Taro T

Would prefer him to Rust.

He very likely is. The issue becomes will he get there before the "big 3" have decided they want out. Realizing 2 of them are locked up for as long as Power and Norris are. But they have to show them that the team is serious about winning to make sure that what has been 14 years of a bad situation sets up to be at least 3 more years of really bad situations. It's flat out astounding just how bad that S&C coach was to have singlehandedly caused them to just miss the playoffs 3 seasons ago and regress each of the last 2 years. Htf did he keep his job THAT long? Thankfully the issue was identified and corrected so we can now watch them march forward back into the NHL. And we will finally be closer to seeing the Sabres not only roll out their own Pronger / Niedermayer but perhaps, and we can only dare to hope, their own Savard, Robinson, Lapointe.

It is truly astounding. From a slightly past his prime Steve Ott and an in their primes Ryan Miller and Thomas Vanek and Andraj Sekera to an in his prime Ryan O'Reilly to close to their primes Eichel, Reinhart, and Ullmark to essentially in his prime Montour to Rasmus Dahlin today; they've wasted truckloads of talent. At least now, for the 1st time in 5 years they aren't letting tons of cap space sit idle (and if they bring in another player or 2, they'll essentially not be wasting any cap space). Though by not fixing the issues with the coaching they still could very easily be throwing the talent of guys like Dahlin, Tuch, Thompson, Benson, Norris, Kesselring, and Byram into a pile in the corner once again.

Have to be careful on putting too many incentives into a contract like that because anything that would put them over the cap will be added to the $6.4MM Skinner dead cap next season. But like the outside the box thinking.

Still need to get one of those HAT hats. 😉

Which is why my personal expectation is that they'll be employees of the team and given some sort of role that makes sense for them to be travelling with their team. The rule specifically states the EG doesn't have to be a team employee; but can't see how they make sure he's available for all home and away games if he isn't. Stuff like equipment manager, pro scout, corporate ticket rep, some form of accountant, owner's kid, etc.

They're still operating under the "old" rules. Multiyear contracts within 1 year of renewal can be extended and 1 year contracts can be extended after January 1. As the new CBA doesn't kick in until September 16, 2026 expect that players who's contracts expire at the end of this season can still get in on 8 year deals if they qualify (have been with their current team since the trade deadline) and 7 year deals if they don't qualify for the 8 year deal. As mentioned above, not positive how the league will handle contracts signed in the July 1 - September 15 period. Technically the old CBA will still be in force, so expect they can still get 7/8 year deals rather than just 6/7 year deals; but don't know that for certain. Put that at ~85% certainty. It IS the way the agreement is written until 9/16/26.

Nope. Just that they can't have played in the NHL and can't have played more than 80 pro games and none within the past 3 seasons. No stipulations about him practicing with the team at all. These guys are literally beer league players that need to be available for every game. So, most likely its throwing a bone to every team's Ryan Vinz as he now gets to travel to all the away games.

NO HE CAN'T. The CBA EXPRESSLY disallows it. The CBA prior to this one, the one from 2005 disallowed it. The 2020 MOU to the 2012 CBA disallows it. The 2025 MOU to the 2020 MOU to the 2012 CBA disallows it. Renegotiation HAS NOT BEEN ALLOWED FOR NEARLY 20 YEARS AT THIS POINT IN TIME. But sure, the NHLPA will go against what THEY HAVE NEGOTIATED into practice for the past TWENTY YEARS. Suuuuuuuurrrrre they will. He CAN sit out. And lose money. It ends up in the team's court whether he just rots or if they void the contract. But HE has NO WAY to force them to let him out of his contract. If the team decides to suspend him, he doesn't get paid and he doesn't end up costing them cap space because he isn't earning any money. So again, HE CAN'T JUST DEMAND A RENEGOTIATION.

The new CBA takes effect in September 2026. Realistically, would expect the 8 year deals to be gone by the end of this current league year. MAYBE you can get away with them in that period from July 1 to mid-September next year, but don't know for sure the league will allow it.

Even with bringing in Rust or the like, it'll be hard not to feel like the Sabres should be renamed Lucy. When the extent of the coaching change was "bring us the head of the S&C coach" we were in for a loooooooong off-season. Thing is, it doesn't HAVE to be this way. Which just makes everything else so darn frustrating as we keep desperately hoping not to hear Sonny and Cher singing in the AM but keep finding ourselves hearing it over and over and over. But IF they do make that one extra futures for actual player move; we might finally get to hear some other ###### 70's song to wake up to. 😉 Hearing Eric Carmen belting out "please, go all the way" would be much better. 😉 (But at any rate, please dear God, don't let it be Muskrat Love. That might be worse than never moving forward again. 😉 )

