Pecar looks like a legit prospect
Lazar was a good signing
Drafted mitts
Drafted cozens

Resigned the lockport twins. They have played well
Locking in captain turnover for $10 million is a steal

I'd say his worse move at forward is giving erod 2 million 🤔

I'm not sure that's "neglected"
- Boss34

Michael Pachla: Checking in on the Sabres prospect pool with Kris Baker, Part II
- Michael Pachla

nice blog

a little harsh on Johansson

they intentionally went with 2 vet goalies in rochester last season to try to get winning culture

in the 13 games over this and last year at rochester Johansson has a 2.27 GAA and a .921 save percentage

better numbers then what Miller had when they went on a run with vanek, pommer, roy etc in rochester


not saying Johansson will be the next Miller, just saying he is holding his own in Rochester

This is pretty damn good.

The story of the Cat:

https://twitter.com/thech...tatus/1191753120071598080

Dumb questions. Anyone here eat at Rachel's Mediterranean? What's the difference (ingredient wise) between their Dill Sauce and the Tzazitki sauce?

This is pretty damn good.

The story of the Cat:

https://twitter.com/thech...tatus/1191753120071598080
- ImThatGuy

I am putting a waiver claim for him

he would have gotten me more points then bell or coleman

Pecar looks like a legit prospect
Lazar was a good signing
Drafted mitts
Drafted cozens

Resigned the lockport twins. They have played well
Locking in captain turnover for $10 million is a steal

I'd say his worse move at forward is giving erod 2 million 🤔

I'm not sure that's "neglected"
- Boss34

Boss, the Sabres have one top-6 forward prospect, Sobotka spent the first 15 games on line two, and you're bringing up Lazar?

That's some high level conspiracy theory right there.

Housley was considered by most "in the know" to be the most qualified candidate available. They happened to be wrong. I really don't think it goes any further than that.
- buffalofan19

Yeah but Rob Johnson has a superbowl ring 😀

I boo'ed the whole team Saturday.
- Frizzlefry

👏

19,070 should have

Yeah but Rob Johnson has a superbowl ring 😀
- Boss34

so does gary coleman errrr byron leftwich

Michael - great read, love hearing from Baker...would like to hear more on a regular basis!

The discussion on Drafts and Prospects is a interesting one as well.
if you use the typical roster construct as a basis to guide the draft picks by position, then over the 18 picks made, we should have expected:
11 F's, 5 D's and 2 G's...when the actual was:
8 F's, 8 D's and 2 G's.
With BPA factored in, we can anticipate some variance from the guide as well.
So maybe they drafted 1 or 2 more Dmen than what would be considered "normal" expectations.
Is that really so far off?

Boss, the Sabres have one top-6 forward prospect, Sobotka spent the first 15 games on line two, and you're bringing up Lazar?
- jcragcrumple

I forgot signing mojo too

Resigned eichel to a great team friendly deal
Resigned sam to a low deal
Resigned skinner
Promoted goaloffson
Signed johannsson
Traded for sheary
Tested for vesey

Drafted 2 top 8 forwards the last 2 drafts
Traded for sobotka and Thomson
Resigned lockport brothers
Berglund quit

Foolishly resigned erod

Top 6 type prospects
Tage
Cozens

What is he neglecting again? Forwards?

Lazar and cozens looked good enough for everyone to want them to make the team out of camp


Seems like he addressed the forwards.
Stuck with okposo

so does gary coleman errrr byron leftwich
- homiedclown

The rob Johnson comment was 19's response to a comment I made last week.

Didn't make sense then or now.

How's the good hands guy yeldon? 🤔

I forgot signing mojo too

Resigned eichel to a great team friendly deal
Resigned sam to a low deal
Resigned skinner
Promoted goaloffson
Signed johannsson
Traded for sheary
Tested for vesey

Drafted 2 top 8 forwards the last 2 drafts
Traded for sobotka and Thomson
Resigned lockport brothers
Berglund quit

Foolishly resigned erod

Top 6 type prospects
Tage
Cozens

What is he neglecting again? Forwards?

Lazar and cozens looked good enough for everyone to want them to make the team out of camp


Seems like he addressed the forwards.
Stuck with okposo
- Boss34

And all of that isn't enough.

The bolded are mediocre at best. Are we re-signing any of them?

And are you really giving Botterill credit for letting Olofsson make the team? What?

The forwards have been neglected by Botterill from the draft, to the prospect ranks and the NHL level. Find me a worse 2RW in the league than Sobotka

I think the bigger impact on the "imbalance" is from some of the trades involving Draft picks that were used to bring in a couple of Dmen recently, the exchange of F prospect Nylander for D prospect Joker:
So
-Beauliue for a 2017 3rd, that 3rd could have been used on a F
-Montour for a 2019 1st, that 1st could have been used on a F; while Montour and Guhle were a wash as far as number of Dmen
Also
- ROR for among other assets (which were 3 F's including prospect Tage Thompson) a 2019 1st, that 1st could have been used on a F but was used to select D R Johnson.

