nfreeman

Well, it’s certainly possible that Reino gets a LT deal and it proves to be a good deal for the Sabres. My point really was that whether it’s $4.5MM per year or $6.5MM per year, I think (and I hope JBott thinks) that giving Reino 5 years or more is much more likely to result in Reino proving out as a career underachiever, with negative effects on the team — and thus he shouldn’t get a LT deal, regardless of annual salary.

From the Athletic's live AMA with Corey Pronman today:

...unless he (correctly) believes that there is no such thing as a LT deal for Reino that is favorable to the team.

Well, I think worst case is a bad injury that impairs his long-term earning potential. It's not a de minimis risk.

Your observation is probably correct -- but I think the assumption is mostly correct too, since the GM has most of the leverage with an RFA who's still several years away from UFA -- and especially if the deal ends up being a short-term one. Sometimes a player will prefer a short-term deal since he thinks he deliver high production during that shorter term and thus earn a fatter long-term deal in his next contract, but I think that happens only in a small minority of cases.

I have been theorizing that JBott wants to give Reino a short-term "prove it" contract and isn't interested in rewarding his play to date with a long-term deal.

There’s also the mystical synergy that sweeps through a team when an extra-terrestrial defenseman who floats like a butterfly and makes plays like Lidstrom and Kronwall on D and Bobby Freaking Orr when he has the puck joins the team and takes over. Just sayin’.

Thanks JSB. Very meaningful to hear from someone who has gone through the same thing.

I tend to believe Chad, as if he's right I will win a glorious victory on this issue, which will completely erase all of my humiliating defeats here.

Thanks Flagg.

This is a first-world problem, to be sure, but I'll mention it anyway: we took my son to college 2 weeks ago for the first time and he's lonely and homesick and we miss him terribly. He's a smart and funny kid, but shy, and it takes him a while to make friends. His roommate sounds like a decent guy and roommate, but they don't have anything in common and aren't going to be friends. He's signed up for IM sports, but they don't start until next week, so he hasn't met anyone that way. It's also been pretty hot and humid and his dorm isn't air-conditioned. Anyway, I am pretty confident it will improve over time, and he's said that he'd be fine there if he had some friends. In the meantime, though, as a parent, it saddens me to think of my son, away from home for an extended period for the first time, feeling lonely and unhappy (and that goes at least double for my wife!). And the house is too quiet without him. Calling you repeatedly on your vacation with a request to come in on the Friday before Labor Day? Whoever is making that call is a major league DB.

OK, let's have 'em. I didn't include Guhle or Thompson as I think those are the 2 prospects most likely to make the NHL roster -- and thus not "under the radar." I voted for CJ Smith out of camp, and O'Regan in stage 2.

Other than Beliveau, has a great forward ever worn #4? I agree that it's a great # for a Dman.

Freaking ROR with his freaking paisley cooler!

I agree with duda's lineup except that I think Hunwick will start over Nelson, and Nelson and Beaulieu will be the 2 extras.

I don’t doubt that many 50-point guys get $5MM. However, (i) not all 50-point guys are created equally and (ii) I don’t think the Sabres need to repeat other teams’ mistakes (by paying guys too much, which can happen pretty easily if the decision is based solely on points). I think I said above that I was OK with paying more for a consistent 65-point guy — which I assume would be north of $6MM per year.

Before I can be OK with giving him a long-term deal, I need to know that Reino is part of the solution and not part of the problem. His play last year looked a lot more like he was part of the problem. As for the 2 years before then -- I don't agree that he was pretty consistent, although it wasn't night-and-day like last year. Still, there were plenty of long stretches in his 1st 2 years in which he was completely ineffective. I am pretty sure he went something like 28 games in his second year with 1 even-strength goal. More to the point, his 3 years of work to date makes me NOT want to give him a long-term deal. He's a young, highly paid high draft pick who's put up OK numbers on a terrible team that apparently has had serious off-ice issues. He hasn't displayed any leadership or difference-making whatsoever. That is exactly the kind of guy I want to wait and see on. Because he very much fits the profile of an entitled guy who gets a fat contract and then immediately plateaus. And if he gets the bridge deal he deserves, uses it as motivation and then turns into a consistent 65-point guy who doesn't hide under the bed when it counts? I'm happy to pay him the extra $1.5MM per year that he'll have earned.

On my team, they don't twiddle their thumbs for the first half of the season while the season goes down the drain, then put up numbers in a series of meaningless games, and then get rewarded with a fat, long-term deal.

I think Reino's last season was worth well below $5.5MM, and would be quite unhappy if the Sabres committed to pay him that much for the next 5-6 years and got 5-6 seasons like what Reino delivered last year. Frankly, if my crystal ball told me that Reino was going to deliver that kind of season every year, I would try to unload him and there is NFW I would give him a long-term deal.

Sorry NS. God bless your friend and his family.

As to the 1st paragraph: this is not illogical, but it ignores the human element, which appears to have been problematic. As to the 2nd: I didn't mean to imply that you were beating a dead horse -- just that the "he could've gotten more/no he couldn't" conversation has been had multiple times, so I wasn't interested in beating that horse either.

So that means essentially you were ready to try again with the same core as last season (albeit with different goaltending). Would you have fired Housley this summer? If not, why would next season have been better than last? As for the "they should've gotten more for ROR and Kane" -- the discussion on this has been had repeatedly. Suffice it to say again for the record that I disagree that it was possible to do so.

I don't think there's anything wrong with speculating as to what's going on behind the scenes -- it's a high percentage of this board's content. IMHO, it's entirely logical to consider Reino's career, especially last season, and the fact that players generally prefer long-term deals, and JBott's various public statements about his team-building philosophy, and conclude that JBott wants a short-term deal while Reino wants a long-term deal.

Serious question: do you think they should not have made any changes to their core? Or do you think a different member of the core (like Reino or Risto) should've been traded? Or do you think JBott should've gotten a better package for ROR (despite him being openly on the market for months)? Or other? The ELCs of the first 3 guys you named were wasted when the decision to tank was made, which was before JBott arrived. Having some vets on moderately priced contracts does not mean that the ELC years of Dahlin and Casey will be wasted. And as Liger pointed out, taking on some of those contracts was part of the purchase price for guys like Scandy and Sheary.

Well, by this logic, no assistant coaches would ever get hired for HC positions.