Re-Signing Alert: Maxim Afinogenov

[nfreeman]

Wow. I really thought Max was a goner. I am really happy we're keeping him. If 3 years, $10 million is right, that is a pretty fair price.

 

This does raise concerns though about whether we keep Danny.

 

I also have to believe JP will get about $2.5 - $2.8 million in arbitration, which will be too rich for our blood. I would think we'll pick up whatever JP is awarded and then trade him for a prospect or a pick.

 

On the other hand, with Grier and Pyatt gone, we've already lost a good amount of size up front. JP has pretty good size and is pretty tough -- qualities which are valued by both Lindy and Darcy. If JP's award is in the low $2 million range, I could see us keeping him.

 

All in all though, another pretty encouraging day.

[Corp000085]

In the immortal words of Clark W. Griswold ...

"Eddie, if I woke up in the morning with my head sewn to the carpet, I couldn't be more surprised than I am right now."

 

"It's the gift that keeps on giving, Clark."

[Rayzor32]

Holy sh*t. I'm shocked, stunned and suprised. The other shoe has to drop, doesn't it? We can't have a $40MM payroll, can we?? Has Big G been bitten by the hockey bug? Does he have Cup fever? Or is this and the re-signing of Connolly an indication that Briere's tradebait?

[MBD]

"It's the gift that keeps on giving, Clark."

"Can I refil your eggnog, get you something to eat, drive you out to the middle of nowhere, leave you for dead?"

[nfreeman]

 

Holy sh*t. I'm shocked, stunned and suprised. The other shoe has to drop, doesn't it? We can't have a $40MM payroll, can we?? Has Big G been bitten by the hockey bug? Does he have Cup fever? Or is this and the re-signing of Connolly an indication that Briere's tradebait?

 

 

These are indeed the questions of the hour. According to this: http://members.shaw.ca/cdelosreyes/ we are at $34.7 million without Max. If the numbers being bandied around are correct, Max puts us at $37.7 million, with Briere but without JP, Mair, Kalinin and Miller. Add:

 

Mair: $600,000

Kalinin: $1.7 million

Miller: $1.5 million

 

(and these are the lowest numbers I could rationalize for these guys) -- and we're at $41.5 million. That assumes we unload JP and don't add a salaried replacement. If we cut $1.5 million by replacing Marty with an $800K goalie -- we're still at $40 million. That is an enormous increase over last year's $29 - $30 million.

 

Now, if average attendance increases by 4000 per game (assuming $60 per ticket), there is the extra $10 million.

 

Or maybe Tommy G enjoyed last year as much as we all did and wants to let it rip?

 

Holy mackarel. Max is coming back. If Danny does too and Miller plays as well as last year we are going to be in the conf. finals again.

 

Go Sabres.

[PTS]

I think the Sabres will bring back everyone on this team with maybe the exception being Dumont. I think that depends on the kind of award he gets. If they can afford him I think they will keep him.

 

That being said, with or without JP, I'll say again that I fully expect the Sabres to flat out DOMINATE the NHL this coming season. They will be in a league of their own and I can't see anyone challenging them.

 

Last year was fun, but the real party will be in 07.

[gregor7777]

I think the Sabres will bring back everyone on this team with maybe the exception being Dumont. I think that depends on the kind of award he gets. If they can afford him I think they will keep him.

 

That being said, with or without JP, I'll say again that I fully expect the Sabres to flat out DOMINATE the NHL this coming season. They will be in a league of their own and I can't see anyone challenging them.

 

Last year was fun, but the real party will be in 07.

 

Yeah baby! And when Golisano squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he's going to find the jolliest bunch of bleepholes this side of the nut house!

[southern sabre]

Wow. I'm shocked, but really happy with Max. Doesn't this mean he wants to be here? I honestly think he'll be better next year. He's a big fan fav, this signing and no arbitration will only help that. Glad he's back. I'd hate to see him be traded now.

 

 

Looks like if things keep going as they are, the Sabres could have the "hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crospy tap danced with Danny f'n Kaye!!! :D

 

Geaux Sabres!

[Eleven]

This is great news to me--I couldn't have come home to anything better (except maybe Aria Giovanni in need, but that certainly and unfortunately didn't happen). Underappreciated as a puck-carrier (from the Buffalo zone across two blue lines in 3 seconds flat), and wrongly maligned for his lack of "finishing" (but speed and scoring don't necessarily go hand-in-hand), Max is an asset to the team. Really glad to see he's a Sabre for a while longer.

