Thorny

The fact he was being sent down to play in the AHL playoffs makes him a prospect to me.

Lottery protected first. I'd give it up. I wouldn't expect them to be bottom 10 if Botterill performs the "roster surgery" he said he had to. Say, adding Stastny and a UFA winger to the mix. If it does get deferred and we aren't out of the lottery that season, when Jack and Sam are FIRMLY in their prime, and we also have Skinner, a third year Dahlin and Mittelstadt, potentially a rookie Cozens and say Stastny and whoever the UFA is, we are in trouble anyways.

For the record, he says he compares his game to Mathew Barzal's.

It was protected, no? They deferred it from the 2018 draft.

The advanced stats guys seem to love him as well. He's been ranked in the top 5 consistently in those circles. Manny Elk had him as the 3rd best forward.

If Botterill doesn't bring in a 2C this offseason and our C spine is underwhelming this season and next, he's not going to be around as a GM when that C corps takes off, like you say. Bringing in a 2C this summer is even more important now than it was before. These young Cs we have need to be brought along properly.

This Cedricqvist guy was a good seeker for Hufflepuff and actually beat Harry one time so I feel it's a promising pick. I'm sure he has a TON of good years ahead of him.

Sext Cher?

Always enjoy the WJC more when I have a Sabre to focus on. Haven't been able to combine my rooting Sabres interests with Canada since Reinhart in '15, so I'm looking forward to it.

Cozens honestly sounds exactly like what this team needs, should he develop to his potential. We can never say exactly what will happen with such young players, but we are sitting in a situation where, if Mittelstadt and Cozens are developed properly and reach their ceilings or even close to, we could be looking at a top C spine in the league in Eichel-Cozens-Mittelstadt. That could be elite centre depth. It's basically a legit star 1C, with 2 players (with top-line talent) capable of splitting the 2/3C roles, Cozens probably getting the tougher matchups and Casey getting somewhat sheltered minutes. That Manny Elk guy on twitter who absolutely rips the Sabres whenever he gets a chance, has demonstrated pretty accurate projection models, and he had Cozens ranked as his 4th best skater (and 3rd forward) in the draft. Love the Cozens pick. After that, I don't have much of an opinion on the prospects selected other than to say it looks like through aggressive trading up Botterill was able to snag a couple guys projected higher than where we selected them. It's hard to outright doubt the others selected after our first pick, looking at the early returns of Botterill's previous 2 drafts. A.

He'll be a full timer not this coming season which is the season after last, but the season two away from last season, the one before the one three seasons from now.

You are usually pretty good with these, so I'm keeping and eye on Vegas. I think they would have won the cup.

My prediction still on course through draft....