GASabresIUFAN

Östlund, Rosen and our 13th pick are clearly our most trade-able assets. Both prospects are behind Kulich and Savoie, neither should be used on a 4th line and both have a huge uphill climb to win top 9 roles within the next few seasons. With Tuch, Tnt, Skinner, JJP, Cozens, Quinn, Mitts, Krebs, and Greenway you have 9 guys under or control for the next few years, and Kulich and Savoie pushing for roster spots as early as next season. Surely we can afford to move on from Östlund or Rosen to bolster weaknesses in on our roster and in our pipeline. FYI: The odds are the 13th pick will be a forward and a very talented one. By most accounts this is a significantly deeper and more talented draft class than last year. We need D help short and long-term. It’s time to turn some of these excess forwards into D.

I'll respectfully disagree. Also, let's say for argument's sake that Reinbacher would fall to us at 13. Who would you rather have in the pipeline, a top-tier D man or another smallish forward?

I know I may be in the minority here, but I'd rather trade Östlund in a goalie deal than our 13th pick this year.

What does this even mean? WPG as a team was significantly better defensively than the Sabres. The Sabres gave up the 4th most HDCA at 888. WPG was significantly better at only 752.

I’m against trading for Hellebuyck as well, nor am I interested in giving him a huge extension. I’m not interested in a rental either. We need a stable tandem for about 3 years. After that we need to develop a backup for Levi or just get a FA backup that fits the cap. To many reasonable options out there to waste big assets on a one year rental. Also if I were KA I’d be a little nervous in the transition for someone like Helle from the WPG system to our very open very high event style.

Take the ROR trade for example. We certainly "lost" that trade initially, but now that trade gave us our No. 1 center for the years to come and potentially a solid D man in Johnson who if he develops well could possibly end up in our top 4 (plus a draft pick used to acquire Colin Miller.)

I disagree. KA realizes from his time as a player how fleeting being a Cup contender can be. Levi is certainly part of the equation next year but KA can’t afford to allow another season to go to waste with bad goaltending. If he gets a good vet and Levi proves to be the real deal the worst that happens is we have good goaltending for 82 games. If Levi isn’t ready to be a starter then having the good vet insures quality goaltending most of the season.

The more I read about Moore, he's the player I hope slips to us at 13. Of the group 12-17 I'm not a huge fan of Barlow, and I worry about Perreault's skating. I really like what I've read about Sale. In the 2nd round, I like the big body of Bonk. Morin is an excellent skater. I doubt Dragiecevic falls to 39. At 45 there should be plenty of D to choose from. One sleeper is Max Strbak. He's another bigger D who skates well, has a solid 2 way game and is rated as high at 34 on one of the rankings I collected.

I have compiled the rankings from 11 sources. Most are from May, but Button is from March and Dobber from April. Round 1 (plus 1) 1 - Bedard 2-7 - Fantilli, Michkov, Carlsson, Smith, Benson and Leonard 8-11 - Dvorsky, Moore, Pellikka, and Reinbacher 12-17 - Danielson, Barlow, Perreault, Sale, Wood, and Honzek 18-27 - Yager, Cristall, Gulyaev, Stenberg, Brindley, Heidt, Ritchie, Simashev, Musty, and Willander. (Note: This is a large group with players seemingly heading in opposite directions: Up: Simashev, Stenberg and Willander; Down: Heidt, Brindely, and Ritchie). 28 - But 29-33 - Perron, Dragicevic, Nadeau, Gauthier and Haltunnen Round 2 34-38 - Ziemmer, Bonk, Lardis, Stramel, and Morin 39-44 - Hrabel, Cagnoni, Ciernik, Wahlberg, Augustine, and Lindstein 45-49 - Sawchyn, Edstrom (player on the rise), Price, Molendyk, and Lind 50-53 - Dower-Nilsson, Akey, Pitre, and Hameenaho 54-56 - Bjarnason, Kiiskinen, and Brzustewicz 57-59 - Rehkopf, Minnetian, and Allen 60-64 - Molgaard (player on the rise), Strbak, Nelson, Pinelli, and Caraford

That might be true if they didn’t have the younger, cheaper and probably just as good goalie in Swayman already on the team and ready to be a No. 1 guy. Goalie is where their depth is. They need centers and D and don’t have much room to pay them.

