C Casey Mittelstadt (2017, 8th, BUF) II

[The Winter Soldier]

Casey is the player I am going to watch this year as Rookies go. I think he has a legitimate shot at the Calder if he stays healthy. I had him as the 3rd OA from the 2017 draft. Sabres have a lot of good young talent that just needs maturation. Might be a fun year to follow them, Middlestadt is one of the reasons to watch the Sabres for me.

 

[1972]

If he played wing with Jack I think he’d be a legit Calder contender, but I think it’s going to be tough to be in that race playing C without elite players.

 

[sabrebuild]

If he played wing with Jack I think he’d be a legit Calder contender, but I think it’s going to be tough to be in that race playing C without elite players.

In a funny way, if Reinhart gets the chance and performs at center, Mitts has a great chance to win the Calder. Mitts on either guys win should be very entertaining.

 

[North Country]

The flop hounds sure went silent.

 

[Critical13]

If he played wing with Jack I think he’d be a legit Calder contender, but I think it’s going to be tough to be in that race playing C without elite players.

He will need to pull a Barzal and overcome mediocre linemates and team. He seems to have the talent to do it. With so many strong rookies this year, though, it might take something special to win.

 

[Thorton02]

I could see 20g 20a out of Mitts this year. Could do a little better if he has Reinhardt on his wing and Sam puts up strong numbers. Ultimately, playing #2 center on a weak Sabres team is going to wear on him over the course of the year. I expect he'll go into a funk in Jan-Feb but hopefully will have a strong finish if the Sabres are playing towards a WC spot in March.

 

[57special]

I wasn't the biggest ROR fan, but was stunned with the meager return that the Sabres got for him. They should have, at the very least, have gotten a quality forward for MitEichel to play with once Kane and ROR leaving. Now they have to depend on Okposo to rebound, Reinhardt to play well, and ??

I meAn, Eichel should have a great wingman on one side and a competent player on the other, and CM is just a rookie. He needs some talent around him to help him produce, and teach him however play in the NHL.

Unless the plan is to have Eichel, CM and Reinhart on one line, which strikes me as insane and wasteful.

Even if Dahlin is a revelation, I predict rocky times ahead for BUF. ROR must've been quite the dickhead for Buff to move him for a load of dreck.

In some ways they remind me of a poor man's EDM. Some high end talent, but lacking in quality depth.

 

[tsujimoto74]

I wasn't the biggest ROR fan, but was stunned with the meager return that the Sabres got for him. They should have, at the very least, have gotten a quality forward for MitEichel to play with once Kane and ROR leaving. Now they have to depend on Okposo to rebound, Reinhardt to play well, and ??

I meAn, Eichel should have a great wingman on one side and a competent player on the other, and CM is just a rookie. He needs some talent around him to help him produce, and teach him however play in the NHL.

Unless the plan is to have Eichel, CM and Reinhart on one line, which strikes me as insane and wasteful.

Even if Dahlin is a revelation, I predict rocky times ahead for BUF. ROR must've been quite the ******** for Buff to move him for a load of dreck.

In some ways they remind me of a poor man's EDM. Some high end talent, but lacking in quality depth.

I think our depth is obviously improved from last year. We should at least be able to fill out our starting roster with players who actually belong in the NHL, which wasn't true last year. And we've got a bunch of prospects who should be pushing for NHL ice time throughout the year, even if they don't make it out of camp. Losing ROR definitely weakens the outlook of our forward core defensively (and by a lot), but there's still a lot to be excited about, even knowing that there will be some growing pains from the younger players.

 

[57special]

Depth is improved, but I said QUALITY depth. I know the players that you received in trade, being a fan of a team that plays in the Central. They are decent, pro NHL'ers, but they aren't getting better, and would be considered bottom sixers on most decent teams. Thompson I'm not sure about... I kind of like him, but he could well be another Grigorenko.

Non of those players are replacements for ROR, or even Kane. Unless Nylander all of a sudden shows up, I don't see where the top 6 support players are coming from.

