Taro T

Agree very much w/ the 1st paragraph. Calgary knew they had one more year of Tkachuk & then would have nothing for him except cap space. By trading him, they got 1 year of 2 very good players and also a good prospect & a 1st. IF they can extend 1 or both of the players, it's a good deal for Calgary. If they can't, at the end of the day on the 1st day of the next league year in a worst case they'll still have the same cap space they would've had anyway & 2 pieces that might help in the future. And if things go kerplewy this year, they can convert Huberdeau &/or Weegar into assets at the deadline. Would like to believe they could've done better, but this might've been the best offer they got. And they likely will still be a playoff team. Going full on futures might not have yielded that same result. IMHO, it makes sense from the Cats perspective, but injuries to any of their 7 core guys could really be devastating.

Nobody.

Will be interested to see if Huberdeau comes back to the Cats after his year in Alberta. Very surprised he was dealt as he & Ekblad seemed like they'd be lifers there.

In a beer league somewhere.

No, it says NHL which stands for the National Hockey League. NOT all things Canadian Major Junior Hockey Leagues. The allegations deserve their own thread.

Should've been worth at least a 2-4 of 'em. 😉

And it's annoying that they weren't in on another goalie (that would actually move to Buffalo) and Neiderriter (expect he'd've been an even better add than Copp would've been); but provided Comrie doesn't deficate himself they should be close to playoffs (90+) without any luck & could get there with a fair helping of it. That hasn't been true in any season since Regier spoke of suffering and since which they've somehow managed to never break an NHL 0.500 for an entire season. Finally baby steps appear nearly inevitable. We can all be ticked about it and blow it all off or hope & hopefully watch entertaining hockey at a minimum. Too tired to be ticked. YMMV.

Is there a reason allegations of sexual impropriety by a Canadian Junior team from 19 years ago is the main point of discussion in the "around the NHL: 2022 off-season" thread? Not saying it isn't worthy of discussion, but not real sure what it has to do w/ transactions in the NHL's off-season.

According to him & the Sabres, $4.75MM/yr for 2 years. 😉

Wasn't Taylor the coach that got Thompson & Mittelstadt their confidence back & in the case of Casey helped to stop him from being a golden lab puppy chasing a ball in his own end? Liked Taylor a lot. Still not sold on Appert but am looking forward to seeing what he can do this year. (Like Peca & Weber a lot too.)

It also will be interesting to see if the Sabres getting him on a very low end deal this last time (but which many thought was an overpayment) causes there to be a slight goosing of the AAV up beyond what might've been expected. Hoping it doesn't.

Do you know if those other franchises are independently owned or are they owned by the parent club? Don't know the answer to that (thus the Q 😉 ) and expect at least Hershey & Chicago are separate entities from their parent club,, but if they are independently owned can see why there'd be a much greater emphasis on winning. They NEED to make money to remain viable. The Amerks (fortunately, considering their post-Fla Donner debacle) don't.

Early 30's, but point taken.

???

You are overlooking the mighty Bjork. 😉

According to Puckipedia (formerly NHL Numbers) they're at 44. Pretty sure they include unsigned RFAs in that #. But regardless, there will be a couple of more signings for the Sabres and additional players brought in for the Amerks. Several of which will be on AHL, not NHL 2 way, deals. So, other than Houser who appears to have signed w/ the Amerks & not the Sabres, are there any legit potential Sabres in Cincy? If not, or if there are only 1 or 2 others, IMHO there is nothing really for us to be talking about them on a regular basis. YMMV. (Again, not speaking for anybody else.) (And really not TRYING to be argumentative. Not sure if it comes across that way or not.)

Thought about including a mention of the AHL max limit on # of vets dressed in any given game in the last paragraph of the quoted post, but considering we've discussed that aspect of the AHL on several occasions, figured acknowledging it specifically was unnecessary. Lesson learned. As to your 2nd paragraph, we're still very early in the AHL stocking phase of the summer, but Adams has already brought in several tweener D-men (though the new guys are all of the same variety) & brought back Mersch & Prow. Neither of which will be the stir the drink types of vets you seem to be looking for. It's going to be later in the summer that the rest of Ra-cha-cha's roster will be finalized. And not really sure why you include Mike Ryan as the type of Amerk vet you're looking for. He played 4 years on the Amerks right out of college and then came back for 1 season years later at the end of his career. Jankowski was a better fit into that vet role than Ryan was for most of his tenure. So was Davidsson last season. Teves and MacInnis were brought in to be vets as well last year (they aren't NHLers at this point). And all those guys were brought in to help develop the kids. So, again, how are you defining being committed to winning a championship in Ra-cha-cha?

