2009 - Kassian - Anyone want to change that pick? I don't.
2008 - Myers & Ennis - Anyone want to argue with those 2 picks? I don't
2007 - No 1st (Zubrus trade)
2006 - Persson - You can argue that one, but they did get Enroth & Weber in the 2nd round......
2005 - Zagrapan - Definite bust as well. Although, most people had him going to the Sabres as they needed a center in the pipeline and he was widely regarded as the best available center at that spot.

The average draft slot of those 5 1st round picks is 17.6.

A 60% hit rate (if Ennis & Kassian work out. I think it's safe to assume that Myers is a player....) is pretty good given where the Sabres were picking.

NJ has a solid rep for drafting well and you have to go back to the 2004 (Zajac) and 2003 (Parise) drafts to find 1st round picks of the Devils that look like solid gets. Although, the jury is still out on their last 2 1sts in Josefson & Tedenby.

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Sabres Hockey: Commitment to Mediocrity

I'd be fine with a 60% hit rate in rounds 2-7, but good teams draft good players with 1st rounder no matter where that may be

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"I can't really hear what Jeremy says, because I got my two Stanley Cup Rings plugging my ears...." -Patrick Roy in reference to Jeremy Roenick's trash talking

A player I would love for us to draft is Curtis Hamilton. He plays for the Saskatoon Blades and is a power forward with a good skillset. He had an injury this year I think it was his shoulder but i cant remember. He could very well drop to the third round and i think we should pick him. He's a kelowna boy so I'm a little biased but I've seen him play for a while and the kid is good. Plays the left side wing and shoots left. I think he'll turn into a 40-50pt power forward which is always useful.

Another Kelowna player we should look at bringing in for the rookie camp is Dustin Sylvester. He's a smaller guy but he's played in the dub since he was 16. At his size that's a pretty good accomplishment. He recorded 93 pts in 68 games while captaining the Kootenay Ice this year. Finished top 5 I believe in league scoring. He would take some time to develop but I dont think it would hurt to at least invite him to camp. Also Kim Gellert(the man who scouted Myers) has coached Sylvester a couple of times and I hope he's talked to management about him. Very highly skilled and works his ass off. In Kelowna there were two guys people always talked about in minor hockey. One we all know of (Kyle Beach) but the one who garnered more attention was Sylvester. If he was a couple inches taller he'd be a hell of a player.

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Driver of the Tyler Ennis Bandwagon, Ridin' shotgun on the Tyler Myers Bandwagon, chillin' on the Luke Adam Bandwagon


Eh

I beg to differ on a lot of the posts in here.
Darcy has not done well in the 1st round of the draft. His record indicates an almost complete failure, as a matter of fact, lets review.

1st round picks under Regier
1997 - Mika Noronen (bust)
1998 - Damitri Kalinin (bust)
1999 - Barrett Heisten (Barrett who?) (safe to say bust)
2000 - Artem Kryukov (ummm....pattern starting to develop here?)
2001 - Jiri Novotny (bust)
2002 - Keith Ballard (traded, for Steven Reinprecht of the Avs, then, Darcy in turn, traded Warraner and Reinprcht to Calgary for Drury and Begin. This was Darcy's first good move, but not the draft pick itself, what he did with it by bringing in Drury. On a side note, kind of funny how Ballard and Reinprecht both play for the Panthers now.)
2002 - Daniel Paille (bust)
2003 - Thomas Vanek (Darcy's first solid draft pick for the organization. Thats 7 years until success, granted, the 5th pick overall helped that along.)
2004 - Drew Stafford (The right idea, a RWer to build a line with Vanek, wrong player though. Zajac [C] was choosen at 20th overall and Mike Green [D] at 29th overall, ah yes, hind sight is a wonderful thing. At this point and time I'll say BUST)
2005 - Marek Zagrapan (Bergfors taken at 23rd overall, Rask at 21st overall, How about a trade up to from the 13th to the 11th spot where Anze Kopitar was taken? Well, these are the type of Gaff's I fully come to expect from Regier, oh and I'll say A BIG BUST for our pick in the 1st round)
2006 - Dennis Persson (Still an unknown, time will tell, but currently it doesn't look promising at all. Nick Foligno was available and taken at 28th by Ottawa of all teams.)
2007 - Traded to Washington for Zubrus and some other assclown, 28th pick overall (No real meat on this pick, except.....................Buffalo makes a trade with Chicago for the 1st overall pick instead of trading for Zubrus and Buffalo gets 1 PATRICK KANE...............Ah yes, to dream the impossible dreams, so unlike DARCY NO NUTS REGIER!)
2008 - Tyler Myers with the 12th overall
Tyler Ennis with the 26th overall (2 solid picks atually. Myers has turned in a stellar rookie performance. Ennis has been a work horse in the AHL this season and shows great promise at center. Some media, both local and national consider Ennis Buffalo's potential 1st line center depending on how well he transitions to the the NHL level.)
2009 - Zack Kassian (Remains to be seen if this was a good pick up. This kid has some attitude, unfortunately he has some serious control issues temperment wise. Could be a serious liability if he can't find a way to control his obvious over aggressive behavior on the ice. In short, the kid is no good to the organization if he's constantly screwing the pooch. But, he has serious upside as a Power Forward on the RW. According to Kevin Dineen this is the type of RWer Ennis would play really well with.)

