dudacek

Lehner ended up a mistake because of his personal issues. Based strictly on talent, he was worth the pick we gave up. People remember hating the trade when it happened and how bad he was at shootouts. They forget he went .924, .920 and .908 in 3 Buffalo seasons playing behind the likes of Risto, Bogosian, Gorges and Franson and a team that couldn’t score if their lives depended on it. He’s got a career save percentage of .918. The guy Ottawa took with that pick, Colin White, is a spare part with 44 career NHL goals and has topped 23 points once in his career. The guy the Sabres were going to take, Samsonov, has played roughly half the NHL games Lehner has since the trade and has a career save percentage of .903. The trade was nowhere near as bad as people made it out to be.

Bruins should get slapped by Gary. But maybe they were hoping to get the trade overshadowed? I think it’s a questionable return because they had to take Korpisalo and his contract back. The drop off from Ullmark to him is considerable IMO and that’s not a huge cap saving in return. But I guess that’s only way they were going to get a 1st? I’ll say pick 25 is about as much as legit starter ever seems to get these days though, so I guess the Bruins did alright on that level? Ive been saying for a while those who think goalies are going to get top 10 picks just don’t pay attention to the market.

A longtime Boston reporter just tweeted Ullmark to Ottawa is about to go down. Nothing on the return. Two teams we will have to be better than this year. Washington and New Jersey have also made significant moves.

I have absolutely no idea what kind of big picture the Sabres data crunchers have painted of Cole Eiserman. But I find him the most fascinating player likely to be available when they pick. I don’t think casual draftniks understand how prolific this kid is. And I very much want Sam Ventura to supply the proper context. Eiserman is the all-time leading goal scorer for the USNTDP. He scored 127 goals in two years in the same circumstances that saw Auston Matthews score 79 and Patrick Kane 84. I’ve seen people dismiss him as Oliver Wahlstrom. Wahlstrom had 72 goals - that’s not even 2/3rds Eiserman’s totals. It’s a different sort of ‘yeah, but’ but I see some Zach Benson parallels here despite the fact they are completely different players. With Benson, 12 teams saw the kid’s terrific all-around game and said “yeah, but” he’s small and not fast. With Eiserman, teams see his unprecedented gift for scoring goals and also say “yeah but” that’s all he cares about. Could this be another case of scouts missing the forest for the trees? I don’t have an informed opinion on how good Eiserman will be. But I remember when the Sabres made “a complete game” their priority and picked Ric Seiling right before the Islanders took Mike Bossy. I don’t want that to happen again.

He’s a bit of a risk and not the best fit, but agreed. This draft is packed with guys who might drop that could be top 5 some years and he’s one of them.

In a trade? Not a ton of comparables and the goalie market is generally soft, but: Husso went for a 3rd Georgiev for 2 3rds Vanecek for a 3rd and moving up 7 slots in the 2nd. Husso would probably be the best UPL comparable at the time of the trade and signed for 3x$4.75 as soon as he got to Detroit.

Ullmark was an unrestricted free agent and signed that contract after a bidding war. UPL is restricted.

Agreed, although term makes a difference. Also be hard-pressed to convince me UPL should get less than 4.

Never been a fan of Strome and see Wilson as a depreciating asset. They would make the team better next year.

Athletic has the Sabres as one of the 7 most interesting situations to watch this off-season, citing the drought, the asset base, Adams open willingness to make deals and his job security, https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5579546/2024/06/23/nhl-marner-trade-goalies-free-agents/ All the signs are there for the Sabres to be big players and yet there’s still a pathway for an underwhelmingly quiet offseason. It isn’t always easy attracting top free agents to Buffalo and while you’d expect them to be aggressive in exploring the trade market, sometimes the prices don’t make sense or you simply strike out. In any case, there will be a ton of pressure on Adams to position the club to battle for a playoff spot next season. Senators, Utah, the goalie market, the centre market, Marner and Carolina are the others.

That’s exactly what it feels like to me. This reminds me of 2019 when thought Jason Botterill was in a position to put his stamp on the Sabres. And he came through with Marcus Johansson, Colin Miller and Jimmy Vesey. We’re conditioned to feel this way.

The Dubois Kuemper trade came out of nowhere too. i think the vast majority of “insider” rumours are simply the result of an agent or a GM trying to leverage something. If it’s not coming out I think that’s because the people privy to the talks have nothing to gain. But it’s not exactly quiet around Buffalo either. The word from the combine was Buffalo was working on “something big” which tells me people know Kevyn has been shaking a lot of trees with exactly that message. It’s just that the gossips don’t know whether his intent has led to serious conversations. But like @Taro T said, we should know soon.

