Looking back at the draft and forward to Free Agency

Sabres Prospects.com

Sabres.com

The Buffalo News

This year, the Sabres focused on size, toughness, and grit in the draft as went all North American with their 6 picks and all their picks have size and toughness in their descriptions.

1st Round - 13th overall - Zack Kassian - I loved this pick as Kassian was getting compared to Boston's Milan Lucic a lot prior to the draft. Kassian was the only real tough guy forward with 1st round skill in this year's draft. More than a few fans were disappointed that the Sabres passed on guys with more offensive upside, such as Jordan Schroeder from the University of Minnesota. But, I am not one of them. The Sabres have a lot of small, skilled guys on their roster and in the prospect pipeline. They don't have a lot of guys with top 6 skill and the size and toughness to open up space for the smaller guys. Kassian has the potential to do that in the NHL.

3rd Round - 66th overall - Brayden McNabb - At 6'4" and 200 lbs, McNabb is a big blueliner that has a bit of an offensive game. The big question for McNabb is his skating as he was exploited at the U-18s for Canada when their coaching staff asked him to play more conservatively than he is used to. Hopefully he turns into a physical defensive defenseman who can skate well enough to be effective. He looks to also add the size and toughness to help clear out the front of the crease. That element is missing in the Sabres pipeline outside of Mike Weber. With the Sabres' needs up the middle, an argument could have been made for guys like Michael Latta and Ryan Bourque at this spot. But, I won't argue too loud, especially given McNabb's experience playing with Tyler Myers in prep school.

4th Round - 104th overall - Marcus Foligno - Mike's second son to be drafted wanted to be a Sabre so bad that he was upset when the team didn't take him in the 3rd round. The Sabres see Marcus in the Paul Gaustad mold and their is nothing wrong with that. Again, this is a pick that I love. The Sabres are already talking about moving Foligno from LW to center, so that is a plus as well.

5th Round - 134th overall - Mark Adams - Adams is a guy that is flying under the radar a bit as he's Massachusetts prep school player who is slated to head to the Chicago Steel of the USHL before heading off to Providence College for the 2010-11 season. Sabres Prospects.com has Adams listed at 6'2" 205 lbs (NHL.com had him at 6'1" 187 lbs), so he's another guy 6'2" or taller and 200+ lbs. At the high school level, he was also a solid skater and contributed a lot offensively. The Sabres are likely to give Adams more than few years to mature before making a decision on him.

6th Round - 164th overall - Connor Knapp - Knapp was the Sabres yearly goalie prospect pick. At 6'5" 215 lbs, the Miami University goalie certainly has the size that is in vogue in the NHL. He had a solid freshman year for the Redhawks, but was on the bench during Miami's run to the NCAA Championship game. It will be interesting to see how he does over the next few years, along with guys like Brad Eidsness at North Dakota and Nick Eno at Bowling Green.

7th Round - 194th overall - Maxime Legault - The 6'2" 195 lb RW from Shawinigan is an overage draftee that the Sabres could choose to sign this summer and stick in Portland (or a lower league) or they can opt to have him return to the Q for an overage season. Legault is another lunch pail guy that won't fill up a stat sheet, but could develop into a 4th line guy that is tough to play against.

In summary, the Sabres draft strategy was pretty simple this year: get as many big, tough guys that are tough to play against into the system.

I can't argue with a blue collar draft for the Blue & Gold!

Free Agency starts up on Wednesday

THN Blog - Sam McCaig's all-overlooked free agent team

The Sabres will stick to the game plan that they've had recently with the owner, managing partner, GM, and head coach all coming back for another year.

So while some fans want big moves to happen, that just isn't in the offing for the Sabres. Chris Pronger was never coming to Buffalo. Jay Bouwmeester was never coming to Buffalo. Marian Gaborik, Marian Hossa, and Martin Havlat won't be coming to Buffalo.

But what I'm hoping for is that the Sabres look at some second tier guys like Chad Larose, Johnny Oduya, and Greg de Vries could be guys that could fit in on the Sabres if they are indeed under the radar guys.

I think Oduya is a guy that will get a lot of interest around the league, so I wouldn't be surprised if he were priced out of the Sabres budget.

The perfect forward for the Sabres this off season could be Ian Laperriere. He has the grit and leadership that could help stir up the locker room without costing an arm and a leg.

Greg de Vries could be the type of guy the Sabres want to help break Tyler Myers into the NHL.

But, what the Sabres do in free agency will be driven as much by what they are able to do with regards to moving contracts like Jochen Hecht and Henrik Tallinder as by the market. Darcy Regier will likely have a budget of around $50 million to work with this year and they already have around $46 million on the books for next season before re-signing any of their RFAs (Stafford, Sekera, Kaleta, and MacArthur) or UFAs (Ellis, Peters, and Spacek). Teppo Numminen, Max Afinogenov and Dominic Moore are also UFAs-to-be, but I would be surprised if they are back next season.

Personally, my hopes for the rest of the off season are influenced by the constraints that the Sabres are working under and the history of the current management of the team.

My hope is that they turn over 4 or 5 roster spots, trading away Hecht and Tallinder in the process, and add a Cup winner or two during that process.

I don't need a big name guy to land in Buffalo to be happy (although that would be nice). I just don't want the roster changes to be limited to Tyler Myers and a player or two from Portland being the new faces on the roster.