Sabres interested in Marco Rossi

[Two or less]

On 5/28/2025 at 6:33 PM, inkman said:

Every wanna be GM was creaming in their jeans about Rossi. It quickly became the most tired thing on Sabres twitter.  Quinn’s trajectory was higher but ultimately injuries and poor development have turned him into a mediocre NHL player at best.  Glad you can lay one more I told you so at the feet of fans who just want someone or anyone to actually be good. 

 

For sure, even after returning from that off-season injury Quinn was dynamic. 5 goals, 7 assists, 12 points in 17 games after missing half the summer and the first 32 games.

[LGR4GM]

On 5/28/2025 at 6:33 PM, inkman said:

Every wanna be GM was creaming in their jeans about Rossi. It quickly became the most tired thing on Sabres twitter.  Quinn’s trajectory was higher but ultimately injuries and poor development have turned him into a mediocre NHL player at best.  Glad you can lay one more I told you so at the feet of fans who just want someone or anyone to actually be good. 

Marco Rossi got covid after the draft and almost died. He spent a year barely playing hockey. So... trajectories 

https://thehockeynews.com/news/news/marco-rossi-just-thankful-to-be-alive

[dudacek]

37 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Marco Rossi got covid after the draft and almost died. He spent a year barely playing hockey. So... trajectories 

https://thehockeynews.com/news/news/marco-rossi-just-thankful-to-be-alive

Why do we think Rossi got 4th line minutes in the playoffs?

He was their 10th most used forward (11th if you count Hinostroza, who played just 1 game) at 11:08 per game. He was behind Freddie Gaudreau and Marcus Johansen.

He averaged 18 minutes during the regular season.

Evason is an idiot is not an acceptable answer; he had reasons, what were they?

Could the fact he went 3/6/9/-13 in 23 games down the stretch, been a factor? If so, why did he slump? His ice time was not cut in the regular season.

Im not interested in investing assets in another guy who’s not a playoff-type performer.

[LGR4GM]

7 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Why do we think Rossi got 4th line minutes in the playoffs?

He was their 10th most used forward (11th if you count Hinostroza, who played just 1 game) at 11:08 per game. He was behind Freddie Gaudreau and Marcus Johansen.

He averaged 18 minutes during the regular season.

Evason is an idiot is not an acceptable answer; he had reasons, what were they?

Could the fact he went 3/6/9/-13 in 23 games down the stretch, been a factor? If so, why did he slump? His ice time was not cut in the regular season.

Im not interested in investing assets in another guy who’s not a playoff-type performer.

He's short and I believe he was on the ice for 2g against. 

I'm not being flippant either, the talk out of Minnesota is that Rossi's size isn't in favor with the GM.

Rossi has limits due to size. I think Minnesota wants to get harder to play against  and specifically bigger. 

[Turbo44]

Sounds like Danny Briere 2.0 type trade possibility 

[Brawndo]

40 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

He's short and I believe he was on the ice for 2g against. 

I'm not being flippant either, the talk out of Minnesota is that Rossi's size isn't in favor with the GM.

Rossi has limits due to size. I think Minnesota wants to get harder to play against  and specifically bigger. 

Jarmo has not shied away from smaller players in the past. 
 

The hard part is convincing the members of the front office who passed on him in 2020, that’s it’s not a bad thing to trade for him now 

[DarthEbriate]

12 hours ago, Turbo44 said:

Sounds like Danny Briere 2.0 type trade possibility 

Alas, the Sabres don't have an overdrafted and very big 3rd line center (Gratton) to swap for a potential top-line scorer (Briere).

They did have Cozens last year....  Maybe Guerin would've been willing to offer better than Ottawa/Norris. But, health concerns aside, I probably take a solid 2C in Norris over a young guy in Rossi who likely wants to paid as much as Norris and soon. (big caveat: does Norris ever play 70+ games in the lifetime of his current contract? TBD)

[Mr. Allen]

So I unfortunately don’t remember where I read it, but “apparently” Rossi wants 7x7.  I don’t know enough if that’s too much for him or not.  
But I also read the Flyers wanted to trade for him but the Wild wanted Tyson Foester and the Flyers 1st.  Which sounds like a lot. 

[LGR4GM]

12 minutes ago, Mr. Allen said:

So I unfortunately don’t remember where I read it, but “apparently” Rossi wants 7x7.  I don’t know enough if that’s too much for him or not.  
But I also read the Flyers wanted to trade for him but the Wild wanted Tyson Foester and the Flyers 1st.  Which sounds like a lot. 

Would you trade Peterka for Tyson Forester and a 1st?

[Mr. Allen]

I don’t think so?  But I also value Peterka more than Rossi.  

[LGR4GM]

23 minutes ago, Mr. Allen said:

I don’t think so?  But I also value Peterka more than Rossi.  

Why? 

And more to the point you value Peterka so much higher that you think that ask isn't enough and Rossi so little that it's an overpay. 

[Turbo44]

27 minutes ago, Mr. Allen said:

I don’t think so?  But I also value Peterka more than Rossi.  

I’d like both to show interest in the defensive zone

[PerreaultForever]

16 hours ago, Turbo44 said:

Sounds like Danny Briere 2.0 type trade possibility 

Funny you should say that as I hear Philly is very interested in Rossi. There could be a bidding war . 

[PerreaultForever]

2 hours ago, Mr. Allen said:

So I unfortunately don’t remember where I read it, but “apparently” Rossi wants 7x7.  I don’t know enough if that’s too much for him or not.  
But I also read the Flyers wanted to trade for him but the Wild wanted Tyson Foester and the Flyers 1st.  Which sounds like a lot. 

