Sabres 3rd in League with $34M in Cap Space

[The Jokeman]

1 hour ago, New Scotland (NS) said:

I know, but 34 year old dastardly Bruin?????

There has to be another option.

Not many good options out there, https://www.spotrac.com/nhl/free-agents/goaltender/ufa/

[inkman]

12 minutes ago, TheCerebral1 said:

Even if Hall wanted to come back here, why bother.  He played with the conviction of a coward.  He's done here for me.  I'd rather bring Staal back, and I don't want that either. 

No one other than Taylor Hall’s accountant, want to see him in a Sabres uni again.  

[mallexen]

Rask needs hip surgery and will miss at least half the season.

 

[Marvin]

30 minutes ago, mallexen said:

Rask needs hip surgery and will miss at least half the season.

Welcome to the board.

[Buffalonill]

3 hours ago, bob_sauve28 said:

Offer Rask 2 year deal at 7 mill a season 

 

 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

1 hour ago, The Jokeman said:

Not many good options out there, https://www.spotrac.com/nhl/free-agents/goaltender/ufa/

I might be willing to take a year, or two, of Mike Smith for 1.5 million each year.

Seems to have something left in the tank and is better than Sutton (sorry Carter).

This is assuming signing Linus is a given.

53 minutes ago, mallexen said:

Rask needs hip surgery and will miss at least half the season.

 

Welcome!!

22 minutes ago, Marvin, Sabres Fan said:

Welcome to the board.

Member since 2008, but not many posts ... send a beer.

[spndnchz]

All goalies need hip surgery. Not making light of it but it’s seems to hold true for all goalies. 

[Marvin]

25 minutes ago, spndnchz said:

All goalies need hip surgery. Not making light of it but it’s seems to hold true for all goalies. 

You forgot knees too.  I assume it is from the contortions they do to stop that frozen block of vulcanised rubber.

[woods-racer]

1 minute ago, Marvin, Sabres Fan said:

You forgot knees too.  I assume it is from the contortions they do to stop that frozen block of vulcanised rubber.

My wife made those one night for dinner, she called them biscuits though. I ate them. Thankfully she is much better now, but I am also much larger because of that.

[Ruff Around The Edges]

1 hour ago, mallexen said:

Rask needs hip surgery and will miss at least half the season.

 

It was reported that Rask will play for no other team than Boston, even if that isn't true i pass on Rask.

[klos1963]

6 hours ago, New Scotland (NS) said:

8 mill and 2 mill bonus.

and a no movement clause.

[GASabresIUFAN]

I got an idea, lets re-sign our guys, trade Jack OR Sam if we have to and leave cap space for the deadline?  

[PerreaultForever]

9 hours ago, Ruff Around The Edges said:

It was reported that Rask will play for no other team than Boston, even if that isn't true i pass on Rask.

That's true. I heard Krejci is pretty much the same. Hall ready to take a hometown discount to stay a Bruin.  Let that NMC kick in and watch Jack say he will only go to Boston too. 

Skinner, unfortunately, ain't going anywhere, but if he'd waive that NMC I'd give Sam away for free if the Kraken would take Skinner off our hands. 

[JohnC]

6 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

That's true. I heard Krejci is pretty much the same. Hall ready to take a hometown discount to stay a Bruin.  Let that NMC kick in and watch Jack say he will only go to Boston too. 

Skinner, unfortunately, ain't going anywhere, but if he'd waive that NMC I'd give Sam away for free if the Kraken would take Skinner off our hands. 

Skinner is not going anywhere. His contract is unmovable unless you give away valuable assets that this rebuilding team can't afford to give up. And no matter what the organization's desires are the player has a NMC. Why would he give it up when he was the one who got the restrictive clause inserted into the contract?

The next best option to get a better return on his debilitating contract is to get him back to his prolific goal scoring form. Can he get back to his highest scoring range? Probably not. But that doesn't mean that just because he can't play up to his contract value that he can't play to a productive  level scoring in the 25-28 goal scoring range. On a team where scoring goals is a challenge production from him is valuable. 

