That is more than what cat went for last year... and no to soup lol

depends on what number the pick is. But you are probably right. Remove one second.

Why no to soup? Mikheyev is amazing. Leafs miss him badly this year. Speed for days and he is massive. He creates his own break aways virtually every game. great defensively.

Because they basically have the younger better version in peterka who didnt quite crack your roster

yea he was call up number 1. I had him in the line up right until the end.

Is it though? Cat was traded for 7th, 39th and a 3rd this year. As it stands right now that Sabres pick is 13th and the 2nds are from the following years. Now Buffalo could definitely drop to 11th but I doubt the fall into the top 10. Even then picks are exponentially better the higher they are, it's not usually not a steady growth in value. I think we can use Chicago's 2 picks from that draft as a perfect example here too. Korchinski is starting to look like a steal already at #7 and Nazer really hasn't shown too much yet. There is still time for that to change but I think that #7 holds quite a bit more value

The Sabres need to be focusing any and all resources on defense and goaltending. DeBrincat is a nice player and is worth a lot, but Ottawa is gonna miss the playoffs with him, and Chyckyboi, and Hamonic, and Giroux all brought in to move the team forward.

Sabres need defense and goaltending. Period. If they're gonna toss around first rounders, that's where they need to use them.

True the second round picks are far into the future.
One has to evaluate the strength of the draft as well.
It is too early to evaluate the 2022 v 2023 draft but most prognosticators believe 2023 will be out standing.
Let's compare the top 5 goal producers from past drafts:
2012, Forsberg 239 goals, Hertl 200, Galchenyuk 146, Pearson 133, Taravainen 129
2013, Mackinnon 272, Barkov 238, Monahan 218, Horvat 206, Lindholm 202
2014, Draisatl 292, Pasternak, 288, Point 211, Reinhart 194, Larkin/Ehlers 173
2015, McDavid 297, Aho 212, Rantanen 212, Connor 205, Eichle 179
I would imagine given a choice of a 7th over all in the 2012 draft v a 10th over all in any of the following three drafts a GM would have picked the 10th over all in the '13, '14 or '15 drafts.

You are also forgetting that a known NHL player is included Mittelstadt (only 10 players have more carreer pts than he from that draft class so let's drop that "BUST" label after his name) and a second instead of a third.
So yes this is significantly more than what Ottawa gave up to get him.

I'd make that trade and use the cap space left by DBC departure and some of the picks to acquire players in the Nick Paul or Connor Brown mold. Puck hounds who are great defensively and good at even strength