I think the bigger impact on the "imbalance" is from some of the trades involving Draft picks that were used to bring in a couple of Dmen recently, the exchange of F prospect Nylander for D prospect Joker:
So
-Beauliue for a 2017 3rd, that 3rd could have been used on a F
-Montour for a 2019 1st, that 1st could have been used on a F; while Montour and Guhle were a wash as far as number of Dmen
Also
- ROR for among other assets (which were 3 F's including prospect Tage Thompson) a 2019 1st, that 1st could have been used on a F but was used to select D R Johnson.
- IonSabres

The O'Reilly trade really offset the forward balance.

One forward was put into a role he wasn't ready for.
Another just didn't want to be here.
The third just isn't very good.

And all of that isn't enough.

The bolded are mediocre at best. Are we re-signing any of them?

And are you really giving Botterill credit for letting Olofsson make the team? What?

The forwards have been neglected by Botterill from the draft, to the prospect ranks and the NHL level. Find me a worse 2RW in the league than Sobotka
- jcragcrumple

Good points

I kinda think sobotka was a cap dump to equal out some of ror's salary. I dont hate him as much as most fans.


Jbotts deserves credit for not rushing goaloffson. Especially after the 10 game win streak. Put him in a position to earn a spot and play at an nhl level.

Also botts surely would have picked a forward if not for winning the lottery.

Mitts and cozens.
Tage, vesey, Johansson, sheary

What are you really expecting in a couple years of being hired?

Need I remind you of remi ellie? Swing and a miss, but another forward.

* I Also think girgs and possibly Larsson are Sabres lifers. Krueger type guys. Girgs for sure

The O'Reilly trade really offset the forward balance.

One forward was put into a role he wasn't ready for.
Another just didn't want to be here.
The third just isn't very good.
- buffalofan19

This whole imbalance thingy of Drafted F's vs D's is blown out of proportion
- 2 more D were selected than one could argue statistically out of the 18 (that's 11%)...it's not like it has been ignored
- when you consider that largely we should give more weight to the selections made in early rounds versus later rounds, say the 1st 3 rounds they still made about 2 Dmen more than one could statistically expect...more significant to be sure, HOWEVER one of which was Dahlin...NOBODY was taking anything but that Dman there...so it realistically gets down to 1 Dman is the difference.

The bigger issue was the draft picks moved that COULD have been used on drafting F's

This whole imbalance thingy of Drafted F's vs D's is blown out of proportion
- 2 more D were selected than one could argue statistically out of the 18 (that's 11%)...it's not like it has been ignored
- when you consider that largely we should give more weight to the selections made in early rounds versus later rounds, say the 1st 3 rounds they still made about 2 Dmen more than one could statistically expect...more significant to be sure, HOWEVER one of which was Dahlin...NOBODY was taking anything but that Dman there...so it realistically gets down to 1 Dman is the difference.

The bigger issue was the draft picks moved that COULD have been used on drafting F's
- IonSabres

Very good point. The development curve is huge when it comes to D men

How's the good hands guy yeldon? 🤔
- Boss34

he made the roster, like i said

That's some high level conspiracy theory right there.

Housley was considered by most "in the know" to be the most qualified candidate available. They happened to be wrong. I really don't think it goes any further than that.
- buffalofan19

Plus Housley was hired for Dahlin. Buffalo was assuming, wanting, hoping they were the same mold.

Plus Housley was hired for Dahlin. Buffalo was assuming, wanting, hoping they were the same mold.
- Tragically Buffalo

So they hired Housley a year before they knew they were going to get Dahlin?

Ummmmmmm....doubtful.

Housley was hired because he was "the next big thing" in terms of coaching. He was the hot commodity.

Jgrags- were you not one of the posters that repeated

"Vesey is gonna just plug in for pommenville's goals"

I disagreed and continue to disagree.

BIG 0 for vesey

Pommer skating and staying ready to play
- Boss34

He's good for about three weeks. And then he needs a cane on the ice.

El Paso.

https://buffalonews.com/2...ting-lines-point-spreads/



Oddsmakers are pretty much saying the Browns are favored because the betting public is stupid.

Dumb questions. Anyone here eat at Rachel's Mediterranean? What's the difference (ingredient wise) between their Dill Sauce and the Tzazitki sauce?
- buffalofan19

Dill is dill and tzazitki is cucumber.

Their garlic sauce (which is essentially whipped garlic) is AMAZING!

First off, this is a great little mini series, and very well written. Hearing from Baker is great, and this is quality content during the mini schedule lull. Thank you for that, because this kind of content isn't usually available without a paywall.

I still think Botterill getting a pass for largely neglecting the forward portion of the draft:



Asplund and Murray are still around from the previous regime. Botterill has spent assets in some cases that haven't worked (Beaulieu, Scandella, Vesey) and some that have worked (Skinner, hopefully Montour).

He has very much brought this upon himself by spending assets and drafting an abundance of defense, imo. This is on him at this point, not Murray.

If his team succeeds, then I dont really care, but the Sabres are incredibly thin at forward prospects, and that's on Botterill imo
- jcragcrumple

since D is more harder to home grow i am hoping some of these later round D prospects can be flipped for O in the next 12-18 months