dudacek

Marner and Ehlers and Bennett and Ekblad are so far below what an open market would have dictated this summer it’s scary. Players arent chasing the money, they’re chasing the lifestyle and the have-nots are in even more trouble than even palm trees can fix

Yep. Samberg too. Hughes in New Jersey, McTavish in Anaheim, there are a few RFAs on the market that are going get good coin. But they’re the exception. Most of the signings are going to be Roslovics or Timmins types getting those types of salaries. And it’s not just the teams behind the Sabres who have space. 22 teams have $2M or more to spend. opening day caps aren’t going to look anything like we’re used to

No dispute over the track records. I’m not sure what you mean by “get there” you expect a majority of the teams below the Sabres to be close to the cap when all is said and done come October? I honestly don’t see how that’s possible. The figure might be dated but Allan Walsh recently said there is $275M left under the cap. Puckpedia says there are 29 roster spots left to fill. That’s nearly $10M per roster spot. The shopping aisles are empty. Teams have room but no one to spend it on.

Know nothing about the player and looking at his hockey db provides no answers either. The most interesting thing about it is how it makes you ask “how did a guy with those numbers” ever spend as much time on NHL rosters as he has? Maybe he has some Kozak-like qualities with Tyson being waiver eligible?

Lazy? Looks like they put hours of effort into it. Didnt really hit with me, but the average hockey fans at work (who don’t follow the Sabres as a rule) were talking about it and raving about it. 🤷

Not saying that this was a consideration with Byram, but it applies. Was listening to the PDOcast talk with Barkov's agent and they brought up how next summer is serving up a unique circumstance in terms of contract extensions due to the new CBA. Basically, there will be a window between July 1 and Sept. 15 2026, where anyone with one year left on their deal is eligible to sign an 8-year contract with their current team. After Sept. 15, it drops to 7 with their current team, 6 with anyone else. After July 1 2027, when they hit free agency, the longest deal those players can sign anywhere is 6 years. Byram could have millions of dollars in incentives to negotiate an extension, or a sign-and trade next summer.

He liked Buffalo too before he lived there 😈

There’s an evil part of me that wants the Sabres to be cutthroat enough that this played a role

I don’t know that it’s McKenna behind the cap space The Ducks roster moves don’t look like tanking, neither do the Sharks or the Jackets. Certainly not the Jets. Pittsburgh and Calgary still have assets to sell if they’re resetting. Maybe Chicago? I think it’s mostly math: the system hasn’t reset yet to the extra money available. The teams with space are the ones who weren’t able to exercise their plans. The players teams would have spent big on signed early and or left money on the table like Marner and Ehlers. nobody is giving McTavish or Byram contracts out of line with their comps just because they can. And there are only so many Jeannots and Dvoraks out there to overpay

Costs nothing but cap space. Lot of talk that he's made a deal with the Leafs, just waiting for another shoe to drop before they make it official.

For accuracy sake, Puckpedia has them at 13th in cap space but your point still stands. $7.3M is plenty of room to add a pretty good hockey player. ***** Separate from the Sabres, it's crazy how much cap space remains available around the league with no good free agents left to spend it on. 12 teams have $10M or more available. Six have $15M. The Ducks have $29M. The best remaining UFAs are guys like Roslovic and Olofsson. There's no point throwing an offer sheet out there for one of the restricted guys because everybody's got the space to match. It's a bizarre off-season after five years of dead cap. Plenty of room for hockey trades, it's just that GMS are so out of practice at those; they're used to sellers and buyers.

In his interview with John Scott, Connor Clifton more or less confirmed that Peterka: Did not want to be in Buffalo and his teammates knew it. The implication to me was city, not team, but that was not specified Played hard when he felt like it. He also said JJ was ridiculously talented and will tear up the league for years. The Sabres definitely did not want to trade him

It certainly doesn’t have to be Rust. Putting his name out there is fuelled primarily by the reports that he is available and someone the Sabres have engaged in serious talks about acquiring. Beyond that, he ticks the following boxes. veteran proven winner from a winning program proven top 6 production Contract that fits under the cap up-tempo pace-pushing style not afraid of contact or sacrifice responsible Track record of positive analytics I don’t agree with your concerns that he’s another Peterka defensively. I know his charts weren’t impressive defensively last year, but this is not a guy whose known to shirk his own zone. What I don’t like about Rust is the age and the potential for,drop-off or the price I hear we might have to pay. But I think it would be hard to find a better fit for this particular season’s needs and the futures that I’d like to pay

Pretty much all of this. With all the earlier rumours, and the way the summer has played out exactly in the way I would have scripted it in order to facilitate the move. You’ve got @thorny’s utterly cynical prediction of how the off-season has played out exactly like Adams planned in order to leave himself a sliver of plausible deniability while scrimping on another $5M. And you know every ounce of evidence of the past 5 years says he’s right. And then you’ve got the utterly romantic possibility that Adams actually had a plan and is one move away from pulling off a summer where he got harder to play against, insurance in goal, and deeper and more reliable on both the blueline and up front. And you know every ounce of evidence of the past 5 years says you’re a fool to even consider the possibility.

