Trade : Conor Timmins and Isaac Belliveau from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for Connor Clifton and the 39th overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.

[Taro T]

6 hours ago, dudacek said:

The enormity of talent squandered by this organization...

Pegula's influence is a perpetual raincloud and I'm reminded of the failures of Kevyn Adams every day I spend on here.

But the terrible job Lindy and his crew did last year was kinda fading since they stopped playing.

Thanks John Scott.

It is truly astounding.  From a slightly past his prime Steve Ott and an in their primes Ryan Miller and Thomas Vanek and Andraj Sekera to an in his prime Ryan O'Reilly to close to their primes Eichel, Reinhart, and Ullmark to essentially in his prime Montour to Rasmus Dahlin today; they've wasted truckloads of talent.

At least now, for the 1st time in 5 years they aren't letting tons of cap space sit idle (and if they bring in another player or 2, they'll essentially not be wasting any cap space).  Though by not fixing the issues with the coaching they still could very easily be throwing the talent of guys like Dahlin, Tuch, Thompson, Benson, Norris, Kesselring, and Byram into a pile in the corner once again.

[Thorny]

16 minutes ago, Taro T said:

It is truly astounding.  From a slightly past his prime Steve Ott and an in their primes Ryan Miller and Thomas Vanek and Andraj Sekera to an in his prime Ryan O'Reilly to close to their primes Eichel, Reinhart, and Ullmark to essentially in his prime Montour to Rasmus Dahlin today; they've wasted truckloads of talent.

At least now, for the 1st time in 5 years they aren't letting tons of cap space sit idle (and if they bring in another player or 2, they'll essentially not be wasting any cap space).  Though by not fixing the issues with the coaching they still could very easily be throwing the talent of guys like Dahlin, Tuch, Thompson, Benson, Norris, Kesselring, and Byram into a pile in the corner once again.

I don’t see the cap space as noticeably different this year. On track to have about 5 mil. They are top 10 in cap space now - completely unacceptable for a team 14 years out 

It’s bottom 10 spending teams that don’t make the playoffs 

Edited 9 hours ago by Thorny

[Taro T]

7 minutes ago, Thorny said:

I don’t see the cap space as noticeably different this year. On track to have about 5 mil. They are top 10 in cap space now - completely unacceptable for a team 14 years out 

It’s bottom 10 spending teams that don’t make the playoffs 

After years of having $8MM+, getting under $5MM is progress.  But personally do expect them to bring in at least 1 more F which would put them likely at ~2MM in cap space.  Which IMHO IS acceptable.  Don't fully trust Adams to be able to navigate getting down to where the Tampas and Vegases of the world live.  And if they held the $2MM or so all season, they'd be able to bring in ~$5MM worth of ST salary on the books.  What could a $5MM player done for them 3 seasons ago.

Won't get on Adams case for having ~$5MM in space (realistically) right now because we're still 2-1/2 months away from puck drop.  And there are still at least 2, if not 3 or more, realistic options of how they can spend that money on players that should make them better.  Will it make them enough better? Wtf knows?  Wouldn't have money on it but maybe, if we squint just right, maybe.

[Thorny]

9 minutes ago, Taro T said:

After years of having $8MM+, getting under $5MM is progress.  But personally do expect them to bring in at least 1 more F which would put them likely at ~2MM in cap space.  Which IMHO IS acceptable.  Don't fully trust Adams to be able to navigate getting down to where the Tampas and Vegases of the world live.  And if they held the $2MM or so all season, they'd be able to bring in ~$5MM worth of ST salary on the books.  What could a $5MM player done for them 3 seasons ago.

Won't get on Adams case for having ~$5MM in space (realistically) right now because we're still 2-1/2 months away from puck drop.  And there are still at least 2, if not 3 or more, realistic options of how they can spend that money on players that should make them better.  Will it make them enough better? Wtf knows?  Wouldn't have money on it but maybe, if we squint just right, maybe.

Ya I mean they are sitting on 7+ right now. Obv if they bring in a F it changes things beyond the Timmins extension but I’ll believe it when I see it 

The most dense transaction periods are through 

[dudacek]

32 minutes ago, Thorny said:

I don’t see the cap space as noticeably different this year. On track to have about 5 mil. They are top 10 in cap space now - completely unacceptable for a team 14 years out 

It’s bottom 10 spending teams that don’t make the playoffs 

For accuracy sake, Puckpedia has them at 13th in cap space but your point still stands. $7.3M is plenty of room to add a pretty good hockey player.

*****

Separate from the Sabres, it's crazy how much cap space remains available around the league with no good free agents left to spend it on.

12 teams have $10M or more available. Six have $15M. The Ducks have $29M.

The best remaining UFAs are guys like Roslovic and Olofsson. There's no point throwing an offer sheet out there for one of the restricted guys  because everybody's got the space to match.

It's a bizarre off-season after five years of dead cap.

Plenty of room for hockey trades, it's just that GMS are so out of practice at those; they're used to sellers and buyers.

Edited 8 hours ago by dudacek

[Thorny]

28 minutes ago, dudacek said:

For accuracy sake, Puckpedia has them at 13th in cap space but your point still stands. $7.3M is plenty of room to add a pretty good hockey player.

*****

Separate from the Sabres, it's crazy how much cap space remains available around the league with no good free agents left to spend it on.

12 teams have $10M or more available. Six have $15M. The Ducks have $29M.

The best remaining UFAs are guys like Roslovic and Olofsson. There's no point throwing an offer sheet out there for one of the restricted guys  because everybody's got the space to match.

It's a bizarre off-season after five years of dead cap.

Plenty of room for hockey trades, it's just that GMS are so out of practice at those; they're used to sellers and buyers.

McKenna 

And we won’t capitalize 

hell, we may be secretly in on it 

[PerreaultForever]

2 hours ago, dudacek said:

For accuracy sake, Puckpedia has them at 13th in cap space but your point still stands. $7.3M is plenty of room to add a pretty good hockey player.

*****

Separate from the Sabres, it's crazy how much cap space remains available around the league with no good free agents left to spend it on.

12 teams have $10M or more available. Six have $15M. The Ducks have $29M.

The best remaining UFAs are guys like Roslovic and Olofsson. There's no point throwing an offer sheet out there for one of the restricted guys  because everybody's got the space to match.

It's a bizarre off-season after five years of dead cap.

Plenty of room for hockey trades, it's just that GMS are so out of practice at those; they're used to sellers and buyers.

Perhaps most of the GMs just think well, we aren't beating Florida yet anyway so why waste it this year when next year's FA crop is so much better.