So, lets look back on the actual percentages for Darcy Regier. 7 out of 13 first rounders are busts. 3 are unknowns yet, but 2 of those 3 appear to be busts. that leaves that leaves 1 real unknown and 3 contributors.
No thanks. I wouldn't let Darcy Regier do my laundry with a record like that. Batting an abysmal 24% or less. WOW, just WOW.

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Lord Stanley's Cup is what its all about.
Mr. Pegula, your destiny awaits you sir.

Is this your assessment of the kid after seeing one hit?

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Driver of the Tyler Ennis Bandwagon, Ridin' shotgun on the Tyler Myers Bandwagon, chillin' on the Luke Adam Bandwagon


Eh

Actually, the assesment isn't made based on 1 bad hit, but that hit was bad. Anyways, I read several articles on him, and looked at his bios. I keyed in on Buffalo's needs as well as Kassians stock appeal for that position. I am looking for a 1st scoring line RWer for Buffalo, he may, or may not be it, but like I said, his temperment issues are well known. Here is a bios a read the other day on him on HockeysFuture website.Here ya go:

Talent Analysis
The 6'3, 205-pound right winger is a power forward prospect. He has imposing size and has shown a willingness to use it. While he may not have as much offensive upside as other forwards at the top of the draft order, Kassian's total package of size, checking, and energetic play make him an appealing addition to a club looking for a top-six forward who can open up the ice for other teammates. An ability to put the puck in the net adds to his value as he has proven he won't be an offensive liability with more skilled teammates.

Future
Kassian may be a second liner someday

There are other articles on him as well, as I stated. He could, or could not be a line 1 contributor, thats why I listed him as the 1 true unknown. Also, when you condense a post, you manipulate wording. The statement at the beginning of my post was an opinion on Darcy Regier's ability at drafting talent. Mixing the 2 implies something completely different.

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Lord Stanley's Cup is what its all about.
Mr. Pegula, your destiny awaits you sir.

But those first round picks you say are busts are what you should expect out of players who aren't drafted in the top 10 let alone the top 5 spots. And most of them have played or are still playing in the NHL, so they aren't complete busts.

Hindsight is always 20/20 when you look at it no, but what if our draft picks would have turned out and those picked after wouldn't of, the draft is just that, you select kids who you think might make it based on their play, sometimes it doesn't work out.

Darcy has a much better later round draft picks and his 1st this year shouldn't be a very hopeful pick since only the top three picks are the best they got.

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I wasn't expecting 75% or higher sky, I was expecting atleast contributions. 1st round picks outside of the first 5 to 10 agree are a crap shoot. But to have them contribute even at the AHL or 3rd or 4th line level wouldn't necessarily be a fail either. 1st rounders don't have to be line 1 or 2 guys or 1 thru 4 d men all the time.

My point on Darcy is he is currently running below 25% of anything. Those are very poor numbers sky, even you have to admit, some of the picks his management team made were just horrible mistakes. As for depth as far as every draft class goes, no one can say with any certainty that a draft class is deep or not. It takes time to see what type of players these kids are going to be and whether or not they have what it takes to develop into an NHL player. Who knows, this draft class could produce 20 kids that in 5 years are all producing between 25 and 45 goals a season. Its up to them really.

