Taro T

Rumors are Adams was close to landing Gibson in the past but he refused to waive his NTC/NMC to come to Buffalo. Considering how much Adams stresses only bringing in guys that want to be in Buffalo, pretty sure that ship has sailed.

Would like to see them take 1 every year and about once every 3-4 years try to grab one of the top 2 or 3 guys in the entire draft. (Would likely require using a 2nd or 3rd rounder, which isn't a terribly high cost when you consider what the chances are a skater picked there becomes even an NHLer much less a difference maker are fairly slim.)

In fairness to @K-9, believe he meant no other NHL teams. ;)

He did. Considering he doesn't throw his players under the bus, what else was there to say? "Well, heard that we might get a bit of snow tomorrow." Sabres can and should win this.

Make that 2.

Bandits don't believe in doing anything the easy way. Hosted Halifax tonight. Got Byrne back after missing 3 games and Cloutier back for the 1st time since the 2nd game of the year. In the 1st they were getting dominated by Halifax, but Vinc was a wall. If not for being down 2 men, Vinc likely would've gotten through the 1st with a shutout like the Thunderbird's Keeper Hill did. 1-0 bad guys after 1. Bandits woke up in the 2nd with both Byrne and Cloutier picking up a pair and came out of the 1st half with a 5-3 lead. They added another 18 seconds into the 3rd and it looked like a rout might be on. But the Bandits can't do anything easily. They let Halifax go on a 6-0 run and found themselves down 9-6 into the 4th. But then the Bandits decided they dug a big enough hole and took over in the 4th. Both Byrne and Cloutier got their hatties and Buchanan tied it late at 9. It appeared the Bandits had tied it at 9 earlier in the quarter as Cloutier dove from behind the net and beat Hill over the shoulder but it was just after the shot clock expired. In OT, both teams had 2 possessions and after a timeout they got the ball to Cloutier and this time he got the shot off with 2 ticks left on the shot clock and the Bandits won 10-9. Bandits are now 10-2 and will stay at least a game ahead of both Toronto and Rochester who sit at 8-3.

Well not in the last 30+ years it hasn't.

Realize that. As discussed with Thorny, the 3rd guy was Grier. Who IS the GM of the team he played for between stints with the Sabres. (San Jose.) It was mentioned upthread that there were 3 GM's from the '05-'06 team. Hadn't realized that Grier's name hadn't been mentioned upthread nor that anybody thought of Miro when discussing that team because at Drury's request, he wasn't a part of that team. He was released free and clear and the Sabres were better for it. Totally got that you were referring to the devil in your statement. And as mentioned, never considered Miro when reading it.

No, have said elsewhere that my expectation is they get a 4D. He'll probably be what people consider a budget signing similar to grabbing Lydman but expecting he'll be useful also like Lydman. Expect there'll be something else on D brought in. Hoping that guy is a 5/6 but it could be another Clague. Didn't look that closely at the goalie projection. Have no idea what Adams does there. But until he fixes goaltending, he hasn't fixed it.

Grier.

Expect he's eligible for the WJCs as he'll be in his D+2 year, but those that follow Junior would know that better. Doubt they'd want to do a 9 game stint over a large chunk of the season planning to bring him back after his Junior team's season is complete for 2 reasons. 1. If they bring him back for a 10th game after the 9 game "tryout" he still burns a year of the ELC. And, 2. If he's on the Sabres 23 man (or extended post trade deadline) roster for 40 games, he accrues a year of service in the NHL (aka moves a year closer to having UFA status) which is an even bigger deal than the possible burning of an ELC year.

Interestingly, all 3 of those guys ended up GMing the team they went to after being on that magical Sabres team.

Why do anything with Comrie? Unless they make a trade for a goalie and the other team wants a backup as a piece of the return, don't do anything with him. If he gets waived with the intention of sending him to Ra-cha-cha because they have brought in someone better to tandem (and ideally be the 1 on the tandem) then either they have cheap depth and really solid depth with presumably Levi and Comrie in Ra-cha-cha or if he gets claimed, oh well. And if by some miracle he ends up looking the part of a true #1 in training camp, then figure out what to do with the new guy when we come to that bridge.

