Overall Draft thoughts

[GASabresIUFAN]

Looks like a Jbot draft.  Only one CHL player at the top of the draft, then a bunch of college kids and euros that we can let develop at their own pace.  

Like the Quinn pick in isolation, but it looks bad given the higher ranked players still on the board like Rossi and Perfetti.  That said he is a RW sniper which is something we desperately need.

Love the move to get JJP.  I thought he’d go in the early to mid 20’s and to get him at 34 could be a huge steal.  I have a vision of a talented energy line with Pekar on the LW or C and JJP on the right.

The other 3 kids are lottery numbers, maybe they hit maybe they don’t, but at least we have their rights for years if they develop like VO did.

[Thorny]

I have no idea how good or not these players are going to be. 

I had a hunch we'd avoid the CHL after round one again and mentioned as such - it's not enough data (1 draft) to say Adams intentionally avoids it to the extent Botterill did, but we've gone 19 straight picks outside round 1, over 4 full drafts, without selecting a CHL player. Very substantial stuff.

Adams drafts with need not just a concern but a primary concern - that was my impression with Quinn and our pick in round 2, and he confirmed as much in his post-draft conference. It's very disappointing to me. 

There isn't much point in me trying to grade something done under such a different mindset than I would have operated under - it wouldn't be fair for me grade the results when we were taking different tests. 

I think I conflict with Adams' drafting style a little bit more than Botterill's. I think that puts a fine enough point on it.

Edited October 8, 2020 by Thorny

[Cal Naughton Jr]

Ask me in 4 years how this draft class looks. I’m on the record as liking the Quinn pick. I think he might even have a chance at making the team. The rest of the draft is up in the air. I’m sure a few of these guys won’t even put a Sabres sweater on in their lifetime 

[dudacek]

2 hours ago, Cal Naughton Jr said:

Ask me in 4 years how this draft class looks. I’m on the record as liking the Quinn pick. I think he might even have a chance at making the team. The rest of the draft is up in the air. I’m sure a few of these guys won’t even put a Sabres sweater on in their lifetime 

Odds are good Peterka will, but the other three are likely footnotes.
The last Sabre 5th rounder to play a game for the Sabres was Nathan Gerbe, picked in 2005.

Olofsson is the first 7th rounder to play since Mark Mancari from 2004.

[LGR4GM]

I think Quinn will work out. Idk if he will be better than Rossi but he's an NHL player with a great shot. Quinn's hands are good and my only concern is his agility when it comes to skating. I want to see him combine some of the speed he has with some of the cuts he also has. I think he is a little raw and that is always a concern that high in the draft. His overall game though looks good and if his skating can just bump up 1 level I think he's got the potential to be very very good. The term I was looking for is burst. I want Quinn to work on his short burst so he can pull away a little more especially in small spaces, I think his edges are good and that if he improves that first 2 steps he will be deadly. 

JJP, I don't like moving up for a player in the second but the chances of us getting anything with pick 100 were like 5% so if that's your guy fine. 

Outside of that, I think not having all 7 picks hurt us a little because we are limited on what we know of Adams and his drafting style now. He values hard working players and ???? idk because we had basically 2 real picks, a outside chance in the 5th and two hope and prays in the 7th so it is hard to judge. I usually judge teams by what they do in rounds 1-4 and round 1 has me concerned and round 2 seemed fine. 

Edited October 8, 2020 by LGR4GM
Added burst

[PerreaultForever]

Overall I'm uninspired by it all.  Obviously sad that a non playoff team only has 5 picks but ignoring that I'd have been more content if the middle pick was a goalie. One goalie every year, that's my view forever. You can't have enough goalie prospects, and if you do you have trade pieces. 

I'm fine with euros in the late rounds. It's smart. Used to be you pick tough guys but nowadays euros is a good strategy. They are often harder to scout and have stranger development paths so you have a greater chance of striking gold with them than with well seen and known NA skaters. Pitt, Detroit, us (with Olofsson0 have all had 7th round successes with euros, among others. 

[French Collection]

With fewer pics than most teams they should probably look at some College free agents and a few overage juniors to add some depth to the prospect pool.

[GASabresIUFAN]

A couple of more draft thoughts.

1) KA got a good price to move up from 38 to 34.  It should have cost a mid 3rd rd pick, but it only cost a mid 4th.

2) We should have traded down from 8th to 10th if such an offer was made as I suggested before the draft.  We would have received a mid to low 2nd rd pick to move down two slots.  If Quinn was the guy, odds say Rossi and Perfetti would have gone 8 & 9 and we'd still have drafted Quinn.  If Quinn went anyway getting Rossi or Perfetti would have been just as good (if not better) and we'd have had an extra 2nd to enhance our prospect pool.  Guys like Tristen Robins and Jan Mysak might have fallen in our laps.

So we got Quinn and JJP, but we could have had Quinn/Perfetti, JJP and Robins.   

