Sabres Taxi Squad

[GASabresIUFAN]

My understanding is the taxi squad is 4-6 players including 1 goalie.  They practice with the NHL team and aren’t in the minors except for cap reasons.  Will who gets placed on the taxi squad depend on when the AHL opens?  

i’m going to assume the following Sabres roster

Hall Eichel Reinhart

Skinner Staal Olofsson

Thompson Eakin Cozens

Girgensons Lazar KO

Dahlin Jokiharju

McCabe Ristolainen

Miller Montour

Ullmark Hutton

Togarski, Rieder and Irwin will certainly be on the taxi squad, but who after that? Davidson? Fogarty? What other offensive players could we place on the squad?  Could we see a PTO for a forward with the intent of placing them on the taxi squad?

If there is an AHL I’m going to assume they want Routsalainen, Mitts, Asplund and Borgen to start there to get PT, but what if AHL callups are difficult because of Covid protocols? Could that change how someone like Mitts is treated?

Edited December 28, 2020 by GASabresIUFAN

[SwampD]

I though there was no limit on goalies.

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 hour ago, SwampD said:

I though there was no limit on goalies.

Must have one goalie, but why would you want a taxi squad with more then 2?

Edited December 28, 2020 by GASabresIUFAN

[nfreeman]

@GASabresIUFAN -- it looks like you only have 20 on your roster, and I think the roster limit is 23 plus the taxi squad.

I think Reider is a lock to be on the roster and will probably dress most nights.  He would need to clear waivers to go back and forth from the taxi squad, and they want him to kill penalties.  Irwin is also likely to be on the roster.

I also think that they will keep the maximum number of guys at least until the AHL and CHL seasons start, and that the guys they keep will include R2 and Mitts until the AHL season starts, and Quinn until they burn up his 9 games (or until the CHL season starts if it doesn't burn a year of his contract).

I agree that Toker will be on the taxi squad.  I think Borgen will be on it at least until the AHL season starts.

So, the taxi squad to start the season could include: Toker, Borgen, R2, Mitts and Quinn.

If they don't bother to keep Mitts on the roster or the taxi squad, and just have him wait until the AHL season starts -- that will be an ominous sign.

 

[Brawndo]

I think Rieder will be the 13th Forward on the Roster. With Irwin, R2 possibly filling out the rest of the roster.
 

Before the AHL Starts the taxi squad could be Borgen, Bryson, Mitts, Quinn and Togarski. The question is do the Sabres use the final spot to accumulate cap space by making a paper transaction and waiving a player such as Okposo and on off days not having his full cap hit on the books. 

After AHL TCs open, One of Borgen or Bryson, Mitts and if their is no OHL Season Quinn goes down. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

28 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

@GASabresIUFAN -- it looks like you only have 20 on your roster, and I think the roster limit is 23 plus the taxi squad.

I think Reider is a lock to be on the roster and will probably dress most nights.  He would need to clear waivers to go back and forth from the taxi squad, and they want him to kill penalties.  Irwin is also likely to be on the roster.

I also think that they will keep the maximum number of guys at least until the AHL and CHL seasons start, and that the guys they keep will include R2 and Mitts until the AHL season starts, and Quinn until they burn up his 9 games (or until the CHL season starts if it doesn't burn a year of his contract).

I agree that Toker will be on the taxi squad.  I think Borgen will be on it at least until the AHL season starts.

So, the taxi squad to start the season could include: Toker, Borgen, R2, Mitts and Quinn.

If they don't bother to keep Mitts on the roster or the taxi squad, and just have him wait until the AHL season starts -- that will be an ominous sign.

 

I’m not so sure.  The Sabres could use the taxi squad to save cap for use later in the season, like a goalie acquisition.  No one is claiming Rieder or Irwin on waivers.  Even if they do, they are easily replaced by similar waiver players.  The issue working in Rieder’s favor is he was signed to kill penalties.  

With the taxi squad, don’t be surprised if many teams, especially those close to the cap use the squad to save cap.

Edited December 28, 2020 by GASabresIUFAN

[dudacek]

If there is no AHL/OHL Sabres should carry six on the taxi squad to maximize development.

And the taxi squad should lean toward prospects: Quinn, Cozens, Mitts, Asplund, Ruotsalainen, Samuelsson, Borgen, Bryson would be the group Id be choosing from. Tokarski is the goalie.

If there is an AHL/OHL, then you take the opposite tack: Dea, Smith, Ogilvie, Davidson, Borgen, Tokarski.

