Taro T

True. And it does look like the front office does have it's act together. Again, here's to hoping that's the case. 🍺 But, playing devil's advocate, just because guys are paid doesn't mean they should be. There are some Bills fans that would've waaaaaay outperformed the Bills scouts & GMs at the draft for most of that 17 year playoff free run. Don't necessarily discount the fanatical hobbyist as just out of touch. (It's usually the safe play, but not always. 😉 )

Seems a good choice. Anybody have any thoughts on whether his stats are unduly influenced by punting in Mile High?

Well, there IS that.

Could additionally be that as well. And always saw that. But once you've seen the buffalo head in the shirt shirt design it can't really be unseen. Like the arrow in the Fed Ex logo.

League minimum went up THAT much? Wowsers. 😉

Shouldn't you already be at the show if you want to see it if it's at Art Park? (Somebody, maybe you(?), was talking about how they crazily oversold a show earlier this summer.)

Takes away a lot of the effect. When the arms are outstretched the sweater itself is a buffalo's head charging straight ahead. Would expect that's here to stay in some form.

Will try to take your comments to heart, but did want to speak to the bolded directly. Believe you are correct that the bolded behavior happens. But it happens to pretty much everybody regardless of tenure. A thought gets expressed and not really noted and then after the 5th or 6th mention of it, somebody actually notices it and responds back to it and that response is what actually draws the attention to that thought, not that post to which the respondent is responding. MHO. YMMV. So, would suggest that if you feel you've said something noteworthy that we should react to, try saying it again in a slightly different way. (Not suggesting going on a crusade, but maybe the point simply didn't resonate and coming at it from a different place might get it to do so.) Thank you for bringing it up. It's good to get the perspective of those that are new/newish here. Though a place populated by PA, 11, Inky and the rest can't by definition be an echo chamber; there is a certain familiarity that is bred. Good to get reminded of that on occassion.

You have the idea right, but the mechanics are off a tad. Some clarifications below. When the end of the '19-'20 season was effectively canceled and much of '20-'21 was played in front of no crowds, HRR plummeted. The CBA is set up to give owners and players an exact 50-50 split of those revenues after all receipts have been audited. The players do put some of their salary into escrow (IIRC ~5%, maybe 10% and the actual value is revised a couple of times in season during normal years based on estimates of actual to date revenues) which is held until the final auditing, but there was nowhere near enough money in escrow to cover the actual revenue drop. Had they kept the 50-50 split for '19-'20, players would've been forced to cough up huge portions of money that was already in their pockets at a time when nobody knew if they'd even be able to earn any money the next year. Forcing the players to keep their end of returning the excess over their alloted 50% would've quite possibly destroyed the league. The players and management worked out a system where they'd be overpaid for that previous season & the likely upcoming one. But they would repay that money over the next few seasons. And that's the biggest part of the MOU tacked onto the previous CBA - how to make finances work in the locked down world. (The MOU still to this day hasn't been finalized into a true revised CBA, doubt it ever will either.) The cap was left essentially (actually?) unchanged for '20-'21 rather than get adjusted to reflect anticipated actual revenues because many teams would've been forced to buy out players to get under what the cap should've been under the previously agreed formula. The cap is set to get player costs to roughly 50% of anticipated HRR and avoid the players from owing too much of their escrow at the end of the year. The league & players agreed that the players would likely be overpaid again that year (getting over 50% HRR) and that in future years they'd be underpaid with the excess they should've/ would be actually paid being used to repay the owners the monies they forewent in '20 & '21. We're currently in those underpaid years and when they're through with the repayments, the cap will grow significantly as it will include a few year's worth of HRR growth. 1 additional point for those not familiar w/ the details of the CBA. Players don't ever receive exactly what their contract says they will because players split a set pie (whether it be 50% of HRR or what's called for in the MOU) amongst themselves and if the total face value of all contracts counting towards all teams' caps is less than that target they all get the same percentage increase over the face value of their contracts and if they all combined would've earned more than that number they all take the same percentage cut to their earnings. And 1 final point, while Vegas & Seattle did increase total HRR (more games, more concessions, more merchandise, & 2 more local TV deals) they also added 46+ more players to split the players 50% share of HRR so expansion didn't/ won't increase the cap as much as 1 might expect at 1st blush. And the owners don't share expansion fees with the players because those expansion fees in theory cover the existing owners reduction from 1/30th to 1/32nd of leaguewide shared revenues (national TV contracts, NHL.com revenues, leaguewide sponsorships, international tournaments, etc.). That's what they told the players and the players bought it, so that's the official position.

