Ryan Miller denies involvement in trade rumors

[bob_sauve28]

Interesting how it makes it sound as if his wife is the key factor here

[donteatyellowsnow]

1. You might want to check back w/ Yellowsnow on that one.

 

2. You might want to check back w/ Yellowsnow and a few others in this thread (and what seemed like a couple hundred over the summer) on that one.

 

And I really believe that Miller's salary is not preventing the Sabres from bringing in any players from a cap standpoint for all intents and purposes. Not with Pegula as an owner it isn't.

 

I would not put Miller in an untradeable category (for the right price anyone should be available) but I'd have him darn close to it at this time. This team could truly be a couple of players away from being a real contender (granted the 2 guys would have to be very high end). While Enroth MIGHT end up ready to be a #1, I don't see him there yet and his size makes me nervous that teams will figure him out sooner rather than later. I absolutely hope I'm wrong on the last point, and his reflexes might be sharp enough that he can overcome being a midget by NHL standards. If Enroth will be true #1 material, it'll show in 2-3 years, which is right about the time the team will have a decision to make on which goalie they'll want to keep as the #1 moving forward.

 

I absolutely don't want to see the goalie tandem on a regular basis in '11-'12 be Enroth-McIntyre. Though Miller hasn't been stellar through much of this season (and was downright bad just before being hurt), I am fine with Miller-Enroth for now.

 

 

We have a winner. ;)

 

IF there is something to the story, I'll get upset about it when it actually becomes a story. Right now, we're not ever sure that the guy from Edmonton has the concussion portion of the story correct, much less the part about Miller wanting out.

 

 

Haven't liked Miller for a few years now. Always thought everybody gave him too much credit and not enough criticism. I happen to think he is borderline cancer in the locker room. I get there from Miller always slamming his teammates and never himself and always always always sounding mad that he has to answer questions from the media.

 

The part about Pegula and his money? You do know there is a salary cap, right? Even though TP has billions he is only allowed to spend so much on salaries. So, yes with Miller gone it would allow them to buy a $6 million dollar center, with Miller still here they can't do that.

 

Oh yeah, what does Miller bring that Enroth doesn't? Nothing! No brainer to me that moving Miller at the trade deadline is the right move.

[Eleven]

Haven't liked Miller for a few years now. Always thought everybody gave him too much credit and not enough criticism. I happen to think he is borderline cancer in the locker room. I get there from Miller always slamming his teammates and never himself and always always always sounding mad that he has to answer questions from the media.

 

The part about Pegula and his money? You do know there is a salary cap, right? Even though TP has billions he is only allowed to spend so much on salaries. So, yes with Miller gone it would allow them to buy a $6 million dollar center, with Miller still here they can't do that.

 

Oh yeah, what does Miller bring that Enroth doesn't? Nothing! No brainer to me that moving Miller at the trade deadline is the right move.

 

There are several reasons why the above is just so, so wrong:

 

1. He's been criticized plenty (although idolized during the USA Olympic campaign) and you have no idea who or what he is in the locker room. You've never heard him call out a teammate by name, and neither have I. We've both heard him call out the team, which is fine. I can't think of an instance where it was undeserved, and why not?

 

2. I'm pretty sure that everyone that's been posting here since you were eating yellow snow two years ago realizes that there is a salary cap.

 

3. If you're going to move MIller, why wait until the deadline? Why not get more now than less later?

 

Very little of what you said made sense, except for that fact that you don't like Miller and haven't for a few years. That's fine; I won't argue preferences. But the rest? Bosh.

[Robviously]

1. You might want to check back w/ Yellowsnow on that one.

 

2. You might want to check back w/ Yellowsnow and a few others in this thread (and what seemed like a couple hundred over the summer) on that one.

 

And I really believe that Miller's salary is not preventing the Sabres from bringing in any players from a cap standpoint for all intents and purposes. Not with Pegula as an owner it isn't.

