2019-20 Sabres Prospects

[Tondas]

2 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I am very intrigued by Johnson.

I am too, but I would have phrased it a bit differently. ?

[GASabresIUFAN]

Listened to Jbot on the Instigators and he talked a great deal about our kids

1) Johnson and Samuelsson - Johnson was exceptional at the showcase and thinks he has a great shot at the World Jr team.  Samuelsson will be one of the leaders of that team. Johnson skates well and has a high IQ

2) Cozens - travelled with Canada at the showcase but has been rehabbing in Buffalo.  

3) Portillo - thought Eric was really good for Sweden, winning both their games.  USHL and then Minn over the next two years.  Can’t have enough goaltending 

4) Pekar - Loves Pekar.  Thinks he brings an element we sorely need and likes his skill set. Thinks he’ll be a important player for Czech at World Jrs

5) Jokiharju - loves his skill set and implied could make the Sabres. Loves that he was really good for Sweden at World Jrs and Worlds.

[WildCard]

1 minute ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

5) Jokiharju - loves his skill set and implied could make the Sabres. Loves that he was really good for Sweden at World Jrs and Worlds.

There's no doubt he's going to make the team

[GASabresIUFAN]

10 minutes ago, WildCard said:

There's no doubt he's going to make the team

I think so also, but with a healthy Bogo, who are your top 6? Dahlin and McCabe are 1, 2 on the LHDs and Montour and Risto 1, 2 RHDs.  That leaves Miller, Jokiharju, Scandella and Bogo fighting for 2 starting jobs.  Jbot didn’t trade for Miller to sit him.  

Dahlin Montour

McCabe Risto

Miller Jokiharju

Scandella Bogo - If those two are riding the pine, that’s 9.143 mill in dead cap space.

[LTS]

54 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Listened to Jbot on the Instigators and he talked a great deal about our kids

1) Johnson and Samuelsson - Johnson was exceptional at the showcase and thinks he has a great shot at the World Jr team.  Samuelsson will be one of the leaders of that team. Johnson skates well and has a high IQ

2) Cozens - travelled with Canada at the showcase but has been rehabbing in Buffalo.  

3) Portillo - thought Eric was really good for Sweden, winning both their games.  USHL and then Minn over the next two years.  Can’t have enough goaltending 

4) Pekar - Loves Pekar.  Thinks he brings an element we sorely need and likes his skill set. Thinks he’ll be a important player for Czech at World Jrs

5) Jokiharju - loves his skill set and implied could make the Sabres. Loves that he was really good for Sweden at World Jrs and Worlds.

Just curious, did you typo here or did JBot say he liked how good the Jokiharju was for Sweden.  Just asking, because he's Finnish, not Swedish.  Don't care if you had a typo, but if JBot said Sweden... hoo boy.

[GASabresIUFAN]

Typo

[Curt]

On 8/5/2019 at 2:15 PM, dudacek said:

I am very intrigued by Johnson.

As far as Samuelsson goes, Vanbiesbrouck (I believe in the same interview) called him a “pillar” of the team.

That’s some pretty harsh criticism of Samuelsson’s skating!  

[GASabresIUFAN]

The Athletic (Pronman) is publishing his list of the worst to best prospect pipeline.  https://theathletic.com/1147438/2019/08/20/2019-nhl-farm-system-rankings-no-18-buffalo-sabres/

Last season we were ranked No. 1 highlighted by Dahlin and Mittelstadt, with Nylander, Guhle, Pilut and Ullmark still in the system.

This season he has us down to 18th, because the guys above graduated or were traded (Nylander and Guhle).  New additions are Cozens, Johnson, Portillo and Huglen.

His ranking is by NHL ceiling and includes players over 23 and excludes players with over 30 games of NHL experience.  Therefore Thompson (21) and Jokiharju (20) are off this list

His rankings

1) Cozens

2) Oskari Laaksonen

3) Johnson

4) UPL

5) Olofosson

6) Samuelsson

7) Portillo

8) Huglen

9) Pekar

10) Asplund

11) Ruotsalainen

12) Borgen

13) CJ Smith

14) Bryson

15) Davidsson

16) Rousek

17) Weissbach

Others Fitzgerald, Murray, Cederqvist and Cronholm

Top 10 23 and under

1) Jack

2) Dahlin

3) Reinhart

4) Cozens

5) Mittelstadt

6) Jokiharju

7) Thompson

8) Laaksonen

9) Johnson

10) UPL

 

[Thorner]

He did say on Twitter our 23-and-under list is among the league’s best. Dahlin should be #1 on our list though. 

