What Must Leafs Nation Be Thinking Right Now?

[GASabresIUFAN]

30 minutes ago, inkman said:

I don't think anyone in Leafs Nation thinks about the Sabres for one second other than a speed bump they will hit the accelerator just prior to obliterating. 

I used to go to camp in Haliburton Ont.  I have tons of family in Canada and played hockey against many Canadian teams when in High School.  They think about the Sabres and Buffalo often.  They love coming to our games (because they can actually go to a game without going broke) watching our TV.  They love looking down on us and it drives them crazy when the Sabres, for all their dysfunction (Rigas, the tank), are better then they are despite unlimited resources.  Besides their inferiority complex with the Canadians, they hate us the most.  

[Marions Piazza]

1 hour ago, Scottysabres said:

I concede the Sabres will be in a similar cap situation. But that defensive depth.........flashes of 07.....

I try to forget what happened in the playoffs in 05-06. How can you posibly have neough depth to account for all those injuries? Mckee had an infection, Numminen had a heart issue? Kalinen had a broken leg, wasn't there one other injury on defense those playoffs?

[dudacek]

Tallinder, arm

[LTS]

21 hours ago, Doohickie said:

What is Leafs Nation thinking?  I think they saw the world the same way we did:  That their build is ahead of ours, and signing Tavares made it more so.

 

Heh.  Oopsie.

Careful... I got roasted when I suggested that the Leafs were not light years ahead of the Sabres in their rebuild earlier in the year. 

20 hours ago, Marions Piazza said:

I don't think they are too worried about their defense and goaltending

Sabres 34 GP and 98 goals against

Leafs 33 GP and 93 goals against

They're also a +24 to our +7. I dont think the Sabres survive a playoff series with the Leafs this year.

The playoffs have a tendency to destroy offense.  

The Leafs Nation... can suck it.  I don't care what they think.  They've been overestimating their chances since 1967 and are blind the salary cap train that is about to truck their team in the next season or two.

[Marions Piazza]

9 minutes ago, LTS said:

Careful... I got roasted when I suggested that the Leafs were not light years ahead of the Sabres in their rebuild earlier in the year. 

The playoffs have a tendency to destroy offense.  

The Leafs Nation... can suck it.  I don't care what they think.  They've been overestimating their chances since 1967 and are blind the salary cap train that is about to truck their team in the next season or two.

Let's hope that Marner is tough to sign. I saw a tweet and it quoted an interview with Marner's dad, where he said that his son is one of the top 3 players in the world. Maybe there will be issues like with Nylander and what happened and the contract fight. Sabres will have their own cap hell soon enough, but i want to see Toronto struggle mightily this off-season and getting everyone signed

[Marions Piazza]

24 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Tallinder, arm

ah yes. we were down to Campbell, Lydman, Paetsch, Jillson, and Fitzpatrick. and we still took Carolina to 7 games and lead going into the 3rd period

[Sabres Fan in NS]

What are they thinking, well the old cronies anyway ...

'we never should have allowed expansion in 1967 ... with all these teams we'll never win a cup again' ...

[inkman]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I used to go to camp in Haliburton Ont.  I have tons of family in Canada and played hockey against many Canadian teams when in High School.  They think about the Sabres and Buffalo often.  They love coming to our games (because they can actually go to a game without going broke) watching our TV.  They love looking down on us and it drives them crazy when the Sabres, for all their dysfunction (Rigas, the tank), are better then they are despite unlimited resources.  Besides their inferiority complex with the Canadians, they hate us the most.  

But are they worried about the 2018-2019 Sabres?  I wouldn't be if I were them. 

[LGR4GM]

28 minutes ago, Marions Piazza said:

Let's hope that Marner is tough to sign. I saw a tweet and it quoted an interview with Marner's dad, where he said that his son is one of the top 3 players in the world. Maybe there will be issues like with Nylander and what happened and the contract fight. Sabres will have their own cap hell soon enough, but i want to see Toronto struggle mightily this off-season and getting everyone signed

How will the Sabres end up in Cap hell? 

[Marions Piazza]

5 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

How will the Sabres end up in Cap hell? 

