dudacek

Miller’s 14th all-time in wins is certainly comparable to Perreault’s 37th all-time in goals. Miller was voted the best goalie in the game once, Perreault the 2nd-best centre twice.

3 is not an assumption. It’s math. They have to spend at least another $14 million. They have 6 defencemen and no goalies under contract. They have to sign someone. If you thought they were going to bring in Fluery and Letang and Giroux and not play Peterka and Quinn and Krebs you haven’t been paying attention. You’re going to get presumably more expensive and better replacements for Eakin, Pysyk and Anderson and whole bunch a ice time for the kids.

Agree with you, but for the sake of conversation: Miller is the 7th player to get his number retired (Horton is a special case), the franchise has been around more than 50 years and more than 600 players have worn the crest. Is it really cheap when someone comes along once every 8 years, or out of every 100 players? **** Also, if Miller made the Hall of Fame would it change your mind? It’s not impossible. There are 36 goalies in the hall. Miller is 14th all-time in wins and 3 of the guys ahead of him are of his vintage and not there (yet?): Fleury, Lundqvist and Luongo. Luongo and Lundqvist are the only ones ahead of him with better career save percentages. Guys like Rogie Vachon, Tony Esposito and Ed Giacomin are in.

Lance Lysowksi reported the Sabres are paying $700,000 toward Bishop’s contract. In return, they get a 7th round draft pick and an insurance policy against falling under the cap floor. Their other options: overpay some stiffs on short-term deals like Murray did with Mezsaros and pay them to stay away. Sign multiple good players to real free agent contracts, keep guys like Quinn and Peterka in the minors and cross your fingers those deals don’t become albatrosses in the future. Trade our young roster players for more expensive vets on suitable deals. After signing Bryson and Olofsson, the team would have had about $13 million to spend to get to the cap floor and 4 roster spots open. They were always going to acquire a starting goalie, a veteran 2RHD and some depth guys. They were never going to be adding expensive big-name veterans on long term deals. They were always going to be riding the kids. This doesn’t change that.

Yeah, I’m figuring 6-ish for those 2. Which means they still have to spend about $8 million. There’s only so cheap they can go. I think this discussion basically boils down to whether Adams’ goal to ice as cheap a roster as possible, or to provide insurance to reach the floor if he isn’t able to acquire the players he wants. Like you say, we’re both hoping for the same thing.

That was interesting and informative. Thanks for posting.

They are still $14 million below the floor. They still need to spend ~ $10 million on a goalie and a right D to get to the floor and stay there.

I don’t think even Adams would disagree. I certainly don’t. At this point Bjork is the 13th forward and probably doesn’t have a future with the team. Bringing in someone whombumps him to the 14th forward is not the issue for Adams, I believe. Bringing in someone who makes Peterka or Quinn the 14th forward is where the issue is. Until they show they can’t, he wants those guys to play, and not 8 minutes a night.

This is beautifully said. There is an element of fandom that says this is predominantly about the kinds of things that qualify one for the Hockey Hall of Fame. It may be that Sabres ownership wants it to be about how well one represented what it meant to be a Buffalo Sabre: caring about the crest and the city and doing whatever was in his power for both on and off the ice over an extended period of time. In my mind, few did that as well as Miller.

All owners set the player budget, most GMs get to allocate it. Most owners also approve any significant long-term contracts. Some (certainly Terry) will sometimes direct their GMs to spend more than that GM wanted, or chase players that owner wanted (Leino, Ehrhoff, Eichel, Skinner, Girgensons). Yep. $5 million 1-year contracts are exceedingly rare: few 1-year players deserve $5 million, few $5 million players deserve 1 year. There must have been a good, pricey 1-year contract given to attract a free agent at some point, but Taylor Hall wasn’t one, and I can’t think of another. Adams has basically chosen to invest approximately $1 million in real money in a 7th rounder in order to make sure he doesn’t risk having to pay an Andrej Meszaros $5 million to suck like Tim Murray did. But he’s still left the door wide open to sign a worthwhile player to that deal if that opportunity presents itself. The reason he wants that insurance policy is that his NHL roster was almost full and he was about $19 million under the cap floor. After he re-signs Bryson and Olofsson and promotes Quinn and Peterka he has room on his roster to add a starting goalie (going rate $5 million) a 2nd-pair D ($4 million), 1 backup goalie ($1.5 million), 1 depth forward ($1.5 million) and a spare defenceman ($1 million). That might get him to the floor, but Bishop absolutely makes sure he’s over and has the flexibility to make the moves he wants for players he wants and prices they deserve. His issue is he has got an inordinate number of players on cheap 1st and 2nd contracts that he is planning on playing next year and he wants to retain flexibility to give those players raises in the coming years. Sure he could, say, add a Taylor Hall type big name as well, and send Bjork, or Peterka or Quinn to the minors to make room, but I don’t think he thinks that’s the best thing for the organization. He wants Quinn and Peterka playing. But if, by chance, a better fit on a long term deal becomes available and changes Adams’ mind, nothing about Bishop is stopping him from making that deal. Bishop is cheap insurance designed to make sure Adams enters the summer not worrying about the cap floor now, or in any future deals leading up to the trade deadline.