Well, at least we know for sure GA has NOT hijacked your account. 😉

And if they don't make another move, @Thorny will be completely justified in taking his victory lap. (Even if they do grab Rust, he still won't have been too far off from what they actually did.) But they KNOW Timmons will come in under $2MM, likely around $1.5MM. So they know pretty well how much money they have to use on Rust and with knowing that they should also know how much other capital they'll have to give the Pens to land him. But the 2 year walk to UFA for Byram actually makes sense from a hockey standpoint, not simply from a cheaping out standpoint. He's in cheaper than he would've been buying UFA years (and considering what he was looking for, considerably cheaper than it would've cost to lock in some of those years) at a time when Skinner's cap hit is ~$4.4 this year and ~$6.4 next year with Tuch (UFA), Kesselring, Benson, Krebs, and Doan all needing new deals (Timmons and Malynsten too but they'll be a UFA so he'll have a bit more of a say in whether they're back or not and can easily see the Sabres letting both walk). With the cap going up they should be able to get all those back and still have some room to bring in another asset or 2 (especially if Samuelsson is taken out of the picture). That following year when Skinner is only $2.4MM skimmed off the cap, they will have a knowledge of what they want to do with Byram and Kesselring (provided his deal didn't buy any UFA years the previous year). Up front only Greenway, Zucker, and Danforth are UFAs that year and they likely would walk from at least 2 of them and Quinn is the only RFA F of note that year as well. Maybe they go back that year to cheaping out as our Winnipeg based friend expects, but also, maybe Pegula sees a value to letting the team rejoin their league just like he seems to see value from having the Bills and Bandits among the top teams in their leagues. As frustrating as this off-season has been, and it has been frustrating as a fan, bringing in Rust would once again bring a modicum hope. Which, especially if it means they don't end up making the changes in the FO and behind the bench that need to be made, might be worse than remaining hopeless.

Hoping that is strictly Marty's opinion and not what he's hearing from the team on how they plan to play out the rest of the off-season. It would be friggin' criminal to build in ANOTHER excuse for why they can't take the next step back into relevancy in this league. Rust would not have been my 1st choice for the extra F heading into this off-season. But at this point in time, with the money they have left and what it will likely take to get him, he, with a little retention by the Pens, is pretty much their best option to ice the best possible roster they can.

He's locked in to his deal unitl the end of the '29-'30 season. He is not eligible to get another contract signed, to follow the one end ending in '29-'30 but not to modify it in ANY WAY, until July 1, 2029. So, NO, the team WILL NOT offer him a new deal this Spring if he has another fantastic year. NOR will he demand one. And, yes, a little over $7MM IS going to be enough through June of 2030 because that is the deal he signed. There is NO LEEWAY WHATSOVER IN THAT CONTRACT. And the CBA just got reupped into September of 2030 at a minimum, so his union head isn't going to be changing the parameters of his contract either.

IMHO, it is simply (to an overwhelming degree) an issue of maturity. They come ready to play (under Ruff, not so much under Granato) and they score 1st way more often that a below 0.500 team should. But when the other team starts punching back and getting into the flow, they can't get ramp their own intensity back up. When they play a weaker team, they can't convince themselves that they have to work hard to win. And they don't know how to structure their play to let them force the other team to play a game better than what they have to beat them. Under Granato, they rarely were ready to play, but when the other team took their foot off the gas, the offensive 1st (or only) nature of the Sabres game allowed them to come back more often than a below 0.500 team should. Having NHL caliber coaching could do wonders for this team. Right now, if it weren't for the fact that none of the assistants have a clue about the X's and O's of the game, would say that this team really could use a Nolan as the HC. Maybe Peca would be the ideal guy for this team. He knows the X's and O's of the game very well and he was a fierce competitor and leader. Checks the "former Sabre" box too. Not sure that Kekalainen is the right GM to get him the players he'd need but wouldn't be opposed to seeing him in that role. Say Peca, because there's no f'n way a Gallant will be brought in.

Which is why having Byram for $6.25 that year is a big deal. Had they bought any of his UFA years, he would've been getting $8-9MM. That difference covers most of Tuch's raise (provided they ink him to one; and for no particular reason personally remain hopeful he's still willing to re-sign). So, yeah, they're down $64MM from Skinner but only an extra $2MM from where they are this year and the cap goes up by more than that anyhow. But, yeah, somehow we've gotten to the point where the players Adams brought in are getting paid and they are once again a cap team though not necessarily a good one.

Is Steven back with BNL? If so, might try to see them. Have seen them several times but not since he left the band.

A guy with middling size and decent skills that stayed in the NHL for a handful of years but kept playing for about a decade after that. Would 100% rather take a chance on him than on running Wilford back. Would prefer an actual experienced NHL coach, but am willing to settle.

YES, it would improve the blueline play on the ice. 100%. It would change the way they practice. It would change the skills they're working on in practice. It would alter the empahsis of how they play in games. Send him and Appert into the sun and replace them with COMPETENT coaches and the team wins absolutely minimum 4 more games. From a baseline of 85 points. Now 93 points doesn't get you there typically (though it would've at least 2 of the last 3 years); but even if that doesn't get you there. How much puckluck does it take to go from 93 to 96-98 points? A heck of a lot less than it does to go from 85 to 96-98.

The Amerks coaches seem to be better at teaching defensive play than the Sabres coaches are. Since we apparently can't replace Wilford, maybe we could demote him and swap him for Prospal or whomever it is that runs the D down there?

You have one of the 5 best D in the entire league eating up 26 minutes. On their best day, this D is far from 'meh.' Fix the coaching and maybe it's better than 'meh' on an average day.

Because as @LGR4GM mentioned, it's the way things are done and there is literally no downside to it. Have to look closer at the new CBA MOU, but ELCs might have fewer/lower bonus opportunities to them. (There were changes made, haven't had a chance to look closely at what they are.) So, the player might've had a big incentive to get this inked before September 2026. The contract is for close to (if not actually at) the rookie max and also has $1MM in performance bonuses. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary to see for a 1st round draft pick. So much for the in-draft memes claiming he didn't want to be a Sabre.

And it is small consolation, but should he leave as a UFA, the team does get something back. They get the cap space to go find a replacement for him. Again, not as good as having a player you know fits into your system, but NHL teams replace guys like that every year.

Well, other than the fact that the EBUG isn't going to get anywhere near $1MM, sure.