[Bmwolf21]

Since PA hasn't chimed in as the "voice of reason/objectivity" yet, I guess I'll take a swing at it. All signs point to us bringing back most of last year's team, and the way this team played together last season, it is hard not to get excited about the upcoming season. But don't start planning parade routes yet - not only can anything happen over an 82-game regular season and 16-28-game postseason (see injury plague sweeping through Buffalo's D-corps in 2005 SC playoffs) but we are still a long ways from training camp - plenty of time for Darcy, Tommy & Larry to make more moves. I certianly wouldn't be shocked to see someone who has been re-signed to be traded for prospects & picks, if only to give the team some flexibility in their payroll, either for trying to work out a long-term deal with Danny in January (which I don't think is going to happen) or make impact-type, trade deadline moves.

 

While I applaud Darcy for getting a deal done with Max before an arbitrator handed him a jackpot, I still have to wonder which Max we will see next year - the "he finally gets it, playmaking, using his teammates, mid-to-end regular season Max" or the "here comes Super Max, who thinks he can skate through the entire defensive team and doesn't need his teammates" from the latter part of the playoffs. Only time will tell...

 

(BTW, its getting late and I am fighting the drowsiness from a painkiller, so I apologize if my previous thoughts were rambling & incoherent...)

[Done]

I take back my previous Darcy bashing. It really looks like Tommy G has greenlighted this whole thing.

 

If you trade anyone, trade Briere. Everyone else has settled in nicely, and Dumont can be had for under $3 million. Trade Danny for a $3 million guy and a pick. Everyone else has played ball, and Briere isn't 2x better Drury, or Max or Connoly. I love Danny, but he's gotta go for the good of the team.

 

Looks like Golisano said "let's go for it". God Bless him.

[PASabreFan]

Yeah baby! And when Golisano squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he's going to find the jolliest bunch of bleepholes this side of the nut house!

 

Wow, Gregor is making an early run at rookie poster of the year. That's a whale of a post for just his second. I love the English language. I had no idea all those great words could be packed into one sentence. In the words of Mike Emrick, "just wonderful!"

 

 

Since PA hasn't chimed in as the "voice of reason/objectivity" yet, I guess I'll take a swing at it....

 

Hold on here. I think I'm getting a bad rap, a bum reputation. I was the unreasonable, subjective voice of Joe Fan in all of the salary cap debates we had. I just wanted Golisano to keep this team together and spend as much as was necessary to do it. A lot of you were objective, bean-counting drones, spewing the financial company line about "the right to make a profit" and fiscal sanity. I think a lot of you have some 'splaining to do. We all do. This is pretty incredible. Golisano for governor!

[X. Benedict]

This is a very tidy deal.

 

I think Max wants to be here.

 

You crazy bastard Max - we didn't know how much you cared!

[BetweenThePipes00]

Hold on here. I think I'm getting a bad rap, a bum reputation. I was the unreasonable, subjective voice of Joe Fan in all of the salary cap debates we had. I just wanted Golisano to keep this team together and spend as much as was necessary to do it. A lot of you were objective, bean-counting drones, spewing the financial company line about "the right to make a profit" and fiscal sanity. I think a lot of you have some 'splaining to do. We all do. This is pretty incredible. Golisano for governor!

 

I'll actually back PA on this one, believe it or not ... he was consistent about saying they should spend whatever they have to to keep it together.

 

I still think there might be another shoe to drop before it is all over, but even if they end up making a deal to cut a little salary they have done a much better job holding it together than I expected.

 

And yes, I love the fact that I started the Christmas Vacation quotes and everyone picked up without missing a beat.

[apuszczalowski]

Hold on here. I think I'm getting a bad rap, a bum reputation. I was the unreasonable, subjective voice of Joe Fan in all of the salary cap debates we had. I just wanted Golisano to keep this team together and spend as much as was necessary to do it. A lot of you were objective, bean-counting drones, spewing the financial company line about "the right to make a profit" and fiscal sanity. I think a lot of you have some 'splaining to do. We all do. This is pretty incredible. Golisano for governor!

That is true, why is no one crying and complaining over this? This will put our Salary WAY ABOVE a budgeted number that will allow this team to turn a profit and keep this team financially stable so they don't move. Now everyone is for spending whatever it takes to keep this team together?

 

I don't get it?

 

Does anyone else wonder if a player that already signed a deal could still be on the trading block?

[BetweenThePipes00]

That is true, why is no one crying and complaining over this? This will put our Salary WAY ABOVE a budgeted number that will allow this team to turn a profit and keep this team financially stable so they don't move. Now everyone is for spending whatever it takes to keep this team together?

I don't get it?

 

First of all, like I said, there is plenty of time for a deal to be made to cut payroll.

