IKnowPhysics

Yep. Also assumes no correlation of performance between seasons for any teams (ie a team that's good one season will likely be somewhat good the next season).

FTFY Original point stands, however.

Leafs radio driving clicks by exploiting Buffalo's misery? Say it ain't so. John says nay, likely.

My neck My back My GM and my coach

On average, if all teams are treated the same (they're not, especially Canadian teams) the 25 games on ABC/ESPN is about 1.5 games per season for any team. The 75 games is about 4.7 games per team per season. I'd ballpark Buffalo, due to our high relative ratings and American market, around 1 ABC game, 2 ESPN games, and 5 ESPN+/Hulu games. We'd likely be flexed a bit on the ABC games based on team performance. Compare the 100 total regular season games for this deal to NBC's expiring deal for 109 regular season games last season, in which the Sabres had five games last year on NBCSN.

Matt Irwin: top pair defenseman.

https://www.sportico.com/business/media/2021/espn-nhl-on-verge-of-new-media-rights-deal-1234624492/ NBC currently pays ~$200M/year for the whole shebangabang, but the ESPN contract equate to roughly $285M-$321M/year for only whatever ESPN is getting rights to (NBCUniversal/Comcast is also expected to sign a new contract and retain significant content for big dollars). That's a shitload of cash. The increased expenditure makes me hopeful that television production budgets will be first rate, visibility will be high, and the game will experience growth. However, two contracts makes me weary that we may need to subscribe to Peacock and ESPN+ to get 100% Sabres coverage. We'll see.

FYI, ESPN+ is currently $5.99 per month or $59.99 annually. Unknown if NHL out-of-market games will be tiered into a separate subscription/price. It'd be nice if it only cost $60/year, as NHL.tv/NHL Center Ice was about ~$160 for the regular 82 game season (and didn't include games broadcast on NBCSN or NBC). I'm hoping that whoever else gets the remaining unnegotiated national TV rights doesn't also force games onto a streaming-only cable+ subscription.

Theses current TV negotiations are for US markets/providers only, I believe. Canada still has their remaining exclusivity deals.

No need. The brim of the hat does that when we hang our heads in shame.

No reason to stop the party. These hats are perhaps more relevant now than ever.

In case anyone thinks these are new, btw, they've been around since summer of 2019.

I mean, it takes remarkable courage to do what everyone in franchise history knew better not to do: put the B and the S next to each other.

It's perfect. I love it.

Incorrect. First, ABC is the national broadcast partner for ESPN (as they're also owned by the mouse). Second, the speculation in the article says that the deal with ESPN is not an exclusive deal and that at least some broadcast rights are expected to be sold to a different carrier. The NHL knows that viewers = growth = sponsors = money. They're going to have nationally broadcast games. They're going to have games on cable providers. They're going to have games on regional sports networks. They're going to have games on streaming services.

My first post in this thread was moderated into oblivion, so here's the kiddie version.

This could be interesting. Not necessarily good, but interesting. I feel good about Cozens. I feel bad for Rieder.

"... mentions Sam Reinhart's name." Or, you know, the best performing forward on the team this year, which among the only few functioning player assets, would be ripe for the vultures' trade offers. When a team loses as badly as this, other teams' GMs smell blood and go for the throat. Sam's not untradeable, but he's also our best player right now. Can you improve the team by trading your best player? Strongly depends. Takeaway: KA needs to exercise extreme caution if trading Eichel, Reinhart, Dahlin, and probably Risto.

Narrator: It did not start this afternoon.

Good presser. It's good to hear verifying testimony that the GM's extremely pissed, completely empowered, and seeing the same problems as the rest of us. It also sounds like the GM's constantly working solutions and is being proactive going into the trade deadline. He knows, probably from his player experience, who is willing to do the job and who isn't. I can't get a good read on what he's thinking on Ralph- they need to work as a team so he won't throw Ralph under the bus, but he's also constantly evaluating Ralph's performance (which can't be good for Ralph). I think he's atrributing the failures more on the players than the coach, but I think he's keeping his criticism of Ralph to himself and weilding the team's performance as a the metric. If KA is as pissed at it he wants us to believe, I think we're looking at significant player trade (not Eichel) and a possible, but not certain, coaching change. To that, I think he may trade players pre-deadline and give Ralph a renewed trial period with the new players until the end of the year.

This is pleasing. JJ gets tonight and likely at least one of Saturday/Sunday (unless Tokarski is called). More importantly, it means we likely won't see Hutton more than once against NYI, if at all.

For all the pissing and moaning about ownership, do not overlook the most important contribution from the Pegulas: financial stability and keeping the team in Buffalo. That said, I expect that they could retain majority ownership and still make that contribution.