[Shootica]

58 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

A couple of more draft thoughts.

1) KA got a good price to move up from 38 to 34.  It should have cost a mid 3rd rd pick, but it only cost a mid 4th.

2) We should have traded down from 8th to 10th if such an offer was made as I suggested before the draft.  We would have received a mid to low 2nd rd pick to move down two slots.  If Quinn was the guy, odds say Rossi and Perfetti would have gone 8 & 9 and we'd still have drafted Quinn.  If Quinn went anyway getting Rossi or Perfetti would have been just as good (if not better) and we'd have had an extra 2nd to enhance our prospect pool.  Guys like Tristen Robins and Jan Mysak might have fallen in our laps.

So we got Quinn and JJP, but we could have had Quinn/Perfetti, JJP and Robins.   

But if Quinn is the guy that they felt very strongly about, why risk he not be there at 10?

[thewookie1]

Supposedly the Sabres tried to move down in the 1st

[Curt]

I wish they had more picks.  They took two legit wing prospects and 3 lottery tickets in the 5th/7th.

I wish that they could have traded down 2-5 spots and taken Quinn.  Risky though, it seems like some teams definitely had him ranked in the 5-10 range.

I would have taken Rossi at 8.  Not a big fan of Perfetti, especially for a team lacking an identity/heart.  Quinn was a reasonable pick though, and I said so even before the draft.  Especially after learning more about his background and potentially above average future development.

I didn’t love the move up for JJP, but I like JJP ok.

[nfreeman]

It sounds like the 2 guys they wanted were JQ and JJ, and they got both of them.  Yes, it would've been slightly better to have worked out the trade down with Nashville, but that would've increased the risk of missing out on either or both of those guys, and the cost to them for locking in both of them was a 4th-rounder.  Not a huge loss.

[msw2112]

I don't really follow NHL prospects.  Most of what I know comes from this board.  When I saw that they drafted Quinn, I was pissed, because no list that I'd seen had him ranked in the top 8, and multiple players who were ranked in the top 8 (and that were mentioned on this board) were still available.

I subsequently watched the NHL Network coverage of the pick (which I had recorded on the DVR) and all of the "experts" called him the best goal scorer in the draft and had other high praise for him.  I think they had him ranked at 10 and we took him at 8, so not that big of a discrepancy.

The more I thought about it, I was good with the pick.  In comparison, remember how great everyone felt when Middlestadt "fell" to us on draft night?  How did that turn out?  A few years earlier, it was Grigerenko.  Perhaps it is wise to consider why flashy forwards sometimes drop on draft night.  It sounds like Quinn plays "heavy," gets into the corners and plays a 2-way game - all while being a great scorer.  This type of player might be a better fit than a guy who only puts up a bunch of points but doesn't have the grit and defensive parts of his game.  The Sabres undoubtedly need more grit and grind in their game, so maybe it was worth a small reach to add that type of player.  Plus, the NHL draft, probably more than any other sport (maybe MLB too) is truly a crapshoot.  Outside of 1 or 2 players every year, the rest of the drafted players are gambles.  They are usually a couple of years away from being a regular in the league and how they might develop is an unknown.  So, I'm fine with the pick, and like the rest of us, will have to wait and see how it turns out.

[Andrew Amerk]

7 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Overall I'm uninspired by it all.  Obviously sad that a non playoff team only has 5 picks but ignoring that I'd have been more content if the middle pick was a goalie. One goalie every year, that's my view forever. You can't have enough goalie prospects, and if you do you have trade pieces. 

I'm fine with euros in the late rounds. It's smart. Used to be you pick tough guys but nowadays euros is a good strategy. They are often harder to scout and have stranger development paths so you have a greater chance of striking gold with them than with well seen and known NA skaters. Pitt, Detroit, us (with Olofsson0 have all had 7th round successes with euros, among others. 

Historically, what return do these types of goalies fetch in trades? 
 

My weak memory tells me the returns are usually weak, or trades for another goalie, but I could be wrong...

[PerreaultForever]

3 minutes ago, Andrew Amerk said:

Historically, what return do these types of goalies fetch in trades? 
 

My weak memory tells me the returns are usually weak, or trades for another goalie, but I could be wrong...

Depends how they develop. You can't have too many of them. Look what happened to Boston. Or Colorado with the injury. In this league goalies are your most important piece to build around. Get a great one and you can cover up a lot of other weaknesses. 

[Andrew Amerk]

6 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

Depends how they develop. You can't have too many of them. Look what happened to Boston. Or Colorado with the injury. In this league goalies are your most important piece to build around. Get a great one and you can cover up a lot of other weaknesses. 

I don’t disagree with this at all. 
 

I was more curious what goalie prospects, backup goalies, etc usually fetch in trades. I remember what it took to get Hasek (Beauregard), and what Buffalo got after he was established (that guy that didn’t wanna be here). I THINK I remember a good return on a CuJo trade. Otherwise nothing notable pops up in my memory. 
 

