Curt

None of Chicago, LA, Tampa or Colorado won the Cup with their best players on ELCs. Its a good second contract that is pivotal. Chicago won cups with Kane, Toews, and Seabrook on nice 2nd contracts. LA had Kopitar and Doughty on nice long term 2nd contracts. Tampa was a little different because they were so good for so long before they won. Stamkos, Kucherov, Hedman, and Vasilevsky were all on huge deals already, but Point was on a bargain contract. Colorado is kinda of like Tampa in that Rantanen, Landeskog, and Makar were all on huge deals, but their superstar MacKinnon is on a steal of a contract. The point is not that you need guys on ELCs to win the cup. Cup winners rarely have ELC guys playing top-6 or top-4 for them. But you need a couple top-6/top-4 players signed to really good value deals. They need to find a way to get a couple of Dahlin, Power, Samuelsson, Thompson, Cozens, Mittelstadt, Krebs........signed to long term deals that end up being very good value.

I don’t disagree regarding Cozens or your overall point. A couple exceptions might be Asplund and Samuelsson. I don’t think either has the offensive upside that makes a possible offensive “breakout” a risk to signing a long term deal. Could be good business to lock either/both up to a 5-6 year deal at $3-3.5M. Next offseason maybe.

He may not be interested in signing an early extension this offseason. However, let’s say that Cozens shows modest improvement over last season, 17 goals, 43 points, something like that, and continued development as a 200 ft player. That might be viewed as disappointing by many, but I’d love to sign him long term next offseason to a 6-8 year $5-6M deal after a season like that. I’d be willing to bet on a guy with his character and physical skills. The Sabres need to get a couple guys on good value contracts.

It depends on the player. Some guys do sign long term deals for medium money before they have “broken out”. There is some value in grabbing the security of ~$35M (or so) guaranteed when you have the opportunity. I agree that it’s fairly rare though.

I’d be jumping for joy if he is better than Biron, pleased as punch if he is better than Lehner, and tickled pink if he is better than Ullmark. Miller is right out.

Yeah, but she didn’t play in the NHL, so does any of that really count?

Curious, because I didn’t see/hear these comments by Biron. Where could I find them?

For Florida it was a move for the long game. It makes them slightly worse for this one upcoming season, but it helps them for several years after that.

Bryson just isn’t that good. He can skate the puck out of/into the zone, but not much else. He is well below average at most other aspects of the game. He is a 6/7/8th defenseman, and that’s ok.

If the Sabres are contenders by then and Poltopov is any good, It would be great for the team. They will most likely be up against the cap and bringing in a developed 23 year old guy who can walk in and play in the middle 6 for ELC money would be a great help.

I’m appreciating the investing talk. It’s something that I’m trying to learn about and get a little more hands on with.

Hmm, looks like they probably use January 1st as the age cutoff on that site, as opposed to Jan 31st on Hockey Reference. The midpoint of the season is generally in mid January, so I’m not sure one is “better” than the other. Anyway, doesn’t change your point. What Peterka did in the AHL is rare for his age. It probably not reasonable to expect Kulich to jump to the AHL at 18, and if he did he would probably be relegated to a minor role. Would rather see him take on a larger role in a different league.

Didn’t say that did claim JJP was 18, but I though that the way you wrote it was unclear and potentially misleading, and I honestly wasn’t sure of your meaning, so I wanted to clarify. No offense intended. Interesting, regarding Peterka and whether 2021-22 was his age 19 or 20 season. Where do you see it listed as his age 19 season? Hockey Reference uses the player’s age as of January 31 of the season in question. I thought that was the standard practice.

Not sure what your intended meaning was, but just want to clarify. Peterka wasn’t 18 in the AHL last season, he started the year at 19 and turned 20 in January. It’s was considered his age 20 season. Kulich on the other hand is 18 until next April. He will be 18 for most of next season and it will be considered his age 18 season. It would be eyebrow raising if he played in the AHL. The Q doesn’t seem right for him either though. Seems like lesser competition than he’s already played against. Yes, it’s in North America but in another country in a place where everyone will be speaking French, so I’m not sure if it’s actually very helpful with regards to cultural adjustment. I think it might just be best for him to spend another season in the Czech league if they don’t think he is ready for the AHL.

While this stuff from University of Michigan could potentially impact Portillo, Johnson is at the University of Minnesota.

He needs to. It’s his swing skill. The weakness that is going prevent him from becoming an NHL player unless it improves.

That stinks. He should take the time away from hockey contact to work on his skating.

Doesn’t help that the tournament is falling within Edmonton’s 3 weeks of the year that aren’t early winter, deep winter, late winter, or mud season.

Some could go from ELCs to $7M. Power could sign for that on a long term deal. Mitts has 2 years left on his existing if he puts up 50+ and 60+ points the next 2 years, his contract will be pretty big. That’s not outside the realm of possibility, he is already producing at a 40 point pace. I agree that the cap isn’t an issue right now. It’s the kind of thing that you deal with when it becomes an issue. I’m just saying that 2-3 offseason from now Sabres should be pretty close to the cap.

No team could legitimately answer yes to that question.

Maybe yes, maybe no. It’s pretty certain that Buffalo will be relatively close to the cap in 24-25. Those guys don’t all need to reach their potential in order for Buffalo to get there. Might not prohibit Buffalo from keeping all their young guys at that point, but might prohibit them from bringing in a key UFA to help them move from playoff team to contender.

No, nothing to really worry about right now, you are correct. With Olofsson, Mitts, Thompson, Cozens, Krebs, Asplund, Dahlin, Power, Samuelsson, and Jokiharju ALL needing new, larger contracts before the 2024-25 season, it’s possible, likely even, that Skinner’s contract will be a constraint. Not really arguing with you, just offering my viewpoint.

In the 2020-21 season and before when Sabres near the cap ceiling it was surely relevant. It’s very likely to be relevant again starting in the 2024-25 season.

If you were at your introductory press conference with the Calgary media, would you have the guts to go up and say “yeah, I’m really not very interested in signing long term with Calgary. I mean, maybe if you they overpay me by a lot, but otherwise probably not.”? Or would you just say “My agent and Treiliving have started talking about a potential contract. We’ll keep the communication open through the season and see if we can come to an agreement.”?

Just wondering, why do you wish you’d never heard it?