GASabresIUFAN

Acquired Bishop Signed Bloom, Rosen, Kisakov, Cedarqvist and Nadeau with Rosen, Kisakov and Cedarqvist expected to be in Rochester in the fall.

I went back and looked at my consensus board for 2016 and Nylander was 6th, Sergachev 10th, Keller 9 and Chychrun 8th. The bust Joulevi was 7th.

While not ranked here is a general run down on our prospect pool. (N) = NHL; (A) = AHL; (U )= USHL/NCAA, (C) = CHL; (E) = Europe, (R) = Russia [Based on where they finished last regular season). Goaltenders - UPL (A)*, Portillo (U) and Levi (U) Defense - Power (N), Samuelsson (N), Johnson (U), Laaksonen (A), Novikov (R), Lyckasen (E) RW - Quinn (A)*, JJP (A)*, Rosen (E)**, Nadeau (C)***, Rousek (A), Huglen (U), Sardarian (U), Pekar (A) LW - Kisakov (R)**, Poltapov (R), Bloom (C)***, Weissbach (A), Birio (A), Murray (A), Cederqvist (E)**, Marjala (C) C - Krebs (N), Costantini (U), Kozak (C), Von Barnekow (E), Konecny (E) * - projects to the NHL next season ** - signed for the AHL next season *** - signed but not yet eligible for the AHL Distribution based on regular season end league NHL - 3 AHL - 9 CHL - 4 USHL/NCAA - 6 Europe - 5 Russia - 3

Trade for Erik Johnson to be Power's partner for the next few years? I doubt they'd trade him to us but..... They may need to free up cash to keep Kadri (28g 87pts), Burakovsky (22g 61 pts) and Nichuskin (25g 52 pts),

I agree. Depending on how he and the staff have created their draft board, I think a LHD is very much on the table if one of the big 3 is still available at 16.

“I’ve seen this playbook before.” Tim Murray

Someone is signing here because “money talks”. Do you think someone like Casey DeSmith would rather stay a backup on an aging Pitt team or take a shot a being a starter on an up and coming Sabres team? Same for Comrie and maybe even Holtby. If you pay them they will come.

Isn’t timely saves the essence of good goaltending.

I guess good goaltending is important to winning Cups after all.

Mitts isn’t on the prospect list. Samuelsson will be on the list because last season was his rookie year and he is waiver exempt, but I don’t have him in my top 5 right now. That doesn’t mean I don’t love Mattias, I just don’t see him having as much upside as the 5 players listed.

I'm not going to rank all the prospects until after the draft in a few weeks. However here is a solid look at where the pipeline stands before the off-season truly begins. https://buffalonews.com/sports/sabres/sabres-prospect-depth-strong-in-rochester-elsewhere-if-top-guys-graduate-to-nhl/article_e7740b8e-f17f-11ec-986e-637b951e36d0.html As a reminder my definition of a prospects is a player 24 or younger to start the season, who is still waiver exempt. (I don't utilize a number of NHL games played as a limiting factor because players develop unevenly and can still be sent down to develop further as we saw with Thompson (106 NHL games) and Mitts (114). By this definition Krebs, Murray, and Weissbach are prospects while R2 is not. The only guy this definition puts in limbo is Cozens. He is still waiver exempt for another 30 games, but it's pretty safe to say he is a full time NHL, not a prospect. The biggest difference between Cozens and Tage/MItts is that Dylan finished his sophomore season in the NHL while Tage and Mitts finished in the AHL. Given this definition, the top of the heap is Power, Krebs, Quinn, JJP and Levi. After that the list is in flux.

Eichel really didn’t. His shooting % was basically the same his first 4 seasons and again in LV, around 10%. His only season better was his 15.9. My concern with Tage is that he was a 8% shooter prior to last season. If he can show he can repeat his effective shooting then sure give him a deal. However I’m not giving him a new deal until he shows he has actually taken his game to a new level. Compare these guys to Reinhart. His baseline is about 13% and he goes that or better every season. The one guy we should have given a long term deal we didn’t. JT Miller is similar to Reinhart. His baseline is 14 and he does that or better every year. Why am I focused on shooting %? It seems to be a great indicator of whether a goal scorer is a consistent threat or just a one year wonder. No idea where Tage falls yet so I’d rather be patient before giving him a longterm deal.

That’s the big question isn’t. Until we see him do it again he has no track record of being a consistently effective NHL player. On his first 145 NHL games Tage had 18g 17a or 35 pts Last season in 78 games he scored 38 goals. Now compare that to Olofsson, who has two 20 goal seasons in his 3 NHL seasons, yet people are trying to send him packing and re-sign Thompson for big money. I don’t get it.

No he won’t. He’ll still be a an RFA.

Hall sucked before he got to the Sabres. RK didn’t destroy Hall other then continuing a trend that had already begun. Hall’s shooting % in a 6 seasons in Edm was 10.6. In his first NJ season it was 8.4. Then came his breakout MVP year at 14%. Since then he has gone 9.7, 8.1, 7.4 and 9.2. Eichel also had his career year during RK’s tenure. He was a 10% shooter his first 4 years in Buffalo, then had a 15.9% season and then guess what, he came back from his injury and was a 10% shooter for LV. RK sucked, but these guys are 9-10% shooters outside of their breakout campaigns. Until Tage proves last year wasn’t just a career year, the prudent thing to do is wait and see. It’s funny, but this rush to re-sign Tage feels much like the posts to re-sign Skinner at any cost. How has that worked out so far?

