Is this fair?

[BRH]

link

 

What is this? Connolly has to sit for the entire first round if the Sabres declare him out for the regular season? Has the league said this to any other team?

[Supersabre]

link

 

What is this? Connolly has to sit for the entire first round if the Sabres declare him out for the regular season? Has the league said this to any other team?

 

I would think that in the NHL that if this rule does indeed apply to one team it should apply to all.

But then again after the hit on Drury was ruled legal you can't discount anything from this bunch ala Bettman and Campbell. :doh: :wallbash:

[Knightrider]

link

 

What is this? Connolly has to sit for the entire first round if the Sabres declare him out for the regular season? Has the league said this to any other team?

 

 

I look at as more of a green light for the Sabres to go out and get someone. Connolly can still play, just not in the first round.

 

If I were Darcy, I'd hold Max out for the first round instead of Timmy.

[Orange Seats]

link

 

What is this? Connolly has to sit for the entire first round if the Sabres declare him out for the regular season? Has the league said this to any other team?

 

 

This doesn't make any sense. I havent read the CBG, but I've never heard anything like this. I'm not sure the league can make case by case proclamations like this. That guy whose been riding the LTIR pine for NJ better have to sit too, if this is true.

[GrimFandango]

I actually called GR and asked Riter about this tonight. My take would be is that he technically would be ready to play as soon as his stress fracture is healed in a few weeks. He will be injury free when it heals. Granted he will not be in game shape and will need time to condition, but the IR is for injured players, not for players that are out of shape because of injury.

[thesportsbuff]

The thing that confuses me is that everybody is saying, "put timmy on LTIR and use his money!" but hasn't he BEEN on LTIR, and aren't we using his money every day to pay for Amerks in the lineup?

[Samson's Flow]

if this is the case the darcy should use his cap space, since theres no more grey area about whether the league will screw us or not, since they have shown the guidelines. since i would like to have connoly fully conditioned when he comes back, instead of rushing things too soon and having him be at less than 100%. considering that we should be able to get through the first round (this is a big assumption though) having tim come back for the second round and having another vet. player coming in to boost the team (assuming darcy can find the right deal in one day) would make us such a stronger team. just my thoughts

[shrader]

The thing that confuses me is that everybody is saying, "put timmy on LTIR and use his money!" but hasn't he BEEN on LTIR, and aren't we using his money every day to pay for Amerks in the lineup?

 

Yes we are. The idea of bringing someone in is that you'd be bringing in someone better to replace those AHL guys. 3 or 4 of those guys should be pretty close to Connolly's money. I'm not sure whether or not Max or Spacek meet the criteria for LTIR, so there may or may not be enough cap relief available to bring in a decent sized salary.

[Knightrider]

Yes we are. The idea of bringing someone in is that you'd be bringing in someone better to replace those AHL guys. 3 or 4 of those guys should be pretty close to Connolly's money. I'm not sure whether or not Max or Spacek meet the criteria for LTIR, so there may or may not be enough cap relief available to bring in a decent sized salary.

 

Isn't it 10 games and then they can go on LTIR, or was that a misunderstanding by the Sabres (or me) at the beginning of the season?

[rickshaw]

So we bring Timmy C back for the 2nd round. Imagine that. WE just get stronger as we go fwd. I don't mind this.

[Kristian]

So we bring Timmy C back for the 2nd round. Imagine that. WE just get stronger as we go fwd. I don't mind this.

 

There's that little thing known as "getting past the first round" in the way.

 

It's the playoffs, and although The Sabres are probably going to be favorites, at this point nobody knows who we'll be playing, and just automatically assuming we'll advance to the second round is getting a bit ahead of ourselves.

 

At least IMHO.

[inkman]

Isn't time to put all this stuff to bed and just shelve Timmy for the year?

 

I can think of 3 million reasons why.

[Kristian]

Isn't time to put all this stuff to bed and just shelve Timmy for the year?

 

I can think of 3 million reasons why.

 

If Darcy is working on a deal that sends a decent role-rent-a-player to Buffalo for a minimal price, and it just so happens to require him to free up cap space? I'm all for it.

 

Then there's the more likely scenario. Timmy hasn't been shelved for the year because Darcy doesn't need his cap space to make a move, simply because he has to give up too much youth in order to bring in someone to reinforce the team.

 

That said, I have no doubts he's been trying to dump Biron over the last two weeks, but I also fear he wants WAY too much for him.

 

Too bad Kotalik got hurt, he would've been nice to dangle as trade bait. Makes quite a few bucks too, so it certainly would improve our cap situation. I feel with the way the kids from Rochester have stepped up, Kotalik has at the very least been put on notice.

[drnkirishone]

or people are offering way to little for him this season

[wjag]

I look at as more of a green light for the Sabres to go out and get someone. Connolly can still play, just not in the first round.

 

If I were Darcy, I'd hold Max out for the first round instead of Timmy.

I agree. For those of us in the "shut 'er down" camp, this is good news. That gives the GM permission to shop while TC gets a reasonable, non-punitive chance to come back. There are no cap implications once the playoffs start.

 

It also strikes me as too good to be true.

[inkman]

I agree. For those of us in the "shut 'er down" camp, this is good news. That gives the GM permission to shop while TC gets a reasonable, non-punitive chance to come back. There are no cap implications once the playoffs start.

 

It also strikes me as too good to be true.

