LGR4GM

Pronman ranked Benson 17th in this 2023 final rankings: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/4538998/2023/05/30/nhl-draft-rankings-2023-bedard-pronman/ The hilarious part to me is in 2023 he said Benson had a good chance of becoming a top 6 winger at the NHL level, yet in this recent "ranking" he calls him "despite his production this season, I don’t view him as an elite brain or scoring type. He projects as a quality middle-six winger" Crazy that a guy projected by the same analyst as a top 6 winger is now only a middle 6 winger after... checking notes... playing a top line role on a playoff team and putting up 9pts in 13playoff games. I am nitpicking but Pronman seems to have decided way back in 2023 what Benson was and oddly thinks less of him now.

Pronman "ranks" all the Sabres who are under 23 from prospects to nhl regulars. Daxon Rudolph Jiri Kulich Radim Mrtka Noah Östlund Konsta Helenius Zach Benson Ilia Morozov Gavin McCarthy Adam Kleber Oliver Mūrnieks Luke Osburn Maxim Strbak Brodie Ziemer Samuel Maloche Topias Leinonen https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7459145/2026/08/18/buffalo-sabres-nhl-prospects-rankings-pipeline-2026/

No interest in seeing Conor Sheary play for Buffalo. Rochester, sure.

Konsta will have an up and down 1st year in all likelihood. He will be a 20yr old playing a long, overly drawn out, NHL season with everything that comes with it. I am not saying he can't succeed, just that he will probably ebb and flow like most young guys. If he manages 35-40pts this year I would be very very happy. I think Kulich and Östlund at 22yrs old just have a that little extra age and experience (life and hockey) to stay in front of Konsta. I think Kulich will be the best of the bench and I also worry about Östlund's ability to not get nicked up as the season goes on. I see them in this order for this season, Kulich (50ishpts), Östlund (45ishpts), and Helenius (35ishpts) but next season, I think Helenius might overtake them.

What platform do you gents use?

I'd still like them to add at receiver and I think Dawes is under used. Latu looked good too. The defense looked nice. Ik Carolina is not good and everyone is running a vanilla scheme but the 1st team defense got after it.

It didn't evolve you did what you always do. Keep inventing ***** reasons someone would be annoyed at you for ruining a thread instead of just starting your own. You don't like the topic, you don't like the team, you don't like that I don't hate the team like you. Back to block you go.

What's the title of this thread? "Sabres Annouce Staff Additions" and yet here you are complaining about player moves. If it bothers you start a thread about it, stop this stupid ploy of being a chicken a playing chess. Strutting around, knocking all the pieces over and crapping on the board.

Start a thread about it then.

The Sabres have 13 forwards under contract for this season NOT including Helenius or Kulich. The Sabres have 7 defensemen under contract for this season. The Sabres have 3 goalies under contract. That brings them to 23 players plus Kulich and Helenius. They quite literally have a full 23 man roster with 2 extra forwards un-accounted for.

With NIL being a thing and so many Jr kids now college eligible, I think they believe there might be better college UFAs as well as guys who might do the 4yrs and hit free agency. Just speculation on my part.

A data scientist and a data engineer tell me they are either expanding that department or they are worried someone might leave soon. I hope they are expanding it because that is how McLeod, Benson, Zellweger, Crevier, Kesselring (look they don't all work) ended up in Buffalo. I think that is how they settled on Helenius and Rudolph too... Mrtka was scouts getting their way, no chance in hell analytics was on board with that. Just interesting to see the moves that the social media analytics guys are like "yea that might really work" seem to turn out to be the ones that do. Josh Doan for example was lauded by the analytics community. Anyways, I think that the department has some more heft to it. I want a Stanley Cup.

***** I can do that. Seth Jarvis was the first, Zach Benson was the the 2nd, I think Carbonneau is going to be the 3rd (slightly different but). Now I just have to find the 4th... hmmm