Ive seen this tossed around in some threads, but its an actual fox article i haven't seen posted... would have been an interesting way to re-stack the team... but I think I still like TV and where we are...

http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/story/What ... ler-073110


You’ll forgive me, Sabres fans, if these next several hundred words come off as cheeky or even heart-wrenching. But last week I got to thinking about the exciting crop of rookies Edmonton has joining them this coming season — and how they all could have been Buffalo Sabres.

Remember back in the summer of 2007 when then-Edmonton GM Kevin Lowe started a firestorm with his seven-year, $50-million offer sheet to restricted free agent Thomas Vanek? On the heels of a Presidents’ Trophy-winning season, Buffalo had already lost co-captains Danny Briere and Chris Drury to unrestricted free agency and Sabres GM Darcy Regier made it clear Vanek wasn’t going to be the next big name to leave town.

Regier had gotten word Lowe was up to something and warned the Oilers GM any offer to Vanek would be matched. “I guess he thought we were bluffing,” Regier said at the time.

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Vanek was coming off a 43-goal, 84-point, plus-47 sophomore season and it seemed the sky was the limit for the then 23-year-old. With a fan base screaming for some protectionism, the Sabres really had no choice but to appease them. But the compensation Buffalo would have received for losing the left winger was as staggering as the offer sheet the young sniper signed – four first round draft picks.

Looking back at it three summers later, the Sabres would have been better off letting Vanek walk. Yes, the Austrian has scored 104 goals since and, yes, he’s still just 26, but all things being equal, just imagine…

In the 2008 draft, Buffalo would have had Edmonton’s 12th overall selection and its own at No. 13. After a trade the Sabres did end up with the 12th and wisely selected Tyler Myers. But with the 13th they could have had THN’s 2010 No. 2 Future Watch prospect, Florida goaltender Jacob Markstrom, or our No. 5 in Washington blueliner John Carlson or soon-to-be Oiler Jordan Eberle, the sixth-best prospect in our issue and the youngest player to ever suit up for Canada at the World Championship. Either of those three, plus Myers and Tyler Ennis (whom the Sabres chose 26th overall that year) would have been quite a haul.

Last summer Buffalo would have had Edmonton’s pick at No. 10 and its own, again at 13th overall. That 10th pick became another soon-to-be Oilers winger in Magnus Paajarvi, who just led bronze medal-winning Sweden in scoring at the worlds as a 19-year-old. With the 13th pick, Buffalo chose skilled banger-and-crasher Zack Kassian, a player who could challenge for an NHL job as soon as this coming fall.

But the jackpot would have hit this summer — the first overall pick in Taylor Hall. Couple him with defenseman Mark Pysyk — whom we ranked as the 16th-best draft prospect in our 2010 Draft Preview edition, but Buffalo got with the 23rd selection – and you’ve got another bounty of first round riches.

Then, of course, there’d still be another — likely high — first-rounder to come in the 2011 draft.

The naysayers will vow Vanek would have made the Oilers a better team. I agree, but don’t forget that once Lowe failed to poach Vanek he went right out and nabbed behemoth winger Dustin Penner with an offer sheet that Anaheim was unable to match. Penner wouldn’t be in Edmonton if Vanek was.

Granted, Vanek has scored 32 more goals than Penner the past three seasons, but with an average of about 10 more scores per season, would the Oilers have climbed that much higher in the standings? I don’t think so. But even if Edmonton had fallen a few spots in the draft in 2008 and ’09, that would have been off-set by Buffalo’s rise in the draft without Vanek.

I’ll call it a wash.

And no matter if Vanek was with the Oilers last season; nothing would have kept them out of the league’s basement and therefore in the Hall sweepstakes. With Ales Hemsky, Nikolai Khabibulin and Sheldon Souray all out for most of the season, Edmonton was missing its three most important players. Also, Penner actually outscored Vanek last year, so don’t tell me the latter would have been the difference.

So let me lay it out: If they had allowed Vanek to go to the Oilers, the Sabres would have Hall, Eberle, Paajarvi or other top prospects and another high pick to come to complement Myers, Ennis, Kassian and everyone else in the fold.

That’s a trade I’d make in a heartbeat.

John Grigg is a copy editor and writer with The Hockey News and a regular contributor to THN.com with his blog appearing Thursdays and the Wednesday Top 10.

For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.

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Every single person who brings this up (media, not you, dude) deserves a punch in the face for assuming nothing would change standings-wise and the Sabres would have gotten the exact same picks. Would the Oilers have been the worst team in the league with Vanek on the roster? Highly doubtful. Would the Sabres have had their own exact same picks without Vanek? Highly doubtful.

Godfuckingdammit these articles drive me up a wall.

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mechaphil

It's like "What if the Bills drafted Tom Brady?"

I would make a complete football reference, but nobody would read it anyway.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

"What if" scenarios are bullshit, the same scenario never plays out the same way twice.