Depends. They need cap space and they need warm bodies in their empty prospects pool. Ullmark’s value might never be higher.

There are other facts that fueled the speculation. His Dad, former NHLer Craig Johnson, is the Co-HC (w Chris Hajt) of LA’s affiliate the Ontario Reign. Honestly getting him signed was very important for the Sabres. KA’s plan to build and sign a young core and then supplement from his pipeline as they develop needs layers of prospects to work. Last season we had no near ready kids in Roch and it cost us. The Johnson signing changes that. He now sits on top of the D layers 1) Johnson 2) Novikov 3) Komarov and Lindgren Still very thin, but at least the all 4 showed well last season. Another positive aspect of this is that Johnson choose to be here. He could have easily walked on August.

3-2 USA after 2

2 straight for the Germans. PP goal and a defensive D scores. 2-2 4 minutes left in the 1st

Tuch steals the puck and passes to Grimaldi for a breakaway. USA 2-0 less than 4 minutes in.

Tuch scores in the first 2 minutes. USA 1-0. Tick-Tack-Toe passing play with Tuch finishing.

Quinn and Krebs were both really good in this game. First Canada game I watched all the way through.

Fantilli scores his first of the tourney on a sick deek. 3-2 Canada.

Crouse digs it out behind the net. Passes to Quinn who banks it off the goalie's back to Tie the game 45 seconds into the 3rd.

Ooops 2-1 Lativa. Maybe Levi should be in net.

NHL Network Krebs with an excellent play backing off the D and then feeding the open winger. 1-1 Tie

No he wasn’t. 2020 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #16 by Elite Prospects 2020 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #10 by ISS Hockey 2020 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #20 by FCHockey 2020 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #7 by TSN/Craig Button 2020 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #10 by McKeen's Hockey 2020 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #10 by TSN/McKenzie 2020 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #7 by NHL Central Scouting https://www.habseyesontheprize.com/2020-nhl-draft-rankings-consensus-lafreniere-byfield-stutzle-bob-mckenzie-athletic-hockey-prospects/ This is a great consensus board that uses 15 rankings and Quinn was 11th

Just for comparison purposes Quinn (age 20 season) - AHL - 45gm 26g 35a 61 pts (1.36 pts/gp) Quinn (19) - AHL - 15gm 2g 7a 9pts (.6 pts/gp) JJP (19) - AHL - 70gm 28g 40a 68 pts (.97 pts/gp) Kulich (18) - AHL - 62gm 24g 22a 46pts (.74 pts/gp) Rosen (19) - AHL - 66gm 14g 23a 37pts (.56 pts/gp) Nylander (19) - AHL 51gm 8g 19a 27pt (.53 pts/gp) Krebs (19) - AHL 5gm 1g 4a 5pts (1pt/gp) - Krebs was mostly in the WHL that season (with 43pts in 24gms) Cozens (19) - NHL- 41gms 4g 9a 13 pts TNT & Mitts were in college. Savoie is stuck in the WHL (95 pts in 62 games). Östlund (18) - AVK - 37gm 8g 18a 26pts (.70 pts/gp) Note: the NHLe for the Allsvenskan is very close to the AHL's.

Tuch just turned 27. I suspect he'll be just fine at 31. Skinner's game is the type of game that can be played well into his 30's. Think Joe Pavelski. However, when I listed the more talented players in the organization ahead of Rosen, I didn't include Skinner. Once you include Skinner, Rosen falls to 13 or 14th talent-wise. Take the Sabres right now and cross out KO, Skinner, Tuch, and even Greenway. You're left with Thompson, Cozens, Mitts, Quinn, JJP, Savoie, Kulich, Krebs, and Östlund. Cap considerations aside, who are you jettisoning in favor of Rosen for a top 9 spot?

He had multiple ratings in the top 10. Sportsnet, for example, had him 9th. TSN's Button had him 7th, Mckeen's, Draft Prospects, McKenzie, and ISS all had him 10th. Quinn at 8 was hardly a reach. My consensus board had him 10th. PS: Just because the entire board thought this was a bad pick at 8 because he had had only one good junior season, doesn't mean it was a reach.