dudacek

So by gaping holes do you mean the 26-9 edge the Sabres put up in shot attempts in the first period against Boston only to go down 2-0 thanks to Dustin Tokarski’s outstanding .844 sv% goaltending? Or did you mean the 59 per cent overall possession advantage the Sabres had while outshooting Boston 37-32 over the full game? Or the 6 consecutive power plays the refs handed the hometown Bruins with the game still within reach at 2-0? Those holes?

If Comrie doesn't implode, they're likely going to be able to do this.

He said he plans to play in Sweden for another 1 or 2 years and I have no reason to think that has changed. I'm talking about him being in training camp and potentially playing in the prospects tourney. Yes, his Swedish league team will be playing, but I'm thinking he's there essentially on loan from the Sabres and wondering if the Sabres want him to be in Buffalo for camp, they can make that happen.

Is that a given? I know the plan is for Östlund to play in Europe, but since he is under contract, do the Sabres not get to have him here if they want him here for camp? Pretty sure other Euro prospects have been here in the past, but maybe I’m misremembering.

I’d be very surprised if Quinn and Peterka aren’t there. Maybe not Power, Mule or Krebs, but given the dev camp set-up, why not, if they’re eligible? We should get Rosen again, and our first looks at Savoie and Kisakov. Östlund and Kulich are under contract, so I think there’s a good chance they will be here, rather than Europe, too. The college guys and unsigned Euros, no.

He’s going to break out either this year or next with 60 points. Most likely breakout player on the team, IMO. I think they’ve been grooming him as their all-situations matchup centre and I suspect he will stay in the middle.

Thing with prospect pools is the development pace. Dahlin finally looks to have arrived at close to what we hoped in his 4th year. Thompson in his 5th. Dahlin was a legit NHLer prior every year of his career, Thompson was not. Zadorov and Risto were exciting prospects. Not so much as NHL players. Is Cozens all he can be? Will Peterka add a ton this year, glimpses, or nothing at all? Who the hell knows?

If Samuelsson and Power play at or near what I project them to be (not a guarantee for any of the 6) Samuelsson Dahlin Power Jokiharju Bryson Lyubushkin Is a pretty solid mix of size, skating and skill sets, with Boosh jumping into the top 4 in shutdown situations and each player slotted about where he should be in the lineup. The only obvious hole is experience.

No doubt in my mind that Bryson and Hinostroza are at least on par with 4th liners/3rd pairing guys around the league. Anderson of last year as well. At his age though that status could disappear at any time.

Pretty sure Dorion said the Debrincat deal was happening regardless of the Murray deal. Apparently it was pick 16 and prospect, rather than pick 7.

Will we actually see this this October? If our 12th forward is Girgensons/Hinostroza and our 6th defenceman is Bryson, I believe we will. First time in a decade that would be the case.

Zadorov and Grigorenko.

I'm not on board at all with how the popular narrative has soured on Jokiharju. Yes, his underlying numbers slipped slightly, but the kid was injured to start the year, then was thrust from an 18-minute 4/5 to a 22-minute 1st-pairing role. His counting stats doubled without serious PP time and his +/- was among the best of the lineup regulars despite his tough usage. If he ends up as a 4/5 as this team moves forward, I think he will be a very good one.

I agree with this. I think the Sabres would happily add a "real" veteran NHL defenceman in a cap dump. But if it's a forward, he's more likely to be flipped or bought out. Not that a Compher type would be rejected outright, but I don't know that they'll pursue that.

And wait and see what that look like after Anderson gets hurt.

Wish Brett used his size more. He had his chance. With the influx of more talented kids, I’m not certain he’ll get another.

I’m highly skeptical of Ottawa and Detroit’s performances down the stretch. Couldnt even win during garbage time? 😜

Sometimes when I’m deep in B.C. rainforest where @PASabreFan, @Weave and the other cool kids on Sabrespace can’t hear me, I crack open another Lucky lager, and I look at JJ’s hockey build, his skill set, his back story, and his trajectory and ask myself “why can’t this kid become Nikita Kucherov?”

I was thinking about this a little more. I see two major differences between this year and 1983: the depth of the pipeline; and the way the prospects are being filtered in. The current Sabres rode a first wave (Thompson, Tuch, Olofsson, Dahlin, Jokiharju) of youngish players around 4 years into their pro careers who have emerged as legit NHLers, but have yet firmly establish their ceilings They are introducing a second wave of players just starting to establish themselves (Cozens, Krebs, Asplund, Peterka, Mittelstadt, Quinn, Samuelsson, Power, UPL) who have yet to show what they are capable of. And they have a 3rd wave coming (Levi, Portillo, Johnson, Rosen, Poltapov, Kisakov, Savoie, Östlund, Kulich, Leinonen, And maybe more) that they can afford to have percolate until they force their way into, or past, the first two groups. Compare this to the summer of 1984, when the Sabres had: Foligno, Ruff and Ramsey in the 1st group Andreychuk, Housley, Barrasso, Cyr, McKenna, Moller, Virta in the 2nd Tucker, Patrick, Creighton, Lacombe, Andersson, Trapp, Anderson, Johanssen, Dudacek All three groups seem deeper now. The 2nd group now is older than the teenagers filling it then. And the current group includes 2 1st overall picks.

Regardless of whether you agree with @nfreeman’s conclusions, that’s ^^^ the proper way of looking at the competition.

Ottawa is not in this conversation if Josh Norris and Drake Batherson did not suddenly emerge as top 6 players at 23. Detroit is not in this conversation if Raymond and Seider didn’t make a dramatic impact as rookies last year. So it would not be shocking if Casey Mittelstadt and Dylan Cozens took a step next year, nor would it be if Owen Power and Jack Quinn were good right away. Should we count on it? Of course not. Neither should we count on Ville Husso to be a strong starting goalie, or for David Perron to score 60 points at age 34 playing with Pius Suter. Player for player, there are lot of similarities between the 3 teams. It will be interesting to see which players pop and push their team up with them.

I’m optimistic too, but the Bowman teams weren’t bereft of veterans. They had Ramsey and Foligno in particular in the young vet role, plus Ramsay, Perreault in the senior role, but he also blew off young vets like Savard and McKegney and targeted wasted talents like Cloutier and McCourt. This group feels deeper and more purposeful, but we shall see. I know Taro and Weave are correct on the odds, and we can probably mock this post in 5 years, but I get good feelings about Kulich, Östlund and Savoie. They just seem wired the right way.

You’re correct about the surrounding drafts not working. Kids weren’t ready as quickly as we wanted them and the Sabres didn’t do a good job supporting them with veterans. Bowman also was probably stretched too thin and a little too smart for his own good.

Those years are a great cautionary tale to what is happening now. Five years later we were dead last and hitting the reset button. And it wasn’t because those drafts failed. Andreychuk and Housley were Hall-of-famers. Barrasso won the cup. Cyr, Lacombe, Creighton and Tucker had decent NHL careers. Puppa, Ruuttu and Krupp were late round steals. We hope the current draft period gets close to that kind of success. But it takes a lot more than good drafting to win in the NHL.

I thought Kozak looked good in the scrimmage and Peca was certainly pumping his tires. Im a little surprised he hasn’t signed.