Robviously

Our 2nd rounders the last three drafts are: Guhle (so far, so good), Lemieux (great prospect, but traded), Cornel (???), Karabacek (long shot at this point), Compher (good prospect, but traded), Connor Hurley (long shot), and Bailey (he'll need a lot of time in the AHL). That's not the greatest group. I'm hoping for big things from Guhle and I'm hoping for the best from Cornel and Bailey. Not expecting much from Hurley and Karabacek really. Our 3rd rounders and later from the past three years are maybe more interesting: Borgen, Stephens, Estephan, Johanssen, Martin, Oloffson, Baptiste, Petersen (!!!), Possler, and Florentino.

The Dal Colle numbers are stunning but I'm thinking he must be battling an injury or something. He had a great season last year (over 90 points). I really liked everything I knew about MacInnis that year so nice to see he's doing well. Ho-Sang was intriguing that year too. Cornel still seems like a long shot to me.

Part of me is thrilled that it wasn't us that lost a playoff game this way. Another part is terrified that we may someday find a way to top this disaster.

More PPG than a bunch of players about his age that are also playing in the CHL, which I'm pretty sure is the only point Eastside was making. Not really seeing the need for snark here. He's a 19 year old playing in the CHL, which is where most 19 year olds draft out of the CHL are.

He's been the GM for two years and he's made one brilliant trade. I think we can hold off on declaring him a brilliant GM.

I re-read the first few pages of this thread over the Holidays and it the general vibe seemed to be "Well, we overpaid but at least we're getting something great coming back!" along with a little "Isn't it great that we finally have a GM that makes big trades!" We need more from Kane and Bogo or else this trade was a pretty big dud.

You and I are on the same page.

When I say "trade assets" I mean assets we could trade to help the core we're building around, not the most valuable things we have. And it does matter how we use them because you only get to make a couple of trades like that before your cupboard is pretty empty. If we traded five good assets for two OK players, that's a lousy job. Lemieux refusing to sign with us doesn't drop his value to zero. His value is whatever other teams are willing to pay and I'll bet more than one team wanted him (and still would). You'd still be in a position to get good value for him.

Not really. Myers is obviously a guy a lot of teams would want (and did want). Stafford was the perfect rental player. Lemieux was having a breakout season and is putting up even better numbers this year. Armia was having a good season in the AHL. And the draft pick was a first round pick in a stacked draft. I'd say that's five assets most teams would really like to get back in a trade. How many other assets did we have that (a) it would actually hurt to part with and (b) might actually be able to get us something good in return? [And I'm not including guys who are untouchable like Risto, Reinhart, Girgensons, etc.] After the trades for Kane, Bogo, Lehner, ROR, and McGinn, we don't have a lot of ammunition left for trades. This is why the big idea on our board this week is "Can we get Drouin for Ennis?" [Answer: Yes, but only if Tampa Bay is completely insane.]

That would have been nice.

"Evander Kane level" isn't much of a level so far. He looks like an OK 2nd line winger. And Bogosian is an OK 2nd pair defenseman. We traded FIVE of our best trade pieces for this? One or both of these guys is going to have to step up because the early returns on this trade are pretty lame. And I say this as an idiot who bought an Evander Kane t-shirt right before the season so that I could wear it to Opening Night. I wanted this to work.

This isn't a great argument because not making this trade doesn't mean we couldn't have offloaded Stafford and Myers in other deals. We know other teams were interested in Myers (Detroit was rumored for a long time) and most playoff teams would have been OK renting Stafford for the duration of the season.

Sort of amazing how he single-handedly alleviates most of the pain from being horrible this year. He's fun to watch and represents a bright future

Fasching, but maybe as a 2nd line guy.

When you realize the Sabres' next game is Friday night in Chicago....

I found a cool article about our 2015 draft that includes some quotes about how/why we selected the guys we did. The bit about Estephan is interesting: I always wonder about how it works later in the draft when you have guys that only 1-2 scouts know really well. Lots more interesting stuff here: http://www.buffalohockeybeat.com/sabres-feel-they-have-steal-in-prospect-devante-stephens/

Yeah, but think of how much fun RJ can have with his goal calls.

This is getting tiresome.

DO SOMETHING, BORGEN!!! (I'm not watching the game. Following on Twitter.)

The same reason I wouldn't, but I also really like what 28 and 3 bring. I'm really interested in what Girgensons can do with Eichel as the early returns have been good. I also like him as a Top 6 forward role if he's the grinder to compliment the skill guys. He's been disappointing this season but I also think he seems like a guy built for the playoffs. Pysyk might be the best passer on the team and we're weak on defense now. He and Risto are the two guys I could see really helping both as reliable defenders *and* guys that can jumpstart our offense. Not really, but him requesting a trade at 20 years old isn't helping.

Eh. You made the better point. ROR has been awesome for us at center and he and Eichel are a great 1-2 punch. I wouldn't move him either.

You can take the faceoff and then play wing. We do that now with Kane.

Like I said, make the offer. It can't hurt. And teams routinely make goofy trades (I can think of a couple from draft day in 2015). If I'm Tampa, though, I wouldn't rush into a bad trade and I don't think I'd get what I'm looking for from Buffalo when I do pull the trigger.

Totes.

Guys, it's not that untenable. They have 29 teams to talk to and most would be interested in Drouin. He was a 3rd overall pick two years ago and he's on his ELC. You'd just need a couple teams making serious offers to drive the price up.