Report Sabres Considering Internal Salary Cap

[Brawndo]

From Frank Servalli

Sources say the Sabres are considering an internal salary cap in the low $70 million range; the Arizona Coyotes, who recently failed to make on-time signing bonus payments to a number of players, may be operating just south of $70 million under their next GM; the Pittsburgh Penguins are reportedly planning to budget in the low-to-mid $70 million range on an $81.5 million limit.

 

[Weave]

OSP strikes again.

[Brawndo]

 

[Thorner]

Chad's point doesn't really make sense to me, because the sources are saying we are thinking of cutting CAP to the low 70s. So ya, maybe that means they figure out they can spend that in real cash, and have a higher actual cap number...but maybe they just already know that, and the cash IS going to be lower than our low 70s cap hit..

[thewookie1]

6 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Chad's point doesn't really make sense to me, because the sources are saying we are thinking of cutting CAP to the low 70s. So ya, maybe that means they figure out they can spend that in real cash, and have a higher actual cap number...but maybe they just already know that, and the cash IS going to be lower than our low 70s cap hit..

The good news is that pretty much the entire league is in a similar boat so we won't be alone or in a case like Florida or Arizona who hemorrhage salary all the time.

[Thorner]

There isn't really a positive way to spin this, caused by outside circumstances or not. If the reports are accurate, the Sabres will have let Botterill spend 3 full years on getting to a "cap space offseason", canned him, and then decide not to utilize the cap space we wasted those years on. Yuck. 

1 minute ago, thewookie1 said:

The good news is that pretty much the entire league is in a similar boat so we won't be alone or in a case like Florida or Arizona who hemorrhage salary all the time.

But it was supposed to be an advantage. We sacrificed for it. 

[thewookie1]

1 minute ago, Thorny said:

There isn't really a positive way to spin this, caused by outside circumstances or not. If the reports are accurate, the Sabres will have let Botterill spend 3 full years on getting to a "cap space offseason", canned him, and then decide not to utilize the cap space we wasted those years on. Yuck. 

But it was supposed to be an advantage. We sacrificed for it. 

You should know by now that nothing ever works as we hope. We just need to get lucky ....

[Weave]

7 minutes ago, Thorny said:

There isn't really a positive way to spin this, caused by outside circumstances or not. If the reports are accurate, the Sabres will have let Botterill spend 3 full years on getting to a "cap space offseason", canned him, and then decide not to utilize the cap space we wasted those years on. Yuck. 

But it was supposed to be an advantage. We sacrificed for it. 

We’ve been sacrificing for some future season for about a decade.  

The unknown is why you build a team for now, not for an unknown future.  

[Thorner]

Here's a rather clever and well done IMO shot by someone at a low-70s projection https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/1911572

...even with some savy moves (Dvorak) I think this team is getting killed defensively on the lower two lines, pretty much the same D unit and goalies as last year. And no Reinhart. We could be worse there. 

Constructing a playoff roster from what we have at low 70s will be daunting. 

Edited September 10, 2020 by Thorny

[Derrico]

Ugh not this again.....

[Zamboni]

One more small step towards Eichel leaving for BOS?

maybe ....

[Thorner]

It's likely doable, with a ton of internal improvement, but Adams would have to be great, not good. 

I'll hope the reports are just BS. 

[JohnC]

8 minutes ago, Thorny said:

There isn't really a positive way to spin this, caused by outside circumstances or not. If the reports are accurate, the Sabres will have let Botterill spend 3 full years on getting to a "cap space offseason", canned him, and then decide not to utilize the cap space we wasted those years on. Yuck. 

But it was supposed to be an advantage. We sacrificed for it. 

Paul Hamilton was on WGR's Instigator Show and stated that he wouldn't be surprised if the Sabres don't spend up to their salary cap. This shouldn't be so surprising because not only are the Sabres in a tight financial bind but so are many other teams. What this probably means is that trade deals will be for players/contracts coming in and players/contracts going out. 

Another point he made regarding the probable lower salary structure is that more young players with lower contracts will make the roster to allow some more expensive players to be brought in.  

Your point that Botterill followed a strategy to get to this cap situation in order to be in a position of greater roster flexibility is true. However, no one could have planned for the health calamity that has been thrust upon us. Sometimes when you are forced to adjust to the stark reality of unexpected challenges you become more creative and flexible in dealing with it. I'm still hopeful that the brain trust can make some good hockey deals that upgrade and better balance the roster. 

[LGR4GM]

This thread will be all overreaction to something I bet most teams in the league do due to the reality of what revenue will look like next season. 

[Thorner]

4 minutes ago, JohnC said:

Paul Hamilton was on WGR's Instigator Show and stated that he wouldn't be surprised if the Sabres don't spend up to their salary cap. This shouldn't be so surprising because not only are the Sabres in a tight financial bind but so are many other teams. What this probably means is that trade deals will be for players/contracts coming in and players/contracts going out. 

Another point he made regarding the probable lower salary structure is that more young players with lower contracts will make the roster to allow some more expensive players to be brought in.  

