dudacek

I am starting think there’s are only 8 legitimate top 10 picks in this draft (Wright, Slav, Cooley, Nemec, Gauthier, Jiricek, Kemmel, Savoie, roughly in that order.) If none of them fall, I think the player next most likely to become a core piece might be Miroshnichenko.

I don't know if it's the numbers so much as a chance to see and interact with the kids in person and see whether that affects your perceptions: who's a boy and who's a man physically, how does he approach the physical and mental challenges presented, how does he carry himself and interact with others? Basically it makes the information gathering process more efficient.

What has Adams repeatedly said that has convinced you he is not going to add a forward? Is it the “blocking”, the caring about the future as much as the present, and the giving his young players room to grow together? Because if he doesn’t think of, say, Casey and Victor as “his” young players and trades them for, say, a 24-year centre he is planning to sign for 7 years, who is he blocking, and how is that preventing a young core from growing together, or sacrificing the future? I mean I mostly agree with your basic beats on this, but I fail to see the evidence supporting your certitude. Related, but more pointed, when has Adams ever specifically talked about his forwards?

Rosen played 9 games. 😂. The one game I saw him play (vs the Slovaks at the WJC) he looked fine. He looked more solid on his skates than his rep had me expecting and he was fast and he engaged. Didn’t accomplish much, certainly didn’t stand out, but you could tell he had skill. I have concerns about Rosen too, but I could never make up my mind like you have with such a small bucket of information.

This. So much this. You’ve got a physically gifted kid who may have peaked relative to his peers at 16 and has never learned how to properly play hockey with his brain and his teammates. He screams Benoit Pouliot.

You’re losing your ***** because he scored 11 goals and 21 points in 20 games as a 17 and 18 year-old in a U20 league? How many times have you watched him play?

Do you feel the same way about Kisakov, Bloom and Nadeau? Rosen has achieved as much against his peers as any of them.

This. They aren't interested in players that don’t fit with what they are building. That certainly doesn’t mean they aren’t interested in players that do.

I take this to be at least part of what Karmanos may have been talking about when he referred to “ongoing talks” last week in reference to backfilling the Amerks. Now, this isn’t confirmation that he will be an Amerk - he’s clearly struggled against men - but I’d rather have him in the hands of Appert than whoever is coaching Leksands.

Achievable sure. But I don't think it's likely. I just don't think Lambert has the team-first, self-starter, trending up makeup that Adams seems to prefer. Mintyukov plays with Bloom on Saginaw, so I suspect they have a great feel for him. I think he is good value at 16, but I think a number of others who aren't offensive LHD will be good value there as well. I'd be overjoyed if Miro drops to 28, but looking at the teams picking 18-25, I'd be shocked if he slips through that area. I'd be fine if the Sabres took him at 16. But your guess is as good as mine.

I mentioned above that Karmanos seemed to be hinting at UPL back to Rochester next year. In the latest Yerdon/Lysowski podcast Lance explicitly states he’s been told the Sabres are preparing for exactly that. Even if Anderson is back, it will be for 25 or 30 games and the Sabres are going to go out and “get a starter.” Best news/rumour of the off-season so far, as far as I’m concerned.

I’m not predicting anything other than the Sabres will take the highest guys on their board based on their methodology. Im wondering if more eyes in Russia and more analytics department trust might weight the board in that direction, that’s all. Does it make them more likely to rank a Yurov or a Miroshechenko higher than other teams? Maybe, but that doesn’t mean they won’t have someone else more highly ranked when their turn comes. The pick depends more on how the draft falls than anything else.

I never got the sense from what I read or heard that it was mostly about sample size, more about accuracy. Maybe I misinterpreted. Regardless, even if it is strictly sample size, wouldn’t the analytics department still have a better two-year sample to observe trends with the Russian prospects than others? And the new scout also suggests increased emphasis.

But Matt is a reporter, no? Maybe I’m old school, but I look for professionalism and not-readily-available facts, from my reporters and personality and insight from my columnists. How do you reconcile the two?

