Buffalo Sabres Should Leave Best Prospects in Rochester

With the playoffs almost entirely out of the question, some fans would like to see the Buffalo Sabres pull some prospects up – but is this truly a good idea?

The Buffalo Sabres are terrible.

That is not an opinion. That is not a knee-jerk reaction following a handful of bad games.  That is just the God’s-honest truth, and everyone who follows the team knows it.

Likewise, every Sabres fan around the world understands that this team has zero shot at making the playoffs this season. Sure, the website Sports Club Stats still gives the team a 0.3% chance of making it to the playoffs, but that’s actually generous. This Sabres team might be the first team in the history of professional sports to actually have a negative* percent chance of making the playoffs (and don’t even ask me how that would work!).

*I understand this is impossible. My math skills are not that bad. 

Naturally, then, the Buffalo Sabres should begin calling up prospects and . . . stop right there. Let’s just get this out there right now: unless we are talking about pulling up players to fill in for injured Sabres, the organization should leave Buffalo’s prospects exactly where they are for the remainder of the season.

It’s natural for fans to clamor for a team like the Sabres to bring up young talent under circumstances such as these, but let’s admit it: our reasons for doing so are purely selfish. When fans grow tired of watching their team stumble and bumble their way through yet another losing season, they try to console themselves by watching exciting prospects.

For starters, the young players tend to bring energy to the rink that the defeated regular players on the roster lack. Combine that with visions of said prospects leading the Sabres to playoff glory in the not-so-distant future, and it is easy to see why so many fans start wondering when Jason Botterill will begin calling up young guys.

Obviously, the Sabres have already started to shuffle the deck. The team recalled Hudson Fasching on December 2, recalled Evan Rodrigues today, and assigned veteran winger Matt Moulson to waivers. The way the Sabres are playing, a message needs to be sent: perform, or accept the consequences.

Still, the idea of bringing up the most promising prospects is one the Sabres’ front office should ignore. Instead, the team should take a page out of the Toronto Maple Leafs playbook and allow their best prospects to enjoy something they surely will not experience in Buffalo: success.

Here’s an example of a prospect Buffalo should not touch: Chad DeDominicis wrote a nice piece over at Die By The Blade about Sabres prospect C.J. Smith, in which he mused,

If he [Smith] continues to play well you have to wonder how long Jason Botterill can look the other way before giving Smith the call. The Sabres could absolutely use a player who could provide more offense. Bailey, Baptiste and Kyle Criscuolo have all got their chance with the big club. Have to think that Smith is the next one in line to get an opportunity to show what he can do at the NHL level.

Again, given how poorly the Sabres have played, it is easy to see why DeDominicis and other fans would want to see him play alongside someone like Jack Eichel. After all, Smith is the Amerks’ leading scorer, and his 23 points are 6th-most in the AHL. Kid has promise, so why wouldn’t fans want to watch him instead of the garbage they currently watch on the ice?

The problem with this thinking is that it doesn’t actually consider the development of the player -and we are not even discussing the physical development here, either.  Even if Smith is physically ready to make the transition, how would moving him from a winning situation to a toxic one benefit his development as a player?  The Buffalo Sabres’ season is effectively over; there is no 15 game-point streak brewing for this squad, no come-from-behind miracle to rally the fan base.  There are too many players who helped run Dan Bylsma out of town last season, and too many players who clearly have gotten comfortable with losing. (Disagree? Check out Marcus Foligno’s comments about being somewhere “where losing is not an option,” courtesy of the Twin Cities Pioneer Express.)

Calling Smith up to Buffalo is going to do nothing except expose him to the toxic atmosphere of the current Sabres roster. The same can be said about Brendan Guhle, and any other prospect fans actually like and hope to see play on a winning Sabres team one day. Why not just leave them in Rochester and allow them to make a run through the Calder Cup Playoffs while Jason Botterill guts this Sabres roster?

Next: An Open Letter to Buffalo Sabres Fans

When the writing was on the wall for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2016, they did the smart thing: they allowed prize prospects such as Mitch Marner and William Nylander to develop with the London Knights and the Toronto Marlies, respectively, while the Leafs front office cleaned house. The results speak for themselves. If the Buffalo Sabres want to replicate Toronto’s success, it would behoove them to adopt a similiar approach when it comes to their prospects.