What did the Habs get when they traded Roy?

Edited October 8, 2020 by Andrew Amerk

[PerreaultForever]

3 minutes ago, Andrew Amerk said:

I don’t disagree with this at all. 
 

I was more curious what goalie prospects, backup goalies, etc usually fetch in trades. I remember what it took to get Hasek (Beauregard), and what Buffalo got after he was established (that guy that didn’t wanna be here). I THINK I remember a good return on a CuJo trade. Otherwise nothing notable pops up in my memory. 
 

What did the Habs get when they traded Roy?

Well it is a supply and demand thing for sure and you have to scout and watch these guys really well to trade the ones you think won't keep getting better and keep the ones you think still have upside. The team wanting a goalie has to be right on that too. Were the Bruins lucky or smart when they traded for Rask for example, who knows, but I'm sure they'd say they saw something.

Hasek was an exception to everything. He was so unorthodox he got undervalued. I think it likely we just took a chance and hoped and in that case we were right. But probably lucky. 

Roy demanded out so the trade value went down. Habs had no choice. 

[Thorny]

9 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

I think Quinn will work out. Idk if he will be better than Rossi but he's an NHL player with a great shot. Quinn's hands are good and my only concern is his agility when it comes to skating. I want to see him combine some of the speed he has with some of the cuts he also has. I think he is a little raw and that is always a concern that high in the draft. His overall game though looks good and if his skating can just bump up 1 level I think he's got the potential to be very very good. The term I was looking for is burst. I want Quinn to work on his short burst so he can pull away a little more especially in small spaces, I think his edges are good and that if he improves that first 2 steps he will be deadly. 

JJP, I don't like moving up for a player in the second but the chances of us getting anything with pick 100 were like 5% so if that's your guy fine. 

Outside of that, I think not having all 7 picks hurt us a little because we are limited on what we know of Adams and his drafting style now. He values hard working players and ???? idk because we had basically 2 real picks, a outside chance in the 5th and two hope and prays in the 7th so it is hard to judge. I usually judge teams by what they do in rounds 1-4 and round 1 has me concerned and round 2 seemed fine. 

Well stated. 

[Curt]

2 hours ago, msw2112 said:

I don't really follow NHL prospects.  Most of what I know comes from this board.  When I saw that they drafted Quinn, I was pissed, because no list that I'd seen had him ranked in the top 8, and multiple players who were ranked in the top 8 (and that were mentioned on this board) were still available.

I subsequently watched the NHL Network coverage of the pick (which I had recorded on the DVR) and all of the "experts" called him the best goal scorer in the draft and had other high praise for him.  I think they had him ranked at 10 and we took him at 8, so not that big of a discrepancy.

The more I thought about it, I was good with the pick.  In comparison, remember how great everyone felt when Middlestadt "fell" to us on draft night?  How did that turn out?  A few years earlier, it was Grigerenko.  Perhaps it is wise to consider why flashy forwards sometimes drop on draft night.  It sounds like Quinn plays "heavy," gets into the corners and plays a 2-way game - all while being a great scorer.  This type of player might be a better fit than a guy who only puts up a bunch of points but doesn't have the grit and defensive parts of his game.  The Sabres undoubtedly need more grit and grind in their game, so maybe it was worth a small reach to add that type of player.  Plus, the NHL draft, probably more than any other sport (maybe MLB too) is truly a crapshoot.  Outside of 1 or 2 players every year, the rest of the drafted players are gambles.  They are usually a couple of years away from being a regular in the league and how they might develop is an unknown.  So, I'm fine with the pick, and like the rest of us, will have to wait and see how it turns out.

Regarding the bolded part:  the guy that most wanted at #8 is Marco Rossi, who is without a doubt a hard working, great 2 way, grinding, gritty, sometimes dirty player, in addition to being very skilled.

[Thorny]

12 minutes ago, Curt said:

Regarding the bolded part:  the guy that most wanted at #8 is Marco Rossi, who is without a doubt a hard working, great 2 way, grinding, gritty, sometimes dirty player, in addition to being very skilled.

With a significantly higher nhl e than Quinn. 

Adams is banking on a much better trajectory from Quinn from here on out, that much is certain. 

[Curt]

5 minutes ago, Thorny said:

With a significantly higher nhl e than Quinn. 

Adams is banking on a much better trajectory from Quinn from here on out, that much is certain. 

Yeah, and there are reasons to think that Quinn could fulfill that better trajectory and surpass Rossi.  Time will tell.

[North Buffalo]

Meh 3 years from now, maybe in 2 ask me... at this point it is all potential...

[Zamboni]

I give KA a B- for the 2020 draft. Could have been worse, could have been better.

[7+6=13]

It's hard for me to believe can't miss studs were drafted at #9 and #10.

[bunomatic]

7 hours ago, 7+6=13 said:

It's hard for me to believe can't miss studs were drafted at #9 and #10.

And #8