mjd1001

Maybe, but over the last 5 years or so, the average number of 30+ goal scorers per team is less than 1 player per team.

I agree with you, just wish it was on TV, or even viewable on the web. I'm an equal Bills and Sabres fan, but....while the happenings with the Bills lately have everyone elated, I kinda need a break from the Bills. I'm happy for everything going on, but I'm on Bills overload now.

I only go to a preseason game every year...one where I can pick up tickets for a fraction of the cost. I want to show up once a year just to get a 'feel' for the Arena and what it is like to see a game in person. I can do that at a preseason game. As far as watching a game that matters, High-def and a big-screen work for me for the regular season.

I don't mean to repeat points I made in a previous post, but I want to add to what you said above. He is not going to be 'wasting away' in junior, or playing in a league with 'nothing to prove'. -He is Sabres property now, if he goes to Juniors, he will be on a workout program and diet that will make him more NHL ready a year from now. -He will have a taste of the NHL through camp and preseason (and maybe regular season games). He will learn what he needs to work on and hear what the Sabres need him to work on. In Juniors, he won't just be playing to win, but instead working on aspects of his game that the Sabres staff identify to him. I really think the best thing for his kid (and the Sabres) would be for him to play in Junior, have his team eliminated early from the playoffs, and them for him to play with Rochester at the end of the AHL season and a run for the Amerks in the playoffs. To have him spend a few weeks, or even a month, with a lot of other younger guys in Rochester might be the best month this kid can have in preparing for the NHL.

Reinhart back to Juniors this year. He'll stay with the Sabres at the beginning of the year, practice with the team as much as he can for a month, they will work him into games where they can 'protect him' (meaning only home games where they can get the matchups they want) but ultimately he will go back to Juniors, where he should be. The exception to this would be if 1 of two things happen: 1. The Sabres have MAJOR injury issues during camp/preseason 2. He looks like (to everyone, including coaches) that he will instantly be a 15-20 goal, 50 point guy. This team is under very little pressure to win, and is not having problems getting fans to show up. There is no reason to rush him to the big team. He may not get better in the Juniors another year, but by waiting until NEXT season to play him, he will get a year older, a year stronger/more mature, get 2 full camps in with the Sabres, possibly some time at the end of juniors with Rochester, and a full year with the Sabres training staff. Meaning, even without playing a full season with the Sabres, he will be a LOT better and a LOT more prepared for the NHL next year than he is this year.

-No backup QB that knows the playbook, only 2 qb on the roster -Entire Offense looks bad in preseasons, fans criticizing it as even worse than it is. -Revolving door at some positions -Ownership still not settled, Bon Jovi in, then out, then back in---Toronto group threat won't go away, please let it end already. -It is only preseason and I think Preseason means next to nothing, but can this team be any more boring to watch? I'm sure there are a lot of other things to add to the list, but please, Sabres games can't get here soon enough!

Ok, it would be great to get a generational player who is drafted #1 overall, this thread is not about saying you are better off NOT getting a chance at McDavid, but I thought about how important is it to your success at winning the cup? I went back through my hockey watching years (close to 30 years now) and came up with 3 'for sure, no doubt' "generational players" who were picked first overall: Crosby, Lemieux, and Lindros. Those are the only 3 guys I can remember getting as much hype as McDavid in their draft year. There have been other players with almost as much hype (Tavares, Ovechkin, Joe Thornton, and a few others) but only 3 guys were this hightly touted. So looking at Crosby, Lemieux, and Lindros, what do we get? -3 Stanley Cups in 38 seasons played between them. I'd take it, and those players were really exciting to watch, but those numbers show that missing out on a #1 overall 'generational' player doest mean much in terms of going on a multiple Cup run. If you look at next tier, the 'almost generational player hype' guys, I would say that group would be Pierre Turgeon, Joe Thornton, Alex Ovechkin, John Tavares, Taylor Hall, and Nate Mckinnon (sorry, Patrick Kane is close to this list, but not quite there). What do you get there? -0 Stanley Cups in 58 combined seasons. Once again, you have multiple 100 point seaons, 50 goal years, all star games, awards won, but not as much success as we would think from players this highly touted as first overall picks in the draft. So what is my take-away from this? I'm thinking the Sabres will not finish last, and thus not get either McDavid or Eichel. I'm trying to convince myself that over the next 10-15 years, getting McDavid will not guarantee they will be a more successful team. I'd still love to get him, it would bring excitement to the building, hype to the team, but it really isn't needed.

