Taro T

Least you got the night right. Really thought this game was scheduled for yesterday. Apparently not.

Probably good that the Sabres are playing the Blues tonight. 😉

No idea if they do that at college games. The NHL never did it until the 1st winter classic. They'd just clean up a little bit of snow around the creases and some other places where it built up. Larry Quinn's lasting legacy on the game. Not blue ice and orange lines, nor non-rectangular nets. Sending the maintenance crew out to clean the snow off most all the ice during breaks inperiod. (Probably wasn't him on THAT either, but he does take credit for it.)

No data. Feel pretty comfortable with most Q's about the NHL's CBA and Cap. The NFL's is a totally different beast. But even in a best case, he's been paid ~$35MM to date and has only counted $13MM total against the cap and only ~$7MM of that outlay has been in signing bonus (which prorates across the entire contract) so they'd presumably only be able to get $5MM of that back; which still leaves like $18MM to find its way against the Bills cap. (And all these numbers are from Sportrac.com FYI.) But, until somebody that's far more versed on this subject says the Bills can claw anything back, will assume they cant.

People that actually follow the NFL's salary cap mechanations (not one of them personally) make is sound like the Bills would still be on the hook for the $10.7MM of next year's guaranteed contract if they did. Apparently, the only way for the Bills to get out of having to pay him that would be to trade him to somebody else and then the other team would be on the hook for that. But that would still leave the Bills with ~$22MM dead cap next year. As it is, they'd be looking at $32.5MM in dead cap for '24 if he's released before June 1.

That is certainly possible. But IF Pegula really does want to 'win multiple Stanley Cups' (or whatever the exact quote was), dropping a few $MM the last couple of years would've gone a long way to helping make THAT dream a reality. With all the money that's been spent on facilities and failed coaches/GMs, it would seem to be a drop in the bucket overall. (And totally get not wanting to spend right after the lockdowns were easing; but by trade deadline day in '22 concerns about another lockdown and the corresponding pressures on cashflow shouldn't have been a major issue.) How much more does this team end up worth if they win Cups in '25 and '26. (Strictly a hypothetical, not suggesting that picking up some useless vets to land some good picks makes that happen; but it's more likely with more assets to work towards it than what that unspent cap is worth today.)

Mildly surprised that Biro would sit in his 1st game back up. But, if he's up specifically as insurance should Greenway not play, it makes sense.

Interesting. Makes sense to try to make the "checking" line as strong as possible and then try to only shelter 1 of the 4 lines, but thought he'd keep Greenway on the "3rd" line to keep from having one that REALLY needs to be sheltered though that gives them 2 that have to be sheltered. Or are they going off the board again and running 7 D? If they do run 6, is Jokiharju the odd man out? Personally would have Clifton as the 7 if they only run 6; Jokiharju is actually decent on the PK.

Expect they're in the order that Hamilton saw them run through drills. Had he noticed any of the others 1st, they would've been listed there instead.

To the bolded, yes he did. BUT he had a glorious opportunity to convert some of that ridiculously large amount of cap space into assets that would still have value today. For 2 years, the Sabres were scraping the cap floor, but they never sold any of that space to other teams. That was such a huge waste of assets because the day the RS ends all that cap space vanishes; it's day old news, there is no value remaining. Even if he only got a couple of extra 6th round picks which have very little value themselves, he could have used those as chips to help move up in the draft or to try to hit a couple of late round HRs. While, on the whole, like the job Adams has done, that is near the top of the moves (or lack thereof) that are completely exasperating.

The dead money drops to a "manageable" $15MM in '25. Prior to this latest turn of events, that was likely when they'd've parted ways with him. (It's ~$9MM the year after that and then only ~$2MM to get out of the last year of the contract should he last that long.)

Again, not an NFL capologist, so am relying on the work of others. If the contract ends in any way, have been told the cap hit next year will be ~$34MM $32.5MM. He's been paid a lot more money to date than his cap hit to date accounts for and he's guaranteed $10.7MM of next year's salary. (Apparently, it's that next year's guaranteed money that the Bills get out of paying if they trade the contract, but that'll cost draft capital in all likelihood.) That money gets recouped at some point under the cap. (Which is why teams keep converting money due in a particular year into signing bonus, so they can keep kicking the can further down the road to a point where the cap is significantly higher.)

Won't matter for the dead cap hit. If he's released there's ~$34MM hit next year. If they find a way to trade the contract, they can get that reduced to ~$21MM. He got a LOT of money up front and has a lot of guaranteed money. (And am in no way an NFL capologist. Read that from others that are.)

