Does Mitts still fit into the long term plans?

[SackTastic]

Mitts will not be a good NHL center. He might be able to develop into a serviceable winger on a protected scoring line, though we already have Tage in that slot. He likely has the most value in a trade. So....

1. Package him in a trade (+picks/others) for either a top six RW or top 2 LD.
2. Stop wasting time at center and give him a chance to make the club at RW.
3. Give him one more year in Rochester for either the lightbulb to come on.....or in traditional Sabres fashion, allow any remaining doubt and value to decay away into a rotting reminder of how bad we have drafted over the last decade.

Drafting him wasn't a mistake.

Pushing a 19 year old kid make the jump from the Big 10 to professional hockey at the age of 19 was. There are very few players who can have shown then can make that jump successfully, so you need to be very very sure before you try it. They got it very wrong.

 

[Chainshot]

Drafting him wasn't a mistake.

Pushing a 19 year old kid make the jump from the Big 10 to professional hockey at the age of 19 was. There are very few players who can have shown then can make that jump successfully, so you need to be very very sure before you try it. They got it very wrong.

All of this.

Add that he then was left in a position to continue to struggle rather than go somewhere to work on both himself and his game by the last administration - he was ill served by Botts.