Two or less

Saturday, 3pm.

While i love Pettersson, if there is any chance that either Miro or Makar are available at #8, Vancouver would need to do something like Pettersson, on top of some other things.

There's actually a player in the draft named Robin Salo, from Finland. People in Finland say he's like a Risto clone, minus his height/weight - in terms of playing style, skating and point production. Salo played in the top league in Finland, just like Risto did prior to his draft class. He's given a 2-3rd round grade.

The Sabres would be absolutely insane to offer Petersen the backup job to Lehner. He's a solid prospect and we've spend a lot of time developing him to this point but he still has a long way to go. Like most goalie prospects it will still take time. Look at how much time Dubnyk, Miller or Biron needed and all of them were much greater prospects then Petersen is. He never had a full-time goalie coach in college because ND doesn't employ one and thats one reason why the Sabres send Andrew Allen to ND so often to work with him post-practice. Petersen still needs development. If the guy wants to go straight to the NHL, then cya. Luckily for him, the only team that would probably be willing to offer him that is the team he probably wants to go most to- Chicago. Because they dominate the regular season so much and have such good depth on their team that they can risk a few starts. It's not like he'd go 0-14 anyways.

The player i am most intrigued with, as a "sleeper" who i think may be one of the best in this class is Elias Pettersson. He's a taller version of Mitch Marner. I think he goes top-10.

I like Valimaki as well. Defends poorly, essp one on one battles, opponents go wide on him with ease and he doesn't have the best feet. But those #'s he had in the WHL are hard to over look. Kid can play, but to determine how good he is will all depend on how much he improves with skating/foot work.

The Pegula run Sabres (and Bills) have been massive failures, but if nothing else, their arrival as owners allows us to dream big like this. Which is cool IMO. That said, i don't see it happening.

Yeah i'd imagine this is the case. Also, what is the harm in exposing Lehner? If LV has a deal for MA Fluery, they wouldn't take Lehner and pay goalies around $10 million for next season.

I think you're sleeping too much on Makar. I think he could go very well as high as #3, but if i don't think he gets past #5 Vancouver. I also don't see Vaakanainen on your list. If i'm doing defense at pick #8, assuming both Makar and Miro are gone, i'm not sure im passing him over for Liljegren if we're going defense. He's an excellent skater, very high IQ, good puck mover, under rated offensive game. He couldve joined Windsor this past season but decided to stay in Finland. He's also the most NHL ready d-men in this draft.

If we're trading Kane, the best place to trade him is to the WC.

Modric and Kroos took the game over in the second half. Was fun to watch.

Yes, and we have a 25 year old #1 and we're also allowed to sign free agents.

I feel like this is just something made up to help justify your position on the issue with zero backing. The Sabres weren't able to sign Barrett Heisten and that was a big deal. He used a loophole that college players can play til their 20 and then transfer out of college to a CHL team and become free agents. That was a pretty big story back then. Granted, this was a first round pick but back then the first round didn't mean as much as it does now. Also, Mike Zigomanis, when it was time to sign him up, i remember there was a big buzz leading up to the deadline to sign him, a Zigomanis watch, and when he didn't sign in time, team faced backlash and then it came out there was a fax machine error or something. I'm sure theres other examples but these two come to mind first. Of course, both players were bums so it's a moot point i guess. lol

Thats right. He's doing pretty well still though. During the draft someone said teams will regret not drafting him, and its WAY too early to say that but it's pointing that way.

That's the issue, he is just 30 days away from free agency freedom. Sabres drafted him when he was a raw prospect in the 5th round, and spend a lot of time and money to helping him develop. Notre Dame doesn't have a goalie coach and the Sabres had send Andrew Allen to work with Petersen after practice and watch film with him in his off-time, to help his development. Which clearly worked. Allen didn't go there out because he's a really nice guy, he went there because the Sabres paid him to go. But yeah, i think he's gone.

It's not ideal to lose a prospect such as Petersen to free agency, but before anyone freaks out about the lack of depth in our system in net, is that the 2017 draft is projected to be very strong and deep for goalies.

And why would they do that if they can just sign him without giving anything up in just one month?

Don't know much about his style of play he would want to play, which of course is important to Botterill, and also not sure how good his communication is with players, but like Saratoga said, very impressive resume. From domination in the OHL and Memorial Cup, to the U18 Team Canada to being an assistant on the Sharks who just a year ago played for the Cup. I loved him when he was a Sabre too.

Why would any non-Sabres fan care what we are or are not going to do with a 6th round pick?

The Fourth Period speculates that the Ducks are shopping Sami Vatanen and that the Sabres are one of the teams that has expressed interest. He is having surgery and is expected to be out 4-5 months. http://www.thefourthperiod.com/news/ana170531.html

I don't know if this was previously said in this thread but i think you're on the right track with Grubauer. McPhee drafted him and its been said he's always been super high on him.

Theres quite a bit of guys still not signed. My guess is Estephan will sign.

Modo just watched the video. Youre a legend man. I loved every bit of that video. Sabres are lucky to have a fan such as yourself. Prayers to your mom and your family. Take care and go Sabres!

Probably not, but maybe he can improve one of the leagues worst EV scoring teams. Besides better defense, thats another area they need to improve in is scoring 5v5.

Gotcha. Makes sense.