If his production can be significantly increased in contrast to his past barren years that will be like adding a free agent to the roster. This is where coaching matters. There is no doubt that Granato will put Skinner in a better position to succeed than Krueger did. He buried the player and did little to try to revive him. 

The moral of the story is when you make a glaring mistake you usually have to live with it. Expecting others to generously clean your mess is divorced from reality. If something isn't working at all that doesn't mean that it can't at least improve and work better.

[SDS]

14 minutes ago, JohnC said:

Skinner is not going anywhere. His contract is unmovable unless you give away valuable assets that this rebuilding team can't afford to give up. And no matter what the organization's desires are the player has a NMC. Why would he give it up when he was the one who got the restrictive clause inserted into the contract?

The next best option to get a better return on his debilitating contract is to get him back to his prolific goal scoring form. Can he get back to his highest scoring range? Probably not. But that doesn't mean that just because he can't play up to his contract value that he can't play to a productive  level scoring in the 25-28 goal scoring range. On a team where scoring goals is a challenge production from him is valuable. 

If his production can be significantly increased in contrast to his past barren years that will be like adding a free agent to the roster. This is where coaching matters. There is no doubt that Granato will put Skinner in a better position to succeed than Krueger did. He buried the player and did little to try to revive him. 

The moral of the story is when you make a glaring mistake you usually have to live with it. Expecting others to generously clean your mess is divorced from reality. If something isn't working at all that doesn't mean that it can't at least improve and work better.

The salary cap is a valuable asset.

[LGR4GM]

6 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

That's true. I heard Krejci is pretty much the same. Hall ready to take a hometown discount to stay a Bruin.  Let that NMC kick in and watch Jack say he will only go to Boston too. 

Skinner, unfortunately, ain't going anywhere, but if he'd waive that NMC I'd give Sam away for free if the Kraken would take Skinner off our hands. 

Tell me you don't know how to build a team without telling me you don't know how to build a team. Holy crap what a terrible idea. 

[JohnC]

14 minutes ago, SDS said:

The salary cap is a valuable asset.

I'm not sure I understand your response. Whether a team has plenty of cap space or is tightly squeezed it is damaging to add a long term and hefty contract because it would consume a large portion of your allotted cap money. There are teams that are in a better position to take on a burdensome Skinner contract but the cost to the Sabres would be valuable assets added to the deal to get it done. For a team like the Sabres that lack talent it would be a setback in order to be shorn of bad mistake.  

Edited July 9, 2021 by JohnC

[SDS]

21 minutes ago, JohnC said:

I'm not sure I understand your response. Whether a team has plenty of cap space or is tightly squeezed it is damaging to add a long term and hefty contract because it would consume a large portion of your allotted cap money. There are teams that are in a better position to take on a burdensome Skinner contract but the cost to the Sabres would be valuable assets added to the deal to get it done. For a team like the Sabres that lack talent it would be a setback in order to be shorn of bad mistake.  

It's opportunity cost. Assuming Sam would ever sign here again and a salary around $6M, that's $15M in cap space for two. Can the Sabres do better with $15M than Sam/Jeff?

[JohnC]

2 minutes ago, SDS said:

It's opportunity cost. Assuming Sam would ever sign here again and a salary around $6M, that's $15M in cap space for two. Can the Sabres do better with $15M than Sam/Jeff?

I have a better understanding at what you are getting at. I agree with your opportunity/cost argument. The point I was making is that it would be very difficult to the point of improbable to induce another team to take the Skinner contract off our hands unless we included assets to make the deal appealing enough. On the one hand the Sabres are at a rebuilding stage where we don't have enough assets to jettison in a deal. And on the other side of the equation the Skinner contract is so out of whack that few teams would be interested in taking on such a poor production/value contract even if they had the room. The length of that contract makes it such an unappealing contract. 

