apuszczalowski

So thats 4 in how many years? How well did Frolic work out? Okposo signed one of the biggest contracts at the time to come here I believe And Hutton was exactly a player in high demand at the time considering he only had 1-2 good years in his career where he played more then half a season They are definietely looking for someone to tandem with Linus, not just a backup goalie

It doesn't

Because the point of dealing Fleury is to get the full contract off the books, its why they want to add a 3rd team to the deal to take some of the contract. Any deal for Fleury (and a sweetner) is going to be for mostly picks, not the other teams garbage and/or problem contracts. Vegas can't afford to bring in salary because they are trying to make the move to free it up for AP I think The Knights should try their luck at MGM and try to double their cap room at the tables.......

it sounds like their move to clear space is getting rid of Fleury. It also sounds like the only thing holding up a deal is finding a 3rd team to be a part of it to retain part of his salary since it looks like most teams don't want him at full price (and the teams that may be able to afford him at full price don't need him)

By moving other contracts, something teams do all the time to get under the cap and afford players (which Sabres fans don't seem to understand as they always worry and don't want someone signed because of what might happen to the cap in a few years)

Buffalo is looking for a goalie, they aren't going to move him to Pittsburgh who just signed a backup goalie (Lagace).

If they acquire a goalie its to replace Hutton and platoon w/ Ullmark. Griess decided to take a 2 year deal with Detroit Subban is in Chicago I believe and will have a shot there with Crawford gone. Pickings are slim in the Goalie Department of FA, mostly a bunch of older guys who might not have much left in the tank......

The goalies from CBL or ARI are going to costs assets to get and since those teams don't have to move them while still on decent deals, they won't be dealt for Buffalos garbage or a couple late picks. The reason the Blue jackets are looking to move one of theirs is because they want to cash in while they can. The last thing you want to do is over spend a bit on some player, it's not something the good teams do, just look at the cap space situation of this year's Cup teams. As we have also all seen, it's impossible to get out of a bad deal to free up cap space. It's still early and they could shock us all and find out that they are in on the top guys whom they will end up signing. But the odds of that are very slim and the odds are greater that they don't get any of the top guys and come out telling us how they were on on them, thought they were close but the players chose elsewhere and we hear some spin about how they managed to get some really good under the radar signings and excited about how their young players will develop this year.

Those moves aren't usually the only moves they make on day one of FA though

When they sober up from their Cup celebrations they have been having they laugh at you and come up with another way to get themselves some more cap space.

You could say almost all teams are only a few players away from being competitive though What goalie left on the market is going to give them 'Above average' play to get those points? There the possibility of a trade to get one but thats also going to take away from the team. We are hoping Stall still has something left in the tank, and that Tage Thompson becomes a somewhat NHL caliber player

I stand corrected on this, I thought it was only baseball in between the july & august trade deadline that allow you to rescind a claim or work out a trade

And if they lost 3 more games they would have been tied with Ottawa for 2nd worst team in the East (which also makes them the 2nd worst team in the NHL)

There was only one team that finished less then 10 points ahead of them in the standings (Montreal finished with 71 points to Buffalos 68, Florida had 78 points and were 11th) The realistically had one team they had a chance to catch (Montreal) in order to make the extended playoffs. Right now they have done nothing to improve on that below average goaltending with options becoming even fewer to find someones whos more then a 'hope' to be an upgrade...

But shopping a better player is also going to mean they want something better in return.

And you can keep living in a complete fantasy world They missed the playoffs in a year where the league expanded them to include extra teams, how would they have been a legitimate top 16?

What about sideways/lateral?

And there is probably interest from more then half the leagues teams in those players. In a shortened year where the playoffs were expanded to include more teams Yeah, let celebrate almost making the playoffs in a year where even more teams were making them......

He is already on waivers, i don't think a team can trade someone they just put on waivers. If a claim is put in on him, he is gone, they can't see who makes a claim then take him off.

I guess we figured out why he wasn't re-signed, he wasn't willing to play for $700k this year.....

Yeah but those probably aren't the only moves those teams have made, or they are teams that didn't struggle to make an extended playoffs this year after missing out for a decade.....

Probably not because those teams will just make a couple moves to free up some space and get a great player while Sabres fans fret about being close to the cap in 5 years and if the Pegulas will have enough money to pay for the rest of the work to their yacht.....

And yet they are supposed to be in the hunt for Pieterangelo......

Sure, but that avenue also costs precious assets no one wants to give up And those big fish will also have alot of suitors to chose from trying for their services.

They couldn't even make the extended playoffs with additional teams added after a shorten season Like usual though fans will complain if everyone isn't optimistic that all the young guys will just improve to superstars and the team will magically make the playoffs because they have another season under their belt