Ristolainen, time to trade him away

[bunomatic]

I like Ristos grit. Excuse me for believing skill and grit can co-exist on the same team. This team needs more of both.

[Scottysabres]

1 minute ago, bunomatic said:

I like Ristos grit. Excuse me for believing skill and grit can co-exist on the same team. This team needs more of both.

Risto doesn't show much grit. He occasionally gets in the way of opponents, but is completely unwilling to fully engage, and that, is what this team needs. They need someone to instill fear in to opponents, Risto doesn't do that, he's more of an antagonizer.

[bunomatic]

4 minutes ago, Scottysabres said:

Risto doesn't show much grit. He occasionally gets in the way of opponents, but is completely unwilling to fully engage, and that, is what this team needs. They need someone to instill fear in to opponents, Risto doesn't do that, he's more of an antagonizer.

Yeah I get what you're saying but he's literally the only guy ( besides Bogo I suppose ) that will punish guys in front of the net with dirty stick work etc. This team is so soft. Some nights I worry someone will hurt their feelings. 

Edited February 21, 2019 by bunomatic

[Carmel Corn]

1 minute ago, bunomatic said:

Yeah I get what you're saying but he's literally the only guy ( besides Bogo I suppose ) that with punish guys in front of the net with dirty stick work etc. This team is so soft. Some nights I worry someone will hurt their feelings. 

Risto is the closest thing we have to spine on this team. Everybody else avoids from it to the point they'll pull a muscle just to miss having any contact. 

[TrueBlueGED]

10 hours ago, dudacek said:

Why do we blame our few good players for the flaws of the team?

Casey Mittelstadt and Tage Thompson have 15 goals and 15 assists combined and regularly turn the puck over. Offensive defenseman Lawrence Pilut has one goal in 25 games and is regularly ground down along the walls and overpowered in front of the net. The only player with more soft plays on this team than those three is our golden boy Rasmus Dahlin. CJ Smith has consistently failed to find space or make plays. Sobotka, Girgensons and Larsson might not score 15 this year combined. That's nearly half the roster.

But we excuse the play of the kids in our complaining because we have too much hope invested in them and we need to find hope in something. Instead, we want to trade Eichel and Reinhart and Ristolainen because we used to have hope for them and the team is still bad.

Here's an idea: let's keep our good players, develop our youngsters and bring in more good players.

This "cut them all" mentality drives me nuts.

I agree with the bold, I just think a legitimate debate can be had as to how good Risto really is. It's possible he's one of the few who could return more value in a trade than he brings on the ice. 

[bunomatic]

3 minutes ago, Carmel Corn said:

Risto is the closest thing we have to spine on this team. Everybody else avoids from it to the point they'll pull a muscle just to miss having any contact. 

Yup I agree.

[Scottysabres]

The Mayor John Hoven just responded to my inquest on Greeley scouting LA during the LA/BOS game a couple days back. His response was no, Buffalo was not there speaking with LA. The answer was definitive.

[TrueBlueGED]

18 minutes ago, Carmel Corn said:

Risto is the closest thing we have to spine on this team. Everybody else avoids from it to the point they'll pull a muscle just to miss having any contact. 

Risto is a perfect example of bad toughness. He'll chase guys around and blow coverages as a result, or do the opposite and hit a guy after blowing a coverage to act tough. 

[gilbert11]

13 hours ago, matter2003 said:

Why does it seem the players the Sabres draft never live up to expectations but you have guys drafted 15 or 20 spots lower that do...frustrating to no end.

At least the Sabres took the right Sam in the 2014 draft.  Sam Bennett has been a bust.

[SDS]

8 minutes ago, gilbert11 said:

At least the Sabres took the right Sam in the 2014 draft.  Sam Bennett has been a bust.

If there was a redraft Leon Draisatl is the pick. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

37 minutes ago, SDS said:

If there was a redraft Leon Draisatl is the pick. 

I actually said that before the draft.  Personally I think Pastrnak was the pick.  We need guys who can score.

That said Samson so far is 4th in games played and 4th in pts.

Edited February 21, 2019 by GASabresIUFAN

[PerreaultForever]

4 hours ago, Scottysabres said:

Risto doesn't show much grit. He occasionally gets in the way of opponents, but is completely unwilling to fully engage, and that, is what this team needs. They need someone to instill fear in to opponents, Risto doesn't do that, he's more of an antagonizer.

Risto irritates the hell out of opponents. An antagonizer is exactly what you want. They take the retaliation penalty and we score on the PP (if we had one).If by "fully engage" you mean drop the gloves, come back from 1979.

[SDS]

4 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I actually said that before the draft.  Personally I think Pastrnak was the pick.  We need guys who can score.

