Curt

Teams just can’t help themselves from over drafting defensemen sometimes.

I doubt SJ would want Pesce as part of the trade. They are young to want picks and young guys.

He is entering his near age 30 season? Thats a fun way to say that he is entering his age 29 season.

No one has cap space. Need to retain on Olofsson.

Sabres have better young depth forwards, Devils have Dougie Hamilton.

Yeah, there are not many players who fit that mold, and I’m not sure it makes sense to trade 13 OA for a guy like that.

If Benson is there and Buffalo passes, I’ll be pissed, lol. If that happens, just use Rosen and Östlund as trade chips and roll with Savoie and Benson. Or even trade Savoie and keep Östlund if they think that’s best based on their player evaluations. If Benson was 5’11” instead on 5’9.75”, he would be a lock to go in that 5-10 range.

1) Chicago - Bedard 2) Anaheim - Fantilli 3) Columbus - Smith 4) SJ - Carlsson 5) MTL - Leonard 6) Arizona - Reinbacher 7) Phildelphia - Michkov 8. WSH - Dvorsky 9. Detroit - Moore 10. St. Louis - Simishev 11. Vancouver - Danielson 12. Arizona - Barlow 13. Buffalo - Benson

I don’t think Montreal will take Michkov. Just my opinion based on their history with Russians in that market.

It’s not so much an issue of being left or right handed, it’s a matter of whether that guy can play the position. If you take a left handed player at 12 years old and have him play nothing but RD, yeah, he will get good at it. But taking a 28 year old lefty who has played LD almost exclusively his whole life and just sticking him at RD might not go so well.

This is going to happen with some guys this offseason. Teams declining qualifying offers on young plays who want a little raise. Kostin, Comtois, Newhook got traded partly for this reason too. There will be more. Cap crunch.

Yeah, I try not to get too crazy about it. I consider 5’11” to 6’1” to be average. 5’10” can start to get small, but only if the guy actually plays small. 5’9” you need to closely examine the player and anything smaller than that you need to really consider if this guy is going to be able to translate.

There are not many players who actually fit that description, I can’t think of any who have been mentioned as available, and I think that most of them are really 2nd line centers. So a guy like Charlie Coyle or Yanni Gourde? For 13 OA?

Yeah, I mean, if a guy doesn’t like Columbus or Winnipeg, how could he be happy living in LA?

Mittelstadt

Per their draft combine measurements, Leonard is 2” taller and 20 lbs heavier than Benson.

Would you trade 13 and the 2024 1st to move up to #6 (for example) to draft him?

I really feel like the top 4 D they bring in needs to be a righty, or a lefty who has played lots of top-4 mins at RD. I don’t want 21 year old Owen Power forced to play on the right side for 23 mins per game.

Personally, I think that the forward options that will be available at 13 are simply more talented than the defensive options. Seems like defensemen in this 1st round are going to get over drafted because of scarcity. Reinbacher seems ok as a top 15 pick, but I’m not sure if any other defensemen are really worthy of that investment.

I don’t think Simishev is anywhere near a lock to go in the top-15. He might, but he could also go like 21st or something.

I like Rykov in the 3rd round.

From the group of Dvorsky, Moore, Pelikka and Reinbacher, I would take any of them at 13 except Pelikka. I think it’s basically a certainty that no more than one of them is available at 13, but I think I’d order them Dvorsky, Reinbacher, Moore. From the 2nd group of Wood, Barlow, Perreault, Danielson, Sale, Simashev, Yager, I would be looking mostly at Wood, Barlow, and Simashev. I have a hard time choosing between them. I actually like Willander, Musty, and Richie from the following groups just as much too. If Michkov, Benson and Dvorsky are all off the board it might not be a bad spot for Sabres to move back a few spots.

Actually, I believe that because there is no formal agreement between the NHL and KHL, teams hold the rights of players drafted out of Russia in perpetuity. If Michkov is drafted by Buffalo, stays in the KHL for 12 years then comes to the NHL when he is 30, Buffalo still holds his rights.

I don’t know for sure, but I would think that even if it’s not threats directly from the government, people affiliated with or supports of the hockey club might take it upon themselves to menace the family a bit. And it would probably mean that he could never go back to Russia. Seems like too much for a kid whose father passed away (was murdered?) less than a year ago.

He’s going to go back. If he tried to ditch his KHL contract it probably would lead to some difficulties for his family.