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Chara had a really long development curve. He wasn't the Chara that was great for a lot of years

If you go back and look at D-men picked from 6-12 and see how long they developed: 2015: Provorov (played full season in 2016-2017) and Werenski (Played full season in 2016-17) 2016: Sergachev (played a full season in 2017-18) 2017: No D-men picked in that range (Makar was taken 4th overall) 2018: Quinn Hughes (played full season in 2019-20), Adam Boquist (has yet to play full season), Evan Bouchard (played full season 2021-22), Noah Dobson (played full season 2021-22) 2019: Seider (full season 2021-22), Broberg (full season, almost, last year), Soderstromm (no full season yet) 2020: Drysdale (full season 2021-22) 2021: Edvinsson (full season last year, 2024-25), Clarke (full season 2024-25) 2022: Jiricek (no full season yet), Korchiniski (full season 2023-24), Mintyukov (full season 2023-24), Mateychuk (no full season yet) I didn't want to look back at the last 2 drafts, it might be early for them yet. So, it looks like the farther back you go, the more likely a D-man was to play right away. In recent drafts, they seem to take longer. But of all the D-men listed above: 7 of them played a full season the year after they were drafted. 1 took 2 seasons after their draft year. 4 of them took 3 seasons after their draft year. 5 of them took longer than 3 full seasons or have yet to play a full season for the team that drafted them.

Bonsigniore was a Rochester kid from the Jr. Amerks. I was playing beer league at Lakeshore Arena when he was there.

I think part of that comes from holding yourself to a higher standard and holding your teammates to a higher standard and having belief in what you are doing as a team. This team hasn't had that in a long long time. What many people are willing to do for something they truly believe in and feel an integral part of is different than for something they don't.

Whoa. This isn't just "good skater for a tall guy."

Not sure if this got posted elsewhere, but Ray Ferraro had an interesting nugget in his podcast with Dreger. Said he broadcast a game in the back end of the season where Peterka would come off of his shifts and plop down with his body positioned in such a way that he was turned away from the bench like he was checked out. Not clear if it was aimed at coaches or teammates, just that something was broken. His take on the trade was that the Sabres are/were getting blown up because people just don’t know the Utah players; not big names, not a big market. He thinks Peterka is the best player in the deal but people don’t know how good Kesselring is and the Sabres did fine.

Atleast trading Kulich would force them to get a true centre in the top 6.

If anybody watched his zoom call he was smiling the whole time. This organization is ridiculously inept BUT don’t make sh1t up

This is peak trolling BS. Let’s go back 15 years to find a tall dman who didn’t turn out and post it like it is some comparison in any way, shape or form. ”Don’t draft Mario Lemieux because Jason Bongsinire was a tall RHC that didn’t turn out.”🤣. Some people really need to just go take a walk and get some fresh air.

I didn't do a bunch of research past the first round. Which fits us best? I guess, I like Gastrin, after watching the video. Well written Taro, play heavier, and harder. And be better ***** teammates.

I truly think worse case we got Tyler Myers, best case we got Zdeno Chara

The people that ask for the Sabres to get bigger aren't actually asking for them to be bigger. (Well, some of them likely are, but we all know in reality that isn't necessarily what they want.) They're asking for them to PLAY bigger. The Sabres almost always have good size metrics, but except for Nolan's 1st stint and very early in Ruff's 1st stint the Sabres have never PLAYED big. You can't PLAY small and win. Not come playoff time. And really, its tough to do so in the RS as well as the teams that don't like contact tend to lose battles in the crunch times of even RS games. How many times did the Sabres lose after having the lead lby a couple of goals ast year? They had to be near the top if not the absolute top team there. How many of those times that they ended up losing was there an opportunity to get the puck out of the zone but the player didn't "sell out" to get it out of the zone. How many of those times that they ended up losing was there an opportunity to box a guy out away from UPL and instead he was allowed to stand there and either deflect the puck past him or be the 1st to the rebound? Watching the Swamp Cats play and watching the Sabres play, which team ACTS like the bigger team? It ain't the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight that's in the dog. And too few of the Sabres end up having the fight. But not positive that's entirely on the players themselves; when you aren't sure where you should be, when you aren't sure what you are going to do when you have the puck or the opportunity to have the puck, you play nonaggressively because you think for that split second that your opponent is reacting. The Sabres DO need to play harder. Some of that will come from getting rid of guys that won't do that; but some of that COULD come from coaching but these guys are too stubborn, at best, to change out coaches that CLEARLY aren't teaching these players the right way to play. So, yeah, the Sabres don't need to BE bigger, but they absolutely need to PLAY bigger. And unfortunately just swapping out Peterka for a couple of guys that we know will play bigger likely won't be enough because this coaching staff won't continue to get thaat out of them. And they won't get it out of the rest of them that aren't already significantly outliers on the personal drive measure (read, guys like Dahlin and Benson). There is so much more that needs to happen this offseason to get them to where they need to be.

I am not against getting a better goalie nor am I saying that we dont need to improve the D around them. But what I really want is to find out once and for all if Levi is that guy... if he is not then fine go get your guy or try again with UPL or whatever but at this point how much more AHL seasoning is going to be productive or do we have a Jody Gage in net... (clearly to early for that) I dont know the answer. I just want to find out going on his 4th pro year where he will turn 24. I feel like it may be time and maybe the answer is right here... if not move on , upgrade do what you need too

Raw physical specimens drafted out of that war room… I sure would love to see a similar growth trajectory

Kulich would be a hard give for me

My biggest gripe with this is the average salary should have been 3.365. we always over pay our home grown talent. Smh

post first round press conference

K

Candidly, I've never seen him play outside of the highlights after we drafted him. From what I'm reading regarding his scouting reports - we should all be excited to watch him develop over the next 4 years. A large RHD with two way game? Sign me up.

I wish Prokhorov was smarter... he'll murder you, but he'll get caught doing it. I started a round 2-7 thread

Getting grittier has always been the answer. Kesselring and Doan have that. Benson and Ziemer have that. I'm curious if they'll focus on it in day 2 again.

When a team has a culture of losing, who has the power to change it? Players who look elsewhere for the answer are part of the problem.

It really is strange that people still consider the Sabres "small" when they are the 7th tallest team in the NHL and really only by fractions of an inch since their average height is the same as the #1 team at 6'2" and the 14th heaviest at 201 lbs. I keep seeing how the Panthers are showing the Sabres that you "can't be a small team and win in the NHL anymore" but they are 3 lbs lighter than the Sabres averaging 198 lbs and fractions of an inch shorter(in 9th place for height) but still averaging 6'2". Suffice to say that "getting bigger" is not the answer it once was for the Sabres.

A lot of red flags in Gudbranson's production before he was drafted. He was in his 2nd ohl year and while he played 20 fewer games, he only got 1 more point in year two. Had 0.56ppg his draft year compared to 0.74ppg with Mrtka. So Gudbranson was 6 months older, in year 2 of the OHL and produced less pts per game than Mrtka.

I’d have no problem making Kulich the main piece in a Robertson package, i wouldn’t even blink