Taro T

Jost signing? As in he's been extended? Is this breaking news? Because his getting claimed off waivers is on @Zamboni's list.

It COULD be. But let's see them play more than one game with him before we decide they are anointed a playoff spot.

Casual fans IN BUFFALO don't give a rat's rear end about the mf'n Canes.

Didn't read the article twitter thread, but with Fehr being the current union head figured he was mentioned in the article so no need to remention him. Also didn't mention the guy that briefly followed Goddenow because couldn't recall his name ottomh. Liked that guy, but his paranoia was his undoing.

Thing is, while guys like Jones & Kraft will continue to want mausoleums to their own hubris, the league is becoming increasingly TV centric & focused on maximizing those revenues and the local revenues are just gravy on top. Each team gets over $300 MILLION from just TV game broadcast revenues alone. ($312.5MM to be precise.) To put that in perspective a team w/ an 80k seat stadium w/ 8 home games with an average ticket price of $100 and w/ an assumption each person in attendance generates another $100 is only $128MM. (Yes, it's a simplification and misses some revenues (like luxury boxes, preseason & postseason tix; the latter of which is highly spread throughout the lrague & doesn't primarily stay where it is generated), but it also isn't looking at expenses. Just doing this as an order of magnitude type exercise.) So, game day stadium revenue is roughly 40% of TV revenue and TV revenue provides ~70% of all revenue. And TV & internet revenues will only keep going up for the foreseeable future. Which is great for a small market club like Buffalo because the Bills not making as much locally as the Cowboys make isn't a death blow for them staying in the league and staying competitive competitive.

Alan Eagleson Bob Goodenow Those were the 1st 2 that really moved things along. Eagleson totally screwed the players over for years. Goodenow crushed the owners twice, though initial reports had the owners winning both negotiations. He then severely overplayed his hand and cost us an entire season. Either name ring a bell?

Kanpai!!

If Power does go LT w/ the next deal, it likely is for less than you're proposing because a lot of that contract will be years that he'd remain an RFA. Not significantly lower, but likely lower. Where Mittelstadt fits in is a great Q. As recently as last season, he was viewed as one of the face of the franchise players by the Sabres. Granato never gave up on him & w/ the acquisition of Jost, he's finally been put into the role they envisioned for him heading into the season. Would expect to see him get a 4 year deal w/ minimal no trade/no movement clauses. Keeps borh sides options open in the LT.

My understanding is that the Sabres have started generally selling tix at a discount for the rest of the season & the Canes game was the 1st game they were doing that for this year. Don't have the details on it, bit expect they're on the Sabres website. (Thought they were offering some $20 seats, but not positive on that.) As @PromoTheRobot mentioned, through their partners like LECOM they have been offering discounts for different groups, but pretty sure those are all cases where the 3rd party (LECOM, TBN, etc.) pays the difference between the discount price and at a minimum the ST price. They have to be careful just what they offer on their latest discount program because am pretty sure they still advertise that STH are supposed to get the cheapest available prices. If they don't then could see where somebody would sue over it. Don't believe people should, but just because they shouldn't doesn't mean they can't & won't. It was in the past. Not certain it was this season.

Covered that in the follow up post.

What people keep forgetting is that through pretty much the entirety of the era from MMArena opening through THE lockout, attendance was always poor in the fall but picked up after the Bills season ended & we got into "hockey weather" and then from February through the end of their run the attendance ranged from good to sold out building. The difference between then & now is, poor attendance was 12-14k (though even that was gained during the criminals' era by freebie seat giveaways goosing attendance) on a weeknight vs the Thrashers or Whalers or the like and now it is 4-8k on a weeknight. Really expecting poor attendance at the beginning of next year will be in the 10-12k range on those poor draw opponent weeknight games rather than as bad as last year or even this year. But like the old days, they should be selling out or getting reasonably close to sellouts in October on weekends. Even that Cane game that people were decrying the poor attendance was 2/3's full which is a big improvement over weeknight non-name opponents this past October. (And, yes, the Canes are very good, but the casual fans still don't give a rat's rear end about them. We're the ones that find them a good team to watch & measure the Sabres progress against.) IF the team is as good as this kid expects them to be next season, by mid-January they'll be selling out nearly every night & '24-'25 could see close to Slug Era attendance.

Could see Jost getting either 2 or 3 years. He really could be the Sabres version of Boston's Paille. A guy that rounds out the bottom of the roster that had a good pedigree but couldn't live up to 1st round expectations w/ the club that drafted him. And that's his floor here. Who knows what happens if Granato works his misfit hockey whisperer magic on him. His ceiling could be legit middle 6 200' player. But can't see Girgensons getting 3 at this point. Expect you're right that his will be a 2 year deal.