This is irresponsible journalism, and the writer should be kicked in the face.

Regier and Kevin Lowe have totally different draft strategies, and they would have targeted different players.

This is stupid to even discuss, because those players have yet to play any NHL games, and Vanek has scored over 120 more goals than any of those players have in the NHL.

I fucking hate this article, and feel like those who want to criticize Regier on that notion should really look back and say, "We lose Drury, Briere, Vanek all in the same off season, how shitty is this team; and why would Ryan Miller or any difference making Free Agent want to sign here, when the GM has no desire to keep stars?"

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"She's like plan C after an 18 pack"

Squanto 7/27/2010

Had Edmonton still sucked that badly we would have a few extra first round picks.

But would Buffalo even have Miller still on the roster, he basically only signed because when we locked up our core he knew this team was gonna go places soon enough, and that is with Vanek in the fold. It would have been nice to just let him walk and take the four firsts, but we chose to keep him and we are still that much closer to the playoffs then the Oilers are. We'll see the Edmonton Oilers get maybe one more sub 10 pick next year and that's with all of the prospects coming to play for them next year.

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I hate "what if" questions. My students ask these all the time, like "What if you're mom was pregnant with you and then had you on a submarine in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Would you be an American citizen??" or "What if the Nazi's had won WWII". Ahhhhhh!

I just say "we'll never know...lets move on", (because I know they're just trying to get me off topic.


We'll never know because Darcy matched the offer. End of story

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"Oh honey, I would but...I don't want to" ~ Karen Walker

lol.... nice good to see some people fired up... its funny because we finally get an article about a buffalo sports team on a fox or espn and this is it.... i had to share....lol

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You can't determine what would happen for sure. Yeah, you can assume having those high picks would help us, but you just can't know. What has happened has happened. We got to roll with what we got. It's not Darcy's fault at all. I'm one of the last people to defend him, but you just lost Drury and Briere, you want to keep the fans happy and you don't want to see another star leave the town.

He made a good decision.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

This could be a nice history will be made...

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

If Vanek went to Edmonton, we'd have to read stories titled, "What if the Sabres had matched Vanek's offer sheet?".

This thread would be that title.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

What if Joe never sliced bread?

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"Call a cop he robbed Delmore blind!!!"
Rick Jeanerette after Marty Biron's diving save back in 2000.

"I'm going to go to the spa and have a hot tub and massage and relax," Miller said. "That's it, and it's back to work tomorrow." Ryan Miller after clinching the North East division.

This article is purely speculation, not fact. if Vanek became an Oiler maybe they finish higher every season and don't yield picks as good, and maybe the Sabres finish lower because Vanek is gone and get better picks. Maybe they never get Myers because their pick was too low and the Oilers pick became too high. Plus, picks get traded. So myabe the Sabres become more inclined to trade the higher of their two 1st round picks each year.

There's just SO MUCH that could change that it's really just a waste of time to speculate about it as much as that writer did.

Also, didn't TV have a say in it too? He had to accept the offer sheet from Edm to validate it, if I'm not mistaken.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

I know one thing that would have very much likely happened; regier would have been fired. i mean you lose, drury, Briere, and Vanek. then Campbell the next season and likely Miller if he doesn't think the core is good. You lose all them you're fighting for the 1st overall. Fans would be calling for regier's head more than ever had he been retained. the what if's are nice. but definitely the standings would have changed. And who's to say buffalo takes Svenson, in 09. I mean maybe they like ryan Ellis and select him, or take kassian with the 10th and john moore with the 13th. the ifs people.

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It's sad that as long as Quinn is in charge Regier will be here, and as long as Regier is here Ruff is here. Say hello to more years of mediocrity Buffalo. However it is urged that you don't accept it.

RIP K.E.G. 3-16-2004

I think the best speculation is that Miller, seeing the Sabres not committed to keeping talent, would have walked.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

omg lmao

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hockey Night in Buffalo

If the mom or dad was an American citizen, yes. If he or she wasn't, No.

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What if Thomas Vanek's dad hadn't gotten a Christmas bonus and bought the alcohol that he used to get his wife drunk the night he knocked her up? How many cups may the Sabres have won if he had bought O'Doul's instead?

What if Advil were never invented...Thomas Vanek's mom could have said she had a head ache, and she would have never had him. I clearly blame the people of Wyeth LLC, we could have had Milan Michalek instead, and never would have gotten the offer sheet, and my sanity wouldn't be tested with stupid threads like this...

/end rant

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"She's like plan C after an 18 pack"

Squanto 7/27/2010

What if we had traded up in '03 and grabbed Nathan Horton?? We could have Dennis Wideman, RIGHT NOW!!! Fire Darcy!! GAH!!!

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"Let's just trap Sekera in the caverns underneath HSBC arena." -BlueandYellow

Reporter: "Steve, you guys now lead the league in defensive scoring."
Montador: "It's probably because of how good-looking we are."