JohnC

The below WGR link is an interview with Jankowski, head of the team's amateur scouting department. He gives a summary of the picks. This is a 9 minute segment. https://wgr550.radio.com/media/audio-channel/jankowski-0622mp3

You more succinctly summarized my rambling dissertation. I consider Yzerman as one of the best personnel men and GMs in the game. He had tremendous success in Detroit and Tampa. Now he is back with Detroit to take over the operation. He was asked in an interview during the draft what he was going to do to get Detroit back to its glory days. His short response was: We are going to draft well and develop players. There are no short cuts. It's funny but I didn't hear him sayin anything about waving a magic wand to quickly fix the team.

I don't understand your reasoning; and I don't understand your alarmist attitude on this trade issue. Our GM has the leverage in a Risto trade because he doesn't have to deal him unless it gets him a good return. Keeping him is not a bad outcome. He is as much of an asset, if not more, with us as he is with other teams. Right now, I'm leaning toward keeping him. With better coaching and playing with a better roster his inconsistent play can be toned down to the point where he will become an anchor defenseman for us. With him I think using him less and simplifying his role will make him a better player.

I understand the frustration and impatience people have with this lagging team. The mistakes that Pegula made when he bought the team set this franchise back. He got caught up with his unbridled enthusiasm by hiring "names" to run his franchise. There was so much internal confusion it was hard to decipher who was running the clown show. And then to compound his mistakes the owner got caught up in throwing money around for mediocre players who were then enriched for life. You think that is going to create an environment of self-motivation and hard work? The owner then responded by bringing in Murray to take control. In the world of analytics bluster isn't conducive to success. The media might enjoy repeating the tough guy "quotes" but it doesn't disguise the fact that bad hockey decisions were being made. As with the football business Pegula was new to the hockey business. He made some big amateurish mistakes that set us back. Instead of starting the rebuilding process in his first year he wasted three years because the staff he hired to run the operation was inept. Those accumulated mistakes caused even more time to go by in order to clear out those mistakes and get back on a rational path. It was set back after set back. I believe that the organization has been stabilized and the operation is being professionally run. It's just going to take time before the body of work has crossed a threshold where the team moves up the ranks from being mediocre to being solid to being good. For those who demand that we be good right now because we have been bad for so long I say grow up! Acting rashly because of impatience is acting stupidly. We have had enough of that. Now that the cap has been determined I expect the GM will soon make some medium type deals that improves the roster. Moving forward is better than moving backwards.

The next time you go to a magic store go to the aisle that has magic wands. Make a purchase and then energetically wave it so your fantasies can immediately be fulfilled.

In reality you don't have to be sober to absorb his flimsy material. On the other hand I am sympathetic to him because he has had to cover this hollow franchise for so long. It has to be dispiriting to cover a not very relevant franchise for more than a decade. What's new to ask and say?

This deal would have been too much of a desperate deal if the Sabres would have made a comparable deal. It would have been too rich of a deal if we would have made it. The underlying benefit is Tampa is able to gain some cap relief and put them in a better position to sign their own talented players. In addition, Tampa's farm system is loaded and they have top tier prospects ready to make the jump to the NHL. Overall, this is a good deal for Tampa.

Early afternoon drinking is not conducive to a sober absorption of a text.

Trust me, if you use your time to read this pointless article you will not be more informed. Rehashing a rehashed cliche storyline is not very illuminating.

No.

Paul Hamilton wrote a story after the selection of Cozens. This is a draft pick that regardless who we took we were going to get a good player. I'm not impressed with the tired storyline that this pick was a steal and there was surprise that he was still on the board. We won't know for at least a couple of years how this pick turns out. Our GM didn't try to outsmart anyone and simply picked a player that was highly rated and also hopefully in the future will fill a major need at center. https://wgr550.radio.com/articles/news/few-things-earlier-draft-allowed-sabres-steal-cozens

These dancing queens will get caught. It's not that difficult of a case to close. Even Detective Stupid from the Dummy Squad could solve this one.

This is a WGR interview of Krueger after our first selection. It is a three and a half segment. https://wgr550.radio.com/media/audio-channel/6-21-ralph-krueger-paul-hamilton

Hockey is not football. With the exception of the unique top talent in the draft it can take three to four years before the talent is mature enough to play in the league, assuming they are ever able to attain that NHL level of play. Most of the players are drafted when they are around 18 years old. That's the system. In football you can draft a player and next year a significant number of those prospect can make the roster and even contribute. So the comparison between football and hockey doesn't fit. As much as people are impatient with Nylander's development it is forgotten by many that he is somewhere between 20-21 years old. It takes time. It's a fact a life that can't be avoided in the player development process. You can get frustrated with the time lag between drafting and playing but it's an inescapable reality. For those clamoring for a blockbuster deal that will miraculously uplift this franchise my question is tell me which one of our better players will you trade away? And what do you expect to get back? If you trade Risto you can get back value but it will be at the cost of creating a major void on the blue line. It's probably that the GM is going to make a number of smaller deals that will bolster the roster rather than a bigger deal or two that will garner more publicity. Again, hockey is not like football. They are two separate worlds with two separate systems. In each respective sport you succeed with the accumulation of smart decisions. If you start acting out of impatience instead of strategically thinking you will fall into the trap of short term moving forward and then long term stepping back. It is what it is.

