Christian Ehrhoff bought out; Signs with PIT, 1yr $4M

[...]

The Sabres announced a while ago they are changing the culture within the team.

 

Murray has said, many times, if a player doesn't want to be here, then that player will not be on the team.

 

Ehrhoff didn't want to be here, and we have to assume Murray has much more concrete evidence of that than we ever will.

 

Ehrhoff couldn't be traded due to the situation around his tenure here.

 

Ehrhoff was thusly bought out.

 

Buh-bye Ehrhoff. Welcome the culture change we have desperately wanted, and the team has desperately needed, for a very long time.

 

I'm all in.

 

And, any one of you who are for the tank and are bitching about this move? You're a hypocrite. With all due respect and all of that, but, seriously, you can't want the tank and not be giggling yourself to death over this move. If you aren't, your opinions and judgments are fundamentally compromised.

Edited June 30, 2014 by sizzlemeister

[dudacek]

Murray is definitely going to build his team.

I think there will be some more surprises coming.

 

[bunomatic]

I agree with sizzle and I agree with Murrays statements as well. Its a caustic situation to have someone, especially a veteran, not want to be a part of the team that is rebuilding and is stocked with young players. Adios Muchachos.

 

The same is true of Keslers former situation. See ya

Edited June 30, 2014 by bunomatic

[Derrico]

And, any one of you who are for the tank and are bitching about this move? You're a hypocrite. With all due respect and all of that, but, seriously, you can't want the tank and not be giggling yourself to death over this move. If you aren't, your opinions and judgments are fundamentally compromised.

 

Oh I'm alright with this move for the points listed above. If there's any reason to tank it's this year and this move helps achieve the goal. Even hoping they leave risto down for atleast half the season so we can go with a Rudy pysyk second pairing.

[TheMatrix31]

Ehrhoff was probably my favorite remaining Sabre so it's sad to see him go. I guess it was to be expected.

 

Sayonara, FA class of 2011.

[IKnowPhysics]

Sayonara, FA class of 2011.

 

[biodork]

 

Lol you sir, have far too much free time on your hands, but :clapping:

[darksabre]

 

 

 

Mother of God

[tom webster]

 

 

Respectfully, I think this is an unnecessarily caustic description. They do what they need to do to get revenue sharing, which is the economically rational move in both the short term and the long term and is what anyone else would do. The tickets are still something like 7th-cheapest in the NHL.

 

First. , I always find you respectful. Second, I said the point is valid but not that I necessarily agree with. For the record, I agree with your perspective.

[Stoner]

Lol you sir, have far too much free time on your hands, but :clapping:

 

That's not all.

[Huckleberry]

 

More of this please :D

[26CornerBlitz]

Remember this? http://prohockeytalk....y-can-move-me/

“I think if they want to move me, they can move me,” said Ehrhoff, who thinks he’ll be back next season. “So far, I do. We’ll see. Obviously, it’s not up to me and that remains to be seen.”

 

Whether he wants to be part of the Sabres’ rebuild is another matter.

 

“Um,” Ehrhoff said before taking a long pause. “I signed a long-term commitment with the team, and as long as they want me to be here I’m going to do my best for the team. That’s it.”

 

JW - Poor Asset Management with Ehrhoff

The Buffalo Sabres buyout of Christian Ehrhoff has come as a shock to many fans, and with good reason. It would appear that the Sabres just gave away one of their most valuable assets because of a fear of a doomsday scenario that might never come, and might never matter.

 

Color me confused. The Buffalo Sabres have decided to part ways with their best defensemen because he “didn’t want to be here.” Be careful with that one. I’m sure there are plenty of good players that would like things to be different. This team isn’t very good and Christian Ehrhoff, like so many other veterans around the league likely would be, is frustrated by that. Now he’ll get the chance to play elsewhere and you’ll see him scooped up quickly by a good team.

 

So let’s try to make sense of it, shall we?

