dudacek

Adams said they are heavy in talks to help out a cap-strapped team. Not sure if I heard this part correctly, but I thought he said for assets, plural.

Yeah, I think those concerned Adams isn’t going to actively try to address the goaltending need to give that one a listen. He politely hinted they don’t think they can can depend on Anderson or UPL to carry load next year, and flat out said they are in conversations about all the goalies on the market.

Adams made a great observation on WGR about how the Sabres at 9, 16, 28 and 41 have a toe in just about every tier of the draft. He said this allows them a ton of flexibility in terms of moving up or down. The conversations have already been had to set up the parameters for multiple potential moves, depending on how the draft unfolds. He also said his team regards this draft as deep, in that he thinks it stretches far enough that they will get good players with all 4 of their early picks.

Looks like Chesley, Bichsel and even McGroarty could slip into our range for 28. And Mesar, Rinzel, Luneau, Beck and Firkus are all there.

And for the 2nd pick: 11 Korchinski 12 Mintyukov 13 Geekie 14 Yurov 15 Nazar 16 Lambert 17 Snuggerud 18 Kulich 19 Miroshnichenko 20 Howard Hope Nazar or Yurov slip. No for Lambert. Have not really considered Kulich

Bobby Mack's list is is out: 01 - Juraj Slafkovsky 02 - Shane Wright 03 - Logan Cooley 04 - Simon Nemec 05 - Cutter Gauthier 06 - David Jiricek 07 - Joakim Kemell 08 - Jonathan Lekkerimaki 09 - Matthew Savoie 10 - Marco Kasper Savoie or Kasper in that order is fine by me

I think this is the core of concerns about Donnie's shelf life: I think his approach is the right way to develop talent and confidence. When it comes time to transition from "good" to "contender" will something different be required? I think Okposo has more of stern streak in him than you guys are giving him credit for.

Pretty sure @JohnC started posting regularly not long after Kevyn Adams showed up. Pretty sure the most famous John C out there was an Adams. 👀

Not agreeing or disagreeing. But would you rather have a few years of a still pretty damn good Patty Kane? Or a 20 per cent chance of Anthony Beauvillier and an 80 per cent chance of any of Noah Juulsen, Jacob Larsson, Gabriel Carlsson or Nick Merkley? Those were the 5 players taken around pick 28 in the best draft of the past 20 years. How about Josh Ho-Sang, Morgan Kilmchuk, Brady Skjei, ZachPhillips, or Charlie Coyle? Those were pick 28 from 2010 to 2014.

I was looking for potential illustrations. Don’t know if any of them were real scenarios.

I would say the only time a team doesn’t take “best player available” by its own criteria high in the draft is because of market or ownership pressure. Louis Leblanc may have been picked because the Habs were under pressure to add French kids, or Zach Kassian because the Sabres were under pressure to add toughness or Alex Nylander because “Terry hates Russians.” Right now, the centre-poor Habs are probably under immense market pressure to take Shayne WRIGHT. I can’t see a GM ever picking a clearly inferior player in his own mind for any other reason. It’s not like that 14th overall 17-year-old defenceman is going to make or break your roster this year. Later on, sure. GMs will look for things like size, or speed or positions deeper in the draft when the odds are slim and the choices many.

The Sabres have not. Thompson has. At least as much as any 3rd year player has. Tage earned everything he got last year - persevering through Botterill’s stupidity, Krueger’s idiocy, a serious injury, the ROR backlash, the minors, and his fiancé’s cancer scare - with class and effort. He just fell victim to a mistaken narrative that was tacked to him early on. It’s weird how much people’s opinions are shaped by first impressions as opposed to what they actually see. In his third season Jack Eichel had 25 goals and 65 points and was given $10 million, handed the captain’s C. In his third season Tage Thompson had 38 goals and 68 points. I’m just saying.

Maybe that’s what you’ll end up with, but you still get 12 chances in the range that matters. Over the next 3 years, Florida gets 1.

There’s more than one way to win a cup. Why can’t Dahlin/Power be Neidermeyer/Pronger and Cozens/Quinn Kesler/Perry? Maybe Tage can’t be a Getzlaf, maybe he can. Maybe Devon Levi can be an elite goalie, unlike Giguere. Who was the Ducks Samuelsson, their Tuch, their Peterka? Their William van Barnekow-Lofgren? People know how these guys are going to turn out about as well as they knew a team could never win with Nazem Kadri as their 2C.

WGR morning guys talking about how the Sabres need top talent to emerge to be a contender. Saying maybe it will Dahlin, maybe it will be Power, but they’re really going to have to have someone else come out of nowhere to be really good. Paraphrasing: Eichel was expected and it didn’t work out. Vanek was sort of expected, he was a top 10 pick. Myers teased as a rookie then disappointed. But the last time they really had someone come out of nowhere to be really good was probably Briere, maybe Pominville? Tage Thompson was not mentioned. Like we’ve seen from a lot of people in this thread, what he did last year and the player he has turned into is not getting the respect he deserves. He finally got mentioned as an afterthought and then with skepticism.