PerreaultForever

I saw about 2/3 of this. Sabres the much faster team and Ottawa was worn down by the end. Savoie looked good. I know people keep saying Briere, but I'm thinking Martin St. Louis. Very fast and skilled. I see potential in Lindgren. On the right development path he could be a surprise. He definitely has good hockey sense and makes good decisions. Cederquist I have high hopes for. He could be a missing piece we need in time. There's definitely some potential talent out there. Fingers crossed.

Jake Virtanen gets a PTO with Edmonton. If he makes the roster maybe he can room with Evander Kane.

I don't disagree with this but there's a few points that are in the gray area. "JBot's draft picks" yes, definitely. But that was kind of the point right? The original sentence was finally a GM with a team built through the draft. The reply from me was "not yet". So to the 12 Adams 10 Botterill, that may be true but the main core of this team at the moment is Botterill. the top line is 2/3 Botterill 1/3 Adams. I'm not sure what the lines will be and which rookies might play so for the moment your next group of forwards (Cozens, Mitts, Asplund, Olofsson) is 3 JBot 1 Murray. Then come your Adams kids (Quinn, Peterka, Krebs) but not sure if any are impact players (yet) or not. After that it's Murray leftovers and who cares dregs like Bjork. I'm not counting the bottom of the line up for anybody cause they are all irrelevant. The D is 1/3 Adams because he drafted Power. The rest of it however is all JBot. Goaltending. Well it's Adams, but is that really a good thing??? imo it's been progressively downgraded since the Miler trade. Now if Lehner hadn't been a drug fueled head case maybe we'd have solid top 10 goaltending stability but that's not the way it worked and the current goalies are nothing to rave about. If UPL steps up it's still Botterill to the rescue. Now to be clear, I'm not saying Botterill was better or any good at all. He certainly chose poorly in coaches and his defensive shuffling was mind bogglingly odd. Bogo and Lehner were mishandled. The Foligno trade was just dumb. Lots of errors, but FOR THE MOMENT, this is still primarily a JBot roster. I am hoping in a year or two I won't be able to say that.

It's not really built through the draft though is it? not YET. All the picks from trading the big 3 will build through the draft but at this point it's still mostly JBot's team.

I would imagine the organization as a whole wants to convey a more positive and optimistic spin on things and they are either being asked to do this OR they are simply buying in to the general feeling of optimism that can be infectious. The fanbase is starved after a decade and we're going to grasp on any sign of forward progress. If (hypothetically) this rebuild fails, it could destroy the team in Buffalo imo. I could be wrong, but I think a lot of fans are at the end of the waiting. I know I am.

That was what scouts were raving about and it had him ranked as high as 4th at one point if I remember correctly. The question mark was how would it translate into the NHL because of his size, but his speed and skating was always seen as a strength. A big strength.

From what I read around and about Kulich looked very good. This pleases me> What I saw from him in the World Juniors made me think we might have struck gold with this pick so anything that adds to that works for me. I have very high hopes for this kid.

I like his defensive game compared to many of our players so he's a reasonably decent 2 way player. Fits in for the time being but eventually I see him dropping down the line up. He's really just Mr. Average imo. I doubt he plays much better than we've already seen, but likely won't play much worse either.

I get that, but I think we're all just guessing here. I have no way to know if his shoulder is still an issue or not. He says he's ready willing and able I take his word for it. I'm not going to start making excuses for these guys before they've even come to Sabres camp. That mentality should end. As I said to wookie, no excuses. Let's change the mindset. I want warriors who show up every night, every game, every opportunity and play through pain. No more excuses. For anybody.

You know what, that might be true, but I always want character guys who simply hate losing ALL the time so they give you full effort but maybe that's unrealistic in 2022. Bunch of coddled woke sissies these new players 🙂

I was thinking of Savoie and Rosen. Is the "coming off a shoulder injury" a thing or are you just saying? I read he was all gung ho and ready to go.

The only question on Slavkovsky in Montreal is how he adjusts to North American life (with money) and how he adjusts to a hotbed for hockey like Montreal . There are numerous, shall we say, temptations and unsavory countrymen in that town that can run a young kid off the rails fast if he doesn't have the maturity and support structure to deal with it. I suspect he'll be fine, but time will tell. I'm personally glad to hear that lesser known Sabres prospects looked good, but I'd actually rather read that our top prospects dominated.

