My apologies for the Adam Dennis mistake. Tired and typing a paper for a psychology class. Minor mistake, I apologize.
As for the rest of my post, i stand by it. Lydman is a lot worse than Kalinin in my opinion. You wish to talk about turnover liabilities, go back and watch any of Lydman's games. The guy is terrible on the outlet pass, which is key for our style of play, and is often out of position in our own end, not to mention when he just happens to make a joke of an appearance in the offensive end. It is exactly that...offensive.
Now, when it comes to Max Afinogenov, he is absolutely vital on this team. Teams all over the NHL know that if you want to stop any Sabre attack on offense, all you have to do is line up at the blue line on defense and they will dump it into the zone. You need guys like Afinogenov to leg it into the zone and not just dump around the back of the net, and not be aggressive enough on the forecheck.
As for the comments on Hecht. Defensive? Really? He is not the primary problem on this Sabres team, but my god, the man is mediocre at best.
Now, if I must, I will go back through the old threads and find the thread in which i used the statistics, actual fact, to prove Connolly's worth.