2020 Off-season gameplan

[GASabresIUFAN]

Anything happening today so far to convince anyone here that KA has a plan?  

[LGR4GM]

1 minute ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Anything happening today so far to convince anyone here that KA has a plan?  

still better than botterill

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 minute ago, LGR4GM said:

still better than botterill

Not really.  What needs has KA addressed for the long-term health of this franchise?  Staal is an excellent stop gap for a season, but after that?  

Edited October 9, 2020 by GASabresIUFAN

[Shootica]

2 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Anything happening today so far to convince anyone here that KA has a plan?  

It's not even 5 on the first day of free agency, and most of our realistic targets are still out there.

Way too early to be asking ourselves this question.

[LTS]

3 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Not really.  What needs has KA addressed for the long-term health of this franchise?  Staal is an excellent stop gap for a season, but after that?  

Yes.. he went out and drafted players.  But you are impatient, so it won't matter. You love to start the "just do something" threads.  There's plenty of talk about what he is TRYING to do, but he does not control the player. 

Could he get some players here by overpaying?  Potentially.  Does that help the team?  No.

 

[Thorny]

22 minutes ago, LTS said:

Yes.. he went out and drafted players.  But you are impatient, so it won't matter. You love to start the "just do something" threads.  There's plenty of talk about what he is TRYING to do, but he does not control the player. 

Could he get some players here by overpaying?  Potentially.  Does that help the team?  No.

 

I agree we need to be patient - it should be noted we need to judge him on what he ends up doing, though, and not what he tries to do. 

- - - 

This is just for reference for the thread, what our current roster looks like, at the end (?) of FA, day 1:

Olofsson - Eichel - Reinhart
Skinner - Staal - Cozens
Thompson - Mittelstadt - Okposo
Girgensons - Lazar - Rieder

Dahlin - Ristolainen
McCabe - Jokijarju
Montour - Miller

Ullmark 
Hutton

Edited October 9, 2020 by Thorny

[Trettioåtta]

Woof

[GASabresIUFAN]

39 minutes ago, Thorny said:

I agree we need to be patient - it should be noted we need to judge him on what he ends up doing, though, and not what he tries to do. 

- - - 

This is just for reference for the thread, what our current roster looks like, at the end (?) of FA, day 1:

Olofsson - Eichel - Reinhart
Skinner - Staal - Cozens
Thompson - Mittelstadt - Okposo
Girgensons - Lazar - Rieder

Dahlin - Ristolainen
McCabe - Jokijarju
Montour - Miller

Ullmark 
Hutton

 

26 minutes ago, Trettioåtta said:

Woof

Yep.

[nfreeman]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Anything happening today so far to convince anyone here that KA has a plan?  

Here's what I think the plan is:

- Obtain 2C -- done, although I don't think they are opposed to bringing in another 2C if the right situation presents itself and making Staal the 3C

- Draft the guys they like -- done

- Keep TT at the price they've budgeted -- done

- Keep whichever of Zemgus and Larsson is willing to sign at the number the Sabres have budgeted -- done

- Keep Kahun at the price they've budgeted -- TBD

- Bring in a good penalty-killing forward to improve an awful PK unit -- done

- Do not go crazy in FA, but rather make their interest known to the guys they like and try to get them signed at the numbers they've budgeted -- TBD

- Bring in a goalie -- TBD

- Bring in a top-6 to top-9 forward --TBD

- Above all, retain flexibility to allocate resources in either trade or FA towards filling the above needs, and recognize that the cap and economic environment will result in quite a few good players becoming available at good prices, and that the glut of goalies will result in quite a few of them becoming available at good prices.

Let's see how they do.

[Trettioåtta]

My Summary:

2C - Got

3C - Need

2W - Need

3W - Need

13F - Got

2LD - Need

7D - Got

G - Need

[Thorny]

35 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

Here's what I think the plan is:

- Obtain 2C -- done, although I don't think they are opposed to bringing in another 2C if the right situation presents itself and making Staal the 3C

- Draft the guys they like -- done

- Keep TT at the price they've budgeted -- done

- Keep whichever of Zemgus and Larsson is willing to sign at the number the Sabres have budgeted -- done

- Keep Kahun at the price they've budgeted -- TBD

- Bring in a good penalty-killing forward to improve an awful PK unit -- done

- Do not go crazy in FA, but rather make their interest known to the guys they like and try to get them signed at the numbers they've budgeted -- TBD

- Bring in a goalie -- TBD

- Bring in a top-6 to top-9 forward --TBD

- Above all, retain flexibility to allocate resources in either trade or FA towards filling the above needs, and recognize that the cap and economic environment will result in quite a few good players becoming available at good prices, and that the glut of goalies will result in quite a few of them becoming available at good prices.

