Taro T

Am really interested in seeing how they develop Peca. Due to his personal circumstances (waaaaay too small to play the way he did) he had to really understand the game AND work his arse off to hone his craft and was so effective at it he was the clear choice to be captain of that o erachieving team he led (and was backstopped by the greatest goalie to ever play). So, based on his knowledge & his leadership skills, he could become a very effective coach at the NHL level w/ some seasoning. Wonder if the brass sees that for him as well.

His point was that teams always get to the 13 young skaters & worrying about not being able to dress 18 skaters isn't particularly useful. As all teams get there except in very rare unusual circumstances. His other point was that AHL teams can have as many vets on the roster as they want but they can only have 5 skaters that are full on by the definition AHL vets.

Of course. Nobody disagrees w/ that. But that is going to happen and it was pretty much a given it was going to happen 2 weeks ago when there were concerns voiced over whether the Amerks would have enough young guys. It's like the handwringing over Bishop. It may be part of a plan to cheap out like Arizona or it makes no difference in the grand scheme should Adams be able to land most of his Plan A guys in a month when FAs are actually available as right now just about everybody is a pending FA and almost no real hockey trades happen during the playoffs. Expect it makes no difference as it is an insurance policy to keep options open mid-season & to help ensure Plan B doesn't end up going to desperation if Plan A fails to come to fruition.

And what you wrote is what we had expected - that his contract w/ Djurgardens was controlling, so he couldn't come to the Amerks. BBecause there was nothing in it for them to let him come over. But the Lysowski tweet said he was coming over. Thus the "not sure how that works (meaning is possible) but cool (happy it works that way). Except that's not the case apparently. Apparently Djurgardens was relegated, so all their players contracts became voidable. Which is how playing for the Amerks becomes a decision of the Sabres & not Djurgardens. The new deal (and former one as well) between the NHL & SHL isn't putting Djurgardens in the driver's seat because they apparently no longer hold an enforceable contract for Cedarquist's services. And the comment was in reference to last week's handwringing by some that the Amerks might have problems icing a full lineup due to not having enough young players available to them.

Nothing.

Not sure how that works, but, cool. Fairly certain the fears that there wouldn't be enough "development" players to stock Ra-cha-cha are appearing unfounded. As expected. (Not saying you were one that WAS worrying about that.)

And to cover for injuries, they really need to be at at least 14 & 8 heading into the season. (And Bjork shouldn't be one of those 14. Perfectly fine w/ him starting the year at 15 - the 2nd injury callup who hopefully will get supplanted by a guy like Biro or Murray.) Adams may agree w/ those of you who don't want to see any veterans that could beat Peterka out for a spot (or Quinn, or Asplund, or whomever) but really expect that's shortsighted unless a rather substantial part of Adams secretly longs to be in the mix for Berard in any but an extreme longshot way.

Normally would agree w/ this, but we're at an unusual point and IMHO longer term won't necessarily mean lower $'s. Three years from now there's a very good likelihood the players will have reimbursed the owners for letting the players get more than 50% of revenues in 2020, so the cap could rise fairly substantially (as @tom webster likes to point out) and players aren't necessarily going to drop their AAV expectations significantly, if at all, to gain the security of another guaranteed year of getting paid. This year & next year could see really u usual contracts being offered to find deals that work for both parties.

Jiricek didn't attend the combine.

Yup. This move doesn't limit them in any way. They aren't going to have 49 other contracts and be prevented from adding a college FA because they're already at 50 bodies. (99% sure of that.) As far below the cap that they are and with how many of the kids that are making figurative pennies, but will be earning & making big $'s (or at minimum ramping towards big $'s) in 2-3, there is no way this team is spending to the cap or even w/in $10MM of the cap minus these sort of deals. Which means they're going to waste at least $10MM worth of cap. A 7th rounder isn't much, but it beats the big fat zilch all this year's wasted cap space amounted to. Would have preferred last year that Adams hadn't followed the path he did - pushing relevance out another couple of seasons, but he's started down the current path that will have this team improving in large part by young kids getting better as they gain muscle & experience (aka reaching their primes, or possibly as developing hockey wisdom 😉 ) and he isn't going to bring in big $ FAs, though he might & we can hope he brings in expensive AND good GTs. With that being the case, this is a very minor move that is actually a good thing & doesn't truly have any real downside. And like somebody said upthread, should Adams want to trade say an Olofsson or one of the new goalies or that vet D-man to make room for Johnson or somebody else, he doesn't have to worry about needing to make a separate deal to bring in an extra $3MM of cap salary to keep the roster compliant. Truly doubt that the roster Adams assembles won't reach the floor on it's own, but who knows, but something like this just guarantees that there won't be any issues arising from technical issues of the timing of deals down the road; and as stated above it converts an asset that expires on 7/1/23 into something that will still have value, small as that may be. MHO. YMMV. And remember, not only did a 7th rounder turn into Olofsson; another one turned into the majority of Sam Reinhart. (Presuming Levi will be more valuable than whatever pick 28 becomes.) Yeah, most 7th round picks end up being worth nothing. But ALL expired, unused cap space IS worth nothing the instant the last RS game ends.

