dudacek

Ah, they updated it. It was listed as a one-way when I posted. That sends a different message And don't know why they would re-sign Johansson with the intent of playing him in Europe. I guess it's possible but I don't see the rationale. The idea of emergency depth and a player to expose to Seattle makes more sense. And to be clear, I'm not excited. I'm just found it curious. I'm mostly concerned that he represents an obstacle to playing time for Lukkonnen. But if UPL is as good as we need him to be, he should overcome it.

The idea of Quinn being behind anyone other than Cozens — including Jokiharju — is ridiculous to me. It reeks of someone bending over backwards to make a point that the Sabres drafted the wrong guy this year. Also, am I wrong in reading Chad's list as being highly influenced by charts?

This one is a little odd to me. I mean, I can see them wanting a veteran goalie as competition/insurance. But Lukkonnen needs to at least compete for a 1B spot in Rochester this year for development purposes. And Johansen is a good AHL goalie who still has some developmental upside. And Housser is signed for Cincy. You can say the plan is to have Tokarski essentially function as a practice squad guy while UPL get lots of playing time between the Amerks and Cincy. But capfriendly has Tokarski on a one-way two-year deal at $725,000 AAV. That's not the contract you give a practice squad goalie. That's the contract you give a veteran #3, like Hammond got last year. JJ is making $200,000 in the AHL on a two-way. Tokarski didn't have an NHL contract last year. And then there's the whole issue of being in the market for another NHL goalie, and what happens with Hutton. Unless the capfriendly numbers are off, or the organization really doesn't trust Lukkonnen, there doesn't seem to be a spot for everyone. It's just weird. Something else has to drop.

Mantha — along with Domi the best Samson comparable this summer sings for $5.7 over 4. Would have taken that in a second for Sam. Wonder if that was even a ballpark option?

But he was patient. He patiently kept the door open for Hall. I like Kahun. I think Galchenyuk is a frustrating mess, but he's got talent. But they are far closer to Sheary/Vesey than they are Gourde/Coleman. Kahun and Galchenyuk are more talented, but I think the Sabres were more in need of players like Eakin and Girgensons.

I'll try this again because I am clearly doing a poor job explaining myself. I'm not arguing who is the better player; I am arguing that perception of a player shifts over time. The better player doesn't always have the better career I think most long-time Sabres watchers would agree that peak Richard Martin was a better player than peak Dave Andreychuk. Dave is in the hall of fame. Rico is not. That is because Rico got hurt and his career was essentially over after 10 years, while Dave kept playing and putting up good numbers and ended up 15th on the all-time goal list. What if Alex Tuch has an Al Kotalik type career? Al never approached his 62-point season any other year and ended up getting 284 points in 540 NHL games. What if Sam Bennett has a Kris Draper type career? Draper broke 40 points just once in his career and lags way behind Al in the point per game category, but he also played more than 1100 games and won cups. He clearly had a better career than Kotalik, no matter the points per game numbers, or who looked like the better player six years after they were drafted. Right now I agree that Tuch is a better player. All I'm saying is the story is far from told.

Only if you put heavy weight to a player's best season. If their NHL careers stopped right now and you look back at the numbers 10 years from now, who had a better career? The guy who played 364 games or the guy who played 200? The guy who scored 124 points or the guy who scored 106? The guy who played 6 seasons or the guy who played 3?

My point is not that Bennett is a better pick than Tuch. It's that "better' is a moving target and perception is about "what have you done for me lately?" Tuch is perceived to be significantly better right now mostly because he put up one 52 point season. But unless you define "better" strictly as the highest high, he hasn't had a better career than Bennett. Take that season away and you have two third-liners who put up 8 and 9 goals respectively this year. How will that ranking change this year if Tuch puts up a disappointing 23-point year as the Knights drop off and Bennett goes 18/18/36, playing a big role in a Calgary rebound? How will the Reinhart/Ehlers perception change if Reino puts up a career 72-point year and Ehlers slumps to 43?

It's interesting that they haven't signed him yet and it tells me the organization has serious questions.