[dudacek]

52 minutes ago, Thorny said:

He did say on Twitter our 23-and-under list is among the league’s best. Dahlin should be #1 on our list though. 

Pronman rates Eichel over Dahlin.

He really likes Eichel.

[Thorner]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

Pronman rates Eichel over Dahlin.

He really likes Eichel.

That’s ok, he can be wrong. 

I do, too. 

- - - 

Eichel has played 4 seasons in the league, is in his prime, and is barely cracking top 20 C lists. 

I’d be shocked if Dahlin isn’t firmly planted in the top 20 D by this season’s end. And, if Heiskanen is right now (NHL Network’s list), Dahlin should have been on it already and above him. 

Edited August 21, 2019 by Thorny

[dudacek]

8 minutes ago, Thorny said:

That’s ok, he can be wrong. 

I do, too. 

- - - 

Eichel has played 4 seasons in the league, is in his prime, and is barely cracking top 20 C lists. 

I’d be shocked if Dahlin isn’t firmly planted in the top 20 D by this season’s end. And, if Heiskanen is right now (NHL Network’s), Dahlin should have been on it already and above him. 

Which is wrong, IMO. 

Jack has become a bit underrated around fandom due to injuries and the ongoing ineptitude of the Sabres.

The player we saw up until Christmas was a top 10 NHL talent, becoming an elite player. He’s right there with Barkov and McKinnon and Mathews, behind McDavid at the vanguard of the next wave. Given his age, contract and position, he goes top 10 in a from-scratch league-wide expansion draft.

[Thorner]

34 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Which is wrong, IMO. 

Jack has become a bit underrated around fandom due to injuries and the ongoing ineptitude of the Sabres.

The player we saw up until Christmas was a top 10 NHL talent, becoming an elite player. He’s right there with Barkov and McKinnon and Mathews, behind McDavid at the vanguard of the next wave. Given his age, contract and position, he goes top 10 in a from-scratch league-wide expansion draft.

I’m one of the biggest Eichel stans on this board, so while I agree he’s underrated, it’s not by me. 

Dahlin definitely goes above Eichel in an expansion draft though. 

Younger, higher ceiling, equally important position, and Franchise D are harder to acquire than Franchise C.

Dahlin would be the first D selected in that scenario, there’s lots of forwards going before Jack. 

It would be interesting to see if Eichel would indeed go top 10, but I’m not so certain. McDavid, MacKinnon, Matthews, Barkov I’d imagine all go ahead. Point probably does. So there can’t be 5 other guys for him to make top 10, and we haven’t touched D or G (though I can’t see a G going top 10). 

Does the League’s MVP Kucherov go ahead? Probably. Crosby might still. To GMs league wide in a draft I’d imagine he’s in a pick-em with forwards like Elias Pettersson, Mitch Marner, and Draisaitl. Though I’d take him above those 3.   

If the draft is being run by analytics gurus, Stone and Couturier are going before Eichel. Would be interesting to see all the different thought processes that would go into it. 

Edited August 21, 2019 by Thorny

[LGR4GM]

12 hours ago, Thorny said:

That’s ok, he can be wrong. 

I do, too. 

- - - 

Eichel has played 4 seasons in the league, is in his prime, and is barely cracking top 20 C lists. 

I’d be shocked if Dahlin isn’t firmly planted in the top 20 D by this season’s end. And, if Heiskanen is right now (NHL Network’s list), Dahlin should have been on it already and above him. 

How many seasons did MacKinnon play before really cracking those lists? 

[dudacek]

12 hours ago, Thorny said:

I’m one of the biggest Eichel stans on this board, so while I agree he’s underrated, it’s not by me. 

Dahlin definitely goes above Eichel in an expansion draft though. 

Younger, higher ceiling, equally important position, and Franchise D are harder to acquire than Franchise C.

Dahlin would be the first D selected in that scenario, there’s lots of forwards going before Jack. 

It would be interesting to see if Eichel would indeed go top 10, but I’m not so certain. McDavid, MacKinnon, Matthews, Barkov I’d imagine all go ahead. Point probably does. So there can’t be 5 other guys for him to make top 10, and we haven’t touched D or G (though I can’t see a G going top 10). 

Does the League’s MVP Kucherov go ahead? Probably. Crosby might still. To GMs league wide in a draft I’d imagine he’s in a pick-em with forwards like Elias Pettersson, Mitch Marner, and Draisaitl. Though I’d take him above those 3.   

If the draft is being run by analytics gurus, Stone and Couturier are going before Eichel. Would be interesting to see all the different thought processes that would go into it. 

You can make a case for all those guys, but GMs are still horse traders by nature.

Stone and Couturier (and Point) aren’t the talents. I absolutely love those guys, but they just aren’t dynamic big play guys.