Your point that Botterill followed a strategy to get to this cap situation in order to be in a position of greater roster flexibility is true. However, no one could have planned for the health calamity that has been thrust upon us. Sometimes when you are forced to adjust to the stark reality of unexpected challenges you become more creative and flexible in dealing with it. I'm still hopeful that the brain trust can make some good hockey deals that upgrade and better balance the roster. 

The degree of difficulty of what they'll ask Adams to do (and that of course he'd say he could) is alarming. They should probably just spend to the cap considering how much focus they seemingly placed on that direction. Aren't all the billionaires gaining money during covid?

2 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

This thread will be all overreaction to something I bet most teams in the league do due to the reality of what revenue will look like next season. 

It's not an overreaction to say, while outside circumstances undoubtedly played a factor, we can't pretend it's "status quo" because it's happening to most other teams. It was supposed to be one of our sole advantages this off season. If that's gone, it bares thinking about. 

Edited September 11, 2020 by Thorny

[LGR4GM]

24 minutes ago, Thorny said:

There isn't really a positive way to spin this, caused by outside circumstances or not. If the reports are accurate, the Sabres will have let Botterill spend 3 full years on getting to a "cap space offseason", canned him, and then decide not to utilize the cap space we wasted those years on. Yuck. 

But it was supposed to be an advantage. We sacrificed for it. 

We've had this discussion and it's been repeatedly proven false. Botterill did nothing but waste money. 

[dudacek]

Imagine a flat cap and then taking another $100-200 million out of the pot.

• If several teams (a majority?) are looking to go this route, who will be taking the cap dumps from those teams who need to make them?
• How will there be any money to pay free agents anywhere near what they would have been worth pre-COVID?
• And no wonder there is such fear of arbitration.

Going to be a strange off-season.

[Thorner]

5 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

We've had this discussion and it's been repeatedly proven false. Botterill did nothing but waste money. 

Sure thing. 

It's just another straw man anyways holding up discussion. Whether we planned for it or not, it's been talked about around here for ages that it would be a big advantage for us. 

Mounds and mounds of discussion about how to potentially utilize that space from cap strapped teams, doesn't make much sense to just say "big meh" when we find out it *might* not be an available avenue at all. 

Edited September 11, 2020 by Thorny

[LGR4GM]

Just now, Thorny said:

Sure thing. 

It has. I think the athletic did an entire article about botterill and how he cleared cap almost equal to this last summer. 

[Thorner]

1 minute ago, LGR4GM said:

It has. I think the athletic did an entire article about botterill and how he cleared cap almost equal to this last summer. 

It seemed to me an organizational narrative, true in practice or not. 

[JohnC]

Just now, Thorny said:

The degree of difficulty of what they'll ask Adams to do (and that of course he'd say he could) is alarming. They should probably just spend to the cap considering how much focus they seemingly placed on that direction. Aren't all the billionaires gaining money during covid?

I don't believe that the Sabres will spend to the cap. Paul Hamilton made the point that Terry Pegula stated that he has spent a lot of money without getting a commensurate return on the ice. The very unsubtle comment/s indicate that for the near term at least he will no longer be a profligate spender in his hockey business. That shouldn't be surprising as evident by the slimming down of the organization. 

With respect to your question about all the billionaires gaining money during the covid I would say no, especially someone like him who is in the energy, hotel, Nashville production and hospitality business. He's adjusting to the harsh economic reality like a lot of other businesses are. 

 

[Thorner]

3 minutes ago, JohnC said:

I don't believe that the Sabres will spend to the cap. Paul Hamilton made the point that Terry Pegula stated that he has spent a lot of money without getting a commensurate return on the ice. The very unsubtle comment/s indicate that for the near term at least he will no longer be a profligate spender in his hockey business. That shouldn't be surprising as evident by the slimming down of the organization. 

With respect to your question about all the billionaires gaining money during the covid I would say no, especially someone like him who is in the energy, hotel, Nashville production and hospitality business. He's adjusting to the harsh economic reality like a lot of other businesses are. 

 

This isn't what I have heard but I'm speaking no more about that now. 

I'm not arguing that the Sabres will spend to the cap, I agree with your premise. 

Edited September 11, 2020 by Thorny

[PerreaultForever]

I don't know why this is surprising to people, it goes hand in hand with what was being said when JBot and all the scouts etc were fired. Cost cutting and fiscal restraint. Why did you think they'd spend on players???

The Sabres won't be alone in this approach. Arizona and Pittsburgh mentioned above and I'm sure there will be others. The next season will be a challenge to say the least in terms of generating revenue so a lot of owners are going to just spend as little as possible until things are fully back to normal. 

[JohnC]

1 minute ago, Thorny said:

This isn't what I have heard but I'm speaking no more about that now. 

I'm not arguing that the Sabres will spend to the cap, I agree with your premise. 

You are right that there are billionaires who have made an extraordinary amount of money in this covid era. A lot of money has been made in the financial and tech sectors. But in the sectors that the Pegulas are mostly involved are very troubled.

[Thorner]

Who is surprised in this thread?

Having said that, it was not a forgone conclusion that the Sabres wouldn't spend at least close to the cap. We didn't all say, "oh, we'll be 10 mil below now definitely, done deal" when Adams took over. 

There have been a whack ton of roster proposals (I'd wager the majority) that'd have us well above the *rumored* potential cap number. 

Edited September 11, 2020 by Thorny