Sabres roster is pretty set, IMO:

Eichel, Reinhart, Hall, Staal, Skinner, Eakin, Girgensons, Okposo, Thompson, Lazar, Reider, Risto, Montour, McCabe, Miller, Irwin. Olofsson, Joki and Dahlin can be moved back and forth freely but I doubt they will be. The team might play with Lazar, Reider and Irwin if they want to get cute for cap reasons. Cozens will be on the team, but he’s someone else they could get cute with, although I suspect he will make that seem silly.

Edited December 28, 2020 by dudacek

[GASabresIUFAN]

Why wouldn’t you give Derrick Brassard a PTO?  He was a 32 pt player last year and won 55% of his draws.  He’d be a great player to have around the organization.  He’d also be an upgrade over Lazar and maybe Eakin.  If he makes the team, waive Lazar and put him on the taxi squad.  His two year deal will make it unlikely he’ll get claimed.

Edited December 28, 2020 by GASabresIUFAN

[LabattBlue]

With no AHL until 2/5 at the earliest, what happens to all the training camp players who don’t make the Sabres roster or taxi squad?   
 

Workout on their own?   Rochester coaching staff?

[GASabresIUFAN]

5 hours ago, LabattBlue said:

With no AHL until 2/5 at the earliest, what happens to all the training camp players who don’t make the Sabres roster or taxi squad?   
 

Workout on their own?   Rochester coaching staff?

AHL camp will probably correspond to NHL opening night.

[PerreaultForever]

Who's Michael Houser?

[inkman]

7 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Who's Michael Houser?

The Sabres 7th string goalie.  Would play in ECHL if they played this season.  

[Taro T]

Teams usually keep 1 spare forward & 2 spare D to make practices flow smoother.

Now that they could have ~6 more guys, if it's 6 plus a goalie would expect them to add 4 forwards, 2 D, and a goalie as that's 6 lines and 5 D-pairs.

Who Krueger actually keeps up will depend on how/if they want to work the cap and how they want to run practices.  Could see them running 4 lines and 3 or 4 D-pair in each of 2 practices with the 5th & 6th lines practicing twice (if the CBA will allow it) and having the 4th & 5th D-pair doing double duty as well.  3rd goalie works both and Ullmark & Hutton each only work 1.  But, who knows?

Playing games with skaters to bank cap only works when they're under cap including those guys on IR.  If IR/LTIR has them over they burn any banked cap before kicking into the LTIR adjustments, so there's a good chance that playing games with it will only alienate players with no tangible gain.

And if, as Krueger said, the Sabres will be stricter w/ COVID policy than the league mandate, we may see him trying to keep certain players away from the main team or keep lines together even more than typical or a combo of both to minimize losing all their LW's for a game ala the Browns receiving corp last week.

Will wait to see the taxi squad guidelines before predicting its makeup. 

[#freejame]

Because of the salary cap implications Okposo will almost certainly start the season on the taxi squad. Is there any chance they try the same with Skinner?

[dudacek]

4 minutes ago, #freejame said:

Because of the salary cap implications Okposo will almost certainly start the season on the taxi squad. Is there any chance they try the same with Skinner?

I can’t see Okposo on the taxi squad, because I can’t see Okposo (pending off-season commitment) not being one for the 12 best forwards. That goes double for Skinner.

[GASabresIUFAN]

6 minutes ago, #freejame said:

Because of the salary cap implications Okposo will almost certainly start the season on the taxi squad. Is there any chance they try the same with Skinner?

My first reaction to KO on the taxi squad was ‘What! That’s crazy talk.”  Then I gave it some more thought.  We’d save 1.1 million if he is waived and “sent down”, but most of that savings would be lost with the cost of his replacement.  However, if he proves not to be one of the 13 best forwards in camp, I can defintiely see him waived to be part of the taxi squad.

[#freejame]

3 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I can’t see Okposo on the taxi squad, because I can’t see Okposo (pending off-season commitment) not being one for the 12 best forwards. That goes double for Skinner.

The taxi squad is more or less in name only on non-game days. The NHL has said it can be used to cap saving reasons. With constant paper transactions, players will likely only need to clear waivers once. What better time than to do so at the end of camp and start the savings immediately?

[Brawndo]

5 minutes ago, #freejame said:

Because of the salary cap implications Okposo will almost certainly start the season on the taxi squad. Is there any chance they try the same with Skinner?

He would have to agree to waive His NMC and I doubt he does that.

 

In terms of Okposo he can be placed on the taxi squad after clearing waivers and be called up on game days. This would gradually increase the amount of cap space the team has at the trade deadline and end of the year as he moves between the roster and taxi squad. 
 

