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GDT: Montreal at Buffalo Sabres Oct.9th, 7pm ET, MSG-RSN and WGR 550


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41 minutes ago, darksabre said:

The love for Okposo in this thread is a little weird. He's making $6 mil/yr to play 10 minutes a night on the 4th line: he better ***** look good.

His CF rel is an insane +24 and he's getting 72% d zone starts. These are good numbers.

But he's making 6 million effing dollars. Unless he can contribute further up the roster he's just a massive waste of cap space.

Weird take, imo. We're all keenly aware that he has a terrible contract. But it seems like a clear and obvious cause for celebration if he returns to being a useful NHL player. I had presumed he'd be dead weight. Instead, he looks like he will be a positive contributor. That's big for this team, as constructed.

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8 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

Weird take, imo. We're all keenly aware that he has a terrible contract. But it seems like a clear and obvious cause for celebration if he returns to being a useful NHL player. I had presumed he'd be dead weight. Instead, he looks like he will be a positive contributor. That's big for this team, as constructed.

It's all well and good until all that wasted cap space gets in the way of us putting a better product on the ice. That's the problem. Good for Kyle that he's killing it on the 4th line, but if that's where he is then he's still hurting this team big-picture wise.

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52 minutes ago, darksabre said:

The love for Okposo in this thread is a little weird. He's making $6 mil/yr to play 10 minutes a night on the 4th line: he better ***** look good.

His CF rel is an insane +24 and he's getting 72% d zone starts. These are good numbers.

But he's making 6 million effing dollars. Unless he can contribute further up the roster he's just a massive waste of cap space.

So are you advocating for moving him up to a scoring line?

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6 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

Weird take, imo. We're all keenly aware that he has a terrible contract. But it seems like a clear and obvious cause for celebration if he returns to being a useful NHL player. I had presumed he'd be dead weight. Instead, he looks like he will be a positive contributor. That's big for this team, as constructed.

Okposo can be setting an example for the team. He's a 6 million a year player who once had great numbers that is relegated to a checking/grinder role. He has totally bought in to Kruger and his philosophy. The money is what it is.

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22 minutes ago, darksabre said:

It's all well and good until all that wasted cap space gets in the way of us putting a better product on the ice. That's the problem. Good for Kyle that he's killing it on the 4th line, but if that's where he is then he's still hurting this team big-picture wise.

Except he's not on the 4th line.

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32 minutes ago, darksabre said:

It's all well and good until all that wasted cap space gets in the way of us putting a better product on the ice. That's the problem. Good for Kyle that he's killing it on the 4th line, but if that's where he is then he's still hurting this team big-picture wise.

Okay, but you can't just get rid of it.  No other team will take the contract in a trade, if we buy him out it will be on the Sabres cap calculation even longer.  You can complain and grouse about it all you want, but it's not going anywhere.  So if he fills a roster spot effectively, that's the best you can hope for.

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32 minutes ago, darksabre said:

Only if they think they can showcase him for a trade somehow.

That ain't happening and you know it.  So let him provide value on the checking line and let it be what it is. 

The thing is, every time you sign a player at his peak, you know there will be a drop-off and it will be, to some extent, an overpriced contract at the end.  This is balanced by people like Dahlin and Olafsson who are providing great value on bargain entry-level contracts.  When you sign those big veteran free agent contracts, you can't possibly know who will fulfill his contract and who will drop off.

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4 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Okay, but you can't just get rid of it.  No other team will take the contract in a trade, if we buy him out it will be on the Sabres cap calculation even longer.  You can complain and grouse about it all you want, but it's not going anywhere.  So if he fills a roster spot effectively, that's the best you can hope for.

Plus if you check the stats, his TOI has gone up a minute per game played so far. It's trending up, so Head Coach Ralph Krueger sees something.

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1 minute ago, Doohickie said:

Okay, but you can't just get rid of it.  No other team will take the contract in a trade, if we buy him out it will be on the Sabres cap calculation even longer.  You can complain and grouse about it all you want, but it's not going anywhere.  So if he fills a roster spot effectively, that's the best you can hope for.

You can get rid of some of it by waiving him.

And I'll complain as much as I want because it's the kind of thing that is going to be a problem when we have to pay McCabe, Dahlin, Montour, Reinhart, Olofsson, Mittelstadt and Ullmark all before Okposo is off this team.

I guess we just have to hope he retires or something.

