mjd1001

Not sure if anyone wants to comment on this, but I was talking with my cousin and this topic was brought up. Is there any recent (last 20 years) draft pick by the Sabres you were totally wrong about? Someone who you thought would be great and they were a total Bust? Or a draft pick you hated that turned out a lot better? For me it is Nick Baptiste. Yes, he was an early 3rd round pick but for some reason I was sure he was going to be a very good NHL player, maybe even a 30 goal scorer. Someone with the talent of a first round pick. Up until the year he left the Sabres organization, I was sure he just needed to be given more of a chance and then once he was given that 'half season' with the big club he would be one of their top players. After he left the Sabres/Amerks he had a decent year in the AHL with Milwaukee, followed by 4 more seasons in the AHL where he totaled 18 goals in those 4 (albeit shortened) seasons. Needless to say I was 100% wrong on that one.

If that is the case, I'm totally fine with the Sabres making no moves and just taking their 3 picks. Its always exciting to think of packaging 28 with something else to move up a bit, or maybe 16 and 28 packaged to get a 2nd pick in the top 10, but this year that may not benefit them to much. Most of the players they draft this year, it may be years before they play and make an impact with Sabres (even #9) but it is still a fun day to see where they go. More importantly, for me draft night is the 'start' of the time when other moves can/will be made that will impact the roster for this coming season.

I am intrigued by this, but not sure how much. UFA who is going to want a raise...not sure of term. I think his last deal he made $4.9M per year. Has never been given a lot of ice time, for his whole career he has gotten 3rd line minutes (15 minutes per game, give or take) Option on the PP, zero use killing penalties, plus a lot of offensive zone starts. So far in his career no one has really trusted him at all in any kind of defensive role. 27 years old. Over the last 3 seasons, his '82 game' rate has been 26 goals, 64 points per 82. With Buffalo that could go up with more ice time, or down with a 'lesser' team. Over the last 2 years his goals per 60 minutes would be tops on the Sabres. Above even Skinner, Tage, Eichel, Reinhart over that time. Plus most of his goals are even strength, hes dangerous 5 on 5. Don't really know much more about him.

I agree also. What I am going to say is going to be 100% against what many people on this board think, but here goes... I LIKE watching a young team develop on its own, with very little 'tinkering'. I enjoy seeing young guys develop, even if it is in 'fits and starts' and is alot of 2 steps forward, one step back, one step forward, 3 steps back, 2 steps forward'. The fact the Sabres haven't made the playoffs in so long...to me that is not reason to sign a couple of free agents just to be competitive and try to make the playoffs. In the NHL, I look at as 2 end results can happen. 1.) You win the cup. 2.) you don't win the cup. I am pretty sure this team, no matter who they add, aren't winning the cup this year. So with that assumption, we are in scenario #2. If they aren't winning the cup, I have a LOT more fun and enjoy a season more watching young guys get a lot of playing time. Seeing young guys put in positions that are new to them. Seeing a team develop and grow. I get a lot more out of than that signing that bit name (or even mid level) 28-32 year old who can 'help the team win now'. If, IF there are free agents available that are 100% great fits in the room AND can help contribute to win a few more games also, bring in 1 or 2 of them, but nothing beyond that.

But from Campbells point of view this is the time you don't take anything less. It is a possibility that he does have another good year this coming year like he did last year. If that happens (and it very well could), then if he took anything less than 4 years and 25 million he'd be mad at himself for the rest of his career.

If that is what Ottawa doesn't want to do but might need to do, then your idea is great. 28 for 7 and Murray...or if you need to 28 and a 3rd....I wouldn't go more than that but if that was even an option I'd push all day for it.