A lot of these lists also consider playoff performances. Not making the playoffs gets a lot of players ignored or dismissed.

I thought the first episode was pretty good. They have comments from the Russian players as well as the Canadian which gives it a new perspective. All the younger members on here should watch this for an informative look at just how much things have changed in 50 years. Loved the bit where Phil Esposito talks about August "training" for him was drinking beer and taking a swim which they contrasted with the Russians doing all their intricate work out routines. Great historical perspective. Ya, in the first episode Esposito talks about working in the steel mill right up until '72. It's an incredible contrast with today's game for sure.

That's likely because most people have written us off after all this time as irrelevant. Perennial losers. A non factor. I would bet most people outside of Buffalo fans would probably have trouble naming more than 2 or 3 players on the roster if any at all.

We had that for the 2nd to last game but I thought the last one was a nation wide school holiday? Maybe it was just Ontario, or maybe even just my city school board in Hamilton. idk, but everybody was off home that's for sure. Games were middle of the afternoon (live from Russia) as I remember it.

Summit '72 starts on the CBC tonight. Looking forward to reliving the nostalgia of this. I remember they gave us a day off school to watch the final. Crazy what that series meant to Canada at the time. https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/specials/summit-72-1.6424600 It's also on the CBC Gem website. Don't know if that works in the U.S. but you can always drive over to Niagara Falls for the evening 🙂

Sure, we're talking 2024 here so by then you're looking at Quinn, maybe Kulich, maybe somebody else. We have several candidates. Also Cozens, Krebs, Mitts, I expect somebody to step up and be great. With all the prospects we have I expect the roster to be crowded and some tough decisions or trades will have to happen. That's a good thing.

It's not exactly that. I would rather phrase it that the salary he commands will be better spent elsewhere as there may be young and cheaper options to fill his role.

Well, you could say there is no forward on this roster as good as Eichel and, arguably, there is no forward on this roster as good as Reinhart, so objectively right there we aren't as good in terms of high end talent. However, I would say it's a team sport, and the dynamics of this team are better than they have been in a long time and players should feed off of that. It's a better mix, but how it all comes together and how well the younger players play remains to be seen. I would expect a high effort level in any event. That at least will be somewhat refreshing.

Yup, 8 years 65 million https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/jordan-kyrou-signs-eight-year-65m-extension-with-blues/

I think so too, although a lot might depend on how Swayman develops. You know the funny thing is a lot of Bruins fans feel their D isn't good enough. Talk about a high bar!!! If Marchand and McAvoy heal properly and return in a reasonable time frame they will be in the playoffs, at least this once more. It's going to be really hard to move up. I just want incremental improvement each year and then we will get there and stay there like some of these teams have done. Crosby and Ovi won't last forever. Tampa will start to get old too. There is hope for a conference flip but not just yet.

Possibly, but I would counter that IF at the 2024 we are a playoff team and a buyer not a seller, then I don't really care if he walks for nothing as we will be good and getting better anyway.

It will be interesting (imo) to see what the power play turns into with Dahlin hopefully reaching full maturity and Power perhaps getting PP minutes. Will there be enough talent on ice that teams won't be able to key on any one player (perhaps just attacking the points) and maybe that VO shot gets reintroduced in some capacity. It was extremely effective for a while when teams keyed on that curly haired muppet we had captaining the team and we need to find a way to get that sniper shot back in. As far as trading him goes, I see that happening at the 2024 deadline if we are not a playoff team. Not before. After that though I suspect he's gone. Otherwise I see him being about the same as we've seen. No more no less.

So I think the conclusion there is that they feel the other teams around us will rise (Ottawa, Detroit) and we still have no goaltending. I mentioned this in the other thread but even if we are better than last year we might still do worse (or be about the same) the losses just might be closer games. The competition for any sort of playoff spot is pretty substantial and I don't think anybody above us got worse (although Florida's D is a little suspect). Oh wait, I forgot. Pittsburgh lost E Rod. They're out.