The 1st game the Sabres played after Pat LaFontaine was signed, the Sabres were the best team in the league. That sugar high was short lived. The Sabres had the misfortune of facing SJ right after they acquired Thornton. They were unstoppable that night. Let's wait a week or 2 before anointing the Aisles. They're still a flawed team w/ a goalie that hides a lot of warts. Not convinced that the improvement isn't a sugar high. It might be real, but until there is some sustained improved play won't expect it is.

Can't see the Sabres making a trade for him. Can't really see him replacing Okposo's role next year. (Assuming Okposo wants to move on at that point.) Realize this is s little crazy, considering Kane is a future HoFer, but don't really see a space on this roster that he upgrades enough to get rid of up & coming youth for his veteran presence for 1-2 years. Meaning don't see them signing I'm as a FA either.

You've disliked that deal from the day it was signed. We aren't going to see eye to eye on it. But did want to add, that just like Thompson's deal was as team friendly as it is because it was signed before he'd established last season wasn't a fluke & Cozens ceiling is still very much in question (it'll be high, but how high is still very much in question), Samuelsson's deal was signed before he was established as a 1st pairing D and would've been more expensive waiting to find out for certain he is. Pretty sure you can have the last word on this.

The guys who make their teams WIN are the guys who get paid. The Sabres wouldn't pay for Peca's intangibles. The Aisles would & did. The Sabres wouldn't pay for McKee's intangibles. The Blues would & did. Am very happy that the Sabres were finally willing to pay for the intangibles that Samuelsson brings. Pretty sure the rest of the guys, including Cozens & Dahlin, are pleased about it too.

And defensive defensemen don't get paid on their PPG. Jay McKee left town because he got an offer for $4 MM/yr. Losing him was a huge blow. Yes, Samuelsson hadn't established himself as an absolute fixture on the top pairing, but he certainly had shown signs he could fit in there. Thought it was a smart deal at the time it was announced & haven't seen anything since to change that opinion. Suggested a while back that defensive D contracts should be viewed on a $/minue basis rather than a $/point basis. On that, the contract is a steal. The intangibles of how it affects other players on this team's deals is simply icing on the cake.

But, did signing Samuelsson & doing right by him help factor into Cozens accepting the deal he did? (Don't know if it did or didn't, thus the question.) These guys REALLY like being a part of what's being built here. Does doing right by their teammates & seeing management walk the walk, not just talk it but actually live it, make these guys realize this is the right place for them to be & they want to do their part (w/in reason) to keep the band together? Personally liked the Samuelsson deal. He was the only player in the system when he signed the deal w/ his skill set. (Pretty sure Lyubushkin hadn't yet been signed & he is a significantly different player still.)

Really don't see prices going down. Golisano dropped them a bit when he took over, but that was pre-revenue sharing and the salary cap. Could see an early renewal policy like they had this year which let STHers lock in the new season at the current season's prices. (And the team makes out as they collect interest on the early payments.) But they won't even let "Sabre Bucks" carry over into the next season anymore. (Used to be able to save them for up to 3 years and then use them on something nice. Thought they liked that too as they had use of the money w/ no interest due the STHers for an extended time. Guess, they didn't like the minor hit to the books that they saw when non-renewing ticket holders finally got around to buying something w/ them.)

On the broadcast they said that 1 of the 2 teams plating this coming Monday won't be playing this weekend before the next Beanpot game which is apparently rather unusual. So your guess seems to be spot on.

With how much the cap will be increasing over the life of the deal (the entire deal will be in post-shutdown cap recapture) and how Dahlin is showing signs that that generational label wasn't as crazy as it looked 2 years ago, $12/ x8 seems like the correct amount. But Dahlin seems to really like it here & Adams has been straight up with the players & both seem to want to keep the band together, so expect him to sign for less. Guessing $10.5-11/ for 7 years but am hoping they get him locked up for 8 years.

Have said before, pretty sure it was simply a function of the contract being due during the covid era. And with all the uncertainty that brought, the 2 sides couldn't find a LT deal that made sense to both sides. And, you're right, it will cost them money in the LT but because they have several other reasonable to both sides deals they'll be able to afford his bankbreaking deal.

Malkin & Tavares are 1st liners that play on the 2nd line often because their teams are better playing a lesser player on the wing of the top line. Backstrom is a 1st liner that plays there quite a bit. And to be concerned that a player (not named McDavid) can't double what he did at 20 years old seems rather skittish. (Not the ideal word there, but wasn't coming up w/ a better one.)

Elite & 2nd line seem contradictory terms. Is he elite RIGHT NOW? No. Is he a 2C right now? Yes. Is he still crazy young with a great possibility of being a 1C? Yes. The only disappointing part of this deal is that it isn't 8 years,

Only 7 years? 😞 Great job, Mr. Adams. Another key piece locked up at a reasonable deal for a long time. Awesome.