Don’t think this is where you’re going with that, but I was talking about highly-drafted defencemen in general, not Byram in particular. More to your point, Byram is not a prospect and it’s not just about the long run. I look at Byram kinda like I look at Power, in the sense that even though I expect them to get better, I still think they are skilled enough and experienced enough that they should be good right now. Byram is 17 months older, but he’s got 72 points in 164 games with very little power play time. Power has 71 points in 163 NHL games with very little power play time. Byram also played 20 minutes a night for the Stanley Cup champions and led that team in possession #s at the highest level of competition in the NHL. We know he can play and play well.

(For the record, if Tom says they are chasing him, I believe him. But if they actually acquired him, I’d be shocked as hell. Like I was with the Byram deal.)

Dead quiet. Like all the Byram chatter prior to that one shocking the hell out Friedman and all his cronies. 😁

Fair comment given how he finished the season in Buffalo. From what I’ve seen of him prior to the trade - and indeed the first half-dozen games after it - he’s better than that. I think we bought low (not that Mitts was cheap, just that Byram’s stock was probably at its lowest point since his draft). He’s a talent. Defencemen picked that high are usually very safe bets over the long run. But not always. It was a high-risk, high-reward swing for sure.

It’s an underrated skill by the general public and why I’m not upset at all by the concept of adding Byram to Power and Dahlin. Now we need to add forwards who can actually keep the puck in the other end.

Ek and Jeannot, please and thank you. A little surprised Thompson’s NTC is that limited. Good on Adams. And who gave Nick Seeler a complete no trade?

He was picked after Savoie, before Kulich and right around Östlund. Preference would be in the eye of the beholder, but generally speaking they are on a similar tier if you’re talking generic value. He is slower and stronger than any of them.

That's not what you said: you said he needs to show he has the gumption to make big hockey trades. First you said "not counting the disgruntled/departing for futures" Now it's "not counting players I don't think he really liked" Exactly what does that leave, and how many GMs have made those kind of trades over the past 3 years? Sounds to me like it's nothing about gumption, it's about him making a trade that gets you excited.

Personally, I would be very surprised if he hasn't identified 3C targets and aggressively pursued those that may be available. That seems like baseline competence that any one of us could and would do. I also think he very clearly laid out his plan: get a centre, get harder to play against, rebuild the bottom six with that identity in mind. saying he's open to anything in order to make that happen is pretty much immaterial to me. It's not a question of intent, its a question of execution.

It certainly has to be worthwhile when it comes to creating scouting efficiency. It raised the same questions for me, and then I asked myself 'wouldn't a PhD like Sam Ventura have considered the same questions?" Sam has been at this for 10 years constantly refining projection models and data collection methods. I sometimes forget that this is a multi-billion-dollar business, and a 1st-round draft pick has to be a ~$5M investment. I mean it's $3M on salary alone, never mind the scouting and coaching aspects.

I remember saying he most likely projects as a Tyler Ennis-level player (different game but similar size, similar roster slot). I think he's an NHLer, and I hope there's more, but we need to keep in mind that the Sabres best young players are already in Buffalo.

He proved that he did just three months ago. Mitts for Byram was the biggest hockey trade of the deadline. He traded away the team’s leading scorer.

There is a segment of the fanbase that maintains part of the team’s problem is Terry Pegula forcing it to operate under a self-imposed cap. Adams’ general response has been that the lack of spending has more to do with the development plan: filling the roster with young players and force-feeding them ice time in order to accelerate their development; the implication being that money would be spent when team was ready to compete. He has been very explicit this off-season that the team is ready to compete. A few fans have pointed out that the team has the cap space to improve the roster without cutting Skinner, therefore why do it? One answer is that Skinner doesn’t fit with the team they are trying to build; another is that they plan to use the cap space and empty roster spot to improve the team. Another answer - one that hasn’t received a lot of traction - is that he’s getting cut simply because it puts an extra $7M in Terry’s pocket. I’ve been more patient with Adams than most of you because it was clear to me from the beginning that his plan was going to take 3 to 5 years to execute. The steps he took made sense to me within the context of the plan. And the 1st 2 years of the plan were about as successful as they could have been. Last year he failed to inject the necessary complementary pieces, much of his core took a significant step back, and his coach proved incapable of guiding a transition from developing to competitive. So now the Adams question becomes: what did he learn from those mistakes; how will he adjust? Will his faith in his young core pay off? Is he really only about job security and kicking the can down the road? The Sabres have the asset base to do what is required. But underlying the Adams question is the same bigger question that has plagued this franchise for 13 years: even if the GM really does have what it takes, can the owner stay out of his way?