Why 25 Teams PASSED On Tage Thompson 

You made excellent points!

Same with the Eichel deal...VGK win the cup, Tuch becomes a star fwd scoring over a point per game with Buffalo, Peyton Krebs becomes part of their young core, and they have Noah Ostlund whos looking great so far in Sweden. The Reinhart deal was a win win as well. FLA wins a presidents trophy, makes a cup appearance, Sabres get Devon Levi - goalie of their future, and Jiri Kulich - who just broke the AHL record for most goals in their age 18 season.

@@BillyBuffalo354tuch is not a star & the Sabres lost that trade

I seen plenty of big men skate great in high level men’s leagues. Hockey should be big men sport. Longer legs means longer push off more power faster stride.

@@MbisonBalrogshould? Are you stupid?

Great to see the Sabres to get a superstar player. Good things ahead for Buffalo

His hands at that height is the most impressive thing to me by far.

Thanks for the support (:

Great to hear another fan from other sports is getting into hockey. The more the merrier. Not many sports exist where you need slow motion replay just to see wtf just happened.

Just insane that the Sabres have two top centres signed long term for a total of 15m...Thompson and Cozens. Unfair to the other Atlantic division teams

@@jimclarence5441 add that onto the top two d boys in dahlin and power.....man this team is just so exciting to talk about

When Devon Levi played his first NHL game I decided that I might want to start following what's going on with Sabres and I'm sure it's going to be good times in next couple of years.

Not even just the development time, but then the opportunity to actually show what they can do. Granato converted him to not just a center, but a top line C, playing with talented players like Tuch and Skinner, and put him as the primary option on the top PP unit. Got give talent a chance to perform.

The blues also didn't have a system that favored his playstyle like this video is trying to mention and most likely tried to make him into a bottom 6 Power forward role when he has a lethal off puck shot. So not only are you jammed on the wall playing wing you also can't get your Lethal one timer off cause your on the wrong side (RW) and your'e in the bottom 6 with no real elite or even above average setup man. It's also hard when you want to make a skill move too but then get yelled at when you do cause its not the teams style and you can never get your confidence going fully to execute how you intend. Blues have been that old chip and chase team for as long as i can remember. (which is another reason O'reilly was traded for and it worked out well systematically) He'll still have some old tage in him now and again but the system in place in Buffalo is made to handle a few mistakes trying to create offence by all the young speed and tenasity. But yes he was immature physically (baby giraffe) and finding his game early on both places but also wasn't fully utilized properly untill Don Granato.... The move to Center was genius. I often notice Tuch plays a little bit more defensively than tage and takes on some of his roles sometimes in zone but thats ok for now. But what you get offensively is allow the most dangerous guy with the best vision creative freedom to go left or right through the middle and utilize his reach vs being jammed on the boards and often killing what speed you do have. You also give the guy with the most lethal shot on the ice the prime areas in zone to score from instead of having him battle for every puck on the boards and having to back check back tired 200 ft when he wasnt a great skater in the first place. So by playing middle he effectively skates less hard and less distance which masks the deficiencies he used to have In transition it also forces team to gravitate and cover the middle more when a big skilled 6'6 guy is tearing up the middle making it easier for his wingers to have that extra space (which he never got from his centers). And even defensively though he can improve, that reach in the middle is no joke and takes a lot of passing lanes away and double clutches. Trust me this is from a sabres fan who criticized tage all the time for turning it over in our bottom 6 with an extra toe drag, or not getting his shot off ,not hitting etc. Id wonder why he was on the team some nights and how you could possibly be that useless being that big. I fell into the same trap all the scouts and coaches do. I boxed him in as a Big power forward who shouldnt be doing skillfull things and should play way more physical and make no mistakes and still put up like 20 goals. I dont think hes as great as these two players obviously, But granato literally saw that he had a freak combo of Lemuix / Ovechkin and took full advatange of it. The shots i was seeing this man rip last year ive never seen before. If he gets any better and stays healthy 50-60+ is possible in my eyes GO SABRES!