Darcy has also stated that the league does not want teams to fill up injured players salary cap space with trades only to actvate the healthy players during the playoffs, first round, second round or any round.

[zow2]

Seriously, If Connolly can't play the final 1 or 2 games of the regular season than how could he be THAT much healthier for round 1 or 2 of the playoffs? They either need to play Connolly that final week of the season or shut him down.

[inkman]

Seriously, If Connolly can't play the final 1 or 2 games of the regular season than how could he be THAT much healthier for round 1 or 2 of the playoffs? They either need to play Connolly that final week of the season or shut him down.

...and this decision needs to be made in the next 7 hours and 40 minutes. :rolleyes:

[Corp000085]

considering the link is hockeybuzz, i wouldn't put much stock into it. When connolly heals (which i assume he'll be declared stress fracture free at 3:01 pm today) he'll be ready to play. Darcy has one option that would allow him to play in the first round: play him next week. That'll shut everyone up.

[nfreeman]

Here's my 2 cents:

 

1. the point about sitting for the 1st round isn't just rumor -- Darcy himself said (on one of the interviews linked on the wgr audio vault or sabres.com) that the GMs were advised by the league that any player stashed away on LTIR would be ineligible for the 1st round IF the team used the freed-up cash to acquire another player. This seems like a pretty sensible solution to the loophole to me.

 

2. the main reason I think it's a sensible solution is that it creates a significant deterrent. It would be crazy for a team to stash one of its better players on LTIR on the assumption that they would be able to make it past the 1st round without that player. Remember what happened to Detroit last year? If we get Ottawa or Carolina or Atlanta in the 1st round this year, wouldn't you want all of our guys available? esp. Connolly if he's ready to go? I sure would.

 

3. Regarding Connolly and the movement to "shut him down" for the year -- if Lindy thinks he's ready to help, that's good enough for me. The decision to shut him down will consider whether any player we get by using his salary slot would help us more than Connolly in his current state would. Lindy and Darcy are in a much better position to make this call than we are.

 

4. I think Connolly is going to play and play well. Same goes for Drury, Max and Spacek. If Kotalik and/or Novotny can't go, Stafford and/or Paille are chomping at the bit to get in and contribute. For that matter I wouldn't mind keeping Kaleta up with the Sabres for the playoffs, esp. if we play Ottawa.

 

5. I wouldn't mind picking up a depth defenseman today, but I won't be unhappy if we don't.

 

Go Sabres.

[shrader]

Isn't it 10 games and then they can go on LTIR, or was that a misunderstanding by the Sabres (or me) at the beginning of the season?

 

Yeah, that's it, 10 games or a certain number of days. So both guys should be eligible if they're not already LTIR'ed.

[Taro T]

Here's my 2 cents:

 

1. the point about sitting for the 1st round isn't just rumor -- Darcy himself said (on one of the interviews linked on the wgr audio vault or sabres.com) that the GMs were advised by the league that any player stashed away on LTIR would be ineligible for the 1st round IF the team used the freed-up cash to acquire another player. This seems like a pretty sensible solution to the loophole to me.

 

2. the main reason I think it's a sensible solution is that it creates a significant deterrent. It would be crazy for a team to stash one of its better players on LTIR on the assumption that they would be able to make it past the 1st round without that player. Remember what happened to Detroit last year? If we get Ottawa or Carolina or Atlanta in the 1st round this year, wouldn't you want all of our guys available? esp. Connolly if he's ready to go? I sure would.

 

3. Regarding Connolly and the movement to "shut him down" for the year -- if Lindy thinks he's ready to help, that's good enough for me. The decision to shut him down will consider whether any player we get by using his salary slot would help us more than Connolly in his current state would. Lindy and Darcy are in a much better position to make this call than we are.

 

4. I think Connolly is going to play and play well. Same goes for Drury, Max and Spacek. If Kotalik and/or Novotny can't go, Stafford and/or Paille are chomping at the bit to get in and contribute. For that matter I wouldn't mind keeping Kaleta up with the Sabres for the playoffs, esp. if we play Ottawa.

 

5. I wouldn't mind picking up a depth defenseman today, but I won't be unhappy if we don't.

 

Go Sabres.

It would be very interesting to see the memo / meeting notes of the League's top brass' "advice" to the GM's. The CBA doesn't address this issue other than stating that a player that has been placed on BLTI-IR cannot be returned to the lineup until his return would not put the team over the salary cap. (And taking a minor league conditioning assignment removes a player from BLTI-IR, so you can't give Timmy a conditioning assignment without shuffling some bodies 1st.)

 

I think it's good that the league is trying to maintain the spirit of the rule in this instance, I just wonder why they don't make adjustments to something like this between seasons rather than during them and why, if they will make adjustments during a season, they didn't try to do something in the NJ case to maintain the spirit of the rule rather than just the letter of the law. I also wonder what they are putting in writing about this, and why anyone shouldn't view this as the phantom memo in '99 that gave the league cover to blow a very important call.

 

Regarding Connolly and "shutting him down", there is no mechanism for a team to say "we cannot use this player again this year". The league doesn't have an NFL style IR, where once a player goes on it, he's done. The closest it has is BLTI-IR, which once a player goes on it, he has to miss at least 10 games and 24 days. So regardless of whether the Sabres use Timmy's or Paul's salary to bring in outside players, they can use these guys after salaries no longer count against the salary cap (or at the latest, after the 1st round assuming we are interpreting Darcy's comments correctly).