 

Second, everyone always WANTED to keep it together ... it was just it looked pretty unrealistic. I think most of us were not saying you were wrong for WANTING to keep it together, just that IF they were on a budget, it was impossible and we understood the need for the budget.

 

One thing that certainly changed is no one expected more than 12,000 season tickets. That's a lot of money in their pocket now that can work for them that they did not have until after the playoffs last season. Maybe the budget changed. Maybe they did say "screw it, maybe we'll lose a little money but let's go for it." If so, yeah, it makes me a little nervous. I don't want them to be the Florida Marlins who make a run at it and then have to tear it down and rebuild from scratch. If they are going to do that, it does scare me because in those down years it could get really ugly and we could be right back where we started. Only time will tell.

 

I'm curious about the apparent change in direction, but I am going to enjoy it if they are taking a run at it.

[That Aud Smell]

Yeah baby! And when Golisano squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he's going to find the jolliest bunch of bleepholes this side of the nut house!

 

between that avatar and this post -- too, too much. too frickin' funny.

 

woohoo! go sabres.

 

At first blush, I agree that a $40M payroll is not the team's business model right now -- that something's probably going to give this year.

 

Then again, maybe they're planning on one year of excess in the hopes they can land a cup.

 

... Actually, that coukld make a lot of sense. Think about it -- in the private sector, businesses regularly take a chance by reyling on some debt-financing so that they can go to the next level and grow the business. That is, if you make the best frickin' widget in the world, but you can't get it to the market (mnfg capacity, distribution), you might take a loan and bank on the expectation that once you get your widgets to market, you'll create enough revenue and good will to cover your debt and create a healthy profit in the long term.

 

Tom G's a terrific businessman -- maybe he looks at this team and says, "I'd be squandering a golden opportunity to turn this team into the class of the NHL, and into the model small/mid-market franchise, if I didn't spend some cash now in exchange for healthy returns later on."

 

Go Sabres!

[Taro T]

...

Hold on here. I think I'm getting a bad rap, a bum reputation. I was the unreasonable, subjective voice of Joe Fan in all of the salary cap debates we had. I just wanted Golisano to keep this team together and spend as much as was necessary to do it. A lot of you were objective, bean-counting drones, spewing the financial company line about "the right to make a profit" and fiscal sanity. I think a lot of you have some 'splaining to do. We all do. This is pretty incredible. Golisano for governor!

Before we go cheering that the entire team (minus Jay & Mike) was kept together, let's at least get to training camp. With the current crop of players the Sabres hold the rights for, the team salary would be ~$43MM on opening night. I don't see the team spending that much. (To a large degree, I hope I am wrong.)

 

The Sabres have few options wrt player movement prior to having players signed. Within the next week, all but Ryan, Dmitri, and some Amerks will be in-house and I'd expect those guys to be signed by mid-August. After the arbitration hearings are over, I would not be at all surprised to see some moves by the Sabres.

 

Even if Tom has caught the fever and doesn't mind losing a few greenbacks, I don't see the Sabres salary coming in at $43MM. That is simply too close to the cap to handle players getting injured. I started out the off-season thinking the Sabres payroll would be in the $32-34MM range. I've upped that recently to $36-38MM but now would not be surprised to see it up in the $38-40MM range. By my estimates, that would have the Sabres looking at a $2-4MM loss (on paper) if the team doesn't make it past the 1st round. Tom may very well be willing to risk a loss of that magnitude to keep this team essentially intact and to garner the goodwill that it will provide.

[mphs mike]

WOW - this was a huge shock.

 

How does Biron & Briere for a backup goalie and a pick sound? I think I'd be less surprised to read that by mid August than I was to read about signing Max.

 

Regardless of mindless babble something has to give. I think you keep the players signed for a few years and cut payroll by dumping people who are not yet locked up - or went to arbitration.

[hopeleslyobvious]

Hold on here. I think I'm getting a bad rap, a bum reputation. I was the unreasonable, subjective voice of Joe Fan in all of the salary cap debates we had. I just wanted Golisano to keep this team together and spend as much as was necessary to do it. A lot of you were objective, bean-counting drones, spewing the financial company line about "the right to make a profit" and fiscal sanity. I think a lot of you have some 'splaining to do. We all do. This is pretty incredible. Golisano for governor!

 

I feel this was directed at me, so I will do some explaining. I have never once said that the team needs to spend X amount of dollars, and they cannot go over that amount. However, there are two reasons the team needs to be financially responsible. First is that there is a salary cap, second is that we're a smaller market team. With that being said, I never put a dollar amount that I thought the team should spend. I merely said that we should not overspend on players just to keep the team together. Spending $4 million on McKee would be overspending. Most of the contracts signed so far have been pretty good deals.

