DarthEbriate

Ach! Yes, the Capwages list is for this summer's draft/2024 offer window (July/December). Thanks for the catch and correction! I'd have to do a team-by-team look to identify who can make offers.

One random thought: If JBott is planning to Be a Sella for this McKenna Fella.... (It's what he learned in Buffalo, after all) Maybe you could get Adam Larsson to waive his NTC. Just enough tread left on the tires, leader, shot-blocker, and on a nice contract. If Seattle is on the McKenna timeline then Larsson is not part of it. And he'd help them win too many games in 2025-26 anyway. Byram the piece going back.

And add to it that the coach had benched Olofsson the previous season upon Greenway's arrival. So, in addition to temporarily losing Quinn, they had a lame duck scoring forward that they (the coach) didn't want and the fellow players needed to be a different style of player. That's all on GMKA. Now, if you could combine Olofsson and Benson into one Olof Ben Voltronsson, you'd have something.

Regardless of partner, Dahlin is only getting leaguewide recognition and becoming a Norris finalist if they make the playoffs. Until then, he's a great player on a garbage team. The garbagiest of garbage teams. For ROI, getting Power a legitimate partner is the way to go, particularly since the plan is skate him 22 minutes/night. And the partner needs to be able to kill penalties that you don't want Dahlin/Power doing as their primary special team role. Kill two mynocks with one Force-thrown stone.

With the correct center, yes, he could. But that pool of correct centers is about 8 players and none of them are on the Sabres or in their system.

7.5 is the floor, for sure. 8M is likely, and that means Tuch can ask 8 as well on his extension. If you're an opposing GM, $6.872M--$9.1M is a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the 2026 draft. If you're expecting to be a lottery team, then you probably don't offer up your 2026 1st. Edit: Disregard the list below for now, I was looking at the 2024 list.... Here are the teams who currently have their picks that could try to poach him (they can always trade to reacquire their 2026 pick[s]): BUF, CHI, DET, MTL, NSH, NYI, PHI, UTA Of those, Philly, Utah, Montreal are probably the teams that I anticipate not being in the top 10 of the draft next season. I include PHI because they have $26M in cap, plus seven picks in the 1st and 2nd round this year, they can easily move a couple of those to acquire players for next season so that Michkov and Konecny aren't alone. However, if Philly was to target a Sabre, I think McLeod would be a better fit for their roster.

The Capwages site's AFP Analytics estimates either 6 x $6.627M or 2 x $4.221M. I feel both of those are a touch low, without even including the palm trees and income taxes. Anything in the 7-or 8-year range has to be with a floor of $7.5M. Wyatt Johnson is the most recent forward signing of note with a 5 x $8.4M (coming off a 65-point season and in the midst of this year's 33-38-71). Edit: Bah. @LGR4GM beat me to the Capwages estimate.

I like that they were able to get the Flyers endorsement to show their emblem, but not the Sabres. 😇

It stinks to have players that care and live hockey. I don't like Messier for what he became and what he did to the Canucks, but the Sabres would've traded Messier for spare parts while he had been with the Oilers. Instead, they like guys who are happy to be here and and who handle sitting out really well, like Bryson. That's a culture that needs to change. You need an alpha or two somewhere. And the $7M simply determined the timeframe and lack of leverage. With JBott in charge in Seattle, I now have to tell my local friends they can look forward to further good times. Do you think JBott would be open to acquiring his best draft pick for value: one Jacob Bryson? Imagine the bidding war GMKA could drive for him.... Or, more realistically, Byram being from BC and a PMD (he's already gotten Montour for the right side of a pair)... is Seattle now an ideal trade partner for the RFA? Set Vancouver v. Seattle against each other to see who bids higher.

If Adams and Ruff are still the braintrust in 5 months... Yes, Kulich is centering a top 6 line with McLeod as 3C to either be a) the defensively responsible one for JJP/Quinn, or b) to for a defensive matchups line with a combo of Greenway/Zucker/Benson. Power-JBD is pairing two and you hope hope hopehopehope that JBD becomes Hronek. Thus far I've not seen that. I've seen a mild upgrade from Joker and a better shot blocker, but for the folks clamoring for hits, JBD throws fewer hits per 60 than Joker did. He's still not the guy. Samuelsson is Adams' guy. That contract is going to work out, by golly. Eventually that A is going to look just right on the sweater.

One simple JBott issue was following TM. It was two radically different team constructions from heavy/LA-wannabes to puck-moving D/Nashville-wannabe (with Housley). Everybody's gotta have their guys and the switch created a massive roster reset. Luckily, they were gifted the best PMD they could have gotten in Dahlin in JBott's 2nd season. JBott's most glaring error, though, was then pivoting during his own term from Housley to Krueger. Housley was bad, but at least go get a proven NHL retread coach who will coach up the defense but also knows how to handle the puck-moving D and bring out the best with the players you've acquired. Don't hire the motivational speaker who used to coach Switzerland to clog everything down and pray for the goalie to steal World Championship game here or there and whose only NHL season already 6 years in the past resulted in a 19-29 record (19-22-7).

Lots of fun things to do in the Green Bay and greater Fox Cities area.

Yes, he does have more to learn and improve upon; everyone on the roster does. Benson needs to learn how to create space against NHL D-men and to avoid taking as many tripping penalties. He'll learn those in the NHL more quickly than he will being in the AHL. The strength will come with time, the speed and skating can be worked on as we've seen with other prospects. I'm guessing he has the will to put in the work for it. At this point, he'll get better against competition that's going to push him. The cost aspect is in response to your claim to just go find someone to replace him. Benson led the Sabres in Corsi (on-ice shot attempt %). Relative to his teammates, only Dahlin was better. This wasn't a fluke, either, as he as 5th on the team last year (4th if you remove Brett Murray and his 2 GP). This wasn't TNT carrying Benson all season. They didn't give Benson top line minutes until March; early in the season he was on a line with Cozens and Quinn. Paying a forward to give you that sort of puck control is going be expensive. Per MoneyPuck, sorting Forwards by Corsi + 1000 minutes played to get rid of the noise and show Benson's durability. This leaves Benson 57th in the League - just ahead of TNT. Here are the players near him in range 50th-65th: Jason Robertson, Rakell, Crosby, Strome, Raymond, Anders Lee, Kyrou, Benson, TNT, Brayden Point, Kent Johnson, Byfield, Bjorkstrand, Hischier, Caulfield, Marchessault. With the exception of Bjorkstrand, who in Tampa's top 6, that's a $7M UFA acquisition or a massive trade payment to acquire. This ownership won't pay for another top line forward after handling their RFAs. He's young, but he's a NHLer.

Personally, I hope he doesn't like how the board shakes out, so he trades the SEA 1st this season for EDM 1st next season. Classic JBott.