Eichel $10M, Dahlin will likely get the same if not more than Eichel. Skinner will likely be around $8.5-9M easily. Reinhart has quietly been playing himself into a nice raise over his current salary. He's on pace for 70 points, no reason to expect he can't do that next year as well, 70 points in the NHL gets you around $7M+ these days. If Ullmark and Hutton keep up their great play, both of them will get hefty raises. Bogo has shown what he's worth when healthy, i think we might keep him and he will get a raise. down the road a piece, but Risto will probbaly command a raise on his next contract. Assuming Pilut keeps playing well over the next few years and sticks with Buffalo, he's gonna need a new contract the same year as Dahlin. 

It's going to be tricky for the Sabres, I know that the cap will go up a little bit each year, but, it will be difficult no matter what

Edited December 18, 2018 by Marions Piazza

[GASabresIUFAN]

26 minutes ago, inkman said:

But are they worried about the 2018-2019 Sabres?  I wouldn't be if I were them. 

I think so.

https://www.tsn.ca/finally-some-life-in-the-qew-rivalry-1.1220843

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/article-sorry-sabres-some-nhl-teams-just-dont-have-the-same-cachet-as-others/

quote from the Globe article.

Quote

Forget Montreal, Ottawa, Boston or Detroit. Every kid who grew up in Toronto on a diet of American cable TV, Irv Weinstein and house fires in Cheektowaga knows Buffalo is his/her natural enemy.

 

Edited December 18, 2018 by GASabresIUFAN

[Scottysabres]

I've read multiple forum platforms for 0ther teams, especially Atlantic Division teams. In the past month there has been a growing number of fans from those forums voicing the same line about Buffalo...........:like the way they rebuilt or not, Buffalo is coming"

Love reading those ?

[PalmTreeMafia]

Just now, Marions Piazza said:

Eichel $10M, Dahlin will likely get the same if not more than Eichel. Skinner will likely be around $8.5-9M easily. Reinhart has quietly been playing himself into a nice raise over his current salary. He's on pace for 70 points, no reason to expect he can't do that next year as well, 70 points in the NHL gets you around $7M+ these days. If Ullmark and Hutton keep up their great play, both of them will get hefty raises. Bogo has shown what he's worth when healthy, i think we might keep him and he will get a raise. down the road a piece, but Risto will probbaly command a raise on his next contract.

But that's not necessarily cap hell. That's simply paying guys what they're worth. JB comes across as very shrewd and responsible with respect to the salary cap. He's also coming from a Penguins organization well known for managing the cap and retaining its stars. So I have little doubt that he's already thought about having to pay our core 6 or so guys (Dahlin, Eichel, Skinner, Reinhart, Mitts, Risto) down the line while remaining competitive with the other 14 or so players. Also, I see only 2 long-term "bad" contracts at the moment: Okposo and Berglund. If both can be cleared by the summer of 2020, the franchise should be sitting pretty in terms of keeping all of the aforementioned core. I did some haphazard cap number crunching a while back, and it came out very promising for us long-term.

 

Getting back to the Leaves... this could very quickly become the best rivalry in North American pro sports. USA vs. Canada, blue collar vs. cosmopolitan, Eichel vs. Matthews, Dahlin vs. Reilly, Nylander vs. Nylander, both starving for championships for half a century, separated by only 100 miles...good stuff! We just need to fix the second and third lines before we can really start to scare them. Mitts, Tage, Nylander, Olofsson, Asplund, and Davidsson are the 6 guys I currently have penciled in to fill these roles in the future. And as you can see, none of these 6 are ready yet. We're stuck at the moment with sluggish old men like Okposo, Pominville, Sobotka, and Berglund.

 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

37 minutes ago, Marions Piazza said:

Eichel $10M, Dahlin will likely get the same if not more than Eichel. Skinner will likely be around $8.5-9M easily. Reinhart has quietly been playing himself into a nice raise over his current salary. He's on pace for 70 points, no reason to expect he can't do that next year as well, 70 points in the NHL gets you around $7M+ these days. If Ullmark and Hutton keep up their great play, both of them will get hefty raises. Bogo has shown what he's worth when healthy, i think we might keep him and he will get a raise. down the road a piece, but Risto will probbaly command a raise on his next contract. Assuming Pilut keeps playing well over the next few years and sticks with Buffalo, he's gonna need a new contract the same year as Dahlin. 

It's going to be tricky for the Sabres, I know that the cap will go up a little bit each year, but, it will be difficult no matter what

I think JBOT is / will be a savvy cap manager, or will have an assistant in place to do that and only that.  Every good NHL team has to manage the cap very well, or they won't be good for long.