Not saying they won’t, but this one seems to make it more unlikely to me. It’s such small potatoes that I’m not sure why they’d do it if they had another deal lined up sure to get them over the floor. But you never know what kind of web is being weaved behind the scenes. A lot of GMs are going to have to get creative and Adams is a logical partner.

Don’t you think it has more to do with Dallas setting up some dominoes to fall?

If you look at the recent rumours, Subban @4ish, VO at 5ish, and a goalie at 5ish puts them right at the floor. Add in this year’s JAG contracts and they might still be under the floor without the Bishop deal. This means they don’t have to worry. It’s a prudent use of Terry’s money that doesn’t hurt the team on the ice in the slightest. It just doesn’t help it either.

The Sabres were probably going to acquire 3 significant contracts this year: a goalie, a defencemen and Olofsson. I was hoping they might acquire more than 3. All this means is they probably won’t. Even with this, they still need to spend at least 14 million more. That means they probably have to spend at least 4 or 5 million each on at least 2 players minimum and can easily spend more. I don’t think it has any bearing on the goalie situation whatsoever. Yep.

Can’t say I’m too fond of this one, unless there’s another shoe to drop. Not the move itself, which is utterly (*shrugs*), but that it suggests Adams has good reason to believe he might not be getting to the floor this year.

I sure hope it’s more than a Boychuk move. The Sabres should be compensated for creating space (and I believe) saving actual money for the Stars, no? Sure Bishop is on LTIR, but that only works in season. This allows them to use that space on roster cutdown day. Or is there a nuance I’m missing here?

Somewhere on this site in the past month, I pitched a scenario where PK could become this team’s James Patrick or Teppo Numminen, if his mind and his feet are in the right places. This, to me, is well worth exploring under that scenario.

The Sabres’ perspective on Ryan Miller’s career made you call them a joke. Your perspective made me sad. Not sure why my statement is a personal attack. It was not intended to be. Apologies if you took it that way.

That was ***** awesome. All the time in the world for players who care as much as I do. It’s sad how sports fandom can sometimes make people entirely lose their perspective.

He’s right there with Gare in terms of league stature and how he conducted himself as a Sabre. I’m in the camp that thinks the only jerseys that should be retired are 11 and 39. But in terms the standards the organization has set by previous retirements, this is well-deserved.

Going to have to take a deeper dive in Savoie. On the surface, he seems like he might end up being the most talented guy available at 9, and he seems competitive. Already know I prefer him to Geekie in terms of centres, but I wonder where the separations are between he and Nazar and Kasper. I have seen talk that some scouts see Savoie and Nazar as more wingers, whereas Kasper is definitely a centre. But I also see the first two are probably more gifted than Kasper. Kasper kinda strikes me as the closest thing this year to Lundell, in that he’s close to being pro ready, but there are questions about whether he has the upside to be a top 10 pick.

In my limited viewing Nemec just seemed to read the ice so well and was so calm with the puck on his stick. Didn’t look like a specialist to me, more like a guy I can trust in many situations. Not sure if this is the best comparison, and I know he’s more touted for his offence, but I saw a guy I envision as more Heiskanen than Hughes, and those guys are never redundant. Jiricek gives me more of a Nurse/Risto vibe in terms of his style, he’s more physically gifted than mentally. Only my perceptions based on limited exposure. It’s not like I’ve studied either. I just really liked what I saw in Nemec. (Love Chesley - be fine with him at 16 - for all the reasons LGR lists.) This. Another one of the guys catching my eye.

I really wish we were in the range for Cooley and Nemec. The latter is the perfect fit to completing the best U23 top 4 in hockey. The former is everything this team wants to be: fearless, fast, competitive, smart and relentless.

A right-handed D who can defend is what our pipeline needs more than anything else. I’d be OK with him at 16 and ecstatic if he was ours at 28.

Sabres will spending will not be limited by an internal cap, only by a desire not to be handcuffed down the road, or to spend just because they can. I was disappointed Adams was unable to leverage last year’s cap space into anything that could help the team. I’m hoping he will be able to do better this summer and hopeful groundwork has already been laid. He’s so far shown himself to be responsible with his assets and finances, and to be people-friendly. We’ve yet to see him demonstrate anything I would call “clever.”