krt88

Really nice job on your write up, and it looks like you put a lot of time and effort into this. I disagree with a few of rankings but most of my views are only slightly different from yours. After the first ten to fifteen players I don’t think a rank number means much. The top 4 have the highest end potential, and the only top 2 defensemen/top line player. The rest of the top 15 show top 4 defensive potential or top 9 forwards, skilled third line players are extremely valuable and necessary. (1) Mikhail Grigorenko (2) Joel Armia (3) Jake McCabe (4) Rasmus Ristolainen (5) Mark Pysyk (6) Johan Larsson (7) Zemgus Girgensons (8) Matt Hackett (9) Nikita Zadorov (10) Brayden McNabb (11) Daniel Catenacci (12) Corey Tropp (13) Justin Kea (14) Chad Ruhwedel (15) Brady Austin

The biggest hit you will ever see! :w00t:

It's going to be expensive, the best bet is to try to outright acquire another top 10 pick and then trade the three first round picks plus Grigs to get into the top pick. If you could move Sekera, the two second rounders and a prospect for #5 and then package #5, 8 and 16 for the top pick, I'd do that. However, if Grigs had to be in the package along with all 4 top 2 round picks, Sekera and another prospect, not sure I want to trade 7 for just MacKinnon. I personally think we should be targeting Barkov and use out assets to get the #3 or 4 pick. #8 and 16 plus a prospect/player could get us up 4/5 picks.

I love McCabe but #3 is too high, though I foresee a top 4 guy who is a potential captain in NHL one day. Great two-way game.

OK, yeah the season is over and thanks to our smart team we won 8 of our last 12 games and gained 16 points in the standings. Now we can pick 9th in the draft, maybe 8th if Phily wins their last game. Take away half of those pointless wins and we are sitting on 40 points and tied for 3rd draft pick and with luck we could have ended up 2nd from the bottom thus a guarantee of a top 3 pick. What was the point of winning games when the season was lost? I understand the players point-of-view, but for the sake of the franchise winning in April was not in the teams best interest. However, that's Buffalo, both major sports team suck but they don't suck correctly and never get the rewards of being bad! A top 3 pick would have really helped this team but we never do that. It's frustrating being a fan of Buffalo sports teams because then always find a way of screwing things up!

Well we keep winning this useless games. Looks like we'll pick anywhere from 9th to 11th. Great job. Hey at least we know some of these guys care. Hopefully we get Vanek signed to extension because he's the guy to keep.

OK Sabres, it's time to do things right! Both the Bills and Sabres stink consistently but they NEVER do it correctly. What is the point in always drafting 9-13? We always fail to just tank it correctly. Let's lose as many games between now and the end of the season and increase our chance of picking in the top 3. Bottom line finish in the bottom three and hope no one outside (4-14) win the lottery. It's time to lose correctly.... trade away several guys at the deadline and this summer blow it up and start fresh hopefully with a top 3 pick and some extra picks to use in the trade market. Let's deal: Reghr for a 2nd or 3rd Stafford for a 3rd and 5th (or some practice pucks) Hecht for a 5th (or gas money) Leopold for a 4th and 3rd next year Vieno for a set of used tired for a the bus and we'll thrown in one of the aquired picks (OK that's not gonna happen) This summer deal Miller, and Poms for some fresh talent, resign Vanek and then let Grigs actually play on the top 2 lines. Packs a couple of the picks you aquired with either Poms and Miller for a higher draft pick or a player.,

Samuel Adams, Boston Lager, doesn't get much better.

Get him at all costs? Have you paid attention to the apparent costs? The Avs want a top prospect, a defensemen, likely a second roster ready player and a draft pick, for a guy who has one good season and wants 5 million per year. They are taking are crap, and as much as I'd like to say the words Stafford, they're not taking him back either. I'd be careful with the at all costs aspects, there's NO WAY I'd trade Ennis and besides, they Sabres need to get their backend fixed first. Can't win if you stop the other guy from scoring.

I miss those days. You know when you were as likely to see a 7-6 game as a 3-2 game. Now, any time any one team gets 7 goals, it's a big deal. Goalies are too good and their equipment is too large. Scoring is more entertaining to watch and once the playoffs come around the game always tightens up. without radical changes to goalies it will never happen and that's sad. Now just getting to 50 is difficult. Gretzky had 92, Hull once had 84 in a season but no one will come close to averaging a goal a game in a season any time soon and there are player who have the ability. 50 goals represents 0.61 goals per game. I'd like to see a few players average around 0.74 gpg (60+)

If the Sabres have any hope of making the playoffs, Lindy Ruff has got to shake up the lineup. That means moving players around on different lines and giving players different responsibilities. Grigs should be given a role greater than playing third line center with average skilled players. Put him between Poms and Vanek for a series of games. Maybe Hodgeson can move down and help get Stafford going. If the team doesn't find a way to balance the scoring they have no chance of moving up the standings. Teams can just concentrate on shutting down the other line and gamble that gamble that Poms and Vanek won't go off beat them single handed. Two of the three wins came from single handed performances but that's not a large percentage of the games played. The defensive units must be mixed up. TJ Brennan needs to be in the lineup. Myers need to simplify his game. Right now he's gambling too much, running around, getting himself out of position. Simple position hockey does work. And if simple hockey doesn't work, perhaps a game or two in the press box will work. Next, if things don't turn quickly, Darcy has to get involved. If that means putting someone on waivers to call someone else up, do what has to be done. Trades are nice but we need to move out the log jam of under performers. Stafford and Ennis especially have to start performing. Stafford is getting paid big time, its time for him to play up to that paycheck! Lastly, I'd say Ruff has to go soon but I know that isn't happening,

He'd be better served playing 30 minutes a night in the Q, playing in all situation rather than playing a 3rd line role. I'd like to see him on a line with Vanek and Poms for a night just to see if his skill translates right now. Next season he stays no matter what.