But their trust in the analytics available in Russia versus those available elsewhere should continue. Seemed to me it was as much about trusting the numbers as it was about having them. They have added a Russian-based scout this year to help Musil and Forsberg in Europe. And they also seem to becoming a group that leans into exploiting gaps, so a general reluctance in some quarters to draft Russians seems to be something they may exploit.

Am I wrong to thing the Sabres will be leaning hard into the USNDP (Nightengale) and Sweden (Anders Forsberg), as well as their recent Russian interest with their higher picks? It just seems to be a scenario where scouting intel and consensus ranking collide.

Shouldn’t the cost of Dubois be very similar to what the Sabres gave up to get O’Reilly in 2015? I mean the scenarios are very similar: 60 point centre just entering his prime who brings more than points but comes with some “trade me” baggage? I think the Jets would be asking for at least one of Cozens/Krebs/Quinn/Peterka But I also think Zadorov/Grigorenko/Compher/Pick 31 translates better to 4 of Isak Rosen/Pick 16/Ryan Johnson/Prokhor Poltapov/Pick 28/Pick 41/Erik Portillo especially when you remember the Sabres also got Jamie McGinn in that deal. I wonder what the Jets would think of a Mitts/Olofsson-based package if they were more interested in current pieces? If they just want futures, I doubt anyone would beat an offer of 9 and 16. If I was comfortable with Dubois’ want-to-be-here level, I’d think I’d make it.

I don't have any insight into off-ice and re-signing questions, but I'd say Tuch is strong evidence that Adams is willing to take on a 23-year-old forward with the intent of adding him to the core.

Pick is in the possession of the Vegas Golden Knights. Suspect it would be pretty easy to get back. Doubt the Sabres will be offer sheeting anyone, but there will never be a better time to try.

I don't have an answer for you and I don't think your skepticism is without warrant. There are too many question marks. Draft and develop is based around players within the system getting better. Last year was incredibly successful on that front and there is no guarantee that will repeat Year 1: Tage and Dahlin emerged, Skinner and Okposo bounced back strong, Tuch and Olofsson has their best seasons, minus injuries. Krebs, Samuelsson, Bryson and Ftizgerald graduated into the lineup. Year 2: Will the above group sustain? Can we see jumps from Krebs, Bryson Samuelsson and Fitzgerald, as well as Cozens, Jokiharju, Asplund and Mittelstad? Power, Quinn, Peterka, Luukkonnen and possibly Ruotsalainen are expected to graduate. Will they and how much can they bring? And none of that even touches on the hole in goal. I expect our kids to get better, but not without bumps in the road.

Depends. That’s spellcheck, or more likely my brain fart. Possible, but I don’t think so. The context was a question about how to backfill behind the players who are graduating.

Not sure whether this bit from the Karmanos presser fits better here or the prospects thread. In the context of restocking Rochester because of prospects graduating, he said something to the effect of "demands on what happens with some ongoing talks we're having." He didn't elaborate. Does he mean where they plan to play Kisakov? Are they still hoping for Johnson to sign? Is there something potentially brewing with Poltapov or Rosen? Maybe Cedarqvist or Konecny or kozak one of the 3 defencemen taken at the bottom of 2018? Is there a college UFA left worth signing? It piqued my curiousity.

I'm not sure if Dubois the person is a fit. Dubois the player is certainly someone I'm willing to invest assets and cap space in to add to the core.

I think with PK it comes down to whether or not he can reinvent himself like Patrick did. Is he mature enough now to lead from back — empowering others rather than taking the ball himself? Can he play a safer game better suited to his current skillset, rather than the skillset he had in 2015? I think he's a good guy and there's a great opportunity here from him to extend his career, depending on his headspace. The biggest question I have is whether his skating is still good enough.

Well there’s a gotcha moment. 😄 No memory of posting that, although, as I said above, I am perfectly fine with the team re-signing any of those guys for depth. Still think it’s weird that you reacted to my initial post by bashing Eakin and Hayden. Still think your roster math is wrong. As far as the bold goes, if you mean “in the starting 12” I agree with you. If you mean “among our 50 contracts” I think that’s shortsighted. Regardless of whether it’s Hinostroza and Caggiula, or 2 players from elsewhere, we are going to need to sign at least two players of that nature to supplement the returning 10, Peterka Quinn, R2 and Bjork.