There are hardly any players out there who can fill Vanek's shoes, so I simply disagree strongly.
Then why is he waiting? His point was that other teams think they can get a Vanek in UFA. If they can't.....how does waiting help?
Please, you're taking "choose harder" way too literally. "Choose more carefully". Satisfied? Instead of maybe 4 viable candidates at #10 you have 2. So what?
It's ridiculous to say that scouting staffs do not have advantages over each other. They are not even. It's not the point, anyhow. The point is the talent will be there, you just may not have as many options.
The draft is absolutely nothing like the lottery. Talk about sounding like a 10 year old...
If there's some way to just draft better that we're all missing, you'd better go get an NHL job. Accept the truth: thousands of scouts from across the planet watch thousands of hours of tape every year, and half of that just goes into producing Central Scouting rankings. The Central Scouting rankings end up looking nothing like who actually pans out, at all. Then, two days before the draft, nobody has any idea who will pick what players, outside of maybe #1, and the best hockey minds on the planet can't agree on who drafted the best players after it's done, let alone be right about it. "Narrow it down to two players instead of four?" WTF is that even supposed to mean? Fine, let's say Colorado narrows it down to Drouin and Barkov. Are they doing it right? Are they doing it wrong? Can you name one person on the planet, or even a system of analysis, that would be able to actually tell us????
If we can't trade Vanek and Miller for draft picks in this draft, you'd question the entire rebuild? OK, that definitely sounds like a 10 year old. Someone gave you the wrong color bike I suspect...
What, you think its probable that Stanley Cups just happen to you because you're special? You've got to make the best of a lot of opportunities. I don't know why anyone smart would think it's likely that the next core of Sabres wins a cup no matter what they do, but it just makes it that much harder if you don't even move your dwindling assets trying to make them the best core they can be.
What do you want Darcy to do exactly? It's so important to trade these guys before the draft that we do so for whatever we can get?
I'm very averse to criticizing Darcy. I don't know what the conversations are like on the phone. But basically, this is that one exception, because it's about as clear from 500 yards what you need to do as it's ever going to be. I've never felt a situation was as obvious in the 16 years I've been a fan. You need big futures. You have big present assets that want out. There's a one day window where the best futures we've seen in a decade will be up for taking. Do the math. I'm not saying it's impossible for him to do something smart if he misses on this go round, but it's like driving past a gas station in the desert because you think there's better priced gas in the next few miles. You'd better be daaaaaamn right, or you're going to look like a fool. And no, I don't particularly have any faith that the prospects in the system at this time will win a Stanley Cup, so he'd better turn some kind of asset into blue chips.
