Curt

I couldn’t care less what Bowman did 40 years ago. It’s Kevyn Adams’ era now! But seriously, I just went back and looked. The 82 and 83 drafts, which I’m assuming that Bowman would have overseen, look something like what I imagine Adams’ past couple drafts will turn out to be. Lots of picks, lots of early picks. Im not super familiar with all the players from the 80s, but it looks like those two drafts yielded a pretty good haul. However, looking at the few drafts before and after, the results of those look very barren. Good, but not good enough Mr. Bowman. I would contrast that with the 2018-2019-2020 drafts which look like the will yield several good players. I’m sticking with the idea that the current Sabres are reaching a critical mass of good young players those players will push each other to great heights and the Buffalo Sabres will be a contender for several years.

I know this is from a couple days ago, but I’m tossing it in here because Levi is great. He’s definitely signing too. No doubt.

For some time I’ve been mulling over creating a spreadsheet that projects the Sabres cap over the next several seasons. Recently I finally found the time to start working on it and I’ve finished something of a rough draft. It seemed a waste to keep it just to myself, so I’m going to post it here for everyone to view or critique or use however you like. The Sabres don’t have a lot of guys locked up to long term contracts right now and the roster is set up for maximum flexibility moving forward, so I had to make a lot of judgment calls when projecting things out. I did my best. I plan to keep updating this over time. In the next couple years things will solidify a bit as some guys sign long term and we get a better idea of how the cap will increase. Click Below to View Spreadsheet: Export.pdf

Please do show that the Sabres prospect pool has been ranking as “top of the heap” (1st? top-3? top-5?) for several years running. I don’t recall this being the case, but I could be misremembering.

Years? Like 1-2 years at most maybe.

I didn’t see that comparison, though if I squint I can see it I guess. Kulich might be a faster skater and Horvat might be stronger, both both are 200 ft centers with good shots who are more shooter than playmaker. Idk.

I know that jaded Sabres fans sometimes respond with “yeah sure, people have been telling me that for years and they still stink.” but Buffalo really does have a stunning amount of young player/prospect depth right now (and with the additional 4 round 1/2 picks next draft). The high level prospects that are going to be filtering into Rochester/Buffalo over the next 3-4 years is going to be impressive. Let the cream rise to the top, and it’s probably going to be necessary to make a couple consolidation trades with the rest.

Best Sabres season in the past 10 years, without doubt.

Dahlin does/should play 1:30 out of every PP. Because Sabres have Dahlin/Power as cornerstone pieces, I wouldn’t spend significant assets and term to bringing in an offensive dman. You are getting diminishing returns, because you are paying for a lot of PP skills that aren’t really going to be utilized in Buffalo. It’s not the type they should be committing major assets to.

I like him better than Östlund. Would have been happy with taking him at 16. Surprised he was there at 28.

Portillo definitely comes across as more comfortable as a public speaker, but that doesn’t mean much. Some people just are. Johnson has never come across as a confident interview. I think it’s just the way he talks. I got the impression that Johnson is genuinely conflicted. He wants to go back to school but he likes the Sabres too. He didn’t want to give false hope that he was signing this offseason, but he also didn’t want to make it sound like he wasn’t interested in signing eventually. Hence the answers that sound half in half out. That’s my take away too. I expect that Johnson will sign. I really don’t know about Portillo, leaning no.

I would be shocked if a GM thought he was NHL ready. He needs to go to the AHL and prove himself.

4P in 55 GP Kind of says it all. A checking forward with the production of a 3rd pair defensive defenseman. Seems like a good hardworking guy, but they can do better.

I think that goalies take so long to develop because the position demands highly technical precision movements and positioning. And these need to be fine tuned and adjusted as higher levels of competition are faced. Compare that to skaters where a lot more of it is pure athletic ability. And I think that the number of good goalies out there seems to be reducing because the shooters and team strategists are starting to catch up. Goalies were working individually with goalie coaches on position specific techniques long before shooters started working one on one with shooting and skills coaches. Also teams are getting better at implementing strategies that increase high danger scoring chances. So, I think the goalies have mostly stayed the same. It’s the shots they are facing that are getting better.

I don’t think that those teams have the same amount of young talent as Buffalo does. The depth isn’t there, though Ottawa is close. Ottawa has a depth of young forward talent right now, maybe better than Buffalo’s, though Buffalo has more forward prospects on the way. I like what Buffalo has on defense better than what Ottawa has, both for now and the future. I like what Ottawa did with their goaltending. They are probably ahead of Buffalo there too for now. I did not like Detroit’s offseason. Copp is good but they better pray he keeps up that offensive production. He doesn’t have a long track record of producing but that was a decent deal. Husso is an ok bet, but is he really better than Comrie for example? Their track records are not too dissimilar. Either one could flop. The Chariot deal is terrible IMO. I know Yzerman gets an auto pass, but to me, it doesn’t look good right now. Ottawa and Buffalo are pretty close, but I don’t think Detroit gained any ground this offseason.

Why are you being like this? There is no position called deep net in hockey. Who is going to help Comrie? Dahlin, Power, Samuelsson, Lyubushkin, Jokiharju and Bryson. You could literally spend all day finding negative things to say and filling up this thread with pointless drivel, instead of just letting it go that a comparison between a move by the Bills and a move by the Sabres has some merit. Doesn’t mean that it will work out as well, buts a move made with a similar idea in mind.

The way I see it, Buffalo has so many young talented players that odds are that a couple will “pop” each year for the next 3-4 years. Last season it was Thompson and Dahlin. Next season Mitts, Cozens, Krebs, Quinn, Power, Samuelsson, Jokiharju, Comrie all look like candidates. Some will and some won’t, but odds are that a couple will. The year after that it’s the above guys who don’t plus Savoie, JJP, UPL. The year after that it’s the above guys who don’t plus Bloom, Nadeau, Kisakov, Östlund, Kulich, Johnson?, Levi, and others.

He isn’t really more than a 3rd pair guy. Seems he could be ok on a 2nd pair at times though. The reason people are glad to have him is because he fills needs.

I think Buffalo looks to be ahead of Detroit and New Jersey still. Ottawa and Buffalo are close but ahead of the other two. Best evaluation I can give on July 14.

You still need to be under the cap on opening day. You can’t put a player on LTIR until after the season starts.

Yes, but it’s not just that. They have no stability. They are churning top-6/top-4 players. Guys are brought in for just 1-2 years and then shipped out in favor of someone different. I don’t see how any of the guys there can feel valued or secure unless they have a NMC. They have squandered their depth through poor asset management and in favor of acquiring a couple extra star players. They are now heavily dependent upon several players on the wrong side of 30, with sketchy health track records and they have a weak prospect pool. I think that team’s window for contention is closed.

I could, but I know it’s not a long list of high priced players. It’s a very modest list of select middle of the lineup players who were signed to reasonable deals to fill a specific hole on the roster.

Just those on teams that win the cup.

OMG. Vegas is doomed.