GASabresIUFAN

I'm wondering if KA's draft strategy might be to trade down from 11 to 23 or so and draft this kid and pick up a depth vet for the 4th line in the deal.

I was just about to post this. Thanks

Honestly who cares you the Captain is? What difference has it made who the captain has been this century? The bigger issues from the "presser" are how the team is going to make over the roster. Are they going to redo the D to get better pairings? How are they going to remake the bottom 6 so that we have scoring depth throughout the lineup to help in the playoffs? How are Ruff and Appert going to implement their new "motion" PP? Does that mean faster puck movement, more passes down low and behind the net?

JJP and Kulich are two of my favorite prospects we drafted in recent years. They were two guys who stood out at the U18’s relative to their teams and the scouting reports made me very excited when we were able to snag them. JJP’s progress has been nothing short of miraculous. The last time the Sabres found a 2nd rd forward who has made a similar impact on the Sabres were Roy and Pominville. (We traded Compher before he had a chance to make an impact in Buffalo). Kulich may not have JJP’s upside, but I think he could be the long-term solution to 2-way 3rd line center. Unfortunately, he may be the price to get a 3C for next season.

@Taro T From your comments I get the feeling that Adams is relying on Ruff to clue him in on how to fix the roster. Was that your impression as well?

It’s long past time to try to improve all aspects of this roster and that includes upgrading the depth forwards. Enough is enough.

I read that there is some talk about the Agents and Union want to reduce the draft from 7 rounds to 4. https://thehockeywriters.com/nhl-draft-4-round-potential/. Apparently Elliotte Friedman raised the issue in his podcast. THW raises the issue of UDFAs gravitating towards good teams, making it harder for the Buffalo’s of the world to compete. I also know that most teams don’t even have 150 kids on their draft board on draft day. My initial reaction is that reducing it to 5 rounds won’t make much of a difference. Ullmark is probably the most impactful 6th or 7th rd pick to have a major impact. VO was a nice story for a while. With colleges soon to opening their doors to CHL players, we will probably see an influx of college FAs that might even the playing field. Thoughts?

There is no longer any room of this roster for Girgensons. He is part of the failed culture on this team and it’s time to move on. We need to move on from the guys who don’t make us better and he is one of those guys. Same with Joki and Bryson. If you keep bringing back the same failed players, why should the fans expect different results?

Hitting on 1/3+ of your picks is extremely good drafting. For example, in the 2017 draft so far, only 59 (out of 217 or 27%) players have reached 100 games played. Mitts is 7th in games played, Joki 8th, Bryson 30th and UPL 59th at 100 games so far.

I came across this tidbit and it almost made me sick. https://www.prohockeyrumors.com/buffalo-sabres Please G-d no. He is selling his house Adams. Let him go.

My board reflects what the guy from Red Line was talking about. Celebrini is No. 1 by a wide margin. There is little separating No. 2 Levshunov from No. 11 Helenius. There is a gap from Helenius to No. 12 Eiserman, but Eiserman, Yakemchuk and Sennecke have nearly identical rankings. I'm not surprised some teams have Iginla and Sennecke in the top 5. They have received top 5-7 voted from the various (I'm up to 9) rankings I've added to my consensus board. I personally think it's Celebrini 1 and Levshunov 2, but after that anything can happen. I'd add that I think Buium, Silayev and Demidov will also go in the top 7 and Parekh in the top 10. After doing some work on this draft, I'd rather trade Rosen and another former 1st rd pick like Östlund or Kulich then give up the 11. The top 14 picks are too strong and we need a top prospect a little separated in development time from the other top guys.

We all know you loath Jbot. We get it, but can't take credit away for Dahlin and then give credit for Power. That's not how this works. Jbot made 18 picks and found 7 NHLers including 2 2nd line centers in the NHL, a starting goalie, a No. 1 D and a 4/5 D. Ryan Johnson will also be a 4-6 D in the NHL as soon as this season and Bryson is a depth NHL D picked up in the 4th round. There is even a chance that Rousek finally makes the NHL this season full time. That pretty good drafting. Hate on Jbot all you want, but give credit where credit it due.

NHL Now had the guy from Red Line on the show and he basically said that there is very little separating pick 2 in this draft from No. 13/14. Sennecke is currently 14th on my board and I think he's a Quinn type pick up. I'd be thrilled to get him at 11. There is a gap on my board to 15 to the very good Brandsegg-Nygard.

