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We'll start saying "The Jacob Bryson of..."

https://bsky.app/profile/joeyerdon.bsky.social/post/3m22uhmtgjs2n Power day to day UPL starts tomorrow

From upthread,

This is where the Parise/Suter buyouts come into effect. They were both bought out months before the 5x$9 was signed. Move one + a protected 1st + some retention. Move the other a year or two later. Guerin was dealing with a flat cap at the time, so it needed to be done with care. But certainly they could have avoided a couple of the monster ($12M+ on the cap for neither player in the lineup) cap hits seasons which they could have maybe gotten Kaprizov for another season or two and another helpful 4D or 3W or something. Like 6x$9.5M or 7x$10M and jettison Suter (even if not great in the room) in the summer of 2024 for a smaller cap hit. Edit: And I forgot to add, but Kaprizov may have been dead set on being UFA at 29 all along so he could land one more massive payday before his wheels started to slow. But in sum: Yay for the players.

Now that Kaprisov has agreed to an 8 year $17M AAV, Alex can say that he’s worth at least $10 million a year.

I just mean if they're doing construction i don't expect in-season loss of seats each year. Like they'll do some, then do the season, then do the rest or something like that.

HC Ruff says you will get Geertsen and you will like it. Such a versatile Geertsen. VersatGeertsen! Stop trying to make VersatGeertsen happen!

They initially gave Kaprizov a 5 year $9 million contract after one year in the league. They did pay him early. He's just fortunate that his contract was ending at the right time. Dahlin and Tage? Their previous contracts ended a couple years too early for their bank accounts.

Those were the free spending days of Ville Leino and Christian Ehrhoff. 😂 Touche.

And this is why you pay your young stars early. It bites you in the ass occasionally (Power) but Dahlin and Tage making roughly half of Kaprizov is noteworthy.

That's a implies that the Pegula era before Eichel the franchise was firmly on the tracks. That's certainly a take.

Nice post. Good teams should never exclusively shy away from players in their 30's. If Tuch thrived purely on speed and soft hands, yes, be careful. His game is more balanced and diverse than that. No reason he can't score 30 goals and play decent two way hockey until he is 35-36.

Holy. *****.

I can haz Novikov in Buffalo?

Owen Power not on the ice this AM Kulich has returned

I live within a 2 minute walk to the Memorial Cup hosts this year, Kelowna, and my buddy is 50’ drive away in Penticton. I typically don’t go to games, Rockets have been shyte lately, but maybe I will take in a few more as they’ll be gearing up their squad to make a run for the Cup.

I know your looking at it from the Sabres point of view as to playing a wait and see how things go with Tuch before the contract extension or trade. If I were Tuch I would probably wait and see how things are going before being tied down to the Sabres. Thing thing about the Sabres you pretty much know what is going to happen by mid January if not sooner. If it's the same old wait till next year I think he would want out even if it ment less money overall. I think I am less concerned about Tuch's decline than you might be. He is a very dedicated player who plays all aspects of the game. Good to great players seem to last longer than the middle of the road types. Of players in his birth year class he has played fewer games than many of them at 536. Not sure if that matters but I think I would expect a player of his level to get 900 to 1000 games. That fact he can play any situation would seem to shelter issues as age catches up. Then there is Florida. Age seems to be of no concern to Bill Zito. I know different team in a different place but it's interesting to look. Player age years left AAV Barkove 30 5 10M Tkachuck 30 5 9.5M Reinhart 29 7 8.6M Bennet 29 8 8M Verhaeghe 30 8 7M Marchand 37 5 5.25M Jones 30 5 7M Ekblad 30 5 6.1 M Maybe the writings on the wall with this group, Barkove is out. Tkachuk is out out and to be honest it's pretty much his physical game that makes him a good player because he is not a fast skater. The Verhaghe and Marchand contracts don't look that great on paper. The point is that they have 7 aging contracts and we have none, well one if you count Skinner. An aging Tuch contract should not break us. I suspect it gets done in a bit less than the 9M dollar range. AFP has it at 7x8.5M. We will see.

But what changes is the Sabres become successful too? We operate under many assumptions. Terry is considered to be, or been, a meddlesome owner. But how much is Terry steering the ship right now? You have Adams, plus Jarmo, Lindy of course, and Staal, Ventura, Karmanos and Fortin as well. You're also seeing a shift away from a speedy offensive skill team to one that focuses more of defense and puck possession. Who's vision is being implemented now?

If you are saying that Pegula has operated the Bills in the same way he has operated the Sabres, you are off the mark. The models to be followed are the Bills and Bandits. You hire the right staff and allow them to do their jobs. The Bills and Sabres are two different entities with two different operations. Their individual record is a testament to the quality to each of their operations. One is a success and the other is not. At least for me, the reasons for the disparity in outcomes are not too difficult to discern.

So if the Sabres finally do turn the corner, no credit will be given to anyone involved? What about the Bills? Are they just a happy accident? You know, anyone outside of our bubble would look at an owner with two champion caliber franchises and think they were pretty good.

I'm not demoralized about our team's prospects for the season. I believe that if the Sabres get solid goaltending, we should be vying for a playoff spot up to the end of the season. But even if that is the case, there is no way that I'm going to credit this Pegula operated franchise as being a well-run operation. If you are a Sabre fan, the standard for success is a lot lower than for most franchises. And that is a shame. When you dumb down the expectations from a diminished fan base, it is not something to be proud of.

Chicago's United Center has "bars" in what would be the 300's at KBC. They took out a couple rows in the corner sections. I could absolutely see a seating reduction in a renovated arena. 17K instead of 19K?

But it makes a good story when they do. Chicago, Colorado, Edmonton, Florida as examples.