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Lord Stanley's Cup is what its all about.
Mr. Pegula, your destiny awaits you sir.

I know slesh, but you have to also look at other GM's and there were some years where the draft was an entire bust, and to blame that on Darcy's picks is ludicrous. Wasn't the 1998 draft or something a terrible one for all teams? I know one of the later 90's draft only produced like 5 or so NHL players.

Darcy has a good rep with later round picks anyways, and I like that with him. People even thought Myers was picked a bit earlier than expected.

It's all what you think your team needs and what that player could do to help you.

I know I wouldn't want to decide on 7 or so players in a draft from only hearing about them or either seeing video of them as my job.

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I am hoping he splashes at the draft this year sky. I am hoping he trades picks for players, preferably good to great players. This is why I wanted him to move Lydman and/or Stafford as well as Mac at the deadline.
Don't get me wrong, they will do good in the playoffs and I didn't mind one bit on moving Patches, the 2nd rounder hurt, but we got Torres. That's where I was dissappointed. I would have liked to have seen a more serious move to not only show the fans the commitment this organization has, but also to actually make a run. I was hoping Darcy would give up that 1st and 2nd rounder for a RW like (I know, I'm beating my own horse here, over and over) Horton/Penner/Boyes....you get what I mean though. With moving some of those pieces it gives us a fresh body to try and see if they gel with Vanek. I would have liked a Center too.

I don't know, I would like to see a move on trade day.

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Lord Stanley's Cup is what its all about.
Mr. Pegula, your destiny awaits you sir.

I would have loved to see a RWer brought in also, but if Mancari plays that well with Vanek and Roy when or if he comes back to Buffalo, That will be a dangerous line once again.

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Sorry I meant to only quote ur take on Kassian. Where did u read about the attitude and serious control issues? I've read a lot on Kassian and haven't really read much about him having attitude problems or anything of the sort.

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Driver of the Tyler Ennis Bandwagon, Ridin' shotgun on the Tyler Myers Bandwagon, chillin' on the Luke Adam Bandwagon


Eh

In almost every article on him it states he plays with "attitude" or an edge. Thats not a bad thing. Thats a good thing. Some players are "chippy", like Kennedy, others come with an "edge" or "attitude". Thats meant to imply the focus of the player or the tone the player sets for himself.

As for his over aggressive control issues:

http://blogs.buffalonews.com/sabres/201 ... nsion.html

Pay close attention to where it states "a history of suspensions for "on ice indescretions".

Here's another article on him that would like him to maintain some "control" to be effective at the NHL level:

http://www.dobberhockey.com/index.php?o ... &Itemid=77

I could post over a dozen or so from sports writers to hockey bloggers to the official OHL record on his disciplanary situation or even his career as a hockey player before that. But thats you have a browser, to read it for your self.

The point is, there is a general consesus that he will need to learn to harness this attitude he plays with in a positive fashion in order to be successful at the NHL level. He hasn't shown that yet, thats why he is still an unknown for me anyways.

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Lord Stanley's Cup is what its all about.
Mr. Pegula, your destiny awaits you sir.

That is not the reality of the situation.

http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/3 ... amble.html



The variability within the 1st round is huge when you look at the hit rates in the top 3 to 5 picks, then when you drop down to 10 through 20 and then 21 through 30.

The odds of getting a really good player drops the further you get from the top of the 1st round.

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articles/7 ... rcentages/

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Sabres Hockey: Commitment to Mediocrity

Here is a look at the Devils who have a good rep:

2000 - David Hale - NHL dman, but by your standards, he would be a bust.
2001 - Adrian Foster - Bust
2003 - Zach Parise - Stud
2004 - Travis Zajac - Solid NHLer
2005 - Nicklas Bergfors - Traded to Atl in Kovy deal. Jury is still out. Bust by your definition
2006 - Matt Corrente - Jury is still out. Bust by your definition
2008 - Mattias Tedenby - Jury is still out as he has yet to come over from Sweden
2009 - Jacob Josefson - Jury is still out as he has yet to come over from Sweden

So, in the last decade, the Devils have drafted 2 NHLers of note in Parise & Zajac + Hale

