the 3 First Rounders in 2019

[Doohickie]

I don't know what that means.  So McD was in a different program. 

On a scale of Jack (0) to McDavid (10), what would Hughes rate as a prospect?  (0 and 10 are not necessarily min-max.)

[Randall Flagg]

Just now, Doohickie said:

I don't know what that means.  So McD was in a different program. 

On a scale of Jack (0) to McDavid (10), what would Hughes rate as a prospect?  (0 and 10 are not necessarily min-max.)

All I said was that I thought Jack Hughes, who followed Eichel and Matthews' footsteps in the US development program, outproduced them both at the same point in their development. It turns out this was true of Jack, but not of Matthews. McDavid played in the CHL which does not have any sort of one-to-one simple comparison development-wise. But McDavid was a better prospect than all of them. 

I cannot say with authority where Hughes lies other than he's worse than McDavid was. He's probably at or just below Eichel and Matthews' tier, as Eichel's was established in his draft season, that's where he exploded, unlike Matthews who blew up the year before then. So we'll see what Hughes looks like this season. 

If Hughes had the frame of Jack or Auston he'd be more hyped but he looks like a guy who could end up playing wing at this point, and his style reminds me of Patrick Kane. 

 

[Doohickie]

12 minutes ago, Eleven said:

No way.

So.... where do you think Hughes sits, relative to Jack and McD?  I'm trying to understand why said No Way when I suggested Hughes lies between Jack and McD.  Do you think he's better than both?  Worse than both?

[Eleven]

Just now, Doohickie said:

So.... where do you think Hughes sits, relative to Jack and McD?  I'm trying to understand why said No Way when I suggested Hughes lies between Jack and McD.  Do you think he's better than both?  Worse than both?

I don't think he's as good as either of them.

I use a scientific formula called the "hype test."  Your mileage may vary.

[WildCard]

1 minute ago, Randall Flagg said:

If Hughes had the frame of Jack or Auston he'd be more hyped but he looks like a guy who could end up playing wing at this point, and his style reminds me of Patrick Kane. 

 

Agreed. He's a little fella

[Doohickie]

28 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

You can have McDavid or Dylan Strome, Zachary Senyshyn, and jack Rosolvic. Which do you want, you just started your rebuild. 

So coming back to the idea of a trade, let's say Hughes is somewhere in the ballpark of Eichel, does a team trade an Eichel-ish player at #1 for (say) #5, 17, 26?  Obviously it would depend on how good the tail end of the 1st round is.  It's not an outlandish question though.

Another thought is this:  if you know you have 3 1st rounders, how does that affect the selection made with each pick?

[LGR4GM]

1 minute ago, Doohickie said:

So coming back to the idea of a trade, let's say Hughes is somewhere in the ballpark of Eichel, does a team trade an Eichel-ish player at #1 for (say) #5, 17, 26?  Obviously it would depend on how good the tail end of the 1st round is.  It's not an outlandish question though.

No they don't make that trade. They don't because you can't guarantee that those picks are as good as #1 overall. 

[LGR4GM]

Insert jack Eichel instead of McDavid into the other scenario. You wouldn't trade Eichel for those 3.

The point being you can get nylander, barzal and boeser but easily could get Zacha, Senyshyn, and Rosolvic. You take the sure thing. 

Edited July 17, 2018 by LGR4GM

[Doohickie]

Can you guarantee how good Jack Hughes will be?  #1s have missed, you know. 

It's probably too far ahead of the draft to guess where the "drop-off" occurs.

[LGR4GM]

6 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Can you guarantee how good Jack Hughes will be?  #1s have missed, you know. 

It's probably too far ahead of the draft to guess where the "drop-off" occurs.

When's the last one who missed? Yakupov? Yes Hughes is better than yakupov. I guarentee he'll be an nhl player. 

[LGR4GM]

Hughes had 68 points in 36 games as a 16 yr old in a u18 league. That's 1.89ppg. Barring injury he's gonna be really good. 

Edited July 17, 2018 by LGR4GM

[Georgia Blizzard]

I'd keep the picks, as one of you pointed out, the time to NHL for first rounders is shorter and we'd see fruit from that investment in 2-3 years max.  I also think later 1st round picks are still under valued by GM's and you can always trade them a year later as part of package once this team hopefully becomes a contender for a more proven player, assuming we need upgrade a specific position.

Edited July 17, 2018 by Georgia Blizzard

[Doohickie]

26 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

When's the last one who missed? Yakupov? Yes Hughes is better than yakupov. I guarentee he'll be an nhl player. 

The question isn't whether he will hit or miss really.  It's whether a team will be better off with Hughes or with 3 first rounders, probably one from the top third, one from the middle third, and one from the bottom third, of the draft.

[dudacek]

1 hour ago, MillerVaive said:

In the past 10 years, no team has traded out of the top 5 spots. But back in 2002, 2003 the Hurricanes traded their #1 selection both years, both for the #3 selection.

The odds are obviously it wouldnt happen. But say the Sabres start out with the #5 pick. Take that & package it with our other picks and i dont know, maybe it becomes a possibility?

Just fyi, heres the source paragraph of the Canes trading out of the #1 spot if any of you are curious to learn about it. I myself didnt remember until i googled it.