Edited June 30, 2014 by 26CornerBlitz

[LTS]

White's article is pretty poorly done in my opinion. It seems like he just wants to whine (which he does well) about Murray not wanting to be handcuffed by the specter of the recapture penalty.

 

He then cites no credible evidence. He points to the likelihood the cap will be higher (duh) in the future. He neglects to think about the Sabres needing every last dollar to hang onto their budding young talent. So, the $10M hit will be huge at that point. A one year $10M hit is a Jonathan Toews salary you can't offer.

 

He also uses Luongo as supporting evidence of a team willing to accept the recapture hit. Of course there are a few problems there. First, Vancouver is on the decline. The Sabres are not. Second, Luongo was traded by the FORMER GM. He might want to ask Benning how he feels having that potential $8.5M cap hit hanging over his head right now.

 

White also mentions that Murray might not be GM in 7 years. That's true.. but he just made a decision with the presumption that he's planning on being here to deal with that scenario. This is far better than having your GM believe he needs to make wholesale changes to his team now to save his job. Short term decisions that lack long-term vision almost always are the path to failure.

 

Bottom line, a trade would have helped Buffalo but the risk of not signing a top star player later would be huge. Sure he didn't want to be here. Murray let him go. It's not full of malice like people want. Murray is to the point. I doubt he cares that Ehrhoff didn't want to be here other than the fact that it was a skilled player that he now doesn't have going forward.

[Doohicksie]

White also mentions that Murray might not be GM in 7 years. That's true.. but he just made a decision with the presumption that he's planning on being here to deal with that scenario.

 

Yeah, and we all know what a revolving door that position has been for the last 16 years or so... :rolleyes:

Edited June 30, 2014 by Neuvirths Glove

[Swedesessed]

I want to clarify something: The Sabres will definitely have a 10M cap hit in 2020 now or because the Sabres bought him out, the Sabres avoid that 10M hit in 2020?

Edited June 30, 2014 by (E5)

[Eleven]

I want to clarify something: The Sabres will definitely have a 10M cap hit in 2020 now or because the Sabres bought him out, the Sabres avoid that 10M hit in 2020?

 

They have avoided the potential hit by buying him out.

[Taro T]

I want to clarify something: The Sabres will definitely have a 10M cap hit in 2020 now or because the Sabres bought him out, the Sabres avoid that 10M hit in 2020?

They used their last compliance buyout on him. There is no cap recapture and the buyout payments don't count against the cap. He is off their ledger.

[Swedesessed]

Thank you Taro and Eleven for clarifying, I do like Ehrhoff as a player but because of this and when you are blowing up the roster I say go all the way

[TrueBlueGED]

The Sabres announced a while ago they are changing the culture within the team.

 

Murray has said, many times, if a player doesn't want to be here, then that player will not be on the team.

 

Ehrhoff didn't want to be here, and we have to assume Murray has much more concrete evidence of that than we ever will.

 

Ehrhoff couldn't be traded due to the situation around his tenure here.

 

Ehrhoff was thusly bought out.

 

Buh-bye Ehrhoff. Welcome the culture change we have desperately wanted, and the team has desperately needed, for a very long time.

 

I'm all in.

 

And, any one of you who are for the tank and are bitching about this move? You're a hypocrite. With all due respect and all of that, but, seriously, you can't want the tank and not be giggling yourself to death over this move. If you aren't, your opinions and judgments are fundamentally compromised.

 

Yea, no. This may be valid if Ehrhoff were a modern day Bobby Orr and spectacular enough to prevent a tank...but as we saw last year, this is clearly not the case. My argument for keeping Ehrhoff is that he would be a valuable part of the team when it starts to emerge from the tank in two years time. He'd still only be 33 then and have many more years of quality hockey in him. Even if Ristoloainen and Zadorov hit their ceilings, I could think of a lot worse things for an emerging contender to have than Ehrhoff in his mid-30s at a $4mm cap hit playing second pairing minutes. That would be a heck of a situation. Despite being a proponent of the tank, I don't believe in relying only on young players to emerge together--there has to be some proven veterans who can still play. Expecting 18 kids and 2 Rob Niedermayer-esque vets who should have retired years ago to morph into a contender is how a long term rebuild turns into a perpetual rebuild.

