Curt

So, this is all based around the assumption that Hagg and Eakin are contributing members of a team that looks like it’s going to make the playoffs at the trade deadline. I think there is a definite distinction between trade deadline sell offs and offseason moves. Specifically in the minds and hearts of the other guys on that team. Every season is a journey unto itself, as if they are on that journey together.

If Dahlin and Cozens played alongside Eakin and Hagg all year, and together they were in a playoff position, yes, I do think that would send a bad message. Selling off contributing parts of a team achieving success, because “it’s part of the plan”, would be a bad course to take.

Leave UPL in Rochester. He has only played a handful of good games in the AHL. He has been super inconsistent and overall has been bad in the AHL. Not only is UPL not ready, but you should have more faith in Tokarski than UPL.

The post was in reference to Crosby, the current player, compared to McDavid the current player. I don’t think that a career retrospective is needed to determine line matchups for tonight’s game. I wouldn’t matchup Cozens on Crosby though. Crosby might spear him in the groin, slash his finger in half, or suplex him into the boards. Dirtiest player in the league.

IMO, the wrong way to look at it. If the players on the team are playing well enough to make the playoffs, that needs to be acknowledged. Selling players off of a playoff bound team would be psychologically damaging to the environment that the Sabres are trying to create. I understand your viewpoint from a cold hard logic perspective, but I believe it would adversely affect the humans involved.

I should have known better. Inky strikes again.

Fair enough. Maybe they are pretty close, adjusting for era.

That’s all fine. I responded to your original post with a simple statement of two facts. No attitude. I perceived your response to that as extremely dismissive. As if it was irrelevant whether the things you were saying were true or not. So, I elaborated on why I thought it mattered, maybe with a little too much attitude.

Which was exactly the point of the post you replied to. He is a pretty unique player. NHL players are used to going against 6’4” guys on a nightly basis. I could see how the length that comes with 6’7” could throw off opponents’ learned geometry though.

He was certainly big and used his size, but still 3 inches shorter than Thompson.

If you are going to make things up to support your argument, I’m going to point out that they are false. It’s ok, you can pretend after the fact that it doesn’t matter whether or not they are true if you’d like. There are plenty of true things to complain about. None of us should need to complain about imaginary things.

Meatballs. Lots o’ meatballs.

Underrated

The Sabres are not paying Matt Moulson. Craig Anderson was not retired.

Yeah, sort of, but it’s been a trend with Sabres injuries going back 3-4 years. The initial reports always seem to underplay the severity and the updates never seem accurate (if we get any at all).

With their talent, Leafs should be able tout outclass Buffalo, but they have played most of this game as if they thought the Sabres would roll over for them or make errors that just hand them the game, and this is what happens.

Thoughts after 2: Hagg, if you are going to lay down on the ice, actually lay down on the ice. Okposo has looked sharp. Maybe in the end it’s “just” a solid 3C on a good team, but Thompson is definitely something. He just takes up so much space out there, his wingspan disrupts the other team, he has cut out almost all the super awkward stuff he used to do, and he has that shot. I like Bryson. I think R2 needs better line mates. Sabres have done a good job of shutting Toronto down. Leafs suck.

This is the 2021 Sabres Prospects Thread. Please, delete this and put it in 2023 Draft Thread. Also, I hope to hell that the Sabres aren’t picking him. Hopefully they are in the playoffs instead.

Over that time period the Sabres drafted more than the normal 7 players on average, more than the normal number of 1st rounders, and more than the normal number of players in rounds 1-3. It didn’t have to do with trading away too many picks. And as Thorny said, they did draft several other centers in addition to Adam, but not many particularly high. It’s not as if they were having success drafting players at other positions anyway though. Overall, the drafting was quite bad until after Botterill took over.

Yeah, hope so. We’ll see what happens. That can all go out the window pretty quickly.

Adams, as opposed to ownership, yes.

This absolutely why Granato is the coach. He needs to, and seems to, get these decisions right more often than not. Just listened to Grsnato and Cozens’ post games. I felt proud for Cozens, that’s a great thing to feel for a player/team. I felt the same way watching Tuch’s introductory interviews, even though he has yet to play a game. I just get a genuine feeling from a lot of these guys, and I haven’t felt that way about the Sabres in several years. I think that starts at the top. This team isn’t good yet, but when they get there, I truly believe that we are all going to feel so incredibly proud of them, both as a team and as individuals. I think we as a fan base are pretty broken right now. I think this core group developing now is going to teach us to love this team again.

This is strange. You have to realize that almost all of those players were traded away because they were pending UFAs who were not going to return, and also that most of those moves were a part of the rebuild or the tank, not a cause of it. The reason that a rebuild was required was that the drafting was very poor from about 2006 onwards, so in 2009-13 there was not much for young guys coming up to supplement the core.

I believe that was in a presentation to Bills employees and well before the firings as well.