Taro T

Expect he falls just short of 30/60 as he ends up missing 10 or so games due to injury. Really curious as to whether he gets an extension next July. Hoping he does. Not sure he will.

And that in itself will keep the cupboards stocked. Looking forward to being at the point Detroit was most of this century where good kids cooked in the AHL until they were both ready & a spot was available.

True to a degree. It's very unlikely the last 2 drafts are putting 12 NHLers out there for the Sabres. But with all the high end picks they've had & a little luck they should get at least 7 NHLers out of the past 2. They had 5 1st rounders alone the past 2 years. And if they did, they have at least 9 NHLers out of the last 3 drafts. That'll keep the cupboards stocked.

And stuff like the Sabres being ready to pounce on Kulich (and a few other guys the past 2 (and maybe even 3 years - Quinn & Peterka say 'hi') is what was so frustrating about the Golisano years. Rather than building up the scouting department to have a lot of cheap homegrown talent coming in, he & Quinn gutted it & brought in video scouting. It wasn't just his gutting the most complete team they'd had since at least the early-90's & likely since the mid-70's or possibly ever due to being focused on only today's balance sheet, but his inability to see how his overall goals were completely complemented by building the scouting department rather than tearing it down. At least there is hope once again, & not the forced kind we've lived with most of the past decade.

As long as there's one that looks right getting taken around 15 and will last until then, they'll be good.

Don't count your inactives list before Sunday. 😉

But, were it not a lockdown year would he have been a 7th rounder? Again, the Sabres SEEM to have knocked the last 2 drafts out of the park. Is that due to being better than everybody else in general or having an edge due to being better at guessing how guys would've been advancing their previous 2 years or others being particularly bad at evaluating guys during the lockdown or some combination of the 3? If we're lucky, the Sabres actually did draft great these past 2 drafts & it isn't an illusion and more importantly it was due to a lot more of option 1 than 2 or 3.

Those 2 were 2020. Nightingale & Crowe were in town, but Nightengale was pretty much the entire analytics department then. And those were 2 very nice picks (understatement).

It'll be interesting to see how well they do moving forward now that the world shutting down for covid seems past us & teams will actually have seen next year's draftees at both D-1 & D years rather than just 1 or the other. Will they still maintain the edge they SEEM to have had since Karamanos came into the fold or will other teams grab what would've been the Sabres late round gems in the 2nd & 3rd rounds where they probably should've been selected?

Which makes all the random off-season "the Pegulas want to dump the Sabres" garbage seem so incongruous. Have never gotten that vibe.

If UPL & Subban can give them reasonable or better goaltending they should be alright. The big question is can the D actually help the G's keep the puck out of the net? Games should be fun as the Amerks should be high scoring & their opponents might be as well.

Nope. Tua plays like trash vs Buffalo. The Bills won't let Hill get free past them. Will let him try to dink & dunk down the field. He's not good enough to score as often as Allen's O will. The Bills D has Jones figured out. Unless they play in a blizzard or hurricane that can neutralize the Bills' O don't see that either. The Jests could pull an upset, most likely in OP as it's their SB & the Bills might be looking past them. Don't expect it, but it's possible.

It's possible. Not likely, but definitely possible. November & December will be key. They'll get off to a fast start in October. The question is can they finally not give up all the momentum they build up early when other teams are back into having the rust worked off & used to playing 3 games a week and when they're having a key injury or 2 to overcome. They haven't been able to do that the past 4 or 5 years that they started off well. IF they can, then they'll have enough of a base to overcome the inevitable 3-4 game slide that always comes at some point without letting it grow into an 8+ game skid. If Comrie is a legit starter & can stay healthy, it's possible. Wouldn't put any money on it but that 77.5 Over is extremely tempting.

Not doing your homework for you. Go back & re-read the Ullmark FA thread. And with the Sabres being at the cap floor, wtf should he have walked from "a bad deal" that would have NO I PACT WHATSOEVER on any single other contract on their squad. OMFG, if he gives Ullmark $1MM more than Doohickie wants him to pay, 5 years from now when Levi has some leverage, he's gonna take him to town. Seriously? And, how do you figure he'd've ended up in a bidding war w/ the Bruins had he made his "best" offer up front instead of after the fact? Nobody suggested he should've exceeded in his offer what he was willing to pay. BUT the offer he made Linus was less than that. And, NEVER said he should've gone to "any price" to keep Ullmark. But, he should've gone to what he was willing to pay before the Bruins went there. And will continue to stand by that.

Adams set up the situation himself. HE offered Ullmark less than he was willing to spend & Ullmark said he'd accept it if nobody else topped it. The Bruins topped it w/ what apparently Adams was actually willing to go to. That Linus said they offered me this 1st, top it & we've got a deal (provided Boston doesn't re-top it) doesn't seem to be an ultimatum. And, maybe they don't get Savoie if Linus signs, but that isn't a good enough reason to have lowballed Linus in the 1st place IMHO.

You can check it out yourself. There are very few blue dots around the arena even for that game that no visiting fans are desperate to go to.

No, you have no reason to keep perpetuating your fan fiction. We know Ullmark told Adams he would accept the Sabres offer if nobody beat it. Several sources reported that and neither side challenged that reporting. There were reports that Adams offered to match the Bruin offer and Ullmark told him the Sabres would then need to beat that offer. Think what you want, but the reality is Adams wanted to keep Ullmark but played his hand poorly. Expecting he's learned from that, but it isn't what you thought he learned.

Exactly what? Had Adams made the offer initially that he eventually agreed to match, Ullmark would've been a Sabre. Truly doubt the Bruins would've been able to exceed what they offered and signed Ullmark for.

Think whatever you want, but he offered to match what the Bruins offered. Ullmark told him he had to beat that offer (just like the Bruins had to beat the Sabres original offer).

He did learn something. There is more of a demand for guys that have shown glimpses of being able to handle a starter's workload than he realized. He also likely learned that if you really are willing to go to $Y for a guy that can shop his services, it's really dumb to only offer $X.

Taking a look at how few tix are available for even the Yotes game, expect they are close to where they were w/ STs prior to covid hitting. Wouldn't be surprised if they're back around 12k STHers.

The same as prior to it. The Sabres SEEM to have done a very good job of scouting during the covid years and seem to have ended up with more prospects from then than most squads. This tourney gives confirmation to that observation. Now, they need to actually develop most of those prospects. Expect they can & will, but it isn't a given & will take some time to prove out. (And if they haven't/don't solve the goaltending puzzle it won't really matter at the end of the day.)

They expect Comrie to breakout, but don't expect Dahlin to do so as well? How, does the goalie "breakout" without his #1 D doing so as well? (Unless they're either defining top 10 breakouts much more loosely than they should or claiming Ras already broke out, that doesn't jibe.)

Between a Rock & a Hyde Place. 😉

Imagine what Granato Taylor could've been.