Eleven

Great idea for a topic, but ESPN is short on details as usual. 1. What do DO about Hinostroza? They're really just going to drop his name and that's it? I like the player; I'm not sure there's room for him on the team. Same goes for RFA Jost (whom ESPN doesn't feel is a "key" player despite the fact that Granato turned him around and he was a solid role-player last year). My gut tells me that it's smart to keep one of them, probably Jost. 2. We talk a lot about getting that 4D to go with Power, but really, it's more important than that. Defensemen get hurt, and I think we can count on one of the top three being out for about 25%-33% of the season (that is, one of them at any given time). There is no significant depth besides Johnson, and he's a question mark. So I think it's not about getting a vet to "guide" Dahlin and Power (and does Dahlin really need guidance anymore?) but about solidifying the defense in general. I don't know that I want just a two-year solution like Orlov or Gudas here. I really want to see Graves, Hanifin, or Pesce and a solid top 4 for years to come. 3. Goalie. Been talked to death. Need one. I know I compared Levi to Carey Price the day the Sabres acquired him, but we don't really know whether he can handle 60 games a season right out of the gate. And I recognize that we didn't see enough of healthy Comrie to really judge him. Still, I think that with a defenseman and a goalie, this team can be a conference finalist,* and I don't want to see a wasted opportunity. I guess if it has to be Andersen (or Gibson) so be it, but I'd rather see them grab a star. *This depends on Granato's continued development, too. But most of the good teams in the conference--Toronto and Florida excepted--seem to be on the way down, and I don't see too many teams making significant strides on the way up, except NJ and Buffalo.

Patrick isn't with the organization anymore but I do get your larger point.

I definitely don't care about this one way or the other. What happens to that WHL team, happens.

The Islanders have to because Lou has no one, and I mean no one, in development. You can count on a 6-8 finish for the Isles in the whatever they call that division now.

You know, the Sabres never have taken the Emma Lazarus* approach in the post-cap era, and I wonder why. (No, now is NOT the time.) *"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Take it easy...by the time any of them are ready to play, the Sabres will be short of LHD.

Take one (almost) every year. Good pick.

There's the goalie!

From your keyboard to God's eyes...

Need them now AND in three years. There aren't many in the pipeline, either.

Fine but I'm calling him "Steve" if they do.

I see these articles from time to time about how some Swedish couple wants to name their kid "5-&@-Zek" or something and isn't allowed to, and then I wonder about stuff like this.

Is WGR covering it live?

Grrr....I don't get NHLN on my mobile service...

Would you shut up about it already? I represent her fence.

"Easton Cowan"? How the ***** was he not beat up at some Connecticut prep school WAY before ever touching a hockey stick?

Be careful with Sabres 13OA picks named Zack. According to @LGR4GM his birth month of May indicates a maximum height of 8'3", but he also could shrink to 4'5".

Fun fact because I have to kill time until sleep now: His first name means "dove." Not the past participle of what Derek Roy used to do, but the bird. Can we get a groan emoji?

Also bad table manners. Have you ever sat down with him to eat? Food flying everywhere, uses the wrong fork, ugh. Troglodyte.

Well I hung with it this late for Quentin, might as well watch the last 6.

A shark it is.

If Musty goes to Toronto or Carolina, I'll puke. He probably will too.

Why not both? Like Schony.

Yes, I was kidding, clarification was below that.

Musty is getting to be just that...