Brawndo

The NCAA has been heading towards this, Jeff Marek mentioned the last holdouts have been the head coaches.. This most likely expedients the process. The USHL most likely will be adversely impacted as the higher end college bound talent can chose the CHL.

This is outstanding GM’ing by Doug Armstrong. The Oilers can put Evander Kane on LTIR, but they will only have the room to match one of them. The compensation is a 2nd for Broberg and a 3rd for Holloway.

Auston Matthews expected to be named Captain of the Maple Leafs on Wednesday

The Athletic Rest of the Ranking 1 Florida 2 Dallas 3 Tampa 4 Utah 5 Vancouver 6 Montreal 7. New Jersey 8. Carolina 9 Colorado 10. Nashville 11. Vegas 12. Chicago 13. San Jose 14 Boston 15 Washington 16 Anaheim 17 New York Rangers 18. Calgary 19. Winnipeg 20, Philadelphia 21. Detroit 22. Ottawa 23. St Louis 24 Minnesota 25. Edmonton 26. Buffalo 27. Seattle 28. Columbus 29. Pittsburgh 30 Toronto 31. Los Angeles 32. New York Islanders

From the Athletic Fan Ranking of NHL Front Offices They dropped from 8th to 26th Buffalo fans deserve better and that starts with a front office that actually spends what it takes to win. That the Sabres bought out Jeff Skinner for immediate cap gain only to not use that money feels like a massive misstep for a team that could use one or two impact players to put them over the top. Buffalo’s unwillingness to loosen up the purse strings has had a profound negative effect on how confident the team’s fans currently feel, putting the Sabres’ vision rightfully in question. In that vein, Buffalo getting a D-grade in both roster building and free agency feels apt. Last year: 8th “If we don’t make another big move and use the remaining cap space for Skinner’s cap space, the Sabres will be one of only two teams in the league that have had at least 7 percent or more of their salary cap unused in each of the last four years. They also have refused to weaponize the cap space to add assets. That’s not a team doing anything they can to win the Cup.”

I double checked the Sabres proposed trade was 17th and Malenstyn for 14th overall. Pick 43 was worth more to the Capitals so that was the deal that was made

Elliotte Friedman tipped the Benson Pick even before the Sabres got to the stage

Per the Athletic, Marek was let go as he was sharing picks with Mark Siedel who runs a NHL Scouting Website and Siedel was sharing them on Twitter before the picks were announced. The league was worried the information could be used for betting even though the legitimate sports betting places close betting for draft picks 24 hours prior to the start of a round. Really a BS reason as multiple people tip picks including some NHL Insiders https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5673003/2024/08/01/jeff-marek-sportsnet-nhl-draft-removed/?source=user_shared_article

Multiple times

Interesting that they offered 14th to Washington in exchange for 17th and Malenstyn.

Columbus is the newest addition to the teams who are participating The Sabres will play Columbus, New Jersey and Pittsburgh

I posted this in another thread Chad first mentioned this around the draft

FWIW Chad DeDominicis has been pretty consistent in stating the Sabres did not have interest in Necas. The conversations were centered around Jack Drury, the trade would have been identical cost to the Edmonton Deal.

Once the decision was made to move on from Skinner, it makes perfect sense. Skinner had 22 million left in actual dollars on his old contract, the buyout cost was $14,666,667 over six years. Trading Him with max retention of 50% would have resulted in the Sabres paying him 11 million over 3 years, over a 3 million dollar savings Chad from Expected Buffalo broke down the Sabres spending over the past four seasons In terms of total dollars spend on player salaries over the past three full years only Arizona spend less. If you include this offseason so far only Arizona and Anaheim have spend less than the Sabres over the past four years. Only Buffalo and Anaheim are the only two teams in the league to have at least 7% or more of their cap space unused in each season. They’ve left a combined $46.4 million in cap space on the board the last four years, even when you adjusted up the number this summer. That’s 13.88% of their cap space that has been left unused during that time. That’s the second-highest in the league behind the Ducks per Expected Buffalo. Arizona has taken cap dumps in exchange for assets. Anaheim has acted as a broker in three team trades. The Sabres have not done either of these things, with the exception of trading for Ben Bishop to get to the cap floor. BTW his salary was covered by insurance since he was on IR. How long do you think Utah’s Owner Ryan Smith is going to allow his franchise to be in the bottom of the league in terms of spending? Pegula has spend money on contract extensions for the young core, but he has not spent enough. No team that his been in the bottom five for spending has made the playoffs, yet a team that finished one point out of the playoffs two seasons ago remains in the bottom five. If you look at the total number of points per dollar spent over the past three seasons Arizona is 25th and Anaheim is 27th, the Sabres are 11th, just ahead of Nashville, Winnipeg and Pittsburgh. That’s reason enough to let the analytics department suggest another specific player to acquire. Donnie’s Contract has 2 years at 1.9 Million left and the Devils are paying half of Lindy’s Deal for the next two years, even if the Sabres are paying him 3 million per that’s around 5 million for the next two seasons. As of now the Sabres are saving 7.5 and 4.5 million over the next two years with the Skinner’s Buyout and that money has not been on spent on any player.

Especially when Pegula wouldn’t authorize any salary retention

50 dollars a piece, the authentic was 150

Took my sons, they bought a couple practice jerseys, Östlund’s name was on one, they got Power and Samuelsson Sticks and a pro game jersey. Those were nice. There were a couple of Novikov Game used sticks as well. That was the first time I ever was in the Sabres Locker Room which was an experience.

I understand that the Bills drive ratings which in turn increases advertising revenues so it makes sense for that to dominate the conversation Listening to them talk about Fantasy Football rather than the Sabres gets old

Jeff Marek who cohosted the 32 Thoughts Podcast with Elliott Friedman and had his own weekday radio show on Sportsnet is no longer with the company. For those of us in the Buffalo Area his radio show was a great alternative to WGR550’s Constant Bills Talk. ( He is also a Sabres Fan. Hopefully he starts his own Podcast or is hired by another media outlet

It was their projected AAV based on the length of number of years in the deal

Worse case scenario Joonas Korpisalo was moved with four years remaining on his deal at an AAV of 4 million, he could be moved if needed

@PerreaultForeveris correct. Pegula was the driving force behind Eichel’s Captaincy

Economic, efficient and effective. Terry used this on the day Botterill was fired and replaced by Adams