Quite likely. But prior to this they were showing $16MM in cap space w/ 16 players under contract. Considering you can be over the cap by 10% in the summer, which gives them ~$25MM to work with if necessary, not sure why the timing was what it is from their perspective either. Not many "real" trades until the playoffs end most years. (Not that this is a real trade by most definitions either.)

Considering that there's $21.5MM between the cap floor & the ceiling, hoping they buy another (ideally better) pick for $4-5MM worth of cap space.

Don't know that it means they WON'T bring in a 4th (& ideally a 5th) but it now means they don't absolutely have to or end up buying a Boychuk just to insure they stay above the floor regardless of other moves. It also means, should they now be close to the midpoint of the cap that after the season starts they could still be part of a 3 way deal & not worry about having to be part of the 2nd trade to make sure they never fall below the floor. The timing is interesting. It had to happen before the draft to end up w/ this year's pick, but the draft is still weeks away. Curious as to why it happened NOW. (Maybe, it's as simple as this is when the GM's finally agreed to it. But it just seems strange timing.)

Asked that question earlier. Don't know the answer. Not sure his contract is big enough that Dallas would've been willing to pay the premium to have; & if they did, no data on whether the beneficiary is transferable (but would expect it is). If there wasn't a policy in place, they won't be able to get one at reasonable cost. And even if there is coverage, it typically doesn't kick in until after the 20th missed game. So, they still paid nearly $1MM for a 7th round pick at the end of the day in a best are (for them).

Doubt they don't see him as a good fit. More expect that they have at least 3 other LHD & arguably 4 when including Bryson that are better at what they ask than Pilut is. They have 3 REALLY good LHD & 1-2 others waiting in the wings . Not everybody does. It may end up a #'s game.

The only ones of any consequence are Olofsson & UPL. Olofsson's deal likely will take a little time as both sides have several variables working in their favor for why it should be at least x/ years or no more than y/ years. UPL's contract isn't of much consequence in the grand scheme. Everybody else that the Sabres hold the rights to is either under contract for this year or Ra-cha-cha bound. (Possible outlier being Johnson. He still hasn't officially made a decision yet afaik.) So, they don't factor into cap space discussions. The only ones of any consequence are Olofsson & UPL. Olofsson's deal likely will take a little time as both sides have several variables working in their favor for why it should be at least x/ yr or no more than y/ yr. UPL's contract isn't of much consequence in the grand scheme. Everybody else that the Sabres hold the rights to is either under contract for this year or Ra-cha-cha bound. (Possible outlier being Johnson. He still hasn't officially made a decision yet afaik.) So, they don't factor into cap space discussions.

Does it normally happen often enough that it's newsworthy when one doesn't? Yikes!

And this is the opposite of the owners being cheap. They literally paid over $3MM for an extra 7th round pick.

Likewise, but it's kind of the opposite of Botterill's 6th this year for a 6th next year, so it's good.

🤔 Grier, Varada, or Andreychuk? Answer should be obvious. 😉

The only drawback to that scenario (minus the possibility that his heart might just not be in it, which my expectation is he wouldn't sign if it wasn't) is expect at this point he's more of a 3rd pairing guy than a 2nd pairing guy & if the Sabres see it the same way then we end up w/ Jokiharju paired w/ Power rather than the wily vet. The Joker may grow into a 2nd pairing guy & he was OK w/ Power, but they should be striving to get him a guy that can truly cover for his inevitable rookie mistakes not a guy that Power will have to be covering for. Now, if Subban can bring it like Patrick & Teppo did early in their Buffalo tenures, then PK is Power's partner & Bryson can hold down the role of Joker's partner until an upgrade comes along (Johnson, Pilut, trade, other, ???). Actually like the idea of PK better than Campbell in the net (who would be an upgrade, & w/ only looking ST w/ him it wouldn't be awful to land him. Just hoping for better. And this beggar will be a chooser, common adages be darned. 😉 )

Well stated.

As others have stated, it's $3.5MM of the owner's cash (& wonder if there's an insurance policy that the beneficiary can change from Dallas to Buffalo so that it's likely 1/4 of that out of pocket) for $4.9MM of cap. Bringing them to ballpark $15MM below the floor rather than around $20MM below the floor. As he is almost definitely LTIR bound when appropriate, he'd only effect their ability reach the cap by however many $'s they are shy of the cap when they designate him to LTIR (should it even become necessary). So, he'll likely knock only a few $k off the max cap should they miraculously get offered McDavid for Krebs or some other fantastic s entries that sees them pushing the upper bounds of the cap occur). It's only the owners' money that's an issue here & if they really want to win (& IMHO they do want to do so) then it's chicken feed relative to their personal wealth. (Have no compunction w/ them spending their money. 😉 ) It's only for this one season & now $4.9MM of wasted cap will become an asset which still holds value beyond next season. Absolutely hope some of that cap space goes towards 1-2 ACTUAL goalies, not just theoretical ones & a couple of other upgrades, but there was no realistic way that they were going to be w/in $10MM of the maximum cap w/out moves like this. It's not a homerun, but it's at least a single unless it is literally a "for future considerations" move.

So, what will the Sabres get in return for taking him off Dallas' hands, Mr. Weekes?

Can see an argument to add 16 to that list. Understand why some wouldn't want to do so. But that's pretty much it. And really enjoyed watching the others who've had their #'s retired, but don't believe their #'s should be retired.