I see Buffalo as a team that made some decent acquisitions in the offseason, but in a tightly contested division, I don't think that they're ready for the playoffs. Eichel should continue to take steps towards being one of the most dominant players in the game, Nylander may contribute 15 goals, but Sam Reinhart needs to breakout. He had some nice stretches last season, I think he needs to put it together for an entire season for Buffalo to have a realistic shot at a wild card berth. You know what you're getting from O'Reilly and Okposo, plus Ristolainen is one of the more underrated defensemen in the league. Scandella should bring in a little bit of balance, and Beaulieu has some decent upside to his game, but I don't see it as being enough.

I think they'll be in the mix longer than they have been in recent years, but at the end of the day, I don't think they'll be able to put it all together. It seems like something is destined to go wrong for them, whether it's injuries, Lehner not playing well, Kane going dry, or other things that tend to plague them. What do the Sabres fans think are realistic expectations for them this season?

Making playoffs as #7 or #8 or just missing the playoffs by a hair.

But in 2-3 years when the Sabres will possibly look like this

Mittlestdat - Eichel - Nylander
Baptiste - O'Reilly - Okposo
Kane - Reinhart - Pu
Asplund - Davidsson - Bailey

Scandella - Ristolainen
Guhle - Antipin
Beaulieu - ???

Lehner/Ullmark
Ullmark/Pekka Luukkonen

They are (hopefully) going to be a powerhouse

That top line would be straight deadly. I do think that Mittelstadt would be better at center, allows him to open up his game more. Maybe Reinhart moves to RW and Nylander to LW, so Mittelstadt can play C?

Yeah, I can see that being the way things shake down, but if Mittlestdat is playing center he would be behind Eichel and O'Reilly, and I feel Mittlestdat is too good to play 3rd line minutes

say it with me: Mittelstadt

Have I been spelling it wrong?

Geez, I guess I should try spelling it right huh? LOL