Thomas Vanek Likely Retires

[Beer]

Vanek was my favorite player for a while.  He had some filthy mitts and scored a lot of goals from in front of the net.  Every once in a while he'd undress a guy and score a sick goal on a rush.  People thought he was slow until he wasn't.  His use of a slapper on the penalty shot was also savage.  

[Sabre fan]

kinda wished we would had signed him so he could retire a Sabre just as I hope we bring back RYan Miller and Pommer's so they can retire Sabres. such great players and people

Edited February 26, 2020 by Sabre fan

[PerreaultForever]

10 hours ago, Radar said:

Ahh, and you're blaming Vanek? 

No, just that I'd have let him go for the 4 or 5 first round picks or whatever it was you got back in those days for offer sheet signings.

5 hours ago, Broken Ankles said:

The dude missed 27 games total in 9 years in Buffalo.  What's one level below Iron?  Maybe in his later years where it was reported he was not in good physical condition and used his skill to get by you could question effort, but just b/c a player isn't skating around with his head on fire and hitting everything in sight does not mean there was no effort.   

Also with respect to your Reinhart comparison-  When Thomas signed his contract in 2007 with an AAV of $7.14M, that was over 14% of the team cap.   So you should feel good about a $7.5-$8M number for Sam as that would only be 9%.  

One can argue that iron man thing is a result of avoiding contact - much like Reinhart.

As for the contract numbers, I was only drawing the Reinhart comparison in terms of effort and such. Vanek was more of a goal scorer and thus maybe arguably worth more than Reinhart is. In that way he's more like Skinner, and a goal scorer has to score you lots of goals. If he doesn't, he's a liability. If guys like that can score you 2 for every 1 they cost you you still come out ahead, but if they don't score, you might as well have low cost shutdown or energy guys who play 0-0 and spend the money on real game changers/leaders and a superstar goalie.

I don't really hate Vanek or anything. Just doesn't make my list of favorite Sabres and such.  

[dudacek]

Vanek avoiding contact is one of the biggest myths in Buffalo fandom.

Guy was constantly in the paint

[Weave]

2 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Vanek avoiding contact is one of the biggest myths in Buffalo fandom.

Guy was constantly in the paint

Yup.  He was a slash and cross check magnet.

[Zamboni]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

Vanek avoiding contact is one of the biggest myths in Buffalo fandom.

Guy was constantly in the paint

So is the blinded by hate myth that Reinhart avoids contact too. Avoids getting smoked? Sure. Every player does that to a more or less degree.

not being a Pat Kaleta, doesn’t mean a player avoids contact… In a contact sport.

Edited February 27, 2020 by Zamboni