Speculation: Five Sabres Predictions for Calendar Year 2015

[DolanPlsGoSabres]

1. Drew Stafford is traded at the deadline for a mid-round pick and a B-level prospect. Fans on the Facebook page rejoice because Stafford is 'useless'.
2. Sabres finish 29th. FB page fans get angry and start saying that tanking is a terrible strategy what happens now. Sabres win the lottery. Everybody is happy and Sabres pick McDavid.
3. Sabres go hard after Andrej Sekera and Drew Stafford in FA. FB page fans complain for bringing back 'useless players that are lazy'.
4. Sabres struggle out of the gate in October. McDavid has an assist in 5 games, whereas Eichel has 2 goals and an assist for the Oilers in his Debut. Casual fans call McDavid a bust and start calling the Sabres the 2nd Edmonton, rebuilding for 40 years, etc.
5. Ted Nolan is fired, Mike Babcock is brought in. Sabres start doing better. FB page fans start cheering on the team like the Ted Nolan part of the season.

 

[Bobby Bottle Service]

1. Stafford, Stewart, Hodgson, Strachan and Mitchell are all moved at/before deadline
2. Myers is NOT traded although the rumour mill never slows down
3. Sabres finish 28th and win the lottery
4. Gionta retires a month into the next season
5. Fasching, Reinhart and McDavid all make the team out of training camp

 

[FearTheBeard]

1. Drew Stafford is traded at the deadline for a mid-round pick and a B-level prospect. Fans on the Facebook page rejoice because Stafford is 'useless'.
2. Sabres finish 29th. FB page fans get angry and start saying that tanking is a terrible strategy what happens now. Sabres win the lottery. Everybody is happy and Sabres pick McDavid.
3. Sabres go hard after Andrej Sekera and Drew Stafford in FA. FB page fans complain for bringing back 'useless players that are lazy'.
4. Sabres struggle out of the gate in October. McDavid has an assist in 5 games, whereas Eichel has 2 goals and an assist for the Oilers in his Debut. Casual fans call McDavid a bust and start calling the Sabres the 2nd Edmonton, rebuilding for 40 years, etc.
5. Ted Nolan is fired, Mike Babcock is brought in. Sabres start doing better. FB page fans start cheering on the team like the Ted Nolan part of the season.

Im gonna go out on a limb and say you spend some time checking the comments on the sabres FB page

 

[Team Cozens]

1.Sabres finish 30th but Leafs win fixed lottery. Conspiracy theory over Shanahan / Bettman ties.
McDavid vs. Eichel rivalry for a decade.
2. Sabres sign Chris Stewart and trade Stafford
3. Enroth is first player traded.
4. Ted Nolan fired right after the season.
5. Reinhart NHL player of the month in October.

 

[KennyFnPowers*]

1. Sabres finish 29th and draft Eichel.

2. Hodgson breaks out of his funk and scores 50 points next season.

3. Nolan is fired before the end of November

4. Grigorenko is moved to the wing and finds success there.

5. Stafford is not retained and the last remnants of the old core of this team are officially gone. (yay!)

GRIGORENKO is traded this offseason

FASCHING wins a roster spot out of camp in 2015

REINHART spends the first two months in Rochester before coming up and centering our second line.

all these... I'd add - package Hodgson in a nice deal once he does un-slump.

 

[kirby11]

1. Sabres trade Stewart at the deadline, but keep Stafford and Myers.
2. One of Enroth/Neuvirth will be gone next year.
3. The Sabres will not land McDavid, but get Eichel or Hanifin as a consolation prize.
4. Grigo sticks with the big club next season.
5. Ristolainen continues to progress into a stud.

 

[The Washer]

1. Arizona "wins" the lottery and already has their boxes packed to break the lease and move to the highest bidder

2. We end up tied with Edmonton but finish 29 due to a tiebreaker thus drafting 3rd. Take a defenseman and make yet another run on the anti-scoring record.

3. Reinhart makes the team and scores a bunch in the first half of the season. Strangely half of his results are credited to Max Domi which only raises the bidding of cities to take the Arizona Coyotes

4. We have the worst record next year too as teams aren't "magically" going to lose at a ridiculously higher rate for this one random year.... After losing the lottery the first year, losing a tiebreaker and the lottery the second year...the third year we lose it all and draft 4. They take another defenseman.