I believe once a player has cleared waivers, they can be moved freely for 30 days before being subjected to waivers again. 
 

 

[dudacek]

7 minutes ago, #freejame said:

The taxi squad is more or less in name only on non-game days. The NHL has said it can be used to cap saving reasons. With constant paper transactions, players will likely only need to clear waivers once. What better time than to do so at the end of camp and start the savings immediately?

I just wonder what hiding players this way does to team morale?

You are taking money out of people’s pockets and not because of their play.

[Taro T]

1 minute ago, Brawndo said:

He would have to agree to waive His NMC and I doubt he does that.

 

In terms of Okposo he can be placed on the taxi squad after clearing waivers and be called up on game days. This would gradually increase the amount of cap space the team has at the trade deadline and end of the year as he moves between the roster and taxi squad. 
 

I believe once a player has cleared waivers, they can be moved freely for 30 days before being subjected to waivers again. 
 

 

Even better, they don't have to clear waivers a 2nd time in a single season until they've been back on the parent club for 30 days or 10 games.  So, they could keep a player on the taxi squad and only bring him up on game days and not have to worry about having to waive him until he's played 10 games.

 

But it will do wonders for destroying team chemistry.

[Brawndo]

1 minute ago, dudacek said:

I just wonder what hiding players this way does to team morale?

You are taking money out of people’s pockets and not because of their play.

For someone like Okposo His Full Salary is guaranteed and it would be discussed first with the player and then team leadership before proceeding. 

[dudacek]

Just now, Brawndo said:

For someone like Okposo His Full Salary is guaranteed and it would be discussed first with the player and then team leadership before proceeding. 

We get the cap savings, but he doesn’t get the salary hit?

That's a different story then. Is it because of the NMC? And who else might it apply to?

[Brawndo]

Just now, dudacek said:

We get the cap savings, but he doesn’t get the salary hit?

That's a different story then. Is it because of the NMC? And who else might it apply to?

Yes the team gets the cap savings. 

He’s on a one way deal. His salary is the same In the NHL, AHL and ECHL for that matter.

[GASabresIUFAN]

8 minutes ago, dudacek said:

We get the cap savings, but he doesn’t get the salary hit?

That's a different story then. Is it because of the NMC? And who else might it apply to?

He has a one way NHL contract.  He gets paid his NHL salary regardless of injury, waivers, playing in the AHL etc..  We save 1.1 million in cap if he is waived. KO has a modified NTC.  He can be waived without his consent. Skinner and Hall have NMC, which means they can’t be waived without their consent.

Edited December 29, 2020 by GASabresIUFAN

[Taro T]

22 minutes ago, dudacek said:

We get the cap savings, but he doesn’t get the salary hit?

That's a different story then. Is it because of the NMC? And who else might it apply to?

For the most part, teams can send players w/ 1 way contracts into the minors.  But the team only gets a partial reduction to their cap hit.  The cap hit gets reduced by the league minimum ($750k for 21-22) plus $375k for a total cap savings of $1,105k.  

That's in the CBA to allow teams to replace a poorly performing veteran with a player that isn't absolutely on a league minimum deal but also keeps them from fully getting out of a bad deal.  And were he a multi year deal signed after age 35, the team would only get out of $100k of the cap hit regardless of whether he played or retired.

So, there really isn't much to be gained from sending a 1 way contract vet onto the taxi squad unless he's earning close to league minimum.  Guys on 2 way deals are the ones that really gain cap savings but how many guys with NHL salaries well over $1,105k are on 2 way deals?  The 1 way player savings only kicks in up to a max of $1,105k and only then if the team keeps that roster spot open.

If the max taxi squad size is 6 skaters plus a goalie, (still haven't seen the taxi squad details, sorry) then a team could have up to 27 skaters and 3 goalies combined w/in both rosters.  (6 lines & 5 D pairings)  If they go w/ the non-emergency minimum 18 skaters & 2 goalies, then the total available drops to 24 skaters & 3 goalies.  (5 lines & a spare plus 4 D pairings)  And the team cap saves up to $3,315k over the full season but any players that are on IR at any point in the season reduces that savings as their salary counts against the cap and the team is forced to replace them to have an 18-2 roster.

Really seems like the cap jockeying is being overblown except for teams with severe cap issues or severe cash flow issues.  Will be mildly surprised if the Sabres make much use of that.  Expect them to be using the full taxi squad prior to the AHL starting, and then still likely using it to be running with their 18+2 best across the board.  With a normal 18 dressing guy getting "pressbox" duty on game nights they're healthy scratches & a press box guy getting taxi squaded to let Mittelstadt or Bryson or etc. to dress for the day.