Brawndo

McKenzies List

Something interesting that Lance Lysowski brought up on the Jeff Marek, the Sabres are in position to offer free agent short term deals with the expectation that we give the player a chance to have career seasons, as multiple players have career seasons under Granato, and this would allow them to hit free agency again, in short order with higher point totals and a salary cap that is expected to increase dramatically. He named Matt Dumba as a perfect example playing next to either Dahlin or Power. In addition, it does appear that many vets in Calgary such as Lindholm, Hanifin and even Backlund have told the team you’re not interested in signing long-term deals. This does open up the possibility that Brandon Tanev will be move as well as it does appear Calgary will need to go through a slight rebuild. Even if Tanev is moved to Toronto where he’s from, that might open up the possibility of TJ Brodie being available as it doesn’t appear. He is a favorite of Brad Treliving. These options on deals with one year left and it even possible short term contract extensions might be more palatable than trading for Brett Pesce, or Connor Murphy.

McKenzie’s List should be out sometime around 11:30am this morning (6/22)

The Sabres are in a unique position to benefit from an over the air broadcast of their games. They are the only US market whose television signals can easily be picked up by the largest Canadian market. Anyone who has watched FOX 29 knows that there is a segment of commercials for the Canadian market. The Sabres could easily sell ads to Canadian companies. This might be an interesting source of revenue, and also be a way to expand the number of eyeballs watching your games in a local market. The new MSG Streaming Service will cost somewhere between 20-25 dollars/month per reports. With 8-14 games per month that equals to about 3 dollars a game, that’s not a bad deal if you can only subscribe during the season

Sign me up for either.

Pronman’s 7 round mock for the Sabres from this AM

He would be a RFA and the cap is about to rise dramatically starting in 2024-25. He would be able to cash in again.

One year 6.4 Million is a 1st and 3rd. He would still be an RFA after that.

On tomorrow’s 32 Thoughts Podcast Chuck Fletcher shared a story from the draft floor about GMTM calling him to offer all three of the Sabres Second Round Picks in the 2014, which were picks 31, 44 and 49 for pick 18. The player GMTM wanted, Alex Tuch

There it is

He's signing with Tampa and will post a 97% xGF next season

Per someone that works for the Predators Hotel space or more importantly lack there of played a major role The problem with choosing the draft site a year prior in Nashville is most of the hotel space is booked more than year in advance on weekends for bachelor/bachelorette parties, it was easier to host the draft there in the middle of the week as there was ample hotel space.

The Old School Hockey reaction: will be WTF The Analytics Reaction will be:hell yes great signing I figured the other two contracts were about 10% of the cap and starting in 2024-25, the first year of the deal the cap is expected to rise to at least 87.5 million so 8.75 million AAV might be the sweet spot

My model says I’m the best

Bader still had a higher rating on Brandt Clarke than Owen Power despite Clarke still playing in OHL, while Power was averaging 22 minutes a night in the NHL. I read on another site from a very trustworthy source that the analytics community doesn’t trust his work at all.

Lance Lysowski in His Mailbag mentioned that Power is reportedly interested in a long term deal and used the second contracts of Aaron Ekblad (8 years 7.5 Million AAV) and Miro Heiskanen (8 years 8.45 Million AAV). Does eight years 8.75 AAV get it done?

Lance Lysowski in His Mailbag this AM purposed a VO, RFA Rights to Brett Murray and 2024 3rd for Pesce. That seems way to light of an offer. It would have to be VO at 50% retained, Murray and a 2024 1st to get things started IMO

They interviewed Ryan Smith, the owner of the Utah Jazz and Salt Lake City FC on 32 Thoughts, he has met with Bettman on a few occasions and will probably the own the SLC Franchise Whether that be expansion or relocation

Mc Dermott and Beane are the best HC/GM Combo the team has since Levy and Polian, and they do deserve kudos for persevering through a hellacious season last year, but there still are reasons for concern. McDermott has been out coached in a few big games, especially 13 seconds. It’s also a little concerning that some players were cryptically tweeting about preaching accountability but not taking any responsibility yourself in the weeks after. Also I’m not sure how much credibility if any to put in the rumors about a rift between Daboll and McDermott/ Frazier and McDermott/ Chad Hall and McDermott, but there has been enough reports from different sources to begin to wonder if there maybe some fire to go along with all the smoke. They hit a grand slam with the Allen Pick, but have struggled in many ways. They still have not figured out the OL, have invested high amounts of draft capital and free agent money in the DL with a mixed bag of results. Cook and Bernard are TBD, but they really have not hit on any second or third round pick that is still contributing to the team. It took them four drafts after Allen’s to draft an offensive skill player higher than the third round in Cook. Davis is the highest WR they have drafted and he was a 4th rounder. (Quick side note drafting Kincaid was positive) For comparison all seven players drafted by the Chiefs last year played at some point in time this season for them during their SuperBowl Run as was reported during the AFC Championship Game Broadcast. The Bills are considered one of the elite franchises in the league and a perennial Super Bowl Contender, but they have not been past the divisional round in the past two offseasons. Their main competition the Chiefs have five consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances, made three Superbowls and won two of them. The Bengals are the other competition and they have made the last two AFC Championship Games with one SB Appearance. Even in the East there is a chance even if the Dolphins and Jets have done enough not close the gap between them and the Bills, they probably have narrowed it. As Punch said, there is something to be said about stability at the HC Position as he mentioned the Steelers have only had three head coaches. Mike Tomlin is one of my favorite coaches in the league, never had a losing record, he has three AFC Championship Game Appearances, Two SuperBowl Appearances and One Lombardi Trophy. The danger comes in complacency, the Steelers have not made a AFC championship game since 2016. Compare this to the Steelers Pennsylvania Brethren. Since 1999 when the Bills Drought began, the eagles, have had four different head coaches three of those four have taken the Eagles to the Super Bowl with Doug Pederson winning it. After winning the Super Bowl, he was fired after missing the playoffs once. There is something to be said about continuing to strive for championships, and not being afraid to make changes in the coaching position if you feel it’s not up to par. I do believe there is no way that McDermott or Beane are fired anytime soon, but if the team doesn’t take a step and advance to the Super Bowl, or at least AFC championship game a head coaching change may be necessary sooner rather than later, but even then you have to make sure the right replacement is ready to go. Also, I’m pretty sure that if this does not occur Diggs will ask out of Buffalo. I think the biggest advantage Mahomes and Burrow have over Allen is the fact that both of their head coaches are from the offensive of side of the ball and will remain with them for the foreseeable future. Josh Allen, on the other hand has a strong possibility of going through multiple offensive coordinator’s in his career. (Tom Brady is a freaking unicorn before anybody brings him up) I am cautiously optimistic about the upcoming season, and I hope the Bills complete the second step of the Pegula championship trifecta.