In The Buff

I'd love to see Nylander on the top 2 lines. Potential-wise i think he could be a good playmaker, but its hard to vote for him because he hasnt exactly shown us he can handle being a winger on the top 2 lines, so I didn't. His AHL performance has been less than desired. The kid is still young tho & adjusting... for some players it just takes longer.

To be honest i don't think we can fully evaluate this trade until the draft picks we acquired have been selected & we know who they are as players. Obviously thats years away but if one of those players down the road turns into the next O'Reilly then that'll change the overall balance of this trade for sure. I also think our team was such crap last year that getting 2 bonafide NHL caliber players back, in addition to Tage was worth it, even if we didn't get a player back as valued as ROR. We were the last placed team for a reason, & that was with ROR. I hear what you're saying but bigger picture, i do believe we've improved as a team with this trade.

I know we all like to poke fun at the infusion of Swedes into our lineup, but I for one view this as a positive. If we can get a leg up on other teams & have an advantage into a foreign talent pool then by all means, i think that's good news. Just because we hired a Swedish scout, it doesn't mean we're going to ignore the rest of the world. The way i see it, the more scouts we have, the better.... for awhile there, it appeared as if we didn't have any scouts lol

Well looks like this years semi-annual event: 'What about adding Bruce Orpik' has finally been brought to a close, after the Capitals brought him back for 1 year at $1 Million. Stay tuned for next off-season when Matt Bove throws his name out there all over again. ?

I know someone mentioned how the News mentioned that we should go after Orpik. While I wouldn't be against it, i think its kinda funny that every few years he's a name that's mentioned around here. Stempniak is another name ive seen over & over the past decade, Ian Cole as well. It just wouldnt be a typical offseason without bringing those names up. At least we've gotten off the Matt Duchene train. As much as i know we have a need to improve, I just don't see JBots doing anything drastic at this point. Maybe, just maybe we'll package a draft pick & a player out for someone else, but it really looks like JBots has a plan to build from within with some veterans sprinkled in as depth signings or mentors. I'm in the camp of i don't really expect that much. I really don't want JBots to make a move just to make a move. Most of the times we've done that it hasn't worked out.

You guys are funny haha. I suppose at this point theres a lot of that misery loves company attitude with this team. Having endured years of poor play from both the Bills & Sabres, its like we all need one big group hug... or alcohol, maybe both! I'll tell ya what though. If we do suck this year, at least we'll suck differently than last year. We'll suck in different ways & that in itself is reason for optimism! Because man, last year was brutal. For the 1st time in my life I found myself unable to watch our games. NHL.com's twitter feed would have links of condensed games. They'd squeeze a whole game into 7 or 8 minutes, only showing a play of substance, so i would just watch them that way. I found keeping track of the team that way was less painful. Hopefully this year our compete level will be higher & our fundamentals will be more sound. With the additions we've made this offseason thats pretty much what i'm looking for, even if we still suck in the standings. I still see this season as the glass is half full. I like where this team is headed, even if its gonna take a few more years to truly get there.

I don't remember the deal specifically for the draft, but I remember hearing he put a package together for a trade with Columbus to get Nash, but that he had a no trade clause & Buffalo wasn't a team he wanted to come to. I don't know for 100% if this was true but it came from sources online, for what thats worth haha.

In the past 10 years, no team has traded out of the top 5 spots. But back in 2002, 2003 the Hurricanes traded their #1 selection both years, both for the #3 selection. The odds are obviously it wouldnt happen. But say the Sabres start out with the #5 pick. Take that & package it with our other picks and i dont know, maybe it becomes a possibility? Just fyi, heres the source paragraph of the Canes trading out of the #1 spot if any of you are curious to learn about it. I myself didnt remember until i googled it. The Florida Panthers traded the #1 overall selection two straight years, in 2002 and 2003, both times getting the #3 overall selection. In 2002, knowing that the #1 guy on their draft board (Jay Bouwmeester) would be available at #3, they swapped picks with Columbus, who chose Rick Nash #1 overall. In exchange, the Panthers got the #3 pick and the option to swap picks with Columbus in the 2003 draft. They won the draft lottery again in 2003, so they didn’t need to swap picks with Columbus, but they still moved down to #3 to select Nathan Horton, who was #1 on their board, and sent the pick along with a third rounder to Pittsburgh for the #3, Mikael Samuelsson, and a second round pick. Pittsburgh would select goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. In both cases for Florida, the player that was at the top of their draft board was still going to be available with the pick they traded to, so the risk for them “trading down” was minimal.

I've heard next years draft is supposedly pretty deep, so using the picks & stocking up on talent should be the better long term strategy imo. However I'm curious as to the chances of us trading all 3 1st round picks to move up to the #1 spot to get Hughes. Do you A. think that move would be worth it? Getting another one of those 'generational talents' who can jump in right away & be productive? And B. if we're not drafting 1st overall to begin with, do you think the team up top would be willing to trade down with us for 3 of those picks? I highly doubt JBots would do this, however if I were a GM i'd rather have 1 Connor McDavid than 3 possible Nylanders. The NHL Draft is a crapshoot, i'd rather go for the sure thing if i could. Just curious what some of you think about this scenario

Yeah i guess that true. And that makes sense given the talented D we had.... some sarcasm there lol. For McNabb's sake, i'm sure he's happy he got his shot for a team that went to the Cup, logging 20 some odd minutes a game & playing some solid hockey for them. I guess ive focused on it because that kind of play is what we've needed here desperately. Hindsight is 20 20 i guess.

Guess i can't blame him if that was his reasoning. I just hope he doesn't end up being another player that couldve potentially helped our team that got away. Watching Vegas's run this year was something special, but seeing Brayden McNabb have the success he had, all the while our defense was horrendous, left a bad taste in my mouth because he very easily couldve been helping our defense out. Our new philosophy of player development thru our farm system is the right way to go. But when those players bolt for other teams, its hard not to be cynical & think we're the farm team for the rest of the league. All said i am fully on board with our rebuild & direction & see bright days ahead. But its going to take a vast improvement on our defense this year for me to forget us trading McNabb for Fasching & Deslaurier.

Hello Board... long time reader, finally decided to hunt down my old password to login & join all the fun. I came across an article on Yahoo Sports today about Colin Blackwell. This was one of the guys i was hoping was improving & potentially on his way to the big club. I guess we didn't extend him an offer? --The Nashville Predators have signed forward Colin Blackwell to a two-year, two-way contract. The deal would pay the former Harvard star $650,000 (NHL) or $100,000 (AHL) in 2018-19 and $700,000 or $100,000 the following season. Blackwell was drafted in the seventh round by the San Jose Sharks in 2011 before he headed to Harvard. He has played the last two seasons in the AHL, including a breakout 2017-18 season with the Rochester Americans in which he scored 17 goals and tallied 28 assists in 61 games.