That said Samson so far is 4th in games played and 4th in pts.

LD does that and can play C or wing. At the time we needed centers and we still do. 

[Scottysabres]

5 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Risto irritates the hell out of opponents. An antagonizer is exactly what you want. They take the retaliation penalty and we score on the PP (if we had one).If by "fully engage" you mean drop the gloves, come back from 1979.

I just watched Borgen in Rochester visit 1979 last night.........Will Borgen, pugulist.

[SABRES 0311]

During play he hits but after the whistle he shuts it off. There have been a couple times in his short career I thought he’d drop the gloves but it is what is. I think his ceiling in terms of aggressiveness is Tyler Myers. 

I’m sure a trade would get us a second pair defenseman. I have a feeling that once moved he would start to shine and we’d have threads dedicated to life without Risto. Followed by threads crying about threads about Risto. 

[SABRES 0311]

5 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Risto irritates the hell out of opponents. An antagonizer is exactly what you want. They take the retaliation penalty and we score on the PP (if we had one).If by "fully engage" you mean drop the gloves, come back from 1979.

Fighting is down nowadays and the game is becoming more about speed and creativity. Risto isn’t expected to fight all the time but once in a blue moon a mans gotta do what he’s gotta do. That’s not 1979 thinking, it’s reality. Hell even Jack tried that one time Kane was involved. Sometimes you gotta show the other team if your cup is as big as it should be. 

[Cascade Youth]

I actually think they should just reduce his minutes.  He seems to be overused.  I definitely wouldn’t trade him unless they’re blown away by an offer - but I suspect that trading him would result, in the short-term, in a further defensive collapse of epic proportions.

[jsb]

7 hours ago, SDS said:

If there was a redraft Leon Draisatl is the pick. 

I beg to differ, David Pastrnak would be the pick

[LGR4GM]

You are all wrong, the pick is Brayden Point in the 2nd instead of all the crap we drafted in the second. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

58 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

You are all wrong, the pick is Brayden Point in the 2nd instead of all the crap we drafted in the second. 

No kidding. 

[Carmel Corn]

1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:

You are all wrong, the pick is Brayden Point in the 2nd instead of all the crap we drafted in the second. 

You make a good "Point" there!    (Sorry) 

[MakeSabresGrr8Again]

23 hours ago, Carmel Corn said:

Not deflecting at all....my point is that we drafted poorly and that is a key reason we are where we are. 

We draft worse than who? Your point was we draft a player and the next 15-20 players drafted are better than the one we drafted. And we were discussing 1st and 2nd rd picks.

My question was to show me a draft where every player is better than ours 15-20 spots after our pick. What did you do? You listed all our 3rd-7th rd picks and not even a comparison to any other team in the league. How is that not either deflecting or at least ignoring the context of the question?

I was actually hoping you could back up your statement and prove me wrong. I guess we'll just have to wait a couple more years to find out if we hit on the draft. The last couple drafts are looking like they could be game changers.

[MakeSabresGrr8Again]

23 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Looking at your original question you want them to find a draft where 15-20 picks after our pick all hit. I couldn't even do that with Dahlin at #1 overall. That makes the question deliberate hyperbole to make a point.

The draft is somewhat of a crap shoot but the franchises that are good and somehow stay good have managed to draft well. Of course the second part of drafting is development which is one of the reasons Botterill hasn't called up some of the Rochester guys. Development is the key and the draft is the lock. 

My question was apparently not meant for big boys like you who don't understand the question and want to proven themselves worthy. You failed terribly and proved my point. 

The fact is that you shouldn't be able to do that with a player like Dahlin, but what about a guy like Zemgus or Guhle?

Any way, the reason for my question was because of the "claim" by the poster that I responded to. He claimed that it was happening (or at least seemed like it was) that 15-20 players drafted behind ours were seemingly better. All I was asking for was proof and not just a mind set.

Edited February 21, 2019 by MakeSabresGrr8Again

[PerreaultForever]

6 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

You are all wrong, the pick is Brayden Point in the 2nd instead of all the crap we drafted in the second. 

and that's what makes teams great. finding gold in 2nd and 3rd rounds, even later. When you do that, well, you play for the cup. But that also means you DO NOT trade away your draft picks, you get as many of them as you can for your players and prospects who you don't think will get better. 

[Eleven]

17 hours ago, Scottysabres said:

Risto doesn't show much grit. He occasionally gets in the way of opponents, but is completely unwilling to fully engage, and that, is what this team needs. They need someone to instill fear in to opponents, Risto doesn't do that, he's more of an antagonizer.

I've yet to see a game where Risto doesn't have his stick in the opponents' backs.