 

[tsujimoto74]

Depth is improved, but I said QUALITY depth. I know the players that you received in trade, being a fan of a team that plays in the Central. They are decent, pro NHL'ers, but they aren't getting better, and would be considered bottom sixers on most decent teams. Thompson I'm not sure about... I kind of like him, but he could well be another Grigorenko.

Non of those players are replacements for ROR, or even Kane. Unless Nylander all of a sudden shows up, I don't see where the top 6 support players are coming from.

We also added Sheary, will have Rodrigues up full-time next year (~.5PPG in the half season he played last year), and have other young guys who should/could be competing for NHL ice time (Asplund, Olofsson, Smith, Oglevie, Nylander, Baptiste, Bailey). I'd be pretty surprised if Thompson made the team out of camp, TBH.

The big improvement is on the back end, where we've got Dahlin replacing some of the trash that played last year, and possibly one or both of Guhle/Pilut as well. Having guys who can skate and move the puck from the blue line would be a tremendous help to our forwards. Poor Mittelstadt in his handful of games last year..Got caught a number of times heading up the ice too early because he made the mistake of assuming the D who retrieved the puck would be able to do something with it other than immediately turn it over.

Plus there's no way Hutton/Ullmark can be worse than Lehner/Johnson was last year.

 

[Der Jaeger]

Depth is improved, but I said QUALITY depth. I know the players that you received in trade, being a fan of a team that plays in the Central. They are decent, pro NHL'ers, but they aren't getting better, and would be considered bottom sixers on most decent teams. Thompson I'm not sure about... I kind of like him, but he could well be another Grigorenko.

Non of those players are replacements for ROR, or even Kane. Unless Nylander all of a sudden shows up, I don't see where the top 6 support players are coming from.

I do agree that the Sabres got fleeced in the ROR deal. But I don't agree with quality depth. The Sabres issue is all their quality depth is young and still developing. Olofsson was the SHL's leading goal scorer last year, and he might make the Sabres roster as a rookie. Pilut was the SHL defenseman of the year, and he may also make the Sabres roster as a rookie. Two other Swede forwards, Asplund and Davidsson, project as top 9 two way forwards. Asplund has been one of the best players in Sabres Dev Camp for two years, and Davidsson had a very good year in the SHL this season. Both played in the WJC. Thompson could play in Buffalo this year. Guhle projects as a fleet complementary defender in the top 4. Samuelsson and Borgen both project as 3-6 defenders who stay at home and bring grit. And then there's Nylander, and who knows how things will go with him now that he's healthy.

The Sabres are also collecting NCAA players who project as quality depth: Sean Malone has 4C inches future, Danny O'Regan could play a role on a bottom 6 line, Evan Rodriguez surprised and is a top 6 forward for the team, Oglevie is very sound and could play a bottom 6 role in the future, and CJ Smith was the Amerks best player. Casey Nelson did well last season, which was VERY unexpected.

Every player I listed could be on the team by the end of next season. Edmonton never had that type of potential for depth. I'm not suggesting that all these players will make the NHL. But the Sabres system depth is very good. Some of these players will make it soon. The Sabres real needs are top line scorers at wing, and a RHD to play in the top 4. Having those 3 1sts next draft should help in one way or another.

 

[57special]

Your projections are very optimistic. I could say, for my team, that Ek, Kaprizov, Greenway, Sokolov, and Kunin are all going to be on the top 6 in three years time, but the reality is that Kunin's knee got blown out, Greenway has played a handful of games in the NHL, and looked just ok, KK might never come over to the NHL, Ek looks legit, but might never be more than a good #3C, and Sokolov might never make it out of the AHL.
You only have to look at how Grigorenko and Larsson have turned out to temper your expectations.

Bottom line is that CM is probably going to be out on a line with little or no proven talent for this year. If nothing else, they need to make sure that he has a physical presence with him to watch his back, which you should do with any talented rookie.

