Drunkard

It's a nice sentiment, but platitudes don't accomplish anything.

However RJ pronounces it will be the correct way. The lone exception was the way he pronounced Paul Szczechura (if memory serves me he used to call him Sahara).

I do too. That's still a big drop off from fearless leader and "captain" without the C or A that will restore Buffalo to it's former cuspy glory that Doohickie was intimating. I would expect that kind of ball washing from whiskey.

You're completely unrealistic. Even if that happens (1/2 season injury) there's no way in hell he signs for 2 years 5 million. All it takes is one team to offer him a better deal. Likely one that thinks he still has the potential to be a #1 center. Reinhart has scored 11 more goals in his NHL career and 5 fewer points than Drouin despite being a year behind with respect to the draft eligibility. Drouin by most accounts is projected as a winger now and they tend to earn less than centers on average. If you think Reinhart is just going to suck it up and sign for Marcus Foligno type money you're crazy.

He's not that good anymore. The only reason half of us are excited about him is because taking him on allowed us to ditch the anchor that is Tyler Ennis. Pominville can pull his own weight but he's not a miracle worker. There's still too much dead weight on the roster.

I forgot that. Still makes no sense. Road whites unless it's a fancy outdoor game.

Bonuses impact the cap the same way salary does. The reason players prefer their money in bonus form is because it isn't subject to escrow from the league. Plus I think they get paid at the beginning of the league year (July 1st) so the player gets the money up front rather than over the course of the season. If a season gets shortened due to strike/lockout, salaries are pro-rated but bonuses are paid in full. Having Daddy Warbucks and his deep pockets allows us to pay players through signing bonuses rather than salary which favors us and other big money teams. I hope this doesn't get restricted under the next CBA. I imagine it will be though because there are already grumblings about escrow shortages from artificially raising the cap in the past when there wasn't a big enough boost in revenues to justify it. We'll see.

Home teams are supposed to wear dark colors. Further proof that this is just a home game in name only.

They have to be willing to sign. If McDavid gets $13.25 million per year and Eichel convinces himself that he's just as good and he thinks he will prove it this season he's not going to sign and nobody can force him to. Same with Reinhart. Maybe he doesn't want a bridge deal and he tells GMJB where to stick that low ball offer. What if he wants a contract more similar to what Drouin got? What do you do then? Break their knee caps or threaten to trade them? They can always just wait out the season and get their agent to solicit offer sheets in a year.

I wish we would have beat/matched the offer. You'd think they would have rather traded him to us rather than within the division. He's locked up for 2 more years at just under $4.6 million.

Not sure when he did that but it's the same result before and after. 0 cups.

Front loaded is ok, but there are various stipulations. Something about how the highest year salary can be no more than 50% higher than the lowest year salary and some other mumbo jumbo I can't remember. So we can front load it, but not to the point where they used to get front loaded in the past such as the Kovalchuck, Ehrhoff, and Hossa deals that end up with multiple seasons paying only $1 million per year at the end of the contract to artificially lower the AAV with the old wink wink that the player would retire or fake/embellish an injury (cough Hossa cough) conveniently when the contract starts paying them pennies in comparison to earlier in the contract.

LTIR doesn't count in the offseason. They still have to get under the cap before the season starts (without including LTIR savings). I don't think cash can be moved in deals any more, only salary/cap retention. We'd have to sweeten the pot a whole lot more than a 2nd rounder to get JVR for Moulson. Moulson is less than a million in cap hit over JVR but he's only half as productive. After all the moves they made this offseason it seems like the Coyotes are going to make a push to be competitive which means we'll have to find a new team to speculate about dumping bad contracts on. Carolina and Jersey are the only ones I think have that possibility right now but once the season starts there's always a chance that teams that become a dumpster fire (maybe Colorado or Vancouver) are willing to play ball.

Smart move to walk away from that. Sounds like a head case.

I'm happy so far. Would have loved to see him bribe Vegas to take Moulson but he did manage to move Ennis for a more productive player while improving the defense at the same time. I'm happy he managed not to fumble the ball from Murray by signing Antipin and the trade for Beaulieu seems like a no brainer. The free agency signings seem low risk, although I'd like to pick up another left winger since we moved out 3 (Foligno, Ennis, and Carrier) and only signed Pouliot at the position but I imagine Girgensons or Larsson is also shifting to wing full time. I'd also like to see Reinhart move to center but I think that will be Housley's call.

50% is the most you can retain on a contract. If we can't find a dance partner for that, I'd be fine with letting him lead the defense in Rochester and using him as an injury call up. Maybe we'll get lucky and somebody with pick him up on waivers.

Definitely. Plus he's only 25 so a 7 year extension would only make him 33 by the end of the deal.

Exactly. They could have freed up more cap space just moving Scandella for futures than they got through the trade. Apparently they've been after Foligno for a couple years though. Pominville is an upgrade over Ennis. Now if we could only find a way to move Moulson.

He'll probably play all of our shootouts as well.

Did you say this when we signed Kyle Okposo becuase they gave him a 7 year deal when he was 28.

Give him the Okposo deal of 7 years $42 million and front load it as much as allowable within the CBA rules.

They're letting Pi handle the negotiations and he won't budge above a one year qualifying offer until Eichel promises to get his +/- out of the red. My bet is Eichel is curled up in the fetal postion crying as Pi is showing the highlight reel of Jason Zucker and his league leading +34 on a repeating loop.

Supposedly they did offer to match Drury's offer from the Rangers but him and Briere were UFA's and Drury was probably pissed about the contract sitting in a drawer for so long plus he reportedly wanted to play for his childhood team. We should have signed Briere to the 5/25 deal he was willing to extend for after they gave him $5 miilion for 1 year in arbitration the year before.

I'd give him the Okposo contract 7 years with a $6 million cap hit. If he wants more than $6 it has to be shorter term. I wouldn't go above $7 million.