Why can't either the Sabres or Bills suck on that year when their is an absolute stud franchise player available! And I mean really suck! Look at Pittsburgh, they win the darn draft lottery the year Crosby is available and draft second when there's two stud players! The Colts have Manning injuried for one year and they hit the lottery, end up picking their replacement franchise QB right away! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ok, I feel better snow in the south is funny. I lived in Lumberton, very southern NC and we got 5 inches of snow on a Tuesday morning. We were out of school ALL WEEK. Since they can't plow the snow, it turned to slush on Tuesday and froze into ice chunks Wednesday and stayed cold until Saturday. The side roads were like drive with large frozen rocks all over the place. It was impossible to get around on any side road! Just went home for xmas in WNY, and my inlaws got 18 inches of snow on the 27th and once we sholved the driveway, we went to winner that night without a problem. It's just a whole different world!

Projected Roster G: Miller and Enroth This one is too obvious D: Myers, Ehrhoff, Sekera, Regehr, Leopold, Weber, Brennan, Sulzer Sabres can’t expose Brennan to waivers therefore he has to make the roster. A trade could free up a spot. Releasing Sultzer and calling up McNabb also seems highly likely. F: Foligno, Ennis, Stafford, Vanek, Hodgson, Pominville, Gerbe, Ott, Leino, Scott, McCormick, Kaleta, Grigorenko Give Grigs four games and if he looks like he’s not ready to play on the top 2 lines, send him back to juniors and bring up someone. Sending him back was the original plan anyhow. You have to keep McCormick in the lineup and make sure Scott, Ott, Kaleta, etc. get the ice time to put the grit into the lineup. Ruff has to mix and match lines and find combinations that work on the fly when things aren’t going well. If organized correctly this team should have enough sandpaper to distribute to each line and there should NEVER be another Milan Lucic type incident!

1986 Colombia pulled out after an earthquake and they knew they couldn't be ready. Mexicio jumped in to rescue and host a second WC just 16 years after. FIFA always has an emergency backup plan ready and in place. The USA was suppose to be the backup plan had South Africa failed. You know they have one ready if Brazil doesn't get their infrastructure built, though that plan is likely England or Spain.

QATAR being named a World Cup host - that's a travesty. The county needs to build 10/12 stadiums in a place the size of Conneticut. Plus they bribed their way to the host. Now they take away a spot from Asian qualification and players will be forced to play in 100-120 degree heat.The USA would have had to build basically nothing to host it. Hopefully they fail in putting it together so FIFA can yank the mat out from underneath them. BVB09

http://capgeek.com/charts.php?Team=8 According to CapGeek we have 6.25 million in cap room for next year What can we really do with the space and the roster? Very tough decisions will have to be made. 1. Roy is scheduled to make 5.5 million next season with a 4 million cap hit. You can buy him out for 1.815 million and you get stuck with a two year cap hit at that number. Or trade him in a give away for propects and picks. This is the most likely. idea: trade him to Columbus for Boone Jenner - a 6-2 center prospect with a solid two way game, good offenisve upside. 2. Stafford - good luck trading him after his disappearence this past season, 4 million cap hit for 3 more years, any buyout would cost you 4 million and create a nasty cap hit. Looks like we are stuck with him. Try to trade him the same way we will try Roy, perhaps a 2nd round and a conditional at the draft and we take back a nice cap hit player to bury in minors, like we did this year. 3. Ennis must be resigned and he'll likely run a 2/3 year deal at 2.5 million+ (hopefully less) 4. Boyes expires and disappears and Hecht gets bought out due to the concession at around 850K 5. depending on the trades, you could have as little as 3 to 4 million in real cap room or as much as 11-12 million. Any dealing beyond that will need creativeity Luke Adam must put in some work in the off season and get better in his own end and his skating needs to improve. A veteran BIG centermen to anchor the 3rd line is a must. Goose is a UFA but would we go there? A BIG physical winger who can skate would also be helpful. With Hodgeson and Adam as the 1-2 centers and the scoring of Ennis, Poms and Vanek on the wings (Lenno too if he ever gets back from the bank) and we'd have a nice top 2 lines. I could see a top 6 forward entering via free agency or trades but whoever it is must add size and grit. I'd love to hear realistic ideas because I don't believe Dustin Brown or Rick Nash are truly realistic and as much as I'd love to get a hold of Shea Weber that ship isn't going to sail.

Your gonna trade Roy or Stafford for Dustin Brown...really how's eactly do you plan and getting Anaheim to do that? Are you gonna kidnap the daughter of te GM to force that deal.