[SDS]

10 minutes ago, FuhrUrsinne said:

Mitts, Tage, Nylander, Olofsson, Asplund, and Davidsson are the 6 guys I currently have penciled in to fill these roles in the future.

The problem with a lot of fan projections is that we have so little information about the team’s plans. You can’t pencil in a player you have no idea they plan to acquire. 

So, with that said - I think maybe half of those players are on the roster in a couple years, but the other half are players not on anyone’s list. This roster will be changed over quite a bit. 

[...]

34 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Forget Montreal, Ottawa, Boston or Detroit. Every kid who grew up in Toronto on a diet of American cable TV, Irv Weinstein and house fires in Cheektowaga knows Buffalo is his/her natural enemy.

That's the best thing I have read on the internetz today!

[dudacek]

The condescending arrogance of that Globe article is everything I hate about Toronto.

The Leafs haven’t mattered on the Ice since Tim Horton was an all-star defenceman.

Edited December 18, 2018 by dudacek

[LGR4GM]

43 minutes ago, Marions Piazza said:

Eichel $10M, Dahlin will likely get the same if not more than Eichel. Skinner will likely be around $8.5-9M easily. Reinhart has quietly been playing himself into a nice raise over his current salary. He's on pace for 70 points, no reason to expect he can't do that next year as well, 70 points in the NHL gets you around $7M+ these days. If Ullmark and Hutton keep up their great play, both of them will get hefty raises. Bogo has shown what he's worth when healthy, i think we might keep him and he will get a raise. down the road a piece, but Risto will probbaly command a raise on his next contract. Assuming Pilut keeps playing well over the next few years and sticks with Buffalo, he's gonna need a new contract the same year as Dahlin. 

It's going to be tricky for the Sabres, I know that the cap will go up a little bit each year, but, it will be difficult no matter what

So in a few years (4-5) we might be in cap hell. I some how don't care. Also Botterill's job is to manage that. Ullmark will get a raise but Hutton will be gone or vice versa. We won't keep all the defense and Pilut won't get a huge raise and no Pilut is signed for 1 year less than Dahlin so they will not hit the same year. Risto is signed until 2022. Reinhart will get a raise and Skinner will but I would argue half of their salaries are already on our cap so we are only talking 5mil more. Why are we giving Bogosian a raise? I might give him 6mil but he's still signed through next year so we shall see. Moulson's 4mil and Pominville's 5mil will be gone so there's 9mil right there I found. 

I don't think it is difficult at all. 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

3 minutes ago, dudacek said:

The condescending arrogance of that Globe article is everything ahead about Toronto.

The Leafs haven’t mattered on the Ice since Tim Horton was an all-star defenceman.

Hence my term for that city.

[Marions Piazza]

22 minutes ago, FuhrUrsinne said:

But that's not necessarily cap hell. That's simply paying guys what they're worth. JB comes across as very shrewd and responsible with respect to the salary cap. He's also coming from a Penguins organization well known for managing the cap and retaining its stars. So I have little doubt that he's already thought about having to pay our core 6 or so guys (Dahlin, Eichel, Skinner, Reinhart, Mitts, Risto) down the line while remaining competitive with the other 14 or so players. Also, I see only 2 long-term "bad" contracts at the moment: Okposo and Berglund. If both can be cleared by the summer of 2020, the franchise should be sitting pretty in terms of keeping all of the aforementioned core. I did some haphazard cap number crunching a while back, and it came out very promising for us long-term.

 

Getting back to the Leaves... this could very quickly become the best rivalry in North American pro sports. USA vs. Canada, blue collar vs. cosmopolitan, Eichel vs. Matthews, Dahlin vs. Reilly, Nylander vs. Nylander, both starving for championships for half a century, separated by only 100 miles...good stuff! We just need to fix the second and third lines before we can really start to scare them. Mitts, Tage, Nylander, Olofsson, Asplund, and Davidsson are the 6 guys I currently have penciled in to fill these roles in the future. And as you can see, none of these 6 are ready yet. We're stuck at the moment with sluggish old men like Okposo, Pominville, Sobotka, and Berglund.

