BillsFan4

It was a joke, man.

Tyler Myers is set to meet with Vancouver tomorrow (tampering window opens tonight at midnight). I think Benning could end up offering him a crazy deal. He’s been going hard after a RHD all offseason. He seems to be feeling the heat, and now that he traded their 1st he will probably be even more desperate to improve. I can already see it.... Tampa Bay will be the last team left standing in the Risto sweepstakes and since they already solved their cap issues (for the most part), Botterill having lost his leverage will panic, end up caving in and selling Risto much cheaper than he should. Risto will then go to Tampa and thrive on a legit NHL team while winning the Cup + Conn Symthe + Norris. Then Sabres fans will start a GoFundMe campaign to buy a rocket and launch Botterill into the sun.... ?

Teams were planning on the cap being set at $83 to $83.5M. Instead it’s set at $81.5M. It doesn’t sound like that big of a difference, but it is to NHL GM’s. We saw Subban traded for peanuts just to gain some cap space. Hopefully Botterill is able to take advantage.

I believe with the trades, this is Buffalo’s last pick of the draft. Another over-ager. Went undrafted last year. 3rd over-ager they drafted this year.

Crazy cheap pickup for NJ. Subban has a bit of a down year by his standards but he was a Norris trophy finalist just 2 years ago. Santini was a 2nd round pick way back in 2013. He’s already 24. He’s played about 100 NHL games over the course of his career so far, but never more than 39 games in a season. He’s averaged about 35 games a season the last 3 years. He’s a bottom pairing guy with a bit of upside left (maybe...) and Davies was a 7th round pick in 2016. Im thinking Nashville has a good idea that they can sign Duchene, otherwise I don’t get why they’d be this desperate to clear Subban’s cap hit. I know they need to extend Josi but he has a year left. It really goes to show that there’s a huge premium being placed on cap space right now. I hope Botterill can take advantage of it, too. Also, if this is all good top 4 RHD are bringing in trades, please hold onto Risto!

Sabres trade up and pick Aaron Huglen. He scored a crazy goal in the Hlinka - https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/485574/aaron-huglen Corey Pronman’s scouting report - ranked #55

Sabres select Erik Portillo, 6’ 6” goalie https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/342286/erik-portillo

Kind of a big gamble by Jim Benning and I don’t really think JT Miller is worth it. Imagine if they miss the playoffs this year and next (a real possibility. They haven’t made the playoffs in 4 straight seasons now) and give Tampa a top 10 pick for JT Miller. Yikes!

Corey Pronman’s analysis of our picks - https://theathletic.com/1040981/2019/06/21/pronman-2019-nhl-draft-pick-by-pick-breakdown-of-the-first-round/

Watch/Listen to the first few minutes of the video. He has a skill set that the Sabres are sorely missing. We have a lot of perimeter players with sometimes questionable motors. He’s the opposite of that. lol I said earlier in the draft process that Cozens wasn’t my first choice. But the more I watch and read, the more I like him already. Kris Baker also helps sell me on him. I didn’t really follow any prospects that closely this season.

I think the holdup may be due in part to the uncertain salary cap ceiling numbers. Teams are nervous because it’s going to be lower than projected. Hopefully they’ll find out tomorrow. Usually it’s set by now.

Yeah, doing some quick reading on him, he may be further away than I first thought (I was just going by what McKenzie said after he was picked) Seems like kind of a safe pick, similar to Cozens. That was definitely a theme tonight. Nothing wrong with that. The Sabres need sure fire NHL players more than most teams. There was some high end talent left on the board though. Guys like Kaliyev and Lavoie and Hoglander. But they are higher risk picks with more question marks (but higher ceilings IMO).

Sabres pick Ryan Johnson with pick #31. Can’t say I know enough about him to really comment in depth. Projects to be a good top 4 defenseman who should be ready for the NHL sooner rather than later. That seemed to be a theme tonight. Both Cozens and Johnson should be ready for the NHL within a year or two.

Some really good talent still left on the board here with 1 pick to go. We should get a really good player at #31 if they stay on the consensus draft board.

Yeah I was really hoping the Habs would go a bit off board with their 1st round pick (again). I knew they’d take Caufield when he was still on the board, though. That’s their type of pick. Oh well. ? Love that Reinhart was at the draft. I honestly think he loved being a Buffalo Sabre more than any other player we have. He just loves it here and from everything he says and does you can tell he wants to be here a long time.

Some scouting reports on Cozens. I don’t have time to post quotes from each right now so I’ll just post the links. https://lastwordonhockey.com/2019/04/04/dylan-cozens-scouting-report/ https://dobberprospects.com/player/dylan-cozens/ https://puckprose.com/2019/05/19/2019-nhl-draft-profile-dylan-cozens-scouting-report/ https://www.milehighhockey.com/2019/5/25/18638733/2019-nhl-draft-prospect-profile-dylan-cozens-scouting-report And one on him being named WHL player of the year - https://globalnews.ca/news/4183846/cozens-whl-rookie-of-the-year/

Called Spencer Knight to Florida. It just made too much sense. Drafting s goalie that high scares the crap out of me, though. They are soo hard to predict. Some of the most “can’t miss” goaltending prospects have busted, and 6th-7th round picks turn into super stars.

Buffalo picks Dylan Cozens. i thought it might be Zegras but Cozens is the better 2 way player and more of a shooter. Plus a very high compete level. Zegras is a pure play maker. We have a few of those already. Here is Kris Baker’s scouting report on Cozens -

Wow, shocker by Detroit! Moritz Seider! Board is sitting perfect for Buffalo right now. Please don’t mess it up Botts.

Thats what I meant. We need a good, proven asset back in a Risto trade. It has to be a sure thing. When I said top tier, can’t miss prospect I meant someone like Quinn Hughes (Vancouver’s top prospect, and one of the top 3 prospects in the whole NHL). He should be ready for the NHL by next season and his ceiling would make it worth the wait. Prospects like that don’t get traded though. Ideally id want to get an NHL player or two. (if the right player(s) was offered) But I don’t really want to trade Risto at all. I’d rather just keep him and see how he looks with a competent coach and d partner.

Hearing that Vancouver is very close to trading for Tyson Barrie (right handed top 4 D from Colorado). If they do you can take them out of the Ristolainen sweepstakes. Im fine with that. Rumor is something like Jake Virtanen + 2020 1st (that will probably have protections on it). That’s not nearly enough for me to want to trade Risto. Virtanen has never broke 30pts (iirc 25pts is his career high). He’s whickly approaching bust status. And the 1st is a mystery box. If it ends up in the teens in a weaker 2020 draft, you may not even get a top 6 player out of the deal. If we trade Risto I want a proven asset or a top tier, can’t miss prospect as the main piece. You have to get good NHL players out of the deal. It can’t be a repeat of the ROR trade. Now there’s something to take pride in! lol

Remember when I said yesterday that I was pretty confident Buffalo couldn’t mess up the #7 pick this year? Well, about that... ? It would have to be at pick #31, or a trade up into the teens/early 20’s. Botterill did mention the possibility of using a player to trade up from pick #31.