dudacek

I love how so many reactions on here show all the signs of people suffering from PTSD

*****! Now there’s no way we can sign Kahun!🤬

Not sure what 5 you are talking about, but Reider, Irwin and Davidson are minimum wagers who don't have to take up a roster spot any more than John Gilmore or JS Dea did. Eakin replaces Larsson. Now, I think Reider gets the spot vacated by Frolik, but we still have yet to fill the spots vacated by Vesey, Kahun, and Simmonds. It might be Thompson, Cozens, Mittelstadt and Asplund, but the latter three can all still get sent down, and I doubt they'd be too worried about waiving Lazar as well. As for the bolded, I certainly have never heard that, let alone directly from the Sabres management.

If by scraps you mean players like Andreas Johnsson and Ryan Murray, (or Killorn or Raantta or Schmaltz or Fleury) sure. The Hawks are probably our only competition for Fleury. They have $8 million in space and still have to sign Strome. The Hurricanes (with an outside interest in Fleury), Canucks, Flyers, Avalanche and Bruins each have maybe $5 million to spend in UFA, assuming they are going to the cap. The Panthers the Kings and maybe the Rangers have a little more. The Predators, Devils Senators, Red Wings and us are the only teams with significant cap space. Everybody else is pretty much done, or needing to offload contracts in order to make a significant signing. At the other end, you have St. Louis, Arizona, Anaheim, Washington Tampa, St. Louis and probably the Islanders who have to dump contracts. There may be more depending on internal caps. Basically if the Sabres have a firm $70-72 million cap, you are right. If they don’t, well good things come to those who wait.

I’ve asked this before and never got a good answer: How faithfully do analytics follow a player? We’ve often seen players go from 15-goal scorers to 25-goal scorers after trades; we consistently see players improve their Counting stats with experience, and decline with age. How do analytical measurements travel? Once a bad Corsi always a bad Corsi? I frequently see these charts hauled out at the time of trades, but never a year or two later.

My impression from what I’ve seen and heard is that Terry will pay for a significant upgrade if the the opportunity is there, but he doesn’t want us going up to the cap just because we can.

He is fast approaching “concept of” status, isn’t he?

Still a lot of shoes to drop. Hall, Pietrangelo, Granlund, Toffoli, Vatanen, Hoffman, Greene, Galchenyuk, Dadonov, Kulikov, Namestnikov, Hamonic, Grabner, Athanisiou, Haula, Wilson, Forbert, Thornton, Lewis, Chara, Duclair, Clifford, Kahun, Leivo, Caggiula, Hutton, Mueller, Rutta, Gustafson, Bowey, Boyle, Sheahan, Marleau, Kovalchuk, Wallmark... And if we miss out on the good ones, there are still cap dumps to come. We aren’t a destination, so we need to be patient.

Where is Hall going? Boston? Nashville? I think if we have any hope on a top 6 forward, that domino has to fall first.

Leafs make their cap dump: Andreas Jonsson to the Devils for prospect Joey Anderson.

I guess Eakin and Reider will join Zemgus and someone else up front on the PK.

Hmm... More of a hockey trade than a salary dump for Staal. I guess effectively, in terms of this year's roster, the Hawks dumped Saad for free and swapped Maattaa for Zadorov.

Lately? All they've done is basically flipped Johansson, Sobotka and Larsson for Staal, Reider and Eakin. Looks like the same ***** to me.

Job list: 1) Upgrade the 2C: Staal 2) Upgrade the goaltending: X 3) Add another top 6 forward: X 4) Add a 2LD: X 5) Re-sign or upgrade: Reinhart: X Olofsson: X Kahun: X Vesey: (Cozens?) Larsson: Eakin Girgensons: Girgensons Simmonds: X Frolik/Sobotka: Reider Lazar: Lazar Tage: Tage Casey: X Montour: Montour Bogosian: Irwin Gilmour: Davidson So far we've seen a solid upgrade with Staal, a wash with Reider, insignificant downgrades in Irwin and Davidson, and a significant downgrade in Eakin. We probably overpaid $1 million for Eakin and Girgensons. And we have a whole lot more work to do.

Doesn't that make him a UFA in waiting — effectively a rental? More suspect asset management.

We'd still have next summer to negotiate that extension before we make the deal, but Reinhart would only be a year away from free agency and would have all the leverage. If you are going to lock him up, now is the time.

Or just the price of operating a franchise that lacks credibility with free agents. Adams has a long road to walk us back.

And a rare occasion am I proven right, and so soon! 😄

I think that's an astute take on Montour. I also wonder if that "not qualified" rumour was something floated by the Sabres to plant that seed. Of course, they could be on the verge of a contract or a trade already so there was no point. It has to be unusual circumstances where a player doesn't file, because that's a great negotiation lever. From the Sabres perspective, I'm not overly concerned with the arbitration awards of the other three being outside what they deserve. I think there is a reasonable expectation they can settle with all three prior to the hearing.

It would be nice if that's the case. I'm betting they have him pencilled in to start as 3C.

Cody Eakin only put up 15 points last year. But he scored 41 the previous year and has topped 15 goals 4 times. He's 29. And he's a decent faceoff man. I have no problem with this deal. I would have preferred others and I would have preferred cheaper. But as many have pointed out, players aren't lining up to come here.

You guys need to have a different argument. Lazar was signed to be Lazar. Cody Eakin was signed to replace Larsson.

Oh that one hurt. Has to be a case of rather playing for Carolina than Buffalo.

Eakin had a rep for being an ideal 3C — shutdown guy who could put up 30 points. Struggled at both ends last year. A gamble, but a good fit if he rebounds. Wonder if this was plan B if Larry didn't re-sign?

Cbus is selling a goalie because they want to cash in on an asset before exposing it for free in the expansion draft. It's not clear whether they have been offloding cash in order to make a big signing, or because of an internal cap. They also have to re-sign Dubois. The amount of immediate pressure they are under is uncertain. But Arizona is selling cheap because they have to dump salary, period. They are at the cap and the rumour is they have to shed 10-15 million.