Curt

Best of luck to Danny. Maybe he can take over after Fletcher gets fired.

Really? I thought it was lame enough that he could see through that blindfold and the goalies don’t even try.

Any C you draft would also be a question mark. Prospects are question marks. We have several C question marks, yes, that’s true. When it comes to young RHD, we don’t even have question marks, we have Jokiharju and nothing else.

Do teams win games without any top-4 quality RHD? The Sabres have Mittelstadt, Thompson, Cozens, and Krebs as young prospective top-6 centers. And what are you calling a number 1 C? One of the best 32 C’s in the league?

Buffalo has a lot more question marks at RD than at C. I think either is acceptable early in the 1st.

Not saying that either of you are wrong, but in McKenzie’s mid season pole, NHL scouts had Jiricek at 7 and Nemec at 9.

Pure speculation, but could be related to allegations that the UM team falsified Covid contact tracing information.

I’d say it depends on his frame. Is he narrow shouldered/framed or is he just skinny right now? Gangly is ok for an 18 year old, he’ll gain weight, but someone with a slight frame will find it difficult to be a physical defenseman. Probably more important than anything else: is he good at hockey? Is he better at hockey than other 1st round options? I haven’t watched him play, but his numbers are not very impressive relative to 1st round picks. For comparison, Mattias Samuelsson’s numbers were quite a bit better.

Probably were jumping on LinkedIn right after that exchange.

Sad part is that the organization probably has taken real steps toward improvement, but this old guy was sick of hearing about it and didn’t want to talk about it, turning a chance to start rebuilding public trust into a situation where they just dug the hole even deeper. He is obviously clueless about what is going on around him.

A guy who sounded intriguing to me as a late 1st or early 2nd. Noah Warren RHD Any thoughts?

Vegas actually has not drafted particularly well, in my opinion.

He is Canadian, so that makes sense.

I know, doesn’t seem like he should be that old, but that’s probably because he played until he was 44.

That’s just a professional journalism move from McKenzie. When you publish information that is already public, you cite your sources.

Never heard of that organization. What a terrible name.

To my mind, Mittelstadt has been better at C than W, like Thompson, and also looks to be the best face off guy of the four. So, I think Mitts and Tage are going to play C, joined by one of Cozens/Krebs.

I just finished watching this game today. It was fun and I feel like there is visible growth from the team as we go through this season. I know it was just a bad goaltending blowout, but the additions of Samuelsson, Krebs, and Quinn when he was on ice, really fill out some important roles on this team. Some of my off the cuff takeaways: Dahlin looked great, and he went after the guy who boarded Skinner Krebs looks like Tim Connolly. Combining passing, skating and imagination to create scoring chances. Very impressed by him. Samuelsson is just what this team needs, and they need a right handed version of him too. Very impressed by him. This team is not great, or even good, but they are interesting and I feel like the potential is not just there, but is actually being slowly realized in front of our eyes. If Mitts, Quinn and Power were out there it would be even better.

Everyone who watches Rochester on a consistent basis says that Laaksonen’s defense stinks real bad. Sabres are not going to be in need of a guy who’s best attribute is running a PP. Dahlin and Power are going to be the guys doing that for the next decade. In general, I think that a lot of people use the term “puck moving defenseman” to just mean offense first, often small, defenseman. In reality, all defenseman need to exhibit puck moving qualities if they are going to be any good at all. A defenseman can be great at clearing the crease and separating the man from the puck, but if he can’t then make a smart pass to get it out of the zone while under forchecking pressure, then those previous efforts will often be for not. Being a good defender down low in your own zone is great (and I really mean this, there are many situations where it is vital), but if you are doing other things well, you won’t need to be in that position very often.

Butting in: Disagree. Hall was a lot better than that. He did create a fair amount of chances, but didn’t cash in on his shots. The memory of his play is tainted in our minds by the expectations we had for him as well as for the team, and by his $8M contract.

Yay for Craig Anderson. Hope to see him back on the ice this season. Not just for the Sabres’ sake, you also like to see guys be able to leave the game on their own terms. I know he is old and just about done, but still hate to see guys forced out by injury.

Next season Sabres will have on the ice: # 22 - Quinn # 23 - Samuelsson # 24 - Cozens # 25 - Power # 26 - Dahlin

Hopefully that’s the first of many for our young new Jack! He is going to force the Sabres to keep him in the NHL. I know that the team is bad right now, but I just can’t help but to be optimistic about all these young guys.

Slander!

Say what you want about colors, but the goathead is a nice crest. Agree that they should have done it in royal and gold.