Kozak play yet I will defer to your judgement. Mair was definitely a notch above Ellis. If Kozak can win face-offs and be strong on the PK he has some hope.

The kid looked good in the recent prospect camp He has skill to go with size.

Why do people think a 4th line AHL player projects to be a good fourth line NHL player? Kozak’s ceiling is Matty Ellis, who most people here mock constantly.

A contrarian-like selection.

You are missing Robert for Shack.

I left Buffalo in 1981 and never moved back because of my career - but I always visit often and every year, and I have spent a lot more time there over the last 20 years. Now retired, I summer in Buffalo. I stay there from late May to mid August. I go back several more times in the fall for Football and Hockey and to visit family and friends. May thru October is mostly great weather. Like you said, you can be outside a lot of the time. November thru April are not good at all - rain, snow, cold, grey, frozen, windy blizzards, more rain, more cold, more grey, and a very late spring that is mostly cold and wet. Some people like that - my wife calls it staying in to nest - I call it depressing. Sure, there is beauty and fun associated with winter - I used to love ice skating, skiing, etc. as a kid - but you do that without the grey and the storms and the mountains of snow. I give Buffalo ~6 months of comfortable good weather and ~6 months of bad weather. Overall I think Buffalo is a great city, it is unique and has a history and culture that should be celebrated. The city itself is far better now than it was when I grew up there in the 60's and 70's, and it was pretty dam good back then too.

I looked at that replay, which is nothing like what you first described. I can find a lot of people to blame, or I could just give Bob Kelly credit for outplaying everyone else on the ice at the time. We will just have to disagree on his career in Buffalo. Schoeny was a very solid D man and a fine leader, he was voted to play in All Star games because he was actually good and respected by players, coaches and hockey writers. He gave us some memorable and classic moments in the The Aud. His 79-80 season, playing under Scotty Bowman, is considered by some to be his best season ever and he had ZERO fighting majors that year but still played a tough policeman role. He finished 3rd in Norris Trophy votes (HoF'ers Larry Robinson and Borje Salming finished ahead of him) and he made the NHL second team All Star. The biggest knock on him to me was he was injury prone do his reckless style and his affinity to block shots (a skill he learned quickly from Tim Horton). He was traded by Scotty Bowman, not Punch Imlach, so whatever you think Punch said was irrelevant at the time. Please recall that Punch was known to pull a punch or two BTW. Here is another view of Schoenfeld's career in Buffalo that is very different from yours. https://thehockeywriters.com/jim-schoenfeld-1979-80-buffalo-sabres/

He was a very good defenseman. He was part of the teams emergence in the early 70’s. Played in all star games and made a second team all star (what other Sabres defenseman has)? He was the youngest team captain in the NHL at 22. Months His decision to cut down on fighting had nothing to go with god and everything to do with his status as a father with kids who would be watching him fight on tv. He played hard. The Flyers and Islanders both had players go on record saying the Sabres needed more players like him, not less. He is popular because buffalo fans appreciated his effort. As for your assertion that Schoenfeld was at center ice on a face off in our zone - blame that on the coach, or the ref. That should never happen were you have a defensive zone face off without all the players on the ice and in position. If that happened today Granato would be blamed. I don’t remember that and I don’t recall hearing about it until now.

Don G has earned his shot in the NHL, no? After two full season as HC he has improved a team that is on an owner enforced slow rebuild. If you, as the owner, chose to be “efficient and economical” then you cannot be in hurry. I sense that you and many others here, including me, want to see more progress and faster progress. Year 3 will tell us a lot. Granato is simply playing the hand that Adam’s and Pegula deal him. He has the respect of yhe players and many are playing the best hockey they have ever played.

Addressing your second complaint. It is because cost, schedule, quality, performance and innovation are not the focus of todays workplace. Focusing on these things might hurt someone’s feelings or exclude. Leadership has been replaced by “Management”. Domain knowledge is completely secondary in the selection of management. It’s barely required.

Because they are engineers by title only. So much new music is poorly recorded so it is no surprise the same is true for live music.

You hated Schoenfeld? The guy came to our church and played guitar with our priest to support a big fundraiser. He was kind and generous with his time while in Buffalo. I met him three times and he was a gentleman all the way. What do he do to you? He was not overrated either. He was a hard worker that laid it on the line.

This story comes to a sad, annd predictable end. The dog bit the owner, who let it go and explained it away. Then the dog maimed and killed another dog that he was living with and allegedly had been socialized with. Finally, the beast was put down. Three victims in 6 weeks. I wonder how many before that?

You have to move on Taro. Time just keeps ticking …

Just got ticket to Peter Gabriel in Buffalo HSBC in September

Yes, it shows my age but the dismantling of the Punch teams into the Bowman teams. It taught us about the inevitable change in hockey. Robert, Martin, Shoeny, Gare, Luce … they were a part of the Buffalo community and key players on the great teams of the 70’s.

Got it, and I am not saying Thompson had a breakout season and Eichel didn't. Eichel had one a few years back. Thompson followed up one good season with an even better one. I can accurately say that Thompson is a top ten scoring center in the league, Eichel is not right now. This thread is about - Is Thompson a top ten center in the league? Some say yes, others say not until other parts of his game improve. My biggest point is there are only a handful of centers I would trade for Thompson and it does not include older players like Bergeron, Crosby, or Malkin - although they have HoF greatness. Not Point, Barkov, Zibanajek, Petersson, or Aho either. I think Thompson might have a higher ceiling than these players and Tage could someday possibly move into the grouping with Mathews and Draisaitl, who are both below MacKinnon and McDavid.

Tireless and consistent complaining.

I think more will make that trade than your list, except for McDavid, McKinnon, Mathews and Hughes - it depends on what their team needs are, the direction they are going. Some teams might want to get younger, or score more.

Better seasons "league wide relative"? You are really stretching this one. Thompson has played center for 2 NHL seasons. We are taking about right now - When did Eichel ever score 47 goals and 94 points? what year? Oh, never, and not even close. Thompson has had 2 seasons as a center and in both of them has scored more goals that Eichel ever did in his best season(s). Put Thompson on the better balanced team like Vegas and his numbers would be even better. We know what Eichel was in Buffalo, a 15-20 ranked center with a terrible attitude. He was the Captain that won't eat lunch with 4th liners. Eichel is fortunate to get traded to a balanced, well coached, veteran team that did not need his kind of leadership. Eichel is a very good player that won a Cup. There are some really great players that never won one. Lets not re-write his Buffalo history which was a massive failure that while not all his fault, he definitely contributed to.

Would you trade Tage straight up for them? McDavid - Yes Crosby - No (too old now) Matthews - Maybe Barkov - No MacKinnon - Yes Malkin - No Bergeron - No (to old now) Draisaitl - No Aho - No Hughes - Maybe Petersson - No Zibby - No Tage is top 10 right now with maybe more upside coming.

Good moves in that one is a logical promotion from within, and the other was recruited from outside to bring in a fresh perspective.

Well, you do it. What is the point?

I see what you did there.

He is likable to me. The fancy tools and stats aren’t there, just opinion by a dedicated hockey fanatic. A simple white board and straight talk. He is a die hard hockey fan with a passion for something, a camera, and a computer. That’s all you need today to voice your opinion. He summed up the team’s situation quite well, which is actually in good depth for hockey fans that are not Sabres fans. He cannot match “Sabres knowledge” when compared to some posters here, but he surpasses many others. I was surprised at some of the prospects he referenced here but overall he makes sense to me. I am in the same camp - mitigate your top risk by getting a good goalie on a good contract but have room for Levi to take the reins. It past the time to make the playoffs.