Curt

I think dudacek was speaking more to the style of Johnson’s game as opposed to the quality. It still appears that there were better choices on the board when Johnson was selected.

I do understand that mid-late round NHL picks usually do not work out. I just said that some teams can semi regularly find NHL players there. I don’t agree that it’s only Tampa and Boston who are able to do this, but even if it was, what’s wrong with wishing that Buffalo was able to do that as well? I want Buffalo to draft well. I agree that 90% of the top 100-200 players are probably 1st/2nd round picks. It’s that other 10% that we are talking about.

I agree in part. This can certainly be a factor as well. I don’t necessarily think it’s a larger factor that drafting, but it’s part of the equation.

I believe that this is completely untrue, and a really bad way to evaluate drafting. I understand that the draft lacks much certainly after the first 2-3 picks. Drafting is hard. However, there are teams that can semi regularly draft NHL caliber, and occasionally star, players in rounds 2-7. Do you believe that this is simply because these teams are very lucky? Do you believe that they are exhibiting some skill in drafting? Do you believe that there is such a thing as being good at drafting, or is it just luck after the top-3? top-10? 1st round?

Is it? They have drafted very poorly for quite a long time, and the team has been a borderline laughingstock. Where is the historical validation? It’s not too hard to draft good players at #1 or #2 overall. Botterill’s drafts still are kind of undecided. They don’t look great though. If Buffalo has drafted well, where are all of the 2-7 round picks who are NHL contributors? How many are there over the past 10 years?

Funny you should mention that. Sounds good to me!

Anyone have a take on Mitch McConnel seemingly splitting from Trump and playing hardball with the stimulus package negotiations. Meaning that it likely won’t get passed before the election to help Trump out. It seems like a significant thing. Is he kind of backing away from Trump in anticipation of an election loss?

Love it. Keep the goathead alive. It’s a great jersey.

I assumed they were considered to be on the team, but I’m wondering what their salary is considered to be. If he is just using last years salary, they Buffalo is going to shift straight up that graph (adding salary, but not Ws). I’m guessing that he used contract projections though.

After the rest of the RFAs sign, Buffalo is going to shift straight up on that chart quite a bit. Or is he already adding in estimated contracts for RFAs?

To the bolded: that’s the difference between acquiring a goalie for the 2020-21 season, and acquiring a goalie for 2023. Big difference. Plus Buffalo theoretically already have a high end goalie prospect on the way for 2023. They need a goalie for 2020.

Outside of the first round, any NHL player is a successful draft pick, and it matters. You need cheap young NHL players. That easily replaceable bottom 6 guy who doesn’t matter, wouldn’t it be great if he was making $850K instead of $2.5M? That 3rd pair D who doesn’t matter, wouldn’t it be great if he made $1.2M instead of $3M? This is not a support of the Sabres drafting, but in opposition to your apparent claim that only drafting top 6 level guys matter.

Yeah, I know! 0 NHL games played from the 2020 draft is unacceptable!

Cold? Nah, It’s 110 in the Shade.

True, if you have an NHL team full of talented 19-25 year olds and a weak prospect pool, it’s different than having an NHL team full of talented 29-35 year olds and a weak prospect pool. Still it’s important to have a semi consistent influx of cheap young players on their ELC and RFA contracts.

Ok, but he has been the ice time leader for one of the best teams in the league the past 3 years. I think he is certainly one of the best 60 D in the league.

Having a 1st pair D signed for under $6M AAV for ages 29-33 is not a bad contract. It’s a pretty good contract.

I think he was great at those junk goals from the start, but has gradually expanded his game to more dangerous is other positions. To the point where he even buried a couple nice one timers last season. Something I never thought I’d see with how weak his shot was his first couple years. He is a player who has shown consistent improvement, particularly in his areas of weakness (strength, skating, shot.....), year over year. For this reason, to me, if you do move Reinhart, you must be very careful to get excellent value for him. A couple years from now, you don’t want to be looking at a top line, 70-80 point player on another team, thinking “what the F did I do???”.

Sure, you should think that about the bad players. Otherwise you could say the same thing about Eichel. I understand points about Sam not being a physical player. He isn’t really, although I wouldn’t call him soft. He isn’t afraid of physical play, will stand in front and take a beating, and as he has gotten physically stronger over the past few years, his play along the boards has gotten quite good. Even so, it’s possible that he does not really fit the style of play that the Sabres are going for. To me, the question is, does Sam bring other, unique elements to the team so that it makes sense to have him as an “exception” to the desired player type?

Just a note. He is 6’1” 190-195. Maybe he was 180 when drafted.

It is 2-way. If in the AHL, the salary is $250K.

Wake me up when they sign John Fogarty!

Ohh! Interesting that Irwin is listed as a RD. He shoots left and I think he is described as a LD other places.

No. The screenshot of that paper is from the office wall in that “Embedded “ episode. I’m sure that they take it very seriously.

Well, when they speak internally about what a Sabre is, this is what they are referring to. They defined it and post it in the offices. Whether that will in practice lead to success, I’ve no clue.