5. Tim Murray goes to a fortune teller who shows him the future of a team built with 7 top D and no top offensive skill. Upon seeing the team will finally make the playoffs after an entire season spent winning a majority of shootouts following 0-0 scores...he celebrates. Later, at his home, he remembers that playoffs have no shootouts. A single tear rolls down his cheek.

So good...Should I re-link my "We took a Defensemen?? A DEFENSEMENNNNNN!!!" 2013 Draft video?

 

[tsujimoto74]

1) Sabres finish the season 29th, but a team below us wins the lottery. We take Marner at 3rd overall.
2) Grigorenko not only sticks with the team as an NHL regular next season, but earns a top 6 C spot and outscores Reinhart through the calendar year.
3) Stafford is re-signed to a 3-4 year deal.
4) Gionta moves to LTIR after taking one too many blows to the head; Gorges is promoted to 'C' and Myers gets a permanent 'A'.
5) Fasching turns pro over the summer, while Compher goes back for another year at Michigan. Fasching becomes the Amerks' best forward by December.

 

[Sabretooth]

1) Sabres finsh last and the gap to 29th is at least 8 points.

other 4 predictions TBD

 

[Buckwheat]

1. Stafford, Stewart and one of Enroth/Neuvirth are traded at the deadline.
2. Myers stays in Buffalo after the asking price for Detroit is too much for them.
3. Hodgson dealt at the draft
4. Buffalo finishes 29th and wins the lottery with Edmonton being 30th.
5. Nolan gets canned after losing 75% of games in the first month and a half of the 2015/2016 season

 

[sabres4ever]

1) Sabres finsh last and the gap to 29th is at least 8 points.

other 4 predictions TBD

I agree with this. Last year it was a bit shaky, until the last month or so. It ended up being 14 pts IIRC?

It won't be close again, and we win first pick.

 

[Team Cozens]

1) Bruins/some other big market team just misses the playoffs and miraculously win the draft lottery and take McDavid.

2) Murray trades one of our highly touted prospects (Zadorov, Baptiste, Armia, etc..) and picks in a package for a young established NHLer like he's mentioned in interviews in the past. (board implodes )

3) With the Sabres drafting 4th and taking Marner and Grigorenko eligible for waivers, Samson or Marner starts the year in the AHL/Junoirs instead of waiving Grigo.

4) Nolan is still the head coach at this time next year.

5) Cody Hodgson continues his downward play and is waived by this time next year.

Bonus: Stokes, Mosaku, Jame, Beerz, and drinking bleach irl all completely agree on the same topic

Nice call.

 

[PopeInTheWoods]

1. Sabres finish 2014-15 season with fewer than 50 points.

2. Pysyk and Larsson combine for at least 7 NHL goals by end of 2014-15 season.

3. Andrey Makarov earns his first NHL shutout.

4. Grigorenko records his first NHL hat trick.

5. Zemgus Girgensons elected to the Latvian Saeima.

 

[kenfury]

1. Stafford, Stewart and one of Enroth or Neuvirth are traded

2. Buffalo selects Connor McDavid in 2015's NHL Draft

3. Buffalo adds a young player under 24 to add for the future

4. Buffalo will have new goal tending in 2015.

5. The Sabres will finally trade Tyler Myers at the 2015 NHL Draft in the right deal.

Does anyone hear the phone ringing? Because you F-ing called it

 

[Jacob582]

I'm bumping this thread. So how did we do?

My favorite predictions from other posters:

1. The Sabres will finish 30th, by a small margin (1-2 points). It'll be a flurry of worry until the final game is done.

2) Buffalo backs up the brinks truck for a Johnny Oduya 2-3yr/5 Mil AAV

A prediction I was wrong about:
I didn't write it in this thread, but I was wrong on McCabe. I really thought he was staying in Rochester.

A prediction I was right about:
"4. We will be closer to the salary cap than the salary floor next season."
Most posters thought I was nuts for this one.