 

I would not put Miller in an untradeable category (for the right price anyone should be available) but I'd have him darn close to it at this time. This team could truly be a couple of players away from being a real contender (granted the 2 guys would have to be very high end). While Enroth MIGHT end up ready to be a #1, I don't see him there yet and his size makes me nervous that teams will figure him out sooner rather than later. I absolutely hope I'm wrong on the last point, and his reflexes might be sharp enough that he can overcome being a midget by NHL standards. If Enroth will be true #1 material, it'll show in 2-3 years, which is right about the time the team will have a decision to make on which goalie they'll want to keep as the #1 moving forward.

So basically you confused YellowSnow with the entire city of Buffalo? He's the big outlier on this board. Maybe you could add a few of the losers who call the WGR Whiner Line to your list, but overall it's not a significant chunk of the fan base that hates Miller and wants to trade him just for the sake of trading him.

 

Also, you can't say that the Sabres are TWO "very high end" players away from being "a real contender" and, at the same time, say Miller's salary isn't preventing any player moves. He makes $6M a year and we're at the salary cap now. We can't add anyone, either high end or very high end, without finding some more room under the cap.

[Eleven]

So basically you confused YellowSnow with the entire city of Buffalo? He's the big outlier on this board. Maybe you could add a few of the losers who call the WGR Whiner Line to your list, but overall it's not a significant chunk of the fan base that hates Miller and wants to trade him just for the sake of trading him.

 

Also, you can't say that the Sabres are TWO "very high end" players away from being "a real contender" and, at the same time, say Miller's salary isn't preventing any player moves. He makes $6M a year and we're at the salary cap now. We can't add anyone, either high end or very high end, without finding some more room under the cap.

 

Respectfully, I believe that you may have misread much of Taro's post.

[X. Benedict]

1. I don't think anyone "hates" Miller.

2. I don't think anyone wants to move him just for the sake of moving him. Every thread about trading him is always about what we could get in return for him and/or if Enroth could do the job in his place after this hypothetical trade.

 

Too bad we can't talk about Enroth independently of Miller....

 

But my worries about Enroth carrying the mail for 60 plus games would be these two things mainly...

 

1) His pad saves rarely go to the corners. Which I think is his biggest flaw at the moment.

2) He makes a lot of unnecessary saves on shots outside the net with his glove, which give teams the zone on the face-off.

 

I think the #2 is easily correctable. The first .....well.....its no final word, but a lot of those pad saves are popping back into the slot rather than sliding harmlessly into the corners.

[Bmwolf21]

So basically you confused YellowSnow with the entire city of Buffalo? He's the big outlier on this board. Maybe you could add a few of the losers who call the WGR Whiner Line to your list, but overall it's not a significant chunk of the fan base that hates Miller and wants to trade him just for the sake of trading him.

He may be the outlier on this board (and to be fair, there are and have been plenty of Miller haters/bashers/whatever you want to call them on this board - PA was one; Hopeful is another) but I have seen more than enough "Sabres fans" on my Facebook and Twitter pages/feeds who constantly attack everything Miller. From what I have seen there is a large segment of the fanbase that hates him and everything about him.

[Eleven]

He may be the outlier on this board (and to be fair, there are and have been plenty of Miller haters/bashers/whatever you want to call them on this board - PA was one; Hopeful is another) but I have seen more than enough "Sabres fans" on my Facebook and Twitter pages/feeds who constantly attack everything Miller. From what I have seen there is a large segment of the fanbase that hates him and everything about him.

 

I don't think it's a large segment. I think it's a vocal minority. Damn, when his name is announced at the F'N Center, the place goes nuts. The applause is loud for ETHRON (did we get away from that? why?) but it is much, much louder for #30. And just wait until his first home game back. The roof will come off.

[Bmwolf21]

I don't think it's a large segment. I think it's a vocal minority. Damn, when his name is announced at the F'N Center, the place goes nuts. The applause is loud for ETHRON (did we get away from that? why?) but it is much, much louder for #30. And just wait until his first home game back. The roof will come off.

Maybe. Not gonna argue with you - I could notice them more because they're the ones yelling the most.

[Taro T]

So basically you confused YellowSnow with the entire city of Buffalo? He's the big outlier on this board. Maybe you could add a few of the losers who call the WGR Whiner Line to your list, but overall it's not a significant chunk of the fan base that hates Miller and wants to trade him just for the sake of trading him.

 

Also, you can't say that the Sabres are TWO "very high end" players away from being "a real contender" and, at the same time, say Miller's salary isn't preventing any player moves. He makes $6M a year and we're at the salary cap now. We can't add anyone, either high end or very high end, without finding some more room under the cap.

1st off, I'm not the one using absolutes; you might want to look into the mirror on your initial criticism of my post. My initial comment wasn't directed towards you specifically; though your reaction to my posts makes me wonder if maybe you saw it hitting a little closer to the mark than I'd have imagined.

 

And, with Pegula's $'s, there are ways (front loaded contracts, burying guys in the AHL, letting guys play in Europe) to get high $'d players onto the roster while skirting the cap. His ~$6MM cap hit isn't keeping the team from making moves. HE is keeping the team from having to ride a single goalie WAAAAY too much (assuming he gets healthy soon) and if he doesn't get healthy soon, his salary isn't adversely effecting the ability to bring in additional salary either. If Pegula wants the team to make a move and the hockey people expect it to help the team, then a move will be made. We are no longer living under the TG/LQ personal salary cap; nor does this team follow Ralph Wilson's 'cash to the cap' mantra. The team is paying out a LOT of money this season but somehow are still under the salary cap; if they decide they want an additional toy, well most likely Boyes is moving to Penfield, Miller doesn't have to move out (regardless of what Mike Schopp might believe).

 

A reasonable backup for Enroth (and with his inexperience, if the Sabres are going for the Stanley Cup, they'd BETTER have at minimum a reasonable backup for him, unless you like the Phlyers' model - spend everything on your top line and D-pair and bring in a few ECHLers to backstop it all) will cost at least $1MM, probably more likely ~$1.5MM-2MM. So at most, by trading Miller the team is freeing up $5MM. If you are getting a top end player coming back in a trade and his salary is only $5MM, you are sending out an awful lot of youth and the future to get him. There's 9 guys counting $4MM+ against the salary cap and 2 more counting $3MM+, and you appear to see Miller as the impediment to making roster moves? Really?

 

Unless there is a 'knock my socks off offer' I believe that Miller is more valuable to this team (and Enroth as well) than whatever forward they'd get coming back for him.

[CallawaySabres]

This team needs Miller and even though I think he is a baby, the subject of trading him is ridiculous. Only teams with Stanley Cup rosters don't need two good goalies. Miller gives this team the chance to win the Cup if he can get out of his own head again......

[Weave]

The league's GM's just had a meeting that was predominantly used to discuss contact with goaltenders. Most of the GM's agreed that starting goalies are too rare and too valuable to allow them to get hit.

 

But what a strange dichotomy we have here. Goalies generally don't bring back trade value commensurate with their rarity and value to the team. The last two elite level goalies to be traded that I can think of, Patrick Roy and Eddie Belfour, were both traded for three players of marginal impact. That's two of the best goalies of their era, perennial all stars and HOF caliber players, traded for Chris Terreri, Michal Sykora, Ulf Dahlen, Jocylen Thibault, Martin Rucinsky, and Andre Kovalenko. Yawn. More recently, Luongo has been traded twice, each time for players of little impact. He went to FL for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha, and moved to Van for Todd Bertuzzi, Bryan Allen, and Alex Auld. Keep in mind that he was packaged with other pieces in both trades to get those returns.

 

I suppose trading Miller might be a great idea if we were an Ulf Dahlen and Michal Sykora away from being contenders.

 

I'm an advocate for the idea that surplus talent at a given position should be traded away to shore up other areas. The Tom Barrasso trade for Doug Bodger and Darrin Shannon being a good example. But I don't think Miller is going to bring back what this team needs, a top 2 center / top 6 forward with tenacity, size, and scoring ability. And now that he has a concussion I am sure his trade value has dropped further.

[Robviously]

1st off, I'm not the one using absolutes; you might want to look into the mirror on your initial criticism of my post. My initial comment wasn't directed towards you specifically; though your reaction to my posts makes me wonder if maybe you saw it hitting a little closer to the mark than I'd have imagined.

Nope, just think you're overreacting to a vocal minority. And that it's not a Buffalo thing. Every city has loud, whiny fans with wacky opinions.

 

And, with Pegula's $'s, there are ways (front loaded contracts, burying guys in the AHL, letting guys play in Europe) to get high $'d players onto the roster while skirting the cap. His ~$6MM cap hit isn't keeping the team from making moves. HE is keeping the team from having to ride a single goalie WAAAAY too much (assuming he gets healthy soon) and if he doesn't get healthy soon, his salary isn't adversely effecting the ability to bring in additional salary either. If Pegula wants the team to make a move and the hockey people expect it to help the team, then a move will be made. We are no longer living under the TG/LQ personal salary cap; nor does this team follow Ralph Wilson's 'cash to the cap' mantra. The team is paying out a LOT of money this season but somehow are still under the salary cap; if they decide they want an additional toy, well most likely Boyes is moving to Penfield, Miller doesn't have to move out (regardless of what Mike Schopp might believe).

I think you're overestimating how easy it would be to skirt the salary cap. Who would we be hiding down in the AHL if we needed to add another $6-7M contract for a very high end player right now?

 

A reasonable backup for Enroth (and with his inexperience, if the Sabres are going for the Stanley Cup, they'd BETTER have at minimum a reasonable backup for him, unless you like the Phlyers' model - spend everything on your top line and D-pair and bring in a few ECHLers to backstop it all) will cost at least $1MM, probably more likely ~$1.5MM-2MM. So at most, by trading Miller the team is freeing up $5MM. If you are getting a top end player coming back in a trade and his salary is only $5MM, you are sending out an awful lot of youth and the future to get him. There's 9 guys counting $4MM+ against the salary cap and 2 more counting $3MM+, and you appear to see Miller as the impediment to making roster moves? Really?

Not "the" impediment but his contract is an impediment, just like any big contract would be to any team. When you pay a player that much, it factors into everything else you can do with the roster.

 

Unless there is a 'knock my socks off offer' I believe that Miller is more valuable to this team (and Enroth as well) than whatever forward they'd get coming back for him.

Well, yeah. This goes back to my main point: there's basically no momentum behind the idea of trading Miller now. His value is the lowest its ever been post-lockout (maybe ever) so you wouldn't get fair value. Even if you believe a trade could exist where we move Miller, bring back someone good, and move forward as Enroth as the no.1, there's no way in hell that trade exists right now. And I don't think any significant number of fans wants to trade him just to be rid of him.

[Robviously]

The league's GM's just had a meeting that was predominantly used to discuss contact with goaltenders. Most of the GM's agreed that starting goalies are too rare and too valuable to allow them to get hit.

 

But what a strange dichotomy we have here. Goalies generally don't bring back trade value commensurate with their rarity and value to the team. The last two elite level goalies to be traded that I can think of, Patrick Roy and Eddie Belfour, were both traded for three players of marginal impact. That's two of the best goalies of their era, perennial all stars and HOF caliber players, traded for Chris Terreri, Michal Sykora, Ulf Dahlen, Jocylen Thibault, Martin Rucinsky, and Andre Kovalenko. Yawn. More recently, Luongo has been traded twice, each time for players of little impact. He went to FL for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha, and moved to Van for Todd Bertuzzi, Bryan Allen, and Alex Auld. Keep in mind that he was packaged with other pieces in both trades to get those returns.

 

I suppose trading Miller might be a great idea if we were an Ulf Dahlen and Michal Sykora away from being contenders.

 

I'm an advocate for the idea that surplus talent at a given position should be traded away to shore up other areas. The Tom Barrasso trade for Doug Bodger and Darrin Shannon being a good example. But I don't think Miller is going to bring back what this team needs, a top 2 center / top 6 forward with tenacity, size, and scoring ability. And now that he has a concussion I am sure his trade value has dropped further.

Bingo. There may have been a time when Miller could have fetched us something really valuable (a player you just described or a prospect that would turn into that player), but this isn't it.

[HopefulFuture]

The league's GM's just had a meeting that was predominantly used to discuss contact with goaltenders. Most of the GM's agreed that starting goalies are too rare and too valuable to allow them to get hit.

 

But what a strange dichotomy we have here. Goalies generally don't bring back trade value commensurate with their rarity and value to the team. The last two elite level goalies to be traded that I can think of, Patrick Roy and Eddie Belfour, were both traded for three players of marginal impact. That's two of the best goalies of their era, perennial all stars and HOF caliber players, traded for Chris Terreri, Michal Sykora, Ulf Dahlen, Jocylen Thibault, Martin Rucinsky, and Andre Kovalenko. Yawn. More recently, Luongo has been traded twice, each time for players of little impact. He went to FL for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha, and moved to Van for Todd Bertuzzi, Bryan Allen, and Alex Auld. Keep in mind that he was packaged with other pieces in both trades to get those returns.

 

I suppose trading Miller might be a great idea if we were an Ulf Dahlen and Michal Sykora away from being contenders.

 

I'm an advocate for the idea that surplus talent at a given position should be traded away to shore up other areas. The Tom Barrasso trade for Doug Bodger and Darrin Shannon being a good example. But I don't think Miller is going to bring back what this team needs, a top 2 center / top 6 forward with tenacity, size, and scoring ability. And now that he has a concussion I am sure his trade value has dropped further.

Neither Roy nor Belfour were good examples here to be honest.

Roy was going due to tension with the staff, his trade was put together rather hastily.

And Belfour refused a contract extension, mitigating his worth.

 

Combine this with the era of hockey, the dreaded trap era and it becomes more obvious why the worth of netminders was not at it's peak.

[Taro T]

The league's GM's just had a meeting that was predominantly used to discuss contact with goaltenders. Most of the GM's agreed that starting goalies are too rare and too valuable to allow them to get hit.

 

But what a strange dichotomy we have here. Goalies generally don't bring back trade value commensurate with their rarity and value to the team. The last two elite level goalies to be traded that I can think of, Patrick Roy and Eddie Belfour, were both traded for three players of marginal impact. That's two of the best goalies of their era, perennial all stars and HOF caliber players, traded for Chris Terreri, Michal Sykora, Ulf Dahlen, Jocylen Thibault, Martin Rucinsky, and Andre Kovalenko. Yawn. More recently, Luongo has been traded twice, each time for players of little impact. He went to FL for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha, and moved to Van for Todd Bertuzzi, Bryan Allen, and Alex Auld. Keep in mind that he was packaged with other pieces in both trades to get those returns.

 

I suppose trading Miller might be a great idea if we were an Ulf Dahlen and Michal Sykora away from being contenders.

 

I'm an advocate for the idea that surplus talent at a given position should be traded away to shore up other areas. The Tom Barrasso trade for Doug Bodger and Darrin Shannon being a good example. But I don't think Miller is going to bring back what this team needs, a top 2 center / top 6 forward with tenacity, size, and scoring ability. And now that he has a concussion I am sure his trade value has dropped further.

And Grant Fuhr brought a Vezina runner-up, the 1st player to score 50 in the season he was traded and the 12th pick in the draft who turned into a very solid defenseman. How much you get for him depends on whether you're the one desperate to move the goalie or is the other guy desperate to get the goalie.

 

I don't think that goalies necessarily bring back a low return, I think it's more of a case of teams that are really relying on a guy won't cut him loose unless there are extenuating circumstances (Roy was NOT going to play for Tremblay after his last game in Moe-ray-all. Houle was desperate to get something for him) and if a team is really relying on the guy and there aren't extenuating circumstances, you'll probably have to give up too much off your roster to pry him away and it won't make sense from the standpoint of creating too large a hole (or too many holes) elsewhere.

 

And if a team ISN'T really relying on the guy, then why would you want to give up a lot to get him anyway?

 

Lundqvist isn't going anywhere because the Strangers won't cut him loose for anything short of a king's ransom. And nobody's going to go overspending for the Ray Emerys of this world.

 

I expect that you are correct and that Miller is worth more as a Sabre than he'd be worth in what came back to the Sabres.

[dudacek]

I will bet Matheson's source close to the club is a Buffalo media person.

And I bet what he heard was not knowledge, but speculation based on his marriage, his injury, and his disdain for the media.

The quote smacks of Matheson overhearing somebody speculating about Miller's status, asking a buddy in the Buffalo media,

And getting "you could be right" as a response.

Voila, filler for your around the NHL column.

[Robviously]

I will bet Matheson's source close to the club is a Buffalo media person.

And I bet what he heard was not knowledge, but speculation based on his marriage, his injury, and his disdain for the media.

The quote smacks of Matheson overhearing somebody speculating about Miller's status, asking a buddy in the Buffalo media,

And getting "you could be right" as a response.

Voila, filler for your around the NHL column.

According to Spndchz (Post #1), Matheson is the guy who broke the story about Pegula coming to B-Lo. So he may be more credible than your average NHL columnist.

[Eleven]

According to Spndchz (Post #1), Matheson is the guy who broke the story about Pegula coming to B-Lo. So he may be more credible than your average NHL columnist.

 

They all need to fill space sometimes.

[Taro T]

Nope, just think you're overreacting to a vocal minority. And that it's not a Buffalo thing. Every city has loud, whiny fans with wacky opinions.

Sorry, go back and reread my original post which you initially replied to. I commented that the 'run the starter out of town' goes back a long time; you apparently juxtaposed that to suggest a majority (perhaps even a significant majority) want Miller gone. I also commented that considering where the goaltending has been for the better part of the past decade that the sentiment is significantly misguided (at the least).

 

I don't see where I'm overreacting. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. It seems that you are reading things in my posts that aren't there.

 

I think you're overestimating how easy it would be to skirt the salary cap. Who would we be hiding down in the AHL if we needed to add another $6-7M contract for a very high end player right now?

I'm not a real big fan of saying we should send so-and-so down or what not, as we don't know who'll be gelling with their linemates when the hypothetical trade were to occur; and we don't know what the Sabres would have to give up to complete this hypothetical trade.

 

That stated, I'll play along. The obvious 1st choice at present would be Boyes. That gets you ~60% of the way there. There are at least 3 options on the 2nd player to get buried; I wouldn't want to commit to 1 right now, but were the trade to happen in the next few weeks, I'd probably go w/ Stafford and that would give me enough space to bring another young guy up from Ra-cha-cha to fill the other open roster spot.

 

 

 

Not "the" impediment but his contract is an impediment, just like any big contract would be to any team. When you pay a player that much, it factors into everything else you can do with the roster.

 

Well, yeah. This goes back to my main point: there's basically no momentum behind the idea of trading Miller now. His value is the lowest its ever been post-lockout (maybe ever) so you wouldn't get fair value. Even if you believe a trade could exist where we move Miller, bring back someone good, and move forward as Enroth as the no.1, there's no way in hell that trade exists right now. And I don't think any significant number of fans wants to trade him just to be rid of him.

And again, I think you are reading a lot of things into my posts that are not there.

[Taro T]

Or something to that effect...

Jim Matheson, Edmonton Journal

 

 

Jim's the same guy who first started the talk of TPegs coming to B-lo so I figured I'd post this.

 

Miller has a MNTC and isn't worth much right now IMO.

Was it Matheson or Dupont from the Boston Globe that first started that talk? People in the original Pegula thread were stating that Dupont broke the PSU/Pegula story. And it was a link to a Dupont article that started that thread. Though a Matheson link was also on the 1st page.

[X. Benedict]

According to Spndchz (Post #1), Matheson is the guy who broke the story about Pegula coming to B-Lo. So he may be more credible than your average NHL columnist.

 

such an awkward sentence though....

 

We keep hearing (1st person plural - including readers and the author? Common knowledge?) that Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller is out with a concussion and (what a bizarre conjunction of fact and speculation) wouldn’t mind (really?) if the Sabres traded him.

 

 

I didn't pay much mind to this sentence because it is such a train-wreck of syntax that it is beyond anything purposefully vague.

 

We (no antecedent - who is we?)

keep hearing (continuous present - again and again? From who?)

that (relative clause)

Buffalo Sabres RM is out with a concussion (common knowledge ho-hum)

and (wait for totally unbalanced conjuction)

wouldn't mind if the Sabres traded him. (nuclear bomb method of hiding the news in a relative clause?)

[nbash]

I have worked in the entertainment industry for a long time and let me tell you something, the minute I read that Miller married an actress I knew it was nothing but trouble. It's a long distance, two- prima Donna world he has built and she will drive him crazy.

[HopefulFuture]

Word out of sportnet and realkypros is that Anaheim is shopping bobby ryan.

Interesting.....

[nfreeman]

A reasonable backup for Enroth (and with his inexperience, if the Sabres are going for the Stanley Cup, they'd BETTER have at minimum a reasonable backup for him, unless you like the Phlyers' model - spend everything on your top line and D-pair and bring in a few ECHLers to backstop it all) will cost at least $1MM, probably more likely ~$1.5MM-2MM. So at most, by trading Miller the team is freeing up $5MM. If you are getting a top end player coming back in a trade and his salary is only $5MM, you are sending out an awful lot of youth and the future to get him. There's 9 guys counting $4MM+ against the salary cap and 2 more counting $3MM+, and you appear to see Miller as the impediment to making roster moves? Really?

 

Unless there is a 'knock my socks off offer' I believe that Miller is more valuable to this team (and Enroth as well) than whatever forward they'd get coming back for him.

I suppose trading Miller might be a great idea if we were an Ulf Dahlen and Michal Sykora away from being contenders.

 

I'm an advocate for the idea that surplus talent at a given position should be traded away to shore up other areas. The Tom Barrasso trade for Doug Bodger and Darrin Shannon being a good example. But I don't think Miller is going to bring back what this team needs, a top 2 center / top 6 forward with tenacity, size, and scoring ability. And now that he has a concussion I am sure his trade value has dropped further.

I will bet Matheson's source close to the club is a Buffalo media person.

And I bet what he heard was not knowledge, but speculation based on his marriage, his injury, and his disdain for the media.

The quote smacks of Matheson overhearing somebody speculating about Miller's status, asking a buddy in the Buffalo media,

And getting "you could be right" as a response.

Voila, filler for your around the NHL column.

Good stuff here boys.

 

I have worked in the entertainment industry for a long time and let me tell you something, the minute I read that Miller married an actress I knew it was nothing but trouble. It's a long distance, two- prima Donna world he has built and she will drive him crazy.

On the other hand, it's hard to shake the feeling that this is also correct.

 

Word out of sportnet and realkypros is that Anaheim is shopping bobby ryan.

Interesting.....

Link? This sounds like more "we keep hearing" BS.