Cage

Nazar at 16.... he's going to drop

I'm not really following your point? If you filled an AHL team with older players and it was devoid of draftees who you own the rights to, what good is that? So we're interested in the Amerks doing well in the context of having lots of Sabres draftees contributing to that and growing. If the Amerks won the Calder Cup with 28-32 year olds, we probably wouldn't pay that much attention to it, but we recognize they could do that within the rules.

Which if the development pipeline is progressing, should be Sabres draft picks! I"m excited to see that they've signed Rosen, Kisakov and now Cederqvist. It looked for a bit like there would be no new draftees in Rochester, but now we'll have these three joining Weissbach and Rousek. Next year they'll add Bloom and Nadeau along with hopefully at least Levi. So feeling better about it all!

Here's another point-of-view on this. Apparently Djurgardens has been relegated from SHL, which opens the ability for him to play in AHL and NOT have to be returned... https://www.prohockeyrumors.com/2022/06/buffalo-sabres-sign-filip-cederqvist.html Here's some more on the NHL-SHL transfer agreement. The first paragraph after the bullets would be problematic to most teams. Basically if you like a Swedish player then you better draft him in the first round, otherwise you won't see him until he's 24 unless he's ready to make the NHL team. So players like Olofsson (7th) who spent a year+ in Rochester, won't be able to develop that way anymore. https://www.prohockeyrumors.com/2022/04/examining-a-key-change-in-the-nhls-transfer-agreement-with-sweden.html The transfer agreements between various leagues are obviously complicated. However, if Djurgardens is not in the SHL anymore, then these provisions don't apply to him, which is probably why GMKA chose to make the move and sign him.

I'm not sure that's the right way to put it. The Sabres results from last season new compel GMKA to focus on goaltending more If you think back to last off-season, the Sabres were expected to be a last place dumpster-fire. He didn't know what he had as he was focused on trading out talent that "didn't want to be here". He did try to resign Ullmark and the goalie market just wasn't there to find the right guy other than one-year rentals. The season was an over-the-top surprise to everyone as there was little expectation that the line-up and players would come together and mature the way they did. Who in the world had Tage pegged as our #1 Center with nearly 40 goals? Plus the ascendance of too many players to name, plus players excelling on Amerks and ready to coming up. Now that he sees what he's working with, I'm sure he'll find a suitable G

I wish someone would have pushed Kevyn Adams on this a bit. Assuming Ryan Johnson doesn't change his mind and stays in school, when was the last time there wasn't a single new prospect debuting in Rochester for the next season? I don't think its happened as far back as I can recall. No college graduates signing either. I'm not sure why there's not a push to bring some the Swedish players over to develop further? Assuming Quinn and Peterka advance to Sabres, there be only Pekar, Laaksonen, Weissbach and Rousek on the Amerk next year from among draftees

Now I get why Kim Pegula thinks the Bills and Sabres have totally different fan bases. Hockey and football just don't mix....

I've watched more games this year than the last ten combined!

That last part is starting to happen. This was from the latest NHL Power Rankings on The Athletic where the theme was "We found reasons to watch all 32 teams down the stretch" (sorry, paid sub). https://theathletic.com/3251588/2022/04/15/nhl-power-rankings/ Despite the theme it generally remained brutal on the bottom teams as they struggle to find a reason to stay interested. However the write-up on Sabres is as follows: 21. Sabres A reason to pay attention: The absolute best vibes in the league Every year there’s one team in the league’s basement that’s hell-bent on playing spoiler down the stretch. This year, the Sabres are that team and they look like they’re having a lot of fun doing it. Since March, the team is a very respectable 11-8-3 and have been the most watchable Sabres team in over a decade. That’s progress! Oh and there’s that Owen Power kid, too.

That would be good, but he could still ATO this year to help Amerks for playoffs, couldn't he?

I'm surprised there hasn't been a resolution to whether he's ready to leave to turn pro.

Every bad team in all sports sells assets that aren't part of their future plans in order to fuel a rebuild, making themselves worse in the process. That's how Wayne Gretzky gets traded all the way through to Russell Wilson this off-season in the NFL. Are the Seahawks better by trading him? No, they went from a SB-winning franchise QB to unproven, unknowns. They also did it shortly after Mahomes and Allen put on a clinic on how important QBing is to be successful in NFL. I think much of the bad result is simply not having the organization in place, GM on down, to successfully navigate a rebuild. If you go back to the tank years of Murray we had great draft capital and were rated among the best in prospect pipeline. But players like Grigorenko, Bailey, Baptiste, Hurley, Guhle, Nylander never pan out as hoped. Then they gave up early on Zadorov, Compher, Lemieux. Peterson wouldn't sign. That's 10 players for whatever reason of bad drafting or organizational incompetence we got little from. Some of them may not have wanted to be here, but we're just seeing on the Bills side how a competent organization enables a guy like Von Miller to WANT to come to Buffalo, leaving a SB champion in LA. They did tank in 2014-15, but then if they rebuilt from there in a way more in-line w/ how GMKA is now approaching it, perhaps we'd have a different view of it all. It appears we have more later round hits in the past 4 years than we had in the previous 10 as Bryson, Fitzgerald, Asplund, UPL are showing they may belong and our younger pipeline players like Nadeau, Bloom, Peterka, Quinn, Power, Levi are near the top of their respective leagues.

Good review. I've been waiting to see this perspective. As we saw w/ Asplund and Olofsson there may be hope In continued development of Swedish Ds if given time?

gotta admit the stick smashing made the goal much better. Now it can be a meme!

Shame on all those who wanted to trade him and/or switch him to forward

Class!

isn't "core" typically 5-6 players who become essentially "untouchable" during their prime? I don't think it would be 12+

All I can say is thank God we paid Skinner $9m/year

Actually I did place a $10 bet on Fanduel that he would score in his first game back and he screwed me on that....

I don't have a thing against the guy, but Tuch and Krebs have so closed the conversation on him that I just don't even pay attention anymore. Nothing but growth the rest of the way as they move toward next season!

Man,... even Tre'Davious White is hurt. Missing his opportunity with Bills eliminated...

Yeah, not suggesting any of them be elevated yet. I just wonder if any team has ever had this many prospects that are at the very top of their respective leagues??

We're all excited about how the prospects are coming along, but this has to be a first for this level of success. We have five players who not only lead their teams, but are top 10 players in their respective leagues: AHL -- Jack Quinn, #1 goals / #1 points -- JJ Peterka, #2 assists / #7 points NCAA -- Devon Levi, #1 save % / #3 GAA -- Owen Power #1 assists / #3 points OHL -- Josh Bloom, #5 goals Pretty amazing....

What Sabre' prospects are likely to be on teams??

Seems to be he knew they weren't the answer, which is why they are all on 1 year deals. He did put a legitimate effort into signing Ullmark to a long-term contract before he hit free agency. Did he not? Also, the primary asset for trading Reinhart was goaltending. He was our most valuable asset after Eichel.