How much should Kane' s extension be?

[Weave]

The thing is we can't sign him. If we do we lock our Top 6 Fs. Okposo is nearly worthless, Reinhart is a winger, Eichel and ROR are ok, and we have 2 other spots total. Based on money we can't sign him without sacrificing Reinhart and a potential Dman upgrade we desperately need. 

 

Kane is the most valuable player we have in terms of impact on the game.  You make room for him at the expense of the others.

[Randall Flagg]

I've loved Kane for the past long while now, but he's not going to continue to occupy this spot as a top 10 scorer in the league, or as our best forward. 

I'd still pay him. 

 

[dudacek]

Brad Treliving at the game tonight.

No idea if it is Kane, or even Sabres related.

But the first whiff of a trade we’ve heard this year.

[Pokey Jones]

Max value right now, this team as is isn't going anywhere, use him as step one in the total new rebuild. 

[JohnRobertEichel]

The thing is we can't sign him. If we do we lock our Top 6 Fs. Okposo is nearly worthless, Reinhart is a winger, Eichel and ROR are ok, and we have 2 other spots total. Based on money we can't sign him without sacrificing Reinhart and a potential Dman upgrade we desperately need. 

 

Does it bother anyone else that the Sabres might not re-sign Kane due to his ~$6 million/year cost yet be paying Moulson, Bogosian, Beaulieu, and Okposo collectively $17.25 million next year? Jesus Tap Dancing Christ...talk about misallocation of resources!

 

By the way, if there's a silver lining to this miserable ###### season, it's that Reinhart will now be much cheaper than we originally anticipated. 

 

At the beginning of the season, I had our top 6 of the future as:

 

Mittelstadt - Eichel - Nylander

Kane - O'Reilly - Reinhart

 

Once upon a time, that looked like a championship-caliber lineup to me...

Edited November 19, 2017 by FuhrFury

[nucci]

We haven’t had competent management in over a decade, which is why we are in this position. Sadly, this is actually the 1st yr of the proper rebuild.

There's no proof of this

The best case senerio here just might be we trade him for draft picks which might turn into nothing good. I don't see a great player coming our way via trade at the deadline, maybe a prospect with potential but nothing super special.

That's an awful scenario

[Weave]

There is no room on this team for the 6th overall scorer.

 

11 goals in 20 games. Yep, we don’t want to build with that as part of our future.

[ubkev]

There is no room on this team for the 6th overall scorer.

 

11 goals in 20 games. Yep, we don’t want to build with that as part of our future.

If I were him I wouldn't want to sign here. I'm not gonna say that he won't want to, because I'm not him and I won't pretend to know his thoughts. But I'd definitely want out. Put me on a team with a pulse and a prayer of making the playoffs sometime in my career. This will be his 9th year in a row with no playoffs. Yeah, I'm out. I'd be going FA for sure.

[Weave]

If I were him I wouldn't want to sign here. I'm not gonna say that he won't want to, because I'm not him and I won't pretend to know his thoughts. But I'd definitely want out. Put me on a team with a pulse and a prayer of making the playoffs sometime in my career. This will be his 9th year in a row with no playoffs. Yeah, I'm out. I'd be going FA for sure.

 

If he's communicated that to JBott, then fine, do the distasteful.  But the whole move him now because our future is X years away thing has gotten out of hand.  Our future has been X years away since the French Connection was broken up. We should be building around what we have that is working, not around some future lottery scratch off of unknown ability.

[Radar]

There is no room on this team for the 6th overall scorer.

11 goals in 20 games. Yep, we don’t want to build with that as part of our future.

Are you assuming he would sign and not test free agency? I believe if he was going to sign it had to be before reaching last year of his deal. He's going to free agency and playing now for that huge payday free agency is known for. His value will not be higher than it is right now.

[Weave]

Are you assuming he would sign and not test free agency? I believe if he was going to sign it had to be before reaching last year of his deal. He's going to free agency and playing now for that huge payday free agency is known for. His value will not be higher than it is right now.

 

I'm not assuming anything.  I'm protesting the idea that we should trade him because our time isn't now.  Someday we have to keep vets that perform well, build around THEM, and focus on winning damned hockey games instead of winning draft picks.

Edited November 19, 2017 by We've

[Jacque Richard]

Give him what he wants, who is gonna score without him, moulson

[nfreeman]

I’m with We’ve on this.

 

Trading Kane because they are committed to KO and might have to pay Reino would be insane.

 

Overall their contract situation isn’t that bad and certainly not bad enough so that they can’t pay Kane.

 

Moulson, Bogo and Gorges will be gone in the next couple of years and Reino may not even be a keeper, let alone an expensive piece.

 

They are certainly stuck with KO, but they can probably find takers for ROR and Risto if they decide to move on from either of them.

 

The real questions remain whether Kane wants to stay and whether he’ll get into more trouble once he gets a long-term contract.

 

As dudacek says — this is a tricky one for JBott.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

This is not like Scotty trading away aging stars, including 2/3 of the French Connection.

