Curt

Nick Delaurier was a Sabre.

He was a better puck handler?

Thanks for this. Considering the roster, I’m actually surprised that the ES defense is that good.

Record for a season is 12. He could do that.

Honestly, I have not seen a lot of evidence that Bader’s model is very useful for projecting prospects.

I was think that Colorado was a semi good comparable to what Buffalo is going through. They had a very long rebuild with multiple stumbles. They traded away multiple highly drafted, talented players while trying to find the right mix (Duschene, O’Reilly, Barrie). They churned through multiple coaches as well.

Sign Josh Manson this offseason?

I think you are missing a few 0’s. It would be $150,000 each from 500 people to collect $75M.

Is this the first guy who has moved directly from big time NHL player agent to NHL GM?

Tuch and Okposo too. Sabres don’t have much for veteran leadership but they have those guys.

I don’t like JR as much as you, but this After the Whistle podcast has surpassed my expectations. They have been quite good. Peters and Rivet are much better in this format.

Gives him lots of time to eat ice cream and lift weights though. I hope that’s what he is doing.

Assuming that Power and Quinn are no longer considered prospects, then yes, I agree.

In back to back games on Friday and Saturday nights, the Florida Panthers won by scores of 7-1 and 9-2. That is damn impressive.

I’m not so sure. Some private equity firms have already bought into multiple teams. I believe one has a 20% stake in 3 or 4 teams already. They most certainly don’t have control over the operations of multiple teams. I think that is why there are limits on the % that an equity firm can own. They aren’t allowed to by enough to have any real control.

I believe that 20% is the maximum allowed to be sold to a private equity firm. I could absolutely see it happening, but it would be a little surprised to see it happen before the Bills stadium situation gets settled. Just for optics reasons.

See the two white things. Those are the two halves of the artificial disc. I’m assuming that they should be lined up with each other.

and @Let's Go B-Lo The question was to rank the Sabres defensemen, including prospects if you like, using any criteria that you see fit. You responded with a snide non-answer. It does not contribute to the conversation about which defensemen we value most highly. Then I read a second non-answer immediately after, so I responded. Don’t get bent out of shape about it.

Thank you guys for your contributions to the conversation. Truly amazing.

You are really counting those eggs. Wright hasn’t played a pro game, or even dominated a junior season. Tage has looked like an NHL player for half a season. Krebs hasn’t proven that he is going to be a good NHL C. Cozens has looked as good playing W as C, for the most part. I think Mittelstadt might have the highest offensive upside out of all of them. These guys are unproven. Some of them can play wing as well. Having too many good forwards who can play C is not an issue, and it’s certainly not a problem that the Sabres currently suffer from. You need center depth. The Sabres need as many eggs as they can get, because they aren’t all going to hatch.

No. Tage Thompson. I don’t think he is that similar to Campbell. I think he projects to be better defensively and not nearly the puck carrier or offensive talent.

But it’s not just Bedard, there is Michkov too. Two generational talents, even if you miss out on 1st, there is a shot at greatness. There hasn’t been this opportunity to turn around a franchise since 2015............🙃

I think peak Raanta was as good as peak Khudobin. I was just trying to list guys who have been successful goalies in recent years. You are correct that Saros is the only one who is a true starter. Tim Thomas was an incredibly successful small goalie not that long ago.

Saris, Raanta, Khudobin, Bernier

While I certainly understand your point, I think the nuance of the situation will basically rule out a lower money bridge type of deal. Olofsson is UFA starting in the 2023 offseason. Although it could make sense for Olofsson, the Sabres shouldn’t want to sign him for a one year (or even 2 year) prove it deal just to have to compete with the entire league to retain him in the 2023 offseason. Olofsson isn’t going to sign a longer 3-4+ year lower money ($3M) deal because he almost definitely thinks he can be a productive top-6 winger and get payed as such. If Sabres try to play real hardball with him, I believe he can just do the one year arbitration thing and then be a UFA the following offseason. (Someone correct me if I’m wrong.) So, where does that leave us? This is not a young player with years of team control remaining. He is going to be 27 next season, he will recognize that he needs to cash in on his prime years. The Sabres have seen enough of him at the NHL level to decide whether they believe in him or not. They need to make a decision. Either he is a part of the scoring forward core moving forward, or they need to trade him to some team that does believe in him. That’s how I see the situation.