PalmTreeMafia

This pretty much explains why the Buffalo Sabres are in their current predicament. From 2005-2011, the drafting was absolutely ATROCIOUS. And then since the drafting began during the playoff drought (2012-now), the quality and quantity has been better but still lacking: 2012: Girgensons, McCabe, Ullmark 2013: Ristolainen 2014: Reinhart, Olofsson? 2015: Eichel, Guhle?, Borgen? 2016: Nylander?, Asplund? 2017: Mittelstadt, Davidsson?, Luukkonen?, Laaksonen? 2018: Dahlin, Samuelsson?, Pekar? So in the past 7 drafts, we've only added 8 players currently on the roster and an additional 10 who have a reasonable shot of making it someday. That's insufficient in terms of quantity. In terms of quality, I'd say we're drafting okay for goaltending and defense but not at forward...which may partly explain our current predicament. So far we've only found two top-six forwards (Eichel and Reinhart), and it took back-to-back tank seasons to obtain them at #2 overall each. Skinner certainly helps, but it's very important that Mittelstadt and Nylander aren't busts. Otherwise, it puts a lot of extra pressure on JB to fill out the second scoring line via trades, free agency, and draft picks outside the top 10 picks.

I read it as more of a compliment to Reinhart than a shot at Eichel. Since Eichel joined the NHL, he has missed 10% of the games (40 total), including tonight. That seems pretty normal to me and not an indication of being injury-prone. It's on par with his "M" contemporaries - McDavid, Matthews, MacKinnon. Conversely, Reinhart has missed only 2% (6 total, assuming he plays tonight). That seems above average and perhaps indicative of having Wolverine-line healing powers?

I am. I'd much rather see Olofsson or Nylander than this Bailey clown. Although I agree that Bailey is preferable to Remi ZERO.

Why is Nylander a bust but Mittelstadt isn't? Nylander is only 8 months older, lost some development time due to injury, but is now performing very well in Rochester. Mitts has 5 goals, 6 assists, and probably 0 pull-ups in 42 NHL games. Are people even watching these games? Mitts looks terrible. Nylander deserves a call-up, and Mitts needs to do some remedial AHL work.

We are currently sitting in the 8th seed and will likely be in 9th by Tuesday night. Congratulations, team.

I think a lot of Buffalo Sabres people (fans, owners, management, coaches, players) may be underestimating the importance of making the playoffs THIS season. We are rapidly approaching 8 straight seasons without the playoffs, 4 of which have come after the back-to-back tank jobs. The losing culture is ossifying. Our GM is twiddling his thumbs while the season is burning. Make a reasonable trade for a vet center. Send Mittelstadt down to Rochester. Call up Nylander and Olofsson. Do something because I'm getting mighty ***** tired of wasting my time and money on this garbage. Only in the realm of Buffalo pro sports are decade-long rebuilds tolerable.

Hey, I believe you found a silver lining! Skinner and Reinhart won't take up as much future cap space.

That would certainly be the ideal scenario for the Sabres organization.

Are you new to Buffalo sports?

That's probably our most viable option. The biggest problem is the length of this contract, which is 4 years beyond this one. Maybe we can take on someone else's contract turd but with a year or two less than Okposo's?

Sorry, but I'm just not seeing it. I didn't see it in the preseason, and I haven't seen it all season except for a very few random games here and there. Him and Tage don't belong in the NHL at this point in their development. Possibly ever...but it's way too soon to give up on them, of course. Send Mittelstadt and Thompson down to Rochester immediately. Let them earn their way back to the NHL. Call up Nylander and Olofsson and see what they can do.

I just finished talking with a long-time Caps fan. He more or less said the same thing. He came away very impressed with the speed of the Sabres.

You just penciled in Mitts as if he's not a problem.... JB needs to find a veteran #2C as soon as ***** possible because not making the playoffs this year is totally unacceptable.

