Taro T

Did he grow up next door to Joe Sakic? How much more money does he need to be set and have his children set for life? Know the answer to the 1st one. And though don't know the answer to the 2nd one, expect that whatever it is it's less than he'll end up getting in a 7-8 year deal with the Sabres. 😉 And would be quite surprised that without some major unforseen shock to the professional hockey system there would be a lockout in 2030.

Eh, signing now might be the better play. We don't know exactly when all of the terms of the next CBA kick in, but we know there is a high likelihood some/many of them will kick in THIS season rather than 1 year from now. IF the 6/7 year maxes are introduced before or at the beginning of the next jeague year in July, his signing a deal taking him to 37 could work out much better for him than signing a deal at a higher annual rate that only goes through age 35. Big men don't tend to have the seriously long careers unless their freaks of nature like Chara. If he were younger when his current deal ends, you could very well be onto something. But he and Adams/Pegula can factor those projected cap increases into what he signs for and they can know they're effectively prorating his salary from the 5 years he'll still be useful into an 8 year deal and any buyout or retirement adjustments at the end likely won't be crippling to the team for a myriad of reasons (some good and some not so good 😉 ).

IF he doesn't extend with the Sabres, yes, he is a canary in the coal mine. If he re-signs, no, it isn't a canary in the coal mine move, but it could (might?) go a long way towards keeping the other 2 LT long time vets on board with what comes next.

Or even when they selected their next GM.

In a mother ####### heartbeat.

Suppose "scratched" works, but "sniffed" fits the motif better. MHO. YMMV.

Pretty much all the rest of the US Open has been on ESPN. Don't see why this wouldn't be as well. EDIT: No data on when the match starts, but ESPN's broadcast of it starts at 7PM.

Honestly not sure when he started leaning into them. But he's been getting booed heavily since at least '99 and likely going all the way back to '93. It's an annual rite of early summer. Bettman shows up and the boo birds come out in force.

Apparently the Bills are concerned whether Bass will be ready to go on Sunday. They added Prater to the PS. https://www.buffalorumblings.com/buffalo-bills-injuries/114946/buffalo-bills-add-kicker-with-tyler-bass-potentially-injured

Goodell took office in 2006. Bettman in 1993. Who was mimicking whom?

Ruff used to do it the right way - see what he has and then design and implement a system that the players he has can be successful at. He had several different systems (at least 3) throughout that 1st 16 or so years he was the HC. Not sure if it's the game passing him by, the assistants he had being unable to actually implement a system, or the trip to Europe (that really can't be used as an excuse beyond early November especially when the team was in a playoff spot by late November (but back out of one by the end of that month)), but he did not do that, at least not successfully, last year. With Reimer between the pipes, they started to gel, but until it's demonstrated to not have been because they were playing more relaxed with nothing to realistically play for and their opponents being unable to avoid the 'we don't take these guys seriously' letdown will have to assume those are the reasons they had some degree of success down the stretch and it wasn't because a winning system was installed down the stretch.

Are any of the young guys that are on the Sabres roster considered part of the Sabres pool? If not, yeah, lower-middle of the pack seems right. But if the real young guys that are already Sabres are included, being much below 12 seems to be a dis.

Had you asked this question prior to the stupid 14 years in the desert, would've had a different answer. Likely Filly, possibly Bah-stan, or even a very outside chance of the Aisles, Rags, or Texasses. But it was asked now, 14 years into an indeterminant journey into the desert and at this point in time, there can be only 1 answer, like the goalie in the Nike commercials used to say: die Leafs die.

Wonder how much Norris had to pay him for that?

Further clarification on the Gabe Davis saga. REALLY wish the initial reports had made clearer that the Bills INTENDED to sign Davis to the PS AND that there would necessarily be intermediate moves made to effectuate that. He now finally has actually been added to the PS and Poyer was released. When he gets moved to the PS/injured list then Poyer will be re-signed.