I can agree with is. Maple Leaf fans remind me a lot of most Boston fans. When it comes to their sports teams, they aren't just homers, they are awful to deal with, unbearable to a degree beyond belief. Yet, if you take those same people in put them in a room where sports aren't discussed or brought up, they can be nice people. I have co-workers in Boston (I still travel there for meetings often) who are great guys and girls. GREAT people, fun, funny, helpful. But bring up the Bruins or Pats or Red Sox and wow, its not an exaggeration they are 100% different, like a Jekyll and Hyde transformation, no joke. But again, they are deep down good people. New Yorkers on the other hand...the way many of them act as fans is who they are. With Leaf fans and Boston fans, the "fan" version of themself is an alter-ego, someone who is different when talking sports. New Yorkers though, the jerks they are in the stadiums/arena is just an extension of who they actually are. At least that is my experience...having lived in/near Boston for quite a few years in the past and visiting NY city many times for work (and my wife and her family being from there so we know a LOT of people from there.)

A few things about Maple leaf fans that are more about them than any other team/fanbase in the NHL: -The league is 'out to get them'. In every game, EVERY SINGLE GAME, there are bad calls against the Leafs that wouldn't be called against any other team. Any game they lose by 1-3 goals is almost always the fault of the Refs and bad calls. Their players should never get suspended, but there is at least 1 offense per week that requires the league suspend someone else because of what they did against the leafs. -They have the best prospects by far. Any prospect for the Marlies is twice as good as any other prospect in the AHL with similar stats. Every draft pick they make, it is brilliant. No other GM would position themselves in the draft to make the picks that the Leafs make. -They have BY FAR the most talented roster in the league. That is because players sign with Toronto giving them the 'home town' discount because, of course, who WOULDN'T want to play in Toronto. -If a free agents decides to not sign with toronto, it is for 1 of 2 reasons: 1. They really aren't that good and Leaf's management figured it out before the team that actually did sign them...or...2. Someone was meddling illegaly. -If a trade is made, the Leafs destroyed the other team in the trade. It is incredible how Toronto's management can so badly beat the other GM's in a trade. The only explanation is, the player on the other team must have wanted to move to Toronto SO BADLY that the opposing GM had no choice but to trade him to Toronto for whatever the Leafs offered. -If a few years goes by and it becomes obvious the Leafs DID make a bad trade..it will only be identified as such after numerous years AND when the person who made the deal is no longer in the Leafs front office. That way there is nothing to worry about. SURE, they may have made a bad trade, but the GM or Scout responsible for it is gone...and it won't happen again. We said back then we had the best front office in the league...but now that the GM/scout is gone who was responsible for that trade.....we FOR SURE have the best front office in the league now, so any trade we make going forward will be the best every.

I also agree with this 100%. How good or how accurate a mock draft is.. this is by far and away the best way to determine it.

It is possible, but adding another player....you have to remember anyone picking at #3 is thinking they have a shot at someone who will be a franchise player...or in a weaker draft at #3 at least someone who could be a star. Give them a 'younger' guy from your team/system that has potential, and they still may not want that. When they draft someone at #3, they are in control of their development from day one. They don't have to worry about 'mistakes' other teams made in development or bad habits they picked up a few years after the draft. I'm not saying it isn't possible, but with few exceptions...guys like Mitts, Cozens, etc....have more value to the team that already spent years developing them than they would to a new team.

To trade up to #3, I think the Sabres would have to package all 3 of their 1st rounders...and that may/may not be enough even.

I still think that one undervalues the VERY top picks and overvalues everything else. According to that chart, the Sabres should be able to package #16 and #28 together and for something like the 7th or 8th pick. I think a team picking #7 or #8 would want more than 16 and 28 for that. Of course there may be rare years where a team doesn't think there is much of a difference between the 7th best guy and the 20th, but more often than not I think the higher pick would require more.

Is there a link to a place that shows new plans/drawings/renditions other than what we saw already?

Everything about that is exactly what I want to hear. Hope it is all true.

