Curt

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.

Yeah, this is a good signing. Price tag is a little high for a 4/5 kind of guy, but Sabres needed stability at the position. Granato knows the person so I’m not worried about how he will fit with the group, and he brings an attitude that the team needs more of. Nice addition.

Connor Clifton

That’s a full group. One of Stillman / Bryson getting traded or waived.

Feels like this is the RD add.

Yeah, it does seem slightly high, but Sabres aren’t spending to the cap this season anyway so it’s not going to hurt.

He is a 3rd pair guy. He doesn’t play 20+ mins. I don’t think he is up to playing top 4. He just isn’t that good. Plus it’s his age 34-36 seasons.

Devils did not qualify Michael McLeod. I think he wants more money than they are willing to give him. Worth signing to play 4C? Basically would be a Jost replacement. He is big, fast, plays good defense, can play PK and is a great face off guy.

Honestly not a bad idea, if they do trade Olofsson.

Hasek didn’t just ask out. I’m pretty sure he strong armed himself into going to Detroit only, and didn’t want Detroit to weakened the team in the deal. Detroit knew it and took advantage.

Agree. Should focus on players who have actually successfully played RD.

Yeah, they got fleeced. Hasek basically held the Sabres hostage and forced the trade.

Those stats are just from after his mid season trade. For the full season he had 52 pts in 68 games.

As it stands now, assuming they just hold the status quo (they probably won’t), Sabres project to have about $13M in cap space for the 23-24 season, $3M for the 24-25 season, and project to probably be right at the cap for the 25-26 season. This is factoring in the projected $4-5M jumps in the cap during each of the 2024 and 2025 off seasons.

They have plenty of cap space to bring in someone for 2 years. After that it gets a little tight. If the bridge deal Power, they will have more space. Not advocating for that. Just saying.