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1 minute ago, darksabre said:

And I'll complain as much as I want because

Yep, you won't be the first, you won't be the last 

Place a stick out the tongue thingy here, my emoji list doesn't work at work anymore..... Gosh I feel like old man NS

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2 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

That ain't happening and you know it.  So let him provide value on the checking line and let it be what it is. 

The thing is, every time you sign a player at his peak, you know there will be a drop-off and it will be, to some extent, an overpriced contract at the end.  This is balanced by people like Dahlin and Olafsson who are providing great value on bargain entry-level contracts.  When you sign those big veteran free agent contracts, you can't possibly know who will fulfill his contract and who will drop off.

Speaking of Olofsson, there's a guy who is trending towards a really healthy raise next year.

 

1 minute ago, darksabre said:

You can get rid of some of it by waiving him.

And I'll complain as much as I want because it's the kind of thing that is going to be a problem when we have to pay McCabe, Dahlin, Montour, Reinhart, Olofsson, Mittelstadt and Ullmark all before Okposo is off this team.

I guess we just have to hope he retires or something.

 

No you can't just waive someone.  There's that pesky little thing called the salary cap.  So yeah, you can waive him, but then you only free up enough money to replace him with a minimum salary player.  He's at least performing at that level, right, the level of that replacement player?  I'm not so sure this team currently has that guy to fill that same role at that price.

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1 minute ago, shrader said:

Speaking of Olofsson, there's a guy who is trending towards a really healthy raise next year.

 

 

No you can't just waive someone.  There's that pesky little thing called the salary cap.  So yeah, you can waive him, but then you only free up enough money to replace him with a minimum salary player.  He's at least performing at that level, right, the level of that replacement player?  I'm not so sure this team currently has that guy to fill that same role at that price.

I think this is a fair point.

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Just now, darksabre said:

You can get rid of some of it by waiving him.

And I'll complain as much as I want because it's the kind of thing that is going to be a problem when we have to pay McCabe, Dahlin, Montour, Reinhart, Olofsson, Mittelstadt and Ullmark all before Okposo is off this team.

I guess we just have to hope he retires or something.

Not much.  I think it's ~$1M.

You're right- it's a problem when you're trying to balance the contracts of a lot of good players.  The Sabres as an organization needs to learn how to manage the cap space to keep the key good players on the club and sadly in some cases, let others go to free agency (or trade them at the deadline for whatever you can get).

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23 minutes ago, darksabre said:

I think this is a fair point.

I completely agree with your premise.  It is even more unsettling that Vlad remains on the roster.  Kyle could actually fill Vlad's role with Skinner and Mojo as well or better than Vlad.  However, Vlad has no useful purpose outside of hoping he becomes something he has not done in his career: be a contributing top 6 player.  If somehow RK can get Bobblehead to see that Vlad is not helping and swallow his pride and waive him, we would have enough space to bring up a Smith or Lazar to play with Larry and Gus.  But I think this issue is less Kyle today than Vlad.  Next year Kyle will be the only real albatross contract left and as we saw with Marleau, you can find a way to purge bad contracts. 

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1 hour ago, darksabre said:

It's all well and good until all that wasted cap space gets in the way of us putting a better product on the ice. That's the problem. Good for Kyle that he's killing it on the 4th line, but if that's where he is then he's still hurting this team big-picture wise.

I don't totally disagree with you; however, I don't think you are really seeing the "big picture". Yes his contract is an albatross but how are you going to get rid of it? 

1) He is being somewhat useful and can probably move up and down the line-up without really hurting the team.

2) His $6M contract and production are absolutely no worse than Vlad and Vesey whom also combine for ~$6M. I would much rather replace those two than Kyle and help 2 lines get better while leaving one in tact.

3) nearly every team has a bad contract and whipping boys and vets who aren't living up to contract....get used to it. Like i said, I think it would be much better for the team replacing Vesey/ Vlad than KO. Minimizing those replacement players and getting as much out of them as possible is the key.

In summary, why worry about KO when it would be nearly impossible to get rid of that contract. It would be easier to ADD to two lines and still could create cap space (through trades or from within). Replace 2 useless players instead of one performing one.

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49 minutes ago, darksabre said:

You can get rid of some of it by waiving him.

And I'll complain as much as I want because it's the kind of thing that is going to be a problem when we have to pay McCabe, Dahlin, Montour, Reinhart, Olofsson, Mittelstadt and Ullmark all before Okposo is off this team.

I guess we just have to hope he retires or something.

Okay, you waive Okposo to clear whatever it is, 1mil in cap, why and who takes his spot on the 3rd line with Zegmus and Larry?

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