Outside of Jack and Risto I haven't been this excited about a Sabres draft pick since Ryan Miller circa 2001. You don't trade a high end 60 point 2C unless you fully believe your replacement prospect is up to the challenge.
I fully expect 20-30-50 as Caseys #s this year. Depending on how many goals Svech gets, or if Dahlin hits 40 points he has a possible good chance at a Calder. I'm almost assuredly thinking a Calder nomination at the very least. But if Dahlin puts up 40+ points as a true rookie at 18 and if there isn't a forward who puts up 60+ points then Dahlin would be the Calder winner. Anyway, back to Casey...
There is just something about his style of play that excites me. In a way, he is like a 2009-2010 version of Tyler Ennis times two. He's even more shifty, faster, creative and talented. In fact, by the end of Caseys ELC in 2020, I anticipate Casey is the second most valuable forward in the organization. I think Casey can very well top out as a 70 point center with the versatility to go on the wing.
And when we need a goal, I cannot wait to see a Mittelstadt-Eichel-Reinhart Dahlin-Risto combo thrown out on the ice in a tie game or down by one with just a few minutes left and see what they can do. That is one thing the Sabres haven't done with any regularity since Eichel came aboard is stack the top line. We never saw a Kane-RoR-Eichel or RoR-Eichel-Okposo line for any significant amount of games.
I get the whole spread apart your scoring throughout your top 3 lines but I think Housley has to take advantage of the natural talent and speed Casey and Jack possess and you have to play them together for a bit, even if they are our top 2 Cs. That's what Berglund, Reinhart etc are there for, if we roll out a top line of Mittelstadt-Eichel-X we have a few options to play at 2C with Reinhart and Berglund. Obviously it's a bit of a drop off from Casey at 2C (especially if it's Berglund) but I think this team needs to try it's hand by just throwing out your 3 best forwards and 2 best dman all at the same time and see how it matches up against the best of the best the league has to offer.
So long story short, I am extremely excited and eager to see Casey play a full season with us. There shouldn't be a single lineup projection post made in this forum the rest of the summer that doesn't include Casey full time. He was a big reason why RoR was dealt, among other things. If the Sabres didn't believe he was capable of putting up top 6 production at the least (45+ points) then I doubt they would have dealt him. But when you can turn 1 very very good player into 3 decent ones along with the opportunity the opening gives our elite center prospect then that's a great move to make on such a weak team with zero depth.
Casey is going to be a damn good player. 70-75 point seasons in his prime with a couple seasons where he will flirt with ~80+ points. He is almost out of his teens and turns 20 at Thanksgiving. He is definitely old enough to come right in and make an impact. 50 points this year, ~55-60 points in year 3 of his ELC, if the cba is unchanged then you give Casey the 8/50 type deal and then you should be extremely content knowing you have your superstar center and your budding 60-70+ point 2C locked up for half a decade together for ~$16 mil combined which is only 20% of the current cap TODAY, in 2020 when Casey is actually entering the first year of his new deal the cap will likely be in the mid to upper 80s so $16 mil/15-18% of the cap for your two best forwards who will likely combine for 150+ points and 60+ goals between the two of them.
The future is bright boys. With Jack, Reinhart, Casey, TT, Sheary, Dahlin, Risto, Nylander, Guhle, Samuelsson, Asplund, Davidsson, ERod, Ullmark and THREE 2019 1st round picks we are starting to build a damn good 26 and under corps. Once we get Bogo, Moulson, Poms and (hopefully) Okposos contracts off the books over the next 2 seasons we will be looking damn good. I have confidence that the Buffalo Sabres can lift the Stanley Cup one day in the not that distant future.