I haven't been following the draft much at all, but I don't just want to copy and paste someone else's mock draft so I moved things around a little bit. 1. Wright 2. Slafkovsky 3. Cooley 4. Nemec 5. Jiricek 6. Savoie 7. Kemell 8. Gauthier 9. Lekkerimaki 10. Korchinski 11. Kasper 12. Nazar 13. Mintyukov 14. Geekie 15. Mateychuk 16. Yurov 17. Lamberg 18. Howard 19. Bischel 20. McGroarty 21. Ohgren 22. Pickering 23. Snuggerud 24. Kulich 25. Mesar 26. Chelsey 27. Miroschinichenko 28. Belluz 29. Gaucher 30. Beck 31. Firkus 32. Ostlund

I have never tried any of the Trails up in Vermont, although we do travel there once every couple of years, and I used to go there monthly when I lived in New England. Maybe another minor complaint about WNY is the potential for more/better bike trials. They are finally trying to link everything together, but why would you NOT have a full trail, un-interupted, between Niagara Falls state park and Youngstown, NY (Fort Niagara) where the River meets Lake Ontario? A 10-15 mile trail between those 2 areas along the river/gorge has the potential to be one of the best in the country, especially if there was a way to extend it a little farther along the lakeshore. But, to my knowledge (at least as of a couple years ago), not finished: -While they are removing the old Robert Moses parkway northbound from the Falls, a lot of work needed to be done and the trail wasn't finished -Once you get north of Devils hole state park near the power plant, the 'trail' was crumbling concrete between 2 concrete walls as you crossed the power plant. That needed to be cleaned up quite a bit. -Approaching Lewiston, they were putting in a trail down the hill but not sure if it is done yet. -Lewiston itself, you have to go down Center street and it has no bike lanes and the drivers there can be pretty aggressive for a 'main st, USA' type place. Finally, and this one really really is my complaint, when you get close to Youngstown, there was no sidewalk on River road, but instead the paved trail is there. HOWEVER, some residents of Youngstown didn't like too many people using the 'trail', so they have Signs up ALONG THE PAVED TRAIL that bicycles were not allowed. Google maps shows this is a bike trail, it is a paved trail, yet they had signs up saying no bicycles. Lots of areas have great trails. As I said living right next to the Cape Cod rail trail, you can ride for miles and miles on it...Bridges built to go over highways just for the trail...tunnels for the trail to go under some roads. Access to snack shops, plazas, and even beaches right off the trail. Signs that alert trail users to where to find refreshments and restrooms. We have so much potential in WNY to do those things, but yet WNY is so far behind.

I'm not sure about 70 points, but I'll 2nd him getting in the Norris conversation. It is hard to get nominated, as only 3 among Hedman, Josi, Makar, Ekblad, Hughes, Fox and others (would have to beat out all but 2 of them to get nominated)...but I DO think he is going to get noticed and talked about as one of the 'top D-men' in the NHL league-wide.

Speaking of multi use paths, this is a really minor complaint but something I was thinking of recently.. I grew up in Western NY and live here now, but I spent a good number of years living in Boston or near it on Cape Cod. Cape cod especially has miles and miles and miles of bike trails I used quite a bit when I lived there. Not only are they safer to ride than on the roads, some of them actually go someplace (a Bike trail came right into my community and I could ride it a few miles to get to a shopping plaza without ever driving alongside a road.) Anyway, what I grew used to there was whenever someone would be going faster than you and pass you, or whenever someone was walking and a jogger or a bike rider would pass them, they would almost always say "On your left" a few seconds before they passed you so there was no surprise. That is something that very rarely happens here. On a trail, on a sidewalk, anywhere, when someone traveling faster than I am (whether on a bike, running, etc) passes me here, usually it is a surprise if you don't see them coming, and several times you almost run into each other. In general, people using bike trails/multi use trails when I lived on Cape Cod or near Boston where much more courteous and safer than they are here.