The issue comes down to is Skinner a salvageable player? I believe to a certain extent he is. If his production can be increased to a 25-28 goal scoring level then at least we are getting an adequate return for his hefty contract. This is where I hope that coaching will elevate a player who has recently been moribund.

[DarthEbriate]

Here's the Sith in me dealing in absolutes: Skinner will remain a Sabre until one of two things happens: 1) the GMs/owners determine to give themselves a compliance buyout in one of the upcoming offseasons after the expansion draft, or 2) he is bought out sometime after the 2022-2023 season, after his signing bonus is paid. Then, his buy out cap hits will be manageable except for one season at $6M+.

If he did somehow miraculously waive his NMC...  remember, Toronto gave up a 1st (late, yes) to get one year of Marleau at $6.25M off their cap. That's an easy buyout. Skinner has 6 more years at $9M, for a guy who's been demoted to the bottom six by each of his coaches in the past 5 seasons (Granato, too, at the end of the season)..., and his buyout is not pretty during this flat cap period because of his upcoming signing bonus. If I'm an opposing GM, the Sabres would have to start by giving me 3 unprotected firsts for me to touch that contract and its buyout. Maybe 4 firsts... to give it the same weight as an RFA offer sheet.

[LGR4GM]

45 minutes ago, SDS said:

It's opportunity cost. Assuming Sam would ever sign here again and a salary around $6M, that's $15M in cap space for two. Can the Sabres do better with $15M than Sam/Jeff?

You're worried about 15mil in cap space on a team that already has 34 mil in cap space and might trade another 10 mil in cap space. Holy *****. 

[SDS]

3 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

Here's the Sith in me dealing in absolutes: Skinner will remain a Sabre until one of two things happens: 1) the GMs/owners determine to give themselves a compliance buyout in one of the upcoming offseasons after the expansion draft, or 2) he is bought out sometime after the 2022-2023 season, after his signing bonus is paid. Then, his buy out cap hits will be manageable except for one season at $6M+.

If he did somehow miraculously waive his NMC...  remember, Toronto gave up a 1st (late, yes) to get one year of Marleau at $6.25M off their cap. That's an easy buyout. Skinner has 6 more years at $9M, for a guy who's been demoted to the bottom six by each of his coaches in the past 5 seasons (Granato, too, at the end of the season)..., and his buyout is not pretty during this flat cap period because of his upcoming signing bonus. If I'm an opposing GM, the Sabres would have to start by giving me 3 unprotected firsts for me to touch that contract and its buyout. Maybe 4 firsts... to give it the same weight as an RFA offer sheet.

Another way of saying this is that salary cap is a huge ***** asset. 

1 minute ago, LGR4GM said:

You're worried about 15mil in cap space on a team that already has 34 mil in cap space and might trade another 10 mil in cap space. Holy *****. 

Yes. Holy *****! can you believe it??? It’s absolutely insane!!!

[Sabres Fan in NS]

53 minutes ago, SDS said:

It's opportunity cost. Assuming Sam would ever sign here again and a salary around $6M, that's $15M in cap space for two. Can the Sabres do better with $15M than Sam/Jeff?

I don't think so.  

Sam is very, very good and Jeff will be again if he is used properly.

[LGR4GM]

9 minutes ago, SDS said:

Another way of saying this is that salary cap is a huge ***** asset. 

Yes. Holy *****! can you believe it??? It’s absolutely insane!!!

It's pretty insane. Like drinking barcadi 151. 

If we trade Eichel, and Reinhart and Risto... that's roughly 21 million in additional cap room. We might struggle to reach the floor so the idea of GIVING away Reinhart to clear out Skinner is... something. 

[Drag0nDan]

1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:

Tell me you don't know how to build a team without telling me you don't know how to build a team. Holy crap what a terrible idea. 

Yeah - cap space isn't that useful when you have no players to sign/extend.  Skinner's contract will suck more when you're trying to extend the young players on long term deals... and that is along the timeline of when you can probably buy him out if you need cap space.