PalmTreeMafia

Getting a bit away from the new GM talk, I was scanning the Bills roster and have come to the conclusion that - on paper at least - this might be the best offense the team has had since the early 90's. If vets like McCoy, Watkins, and Clay can stay healthy and new guys like Jonathan Williams, Zay Jones, and Dion Dawkins perform as expected, this could be a legitimate top 5 NFL offense. And such a feat would be all the more impressive without a Hall of Fame caliber QB. What's most notable is the quality of the offensive line. It took nearly 25 years, but the franchise finally addressed it (a late 1st rounder, three 2nd rounders, and three 3rd rounders among the top 8).

Hard to believe, but once upon a time the playoffs were more exciting than the draft.

Exactly. Well said. I don't even think a major trade is necessary. The 8th overall pick, two 2nd rounders, two 3rd rounders, Antipin, a couple other modest free agents, and a competent head coach who is the opposite of Bylsma will probably be enough to make the playoffs next season and set the franchise on a course to be a long-term perennial contender. Just off the top of my head, I can go 5 deep at each forward position plus goalie: LW: Kane, Ennis, Girgensons, Carrier, Foligno C: Eichel, Reinhart, O'Reilly, Asplund, Larsson RW: Nylander, Okposo, Bailey, Baptiste, Fasching G: Lehner, Petersen, Nilsson, Ullmark, Johansson Defense is admittedly a little more difficult. This is the best I can do at the moment: Kulikov - Ristolainen McCabe - Bogosian Guhle - Borgen We will probably want to replace Kulikov, Bogosian, and Borgen with better players in addition to adding defensemen prospect depth. But I'm not at all convinced a major trade out of desperation is necessary. Especially if Heiskanen drops to us or if Liljegren or Valimaki project to top-pair LHD.

And don't forget the Buffalo Bills. Tom Donahoe (2001-2005) and Doug Whaley (2010-2017) came from the Pittsburgh Steelers franchise. FOURTH time's the charm!

Interesting. I'm warming up to Botterill. And it looks like the Penguins have a good shot at winning their 3rd Stanley Cup in 9 years.

So who are the top-8 worthy defensemen? Makar, Heiskanen, Liljegren...anyone else? And which of the 7 teams ahead of us are in danger of picking a defenseman?

I'm ok with this new draft philosophy. Since the 21st century began, we've seen the Bills waste 1st round picks on guys like Flowers, Losman, McCargo, Maybin, and Manuel....guys that no other sane NFL GM had graded as 1st round material.

Exactly. So much negativity around here lately. I COMPLETELY understand it and am guilty of a fair amount of it as well. However, also consider that we get the privilege of drafting a top-9 player for the 5th straight time. In a now 31-team league with a distribution of >620 professional players, that is some serious concentration of young hockey talent. Kane and Okposo make a total of 7 top 9 draft picks soon to be on the 20-man roster (not counting Bogosian for obvious reasons). Before 2013, the Sabres had only drafted top 9 10 times: 1970: Perreault (#1) 1971: Martin (#5) 1972: Schoenfeld (#5) 1982: Housley (#6) 1982: Cyr (#9) 1983: Barrasso (#5) 1986: Anderson (#5) 1987: Turgeon (#1) 1996: Rasmussen (#7) 2003: Vanek (#5) By my count, that's a 70% historical success rate for high-end top-9 hockey talent (88% for top-6), and I'd argue that we can expect an even higher probability of success at the top of the draft given modern scouting standards. Now I fully realize that a high draft pick doesn't necessarily equal high quality, a low draft pick doesn't necessarily equal lesser quality, etc... All I'm saying is that this is a unique time in Sabres franchise history in that we have never collected so much high-end physical hockey talent in such a short time span. And that's quite obviously because we have never truly bottomed out for any sustained period of time like we have during the past 5 seasons. I'm excited to see what a competent GM with a coherent vision - as well as a competent HC who coaches a team based on the talent and not on a rigid system - can do with all of this young talent. Apologies for the semi-coherent late-night rant. I was just disheartened to see so many fellow Sabres fans so indifferent to this year's draft. Even if there's no obvious McDavid/Eichel/Matthews/Laine this year, there's still a lot of high-quality talent for the taking at the top of the first round.

