Im sure the canucks fans will be all over me but the fact is you're absolutely correct the Sabres need to follow the Vancouver model.

Unfortunately, the Vancover model is simply stumbling upwards into success and benefiting from a huge shooting/save % bender (although you can argue a demko resurgence was predictable to an extent). They are succeeding despite themselves ( ownership, mgmt, scouting etc.)

If and when the Sabres are good, it's 100% going to be for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with whatever moves ownership or management make. The good news is this happens way more often than most think.

The bad news is, there's no telling when the misery will end.

Canucks fans know they are performing beyond expectations. Hell, upper bowl tickets to Columbus is $200 lol

This model/team lacks a Demko comp. And some of these deals are bananas. Noesen and Sealer is what a poor team will pay Dakota Joshua

The Canucks model is a high PDO with a top 5 goalie. They are the 21-22 rangers.

Cozens for Andersson is quite a trade. I wonder who says no.

This guy doesn't know the Canucks.

They're succeeding because of organizational alignment, buy in to the system, and good pro scouting.

Oversimplification at its finest dude
When the Sabres are good again, it’ll quite obviously have quite a bit to do with the players that management brought in
Mgmt has seeming made quite a few good decisions in the draft

Hopefully the Sabres
We have plenty of other good young pieces we should be looking to move before we even consider Cozens

I think Thompson can be your no. 1. Mittelstadt looks like a 2. So you could reallocate Center depth to improve the d. Andersson is a hell of a player.

We could do that
But wouldn’t it make more sense if we traded a package of good prospects/picks instead ?

I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not lol.

Their pro scouting is terrible G. They were a dumpster fire less than a calendar year ago. Theyre benefitting from a lot of things going right in spite of their owner, GM and scouts being goofy. Its okay. Enjoy it, I hope the canucks ride it all the way to a stanley cup

Yeah on the money re: missing the demko piece. But I dont think you can trade for that. I think you just have to hope one of Levi/Luukkonen can get there. Should also draft a goalie every year cause decent chance neither of them are that guy.

Andersson is more important to this team than Cozens would be

Calgary

Cozens is on pace for 44 points..at an AAV of 7.1 MM . Anderson is on pace for 48 points at a cap hit under 5MM

CGY passes

Two years ago this team was being run by a completely different management team; Benning, Gear, Weisbrod.

January 2022 was when the new management took over; Rutherford, Allvin, Castonguay, Grannato.

Under them, our pro scouting has been stupendous: Hronek, Mikheyev, Kuzmenko, Soucy, Bear, Cole, Blueger, Suter, Lafferty, DeSmith, Zadorov, and Joshua all have been hits. All have been signed or traded for in the past two years by the new management team. That's the difference having an excellent core and building real depth around them makes.

I think literally none of the skaters you mentioned are in the canucks top 10 this year for expected goals above replacement except for maybe lafferty who is 10th lol. Idk why you lumped kuzmenko in there like i didnt know he was healthy scratched several times.

Even if i didnt live out west, everyone who watches this sport knows the team is being driven by Hughes, Pettersson and the insane shooting bender that Boeser is on. I mean in terms of skaters btw, I know Demko being Demko is just business as usual.

Hronek is literally Top-10 in defensive scoring right now, has been all season.

Kuzmenko literally scored 37 goals last season. He's on pace for 20 goals this season. His offense is there, its Tocchet system that doesn't suit him. That's why he's being scratched. Imagine being able to scratch a 30-goal scorer and still win games.

Blueger is part of the 13th-best line in xGF% (min. 175 min played, Joshua-Blueger-Garland is dominating the games, they've a combined 41 points in the last 16 games. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDz13srXMAAv1_n?format=jpg&name=large

DeSmith is literally better than any goalie the Sabres have.

Cole, Soucy, and Zadorov did a better job than the bottom 3 defenders on Buffalo, they shut down your entire team when Hughes and Hronek were both off.

In reverse order:

Dawg I dont care what your bottom 3 d-men did agains the 3rd worst team in the East who lost 2 d-men to the concussion protocol lol. Its a one game sample.

Yeah im simply referring to skaters. Not the goalies. Also Idk why you insist on making the relative comparison to the Sabres. Ask around, been saying they suck since freakin june lol

Good for Blueger, he's got 1.5 xGAR this year. Thats 14th on the nucks. he's a decent player, hes not the reason they turned it around.

I dont care what Kuzmenko did last year. Last year the canucks sucked, remember? He's not the same player this year, not nearly the same impact, but the canucks are winning. Hmm, wonder why.

Yeah I couldnt possibly care less about defense point totals. Hronek is bottom 3 in expected goals above replacement on the canucks largely due to his defensive play.

Blueger, Joshua, Hronek, Zadorov, Soucy, Cole, Suter, Lafferty all huge reasons why they've improved this season. I'd say that's pretty high quality pro scouting.

This isn't the Benning era anymore.

It's hilarious that you straight up said "Canucks pro-scouting sucks!" and then when completely proven wrong you go:

"I don't care about your bottom 3 d-men."

"Goalie wasn't a position I was talking about."

"Ya but Blueger has 1.5 xGAR so his top-13 line doesn't count."

"last year doesn't count either."

"Defense points don't count."

Definition of moving the goal posts. Don't modulate the key and not debate with me.

Yeah I covered this in my response to the other canucks fan but long story short none of those guys have had the kind of on ice impact that total up to make more sense than the idea that a lot of things are breaking right for the canucks.

Theyre a good team, getting a lot of help. Its okay, thats like 90% of pro sports teams lol.

Perhaps, you probably can't get a top pairing dman on a contract for just picks and prospects though.

I love how you accused me of moving goal posts then whittled down my post to 3 words each line to fit your narrative that the canucks turn around from laughing stock to division contender is definitely because of all these role players being great and not at all because there's a chance they could be getting lucky?

The total expected wins added from the players you mentioned is like 3.

Edit: Im sorry I had to "last year doesnt count" why would you count a year in which the canucks were terrible? How does that help make your point lol

Stop making the strawman.

The Canucks are good because their pro scouting was/is good.

Then again Cozens had 31 goals 68 points last season as a 21 yr old. He's in a slump currently but I think their values currently are darn close and Cozens has the higher ceiling. Lower floor too. Just depends what your teams wants/needs.