I come to the same conclusion based on this year, but Karlsson's breakout year felt much like Tage's season, aka they could do no wrong. As I noted before, I believe Tage is a better player than Karlsson, however there is a very reasonable concern that he'll revert to his base line. Eichel, Hall and many others returned to their baseline following breakout season. The only guy that seems to continue to get better is high hockey IQ Sam Reinhart.

PS Columbus might also be a lousy trade partner for us. They hold the 6th and 12th picks. Why trade down to 9 when you'll be picking again 3 picks later? That said, they have a decent prospect pool headed by Kent Johnson and Cole Sillinger. Their 3rd best prospect is RHD Corson Ceulemans who had a good year as a freshman for Wisconsin. Maybe a RHD isn't a huge priority?

I'm in the no column. Can he do it again is important. William Karlsson is a great case in point on his this can work the wrong way as well. LV signed him to a 5.9 for 8 years. He had his huge year at 25 (43g 35a) with a 23.4 shooting %. The following season he was solid (24g 32a) with a 14.2 shooting %. LV gave him the big contract after that second season. His last three have been 46 pts (10.9 shooting), 39 pts (12.6 shooting) and 35 pts (8.9 shooting). I'm not enamored with the idea of paying 5.9 for 5 more years for a guy scoring 35 pts. The two year prior to his breakout 20 pts (8.3 % shooting) and 25 pts (6.3% shooting). He was also only playing 13 minutes a night with CBJ before expansion and jumped to 18:30+ with LV in his breakout year. While I will agree that Tage is probably going to be a better player than Karlsson long-term, his explosion is coming from a very similar place. Both are decently talented guys who got thrust into the limelight having played a secondary role prior to breakout. Karlsson got his opportunity on an expansion team and Tage on a team with nothing to lose. Tage's shooting % in the seasons prior to his breakout were very similar to Karlsson's at 6.5 and 8.3. His breakout comes with a 15% shooting % which is also unlikely sustainable. Like Karlsson, Tage played less then 14 minutes a night and then last season played nearly 18. I'd wait and see. No harm getting the conversation started, but doing a 8 year deal like LV did seems excessive.

Like anything else, the answer to all questions is "it depends." It depends on how important KA thinks it is to get the high end RHD. It depends on how big a difference in ratings KA has between the RHD and the player(s) he likes at 9 and the D on his board at 28 or 41. It depends on how much of an overpayment Columbus wants and what their draft board and needs are. Ultimately 9 and 41 for 6 is very close to fair value. To get 9 & 28, they'd have to offer us 6 and 45. Anything lower then say 50 it would be time to hang up the phone. There are two many talented RHD like Chesley and Luneau available at 28 and more like Salomonsson, Rinzel and Havelid who should be available at 41 to keep KA from giving up to much to get Nemec or Jiricek.

Look at Okposo, it can happen to anyone at anytime. It can be a career killer or just an injury. I don’t think that should be a determining factor unless the doctors say there are residual problems and don’t take him.

The more I research this draft, I keep coming back to certain players. I really want Nemec or Jiricek. If one somehow falls to six, I would trade 9 and 41 in an instant to grab that player. I like Savoie's talent and Nazar seems like the USA version of Savoie. Small fast talented forwards. I just don't see either as centers in the NHL. At this point if Savoie falls to us at 9, I think KA has to take him. Too talented to pass on. Otherwise, I am coming around on Gauthier. The more I read, the more I believe he'd be a good player in our system. My 3rd choice is taking Kasper. Some will say this is to high, maybe, but he was one of best players on his SHL team in the playoffs at 18. He is described as big center with good wheels who is 100% effort, a great work ethic and solid skills. What's not to like? At 16, Kasper would be ideal, but I doubt he slips that far. If not Jiri Kulich really intrigues me. He is a reasonably skilled forward, but someone who plays a two way game with gusto. Reminds me of a smaller ROR. Miroshniichenko's skill level is elite. If we are going to roll the dice, why not on him here. Also I really like Korchinski over the other 2 LHDs, although I suspect, none of the 3 will be there when we draft at 16. I think there will be a run on them, as teams are desperate for the next Cale Makar. What about at 28. The forwards that stand out at this point are Snuggerud and Gaucher. Snuggerud is a bigger, better and more skilled version of his Dad. Like Kasper, he seems to be 100% work ethic and effort. He's also already 6'2". Gaucher is fast, big, plays 200 feet and can score. He is said to be one of the defensive forwards in the Q. Again, what's not to like. On defense two RHD stand out to me here. One is Ryan Chesley. He seems like a smaller, but better O version of Samuelsson. He is a strong physical defender, who was a leader of the USNTDP and added O when called upon. Biggest issue is mediocre skating, which is what they said about Samuelsson as well. The other D is fast high O skill RHD Tristian Luneau, but he is also solid defensively according to the scouting reports I've read. Ultimately if we come away with 3 from Savoie, Gauthier, Kasper, Kulich, Miro, Snuggerud, Gaucher, Chesley or Luneau, I'll be thrilled.

I think the title of this thread needs to be updated. It doesn’t reflect accurately what LL said in his mailbag.

Now the real question is does he just get the C or does he get the C and an extension?

I’d like to thank Kyle for his efforts here in Buffalo, congrats on being the next Sabres Captain and I’m sincerely sorry this will be your last season here.

Maybe