 

This is more like Punch building around a very good player by draft and trade in order to create the French Connection.

 

I am not comparing Kane to the all time Sabre here, but that is the likeness of this Kane situation.

 

I think that it would be a set-back almost to square one if they trade Kane.  I really agree with We've and others that are saying they need to sign Kane and continue to build around him ROR, Eich and Risto.  I would like to keep Samson too, but in the right situation I would trade him before Kane.  Scandella (sp ?) looks like a keeper too.

[bob_sauve28]

Are contract talks even being discussed? I haven't heard anything. If there are no serious talks going on then he has to go to the highest bidder. A team that wants to make a playoff run won't want to take out part of their team to trade away creating one hole to fill another. So we will end up with a somewhat well regarded prospect or draft picks. Not perfect but you play the averages like you do with everything in life.

 

Personally, I would do whatever I could to land defenseman that can play in NHL. You can never have enough defensemen.

 

Does anyone just want to play it out and let him walk and get nothing in return?

[Eleven]

Are contract talks even being discussed? I haven't heard anything. If there are no serious talks going on then he has to go to the highest bidder. A team that wants to make a playoff run won't want to take out part of their team to trade away creating one hole to fill another. So we will end up with a somewhat well regarded prospect or draft picks. Not perfect but you play the averages like you do with everything in life.

 

Personally, I would do whatever I could to land defenseman that can play in NHL. You can never have enough defensemen.

 

Does anyone just want to play it out and let him walk and get nothing in return?

 

I would rather the Sabres have exclusive negotiating rights with Kane through June 30 than a draft pick.

[Weave]

I would rather the Sabres have exclusive negotiating rights with Kane through June 30 than a draft pick.

 

I'm generally with you (surprise).  Unless Kane has expressly stated that he isn't signing here, we need to make every effort to sign him. and that includes rolling the dice at the end of the season.

[bob_sauve28]

I would rather the Sabres have exclusive negotiating rights with Kane through June 30 than a draft pick.

 

Seriously?? How well has that worked out the last few times?

 

Cut your losses and move on, I say. Play the averages

[Eleven]

Seriously?? How well has that worked out the last few times?

 

Cut your losses and move on, I say. Play the averages

 

What last few times? A decade ago? With Quinn  making the decisions?

Edited November 19, 2017 by Eleven

[Weave]

Seriously?? How well has that worked out the last few times?

 

Cut your losses and move on, I say. Play the averages

The last time we played the averages Darcy Regier was calling the shots. Playing averages leads to mediocrity because you are constantly turning over your high value players.

[bob_sauve28]

What last few times? A decade ago? With Quinn  making the decisions?

We have had the exclusive rights to players (Butcher and that dude who signed with Rangers) and they both walked. I'm sure they have already made a generous offer to Kane and he has not signed. What would change that now? He would hate to leave Buffalo?

The last time we played the averages Darcy Regier was calling the shots. Playing averages leads to mediocrity because you are constantly turning over your high value players.

Well, I do wish Darcy had taken the four draft picks for Vanek but nothing was going to stop Briere and Drury from leaving either. Yes, they could have signed them earlier, but Kane is gone. If he hasn't already signed here he won't in the future. Time to move on and take what we can get

[inkman]

There is no room on this team for the 6th overall scorer.

 

11 goals in 20 games. Yep, we don’t want to build with that as part of our future.

The more important question is does he want to be a part of it

[Eleven]

The last time we played the averages Darcy Regier was calling the shots. Playing averages leads to mediocrity because you are constantly turning over your high value players.

 

Or worse than mediocrity.  

[Weave]

We have had the exclusive rights to players (Butcher and that dude who signed with Rangers) and they both walked. I'm sure they have already made a generous offer to Kane and he has not signed. What would change that now? He would hate to leave Buffalo?

 

Well, I do wish Darcy had taken the four draft picks for Vanek but nothing was going to stop Briere and Drury from leaving either. Yes, they could have signed them earlier, but Kane is gone. If he hasn't already signed here he won't in the future. Time to move on and take what we can get

 

It's not just Drury and Briere though.  Prior to them leaving we had an internal budget that resulted in players moved as their contracts expired, and every (or nearly every) player that hit the end of their contract after those two left were moved for whatever they could get.  All it did was result in a perpetual, moving future and no sustained performance. At some point you have to start building around what you already have.

 

There is an interesting dichotomy at play here.  A bunch of folks that derisively call out "because Buffalo" when people lament that UFAs won't sign here are many of the ones saying we should move Kane because he won't sign here.  It is the same "because Buffalo" that generates sarcasm.

Edited November 19, 2017 by We've

[Eleven]

sauve,

 

At a certain point, the turnover has to stop.  The Sabres need to send a signal to the other 30 teams that they're not going to keep shipping out their best players at the deadline for picks, but are willing to consider "hockey trades."  Can't keep kicking the can down the road for four more years while they wait for the draft pick to *possibly* turn into a player.