Doesn't this question roughly translate to "how many top six players do we have in our bottom six?" We don't have any of those. Other than Tampa, how many teams do? But we do have options. I suspect that at least a couple of these guys would up their numbers if they were moved up up to play with the big boys Eakin: five* seasons of 35 points, including 41 two years ago Reider: 13/14/16/12 (goal totals 2015-18) Okposo: 19/15/14/14* (goal totals over 4 years as a Sabre) * includes prorating for lockout, pandemic Cozens: 7th overall pick, 38/47/85 in 51 junior games Mittelstadt 8th overall pick, finished rookie season in Rochester with 18 points in final 22 games, had a 12-goal season in the NHL Thompson 26th overall pick, 14/8/23 in 27 AHL games Ruotsalainen 24/34/58 points in 56 Liiga games Is that really behind what most teams have?

Not being able to play regularly for an average SEL team as he nears his 22nd birthday certainly indicates some serious questions. He put up decent numbers two years back, played on the national team and was always kinda touted as a Swedish Curtis Brown. Be interesting to hear his story. Kid was the 37th overall pick.

So many variables in projecting next year's lineup. Who's to say Staal doesn't become an eastern Joe Thornton and just keep playing because he can and he loves it here?

I don't have a link, or any sense whether it is accurate, but I have seen that the Sabres offered a two-year deal at $1.4 AAV in multiple places.

I thought Girgensons was a bit of an overpay in the normal market. It was a significant overpayment in a market where only an exclusive handful of UFAs to got deals over two years. That said, if he gives us what he did last year in each of the three years, he will earn his money. Thompson is only an overpay if he's not an NHL player. Adams spent an extra $300,000 this year for the chance he could save $3 million over the life of the deal because the organization loves what it has seen from Tage over the past 18 months. I make that same bet. I wonder if they are tabling a similar offer to Casey? Unless his off-ice development has been quietly superb, I kinda doubt it.

From my perspective, this looked one of those drafts where from 2-13 there are going to be 1 or 2 Pastrnak-level players and 1 or 2 Bennett-level players and whole bunch in that Reinhart/Nylander/Ehlers range. You hope Quinn is one of the Pastrnaks, but as long as he's not one of the Bennetts, no regrets.

Maybe not to your point, but if Rossi turns into Danny Briere and Quinn into Jason Pominville, will Sabres fans care that much if Holtz is Nylander, Sanderson is Myers, Drysdale is Pysyk and Stutzle Zagrapan?

Sure, but how do Holtz and Drysdale and Sanderson and Raymond and even Stuzle fit into that mix?

Yep. Five years to get a sense, 10 to have some certainty. 'Bust' Sam Bennett is the 14th most productive player from the 2014 draft. 'Smart pick' Alex Tuch is 19th 'Disappointing' Sam Reinhart is the 6th. 'Steals' Larkin, Nylander and Ehlers are 3rd, 5th and 7th — 11 points separate Reinhart, Ehlers and Larkin, with super-steal Brayden Point right there in the same mix. I suspect the narratives will be different for some of these guys five years from now, just like the stories of 2010 picks Mikael Granlund and Mark Stone today are quite different than they were five years ago

Playing with McDavid and/or Draisaitl would put him in the best possible position to succeed.

Peterka at 24, Lundell at 25 is an eyebrow-raiser. To me, this list is more evidence of all the variations that are out there and why "off-the-board" isn't as much of thing as we think it is.

I don't think it's entirely fair to say the Sabres picked Thompson over Kahun as a 3rd liner winger, even if the math works after the fact. It was a more a byproduct dictated by the market after Kahun misread his value and rejected a Buffalo offer that was considerably more than what he ended up getting from the Oilers. It's pretty clear the Sabres targeted 2C, 3C, top six wing and the PK this offseason as areas in need of improvement. Kahun started October as the top-six winger they were trying to upgrade. He might still be a Sabre if they had signed Toffoli or Davydov. He almost certainly would be a Sabre if they had signed no one. They didn't see Kahun as a legitimate top six winger. I think they were fine with him on the 3rd line, but were also fine with Thompson and Cozens there as well if he turned down their offer and became a free agent. It was a Shaq Lawson type of calculation that happens in the NFL every year, but seems less common in hockey. Kahun is collateral damage from the Hall signing.

Same.

As far as Kahun goes, so ends the saga of the most over-discussed 6-game 2-goal scorer in Buffalo Sabres history.

Thompson was guaranteed a starting job due to his waiver status. He might have failed, but he was starting the season in Buffalo.

I was thinking the same. Off-season optimism sure, and I’m not saying I expect it, but I would not be surprised if Dahlin puts up 70 this year with these forwards. It’s coming. If not this year, then within his first five.