And back to Gabe Davis. Was thinking the reason we hadn't heard of any cuts to add him was because Carter had been put on IR and somebody elevated. Well, Carter is on the injury report, so for some reason he hasn't been IR'd yet. And apparently, per Sal, nobody needs to come off of the PS to make room for Gabe due to his status. EDIT - see subsequent post, Poyer needed to get cut from the PS to make room for Gabe but he'll be re-signed once Gabe gets that PS/injured categorization. Apologies for missing that detail.

Supposedly Shavers was a ST demon in college. And the Samuel cap consequences are IIRC pretty much that they get no savings at all by cutting him but they don't take much of an additional hit for doing so. And with Samuel seemingly never fully healthy, could see him being the odd man out.

He can be elevated from the PS something like 3 times before he'd have to be elevated to the 53 to play again. There is no need to be risking losing Shavers to another team in need of WRs anytime soon. Nobody, at least nobody Big Play Gabe would be interested in playing for as he's a vet and can decide where to play, was interested in him. Not worried about him getting poached from the PS.

Taking on bad contracts and keeping them, most likely, yes. But it pretty much completely eliminates 3rd party double retention trades. It doesn't completely eliminate them as teams can do delayed (by ~75 days) double retention trades, but it does eliminate the immediate pass through trades that the Sabres should've been in on with their stupidly large cap room these past 4 years.

Eh, if both sides are good with flying by the seat of their pants, sure, why not. But, as an FYI, in the latest MOU, they did agree to look at how the new BF-LTIR rules and particularly the post-season cap compliance rules as soon as the SCFs are done and that they both agreed to revise them after a 2nd playoffs if it was determined to be necessary. So, as they're now implementing the rules before the MOU takes effect, don't be surprised to see tweaks to these next season (rather than in the 3rd year of the MOU taking effect). And on a slightly different, but related, topic, do expect they're going to want to tweak the rules some in the fairly near future. IMHO, the place where they're going to end up wanting (needing?) to tweak the rules isn't for BF-LTIR circumventing of the cap, but from trade deadline pickups that a team can add during the regular season because they'd banked cap space. It doesn't appear there are any provisions for having some form of a cap "bank" in the playoffs. So, a team that had accrued $4MM in cap space by the deadline and because of that could add a $12MM player (as at the trade deadline there's only ~1/3 of the season left to be played and that $12MM player would only be owed ~$4MM the rest of the way) with no issues during the regular season; well, when the playoffs come about, now if that guy is playing they'll be ~$3-4MM over the cap (the $6MM of cap that the new guy's salary puts them over the cap minus the ~$3MM in cap that players 21, 22, and 23 on the roster aren't counting towards the playoff roster). So, the top teams won't have as much of an incentive to "gear up for a playoff surge" as if they do bring in a big name vet on the old assumption that their playoff roster can exceed the cap with impunity, they no longer can do that. Presumably both sides are assuming that the extra cap spending on injury call ups and no longer counting players 21-23 against the playoff cap will allow those "late season vet acquisitions" to fit under the cap. Not convinced that will necessarily be the case wthout benching some key 3rd liners that are so important in the playoffs.

They've released nearly all the changes (there's a few that you have to be an NHL player with access to the player's only portion of the NHLPA website to see; but most everything is available to the general public). But the changes don't take effect until September 2026. It has nothing to do with being complicated or not to implement. They've agreed to operate under the 2021(?) MOU through next September. And the next version of this CBA will run for at least 4 years and then it can be renewed annually if both sides want it to do so thereafter.

New CBA doesn't take effect until next September. So, not expecting the playoff BF-LTIR and playoff cap modifications to take effect THIS season.

Not one expected to see soon, but one seen in a Filly suburb right after the Sabres eliminated them back in '01. That was as AWESOME show. And didn't get anything thrown at us until leaving the theater. (They seemed to take issue with the Gilmour sweater for whatever reason.) The 1st clip was just the solo, the second 1 was the full song.

Not sure the point of elites or not, thought we were all ordinary average guys. Chz as an obvious exception. 😉

In. And could get extra tix if necessary. (But based on the past couple of years, doubt we'll even use all 8 of yours.)