Curt

The problem with Gibson is that the simply hasn’t beeen a good goalie the past few years. He has been outplayed by his backups 3 of the past 4 years. I wouldn’t do a Hellybuck trade because of his contract situation. If we are going to trade significant assets to acquire a goalie, why not go for Carter Hart who could form a solid duo with Levi, or flat out become the legit starter, for several seasons?

Just a note. One of the three seasons in your sample here was only 56 games.

I don’t think they would be spending an average of 2.5 on the 6-8 Dmen. More like an average of 1.5 most likely.

I don’t know exactly how this signing will turn out, but just some basic facts here. Clifton actually was a top 4 defenseman for the best team in the NHL (a record breakingly good team actually) until late in the season when they acquired Orlov before the deadline. Clifton’s shot share numbers from last season look about the same as Hanifin’s.

Yeah, echoing others, I think his edges and balance are quite good. It’s just his acceleration and top speed that aren’t great. Should improve with increased strength/muscle though, I would think.

I just saw this. Pretty interesting. I wonder what his market value really is. He makes $6.4M for 4 more years and his numbers haven’t been very good the past couple years. What do Ducks fans and the advanced numbers say? Is it him or the defense?

Sure GMs lie all the time, but agents, we can believe what they say? Lol

That’s certainly possible. It at least would have been much harder for him to get a real look.

I don’t think so either. I doubt Yzerman truly believes that they will either. It just seems like the Red Wings feel that it’s better to continue to try to win by using their cap space, while also accumulating extra draft picks and building a prospect pool, instead purposely tanking as hard as they can.

I think they would be happy with that. I think they are trying to be not terrible at least.

Their fans might not like it, but they are in a tough spot. I’m not really sure what else Detroit is supposed to do. They are still going to be pretty bad. They need to sign players just to fill out their roster. It’s not as if these signings are going to blocking a bunch of their prospects. They don’t really have the prospects to block. All they can do is keep plugging along, trying to collect extra draft picks and draft good prospects. The only other thing they could do is sign trash players instead of barely competent ones, and try to guarantee themselves a top 4 pick for multiple years in a row. I’m thinking that Detroit wants to retain some semblance of respectability though. Doing a true tank for multiple years is demoralizing.

@PerreaultForever I have to update the spreadsheet with this offseason’s moves. After I do that I’ll share it here.

I’m not assuming that all, or even many, of our prospects will become stars. I don’t project anyone other than Dahlin and Power to receive star level extensions. I’m also not forgetting that the cap is projected to jump up. I actually have the Sabres cap situation mapped out on a spreadsheet. They certainly do have cap space for the next two seasons. After Quinn and Peterka get extensions it’s going to get very tight though. Clifton takes up a little of this space, but not a lot.

It probably doesn’t really change your overall point, but Dahlin and Power are actually going to have extensions kicking in one year from now. Quinn and Peterka will be in 2 years.

The Sabres and Red Wings are just in two totally different situations right now. Buffalo has a large group of good young players who are going to need to get paid very soon. That ties up their cap in the near future. Detroit on the other hand simply does not have this on their horizon. They have cap space to use in the next few years.

Yeah, I agree actually. Red wings are not blowing the doors off with any of these signings the past two seasons and, yes, a lot of them are overpayments. But from the position they are in, I think it makes some sense. It’s not going to hamstring them. They still aren’t close to the cap and they don’t have a bunch of young guys who are going to need sizable extensions soon. They basically just have Seider and Raymond. These signings are about keeping their team baseline competitive. They are just trying to fill the roster with NHL players. They don’t want to do a Tim Murray Tank. I can’t really blame them for that. They need to build up a big pool of prospects. They are trying to do that by flipping soon to be UFAs for picks/prospects, making extra picks every year. They are going to need to do this for at least 2-3 more years most likely before they hopefully have a large enough group of good young guys coming up into the NHL. If it was Buffalo, or some team in a cap crunch, making these signings, then it would be pretty bad. Detroit is in a different situation though, and for them I think it makes sense.

Lock up all the 3rd liners to long term contracts?

Hmm, I see. Not official, but looks that way.

Sign Varlamov for 2 years?

Haha, yeah, I meant pieces from the Sabres side.

I think Mitts is more valuable than any of the other pieces that you listed.

Buffalo has cap space for the next 2 years, but then they are going to be very tight. They have so much young forward talent, they don’t need to spend so much to bring in a guy like this for his age 34-37 seasons.

They would be trying desperately to dump it after year 2.

I wasn’t going to say anything. I was hoping that the extension gets announced within a few hours. Then I was going to reply, lol. I think Adams is kinda busy today.

I’m not entirely sure how Johnson will fit into the D group. He seems kinda washed, but maybe he will be ok on the 3rd pair. Maybe they can strategically rest him and rotate the bottom pair a bit. It’s good to have depth in the group. Apart from his actual play, I love bringing in a guy who brings tons of playoff experience. He joined Colorado as a 23 year old when they were not very good. He went through lots of ups and down with a young team as they grew up over the years, culminating in a Stanley Cup win. Johnson’s whole career has basically been Colorado’s journey to becoming Stanley Cup Champions. I would imagine that through the type of career he has had, he’s learned a lot of lessons that directly apply to the current position that the Buffalo Sabres are in. I feel like that might be almost as valuable as anything he will actually do on the ice. Its a 1 year deal, so the salary just doesn’t matter.