Anyone still holding out hope for the playoffs this year?

[SwampD]

I'm not conceding the playoffs yet.

[Kruppstahl]

Anything’s possible and has been done before. It can happen.

 

However, if I’m evaluating the roster, I believe the earliest we can be a playoff contender is 2019/2020. Even that would require good moves going forward.

 

We needed Reinhart and Nylander, two NHL caliber players to be sure, to be a step above where I see their current ceilings. In short, they needed to be impact players. I’m not seeing that. Further, we needed some two among Fasching, Bailey, Baptiste, Cornell, etc., to be Reinhart level players. We missed a few while tanking. We did it while saddling ourselves with a few contracts that, while seemingly benign at the time, have tied our hands in the present.

 

Recognizing that I may expose myself to criticism from the many learned, I see Jack as a great player, but a cut below the other greats that entered the league in the same draft period. He’s great, but he’ll not lift a team by himself. Something about hating to lose, but not refusing to lose. He’s young. There’s hope. Hope is not a strategy.

 

Lastly, goaltending is a problem at the NHL and developmental pipeline levels.

 

In the meantime, I’ll trust the organizational process and look for improvement and exciting, competitive, hockey to arrive.

Strongly agree with the first two callouts in your post; mildly agree with the Jack comment, and flat out disagree with the final callout.  Nylander is still an unknown and needs time to shows us what he is, but...

 

The entire idea behind destroying Sabres hockey to its lowest point in the history of the franchise for a period of years (we are still in that phase now, 5 years into the process) was to build a wildly strong team that would be talented enough to contend for the Cup, year in and year out, for the bulk of the careers of the key players associated with the rebuild.

 

Enough has already played out to see that this is not going to happen.

 

Reinhart was selected as the best forward in the world in his draft class.  A guy who GMTM called "the most intelligent guy on the ice in every game he plays in" and who would be killer center 1B to Eichel's killer center 1A position.

 

By those standards, Reinhart is a bust.  People need to figure that out.  His strengths are too subtle and he lacks a lot of the raw athleticism to be a standout at the National league level.  He is slow. He needs talent around him to be his best; he does not bring everyone around him up to his level.  On many nights he looks like a borderline NHL avg. player, let alone a star in the league.  

 

Then we get to Eichel.  I like your comments, Neo, but I don't know why you feel you have to dance around the Eichel Issue.  There seems to be some unspoken rule among Sabres fans that he must be accepted as some superstar beyond question.

 

Eichel is also a bust, but not on the level of Reinhart.  He is measured against a much higher standard, because he is a much more talented player.  Auston Matthews performs, consistently, on a "My God, this kid is going to be a superstar" level, and does a lot of superstar stuff now.  McDavid is indeed a "generational talent" who busts out now and again with some play that is like a force of nature; he makes NHLers looks like kids.  He reminds me of Mogilny in that he is super fast and can stick handle while moving at top speed.  Very few talents can do that.  

 

Eichel, in contrast, plays when he feels like it, rarely strings 60 good minutes together or 2 games together, whines, loves to do his gestures of frustration when things don't go his way, is not good enough in breakaways to be relied on for shootout work, and just doesn't do enough exceptional stuff to make you think he is going to be the best player on a team that contends for multiple Cups.

 

He is not going to be that kind of guy; he is not that kind of guy.  He is going to be a very good player who needs better players around him.  I think of him as a Thomas Vanek type, with a broader skill set.  Very, very talented guy.  Generational super stud talent that makes you stare in disbelief at his latest great play?  No way.

 

This team is likely a bottom 3 finisher this year.  The best thing that could happen to us is finishing at the bottom and somehow actually winning the draft lottery for a change, taking Dahlin to help out the D.

 

If we luck out and end up with Dahlin, he will be the biggest star on the team.  Barring him crapping the bed, of course.  

 

But he is a multiple Norris winner waiting to happen. 

 

Couldn't agree more with you that the playoffs are not a realistic option, even for next year.

 

This organization has a long way to go.  

[spndnchz]

I'm not conceding the playoffs yet.

Here here

[Pokey Jones]

That was way too harsh on Eichel. Yes, we should stop comparing him to McDavid and Matthews but we should also accept him as what he is and that is by far, the best player on this team. He makes everybody who plays with him look better and that is the mark of a star player. 

[LGR4GM]

Eichel is not a bust, lol come on now.