Northeast: How you gonna keep 'em down on the farm?

[BillsSabresB.C.T. Fan]

http://cdn.nhl.com/images/upload/2007/03/stafford_drew_194x270.jpg
Rookie forward Drew Stafford is one player who could be counted on to fill
the spot on the Sabres' roster if they lose either Chris Drury or Daniel Briere.


The dust has settled on the 2006-07 Buffalo Sabres season and while many hockey pundits continue to wonder what the Sabres will do regarding the free-agent status of forwards Chris Drury and Daniel Briere, Rochester Americans coach Randy Cunneyworth sees a bright future within the organization.


Many critics pointed to a lack of grit as one of the main reasons the Sabres lost to the Senators in the Eastern Conference Finals. Cunneyworth recently pointed out to NHL.com that Buffalo has plenty of young, gritty players in Rochester waiting for a chance to show Sabres coach Lindy Ruff that they can provide that element of toughness and skill that some believe wasn't present in the playoffs. He also saw something the Sabres already have plenty of at the NHL level: Speed.

According to Cunneyworth, should Buffalo lose players via free agency or move some players to shore up other areas of concern, they need only to look down to the farm and they will find plenty of Amerks that could be or are well on their way to being Sabres.

"There is plenty of potential here," Cunneyworth said of the situation in Rochester. "I think we have some guys that definitely could go into camp next fall and challenge for jobs depending on what happens with roster moves up there. We also have some players that in their case, the timing may just be bad. They could be ready but it depends what happens in the off-season here."



http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=314674

[camelcowboy]

Wow Randy Cunneyworth likes his players, thats a news flash. Kaleta isn't close to being ready for the NHL yet they have a decent farm system, but it would be mistake to let Drury, Briere, Zubrus, Vanek walk without filling the roster spots with VETERANS . This team was not mature enough to win and you want to replace the missing players with farm team guys. Get real.

[JD]

Keep Drury, Vanek, and Max. Get 2 quick/gritty d-men, and fill up open space.

I like the idea of May taking Peters spot..

[BillsSabresB.C.T. Fan]

Wow Randy Cunneyworth likes his players, thats a news flash. Kaleta isn't close to being ready for the NHL yet they have a decent farm system, but it would be mistake to let Drury, Briere, Zubrus, Vanek walk without filling the roster spots with VETERANS . This team was not mature enough to win and you want to replace the missing players with farm team guys. Get real.

NO YOU GET REAL! Vanek is a RFA the Sabres hold all the cards he's not going anywhere. Why do you want to keep Zubrus he's like Gilmour was remember him he did nothing for us same as Zubrus this year and Kaleta will be on this team next season I gaurantee it.

[camelcowboy]

NO YOU GET REAL! Vanek is a RFA the Sabres hold all the cards he's not going anywhere. Why do you want to keep Zubrus he's like Gilmour was remember him he did nothing for us same as Zubrus this year and Kaleta will be on this team next season I gaurantee it. How do you make any valid comparisons to Gilmour and Zubrus. Zubrus is years younger he's a big grider with a scoring touch gilmour was a smaller center who was at the end of the career when he came to buffalo. How about you watch hockey before you waste peoples times. Vanek is going to be a hot commodity just because he's a RFA doesn't mean the sabres hold the cards. He can sign a offer sheet the sabres can match or they can let him go. A 43 goal scorer at the age 23 will receive alot of attention if he's not signed before july 1st. Detriot, Philly, and the rangers are names i have heard with interest in Vanek. Not only may vanek get a 5-6 million dollar offer, the sabres matching it could prevent us from signing Briere or Drury. Considering Darcy and Lindy aren't even under contract yet. I think you should wake up out of your dream word and realize that other teams are going to want our good players. Rochester doesn't have the quality of players to maintain our talent level, and if we keep taking players from Rochester our farm system will be in the crapper in the next couple years. Use some common sense you twit, Kaleta will not make this team next year and he might never make this team. Take your little crush somewhere else. Learn to spell guarentee while your at it.

[clumping platelets]

NO YOU GET REAL! Vanek is a RFA the Sabres hold all the cards he's not going anywhere.


Not true in the salary cap era......another team could give him an offer sheet the Sabres cannot match

[LABillsFan]

NO YOU GET REAL! Vanek is a RFA the Sabres hold all the cards he's not going anywhere. Why do you want to keep Zubrus he's like Gilmour was remember him he did nothing for us same as Zubrus this year and Kaleta will be on this team next season I gaurantee it.


Just wondering if you're Reading between the lines again?

[BillsSabresB.C.T. Fan]

Wow Randy Cunneyworth likes his players, thats a news flash. Kaleta isn't close to being ready for the NHL yet they have a decent farm system, but it would be mistake to let Drury, Briere, Zubrus, Vanek walk without filling the roster spots with VETERANS . This team was not mature enough to win and you want to replace the missing players with farm team guys. Get real.

O.K. mr hotshot how do you answer this :question: then, remember how we had all those players hurt in the regular season and Drury and Briere were both out of the line-up and the Rochester players that we called up played and we still won those games explain that mr know-it-all!

[camelcowboy]

O.K. mr hotshot how do you answer this :question: then, remember how we had all those players hurt in the regular season and Drury and Briere were both out of the line-up and the Rochester players that we called up played and we still won those games explain that mr know-it-all!First of all i never trashed our farm system. My point is that you clearly missed, is that if you want to remain a dominate team replacing players like Drury, Briere with kids from rochester there is going to be a drop off in play. Im excited to see Stafford, and Paille and Paetch break the line up but thats about it. The middle part of the season with all the injuries does show we have a good farm system, but you need to keep a few things in mind. First Ruff's system is also run in rochester as well. When these kids come up they knew where they were suppose to be on the ice so it does ease the transition second. Our defensive core for the exception of spacek was intact. Through out that time Vanek, Pommer, Hecht, Briere (-1 game at toronto), Mair played alot more minutes then they normally would. The person you seem to hate for no valid reason Zubrus played a big role during the later part of that stretch. Also i'll give the kids their credit they played with alot of intensity, something this team lacked in the playoffs. But also the leadership of Briere, and Drury who was with the team during the begining of the stretch did help this team. It was a good run, but the reason why this team failed is it didn't have any grit when it mattered the most. If you keep filling the holes with kids your going to lose alot of expierence, and nobody in Rochester except for Kaleta "he doesn't play with any control or discipline cost he alone caused the sabres a couple games " is ready to fill the role of Drury and Briere. This team needs expierence because thats what wins cups. Look at the Ducks this year, the Hurricanes last year, and Tampa the year before. They all had veteran players who played major roles in winning the cup. If you replace our vets with kids, we'll probally still make the playoffs but in the end we will not win the cup. You can have your rochester sabres but in the end we will never win the cup if we don't bring in Veterans and players who actually can take a hit.