Making good draft selections doesn't preclude the organization from making deals that improve the roster. You don't think that the deal for Skinner didn't upgrade the roster? You don't think that the trade for Montour didn't improve the roster? You don't think that the signing of Pilot from the free agent market didn't help the roster? It's still early in the offseason. There will be opportunities to rework the roster to make it better. If you expect magic then go to the magic show where illusion may be eye-popping but it is not reality.

I don't see us trading Risto. Even with a good return the void left by his loss would then require us to fill that created void. It's like dealing ROR and then having to refill the open slot. If there is a defenseman that is going to be moved it is more likely to be McCabe. There were reports that he was being shopped around. He's another player that I like a lot with my primary concern about him is that he is injury prone. I don't understand your response.

Adding a center who has some size and plays a full length game somewhat fills the style of play of the departed ROR. Mitts is more of a skilled and offensive-mined player while Cozens is more of a north/south two way player. If Mitts develops then with Cozens we have three credible players up the middle. It's still going to take some time but the pieces are falling in place.

I think it was Darren Dreger who speculated that Nylander was being offered around. The selections for us isn't what is so captivating about this draft day gathering. We know the players who will be in the range with our first round pick. It is the deals that are going to be made or formulated in this forum so that in the not to distant future there will be more players shuffling around. According to Dreger Vancouver seems to be the most active team in trade talks.

Bell brought these girls home to get screwed. His intention was to screw them while their intentions were to screw him. Their screwing was much more enriching.

Some people recoil at the notion that someone would challenge what they believe to be their unchallengeable positions on an issues. Instead of disagreeing with a point in a discussion it is easier to resort to smearing the individual. That's what happened with the Warrow exchanges and also in this case with K-9. K-9 can defend his positions well enough with anyone. He's not sensitive to his views being challenged or even criticized. He can capably mix it up with anyone. But this repeated descent into sidetracking a discussion by personal slings is the standard behavior of odious scoundrels

This offseason was dedicated to putting Josh in a position to succeed. Is the OL reconstruction going to be successful? Is the receiving unit going to be upgraded with the offseason additions? As you succinctly stated: Now for the winning. There are two factions on different sides of the fence. You and I are on the side with the green grass while some others are on the side with the barren dirt.

The irony is that from a rebuild perspective this roster, cap structure and organization has dramatically changed in a short period of time. Go back and look at the roster inherited and at the current roster entering into the third year. If you factor in the fact that McDermott took over before he had control of the organizational apparatus then the change within that short time span has been even more dramatic and impressive. Before he took over the Bills hadn't had a franchise qb in a quarter century. The McBeane tandem drafted their franchise qb (hopefully) in their second draft or in reality in their first full control draft. That's nothing to sneer at. While many in the lamenting chorus are fixated on Peterman, a fifth round draft pick, that same discordant chorus avoids acknowledging the creative maneuvering it took to select Josh Allen. My general point is that in a relatively short time span this organization has made emphatic moves that although in the short term have proven to be painful but also purposeful. No one is requiring anyone to agree with everything that has been done but not being open to the possibility, if not the probability, that this franchise is in a good position to succeed makes little sense to me.

Some people are afraid of success because it will run counter to their narrative. They will make the counter claim that our receptivity to possible success is a reflection of our captivity. Let's see how this actually plays out.

Your last paragraph focuses on the issue that is at the core of this oscillating discussion. Will the moves that were made this offseason to upgrade the OL and receiving unit work out? Will the young qb continue with his development? There are those who make the reflexive assumption that because this regime continues to implement their rebuild plan counter to their desired narrative that it will automatically fail. Some people believe that until it is proven that they are wrong they will insist that they are right. Their argument is that the past is a reflection of the future regardless of the transactions that have been made. Their mind-set is that the negative past is an established reality that spills into the future regardless of what has been done. The carousel goes around and around with the horse behind the one in front of it never being able to catch up to it. That's where we are at. It's a futile discussion.

Mike Morreal was on WGR talking about the draft prospects. This is a 19 min segment. Good stuff. https://wgr550.radio.com/media/audio-channel/6-20-mike-morreale-nhlcom-schopp-bulldog