The more I think about it, the more I would hope this turns into a game or two a year in Buffalo, and not much else. What may be better than bringing a Junior team to Buffalo would be to strengthen ties between two cities and two fanbases...Erie and Buffalo.

I doubt that will happen, but as far as message board talk goes, how successful is the franchise in Erie? Could this be a team that could be moved to Buffalo as a Junior team here (I'd hope not, I'd rather see Buffalo become more of a College hockey town with an improving Canisius and/or Niagara Program) Or could this lead to a partnership of sorts between the Otters and Sabres (saying down the road, the Otters play a handful of games in Buffalo, even in years without McDavid?)

For me, its either finish last (guaranteeing at least the 2nd pick in the draft) or go all out for wins. I'd PREFER finishing last, but I just don't think they are going do that this year. I see this team as worse case scenario a 25th to 26th place team, and BEST case about 20th overall. The problem is, I don't think they will finish last.

Positive impact? Pegula not only is a big player in Buffalo, but he becomes even larger in NY states eyes (Albany politicians) and the pull he has will be directed at Western NY. Negative? Same a above, but when the state does direct something his way (to WNY) they may say "you'll get money for one thing but not for both, now pick which you want" If the Bills get a new Stadium here in 10 years, at about that time we might be looking for a new Hockey arena or at least a MAJOR refurbishment of the current one at a minimum cost of $100's of millions. The arean is fine now, and will probably be usable by then, but a few things to consider: 1. In 10 years, it will be approaching 30 years old. 2. While nice for an arena, Some of the ones built in the last 10 years are much nicer already. 3. As or right now, how many Teams in the NHL play in buildings that are more than 5 years older than ours? 5 Teams. The Islanders and Edmonton have new homes coming, and MSG has had a nearly Billion dollar renovation. That is now, what will the NHL landscape look like in 10 years? With the Harbor centre basically attached to the arena now, I'm not sure we will be looking at a new one, but I can expect major renovations/upgrades to be happining in that time frame.

Anyone know anything about him (Danny Flynn) other than he was a coach in Moncton?

I might be in the minority, but I kinda like his game. This team in the long run is not going to be able to afford to have a full set of $4 million to $6million dollar per year studs on the blue line. Ruhwedel to me is/can be a pretty decent puck-moving D man that would be a very good #5 or #6 guy that won't hurt you much if you have to move him into a #3 or #4 role.

I agree with you there. I'm also not going to pick a logo as one of my favorites just because it is an original six team. Personally, a lot of people put the Blue Jackets logo/uniforms toward the bottom of the list, they are actually in my top 5. Chicago I have always loved. San Jose sometimes I look at and go 'eh' but other times I like. Now that I think of it, I think I'm a big fan of multiple bright colors. On the bottom of my list: I think the new Jets logo is pretty boring. The Wild might have the best designed logo, but it just doesn't look good to me. Not a big fan of Ottawa or Detroit either.

I'm good with the Ennis deal for now. Of course, if he turns into an injury prone, 10 goals a year player, we'll be hearing how Murray made a big mistake. While that can happen, so can him turning into an occasional 30 goal scorer. What is most likely, of course, is someplace in the middle. Given a big role in the offensive zone, I think 20-25 goal seasons are what we should be hoping for reasonably.

I still don't think/see Reinhart on the first line. I'd probably prefer him to stay in Juniors one more year. He will get better by attending Sabres prospect camp, training camp, playing in his 9 regular season games, etc. If he DOES make the Sabres, I am pretty sure TM and TN said they would protect him. Meaning 8-10 minutes a game, maybe some days off on the road (play him at home mostly where you can get the matchups you want), work him into power play time gradually, etc. But personally, I'd rather have him in the Juniors this year and then NEXT year play with the Sabres after 2 full training camps and development camps and 2 full off-seasons of Sabres conditioning/training.

Would have liked him to be here, but he isn't so time to move on. Now work on getting good enough to go out and beat him.

Maybe this is why Pegula is interested in the Bills. He has said over and over that Hockey is his first love....well, if Kim is wanting more control of the Sabres, maybe he thinks he can just buy the bills and 'give' them to her, to keep her out of 'his' hockey team.

