Sabres Prospect Challenge September 15-19.

[Trettioåtta]

19 minutes ago, Taro T said:

And stuff like the Sabres being ready to pounce on Kulich (and a few other guys the past 2 (and maybe even 3 years - Quinn & Peterka say 'hi') is what was so frustrating about the Golisano years.  Rather than building up the scouting department to have a lot of cheap homegrown talent coming in, he & Quinn gutted it & brought in video scouting.  It wasn't just his gutting the most complete team they'd had since at least the early-90's & likely since the mid-70's or possibly ever due to being focused on only today's balance sheet, but his inability to see how his overall goals were completely complemented by building the scouting department rather than tearing it down.

At least there is hope once again, & not the forced kind we've lived with most of the past decade.

Or the ability to see how revenue from deep playoff runs would cover the increased cost of a better team. Nevermind the windfall he would get if they won the cup.

[Weave]

4 hours ago, bob_sauve28 said:

I really wonder how many of these prospects actually play in the NHL for a sizable amount of time. It sure looks like a bunch of them will, and there are even more out there that did not play in the tournament. 

I think there is a fair amount of irrational exuberance and shiny new toy syndrome at play.  Had any team hit on half their picks 2 drafts in a row? I think it is far more likely that we have 2x more Daniel Catenacci’s (remember how he looked in training camps?) in our prospect pool than Daniel Briere’s.

I do think we may just have enough prospects to keep the team moving forward over the next few seasons.  I don’t think we’ve got 6 or 7 sure fire soon-to-be NHLers like suggested lately.

[dudacek]

35 minutes ago, Weave said:

I think there is a fair amount of irrational exuberance and shiny new toy syndrome at play.  Had any team hit on half their picks 2 drafts in a row? I think it is far more likely that we have 2x more Daniel Catenacci’s (remember how he looked in training camps?) in our prospect pool than Daniel Briere’s.

I do think we may just have enough prospects to keep the team moving forward over the next few seasons.  I don’t think we’ve got 6 or 7 sure fire soon-to-be NHLers like suggested lately.

This is generally proven true time and again.

That said, the numbers support getting at least 3 or 4 out of: Savoie, Östlund, Power, Rosen, and Quinn as top 16 picks

And I would be surprised if there aren't 2 or 3 more out of: UPL, Kulich, Leinonen, Poltapov, Kisakov, Peterka and Johnson. The math supports that as well.

Throw in the progress of Portillo, Bloom, Nadeau, Novikov, and especially Levi, among others, and I'll take the over.

Personally, I will be surprised if Savoie, Östlund, Kulich, Power, Quinn, Peterka, Johnson and Levi don't all play substantial NHL games. That's 8 without dipping in to the longer shots.

Edited September 20, 2022 by dudacek

[Taro T]

11 minutes ago, Weave said:

I think there is a fair amount of irrational exuberance and shiny new toy syndrome at play.  Had any team hit on half their picks 2 drafts in a row? I think it is far more likely that we have 2x more Daniel Catenacci’s (remember how he looked in training camps?) in our prospect pool than Daniel Briere’s.

I do think we may just have enough prospects to keep the team moving forward over the next few seasons.  I don’t think we’ve got 6 or 7 sure fire soon-to-be NHLers like suggested lately.

True to a degree.  It's very unlikely the last 2 drafts are putting 12 NHLers out there for the Sabres.  But with all the high end picks they've had & a little luck they should get at least 7 NHLers out of the past 2.  They had 5 1st rounders alone the past 2 years.

And if they did, they have at least 9 NHLers out of the last 3 drafts.  That'll keep the cupboards stocked.

[bob_sauve28]

12 minutes ago, Taro T said:

True to a degree.  It's very unlikely the last 2 drafts are putting 12 NHLers out there for the Sabres.  But with all the high end picks they've had & a little luck they should get at least 7 NHLers out of the past 2.  They had 5 1st rounders alone the past 2 years.

And if they did, they have at least 9 NHLers out of the last 3 drafts. That'll   keep the cupboards stocked.

I expect after a time Adams will be busy making trades as all these players, along with the other good ones already here, and even more coming, will make us sit some really good players. 

[Taro T]

3 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

I expect after a time Adams will be busy making trades as all these players, along with the other good ones already here, and even more coming, will make us sit some really good players. 

And that in itself will keep the cupboards stocked.  Looking forward to being at the point Detroit was most of this century where good kids cooked in the AHL until they were both ready & a spot was available.

[Thorny]

18 hours ago, Digger said:

But it's a trick question in my opinion (I pictured signing a deal with the devil) 😏.  A perennial playoff team obviously wins more regular season games so is more enjoyable for the fans.  But a perennial playoff team could lose in the first round every year or never win a playoff game.  

I agree that playoffs are obviously the first step but yearly improvement towards winning the Stanley Cup is the ultimate goal.

So I'll change Pi's statement to:  "build a perennial playoff team with year over year improvements ultimately with the Sabres winning the Stanley Cup".

 

My initial answer was actually a little more straight forward.

If someone told me we could be perennially in the playoffs, making a deeper run here and there, but ultimately never win the Cup...I take it. The odds are so dicey when it comes to winning a Cup, ever, in my lifetime, to the extent that, to me, if the only way I could adjudge this whole fandom to be “worth it” is to win the championship, I’d have a problem justifying the extent of my Sabres fandom in general. Borderline illogical, for me personally. 

The run we went on in 2006 was a magic of the type that affirms a fandom. I’m not asking for a lot (but after over a decade of failure, sometimes it seems like I am) but give me a team that makes the playoffs every year and I take it, gratefully.

7 hours ago, matter2003 said:

This team's pipeline is stocked full of talent and its not only the 1st round picks now...even late round picks like Rousek and Kozak are looking like they are going to be solid NHL players within a few years...something that was sorely lacking over the last decade. Basically if they weren't a first round pick, they weren't playing for us. Hard to build a solid team that way.

 

1 hour ago, Weave said:

I think there is a fair amount of irrational exuberance and shiny new toy syndrome at play.  Had any team hit on half their picks 2 drafts in a row? I think it is far more likely that we have 2x more Daniel Catenacci’s (remember how he looked in training camps?) in our prospect pool than Daniel Briere’s.

I do think we may just have enough prospects to keep the team moving forward over the next few seasons.  I don’t think we’ve got 6 or 7 sure fire soon-to-be NHLers like suggested lately.

As Weave mentioned, as good as the pool looks (and it does look very good), there is some unavoidable recent bias at work imo. We *did* have later picks (guys like, say, Nic Baptiste) who looked to have NHL futures, we sometimes just tend to forget these guys over time after a few years pass and they fail to make their NHL mark, becoming footnotes. 

There will be guys like that from this crop, undoubtedly, but it does look like we have a shot on hitting on an above average amount, too.