tom webster

And Patrick, although James made his way here eventually.

Quick is interesting because he has a $5.8M cap hit but only $2.5M in actual salary and he kind of resurrected his career this year.

I think the timing has more to do with Dallas. They are trying to hire Deboer and are trying to convince him they have the flexibility to go all in on a Cup run.

It makes no sense for any GM to publicly state his true intentions. He is not a public relations guy. The players and agents know what his intentions are. Sorry f you need to know before this season is even over. Brandon Beane insisted the Bills couldn’t afford any “big splash” free agent hours before they announced signing Von Miller. That’s how things are supposed to be done.

A couple of other points. 1) No matter how much they may, or may not want to spend, there is no guarantee that they will find anyone to take it. Believe it, or not, it’s not all about the money. 2) The one point that I disagree with is that any decision has anything to do with future contracts. Barring another pandemic, the salary cap will explode and correct itself after the players’ debt to the owner is repaid. Any long term, market driven contracts, given to the right players, secured in the interim will look like bargains in a few years.

I’m asking why he should say anything about his intentions?

Exactly why would he do that?

Exactly. They never were going all the way to the ceiling. They essentially got an extra pick for a little cash. Simple math days the more picks you have the better the chances you strike gold. This trade doesn’t prohibit them from doing anything they want to do this off-season.

I still believe the plan was either Ullmark or Kuemper and they had no idea that Seattle would blow up the goaltending market. Everyone close to the team has since gone to great pains to insist that they were comfortable with Anderson/Dell/UPL. They seem to prefer the perception of preparedness to the perception of overplaying their hand. To be clear, this is me reading between the lines and nothing else.

As I said, it may not be PLD, although I wouldn’t dismiss him based on the fact that he and Torts didn’t see eye to eye, Torts embarrassed him and he reacted like a lot of 21 year olds with a guaranteed contract would. By all accounts, Winnipeg wants him back but he sees a declining core and doesn’t want to sign up for 7 years. As you yourself said, and with which I agree, Quinn and JJP. aren’t expected to be major contributors next year. By that logic, the 9th in this years draft won’t contribute for 3 to 4 years. A 24/25 year old forward will be ready to start gelling with the group this Fall and be primed to be a major factor next year.

All of this makes sense except for thing. PLD is exactly the type of player that fits. A 24 year old upgrade that half the league can’t afford to offer a multi year deal to. I don’t know if he’s the guy but someone like him should be on the radar.

Well, be forewarned, the same people that told me Ullmark was signed have mentioned PK a couple of times. Some day I’ll try to explain what I think happened with Linus. I’ve tried to explain before, there are a lot of people involved when a team decides to consider bringing someone in. Lawyers look at contracts, doctors look at medical reports, investigators do background checks. Sometimes people assume things are farther along and jump the gun. In the end, only a select few know if all that research will lead to anything.

I think PK is possible if not likely.

I agree with everything you said except it doesn’t answer my question. There seems to be this universal opinion that Rochester making the playoffs benefits the Sabres. I am skeptical. It’s great for Rochester fans, it gives more stuff to talk about but in the end, I don’t believe it means anything to the future of the Sabres.

I’m still waiting for one of our analytics gurus to show me a chart that success in AHL playoffs has any correlation to success in NHL playoffs. I’ve heard a lot of anecdotal stories but nothing backed by numbers. As always, I’m willing to learn and be proven wrong.

That is what good organizations do and a hallmark of the BB era with the Bills. If you are paying close attention, you can see similarities between the Bills rebuild and how KA is approaching things, especially when it comes to surrounding yourself with smart people.

I respect the numbers but you sign these guys hoping for the Hagel’s, VO, et al.

I’m sorry, I take all these articles with a healthy dose of skepticism. Most of them are outright guesses and this publication wants me to pay a few hundred dollars to access the sources they used. Like you said, I largely support the Pegulas and I think they take on undue criticism and I think most of their past decisions were supported by the facts at hand. I also agree with their approach since KA was brought on board. I just don’t think they are being motivated by “paper” losses.

A) I was responding to previous post stating that raising cap will spur spending around the league this off-season. Cap is only going up $1M this year and probably each of the next three years before rising significantly B) While I don’t believe the Sabres should spend crazy this off season and I understand the way they have gone about the last couple of years, I disagree with your continued assertions that it has any to do with cash flow. The league has done a pretty good job of managing the pandemic and continued escalation of the value of these franchises shows that while they may like to claim poverty and explain things away, businesses that double in value in a short term are not likely hemorrhaging cash. Smart, prudent spending is what’s called for to reinvigorate the fans but if they wanted to, they could easily justify spending to the cap. It made no sense to spend more last year. This year and going forward it is more easily justified.

The cap still won’t be going up significantly for a couple years as the players are still repaying “supposed” advances owners paid during COVID years. The cap isn’t expected to reflect true revenue till 25/26 season.

That is true which brings up another factor. Age. Different things are important when you are single and 21 as opposed to married and 30.

This is a good point. There are a million different reasons why people want to live where they want to live. Also, just because someone was born in or around Buffalo doesn’t make it their home. I’m sure we all have friends who couldn’t wait to get out of here and some who want to come back.

Bowman was a great coach. As a GM, not so much, but if you look at that draft, there wasn’t much to choose from after the top few.

Number 3 in goals, number 1 in goals against, second in points. Bowman really thought they were the best team. I understand your opinion but disagree.

I think they envision Cozens a 2/3, potentially great two way guy but I believe they’ll still want a more aggressive, defensive orientated fourth center. The real key is deciding where Casey’s career trajectory is heading. If he achieves the status expected of him when drafted maybe it does work.