@@SuicidalGaming Missing the mark here. The Blues of 2019 were a pretty highly skilled team with Tarasenko, Perron, Thomas, etc, not a "chip and chase team". Berube put in a defensively responsible system that helped them win. Chip and chase doesn't win, defence does. Thompson looked slow AF and big and lumbering and couldnt play defensively making him a big liability. It's great he turned into a good player, but as a rookie there were no signs of it and the Blues didn't have space for him. It worked out in the end for both teams. If Thompson ever brings a cup to Buffalo it will balance out.

I guess you missed the mark here too then Ryan.. You pretty much acknowledged what i said then weirdly stated things that back my statements up. The blues were not considered a skilled team at that time which is the whole reason Berube implemented a defensive system lmfao lets not kid anybody here. Maybe skilled compared to what they are now, but no way were they a skill team compared to the rest of the league at that time. They have played boring defensive hockey for awhile now and chip and chase/ playing down low IS and WAS absolutely part of their game. That can still be true while playing a defensive system, so that's just weird to even debate from your perspective honestly. Its also still so early in the front 1/4 of this trade. The cup outweighs the trade a little bit for sure on the surface and Im glad you guys got 1 cup out of it but realistically speaking.... If hypothetically the sabres win even just 1 cup as well they win the trade easily whether you thought they would or not. It can be true both teams had success from the trade but can also be true that one team won it clear by time its said and done despite early expectations. Blues would of gotten 1 cup out of it and about 5 seasons (about 4 with injury time) , while the Sabres end up locking uy who can score 40-50 goals every season for 10+ seasons. As well as Ryan Johnson just entering the league now on Defense who was apart of that trade and could play for another 12-15 years potentially and could be apart of another cup team in the future. Also for the love of god, last time i checked good players dont score 50 goals, ELITE ones do so put some respect on his name and stop living in the past.

@@SuicidalGaming I see you when the Sabres win a cup with Thomson as Conn Smythe. Till then, stick you finger back up your arse.

Happy bday

Happy birthday buddy!

I didn’t like him much last year

Yup. He was great in MN, when he wanted to play...If the coaches we've had so far couldn't get him to produce, I highly doubt Granato will.

We do a little trolling

No

Yes, kid looked crazy in the prospect tournament, coming from a wings fan.

Yep. He's looked like he's going to be the star everybody expects him to be in the rookie camp so far.

Stylistically, absolutely. That’s not me saying he is Lemieux in terms of talent. There has never been big men like them with hands that silky.

@@RobTalksHockey that's fair I see where you are coming from tbh. Love the content! Keep it up!

When you compare some of the unice skills of big skilled players I must agree.

ROR wasn't going to win a cup with the Sabres, and the Blues were not going to win a cup without ROR. No telling if Tage would've developed into a star with the Blues anyways. He might not have reached his potential. The deal worked out great for both teams, and both main pieces in the deal. The only losers were Berglund and Sobotka, really.

that didnt age well....

He played almost all of the second half of the season through injuries and had 94 points.

Buffalo does have a few great contracts like Tage. Also, skinner is 9 million while scoring 80+ points……that’s pretty good

Buffalo is in the Atlantic division. That's even worse lol.

When did my team move to the Metro?

@@redlights1585 oh yeah they're in the northeast. My bad. Still tough division. Good luck.

@@redlights1585 Atlantic division. Jeez I gotta study my divisions more.

I’m joking haha

What do you mean???

@@danevertt3210 Skill doesn't develop without emotional and moral support. It's the same story with all of the top players.

The way he plays is best compared stylistically to Lemieux. Am I saying he is Lemieux talent wise? No. But I’ll ask you this, who else would you compare Thompson to stylistically in hockey history?

@@RobTalksHockeyi get the Lemieux comparison and I get what your saying. Being a buffalo fan it has always made me uncomfortable 😂. I definitely get the Wheeler comparison a bit. I compare him to Rick Nash but a bit more skill.

Jesus you couldn’t be further off. He’s a two way center and kills penalties for a reason. This is a franchise player