 

The Florida Panthers traded the #1 overall selection two straight years, in 2002 and 2003, both times getting the #3 overall selection. In 2002, knowing that the #1 guy on their draft board (Jay Bouwmeester) would be available at #3, they swapped picks with Columbus, who chose Rick Nash #1 overall. In exchange, the Panthers got the #3 pick and the option to swap picks with Columbus in the 2003 draft. They won the draft lottery again in 2003, so they didn’t need to swap picks with Columbus, but they still moved down to #3 to select Nathan Horton, who was #1 on their board, and sent the pick along with a third rounder to Pittsburgh for the #3, Mikael Samuelsson, and a second round pick. Pittsburgh would select goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. In both cases for Florida, the player that was at the top of their draft board was still going to be available with the pick they traded to, so the risk for them “trading down” was minimal.

Anyone remember details about a deal Darcy supposedly had on the table with Atlanta to move up to #2 that year and take Nash if the Jackets hadn’t have made their jump?

if memory serves, it involved our two 1st rounders 11 and 20, plus.

Looking back it was a weak first round.

Edited July 17, 2018 by dudacek

[LGR4GM]

47 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Can you guarantee how good Jack Hughes will be?  #1s have missed, you know. 

It's probably too far ahead of the draft to guess where the "drop-off" occurs.

 

12 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

The question isn't whether he will hit or miss really.  It's whether a team will be better off with Hughes or with 3 first rounders, probably one from the top third, one from the middle third, and one from the bottom third, of the draft.

You brought up first overall misses. 

 

No you're better off with a sure thing. 

[In The Buff]

8 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Anyone remember details about a deal Darcy supposedly had on the table with Atlanta to move up to #2 that year and take Nash if the Jackets hadn’t have made their jump?

if memory serves, it involved our two 1st rounders 11 and 20, plus.

Looking back it was a weak first round.

I don't remember the deal specifically for the draft, but I remember hearing he put a package together for a trade with Columbus to get Nash, but that he had a no trade clause & Buffalo wasn't a team he wanted to come to. I don't know for 100% if this was true but it came from sources online, for what thats worth haha.

[Doohickie]

10 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

You brought up first overall misses. 

No you're better off with a sure thing. 

Yeah, you're using my words against me.  Mea culpa.

But that's one way to define a miss I suppose-  a #1 overall that helps his team less than three other first rounders that were traded for him.

[OhMyDahlin]

For what it's worth, here's some tidbits on Jack Hughes that I've seen in a magazine...

A write-up I saw on him said, "Supposed to be with the U-17's, but such an offensive dynamo that he centers the top line on the U-18's. He's too fast for opponents and he's torching the USHL."

A scout said, "He's electric, the next Patrick Kane. Undeniable vision and creativity. Best player on the U-18's. Overcomes his lack of physical strength with his skating and smarts."

As for the 3 first round picks, I would either keep our pick and trade the other two to move up, or just use all three.  My targets would be Nolan Foote (LW), Kaapo Kakko (LW) or Alex Turcotte (Center) in the top-10. Nobody is trading the right to draft Jack Hughes. Peyton Krebs is another LW, but I like the other two due to their size. If I was going to trade two of them, it would be to move into the top-10 for another one of these kids, assuming the Sabres' is in the top-10. I wouldn't mind a top-pairing RHD either, a future partner for Dahlin.

(I'd also love to see the Sabres snag Spencer Knight (G) next year, in the 2nd round...I think he's going to be an absolute stud.)

Either way, I'm excited how the future is shaping up...I look forward to watching this all come together.

(And I'm REALLY happy to see that the Amerks are mostly going to be a young team like Toronto and Syracuse, I'm thinking about getting season tickets again.)

[WildCard]

Hate Jack Hughes already

[Sabres Fan in NS]

10 hours ago, WildCard said:

Hate Jack Hughes already

Just wait until he is drafted first overall by The Great Satan.  Some way, some how, you know that is going to happen.

[bob_sauve28]

I went back to 2014 and looked at what teams got in the second half of the first round, where we will probably be drafting two of those players, and there are some really great players. 

No way I trade these picks. Dylan Larkin, Pasternak, Tuch and probably more that I am just not familure with. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_NHL_Entry_Draft

[LGR4GM]

9 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

I went back to 2014 and looked at what teams got in the second half of the first round, where we will probably be drafting two of those players, and there are some really great players. 

No way I trade these picks. Dylan Larkin, Pasternak, Tuch and probably more that I am just not familure with. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_NHL_Entry_Draft

That's why I mentioned guys like Boeser, Konecny from 2015. Larzar, Mantha, Theodore from 2013.  There are always a couple of players that fall in that 18-30 range that will be good. The key is identifying them. It is something I currently worry about the Sabres being able to do. They seem just be focusing on some leagues and certain character traits. 17 and 18 year old kids aren't fully mature so focusing in on character traits is sketchy. 

[bob_sauve28]

7 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

That's why I mentioned guys like Boeser, Konecny from 2015. Larzar, Mantha, Theodore from 2013.  There are always a couple of players that fall in that 18-30 range that will be good. The key is identifying them. It is something I currently worry about the Sabres being able to do. They seem just be focusing on some leagues and certain character traits. 17 and 18 year old kids aren't fully mature so focusing in on character traits is sketchy. 

Much of how we evaluate JBott will probably rest on how well these picks turn out. 

[LGR4GM]

9 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

Much of how we evaluate JBott will probably rest on how well these picks turn out. 

I think we will get high character guys from Europe and specifically the NCAA (or on the NCAA path) who have high floors but low ceilings. 

[jsb]

41 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

No way I trade these picks. Dylan Larkin, Pasternak, Tuch and probably more that I am just not familure with. 

Or you can end up with Bogosian, Zachary Senyshyn and Jakub Zboril and find yourself fired.

It all depends on how good a job you do picking