EVERYBODY here needs to be a Providence fan tomorrow night. Go Friars! Send Levi home to Buffalo where he belongs. (At least for this season. Probably belongs in Ra-cha-cha next year.)

Just remember 5 of those golden ticket winners ended up dinner for the Oompa-Loompas.

Would've gone with the 5th. But yes, he should've been pulled. For his sake and the team's.

Expect his is currently pencilled in as the backup next year. No clue who the starter will be. Unless it's Levi (and that's a stretch) he isn't in this organization at present.

Well, after getting spanked by the B's they came back with a very good game against the Bolts and with a little bit of puck luck could've beat McDavid and company too. Let's see how Saturday goes before burying them.

Yep. Goals 2-4 against were all essentially the same thing. Forward gets the puck deep on the D and then passes back to the slot where the D are too deep to defend and the F hasn't filled that space. The 7th - 10th goals were uglier and lack of effort/smart play, but those other 3 above just were killers and the Sabres didn't seem to adjust to it until the Stars were content to sit back on their lead.

Agree with your expectation of what the F lineup will look like next year except expect Jost will be the 4C. Flip Lyubushkin and Johnson and you've got the D nailed too. (But am really hoping that "budget signing" is an actual 4D.)

Am more frustrated with the Rosen pick but understand how they felt with Levi and Portillo in the wings that they didn't want to spend the draft capital on Cossa or the other one that went high (Wahl, Wahlstrom). Really wanted THAT pick used on a goalie. The Leininen pick will be a good referendum on their goalie modeling. They said he was far and away the guy they thought was the best in that draft class. If he isn't, time to rework that model.

Yup. Organizationally this team had holes everywhere when Adams took over. They're getting to the point where there are significantly fewer holes. Am hoping D is a focus of this draft, but am more hoping that the 4D this team really needs and 1 more true NHL depth D-man gets found this summer. Get that and have a legit #1G and this team can do some serious damage.

Good on Peterka. He was the only one that seemed to have come to play last night. Hopefully he can do something with having gotten promoted back to the Kids Line.

Very much disagree with this take. Everything he has said has given indications that he not only wants to be here but wants to be a leader here as well. (Doubt he ends up one, but you can never have too much leadership/ buy-in in the room.) Expected he'd be a 60 point player this year. October and November blew that up. But fully expect him to be a 60 point player next year.

Actually there is an excuse. Dahlin, Samuelsson, and Power are a VERY solid core to the D. And they were expected to be here now at the lastest. As D are the slowest to develop (or at least are slower than F's for the vast majority), the need for additional lower pairing D has been and should be getting addressed through the trade and FA markets. The C depth, when this plan was developed and started getting implemented was non-existant. Adams knew Eichel and Reinhart were going away. Mittelstadt was viewed as the 1 C, Cozens was in his 2nd year, Thompson was about to enter his 1st year as a C, and Asplund was the other hopeful C that they had. (Not including Ruotsalainen as he was probably going to be a W if he ever made it successfully at the NHL. With the recent drafting, they not only have not just 1 but likely 2 legit #1 D on the roster and with all the C's they've drafted when combined with the emergence of Thompson, they not only are in decent shape at C, they're pretty well set there. Yes, try to get more high end D now, but they have the top 1/2 of the D pretty well set for the future and they look like they should have the F's pretty well set moving forward. So, now, fix G - would love to see them draft this year or next whoever is the top Russian G prospect because those guys significantly are stocking the top of the NHL goaltending heirarichy. Hopefully they get a D-man or 2 in those top 3 picks, bu they should be looking at bringing in the best talent they can regardless of position as they have been doing. This team had essentially no pipeline 4 years ago. They now have a very good F prospect pool and with Levi a reasonable G prospect pool. (It's the current pool that leaves a lot to be desired.) Expecting they start focusing a bit more on D now but maybe that's just hoping.