He's probably a year early in his estimate, but the players will have paid the owners back their share of HRR they let the players keep in excess of 50% they ended up with when the world shutdown. That repaying of those monies is why the cap has been flat / only increasing $1MM / year lately. Will likely be '24-'25 when they're finally back to normal. But next year is possible.

Yes. Because had they signed him before the season, they could've had him for just over $7MM/ season. That extra $3MM/yr might be the difference in being able to give Samuelsson what he's actually worth (points be d*mned?) and , this guy will be McKee and if we squint real hard MAYBE, POSSIBLY, dare we say Ramsey?) and keeping Jokiharju in the fold. We get it. It's a risk. But it's a calculated risk & worth taking IMHO.)

Agree with this post except for the bolded. His scoring touch went to jack squat for the Blues and the Sabres over on the wing. He scored in Ra-cha-cha but he wasn't playing against much NHL caliber talent and very few NHL caliber goalies. Still believe his biggest issue at wing was he was thinking the game too much and those split seconds of hesitation make a world of difference at this level. Believe the 2nd biggest issue is playing near the boards consistently removed a big portion of his play developing repertoire as his reach was not only negated on one side it was actually a detriment as he couldn't maneuver as deftly as a smaller man on that side either due to the distance from hands to stick blade. Both of those issues go away at C (especially when he doesn't engage at the boards all that much in the offensive zone, he battles for pucks but typically more in the middle of the ice IMHO). Would like to believe Granato would've figured that out even without having coached him at C earlier in his career, but even if their knowing each other in the past was merely serendipity, he believed Thompson could be a C at this level even when Tage himself didn't. (Hope he gives Donny a nice Christmas present this year (well next year when he actually starts getting paid from that new contract), because that vision & belief set Tage & his family up for life.)

Management talks about character and wanting people that want to be here. If they don't reward players that live up to those values that also demonstrate success on the ice, then they undermine the culture they are trying to build. They want players to have faith in management. Well, trust is a 2 way street. By inking this deal, they also are demonstrating faith in a player that has done everything asked of him. They're saying, yes, we believe in you Tage. Players notice that. That helps build the room and make the players believe they are a "family" even though they all know this is a business. Even if he takes a step back, doubt he steps so far back he isn't still playing at a 2C level. That's what this contract pays him as. If you don't bet on any of your players before they fully establish themselves, you never get value contracts. Would've preferred a 6 year deal. But the money works, and they'll be able to get away from that last year if absolutely necessary. Doubt it will be.

No. But are you forgetting that he also had a position change back to his natural spot? He looked like a completely different player and not just on the scoresheet. Expect he'll be a lot closer to last year's mondo giraffe we saw than the baby & adolescent giraffe we got when he was at wing. He was a legit top 6 C last season. Flat out did not see that coming, but expect he'll be a top 6 C again this year. And don't expect teams to play him appreciably different this year than they did last. But we shall see whether that holds true.

And, as mentioned before, it doesn't even kick in until next year so it will literally be 2C money by the time it kicks in. Would be nice if Mittelstadt & Cozens both pan out & this deal helps set their value. Might be able to afford those "big 3" D & Levi down the road.

Bump. Less than 10 days until the RS begins. Still have lots of room left in both contests.

Yes. Free agency always starts on the 1st day of the new league year. Pretty sure the plan is to get that back to its rightful place on Canada Day next year.

Yep. And this is our proof that Adams is willing to do so rather than push everything into the future. We suspected he'd reward the players that both buy in and perform. But that was speculation as all he'd done is push decisions into the future. Really hoping Adams & we get rewarded for taking the leap on this one.

It starts next season.

And it makes sense that they go into the draft high on the top 1/4-1/3 of the guys they've watched. Especially when the entire draft only has ~230 picks (including the picks teams get for prior 1st rounders not signing - 224 + ?), showing up with a 140 player list will only rarely run out as after the 2nd round or so everybody has very unique ideas of who is actually draft worthy.

Becomes even more of a bargain if it's looked at as ~$55MM over 10 years. 😉

Considering the only healthy goalie they have is Logan Thompson, it's a decent pickup. Seems to be even more of a Comrie can be a starter reach than Comrie was though. When Brossoit returns they'll have 2 Comrie lottery tickets to find a starter.

The myriad of Sabres themed PEZ dispensers filled with self-prescribed oxy had NOTHING to do with it. 😉

Yep. No idea where to go for stuff like that nowadays. Best guess to find that out would be to ask an independent electrician where he orders parts.

Not sure what type of electrical components you're looking for, but if they are AV related check out www.monoprice.com. They had a good selection & good prices ~5 years ago. No idea if they still do, but they did.