Can’t due anything about it. CBA dictates it is what it is for the duration of the contract.

Marty Biron saying hold the cap space to go get a goalie in November if ours fails (or any other holes get exposed. I say, don’t wait. You’ve got the space right now to sign Timmons and add Rust. Rust is exactly what they need: a veteran high-motor, high-character winner who just might push those qualities to critical mass. All while being capable of replacing the offence you’ve lost in Peterka. It makes them deeper, faster and harder to play against. Finish playing out the hand you’ve dealt. Make it happen.

There’s a real theme in there about respecting opponents, which might be an outgrowth of all the high-pick pedigree on the roster?

@Thorny has done a good job pointing out the lack of playmaking/passing talent on the roster and how that has handcuffed the power play. I am of the opinion the three of the 5 best talents in that area on the team are Dahlin, Power and Byram (with Tage and Tuch). Power was 9th and Byram 12th in PP TOI/GP Dahlin led the team in both ice time and PP 1st assists, with 10. Numbers 2 Thompson, 3 Peterka and 5 Tuch in ice time had 5, 2 and 4 1st PP assists respectively. Zucker was 4th in ice time and 2nd in PP 1st assists with 8. You’ve got all that cap money and draft capital invested on the blue line, why not give it a chance to make plays? Like you say, the guys you’ve been using aren’t making it happen. What do they have to lose?

The enormity of talent squandered by this organization... Pegula's influence is a perpetual raincloud and I'm reminded of the failures of Kevyn Adams every day I spend on here. But the terrible job Lindy and his crew did last year was kinda fading since they stopped playing. Thanks John Scott.

Thanks for posting. Going to have to give it a more thorough listen, but in the two minutes I heard the statement that dropped my jaw was this: Clifton called this Sabres team the most talented he's ever played for; this from a man who was a regular on a 135-point President's Trophy winner. What a damning callout of the coaching staff and/or the talent itself.

Mittlestadt didn’t work out Cozens didn’t work out Peterka forced his way out Quinn has yet to figure it out Rosen will probably never figure it out. Savoie was shown his way out. Benson is 20, Kulich and Östlund are 21, Helenius 19. Something something hatching chickens?

I’m pretty sure Peterka, Clifton, Lafferty and Cozens weren’t good without the puck. Im told Kesselring, Doan, Timmins Danforth and Norris are better in that area than the guys they are replacing. We shall see.

You get the concept that the Power and Dahlin contracts are specifically designed to be overpays in the early years and bargains at the ends? With that in mind, simple math says 7D, 23 roster spots equals about 30% of the cap on blueliners. So with a cap of $95.5M, the median would be around $29M on your D corps this year. The Sabres are currently spending $33M, which will jump a bit (probably less than a million) when Timmins signs and Jones gets sent down. Would agree that they are probably close to the high-end in terms of top 3, which shouldn’t be a surprise given that all 3 signed relatively recently, all 3 carry the pedigree of being the 1st defencemen taken in their draft year, and 2 of the 3 are getting paid for UFA years.

The Montour comp has been one I've been touting for a while. Pretty similar play style, pretty similar strengths and weaknesses to his game. He's still learning the NHL game and his limitations in it but his likely role is competent offence-first #3D and with the right focus and a little luck he could become the Toews to Dahlin's Makar. if he gets some PP time while playing a regular shift with Dahlin — which should be the obvious choice — he's probably going to have himself a good year and start convincing GMs to pay his price.

Conor Timmins has played more than 40 NHL games in a season once in his career, and averaged less than 16 minutes a night for his career. He doesn't have any counting stats of any type to support his case. His career underlyings are solid, but in a bottom-of-the-roster kinda way. I doubt he will get to arbitration because I can't imagine his agent thinking he's got a good case. He made $1.1M last year and i'm not sure how he justifies a raise. I'm kinda expecting the Sabres to buy a year free agency and he signs for 2 years at a $1.5M AAV. .