Can't speak for anyone else, but IMHO it's because NHL teams can only have a max of 50 players under contract in the organization and with 23 being in Buffalo, another nearly 20 in Ra-cha-cha, plus a handful of juniors signed as well once you account for keeping a couple of slots free for any emergency / potential college signings, there aren't more than a couple of actual Sabres prospects there.

How are you defining committed? If it's simply will he give that team an opportunity to be competitive every night against the best the AHL has to offer, expect he will. If you are considering it putting winning ahead of giving kids opportunities to grow, then no. See Ra-cha-cha being perpetually in the give the kids a chance mode that the Sabres were in last year. If you are considering it as will he keep a key player on the farm even though he might beat out a Sabre for playing time. Probably. He did that w/ Quinn & Peterka down the stretch. If you are considering it as will he keep a key player on the farm even though the Sabres need an injury replacement, well no, don't expect he'll do that. And if you are asking will he sign a bunch of AHL vets to take key roles and thus key playing time (aka development time) from prospects that are in the Sabres plans, no, doubt he'll go overboard there either. We've seen the types of AHL vets he brings in. They'll help win games but aren't going to be the straws stirring the Amerks' drink IMHO.

IF he can handle the everyday workload (or at least 2 out 3 game workload), he'll be a steal. He's been a starter at lower levels, so he should be able to do so. But then again, the same could be said of Hutton. Expect he'll be good in October. The test will be is he still good in December when the rest of the league has stepped it up and any nagging injuries could be setting him up for one that will take him off his game at best or out of games at worst. No data on his past injury history, doesn't seem to have much issue there but not positive about that. Hoping he gives us an early Christmas present.

The F version of Pilut. Yep. Sabres too, as he could've been the "near NHL ready prospect" in part of a package to a team needing to shed salary. Still expect (hope?) that somebody will figure out that his inability to be a wall the goalie can't see around is way offset by his hand-eye coordination & relexes/hands in tight spaces and use him as the down low forward on the PP.

Well, considering the team that gets Kadri will likely be trying to shed salary rather than add ... 😉 E-Rod is actually a nice bottom 6 player that can slot higher in a pinch. Kind of the offensive-ish version of Hecht. Really curious if somebody will be dumb enough to give him a contract that fully accounts for his Crosby tied production. Guessing that nobody is and that's why he's still available. But, if he ends up w/ a ridiculous deal, he'll definitely have been somebody's consolation prize for losing out on Kadri.

Close. Quinn & Peterka have 2 NHL games each on their resumes. And Quinn is a CAREER PPG player. 😉

OK, the salary cap came in with the 2005 CBA and that was when performance bonuses* &/or other forms of renegotiating / altering a contract were eliminated for all intents & purposes. The CBA was renewed in 2013 and this change brought with it no reintroduction of performance bonuses &/or other forms of renegotiating contracts. The CBA was essentially renewed via the MOU in 2020 and this change brought with it no reintroduction of performance bonuses &/or other forms of renegotiating contracts. We're now 17 years into this "experiment." Pretty sure when the MOU expires we won't see the reintroduction of performance bonuses &/ or other forms or renegotiating/ altering a contract. 😉 And the league is adamant that there not be renegotiations/ changes to contracts such as performance bonuses & other inducers of variability because it makes determining exactly what players are owed and whether teams are staying compliant with the cap a much more complex system to audit & maintain. The players get (assuming they pay the owners back what they're owed from the overpayment to the players from the lockdowns) exactly 50% of HRR. If the leaguewide nominal player salaries are over 50% every player loses a prorated portion of their escrow to drop it to 50%. If nominal salaries sum to under 50%, they all get a prorated bonus check. Altering individual player salaries make those calculations way more complex. They also significantly increase the likelihood a team ends up above or below the allowable salary range. * with limited exceptions as discussed upthread

This. Only players on ELCs & those that are ancient or coming off serious injuries willing to play on 1 year deals can have team paid incentive bonuses. EVERYBODY ELSE gets paid exactly what they & a team agree that he'll be paid when he signs his contract. So, for all intents & purposes incentive laden contracts are verboten.