Point taken. I have been ambivalent about Tyrod's future as a starting NFL QB. However, I really liked what I saw in the final Miami home game with Watkins, Woods, and Clay all healthy (enough) and on the field. He definitely spread the ball around and attacked the middle portion of the field with some confidence. I want to give Tyrod one more year and give him another legitimate receiving weapon to complement Watkins and Clay before making a final judgment. I completely understand those who are ready to move on, but I'm not quite there yet. We've already been through 20 straight seasons of QB purgatory. I can handle one more year.

Update: I'm demoting Allen, dropping Foster, promoting Lattimore, and adding Derek Barnett. 1. Garrett 2. Adams 3. Hooker 4. Thomas 5. Allen 6. Lattimore 7. Barnett 8. Howard 9. Davis 10. Williams

I voted for Norm Maciver and am hoping for a Maciver/Housley ticket. What's really appealing about Maciver is that he has been there since the beginning of the great Kane/Toews Blackhawks dynasty that has made the playoffs 9 straight times, reached the Conference Finals for 5 of those times, and won 3 Stanley Cups. Looking back at Sabres history, you'll notice that we like to draw GM's from the great dynasties in NHL history (Imlach from the 60's Leafs, Bowman from the 70's Canadiens, Muckler from the 80's Oilers, Regier from Al Arbour's Islanders). I think this is the way to do it: promote guys who have first-hand experience building NHL franchises from the bottom to the very top and staying at the top for a sustained period of time. Pros for Housley: high character guy, has paid his dues coaching at all levels of hockey (high school, juniors, international, NHL), has knowledge and credentials to rebuild our defense and open up our style of offense, works well with young hockey players, Sabres connection doesn't hurt.

Agreed. When you move every Sabre to their most natural position, our projected RW franchise depth looks like this: 1. Okposo 2. Bailey 3. Baptiste 4. Fasching 5. minor leaguers and over-the-hill vets No one below Okposo projects to a top 6 NHL forward, and you also have to assume one of the #2-4 that I listed won't work out. So yes, RW is a need position too. I would rather use a top 9 pick on BPA rather than reach for a defenseman, and Owen Tippett happens to be a guy who could fit as both BPA and an area of need.

Gorges deserves to be in this category because he is a terrible professional hockey player at this stage of his career, and he will be making $4 million next season. It doesn't matter if he averages 20 minutes on the ice or 16 minutes. Any time greater than 0 minutes is too much time on the ice for him. His leadership skills are also vastly overrated. All he did this season was complain about how much it sucks being on a team that sucks. Wow. Great leadership. So inspirational. Kulikov doesn't make this list because he's an unrestricted free agent next season and is therefore no longer a salary cap concern.

Your opinion is suspect and lacks supporting evidence. You are going to have a difficult time defending a GM whose team is right up to the salary cap and yet finished 5th worst in the league standings. That is a very poor return-on-investment no matter how you slice it. I'll tell you what, though: this thread was really meant to get everyone's attention, not to run Murray out of town just yet. His resume with Anaheim and Ottawa justified a chance as an NHL GM. Get 2-3 of the guys I mentioned out of here this summer, re-sign Kane, have a good 2017 draft, trade for a good d-man, make the playoffs next season...I'll go back to defending him.

Same. Even our GM specifically called out Moulson last year.