 

My position from day 1 was that you can't overpay for players, because it will hurt the team's depth. For the most part, everyone has been signed to a reasonable deal. I am still not sure what the best way to handle the Briere situation is. Fortunately for me, someone else gets paid to make those decisions.

[mrjsbu96]

I think that has been touched on, but for me it is refreshing to see a player sign a deal like this. Max had to have seen what Briere got and been thinking payday. Not that this isn't a lucrative contract, but based on his 06 performance and what these arbirtrators have been giving away, there are many a player that would have went after the slot machine - aka arbirtration.

 

Kudos to Max.

 

{I'll tell you something. This is no longer a vacation. It's a quest. It's a quest for fun. I'm gonna have fun and you're gonna have fun. We're all gonna have so much f**g fun we'll need plastic surgery to remove our smiles. You'll be whistling 'Zip-Dee Doo-Dah' out of you're ! I gotta be crazy! I'm on a pilgrimage to see a moose. Praise Marty Moose!}

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

From a financial perspective it's important to look at the cap $ vs. the salary $. http://members.shaw.ca/cdelosreyes/ If you click on BUF, you can see that current obligations show the Sabres at $38.1 MM in Cap $ vs. $34.8 MM in Salary $. Obviously it's important to leave some cap room in case of injury, but from a bottom line perspective the Sabres are actually only paying out $34.8 MM to the players. That's $3.3 MM less than the Cap amount; a significant chunk of cash, which most likely factors in to managing their profit margins. With an increase in season tickets, possible increase in revenue for merchandise, and a run into the playoffs, this will still leave the Sabres profitable.

 

So, when we all play fantasy GM, keep in mind the difference between the Cap numbers and Salary numbers. This is also part of the reason why Darcy is signing the escalating contracts.

[LabattBlue]

Before we go cheering that the entire team (minus Jay & Mike) was kept together, let's at least get to training camp. With the current crop of players the Sabres hold the rights for, the team salary would be ~$43MM on opening night. I don't see the team spending that much. (To a large degree, I hope I am wrong.)

 

The Sabres have few options wrt player movement prior to having players signed. Within the next week, all but Ryan, Dmitri, and some Amerks will be in-house and I'd expect those guys to be signed by mid-August. After the arbitration hearings are over, I would not be at all surprised to see some moves by the Sabres.

 

Even if Tom has caught the fever and doesn't mind losing a few greenbacks, I don't see the Sabres salary coming in at $43MM. That is simply too close to the cap to handle players getting injured. I started out the off-season thinking the Sabres payroll would be in the $32-34MM range. I've upped that recently to $36-38MM but now would not be surprised to see it up in the $38-40MM range. By my estimates, that would have the Sabres looking at a $2-4MM loss (on paper) if the team doesn't make it past the 1st round. Tom may very well be willing to risk a loss of that magnitude to keep this team essentially intact and to garner the goodwill that it will provide.

Dave...I'm with you. Let's see how this unfolds over the next month. Everyone needs to remember that guys like Kotalik and Max have MORE trade value now that they are signed for 3 years. I'll be shocked if the Sabres keep Briere, Dumont & Biron along with everyone else currently under contract. Maybe Daddy Warbucks truly is caught up in Sabres fever, but I'll believe when I see the opening day roster.

[hopeleslyobvious]

The more I think about it, I hope if someone goes it's not Max. I really started to like what I was seeing from him last year. Sure the average fan is not completely satisfied, but the average fan often doesn't look past the G column in the stat sheet. Max is not the best finisher, but he really showed some potential as a great playmaker last year.

 

I really like how Max and Connolly play together. The two have a lot of chemistry, and really open up the ice.

 

I also really like when Roy centers Max and Vanek. Despite the fact that the line is liability in their own end they do generate a lot of offense, especially in games where the rest of the team cannot. The one game that comes to mind is the Anaheim game last year. We really struggled to get anything going offensively all night, except when Roy, Max and Vanek were on the ice. When they were out there it was like watching a different game. Of course the downside is that they are not the best defensive line in the world, but they're fun to watch! :D

[Larry Playfair]

I love this chart http://members.shaw.ca/cdelosreyes/ - especially the fact that the red (UFA) on most sabes is moving out towards 2010, and beyond for our D.

 

That is what you do (cleveland indians small market style) , LOCK UP YOUR TALENT WHEN IT IS YOUNG BUT HAS PROVEN TO BE VALUABLE.