Let's see how they do.

First bolded is a hard maybe. Rieder is replacement level, he may not even be on the roster. Can't penalty kill if he's not on a main line. If we add one more winger, he's already the 13th man. I don't have interest penciling in a pretty poor player into the lineup yet, they can do better. But admittedly he's currently sitting at 4RW.

Second bolded, I agree, but they don't need just a "forward', they need a centre. After that, I'd say they need a wing. If we want the roster to look how we want, they probably need these 2 F additions more. 

Agree with the rest. 

Oh and they have to balance the D

Edited October 9, 2020 by Thorny

[Curt]

6 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

How much is Reinhart’s contract given the contract just given to Anderson?

How about Max Domi’s contract as a comparable?  

[dudacek]

Just now, Curt said:

How about Max Domi’s contract as a comparable?  

Posted exactly this in the Reinhart thread.

[Thorny]

11 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Posted exactly this in the Reinhart thread.

Wouldn't a 2 year deal be terrible for us?

Or are you just talking the AAV? So 5.3 mil..but no UFA years purchased. It does look like a pretty good comparable..once we start buying UFA years, depending on how many, could see it bumping to around 6.5 per

Edited October 9, 2020 by Thorny

[dudacek]

4 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Wouldn't a 2 year deal be terrible for us?

Or are you just talking the AAV? So 5.3 mil..but no UFA years purchased. It does look like a pretty good comparable..once we start buying UFA years, depending on how many, could see it bumping to around 6.5 per

This.

Sam and Max have had similar production, age, utility and status

[GASabresIUFAN]

@dudacek

I’m sticking to my earlier assessment.  2.1 for Rieder, Irwin and Davidson. Really! What a waste of money.

No goalie, no real NHL D and no upgrades at forward.  What a joke.
 

[dudacek]

9 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

@dudacek

I’m sticking to my earlier assessment.  2.1 for Rieder, Irwin and Davidson. Really! What a waste of money.

No goalie, no real NHL D and no upgrades at forward.  What a joke.
 

And I'm sticking to my let's revisit this Monday morning (or maybe later). Lots of dominoes still to fall.

None of the three deals signed today have any impact whatsoever on the cap. They are minimum wage contracts to depth veterans.

They are no more of a waste than Curtis Lazar, JS Dea and John Gilmour last year, or similar players most years.

They still have to add two forwards minimum, and should upgrade the goaltending and rebalance the defence.

Plenty of time to get those things done.

[Thorny]

13 minutes ago, dudacek said:

And I'm sticking to my let's revisit this Monday morning (or maybe later). Lots of dominoes still to fall.

None of the three deals signed today have any impact whatsoever on the cap. They are minimum wage contracts to depth veterans.

They are no more of a waste than Curtis Lazar, JS Dea and John Gilmour last year, or similar players most years.

They still have to add two forwards minimum, and should upgrade the goaltending and rebalance the defence.

Plenty of time to get those things done.

Totally agreed.

The more UFA names I'm interested in that go off the board, the more concerned I'll get - but not till the pool shrinks substantially. If we are left needing trades, it'll be a concerning situation. To a point that you've made recently - it could still be a trade or two that addresses our roster, but we've seen how difficult those can be to get done sometimes. 

Edited October 10, 2020 by Thorny

[dudacek]

1 minute ago, Thorny said:

To a point that you've made recently - it could still be a trade or two that addresses our roster, but we've seen how difficult those can be to get done sometimes. 

We know St. Louis, Anaheim and Toronto are over the cap and that Tampa, Vegas, Arizona and Washington are squeezed to it so tight they can't breathe.

Half the rest of the league doesn't have the flexibility to do anything significant without shedding salary.

There have already been opportunities. Hopefully Adams hasn't moved on them because he knows there are more.

[Curt]

1 hour ago, Thorny said:

Wouldn't a 2 year deal be terrible for us?

Or are you just talking the AAV? So 5.3 mil..but no UFA years purchased. It does look like a pretty good comparable..once we start buying UFA years, depending on how many, could see it bumping to around 6.5 per

Agree, it’s just an interesting comparable.  I could see Reinhart possibly pushing for a contract like that.

