Quoting: sabertooth12
If it makes sense, I believe Montour is a more valuable player, but I think Colin Miller is more valuable to the Sabres because he is the perfect balance to Dahlin. Also Botteril was pretty bad at evaluating talent. Borgen is ready but I just don't see a spot for him this year unfortunately
I am thrilled that we got Staal and Hall, But, if there was one thing Botterill did well it was add talent to this team
Montour was and is a first pairing defensemen. He was among the top 60 NHL defensemen in TOI/gm and Pts the two years prior to Krueger.
Even under Krueger only Ristolainen played more minutes per game than he.
Miller for second was a steal as he was also near first pairing defensemen and the reports are that he played well with Dahlin.
Jokiharju in a few years could be the Sabres top RHD.
That is half of the defense that was ninth lowest giving up 5 on 5 goals, playing in front of a blind GK and behind an offence that could not keep the puck in the offensive zone.
Mittelstadt played 3rd line minutes, with 3rd line wingers and his 25 pts ranked 244th among all forwards that year.
1 to 93 are first line performers (52 or more pts),
94 to 186 are second line performers (33 or more pts)
and 187 to 279 are third line performers (21 or more pts).
He is hardly a bust. BTW only 8 players from that draft have more pts than he and he was taken 8th overall.
Kahun, really for Sheary and Rodrigues.
Cozens for sure will be better than Reinhart.
While
Skinner (among 6 other skaters had career worse seasons playing for Krueger) showed his talents last year and we only had to give up a 2nd, 3rd and 6th?
That is 4 forwards who all could play at least mid six minutes, Kahun and Mittelstadt 3rd line, and Cozens and Skinner 2nd line.
Please compare the signings of Lazar, Gilmour, Dea and Hammond to Irwin, Davidson and Reider.
I doubt any of the latter will have an impact in the AHL while Dea led the Amerks, Lazar could win key faceoffs, Gilmour was the teams 7th defenseman at the beginning of the season.
Over the past 3 years
Davidson has 8 pts playing for
SIX different teams, what impact do you think he will make?
Irwin is a bit better but he is 32 and only had 3 pts last year.
You may complain about the O'Reilly trade but this team finished second last then last in the Atlantic and finally last over all with him in the line up.
In his locker room clean out interview he said he gave up from the beginning of the season.
The becomes even more dramatic when compared to Murray
He did nothing to improve the mid six.
Check out the defense he left Botterill:
2016-17 Buffalo Sabres:
34 Casey Nelson D 11 Rochester Americans
67 Brady Austin D 5 Kladno
45 Brendan Guhle D 3 San Diego Gulls
46 Erik BurgdoerferD 2 Hershey Bears
77 Dmitri Kulikov D 47 Winnipeg Jets
4 Josh Gorges D 66 Out of hockey
38 Taylor Fedun D 27 Texas Stars
41 Justin Falk D 52 Belleville Senators
47 Zach Bogosian D 56 Tampa Bay Lightning
6 Cody Franson D 68 Omsk Avangard
29 Jake McCabe D 76 Buffalo Sabres
55 Rasmus RistolainenD 79 Buffalo Sabres
No one would mistake that for team primed to make the playoffs.
I am sorry for my rant, but Botterill was left with a center who did not want to play here, a LW who liked girls, a GK who like to drink, an AHL defense and ONE mid six forward.
Then add in an over paid AHL LW, Moulson and and overpaid fourth line RW, Okposo.
Well Moulson is finally gone, but now under Adams our fourth line has a $10,450,000 cap hit.
I know Botterill had other myopic flaws, and I know I will not convince you otherwise but to say Botterill did not know how to judge talent, give me a break.