LGR4GM

You talking about Suvanto and Hemming? I haven't watched Hemming but have seen a little of Suvanto and I could see him slide in that 15-20 range due to his position and skills. I agree, I think the Swedes have a better class for the 1st round with Stenberg and Bjorck leading the way.

Where does this number come from? And he isn't losing money, the value of the team is far outpacing the cash lost. If you spend 10 bucks on a something but it costs you 3 bucks to maintain each year, and 10 years from now it is worth 100 bucks. You didn't lose 30 dollars you gained 60 overall.

For those wanting an explanation, you are looking at standard deviations away from the league mean. Doan is just behind JJP in gf/60 but is actually creating far better in xGF/60. This is probably happening because Peterka is a better shooter and does a lot of damage off the rush. Whereas Doan is more of a cycle player and the Sabres like to take shots off that this year. Doan's defensive metrics speak for themselves. He's almost 3 standard deviations away from the league average in CF which again makes sense because he is cycling the puck and they are getting shots.

Thanks, the media guide had a ton of info. https://media.chl.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/29133708/2025-CHL-USA-Prospects-Challenge_TeamCHL_PlayerProfiles-v1.0-October-28-2.pdf

Agree with Tommy Webs here. And to what MJD is saying, think about Pegula owning this team for 15yrs. He invested 200 million initially (I am using easy math) and it is now worth around 1.4 billion. A normal investment doubles every 7years (roughly) so that would be 2 doubles for that 200 million or 800million, but instead he has an asset worth almost double that. That is great ROI. And back to Websters point, let's say Pegula is losing money, first that would be a big tax write-off but then let's do fun math and say he loses 10million a year on the Sabres which I highly doubt. So to date he has fake lost 150million in real dollars but his asset is still worth almost 3.5times what he paid for it. Pegula even if he were losing actual cash each year on the Sabres (again, I agree with Webster that this is doubtful), he would still be up because the value of the team has gone up. Terry can take out low or no interest loans against the value of that asset for cash when he needs it. On top of that, we know the Bills are making money and will make a ton more money once the new stadium opens. The super wealthy view sports team as an asset, like stock in a company. They are currently a great asset to have because they are almost finite (sure expansion happens now and again but not really) and their value goes up every year with merch sales, price increases, revenue sharing, etc... A roughly 350% increase in 15yrs is pretty damn good. On top of all that, you have a shiny toy that when it wins, you get to brag to your rich buddies about and even when it loses, you are still 1 of 32 owners of this thing. Pegula can lose a few million a year on the Sabres because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter at all to him. I do hope, that once the financial stress from the new stadium is behind him (he knows the final cost and has it paid), he starts opening up for both teams a bit more. Still, the guy is worth around 9 billion dollars with about 3/4 of that worth tied up in the Bills and Sabres. He's got more money than God.

The rare win win trade. At least so far.

I do sorta... Pegula needed 2 things to break his way for that. First he needed Hochul to be governor with that money from the Seneca's in hand and second I think you needed a Josh Allen level QB to give everyone that warm fuzzy feeling. Glad it is happening because the Ralph was rough. I have been in college stadiums far nicer. For the Arena, I am curious what their report will find. Can they simply upgrade what is there or is it really such a dump it cannot be fixed. Pegula loves himself some deferred maintenance and it caught up to them.

You may have had a few more looks at Piip than myself if you follow Liiga, he's just kinda there. He isn't bad but from my little fact finding mission, there just isn't anything that screams top 10 pick let along top 5. At this point, I would put him in that 20-40 range I suppose. Am i missing something?

You could rank Juho Piiparinen 4th... I ***** wouldn't from the little I have read but, Craig Button does some really odd stuff for the draft.

This trade was lambasted by the national media similarly to how the Savoie trade was. "What is Buffalo doing? This is bad asset management. Savoie is a top line winger, he was a top 10 pick. Peterka is gonna be a 40g guy." etc... and what most can see from all of this is how little the Sabres matter to the national media and how little research or understanding the big names at TSN or ESPN or whatever put into understanding the overall league they comment on. It is just a hot take based on their feels with almost no research or effort. "Oh the Sabres traded Peterka, that was stupid, therefore the return must have been bad. Oh the Sabres trade a former top 10 pick for a 3rd line center, that was stupid. What a bad return." Yet, as we can see, Savoie is struggling to score, Doan is basically equaling Peterka's production, and Kesselring hasn't even made his impact yet. This board was closer to the truth than anything. The consensus was McLeod was better than Savoie is now so we need the now and maybe Savoie won't hit. Kesselring is a big RHD so that might equal Peterka (in terms of team value) plus we got a guy in Doan who quite a few liked his play style and thought he could get more scoring with more TOI. We will have to see how it goes still but neither trade was as bad as the national media claimed.

I always think about football. In College you might be playing against 5 or 6 NFL players at a time, in the NFL, everyone is that all the time. There's thousands of college football players, a few hundred get drafted, and only a select few of them make NFL teams. We often talk about depth of NHL drafts. The draft produces between 50 and 60 NHL players for every 224 players selected. Now think about how many CHL, USHL, NCAA. J20, and MHL players are draft eligible each year. Only 224 get taken, and only 50ish will play 100 NHL games. I know UB athletes that treat college like a joke because they are going to be big in the NFL. It is great to have that dream, but you making it is slim, you being good enough to retire and live off what you earned is even slimmer. Pro-athletes in 2025 are truly elite.

Tynan Lawrence needs to get back from injury already. He has only played 2 games this year because of an injury suffered in camp and then they shut him down again. In those two games, sounds like he did really well and everywhere talks about his pace and detail. He's a 6' tall center with an August bday playing in the USHL. He will go top 5 in all likelihood and is someone I want to see more of.

Update JJ Peterka: 9g, 7a, 16pts, +2 in 22games Josh Doan: 7g, 8a, 15pts, -3 in 22games

I will guess... A is Risto and B is Power? I feel like Power has fewer goals but makes nicer passes. Except you know, Rasmus Dahlin.

Look Gandalf also said "there never was much hope, just a fools hope"