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Sabres Hockey: Commitment to Mediocrity

So, remind me again how you dictate "my standards"? Just curious why you would twist that to put this post in place.
How would Bergfors be a bust again, by "my standards"? If i'm not mistaken, he has serious upside to him, but hey, thats just my opinion of a player that is headed for 20+ goals a season and a potential 50 point a season player currently at 23 years old. I think your thoughts are skewed Jim Bob. This assumption of yours is pure folly.
Parise is more than a stud, he is a "FRANCHISE PLAYER" on the offensive side.
Zajac is more than a solid NHLer, he is a core component of NJ first scoring line.
Corrente - injury status hurt his chances, wasn't it a ligament tear I believe? But he is still in the system and may still contribute, so once again, how do you propose to set "my" standards? Are you connected through telethapy to my thoughts? Just curious ya know, its one thing to draw off of statements made and quite another to induce your own interjection of thought by attempting to put words in my mouth.
Adrian Foster was a bust
David Hale would be considered a bust as well. But, atleast he sees NHL ice time from time to time.
Tedenby and Josefson are still in development, so yes, evaluations are still needed as this season and next progress.

So lets review:
8 first round picks and 3 are either already solid contributors or enroute to solidifying that status.
2 are unknowns and 1 has to prove himself in the next year due to injury. 2 were busts, by "my standards".
That appears to put NJ at over 25% success rate, remind me what your point was again?

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Lord Stanley's Cup is what its all about.
Mr. Pegula, your destiny awaits you sir.

i cant believe people got excited over moving paille and macarthur for 2 3rd round picks, and 2 4th round picks. both those players can play in the NHL, and odds are none of those picks will pan out to amount to more then those two players. darcy has gotten lucky with a few later picks, but those are exceptions, not the standard. id have rather had a 2nd thrown in there somewhere.

on the other hand, those two players needed to go, so ill take it.

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1997 - Mika Noronen wasnt a bust, he had some serious skill. just was the first goalie on the chop block during the 3 headed monster.
1998 - Damitri Kalinin plays in the top 6 where ever he goes. he has a long career. not a bust, just didnt achieve superstar status.
1999 - Barrett Heisten bust
2000 - Artem Kryukov bust
2001 - Jiri Novotny not a bust, hes still milling around the NHL somehwere.
2002 - Keith Ballard not a bust
2002 - Daniel Paille not a bust, still playing every game for boston.
2003 - Thomas Vanek star status.
2004 - Drew Stafford absolutely not a bust. he averages over 40 points a season.
2005 - Marek Zagrapan looks like a bust.
2006 - Dennis Persson bust
2007 - no pick
2008 - Tyler Myers with the 12th overall
Tyler Ennis with the 26th overall (2 solid picks atually. Myers has turned in a stellar rookie performance. Ennis has been a work horse in the AHL this season and shows great promise at center. Some media, both local and national consider Ennis Buffalo's potential 1st line center depending on how well he transitions to the the NHL level.)
2009 - Zack Kassian (Remains to be seen if this was a good pick up. This kid has some attitude, unfortunately he has some serious control issues temperment wise. Could be a serious liability if he can't find a way to control his obvious over aggressive behavior on the ice. In short, the kid is no good to the organization if he's constantly screwing the pooch. But, he has serious upside as a Power Forward on the RW. According to Kevin Dineen this is the type of RWer Ennis would play really well with.)

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Meh a few hockey bloggers and some on ice indescrections. Sounds like he runs his mouthand and backs it up.
Exactly what we need.

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Driver of the Tyler Ennis Bandwagon, Ridin' shotgun on the Tyler Myers Bandwagon, chillin' on the Luke Adam Bandwagon


Eh

You lost me when you called guys that turned into NHL players like Kalinin and Paille busts.

Not every 1st round pick turns out to be an All-Star, especially when you are consistently drafting outside the top 10 overall.

Most people that have analyzed draft pick histories use a 4 or 5 point scale with a 1 point pick never playing a game in the NHL and 4 or 5 being an All-Star/HOF level player.

Guys like Kalinin and maybe Paille would tend to be around a 3 pick and not a true bust that never made it to the NHL (ala Kryukov).

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Sabres Hockey: Commitment to Mediocrity