Curt

That would kind of make sense. Forton is the Director of Amateur Scouting. He is basically in charge of the draft. Of course Adams is ultimately responsible for everything, but Forton (and his scouts) is the one focusing on draft prospects year round, not Adams.

No. Matt Leblanc. Dude is so cool.

I’m not arguing with you, just talking, but I’m not sure if you can manufacture continuity where there truly isn’t any. In a similar vein, I’m not even sure how much it matters to these guys that Buffalo was unsuccessful for the past decade. These are 18-25 year olds. The here and now is what matters to them. My point of view is that the Sabres need to assemble a group of driven, high character guys who will push eachother and grow together. And supplement them with some veterans and coaches who can help guide them a bit. That group then needs to start winning. They will establish their own culture and set of internal standards in this way. The fun stuff I’m talking about is the stuff they do just for marketing purposes and the documentary type stuff they do for special events. I don’t think it really reflects the day to day much.

Why do they need to publicly push it out as marketing media? Is it really that entertaining? I think the Sabres marketing has gotten way better the past couple years when they started focusing on fun interactions between current players. I thought you wanted the alumni stuff because it helps the players? Maybe the Sabres just don’t think it makes for very good content.

I think Adams has done a good job building strong connections between these players, the organization, and the city. I understand your point about the potential benefits of having successful former Sabres around. I’m not against it, but I think having guys with more recent NHL experience/success is more relevant. Guys like E Johnson and Clifton, Anderson. I do think they could do a little better with this.

Dude, almost exactly the feelings I just expressed, phrased in a different way.

I don’t think you can “get it back” from where we are right now. If it is team culture/identity, that’s been lost. The connection is severed. There is no one on the team who has ever been part of a successful Sabres team. There is no continuity there to maintain. It can’t be gotten back, it needs to be regrown from scratch. These guys who are in the room now need to form it in their own image. Having experienced leaders around can help to guide them, but no old Sabres player is going to do it for them. The current group will build their own culture/identity. It won’t come as something handed down from the past.

Yeah, Gionta and Pommer are guys I would be happy to see become part of the Sabres organization. They both live locally, so it’s reasonable. Id say Gaustad too, but I think he lives way out west in Oregon. Tim Connolly or Jay McKee maybe?

Not everyone can be a 50% or above face off guy.

Yeah, the contract is fine. Power isn’t perfect in his own zone, but not many 20 year olds are. He’ll get better.

I saw what you saw on that GTG. I agree that Power needs to engage physically more. I think it will come with age/experience.

Honestly, I think what is itching at you most is the bolded. Not necessarily that the Sabres logo means nothing, but if we are going to be 100% honest, the Bruins logo does mean more, at least right now. They have been a model NHL franchise the past 20 years, and the Sabres have been mostly a mess, off the ice almost as much as on it. Thats what Adams is trying to improve. He is trying to instill in this group of young guys that the logo, the organization, and representing the city means something special. We can discuss whether he has made all the right moves (he hasn’t) but Adams is definitely putting emphasis on trying to instill a real pride in this organization.

-Elias Pettersson, yeah, he is awesome. What kind of a contract do you think he is going to sign? It’s going to be epic. -I think maybe the issue with Seth Jones is that he was a little overrated. He was consistently on a pair with Werenski for years and they were awesome together. Looks like maybe it was Werenski lifting up Jones a bit instead of the other way around. Werenski is a top 10 D in this league. Jones is a good player, but he isn’t as good as what he was billed as.

If you go the the Sabres NHL website, it says 5’9” 163. On the training camp roster they had him at 5’10” 170. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I don’t see them as particularly similar, especially not when Reinhart was also 18. I think the similarities would be below average shots and good passing. Apart from that I don’t see much. Reinhart was always supposed to be a C, and Benson is a wing. Reinhart was never a small player, Benson is small. Benson lacks great speed, but I think he is actually a fine skater. Reinhart was pretty terrible at the same age. He could barely stay on his feet and he was slow. Reinhart was always fine defensively, but Benson has a tenacity to his game that Reinhart never has.

Not that it makes a huge difference, but he measured 5’10 170 at the draft combine and was listed as such on the Sabres training camp roster. It would be cool if he could end up 5’11 185 at 25. We’ll see.

Arg. Make it stop! 1) The Butler is not a cool nickname for a hockey player. It’s lame. 2) Are we really going to name him after a sitcom that went off air 37 years ago? A show that went off air almost 20 years before Benson was even born? Lame. 3) I had never even heard of this show before. Lame.

I’m not really a fan of the Bills’ all reds. I think I prefer these Giants throwbacks to their current look.

Hard to say without seeing Savoie in action. I’d try it for a game and go from there.

Then don’t? If you need a break from the team, take one. You don’t have to come on a message board to tell us that you don’t want to talk about something. Just don’t do it.

What is this supposed to be? Most of the people here don’t speak meme.

Obvious you can’t just go off of points. If he keeps playing like this, or close to it, you have to keep him. No winger on the team has really been better than him so far.

I think he is basically a lock to be a good NHL player, and I think he has a very good chance of being a star. That’s saying a lot for an 18 year old. He should stick with the team.

Yeah, 60+. Somewhere between 60 and 160 points seems about right.

Just watching Benson, I feel pretty confident that this guy is a star. Like a 60+ point guy who also plays really good defense. He definitely needs to add strength and he might wear down this year as we go along, but he belongs. He is here to stay. And Levi is the real deal. Maybe he won’t be a top five goalie in the league, but he is going to be solid.