Lets not get carried away with expectations here. If Reinhart even makes the team this year, I expect him to be truly 'protected'. What that means is he will average 10-12 minutes of ice time per game, probably be on a 3rd line at best with veteran wingers who think defense first, and may get scratched from the lineup on the road quite a few times where Nolan can't as easily control matchups. His ice time will be limited so his 'rookie' mistakes will be limited and they can better be focused on between games in film study to correct. A few games in the press box every now and then (on the road) might be a good way for him to watch from a different persepctive also. Also, expectations for stats should be kept in check because a player, even one who is 'mature' coming out of Juniors, can be a decent player without putting up big time stats for a few years, or it may take even highly rated players 3-5 years to become truly valuable. Patrick Kane: In 7 seasons in the NHL, the MOST goals he has scored in a season is 30, and that happened 1 time. As great as he is, he IS a 20-something regular season goal scorer. John Tavares: Same as above for Kane. His max goals in one year are 31, and he as done that once. A couple times (due to injury or lockout) he PROJECTED for more, but he is also so far is his career a typical 20-something goal scorer. Taylor Hall is now going into his 5th season, he has not yet hit the 30 goal/season mark. Ryan Nugent Hopkins is going into his 4th season, he hasn't hit 20 goals in a season yet. Matt Duchene, a 2nd overall pick, hasn't hit 30 yet either. Tylers Seguin, as a 2nd overall pick, took 4 years to cross 30 goals (not to mention a lot of apparent attitude and defensive end issues in his first few years) Gabriel Landeskog hasn't hit 30 goals yet. If Reinhart takes another year in Junior and then another 2 years AFTER that to be a 20 goal scorer in the NHL, that is about what we should expect. If he does make the team but only gets 10-12 minutes of ice time per game on the 3rd line, and ends up with 10 goals and 20 assists for the year, that also isn't a bad thing...I think that is what can be expected.

I can't give specifics, but in all seriousness, the Sabres have to start to look at trading very good quantity (which they have a lot of) for excellent quality. I things hold true, it looks like the Sabres are going to have a lot of guys who can be very good #3 or #4 D-men, and maybe a bunch of guys who are going to be good 2nd liners or great 3rd liners. I don't mean to dismiss that, I'm talking about good players here....we aren't talking guys who can be great 4th liners and good 3rd liners.) So, even though it may not be popular, the Sabres have to start really identifying guys on other teams that have a CHANCE at being that first line guy, and if it takes trading a veteran and 2 very good prospects to get him, those are the moves that have to be made. You can only stockpile so many young guys where are first and 2nd round picks for so long, and some point you can't keep them all.

Maybe someone can help me with this.. Erhoff is getting bought out, but the Sabres are not waiving him. How does that work? Isn't part of buying out someone that you have to waive them?

I'd like to see Hodson stay. I won't be upset terribly if they move him, but, on a slightly better team and playing wing, I think he is a guy that can approach 30 goals per season. Going forward, I see him as a very good powerplay guy and a possible first or second line WINGER (just not a center.) As for Ennis, I'd like to see him stay also. Foligno? I don't know. I am starting to think he is a bit over-rated by fans in the area. Right now, it has been a couple of years since I have seen anything from him to think he would be anything other than a 4th liner or a guy who can occasionally fill in as a third liner. I know he is young so consistency may still come, but I also think there may be better versions of what he is in the minors or the upcoming drafts.

Long As others have said. I love hockey, but by the time the playoffs end I'm worn out.

The question should be, in 2-3 years from now, who do you think will be the Sabres top 4 D-men? If you have 6 that you think are really, realliy good, you aren't going to be able to keep them. you are not going to be able to pay top-2 or top-4 money to the #5 and #6 guys on your roster. So I think what you need to do is identify your top-4 in 2-3 years, and then anyone who is not on that list is expendable. You may say what about Injuries? or if the projection now doesn't turn out? You also have to consider they Sabres will still be bringing in even MORE prospects, and some will be D-men. I do not see at all how Erhoff is in your top-4 in a couple years from now, so my view is he should be HEAVILY shopped this offseason and get what you can for him.

Players like Kessler, O'rielly, and others are not what the Sabres should be looking for. We might want them because we heard of them, but what the Sabres really need to do is identify the players who are going to be the next ones in those positions. Think back 7-8 years ago, the Sabres identified Briere and Drury when people who knew they were but were not 'stars' in the way that Kessler and O'Riely are now. If there are any trades to be made, I want them to be for players who I am not thinking of now, but after I think about it more and more after it does happen, I like it better than when I first heard of it.