Just to be clear the rumor is Foerster and the Colorado pick they have, not the Flyers first which is 6th overall. Flyers have a lot of picks. 3 first and 4 seconds. And the current rumor is Briere said no and offered a 2nd rounder with Foerster but that was a no from Minnesota. So maybe your sweet spot is between those offers. 

[Archie Lee]

16 hours ago, Brawndo said:

Jarmo has not shied away from smaller players in the past. 
 

The hard part is convincing the members of the front office who passed on him in 2020, that’s it’s not a bad thing to trade for him now 

Why did they pass on him?  Was it just that they saw Quinn as a better prospect, or were there perceived flaws in Rossi’s game?  The same front office drafted Savoie and Benson. 

[Mr. Allen]

19 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Why? 

And more to the point you value Peterka so much higher that you think that ask isn't enough and Rossi so little that it's an overpay. 

Yeah.  I’m not that high on Rossi. He’s tiny and not one that really makes up for it with tenacity.  I don’t think he’s worth 7x7 either. 

[PerreaultForever]

Just now, Archie Lee said:

Why did they pass on him?  Was it just that they saw Quinn as a better prospect, or were there perceived flaws in Rossi’s game?  The same front office drafted Savoie and Benson. 

It's just size. It's still size. There are people still questioning whether he could hold up in a playoff series. How could he handle Florida type play. That sort of thing. A shorter guy is always going to have those questions. So you need to look deeply at his compete and his build/strength and all those things. More small guys fail than succeed in this league but the little guys who do succeed are usually special. Brad Marchand is slightly shorter than Rossi for some perspective on that. 

[Archie Lee]

7 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

It's just size. It's still size. There are people still questioning whether he could hold up in a playoff series. How could he handle Florida type play. That sort of thing. A shorter guy is always going to have those questions. So you need to look deeply at his compete and his build/strength and all those things. More small guys fail than succeed in this league but the little guys who do succeed are usually special. Brad Marchand is slightly shorter than Rossi for some perspective on that. 

Sure, but I was asking why some in our front office would have a bias against Rossi when they drafted Savoie and Benson. It doesn’t seem that our front office is averse to drafting smaller players. That we passed on Rossi for Quinn, setting aside our individual opinions on whether that was a good decision, doesn’t mean they didn’t like Rossi (necessarily). 

[dudacek]

47 minutes ago, Archie Lee said:

Why did they pass on him?  Was it just that they saw Quinn as a better prospect, or were there perceived flaws in Rossi’s game?  The same front office drafted Savoie and Benson. 

At the time they said it was upside: they felt Quinn was a late bloomer who still had a lot of growth potential in his body and his game.

The Sabres didn't say it, but it was being said that Rossi had kinda maxed out his growth.

The argument was that Rossi's upside was 2C, and likely a 2C you'd want to upgrade from because of speed/strength limitations, whereas Quinn was the best goal scorer in the draft and had 30-40 goal potential.

[Brawndo]

2 hours ago, Archie Lee said:

Why did they pass on him?  Was it just that they saw Quinn as a better prospect, or were there perceived flaws in Rossi’s game?  The same front office drafted Savoie and Benson. 

The people who were responsible for drafting Savoie and more importantly the drafting of Benson, coupled with the Savoie for McLeod were not with the front office at the time of the 2020 Draft 

[Brawndo]

FWIW had Botterill not been fired, Rossi would have been the pick 

[dudacek]

6 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

FWIW had Botterill not been fired, Rossi would have been the pick 

If I'm remembering correctly, the Sabres were running a skeleton scouting crew that year after EEE, with an "analytics department" consisting of Nightingale, right?

It was Jeremiah Crowe's one and only draft and they went for Quinn after Adams told them/him to review the draft list through a "different lens".

[Brawndo]

3 minutes ago, dudacek said:

If I'm remembering correctly, the Sabres were running a skeleton scouting crew that year after EEE, with an "analytics department" consisting of Nightingale, right?

It was Jeremiah Crowe's one and only draft and they went for Quinn after Adams told them/him to review the draft list through a "different lens".

This was pretty much it.  Adams, Crowe, Nightengale and Forton essentially were the front office 

[The Jokeman]

5 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Would you trade Peterka for Tyson Forester and a 1st?

Foerster just got $3.75 per year for 2 years. Nice re-sign for the Flyers.

[PerreaultForever]

3 hours ago, Archie Lee said:

Sure, but I was asking why some in our front office would have a bias against Rossi when they drafted Savoie and Benson. It doesn’t seem that our front office is averse to drafting smaller players. That we passed on Rossi for Quinn, setting aside our individual opinions on whether that was a good decision, doesn’t mean they didn’t like Rossi (necessarily). 

Oh I think that's easy. Benson was ranked 4 or 5 and Savoie sometimes got as high as 3 (or thereabouts). They fell because of size and then Sabres had their BPA analytic lists and went oh my, we can't pass on these guys at 8 or 9 or whatever it was. 

In Rossi's case he was ranked roughly where we were but so was Quinn. Close enough in any event that you could choose either one and they went for the bigger. 

This year is weird and thin with a lot of guys ranked roughly the same so if teams do go size you never know what we get and we might be looking right at Hagens thinking here we go again, the higher ranked smaller guy. I think it likely he gets taken earlier by Philly or Boston but you never know. Cam Neely might think Martone is his long lost son and maybe somebody even thinks McQueen is fine. Drafts can go that way. 

I would have taken Rossi over Quinn myself, but I wasn't sure about either one of them. I would have taken Perfetti (although I also liked Holloway and Mercer but recognized they were going to be a little lower).