Sort of....the Caps are 2-9 vs. the Penguins in the playoffs, while the Sabres are 1-0 vs. the Leaves. Since I judge the strength of a rivalry mostly on the playoff matchups, a better comparison at the moment for me would be Buffalo vs. the Bruins, against whom we're 2-6 in the playoffs.

That's true. We're still seeing Risto and McCabe improve major aspects of their game at the ripe old ages of 24 and 25. At least we can afford to be patient with all of our defensemen prospects. Next year, the top 6 will likely be Scandella, Bogo, McCabe, Risto, Pilut, and Dahlin. Nelson can be 7th. So guys like Guhle and Borgen don't need to be rushed into the pros if they're not ready. And so far, clearly neither one of them is ready. By the way, here's something I found on Samuelsson, where the opinion is that he already has an "NHL skating stride"... https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/prospect-interest-411-mattias-samuelsson/

This message board doesn't seem to be as optimistic as I am about Samuelsson. I consider him the 4th best under-24 D prospect in the franchise (behind Dahlin, Pilut, and Guhle).

Notice that I said "potentially," as in if they get called up this season to the pros and stink up the joint because they have no quality center to support them.

The Sabres need to make the playoffs THIS season. It is not good for player development and team culture to miss the playoffs yet again. No one is saying we need to touch any of our first round picks or elite prospects. But a MAJOR priority should be increasing center depth to the point that the Sabres can generate some semblance of an offense beyond the Eichel line. I would argue that not having a decent #2 center right now is hurting the development of Mitts, Tage, and potentially Nylander and Olofsson this season.

I'd like to see Nylander and Olofsson get an opportunity. Are they going to be any worse than Mitts and Tage?! Those 2 need to play down in Rochester for a while. Note to Kyle Okposo: don't show up to practice tomorrow. Find Berglund and go hang out with him for a bit.

THIS COMMENT RIGHT HERE.

If I ever interview someone for a job and he shows up in that suit, I'm hiring him on the spot.

Love it! Bandits are 1-0 this year and have their home opener Fri night vs Toronto. On paper, they look as competitive as anyone in the league.

Great posts, LGR4GM! And great point here that I bolded. I think that Toronto will end up finding a way to keep their top 4 forwards (Tavares, Matthews, Marner, Nylander), but it will come at the expense of everything else on their roster to the point that they may not be able to effectively play defense in the playoffs. The Sabres, meanwhile, should have a much more balanced roster long-term. Even though our projected top 4 forwards (Eichel, Skinner, Reinhart, Mittelstadt) aren't as talented as theirs, they also won't take up as much cap space.

But that's not necessarily cap hell. That's simply paying guys what they're worth. JB comes across as very shrewd and responsible with respect to the salary cap. He's also coming from a Penguins organization well known for managing the cap and retaining its stars. So I have little doubt that he's already thought about having to pay our core 6 or so guys (Dahlin, Eichel, Skinner, Reinhart, Mitts, Risto) down the line while remaining competitive with the other 14 or so players. Also, I see only 2 long-term "bad" contracts at the moment: Okposo and Berglund. If both can be cleared by the summer of 2020, the franchise should be sitting pretty in terms of keeping all of the aforementioned core. I did some haphazard cap number crunching a while back, and it came out very promising for us long-term. Getting back to the Leaves... this could very quickly become the best rivalry in North American pro sports. USA vs. Canada, blue collar vs. cosmopolitan, Eichel vs. Matthews, Dahlin vs. Reilly, Nylander vs. Nylander, both starving for championships for half a century, separated by only 100 miles...good stuff! We just need to fix the second and third lines before we can really start to scare them. Mitts, Tage, Nylander, Olofsson, Asplund, and Davidsson are the 6 guys I currently have penciled in to fill these roles in the future. And as you can see, none of these 6 are ready yet. We're stuck at the moment with sluggish old men like Okposo, Pominville, Sobotka, and Berglund.

I think they are more concerned about Tampa Bay than us. Toronto's offense is looking so much better than ours right now that our advantage on defense won't matter. That could change, however, if Mittelstadt and Nylander reach their potential.