The Buffalo Sabres certainly have an interesting roster currently in place for the upcoming 2016-2017 season. With that being said, I’m curious to see what choice you might make if asked to choose between a player currently on the team versus an alternative player currently playing for an opposing team.
Very important to note, this post is NOT intended to be viewed as a one to one trade for the players I will be listing below. I hope everyone has some fun with this post. It is always interesting to see how individuals value Buffalo Sabres players when compared against other players throughout the league. When making your decisions, I would suggest taking into account things like cap hit, age, injury history, etc. In this post I will be listing the players you get to choose between. Also, I will list my own choices so you can see how our opinions compare. There are NO wrong answers here, feel free to add some reasoning to your comments as well!
Okay, to keep things simple, I will create the choices to be similar based on general position. Essentially you will choose between forwards, defense, and goalie.
Let’s get to the choices!
1 – Jack Eichel or Connor McDavid (Yes, I had to start with this one)
2 – Ryan O’ Reilly or Patrice Bergeron (Elite two-way centers)
3 – Ramus Ristolainen or Hampus Lindholm? (High potential RFA defensemen)
4 – Robin Lehner or Pekka Rinne? (Big goalies, Sweden v Finland)
5 – Sam Reinhart or Johnny Gaudreau (Skilled wingers, how much potential do you think Reinhart has?)
6 – Alex Nylander or William Nylander (Very skilled brothers, tough to choose between)
7 – Kyle Okposo or Phil Kessel (It’s too bad neither of them are on the team USA roster for the World Cup of Hockey)
8 – Jake McCabe or Nathan Beaulieu (Young defensemen with potential to get better)
9 – Tyler Ennis or Scott Hartnell (Different style wingers with scoring ability)
10 – Zach Bogosian or Tyler Myers (Would you have made this trade?)
I hope you enjoyed making your choices, mine are as follows:
Eichel – He wants to play here, and is potentially more durable than McDavid (Biased choice on this one, I know)
O’ Reilly – Trains harder than anyone, future captain, quite a bit younger
Lindholm – In my opinion he has the potential to be a top 10 defensemen in the league as soon as next season
Lehner – Younger, intrigued by his potential, better cap hit
Gaudreau – Too much talent to pass on, even with Reinhart being one of my favorites
Alex Nylander – This was a coin toss decision for me, it will be interesting to see how this rivalry between brothers plays out
Okposo – Better cap hit, tougher to play against, another difficult decision
McCabe – Love his potential
Hartnell – Relatively durable, ability to put the puck in the back of the net
Bogosian – Has more offensive capabilities than I believe we’ve seen thus far, brings physicality
Next: Buffalo Sabres Ink Zemgus Girgensons To A One-Year Deal
Well, that was fun! I’m excited to read what your selections are in the comments section. Imagine how different the Buffalo Sabres would be if we ended up swapping some of these players. Thank you as always for reading, and let me know if you liked this post and I can create some similar ones in the future!