Buffalo Sabres draft and offseason preview

by Steve

The NHL draft is tomorrow Friday the 20th and because there isn't much to talk about I'll do my bestestest. Only the first round is Friday the remaining 6 rounds are Saturday. The NHL draft is somewhere between the MLS draft and MLB draft in terms of excitement and watchability. I guess because most hockey gurus have heard of the first few players it is at least as interesting as MLB's first year entry draft.

It is tough to pick for need in the draft because of the time it takes a player to develop and if lucky actually make it to the show. Outside of the first few players it seems to mostly be a crap shoot unless you are the Red Wings in which you can just ball in the 5th 6th or 7th round plucking players like Zetterberg and Datsyuk.

The 2008 draft is lacking a sure fire straight up balla like in years past(Kane, Crosby, Ovechkin etc.) Its more of a solid draft with a lot of good players like Center Steve Stamkos, and a bunch of defensemen, Pietrangelo, Bogosian, Doughty and Karlsson. So oh well who cares about those guys, back to the Sabres.

They have two first round picks, thanks to Campbell and is greed for crazy loot. They pick 13th and 26th. Look for them to go defense with the first pick and trade the second pick. Some rumored players the Sabres are interested in are Luca Sbisa D, Cody Hodgson C, Colten Teubert, Zach Boychuk RW and Josh Bailey C.

Luca Sbisa 6'2 190 from Lethbridge
"The Swiss born defender after moving to the WHL has adapted to the North American game quite well, and has shown that is not afraid of physical contact as is often associated with European defencemen. Plays all 3 levels of ice-time, PK, PP, and even strength and plays them all regularly, has worked his way up the depth chart in Lethbridge. Great breakout pass and great vision, extremely fast and gifted skater, obviously has great offensive instincts and could be a great PP QB. Like most offensive guys, he is guilty of trying to do too much and forcing the puck into places, resulting in giveaways."

Colten Teubert 6'3 190 from Regina
"The physical defenseman helped himself with his performance at the under-18s. Might never be a top-two defenseman but looks as though he could be safe as the third or fourth guy on the depth chart."

Josh Bailey 5'11 167 from Windsor
youtube

Other than balling on some dude with the second first round pick and trading the second pick away, the Sabres need to ship Max Afingenov out of town. He is a travesty out there and highly over rated. He contributes little besides the total # of offsides by the team. If he is on this team after July 1 that is just another reason to hate Darc/Quinny.

Also, don't even think about the Sabres going after any big time free agents. In fact I would be surprised if they signed anyone at all. Maybe a 3rd tier defenseman but nothing like Commodore or Orpik will be signed. Also don't sign Numminen, don't give Miller more than $5 mil (Kiprusoff makes 6 years $35 mil) and Miller sucks compared to him. Furthermore don't bother with Pominville this season especially when you can put if off for another day, cause thats the Sabres way! (also he is only a RFA after the 2008/09 season.)