[X. Benedict]

I was surprised by the move. But I knew that Erhoff was not the guy to be the guy to mentor the kids - Didn't want to stay after practice and work with his freshman pairings.(sometimes I get that, with a wife and kids at home, but it seemed clear it wasn't going to happen at all). Erhoff is probably a perfect #4 guy. That is fine, but on a team that needs to find a #1, #2 and #3 guy, he was, well, just not part of the solution.

 

I could see why GMTM said, "Screw it, my team, let's cut our losses." - but let's not pretend this was about the cap recapture in 2020. In hockey that is a lifetime away. This was a move about the who controls the team culture. Murray, by this buyout, just told the entire league that Erhoff is soft and doesn't fit into the Buffalo Sabres culture.

 

One way to look at it is that this was a mistake.

Another way to look at it is that Murray just told the league that he will sacrifice a ton of skill to create the Murray's Sabres Culture.

[26CornerBlitz]

@hsimon62

Murray on Ehrhoff:said he couldve traded him but penalties at end made him untradeable from #Sabres standpoint

[That Aud Smell]

Maybe it's been mentioned upthread, but I'll put this here because it'd bear repeating: GM TM apparently persuaded Pegula to spend a boat load of money to jettison Ehrhoff -- a player that Pegula reportedly had a hand in targeting as a UFA.

 

Now, if only we had an owner who would let knowledgeable hockey people run the show, eh?

[nfreeman]

I was surprised by the move. But I knew that Erhoff was not the guy to be the guy to mentor the kids - Didn't want to stay after practice and work with his freshman pairings.(sometimes I get that, with a wife and kids at home, but it seemed clear it wasn't going to happen at all). Erhoff is probably a perfect #4 guy. That is fine, but on a team that needs to find a #1, #2 and #3 guy, he was, well, just not part of the solution.

 

I could see why GMTM said, "Screw it, my team, let's cut our losses." - but let's not pretend this was about the cap recapture in 2020. In hockey that is a lifetime away. This was a move about the who controls the team culture. Murray, by this buyout, just told the entire league that Erhoff is soft and doesn't fit into the Buffalo Sabres culture.

 

One way to look at it is that this was a mistake.

Another way to look at it is that Murray just told the league that he will sacrifice a ton of skill to create the Murray's Sabres Culture.

 

This is kinda why it doesn't sit right with me. It seems more about Murray than about the on-ice product. Ehrhoff is good enough to play 20+ min per night for most NHL teams and they just threw him away to make a statement. So they gave away a good asset and made the team worse.

 

To me this increases the likelihood of a 22-60 season, which is good for getting Eichel but bad, IMHO, for the kids in the system.

 

Maybe it's been mentioned upthread, but I'll put this here because it'd bear repeating: GM TM apparently persuaded Pegula to spend a boat load of money to jettison Ehrhoff -- a player that Pegula reportedly had a hand in targeting as a UFA.

 

Now, if only we had an owner who would let knowledgeable hockey people run the show, eh?

 

But but but...fracking! Meddling! Raising ticket prices! Daughter's twitter account!

 

The only explanation is that you're a racist.

[Claude_Verret]

 

Now, if only we had an owner who would let knowledgeable hockey people run the show, eh?

 

But how many meetings did TM have with the owner before doing the buyout? As we all know, that's the true meddling litmus test.

 

 

[That Aud Smell]

But but but...fracking! Meddling! Raising ticket prices! Daughter's twitter account!

 

The only explanation is that you're a racist.

 

Speaking of which, I just re-watched Do the Right Thing over the weekend -- its 25th anniversary this summer!

 

 

But how many meetings did TM have with the owner before doing the buyout? As we all know, that's the true meddling litmus test.

 

fair deuce!