 

I think my original point got lost, I saw many posts saying that the Leaf's will be in "cap hell" which is "paying guys what they are worth" My argument is that we will have it no harder or easier with our cap and paying guys what they are worth than the Leafs

[LGR4GM]

The only players signed for 2020 are Eichel, Okposo, Risto, Dahlin, and Hutton. There is so much cap flexibility on this team it is amazing. Sure Dahlin is going to get a big raise but that's fine. We will have 30million tied up in cap with the cap sitting at roughly 90mil. That's 60mil to fill out the roster. 

[Marions Piazza]

6 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

So in a few years (4-5) we might be in cap hell. I some how don't care. Also Botterill's job is to manage that. Ullmark will get a raise but Hutton will be gone or vice versa. We won't keep all the defense and Pilut won't get a huge raise and no Pilut is signed for 1 year less than Dahlin so they will not hit the same year. Risto is signed until 2022. Reinhart will get a raise and Skinner will but I would argue half of their salaries are already on our cap so we are only talking 5mil more. Why are we giving Bogosian a raise? I might give him 6mil but he's still signed through next year so we shall see. Moulson's 4mil and Pominville's 5mil will be gone so there's 9mil right there I found. 

I don't think it is difficult at all. 

I forgot about Pilut's contract, but I bet Pilut plays himself into a nice raise, just my opinion. 

my original point was that many here have said how the Leafs will be in cap hell but not the Sabres. It wont be an easier or harder for the Sabres to manage their cap than the Leafs

Edited December 18, 2018 by Marions Piazza

[LGR4GM]

1 minute ago, Marions Piazza said:

I think my original point got lost, I saw many posts saying that the Leaf's will be in "cap hell" which is "paying guys what they are worth" My argument is that we will have it no harder or easier with our cap and paying guys what they are worth than the Leafs

Toronto will be in cap hell next year. They have 56million in cap so if it goes up to 83 million that leaves them 27million in cap space to sign, Marner, Kapanen, Matthews plus they need an additional 7 players just to fill out the 23 man roster. Let's say Matthews takes 11 and Marner takes 9. That's 7mil to fill out 8 spots. You only have 4 goalies on the roster. That's gonna be hard. 

[Marions Piazza]

1 minute ago, LGR4GM said:

Toronto will be in cap hell next year. They have 56million in cap so if it goes up to 83 million that leaves them 27million in cap space to sign, Marner, Kapanen, Matthews plus they need an additional 7 players just to fill out the 23 man roster. Let's say Matthews takes 11 and Marner takes 9. That's 7mil to fill out 8 spots. You only have 4 goalies on the roster. That's gonna be hard. 

does that take into account who might be coming off the books at the end of this season? just curious. but yes, they will have troubles, you're right. i still think we have some issues of our own in a few years, but it looks like the Leafs will have it worse off much sooner

[LGR4GM]

11 minutes ago, Marions Piazza said:

I forgot about Pilut's contract, but I bet Pilut plays himself into a nice raise, just my opinion. 

my original point was that many here have said how the Leafs will be in cap hell but not the Sabres. It wont be an easier or harder for the Sabres to manage their cap than the Leafs

Yes it will. The Sabres have guys spread out. Mittelstadt is up the year before Dahlin along with Reinhart. No one big is up in Dahlin's year. Skinner is up this year. Defense McCabe gets a raise but that's no big deal because Scandella and Hunwick only have 1 year left. Bogo they have another year to decide on. Pilut will get a raise but it will be less than we think. Casey Nelson might get a raise but it will be scraps. We don't have Marner, Matthews, and Kapenen all up for new deals in the same summer. All 3 players are making next to nothing. All 3 players will be getting multi-million dollar raises especially Matthews and Marner. When we sign Skinner, we are only worried about the additional 4mil against the cap because 5mil of his deal is already on our cap. Matthews will probably get his bonuses so that means he's worth 3.775 in the long run against the cap. He will now be getting an additional 7mil against the cap and marner will probably be getting another 5-6mil against the cap. So to sign them, they are taking another 14mil against the cap, to sign skinner we are taking only an additional 4mil. That's why it is different. 

5 minutes ago, Marions Piazza said:

does that take into account who might be coming off the books at the end of this season? just curious. but yes, they will have troubles, you're right. i still think we have some issues of our own in a few years, but it looks like the Leafs will have it worse off much sooner

Yes. They have 56mil against the cap with only 12 players signed. Actually it is 56.275mil

Edited December 18, 2018 by LGR4GM