[GASabresIUFAN]

https://buffalonews.com/sports/sabres/column-its-hard-to-figure-sabres-plan-and-harder-to-have-any-patience/article_b6817dea-0a8b-11eb-a2d4-03b9f74c09c2.html
 

I don’t often agree with Harrington, but this is exactly correct. Maybe there is a plan, but it sure doesn’t look like one.

Trash depth signing, dumping Kahun for $.50, overpaying in term and dollars for Thompson and Girgensons does not give  an impression of in it to win it.

[GASabresIUFAN]

So since the off-season started the following goalies have been moved.  Most, if not all, these guys would have upgraded our goaltending.  How many came here.  None.

Crawford (2 year 3.9 per season)

Markstrom (6 years at 6 per)

Murray (4 years at 6.25 per) (traded and then re-signed)

Khudobin ( 3 years at 3.33 per)

Holtby (2 years at 4.3 per)

Lundqvist (1 year at 1.5)

Also traded, Jake Allen and Devan Dubnyk.

Apparently Fleury and Greiss are still available and maybe a couple of others in trade.  

Right now I see the status quo remaining for next season.

Edited October 10, 2020 by GASabresIUFAN

[LTS]

Just now, GASabresIUFAN said:

So since the off-season started the following goalies have been moved.  All these guys would have upgraded our goaltending.  How many came here.  None.

Crawford (2 year 3.9 per season)

Markstrom (6 years at 6 per)

Murray (4 years at 6.25 per)

Khudobin ( 3 years at 3.33 per)

Holtby (2 years at 4.3 per)

Lundqvist (1 year at 1.5)

 

Crawford - borderline. Plus that's $3.9M for 2 years of a 35+ goalie.

Markstrom - great goalie, but $6M is steep.. and 6 years is a long time.

Murray - overpaid.. and how.

Khudobin - wasn't going anywhere, he was just on a team that made the Finals

Holtby - maybe he rebounds, but he's been pedestrian and not worth $4.3M - that said, his contract allows him to be flipped across the border next year to Seattle. So the Canucks likely overpaid just to give Demko one more year of experience.  Could the Sabres do that?  Yep.  Would moving from Vancouver to Seattle be easier than Buffalo to Seattle?  Yup. Things to think about.

Lundqvist - damn right, he was only going to a team that had solid Stanley Cup chances this year.

[LGR4GM]

4 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

So since the off-season started the following goalies have been moved.  All these guys would have upgraded our goaltending.  How many came here.  None.

Crawford (2 year 3.9 per season) - .917sv%

Markstrom (6 years at 6 per) - .918sv%

Murray (4 years at 6.25 per) - .899sv%

Khudobin ( 3 years at 3.33 per) - .930sv%

Holtby (2 years at 4.3 per) - .897sv%

Lundqvist (1 year at 1.5) - .905sv%

 

Linus Ullmark - .915sv%

 

I added their last season save percentages. 3 of those goalies would not have been upgrades. 1 of them got a 6 year deal so hell no. Khudobin is interesting and I could agree he might have been someone to target but maybe he didn't want to come or be in a rotation with Ullmark. That leaves Murray who either had a down year last year or we should avoid like the plague. At the end of the day that leaves 2 options that we would want and Matt Murray is removed since he was traded for and clearly signing with that team so you are mad we didn't get Khudobin. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

Just now, LTS said:

Crawford - borderline. Plus that's $3.9M for 2 years of a 35+ goalie.

Markstrom - great goalie, but $6M is steep.. and 6 years is a long time.

Murray - overpaid.. and how.

Khudobin - wasn't going anywhere, he was just on a team that made the Finals

Holtby - maybe he rebounds, but he's been pedestrian and not worth $4.3M - that said, his contract allows him to be flipped across the border next year to Seattle. So the Canucks likely overpaid just to give Demko one more year of experience.  Could the Sabres do that?  Yep.  Would moving from Vancouver to Seattle be easier than Buffalo to Seattle?  Yup. Things to think about.

Lundqvist - damn right, he was only going to a team that had solid Stanley Cup chances this year.

Crawford is actually the guy I wanted.  He was great last year and in tandem with Ullmark he would have been a huge upgrade.  A true 1A&b.  3.9 for 2 years is a bargain.