kovalchuk

[will]

what would you give up from the sabres' entire system for him? he's tipping the scales at $7.5mil and due for a new contract after next season. sabres will have approximately 20mil to play with before locking down their RFAs heading into next year. although a center is the #1 need at this point, it's hard to pass up an opportunity like kovy (LW) when a team is most likely looking to ship him out for a couple of solid up-and-comers and picks. who knows, if he clicked on a line with max, maybe the team resigns him, too...er...nevermind.

 

i'm not talking about cutting dead weight for a superstar, here...i wonder what a serious suggestion might look like (some serious salaries would have to be included on the bus out of town). if i see a peters mention, i'm going to look into the thread deleting process.

 

thoughts?

[tom webster]

what would you give up from the sabres' entire system for him? he's tipping the scales at $7.5mil and due for a new contract after next season. sabres will have approximately 20mil to play with before locking down their RFAs heading into next year. although a center is the #1 need at this point, it's hard to pass up an opportunity like kovy (LW) when a team is most likely looking to ship him out for a couple of solid up-and-comers and picks. who knows, if he clicked on a line with max, maybe the team resigns him, too...er...nevermind.

 

i'm not talking about cutting dead weight for a superstar, here...i wonder what a serious suggestion might look like (some serious salaries would have to be included on the bus out of town). if i see a peters mention, i'm going to look into the thread deleting process.

 

thoughts?

 

I don't know where you, or Dennis Williams for that matter, went to school to learn math but the Sabres do not have $20 million to play with. With the cap increases of Pominville and Miller the team has $41 million in cap space allocated to 7 forwards, 4 defensemen and 2 goalies.

You have Stafford, MacArthur, Kaletta and Sekera all restricted and needing new contracts. If you are conservative and allocate $3 million to those you are now at $44 million on 10, 5 and 2. If you fill up 5 spaces with Kennedy, Gerbe, Butler and Weber and the union decides not ot opt out thereby making bonus money irrelevant you are at $47 million with 12, 7 and 2. That gives you roughly $3 to $5 million to spend on a new center and a very young defense.

[wjag]

Slightly off topic, but I heard this on a broadcast within the last day or so. Ottawa would welcome Mats Sundin in this year. They would have to do some restructuring, but Murray figured he could do it. As a rental at the midway point, he could be just the ticket for a bunch of teams including a team in DESPERATE need of a real center.. If Ottawa could consider it with their payroll, could Buffalo, especially if Buffalo was on the brink of the playoffs?

 

This would be a decent risk-reward investment. If he could have commanded 10M for one season, what could he be had for as a rental? And unlike all the unrealistic trade scenarios out there, this one is about playing environment and cash...

[will]

wow, i didn't realize that nhlnumbers didn't include those extensions in their estimated cap hit for next season (i knew it sounded small). next time, i'll do the math myself. i was also ignoring the cash for those RFAs/UFAs who may or may not get new contracts (i wanted to keep the roster open to all possibilities in this little exercise).

 

alas...