Marner and Pettersson aren’t strong enough and Draisaitl isn’t fast enough. Pettersson is still a projection and the other two are buoyed by elite linemates. Crosby is Crosby, but he is 10 years older. Kucherov is awesome, but he’s a winger.

We’re talking face of the franchise here. Jack ticks all the boxes.

Not saying you’re wrong, but I do think situations play a lot into perception.

[Thorner]

4 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

How many seasons did MacKinnon play before really cracking those lists? 

Put Eichel wherever you think he deserves to be, just put Dahlin ahead, because he’s the more valuable asset. 

Edited August 21, 2019 by Thorny

[Curt]

4 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

How many seasons did MacKinnon play before really cracking those lists? 

4 seasons.  He basically broke out in his 5th season, at age 22.

Eichel will be in his 5th season in 2019-20, but also has already completed his age 22 season.

[LGR4GM]

23 minutes ago, Curt said:

4 seasons.  He basically broke out in his 5th season, at age 22.

Eichel will be in his 5th season in 2019-20, but also has already completed his age 22 season.

And Eichel has already greatly outscored MacKinnon to this point. 

MacKinnon had 206pts in 300games for a total of 0.687ppg

Eichel had 259pts in 286 games for a total of 0.906ppg

I'd argue that last season Eichel broke out. 

[Curt]

17 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

And Eichel has already greatly outscored MacKinnon to this point. 

MacKinnon had 206pts in 300games for a total of 0.687ppg

Eichel had 259pts in 286 games for a total of 0.906ppg

I'd argue that last season Eichel broke out. 

Yeah, absolutely.  I wasn't passing any judgments, just laying out a couple facts. 

I wouldn't really say Eichel "broke out" though.  He has had a pretty slow and steady improvement season to season.  His point per game have gone from 0.69 to 0.93 to 0.96 to 1.06.  MacKinnon, on the other hand, doubled his points per game from 0.65 in 2016-17 to 1.31 in 2017-18.  That's a break out!

Edited August 22, 2019 by Curt

[Taro T]

37 minutes ago, Curt said:

Yeah, absolutely.  I wasn't passing any judgments, just laying out a couple facts. 

I wouldn't really say Eichel "broke out" though.  He has had a pretty slow and steady improvement season to season.  His point per game have gone from 0.69 to 0.93 to 0.96 to 1.06.  MacKinnon, on the other hand, doubled his points per game from 0.65 in 2016-17 to 1.31 in 2017-18.  That's a break out!

And MacKinnon played with Rantannan and Eichel played with the corpse of Pominville.  Eichel also had a severe productivity decline after suffering what seemed to be a concussion mid-season and still ended the year at over a PPG.

[shrader]

1 hour ago, Taro T said:

And MacKinnon played with Rantannan and Eichel played with the corpse of Pominville.  Eichel also had a severe productivity decline after suffering what seemed to be a concussion mid-season and still ended the year at over a PPG.

Thank you.  Our Pommenstein filter finally makes sense to me.

[Thorner]

8 hours ago, Taro T said:

And MacKinnon played with Rantannan and Eichel played with the corpse of Pominville.  Eichel also had a severe productivity decline after suffering what seemed to be a concussion mid-season and still ended the year at over a PPG.

I don't like thinking about this as, if it really did linger for so long after the initial few games missed, it reminds me Eichel has suffered significant injuries in 3 out of his 4 NHL seasons. I want to see him find some consistent health. 

Edited August 22, 2019 by Thorny

[GASabresIUFAN]

FYI:  The Athletic's view of Nylander in Chicago's 10th rated pipeline

Quote

 

3. Alexander Nylander, RW, Buffalo-NHL

March 2, 1998 | 6-foot-1 | 192 pounds

Tier: Very good NHL prospect

Nylander is a player of much debate in the scouting community. He has not had the start to his pro career you would have hoped for as an eighth-overall pick. He will have some great AHL stretches coupled with indifferent ones. His solid 12 game performance with the Sabres inspired hope though. He’s got a high skill level and even better vision. Nylander can create chances in unique ways and run a power play in the NHL. His shot looked better than I thought it was, as he scored a few goal-scorer caliber goals. His pace is mediocre at best even, though his stride is fine. He doesn’t attack the inside portions of the ice and doesn’t have much value off the puck. He was traded in the off season to Chicago for Henri Jokiharju

 

 

[GASabresIUFAN]

Under the category to good for the CHL

1. Cozens -  4gm 5g 4a 9pts

2. Pekar - 6gm 7g 2a 9pts

[LGR4GM]

How we liking Jokiharju now that games count?