I'm glad you know me so well - you don't. If Zadorov fell short of the lofty expectations I have for him and developed into just a 'decent solid top 4 dman' I would never call him a bust, I will say he's a very good player but with his skills and physical package I thought he was going to be more.
We have a lot of top prospects now, one, Ristolainen, who is going to start as top 6 defenceman in the NHL at 18, which is very rare. He could have the potential to be an all-star Norris trophy consideration type dman one day. But you don't see me predicting that because I don't see it.
Zadorov has everything, raw as it is at 18, to become a dominant defenceman.
Of our top prospects I've written on this forum a couple of times that Grigorenko has the highest probability in my opinion to be a 'bust'. I did not predict him to be a bust, he could develop into the number #1 90-100 point center we've lacked for decades.
The point is I'm not the type to run off and make grandiose projections about draft picks and prospects - Zadorov is the exception.
The Sabres are going into their 43rd season and have never won a Stanley Cup. In that long history we've only had a handful of special players, legends - one of the premier exciting scoring lines of the 1970s, The French Connection, Dominik Hasek and the combination of Lafontaine and Mogilny. We're due for something special and I see the beginning of something special, a defense corps that could dominate the NHL one day - Myers, Zadorov, Ristolainen, Pysyk - where we're no longer this mediocre assortment that NBC and HNIC refer to as the 'Buffalo Sabres', we'll be 'Tyler Myers, Niki Zadorov and the Buffalo Sabres'.
