thewookie1

I have 1 offer Offer him 98mil on a 7 year deal with 28mil deferred It ends up at 7x14mil, 4mil deferred each year to be paid 7 years into the future. Drops cap hit to 12.75mil As in 4mil deferred year 1 is paid in year 8 and so on.

Mostly the refs just aren't good, however Samuels-Thomas and Kea before him certainly had it out for us

In the end even if I trusted the GM and the owner fully I still wouldn't make a move with the 26' 1st. You have to play smart from both a short term and long term angle. Even if we had made the playoffs 10 of the last 14 I would be cautious with this 1st.

There's a huge difference between AHL and NHL physicality. The Amerks would likely fit in at the NHL level (In that specific sense) The issue is that in the AHL playoffs, more often than not, the team that can mug the other one is more likely to win. Combine that with the AHL being a developmental league and you get the oddities we see most years. The AHL playoffs should reward the better team as a whole but is more often than not more inclined to the thug mentality teams. Laval seems like the better overall team since their vets are outperforming our vets but the leeway they get on calls is borderline criminal.

I’m not just talking recently or even the Pegula era; I mean as a whole. This city genuinely seems to have bad luck. For me, the 2026 1st is a hedge against complete darkness. 1. I don’t trust Adams to make a good enough team to feel confident we’d make the playoffs. 2. Our 1st being owned by another team only to win the Lottery is far too possible and Buffalo-y not to have happen.

As a whole our teams have always been unlucky

I hedge my bets We are the Murphy's Law of the NHL. With how our luck goes either via injury or the like we'll end up within 1 pt of a spot but end up 10th from the bottom. Then proceed to win the lottery. Also I don't trust Cuylle to be a great player worth that risk; he reminds me way to much of Jeannot who had 1 20 goal year and looked like a super player only to fall off a cliff Keeping Tuch is a priority

Even if the money somehow magically worked that wouldn’t exactly be a good roster. You’d be able to grind with the best of em but you’d lack scoring depth and very easily could fall into the NY Isles mold. I love Bennett and wanted him both in CGY and in Florida but I wouldn’t dare signing him this offseason. He’s going to capture a haul due to the limited UFA pool and likely be a train wreck contract within 3 years based on his play style. Id take Marchand however and put him opposite Benson. Those two would be chaos. You don’t trade roster skaters for goalies Cuylle isn’t worth our unprotected 2026 1st. He has 1 20 goal season and I need a 1st to win McKenna if need be. Get me another unprotected 1st from a Byram/Peterka offersheet and I’d trade a conditional 2026 1st (lower of the two) for him however.

I'd give him a few mulligans but he certainly hasn't helped himself very much either

I believe the Sabres even commented on the fact they started liking Benson while scouting Savoie during the Beyond Blue and Gold. Benson is a freak of nature and frankly if he were to keep growing stronger, add to his point totals, etc. He could very quickly vault himself into a top 200 ft player in the league.

I don’t think Pegula would be stingy if Adams wanted Marner, I just don’t see Adams wanting him

Salary Cap

If anything my hangup with Marner would just be his cap hit all else being equal. You’d be trading Peterka, Byram and a bit more just to get Marner + 2 league minimum guys. Im not trading Power for futures to fit him in either as we become no better than the Leafs, until this past season, with having little on defense and most of our money up front.

Leaf fans are just 2000 - 2020 Patriots fans without anything to back up their trash talk with. I roll my eyes hard at this entire post. When a team's fanbase dishes out ***** at every given moment you are most certainly allowed to call them out when they inevitably fail. Based on your opinion, Sabres fans should quite literally be perpetually depressed because we have no right to enjoy anyone's defeat. (The Toronto fans are angry that they didn’t go on to win the Cup. Their expectations may be unrealistic but at least they have them. What are the Sabre fans’ expectations? Low! Just qualify.) Every team's fanbase wants to win the Cup, make the playoffs, etc. Most fanbases however don't tout themselves being the Hockey Mecca, superior in all aspects to everyone else, and the Cup Favorite each and every year. Everything must be about them rather it be traditional/social media, print, and forum discussions. Start talking about anything on the hfboards and you'll get swarmed by Leaf fans looking to hijack it.

I feel terrible for Scheifele

Jared Spurgeon if Minnesota wishes to get younger with Byram; smaller RHD but plays dirty and has 1D experience. M-NTC of 10 Teams Alex Pietrangelo if Vegas does one of their random clearance sales on older vets; may help them garner cap space to re-sign Eichel thus keeping him out West. 1D experienced RHD in a similar slowing down part of his career. Full NMC though Looking for that Teppo Numminen type for the back end. Ekblad would be a nice conciliation prize but I fear his ask; the other 2 are 2 years left. Ekblad is already 29 going on 30. Forwards are a bit more of a headscratchers as I have a type of player I'm looking for but unsure who should be jettisoned to do so. Additionally I wish to extend Tuch

***** the Leafs, get it back Florida

Series tied 1-1

I have zero interest in an offer sheet; I'll make trades but I'm not willing to trade/transfer our 2026 1st

It’s a rather odd issue when it comes to JJ. His contract ask is unknown and couple that with his genuine value varying it makes him a hard player to pinpoint. Like I wouldn’t give him 8x8mil because he doesn’t give a consistent enough performance all 82 games and is a mostly 1 dimensional player. However I wouldn’t trade him for the sake of trading him.

I don’t think we have the cap space to be perfectly honest and I’d keep Tuch at 7.5mil over Marner at 13mil. That isn’t to say Marner isn’t a great player during the regular season and wouldnt be an upgrade on most players. But his contract demands would require us to gut our roster yet again just to fit him inside the cap.

Lance said he was there

Seems to be a trend, Amerks are one of the best in the AHL but get effectively Dead Puck Era'd upon reaching the Semis/Conference Finals. The amount Laval got away with while we got tagged for them is annoying but typical. Didn't help our team has been benched for almost 2 full weeks

***** Laval

I'm a huge anti-trade Power person but I would make this deal if we can get Dobson locked up reasonably. Like not 10 mil or something