[Rob Paxon]

The point about Hecht is a lot of BS criticism of the organization. They signed Hecht because it's irresponsible to go into a season with their center position looking like it did. Hecht in no way prevents Grigorenko from playing and the Sabres wouldn't play Grigorenko just because they 'had' to. He will stay if he impresses and he's getting the same opportunity to impress as he would otherwise, as it looks like he's beginning camp between Leino and Ott. Hecht and Grigorenko can both play wing as well, so there's no shortage of place to play these guys depending on how well they are able to perform.

Further, I don't get the impression that he's seen mcuh of Grigorenko himself or knows much about him -- or indeed really knows what he's talking about here.

As to the issue itself, I think one thing in favor of keeping Grigs is that he already played a lot of his Q season, so even if he ends up playing some games here on the 4th line or scratched (vs other games on the 3rd line and all games he's in on the PP), he wouldn't be missing much development time overall while he'd get the benefit of learning from the pros. That gives the Sabres flexibility as they shouldn't worry about scratching him or playing him on the 4th if he has some week-to-week struggles. He's already played a bit more than half of the Q reg season games he did last season and got another WJC in to boot.

I'm rooting for him to make it, which is different than saying he should make it. I want the Sabres to keep him up if he's good enough and I very much want him to be good enough, but if he isn't then he isn't. Sullivan's take, as expected, does nothing other than dumb down the conversation and refocus the standard vitriol against Ruff/front office before they've even made their decision. In other words, he's already indicated what his article 6 games into the season will be and it won't factor in how well Grigorenko actually played.