BUF needs to pray that they can get a couple of decent years out of KO, and that Dahlin is all that, because the forward talent has take a hit. I do have some hope for Thompson...he has some skill. Just don't know if he can make it happen in the NHL.

 

[Thebesthockey]

will be in running for the calder



but donato will take it
imo

 

[TeddyBare]

Whats the deal with this guy.

I only saw him in the pre-season. Is he figuring it out?
Who's he playing with?

 

[Fvital92]

Whats the deal with this guy.

I only saw him in the pre-season. Is he figuring it out?
Who's he playing with?

He is young and overwhelmed, should be in the AHL. He's also a bit overrated in this boards.

 

[TeddyBare]

He is young and overwhelmed, should be in the AHL. He's also a bit overrated in this boards.

I only saw the leafs pre-season game and he looked a bit overwhelmed.

But the pre-season is so tough to judge.

 

[mouz135]

The older comments sure aged well

 

[AmericanDream]

The older comments sure aged well

based off of 4 games this year??

 

[CowbellConray]

Has been decent defensively - offense has been up and down. Likes to stickhandle and has had some success but it just having an ok start to the year.

Expect him to finish between 35-45 points if he plays the full year up.

 

[mouz135]

based off of 4 games this year??

Judging by some of the comments from Buffalo fans, if he were as good as they suggest, he wouldn’t look so overwhelmed in his debut so far. He would be contributing right away and not looking out of place at all in the big show. However, that’s not the case. Plenty of other rookies dominating in their first year.

You can probably dash his Calder dreams already, and send him down. He’s not ready

 

[Dominance]

Judging by some of the comments from Buffalo fans, if he were as good as they suggest, he wouldn’t look so overwhelming in his debut so far. He would be contributing right away and not looking out of place at all in the big show. However, that’s not the case. Plenty of other rookies dominating in their first year.

You can probably dash his Calder dreams already, and send him down. He’s not ready

Be careful not to jinx it. He has the basic skills to do a lot of damage if he can figure out the NHL game.

But yeah. It was hilarious to see how almost-universally overrated he became after one strong WJC. Literally every media outlet and the majority of HFBoards thought he was a clear top contender for the Calder, even though the rest of his season was disappointing for where he was drafted, and this thread and others are filled with comments of how he should have gone higher, the top prospect out there, etc. etc. etc.

Let’s be real. He’s been good enough to claim a spot on an NHL roster in his D+2 and has been better than expected defensively. He has good puck skills and will likely put up a lot of points on Buffalo’s PP in the near future. He looks to be an average 2C, at least, down the road and may become so this season. At the same time, he is not some guaranteed superstar in the making. Hischier, Patrick, Heiskanen, Makar, Pettersson, Glass, and Anderson, as well as some of those drafted after him, look very good in their own rights. Several of those are clearly better today, and a good number of others may surpass him (or have already) as well, or he them. We’ll have to wait and see; development isn’t linear and success at this age is highly situational. But leave the excessive hype dead in the earth.

 

[Kaako Kappo]

I said he didn't look impressive last year, even though he got his points. Still not impressive.

 

[DDRhockey]

I said he didn't look impressive last year, even though he got his points. Still not impressive.

Yet he gets to play. Really weird to me.

 

[VictorLustig]

He looks fine to me.

 

[AmericanDream]

Judging by some of the comments from Buffalo fans, if he were as good as they suggest, he wouldn’t look so overwhelmed in his debut so far. He would be contributing right away and not looking out of place at all in the big show. However, that’s not the case. Plenty of other rookies dominating in their first year.

You can probably dash his Calder dreams already, and send him down. He’s not ready

what is this overwhelmed you speak of?

you do realize only Eichel, Sheary and Pominville have goals as forwards on this team right? this is not that good or deep of a team, I mean Jeff Skinner doesn't even have a point yet, he should f***ing retire right now!

stop embarrassing yourself, Casey is going to have a strong rookie season, who knows how it all unfolds but after 4 games this season there is zero cause for concern.