@Brawndo I’ll have to take your word for it on Forton. All I know is that our drafting is better over the last 7 years and as a fan that’s all I care about. If it starts to stink again, we’ll have our villain. Despite the better drafting, I still believe Adams is a terrible GM. I’m not surprised at all that he would promote the wrong people. At some point soon the good people, like Ventura and Karmanos, will leave and the Sabres will the worse for it.

What were his duties during his tenure in Buffalo? Over the last 7 drafts our drafting has been significantly better. Didn’t Forton have a significant role in those drafts? Didn’t Karmanos get his start in the NHL through nepotism?

I have closed the old poll and added an updated poll with more of the choices we have been discussing here and on the Off-season game plan thread.

For their analytics team and computer software. Instead analytics department.

He is a fine choice. Will LA want to trade him? Also what is the cost and are we on his 10 team NT list?

I don’t because Corsi and Fenwick tend to be too team dependent. Put a decent player on a good team his possession numbers usually improve, sometimes dramatically. Put the same player on a bad team and his numbers plummet. I also think they are looking for a player to fulfill a certain role. I think the player they want has to add scoring, but also kill penalties and have a physical game. It’s why I listed hits, pk time and d zone %.

Jenner should be significantly cheaper. He kind of looks like Laughton on paper. I'd take Kerfoot over both. Here is a comparison of guys in the 3 to 4 mill price range (plus the overpaid Gourde). Jenner, 31, Pts last season 35, PK TOI 101 minutes, Hits 119, LK 74, D Zone starts 48%, Face off % 54%, contract 2 years 3.75 per season Laughton, 30, Pts last season 39, PK TOI 140 minutes, Hits 155, BLK 56, D Zone starts 54%, Face off % 49, contract 2 years 3 per season Kerfoot, 30, Pts last season 45, PK TOI 214 minutes, Hits 73, BLK 76, D Zone starts 58%, Face off % 48, contract 1 years 3.5 per season Roy, 27, Pts last season 41, PK TOI 95 minutes, Hits 77, BLK 35, D Zone starts 58%, Face off % 47, contract 3 years 3 per season Gourde, 32, Pts last season 33, PK TOI 152 minutes, Hits 156, BLK 52, D Zone starts 58%, Face off % 48, contract 1 years 5.16 per season Bennett, 27, Pts last season 41, PK TOI 32 minutes, Hits 173, BLK 43, D Zone starts 35%, Face off % 46, contract 1 years 4 per season Domi, 29, Pts last season 47, PK TOI 0 minutes, Hits 53, BLK 22, D Zone starts 35%, Face off % 50, contract UFA (3 mill last season) Roslovic, 29, Pts last season 31, PK TOI 49 minutes, Hits 28, BLK 24, D Zone starts 55% (W CBJ), Face off % 45, contract UFA (4 mill last season)

If he is so bad defensively why has every Philly coach since 2017 used him about 58% of the time with D zone starts? If he is so bad defensively why was he 3rd on Philly with nearly 140 minutes of PK time? I’m not saying he’s Bergeron or Barkov. Honestly, I don’t know how good or bad he is, but his usage by Philly over the years is not reflective of a bad defensive player. Is Laughton my favorite choice for 3C? No, he’s not even in the top 10. I don’t like the suggested trade either, but if we end up with him, on a better deal, he is an upgrade over Krebs and a solid bridge until a prospect is ready for the role. At 3 mill per season he is a bargain choice and could be a solid 4th liner if Savoie or Kulich prove ready sooner than later. Again, this isn’t my ideal choice, but I understand the logic behind the suggestion.

How much do you think they paid?

Just looked at puckpedia.com. It’s going to take some time to figure out. Not sure if they have all the same tools. Oh well.

When I first started this thread there really didn't seem like many reasonable choices for the 3C role. However, people here and the media keep bringing up good possibilities that are giving me hope for a quality 3C addition this summer. I'm also glad we are moving away from the Gourde idea. The upper tier ideas I really like are Karlsson and Eriksson Ek. The stumbling block with Karlsson is his M-NTC, but maybe that's solvable. Eriksson Ek would be a very expensive get. I like both of these ideas over Cirelli. I also think Mohanan and Duchene would be good acquisitions, but I doubt they'd sign in Buffalo. Stephenson is also out there, but I doubt KA wants to invest in a long-term deal for a 30+ player. In the second tier - all of Kerfoot, Wennberg, Bennett, Laughton, and Roy look like good fits as well with Roy having the most upside beyond his 40 pts. Bennett might add some important leadership. I also don't think we can discount the possibility of a UFA like Roslovic or Domi.

According to capfriendly he has two years left @ 3 per season.