Ah, apologies. Thought you were referring to perception of the masses (fans, whatever you want to call them), not the players. IMHO, that perception changes once they've made the playoffs again. (And ONLY getting to the playoffs will change it.) And it likely doesn't change until they've done it 3 times in a 3-4 year stretch. And then, miraculously, players elsewhere will start listening to Tuch, Dahlin, and Cozens when they talk about what a great place Buffalo is to play.

Perception is popular sentiment. Have rarely given a rat's bippy about popular sentiment. But in this instance we are left doubling down on the hope that Adams' assessment of whether/how much Kane could help the Sabres was wrong.

If he's any good anymore, yes, that stinks. If he's a shell of what he was before, don't we WANT him playing for a rival?

Interesting. The team that's been within 2 games of 0.500 the entire season is the team that is closest to the dead center of that chart. Shocking. 😀 But, yeah, this would seem to be the night they definitely don't want to give up that early 1:35 into the game goal that they seem so fond of giving up. Get the big saves early from UPL, let the Mittelstadt line get the Blues back on their heels, and then let Peterka from the other line or Tuch from that line get the dagger 1st goal.

Don't believe as much of the fanbase will/does hate your opinion as you expect. Those of us that saw positives in Mittelstadt's game when things weren't going great for him were significantly in the minority and he was a whipping boy for many going back years. And that still carries through to this day to a degree. The line Mittelstadt has been on has seen more 5v5 ice time and has been listed by the Sabres as the 2nd or 1st line for the majority of the season, with Cozens' line 1 below that (there were a couple of weeks when that's been flipped, but for the most part that's been the case) but people still refer to him as the 3C. LT he might be the 3C, but not seeing much of that this year to date. It's like the old adage, get labeled as an early riser and you can show up at noon whenever you want with no one noticing. The player Casey Mittelstadt was coming out of college is not the same player he is today. And, it is somewhat frustrating that people don't want to lock up his peak years because of their own frustration at watching him get to this point. Really do believe that your position that the Sabres are better off without him at what he's likely to cost by trying to get that production replaced by kids still quite a way from their peaks is more popular than you realize. And also believe if the Sabres get rid of players prematurely right when they're about to enter their primes that they'll be doing exactly what the Bills did for 17 years. Nope, we can't afford Winfield; draft his replacement. Nope, we can't afford Peters; try to draft his replacement. Nope, we can't afford xxx; ... Lather, rinse, repeat, never win more than 9 games. Realizing that the NHL cap is significantly different from the NFL cap; but teams find ways to live for years with strong teams while skirting the cap, don't see a reason the Sabres won't be able to do so keeping a guy like Mittelstadt in the plans until somebody is actually ready to replace him.

Provided the contract doesn't have a NMC (or at minimum not a full NMC) am perfectly fine with them giving Mittelstadt a LT deal for what he's showing to be worth. (And hoped they'd get a deal worked out this past off-season after they got the 2 D signed.) This team has hemorrhaged high end talent for years. Am very tired of watching it move off the team to be replaced by guys on ELCs, prospects, draft picks, and Sobotkas. Adams has stated loudly and for a long time that the reason the team hasn't spent money on UFAs and has stayed far from the cap was to be able to sign their own good players and keep them in the fold. Well, this guy was home grown, the team went through a lot of growing pains with him and should now be looking to keep him in the fold now that he's approaching his prime. My 2 cents, YMMV.

It means he has a contract with the Sabres but he will no longer be playing for the Sabres currently. His services are getting loaned to the Rochester Americans currently.

Krebs is only 22 (turns 23 in January). Way too young to call him a bust, but depending upon how other youngsters progress, he might end up turning into a quality player (should that happen) with a different organization. He likely won't get as much runway to takeoff as Thompson, Mittelstadt, and the rest of the kids that are up on the big club got because there are more guys ahead of him than they had "blocking" them and more guys likely pushing credibly than they had to fight off too. And if he does end up good for somebody else, good for him, just hope the Sabres get a reasonable value for him should they reach a point they have to move on from him.

Pretty sure you lucked into a Jack Quinn 22. Nice.

Interesting thought. And it's been looking pretty good since Tuch came back having them on separate lines. Will be very interesting to see what happens when Thompson comes back. Depending on how close to 100% he is, could see him ending up on the 3rd line briefly with Greenway and somebody else - right now would expect that would be Olofsson but if VO has turned back into a pumpkin by then it could be any of the other bottom 6ers that are up or have been up recently.

Sabres were 3 points out on Thanksgiving with 2 teams between them and a playoff spot (3, if you count the Pens who were tied with the Sabres but with a game in hand; and the Sabres beat them in regulation the next night).

It's very possible. But, it is just so incredibly rare for this management group to bring a player up and then not dress him that still expect it is more likely that either Jost or Rosen (or maybe both) sit and Biro gets time primarily with Krebs and Okposo while Greenway and Olofsson get rotating F's playing with them at ES.