The NHL draft is 2 weeks away. The lead up to the draft isn’t as horrible as the NFL draft, but the there is plenty of BS to sift thru before getting to that Sunday in Newark. But this year’s topic du jour is whether or not the Sabres trade up to #1 pick. The whole offseason has seemed like the Sabres had a desire for that franchise changer in the draft.
They are looking for their Sidney Crosby, a player other players want to come play with. Also a dominant #1 Center, who the team has been looking for since 2007.
The question is now, what gets a move from 8 to 1 done? Picks and prospects? Picks, Prospects and NHL Player(s)? The only person that knows this is Patrick Roy, who, we’ve been told ad nauseum spoke with Darcy Regier a lot this past year. At first it was about Grigerenko, then maybe about being the coach. Whatever Narrative you wanted it to be that week. Now you could spin it as, Darcy has knowledge of what Patrick Roy may want or need, giving him an upper hand in any possible deal, for that #1 pick.
But if Nathan MacKinnon really is the real deal, why would the Avs trade out? Because they need multiple players? Well who in the top 10 doesn’t? If a player is that generational player, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s not that I wouldn’t try, but I wouldn’t harm myself more by trying to do it. Of course if Darcy pulled it off, I’d be excited and pumped. But look what they gave up! DON’T CARE SHINY NEW TOY! This kid has been compared to Sidney Crosby for years, groomed to be the next new NHL Superstar. If the move went down, MacKinnon sweaters would fly off the shelves at the Sabre Store and thousands would line up to watch his first practice. But I’m not getting my hopes up, that this will actually happen.
Sure there’s Seth Jones and Jonathan Drouin, but I doubt the Sabres have any serious interest in mortgaging the future on these two. It’s obvious, MacKinnon or bust.
So is MacKinnon the next Crosby? I have zero idea. But if your scouts think so, then you should do whatever you can to get him. If that one in 10 years type player is up, then go get him. You’re not mortgaging your future; you are improving your future. You get a 1st round pick every year, yet, you don’t get a potential superstar every year. But if Darcy is really untouchable, then why be conservative? He should go big, go bold. Try something different. Imagine the immediate excitement that would run through SabreNation, The Buffalo News wouldn’t know what to do with this. You are getting excited right now, thinking about the possibility, aren’t you?
Unfortunately you can’t just will yourself into the #1 pick, you need a partner. You need to make the Avs believe that what you are giving them is as good as or better than staying put and taking whoever. This of course is contingent on the Sabres actually wanting to do this. If this all lip service to generate talking points and there isn’t a shred to truth to it, we probably will never know and would depress us further anyway.
But it’s always nice to hope and dream…For Sabres fans it’s all we have.
So in less than two weeks, we’ll all find out if Darcy can pull this off, or we get hyped about our two new 1st round picks that will be the future, maybe, hopefully. But as Buffalo Sports fans, we all know it ain’t happening, why? #becauseitsbuffalo
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