 

[sabresfan129103]

1. Sabres finish 29th and draft Eichel.

2. Hodgson breaks out of his funk and scores 50 points next season.

3. Nolan is fired before the end of November

4. Grigorenko is moved to the wing and finds success there.

5. Stafford is not retained and the last remnants of the old core of this team are officially gone. (yay!)

These are always good for a laugh.

I was right about 3 of them and I was WAYYYYY off on 2. That Hodgson prediction....WTF was I thinking.

 

[Zip15]

Here are my five 2015 predictions:

1. The Sabres will finish the 2014-15 season with 58 pts, just edging out the Edmonton Oilers (61) for 30th place.

2. After the Philadelphia Flyers “miraculously†win the lottery from the 6th place lottery spot—thereby setting up an intra-Pennsylvania rivalry of McDavid/Giroux vs Crosby/Malkin—the Sabres draft Jack Eichel at #2.

3. The Sabres acquire Ryan O’Reilly at 2015 NHL Draft.

4. Starting goaltender for 2015-16 season opener: Antii Niemi.

5. Ted Nolan is fired in mid-November 2015, and is succeeded by Ken Hitchcock, who was fired by the Blues in summer 2015.

Well, I hit on #3. And I'll take half credit for predicting Eichel, but was wrong on which team won the lottery.

Maybe I'll get one of these fired up for 2016.

 

[My Cozen Dylan]

1. Cody Hodgson and Tyler Myers are traded in the offseason, and Brian Gionta retires.

2. Buffalo finishes in 30th place with a record of 28-47-7, 63 pts. Edmonton finishes 29th...with 64 pts. Arizona "wins the lottery" and selects Connor McDavid. The Sabres draft Jack Eichel at #2 and are ecstatic because after the draft TM says "He was number one on our list for a while."

3. Buffalo acquires a big ticket RW in a package that includes a 2017 1st and prospects. It was gonna be a 2016 1st, but Pegula nixed the deal. TM complains, changes the deal reluctantly.

4. The Sabres make a big run at Marc Staal, but ultimately miss out. They sign Antti Niemi to be our starting Goaltender for 2015-16.

5. Nolan keeps his job through the season. The Sabres are 20th in the standings on December 31, 2015.

1. I'll take half credit for that one.

2. We were 23-51-8, 54 pts. I was too friendly. But got Eichel right. Half credit again.

3. Sadly no.

4. First part could still happen (Ennis). Second part wrong.

5. Thank God I was wrong about that first part. Second part, we were 28th. Again, too generous.

Thanks to whoever bumped this. Cool to see all the predictions. Kudos to the poster who called us getting ROR.

 

[Ghills23]

What a difference a year makes. Not having to worry about CoHo, Grigorenko, Stafford, and Nolan is amazing. Obviously 2016 won't change as drastically as it did in 2015. With that said, it is encouraging to see positive changes especially when compared to where we were just a year ago.

 

[Zman5778]

1.) Edmonton finishes 30th. Buffalo finishes 29th. In true Buffalo fashion, Arizona (who announces that they are moving to Quebec City) wins the lottery and selects McDavid. Edmonton puts out rumors that they are thinking of drafting Hanifin, putting Buffalo Sabres HFfans in a lather about getting Eichel at #3. Edmonton takes Eichel....Tim Murray surprises everyone and selects Mitch Marner.

2.) Buffalo, leaning on youth, has a horrendous start to the 2015/16 season. 2015 closes with Nolan firmly on the hot seat. Grigorenko, Reinhart and Armia all make the club and struggle out of the gate. HFfans call all 3 busts immediately. Marner is sent back to junior with no 9 game audition.

3.) Tim Murray offloads many of our UFAs for picks and futures at the deadline.....but does NOT make a major trade during the offseason, enraging some HFfans (many of whom call him Darcy Jr. and demand his firing)

4.) Hudson Fasching turns pro and starts the year in Rochester....and does so on fire. HFfans want to burn Regier in effigy, crying that they can't send Grigorenko down and call up Fasching.

5.) Torrey Mitchell pulls a McCormick/Moulson and re-signs here after being traded at the deadline.

1.) *BUZZ* Wrong. Very, very wrong actually.

2.) More wrong than right.

3.) Half right. Half very, very, very wrong.

4.) LOLNO

5.) Half right. Mitchell was traded, but didn't re-sign.