FrenchConnection44

One Battle After Another was phenomenal. Great story. Relevant to today’s society. Great writing dialogue. And excellent acting from all the main characters. DiCaprio always great. Penn will surely get a nom for best supporting. Del Toro also really good. I just love his acting. Teyana Taylor was powerful. Anderson is a superb filmmaker. Loved Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood among many others. Both are masterpieces. His short film Cigarettes and Coffee is really good.

Personally, as long as he is getting a reasonable amount of minutes, I prefer him to face the highest level of competition. I think that would give him the most development and the fastest. He appears able to hold his own.

What about Greenway?

The Amerks should dominate. I’d rather see several of these — good or bad — at the NHL level than many of the players we are keeping at that level. Tired of so many of them.

There are numerous unaccounted variables and not apples to apples since different teams and number of games. But just a comp with Doan (who is only 23) to some of our other young forwards. player..games..pts/gm..goals/gm +/-/gm Doan 62 … .45 … .19 … + .06 Quinn 178 … .54 … .21 … - .14 Benson 146 … .39 … .14 … - .03 Krebs 296 … .32 … .19 … - .10 What I liked about Doan in the above video analysis is his two way play. Plus being very young. Some promise there even though Kesselring is the main return

Really liked this breakdown. May have been posted here already but I’m too lazy to go through every page. Based on this— I am happy with what we did in this trade. Gotta convince these guys to stay. Gotta have better coaching. And gotta have better physical training. Which, allegedly, we do now. Let’s hope so. But get our guys in better shape. Add strength and muscle. And endurance. And perhaps we will improve.

I don’t see why we just don’t try to keep him. I’d be fine with a two year arbitration deal. But also try to sign him longer. He’s a very talented offensive player. And we have traded away a lot of offensive fire power. Of course, we need to sell him on the value of staying in Buffalo. But if we can get fortunate and make the playoffs (bit of a stretch) who knows? other than the contract uncertainty I don’t see the value in trading him. And I suspect teams aren’t wanting to give up significant assets and sign him to a big long term deal.

Lol. But he always says he tries to shop elsewhere. Except every time he tries to go to brooksbrothers.com he gets a “page not loading” message because they won’t even let him look there. And Joseph A Bank won’t let him through their doors. If he tries to get in, security escorts him out to his Gremlin.

Fairburn called this largely a salary dump. I wonder if it is to keep Byram and also get a new deal for Tuch? At the same time, what is up with our “billionaire” owner? Is he just pouring so much into the Bills & the stadium that he needs frugality with the Sabres?

The best hope for these young draft picks is for the team to be able to see some success in getting to the playoffs the next couple of years and getting a series win or two. That will create additional energy and drive in them to improve and move up to the NHL with the Sabres. still need a goalie or two and still need to add another player / forward with real quality.

ESPN’s pre-draft take: 12. Radim Mrtka, D, Seattle (WHL) A 6-6, right-handed defenseman with decent mobility who plays in all situations has scouts very excited, and he could be the second defenseman drafted on Friday. He's very difficult to get around, routinely thwarting attackers in their tracks and killing plays. He projects as a top-four, shutdown defenseman because of his excellent stick work, mobility and transition defense. Mrtka uses his mobility to escape pressure, activate in the rush and make quality passes to the middle of the ice. Mrtka should develop into a strong transition defender, a reliable penalty killer and efficient puck mover. He shoots the puck hard and could become more of a scoring threat if he can pick his spots to get pucks through. While everything flowed through him in Seattle, there are well-placed concerns about his lack of offense. His size and physicality give him the tools to develop into a minute-munching, shutdown defender if his mobility continues to progress. His late birthday gives him lots of development runway to refine his skating, offensive playmaking, and physicality in all areas of the ice.

The raw talent is there. He transitioned quickly from the Czech league to North American hockey very so one hopes he can progress quickly, get stronger and will still use his body well. He already has an understated physicality to his game from what I read. From NHL.com: Mrtka compares his game to that of Detroit Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider, who was selected with the No. 6 pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. "I think it's a fair comparison [to Seider]," NHL Central Scouting senior western scout John Williams said. "When he arrived in November, he played every situation from the get-go because [Seattle] had some injuries. For a guy who's 6-foot-6, he moves very well, has a little bit of bite in his game, and can jump up on the rush. I think he'd be a very good [No. 2 defenseman] who can play with a really good, skilled player. "But he can also be on a power play, can kill penalties and can just eat minutes." As such, Mrtka already has become reliable enough to be paired with any type of defense partner. "I think he's just a guy that can get the puck out of trouble and move it out of the defensive zone," O'Dette said. "He's always going to be in a position where he can help do that, which can take a lot of pressure off a defense partner. He's always going to be in a position where he can defend and maybe help out a partner when there's some mistakes because he's got that reach, that length with his stick, and he's really smart in the way he uses that. "The way he plays, sometimes you forget he's only [18]. When he fills out and matures physically, he's going to be quite the imposing force out there."

One thing about him is he transitioned to North American style hockey very quickly. So he’s a quick learner. And he shows physicality. He needs to add weight but already has a strong frame.

Saw this snippet. He will need to add about 10-12 lbs of muscle but has a good frame. I can be down with it. https://www.mckeenshockey.com/nhl-blog/brady-martin-biggest-riser-2025-nhl-draft/#:~:text=Ranked 11th among North American,maybe even the top five.&text=At McKeen's Hockey%2C Martin climbed,high on Martin all year. Asked who he compares himself to: “Zach Hyman. He’s pretty fitting for the way I play—just really competitive and he can score goals too,” Martin said. “He’s a wrecking ball out there.” At the NHL Draft Combine, the 6-foot- 0, 187-pound centreman described himself as a blend of Tom Wilson and Sam Bennett. For anyone who watched him help Canada capture gold at the U18 Worlds in May, the comparison rings true.