Neighbors who insist on their dogs NOT doing anything on their lawn but instead going on their neighbors lawn. We have several brown spots of dead grass up front from where our neighbors dogs go. I understand you can't prevent that...what my problem is with certain neighbors who will basically run the dog out of the front of their house to get down the street, and never let their dogs go in their own back yard. There is a guy a few houses down the street from us who walks his dog down the street several times per day. Earlier this week I saw him take their dog out and it looked like the dog was looking for a spot to go right outside the door. The guy pulled on the leash and yelled at the dog to "come on" and got the dog of of his own front yard where the dog proceeded to use a neighbors front yard.

Agreed. I'm happy with hit. UPL played decent/good in his time with the Sabres last year. If he can repeat that, or improve over the offseason, I think they are fine with that duo. Of course, the team should have a decent idea where UPL stands when training camp hits. This also does not preclude another move.

I'm not disagreeing, I'm just wondering what we consider a 'killer season' to be next year. -Lead the team in scoring and they go deep into the playoffs? -Top 5 in the NHL in scoring (last year would have meant about 110 points)? -Final 3 for league MVP? -Top 5 in league for goals (last year would have been about 50 goals)? If he is healthy, I think career highs in points/scoring should be a given, seeing how scoring has gone up in the past couple years. But his career best season (2019-2020), he had 1.15 points per game. Last year in the NHL, that would have put him 24th in the league. Again, I'm just not sure we know what a 'killer' season can be.

I see your point and I understand your point. I really do. The 'common sense' approach is to wait to verify as long as possible the player you are getting. Do that with everyone, your chance of handing out bad contracts goes down. In the long run with no 'bad' contracts you can have a 'good team'. But there is the problem. In todays NHL, you can win with no 'bad' contracts, but if you want to be a serious cup contender year after year, that isn't enough. You have to have 'good' or 'great' contracts on some key guys. You don't get that until/unless you are willing to give them a 'little' more now so you don't have to give them a 'lot' more later. Do you trust your GM? Your management and scouting staff? If so I need to trust them to identify (with information none of us have) which players are worth long term deals now and not just waiting and waiting and paying them more later. I want to take a chance at being a team like Colorado and Tampa (teams that had some of their stars locked up early to contract that in the long run were risky but paid off)....rather than being a team that is good enough to always compete for the playoffs but is never a top 5 team in the league.

Maybe it took him a while to 'get used' to the Center position? If that is so, it bodes well for next year when he will have that year under his belt. So based on the numbers you quoted, that means he played 40 games before Feb 1 and had 14 goals and 29 points in that time (29 goal, 59 point pace), After Feb 1, his pace was 52 goal, 84 point.

But you say they are telling us they are most likely not going to make any moves that matter. It doesn't matter whether this 'tells' you that or not, because this move is not the thing that is preventing it. Again, this is basically a free 7th rounder. If they change their mind about signing someone, or someone falls in their lap, this will not prevent them from doing that. And lottery ticket? Make fun of it if you want, but it is what it is. There have been a handful of 7th rounders that have turned into legit NHL players. Is it likely? No, but again, for free why would you not want it if it is there for the taking at effectively no cost to you?

Yes, I try to. However I can get him done in anywhere from a 4-8 year deal...whatever of those options he is willing to take to keep the average annual cost down. If he will take a little less money to go long term, I do it. If you want to be a 'good team', then you make sure you have no bad contracts. In that case you wait to see how he does, and when his deal is up you pay him a 'market contract' deal. That will make you good. You want to be a GREAT team, you need to have some star players making under market value when you are making a run to the cup. You have to take chances. You give guys a long term deal possibly 'overpaying' them earlier in the deal, so that later in the deal when you are competing for a cup they are getting under market deals. That is why you hope the Sabres are really, REALLY good (better than us) at identifying whether Tage's season last year is for real, and if it is giving him a very long term deal that may look like an over-pay now but might not be in 3-4 years. For all the angst some are having on this forum about the lack of moves and wanting the Sabres to 'do something.....the thing I personally want them to do is identify who of this young 'core' is for real, and hit the hard now with long term deals. They will be good-great when they can lock up players earlier than we are all comfortable with to long term deals and be correct about it.