Taro T

True, but that won't keep people from grading the off-season before the Sabres have put the opening night game t-shirts out in the bowl nor will it keep people from claiming with the utmost of certainty who wins and loses the draft next week by the following weekend.

Bingo. Would really like to see Adams bring in a veteran as there was a value to the Anderson being able to impart his wisdom and vision on the other goalies and the rest of the team as well and also because the probability that he'll be better than whichever of Comrie or UPL ends up the backup in lieu of an outsider brought in is high. But, if he decides the cost of the outsider is too great he may very well run with the 3 headed monster (though personally doubt it actually plays out that way). And the possibility that they may be moving on sooner from UPL than they'd planned might be part of the reason they reached for the goalie in the 2nd last year. If they didn't see any D that were right for grabbing at that spot, well, can see why they didn't go F there as the pipeline is overflowing in that regard, so they grabbed the guy that they thought (for whatever evaluation criteria they use) was far and away the best goalie out of a questionable bunch. Presumably by taking a goalie last year rather than this year, at least on paper, he's 1 year closer to the NHL than whomever they grab this year in a mid-round (though goalie development is far from linear and that presumption could be wildly off). Personally, see the reaching for a goalie last year as giving in to either the possibility that they may have to move on from UPL before they wanted to due to circumstances or the possibility that Levi could end up walking like Portillo did. They wanted to have SOMEBODY they thought might eventually be an NHLer in the pipeline as everybody else would either actually be in the NHL or gone (or both) or a very long shot to be an NHLer.

Purely spitballin' here, but expect it had something to do with there being absolutely nothing in the cupboard beyond UPL & Levi and it wasn't an absolute given that Levi wouldn't walk regardless of how unlikely his walking might have been. If Levi were on his way back to NU right now, there would literally be no young prospects other than UPL. Don't see what the Sabres saw in Leinonin (sp?), but they felt he was the best of a poor lot and if they didn't see a D-man worthy of taking with that pick, well, there apparently are only so many under 21 smallish fast skilled F's that a team can find a home for in their system. There is nothing stopping them from grabbing another goalie with their 2nd 2nd or a later pick this year other than the possiblilty of them seeing somebody still on the board that they really like that isn't a goalie.

47 games. Only stayed in the NHL that 1 year. I'll give another clue tomorrow if people still aren't coming up with any of the other 4.

Went with Power because of externalities. HE is the only one of these listed players that the GM is ACTIVELY looking to find a better partner / linemate for. Once he and the new partner settle in, he should be able to just be himself on the ice and that should be a very good thing.

Hutton & Ullmark.

Personally would like to see some reality where Reinbacher slips to 13 (or the Sabres give up a small adder to get high enough to grab him). Poor man's Jiricek, but Jiricek is still exactly what they needed last year. Grab him, and sign Graves and another guy in FA and both the D and the D pipeline should be pretty well set.

Getting away from the Bruins likely helped, but IMHO the reason his play improved so markedly after moving to Pittsburgh is because of his daughter's health issues and how they made a "changed man" of him.

Only 35 NHL games to date. He could eventually become a member of this exclusive club but at present he doesn't meet the (admittedly arbitrarily chosen) games played threshold.

Which is why the suggestion was to have Stepan in as the 4C.

Nope. Because ...

4 down. 4 to go.

Darn shame for him that he didn't wear 97 or 98 rather than 19. Might've gotten more than a cup of coffee in the NHL. 😉 And your question is a good one. But it could actually get tweaked slightly further: how many played at least that many games and didn't end up with ANY of the truly "traditional" stats (G, A, P, PIM)?

To further the other clue. 2 are guys that would likely be considered to be Sabres when one hears their names. 2 are guys that would likely be considered to be Amerks when one hears their names. Totally forgot the other guy had any affiliation with the Sabres organization at all. And, it is entirely possible that there are 1 or 2 other guys that meet the threshold (80 NHL games, with no games played for other another WHA/NHL team) that were overlooked. (Guess they'd fall into that 3rd category as well.)

Pretty sure there are jobs available in both the NHL and HCing jobs in Junior and quite possibly the AHL as well. With his resume, he should be able to land one of those before taking an assistant's role in the A. Look, would be very happy to have Patrick back in the fold but just don't see the alure of being an AHL assistant at this point of his career.

They do. But would Patrick want the demotion to AHL assistant? Would prefer him as an addition to Granato's staff, but don't see that happening.

Hinostroza was not in the top 12. He was the 13th F. Presuming Olofsson goes away, there are 12 F's. So, right now Jost is (on paper at least) in the top 12. He is NOT Hinostroza. But if a 4C were brought in, then Jost is 13 and he is Vinnie. And expect that Rousek would be behind Jost at present so he'd be 13 right now. If those 2 are flipped, then Vinnie became Jost whether a 4C is brought in or not.

@Thorny, that enough? 'Cause there's more. Oh, yes, there's more.

And a clue as to who some of those other 5 players are. Would say that only 2 of the 5 are players that people would think of as Sabres when they hear the name.

Olofsson's been replaced by Greenway. Hinostroza? Right now, it looks like Rousek. But if Adams grabs a 4C then Vinnie was replaced by Jost.

He certainly does. But, until he actually fixes the goaltending (and maybe it is fixed) he hasn't fixed the goaltending. And that is a glaring hole on an otherwise shining resume.

And set a cutoff of 30 games for goalies and none met that criterion; so it looks like there are 8 total. And am NOT counting current Sabres because they could end up getting traded / leave via FA.

Haven't looked up the goalies yet, but only came up with 8 total skaters that meet that criteria. And had totally forgot 1 of them was ever a Sabre. (Rather unremarkable career.) And as mentioned upthread in one of the edits, 1 of those 8 played a long time overseas but only played with the Sabres in the NHL.

I am accepting any player that played at least 80 games. (Haven't set a cut off for goalies yet.) They can have played in other non-NA leagues and can have played in the minors (before or leaving the Sabres). Basically, am looking for players that never left the Sabres during their NHL days. Was thinking about carving out an exception for Dudley and guys like him that only played in the WHA if they weren't on the Sabres, but expect that will be too hard to verify. Right now, there are 3 that have been identified and at least 3 others that meet that criteria.