First of all, let's make this clear: Murray is definitely responsible for the contracts of all 4 players I called out. He gave Ennis his contract extension, and the other 3 were brought to the Sabres on Murray's watch. MAYBE I will cut Murray some slack for Moulson (who has provided some production this season, compared to last) and Ennis (2 straight horrible seasons is a long time, but who am I to judge how long he needs to recover from the Ovechkin-induced concussion?), but the contracts for Gorges and Bogosian are as inexcusable as their on-ice performances. Next, to say we're not in cap trouble is myopic. I'm looking at next summer as much as this one. Kane, Reinhart, and Eichel all need to be kept, and Murray will need to re-sign Kane this summer if he plans on keeping him. But we also need to add 3 quality defenseman and another top 6 winger to this roster...and 1-2 of these 4 needs will probably have to be young vets via free agency/trade who will be beyond their entry-level contracts. Finally, if you don't think the current on-ice product has any connection with the general manager's allocation of the team's financial resources, then I don't what else to tell you. Hopefully you can reason that shifting cap money to some areas of the roster prevents a GM from addressing other areas of the roster. The Sabres were at the cap ceiling this season, and it limited what Murray could do to address the horrific defense. Yes, my panties are in a knot. Deal with it.

These 4 players will cost the Sabres about $18 million next season. The 2017-18 salary cap is expected to be about $76 million. So basically, our brilliant GM has managed to allocate 25% of the team's cap space on 4 terrible excuses for hockey professionals who make this team worse every time they step onto the ice. This, folks, is why we can't have nice things. By nice things, I mean a team that makes the playoffs and entertains us. Remember this thread when they try to explain why we couldn't keep all three of Eichel, Reinhart, and Kane. As far as I'm concerned, it's time to give Murray the same level of scrutiny that we've been giving Bylsma for months. What a disgraceful franchise. Sick of this .

If my understanding of the draft lottery rules is correct, we can only pick 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, or 9 this year....so no 4 or 5....someone correct me if I'm wrong...

I'm beyond tired of this excuse. We better not hear it from the mouths of Dan Abysmal or the Dwight Schrute doppelganger on Monday afternoon. This team played just as bad when everyone was healthy as they did at the beginning of the year.

The Bandits are now currently the worst team in the league. Way to go, Terry and Kim. You are the proud owners of THREE underachieving, uninspired, unwatchable sports franchises.

I prefer Girgensons to Larsson, but I'd like to keep both for a while longer if possible. I'm also not opposed to trading either one for the help on defense that is sorely needed. I think both still have upside that a different head coach could tap into, and I definitely don't want to lose either for free in the expansion draft or through free agency.

I really like the idea of drafting OJ Howard, and not just because of his KILLER name. I think he's the only blue-chip player in the draft this year who plays offense. We can run 2 TE sets with him and Clay. He can take a lot of heat off double-teaming Watkins. He's a big target for Taylor over the middle and in the red zone. His blocking skills only help our run game, especially when on the weaker right side. After 57 years, this franchise still has never had a dominant player at the TE position. OJ would be that player. Here's my top 10 list for the draft: 1. Garrett 2. Allen 3. Adams 4. Hooker 5. Foster 6. Thomas 7. Howard ---------division between elite and really good--------------- 8. Davis 9. Lattimore 10. Williams

You clearly know more than just physics. Great post. Reinhart and Kane are both critical pieces to this new Eichel-led Sabres dynasty. Regarding Reinhart: put him at center and watch him flourish. Eichel - Reinhart - O'Reilly - Asplund. Could be best center group in the league in a few years. Regarding Kane: we can afford him. Remember that Gorges will be off the books in 2018. Hopefully Vegas picks up Ennis. Moulson's final year of his contract goes down in cost. Bogosian...well... it...we can still afford Kane. Want to talk trades? How about trading Bylsma? That clown is ruining this franchise. He needs to go.

Bumping this to the top. Anyone with any news whatsoever please post...rumors are great too...

Austin and Falk are decent injury call-up options, but they have no business being regular NHL top-6 guys. I'd be perfectly happy signing Kulikov to a 1-2 year "prove-it" contract. The freak injury he sustained this year is a perfectly valid excuse for his poor performance. Murray still needs to swing a trade for a top-4 D-man. I don't see anyone worth pursuing in free agency. Risto, McCabe, and Guhle are fine by me. Bogo sucks, but with that contract, what can you do about it?