Not another thread bemoaning their loss, just kind of speculating about the impact. Thinking out loud I guess.

I'm wondering if we would have been better in the long run had we signed those two guys. They have a combined $13.5M cap hit and have been underwhelming since leaving.

We would likely have let Vanek walk to Edmonton then, and probably wouldn't have kept Pominville either, but we would have gotten those four number one picks from Edmonton which were Gagner, Eberle, Svensson, and Hall.

So our lineup would include Briere, Drury, Hecht, Gagner, Eberle, Hall, Stafford, Gaustad, Kaleta, Ennis, Grier, Niedermayer, McCormick, Gerbe, Myers, Sekera, Svensson, Butler, Rivet, Leopold, Montador, Weber, Morrisonn.

So basically we'd have a cotillion of 20 goal scorers and a bolstered defense.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

This thread ruled the first 3 times I read it.

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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 don't think anyone's speculated to that extent before. Typically it's just been commentary on how Darcy Regier sucks.

If you follow Nick Mendola (which you probably don't), he was talking about this very topic on Friday's show so, making the point that the Sabres would be worse off with B/D still around so the point is relevant and current.

I'm assuming that if we had Svensson, we probably wouldn't have drafted Myers. since that creates a logjam on defense.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

I don't think anyone has speculated beyond just bemoaning the loss and offering commentary on Darcy.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

Grass is always greener,

but consider this; who's to say we would have drafted Eberle, Hall, Gagner, Svesson?

Given our recent draft history it's more likely we draft Nemisz over Eberle, then in 09 Draft Kassian over Svesson, and with our pick draft, Rundblad, 2010 we probably do draft Hall, and in 07, I doubt we take another right winger having 4 on the roster at that point, and probably take Voracek to shore up the center position.

Take those 3 players out, sub in the 3 we may have drafted, and that line up looks like a lot of crap to me. We have made it a habit of drafting large (players over 6' 185lbs) since 07; if that trend stayed, we'd only really have Hall, who is looking like a decent player, but certainly not a franchise guy.

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

Squanto 7/27/2010

That's speculation at its wildest. You could never know if Edmonton would have finished like they did with Vanek and without their draft picks and if Buffalo would have been able to draft Ennis or Myers (probably different picks)... What if games are nonsense.

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I think that was the point he was trying to make. The future of this team would look a lot different, and we would have a shit ton of 2nd/3rd line talent in our top 6; as it is right now we only have 1.5 true first line players when Roy is healthy. (Roy could be a great first line player if he had someone other than Vanek to pass to)

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

Squanto 7/27/2010

Yeah mecaphil pretty much said all those same things before.

There's so many variables that the discussion becomes a guessing game of "what if" scenarios.

Even if this thread goes 39 pages long, I can summarize it all right here:

The team would have been better then, and still would be better today had Brierre stayed.

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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 it's speculation, like I said, just thinking out loud and playing with some numbers. I didn't know if that "fantasy" team was even under cap (it is).

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

It was close; cut Leopold off there, and put in Weber/Gragnani full time, and you're right on.

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

Squanto 7/27/2010

Yeah you pretty much nailed it. I just wanted to play around with the numbers to see what I got, figured it would be worth discussing here, especially since Mendola mentioned it on Friday.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

I got pretty far under, even with Pominville.

Daniel Briere $6,500,000
Chris Drury $7,050,000
Jochen Hecht $3,525,000
Sam Gagner $2,275,000
Jordan Eberle $1,158,333
Taylor Hall $3,750,000
Paul Gaustad $2,300,000
Drew Stafford $1,900,000
Patrick Kaleta $907,500
Tyler Ennis $850,000
Mike Grier $1,500,000
Rob Niedermayer $1,250,000
Cody Mccormick $500,000
Nathan Gerbe $800,000
Jason Pominville $5,300,000

Tyler Myers $1,300,000
Andrej Sekera $1,000,000
Magnus Svensson $1,525,000
Chris Butler $850,000
Jordan Leopold $3,000,000
Steve Montador $1,550,000
Mike Weber $550,000
Shaone Morrisonn $2,075,000
Craig Rivet $3,500,000

$54,915,833

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

No offense, but I don't even see why this is worthy of discussion.

There's no way to know that the Sabres would have taken those specific players. There's too many variables involved to say that Edmonton would have performed the same way with Vanek and had the exact same draft slots that would have come to Buffalo, let alone just assume that Buffalo would have drafted the same players with those picks.

Things played out the way they did. Why waste energy trying to create fantasy history and speculate what might have happened?

Psst, you forgot goalies

Miller and Lalime put you way over self imposed cap, and over salary cap as well.

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

Squanto 7/27/2010

Durrrr, haha. Yeah good call. It's early and I'm sick and have a total of 9 hours sleep the past two days.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

Pssh; no excuses back to the dungeon!

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

Squanto 7/27/2010

Thought it was interesting to think about/appropriate for an internet forum. My bad.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

I didn't say that it wasn't appropriate.

I just don't see the point of the mental exercise. You can think about and analyze what might have happened until you're blue in the face, I just personally don't see the point. No matter how many scenarios you come up with, you can never accurately describe what may have happened, and it doesn't change the outcome of what did happen.

Is that without goalies?

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Yeah I fucked it up.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual