Ryan Callahan - person of interest

[LTS]

I reached out to the grapevine, good source says he did in fact just build a very large home in Mendon. Sugar Packets used to make that commute for game nights.

 

I agree, don't give up any players. Sign as UFA. Then mix in either or both Giontas, Dustin Brown, Orpik, who else, Kennedy for 4th line? All WNY team. Would be so awesome.

 

Nice. Perhaps I will run into him around town in the offseason. That would be cool. Good for him. Mendon is awesome. :) It'd be nice if he chose to play locally for personal reasons. Horton chose Columbus because he wanted a smaller city to play in. Players do things for various reasons. Still don't know what it would take to get him in the offseason.

[Hoss]

@BuffNewsVogl: Sabres have not inquired about Rangers' Callahan, source says http://t.co/BG5LqAD8we

[inkman]

@BuffNewsVogl: Sabres have not inquired about Rangers' Callahan, source says http://t.co/BG5LqAD8we

:rolleyes:

[LTS]

Well, if that's true then it makes you wonder what their plan would be going forward. Until some moves are made I don't think we know exactly how Tim Murray and Craig Patrick see this team. I'm dying to know. :)

[TrueBlueGED]

Well, if that's true then it makes you wonder what their plan would be going forward. Until some moves are made I don't think we know exactly how Tim Murray and Craig Patrick see this team. I'm dying to know. :)

 

McDavid/Eichel :)

[dudacek]

I would still be happy to see Callahan on this team next year, but I would not trade anything significant for him and am less willing to overpay than I was a few days ago.

[inkman]

If Callahan was from Grand Rapids, are we even having this discussion?

[nfreeman]

I would still be happy to see Callahan on this team next year, but I would not trade anything significant for him and am less willing to overpay than I was a few days ago.

 

Why?

[Hoss]

If Callahan was from Grand Rapids, are we even having this discussion?

 

Nope.

 

EDIT: well probably, just on a much smaller scale.

Edited February 2, 2014 by Tankalicious

[SwampD]

If Callahan was from Grand Rapids, are we even having this discussion?

Yes, but only because we pronounce Ryan Callahan the same as him.

[inkman]

I like Ryan Callahan. I sat across from him at a wedding a few years back. Very humble and nice kid. I would have no problem with him on my team. Spending double what he's worth to get him here isn't going to help this team. We desperately need offense. He brings a modest amount. If they can get him here at market value, I'm all for it but to give him $7 mill would be insane.

[Huckleberry]

5-6 million isn't that much insane to me though, hell i'd pay him 7 mill first two years and have it scale down over time.

[LGR4GM]

Top 50 NHL caphits

http://www.capgeek.com/leaders/?type=CAP_HIT

 

Top 50 NHL salaries

http://www.capgeek.com/leaders/?type=SALARY

[dudacek]

 

Why?

 

I like him and want him for the intangibles. Kids need someone like that to show them the way.

I'm OK with him being overpaid now because we have all kinds of room under the cap and I would rather spend it on a player like that than a couple third-liners and reclamation projects. We literally have two top-nine forwards,if you count Stafford, under contract next year. The choices in free agency aren't very promising.

 

My fear is the Chris Drury scenario. What if Callahan has too many miles on him? What if he brings to us what Drury brought the Rangers? I'm scared that instead of three or four years of solid play, where his leadership helps show the kids the way, we get a guy already past his prime who isn't in the lineup enough to make a difference, and gets too frustrated by his own lack of production to be a mentor. This isn't a guy who can create offence on his own.

 

I'm hoping he stays healthy and meshes with Hodgson or Ennis, or Reinhart, and I still take the risk, but I am no longer at "what do we got to lose."

[nfreeman]

I like him and want him for the intangibles. Kids need someone like that to show them the way.

I'm OK with him being overpaid now because we have all kinds of room under the cap and I would rather spend it on a player like that than a couple third-liners and reclamation projects. We literally have two top-nine forwards,if you count Stafford, under contract next year. The choices in free agency aren't very promising.

 

My fear is the Chris Drury scenario. What if Callahan has too many miles on him? What if he brings to us what Drury brought the Rangers? I'm scared that instead of three or four years of solid play, where his leadership helps show the kids the way, we get a guy already past his prime who isn't in the lineup enough to make a difference, and gets too frustrated by his own lack of production to be a mentor. This isn't a guy who can create offence on his own.

 

I'm hoping he stays healthy and meshes with Hodgson or Ennis, or Reinhart, and I still take the risk, but I am no longer at "what do we got to lose."

 

Well, it's a reasonable concern, but Drury's story with the Rangers was really more about a series of serious injuries than about wear and tear and running out of gas.

 

Drury gave the Rangers 25 goals and 22 goals in his 1st 2 years -- during which the Rangers were 28th and 16th in the NHL in scoring. Then, he suffered a pretty significant concussion early in his 3rd year there, as a result of which he couldn't exercise for 2 weeks. He rushed back because the team was slumping without him and wasn't right all year -- although he didn't miss another game that year. His production dropped to 14 goals and 18 assists. He still played 77 games for them that year (after playing 82 and 81 in his first 2 years).

 

He then suffered a debilitating hand injury and a debilitating knee injury -- not really "wear and tear" type injuries -- and played only 24 more games as a Ranger.

 

It's also worth noting that Drury was 31 when he started with the Rangers. Callahan will be 29 when he starts next season.

[LTS]

McDavid/Eichel :)

 

There's just too much that can go wrong between now and then to completely rely upon that as a strategy. There are plenty of other teams that may be feeling the same way that are older. I know we all want that (although I'm less enamored after watching McDavid play in the WJHCs). Even then, if they finish 3rd last in the league next year and don't win the lottery... or a significant injury occurs to one of those two.. or... just too much. Perhaps they will be lucky enough to have two chances at the top pick (the Islanders seem screwed up enough to help the cause).

 

I'm waiting to see the moves with the current roster. It's the first time someone new has really evaluated this talent pool.

[Hoss]

The strategy isn't "McDavid/Eichel," though. So many discount it. Us fans say that because we'd love to have them. The strategy moreover appears to be putting the team in a high draft position to draft good players for a year or two which is where you find good players. It just so happens that the ultimate prize is two world-class players. They could draft at five next year and feel good about the selections they've made enough to start competing.

[dudacek]

The strategy isn't "McDavid/Eichel," though. So many discount it. Us fans say that because we'd love to have them. The strategy moreover appears to be putting the team in a high draft position to draft good players for a year or two which is where you find good players. It just so happens that the ultimate prize is two world-class players. They could draft at five next year and feel good about the selections they've made enough to start competing.

 

Exactly. The tank is not all our eggs in the McDavid basket.

It is Grigorenko, Girgensons, Risto, Zads, a top three pick this year, a top ten pick next year, the islanders Vanek pick, the proceeds of the miller, Moulson and Ott trades, and the nine second rounders we are slated to make over a three-year stretch.

[Robviously]

Exactly. The tank is not all our eggs in the McDavid basket.

It is Grigorenko, Girgensons, Risto, Zads, a top three pick this year, a top ten pick next year, the islanders Vanek pick, the proceeds of the miller, Moulson and Ott trades, and the nine second rounders we are slated to make over a three-year stretch.

I really don't count the last two drafts as "tanking." We sucked, but we didn't tank. It was part of Regier's on-again, off-again rebuilding notions.

 

We're barely tanking this year. If we really wanted to bottom out (again, supposedly the #Blueprint), we would have moved Miller last summer. Instead we're hanging onto him and Vanek/Moulson as long as possible.

[26CornerBlitz]

http://nypost.com/20...or-free-agency/

 

Beyond that, though Buffalo is believed willing to meet Callahan’s asking price of a seven-year deal worth at least $42 million that would probably come with the club captaincy — think of it as the reverse Chris Drury — the 30th-overall Sabres are not involved in the current trade talks.

[Hoss]

I really don't count the last two drafts as "tanking." We sucked, but we didn't tank. It was part of Regier's on-again, off-again rebuilding notions.

 

We're barely tanking this year. If we really wanted to bottom out (again, supposedly the #Blueprint), we would have moved Miller last summer. Instead we're hanging onto him and Vanek/Moulson as long as possible.

 

Well tanking wasn't the strategy then. The strategy seems to be mixing with the decent but not great prospects we have now with two or three great ones in the next two drafts. Good way to build. We'll be looking real pretty if we can get, say, two top five picks in the next two years and another top ten. That's looking very likely.

[dudacek]

 

I really don't count the last two drafts as "tanking." We sucked, but we didn't tank. It was part of Regier's on-again, off-again rebuilding notions.

 

We're barely tanking this year. If we really wanted to bottom out (again, supposedly the #Blueprint), we would have moved Miller last summer. Instead we're hanging onto him and Vanek/Moulson as long as possible.

If tanking means deliberately setting ourselves up to lose, then the only time we've been fully tanking was the team Rolston took out of training camp. The tanking I refer to is maximizing the benefits of having a declining team, instead of eternally being somewhere in between bad and great.

Edited February 3, 2014 by dudacek

[TrueBlueGED]

Well, it's a reasonable concern, but Drury's story with the Rangers was really more about a series of serious injuries than about wear and tear and running out of gas.

 

Drury gave the Rangers 25 goals and 22 goals in his 1st 2 years -- during which the Rangers were 28th and 16th in the NHL in scoring. Then, he suffered a pretty significant concussion early in his 3rd year there, as a result of which he couldn't exercise for 2 weeks. He rushed back because the team was slumping without him and wasn't right all year -- although he didn't miss another game that year. His production dropped to 14 goals and 18 assists. He still played 77 games for them that year (after playing 82 and 81 in his first 2 years).

 

He then suffered a debilitating hand injury and a debilitating knee injury -- not really "wear and tear" type injuries -- and played only 24 more games as a Ranger.

 

It's also worth noting that Drury was 31 when he started with the Rangers. Callahan will be 29 when he starts next season.

 

See also: Clarkson, David. Sure it's too early to know for sure, but early returns have been nothing short of disastrous. On the bright side, even if a Callahan signing were to blow up on the Sabres, we're unlikely to be in cap hell before the back half of the contract kicks in.

 

There's just too much that can go wrong between now and then to completely rely upon that as a strategy. There are plenty of other teams that may be feeling the same way that are older. I know we all want that (although I'm less enamored after watching McDavid play in the WJHCs). Even then, if they finish 3rd last in the league next year and don't win the lottery... or a significant injury occurs to one of those two.. or... just too much. Perhaps they will be lucky enough to have two chances at the top pick (the Islanders seem screwed up enough to help the cause).

 

I'm waiting to see the moves with the current roster. It's the first time someone new has really evaluated this talent pool.

 

But is this really different from any other rebuilding strategy? Big trades and UFA signings don't always work out either, for very similar reasons that "tanking" may not work out. You can trade away a future star for a current very good to great player who suddenly hits a significant decline. A UFA may never earn his money, or may suffer the same catastrophic injury you worry about with players at the top of the draft. We could make a bunch of moves that mortgage the future for a playoff spot now and respectable hockey without ever having a realistic shot at a Cup, or we could put ourselves in cap hell by overpaying a half dozen UFAs on long term deals which give us flexibility problems several years down the road...again, without ever truly competing for a Cup.

[Patty16]

1) There is no way a person as competitive as PLF is going to let this team tank. He and TM have hinted they dont see this as a long rebuild and another 2-3 years of awfulness for a 25% chance of the top pick isnt gonna fly.

 

2) Its the back half of Callahan's contract we would need to concerned about. Landing a declining player and overpaying is cap disaster. A few years from now, assuming we draft and sign some players, we might need that extra 5-7M tied up by a bad contract.

 

This is especially true given what FAs might be available who have scoring touch.

[Hoss]

1) There is no way a person as competitive as PLF is going to let this team tank. He and TM have hinted they dont see this as a long rebuild and another 2-3 years of awfulness for a 25% chance of the top pick isnt gonna fly.

 

 

"Manipulating the roster for draft positioning." Sounds like a tank to me. I don't think that tanking means you're not competitive. The opposite actually. It means that he doesn't just want to win. He wants to WIN. No more 6-8 seeds and out. He wants to accumulate the best possible talent and knows that happens in the draft. Especially next year.

 

It's also not really a choice. The roster is already set up for failure.

Edited February 3, 2014 by Tankalicious