Official Sabres Acquire Ben Bishop and a 2022 7th Rounder for Future Considerations

[Sabres Fan in NS]

3 hours ago, Derrico said:

Wasn't he the fighter pilot?  Or am I thinking of Billy Bishop?

Dude!!

No ones here is gonna know who you's talkin' 'bout except fellow hosers, eh!!

lol !!

[Derrico]

4 minutes ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

Dude!!

No ones here is gonna know who you's talkin' 'bout except fellow hosers, eh!!

lol !!

😉

[Taro T]

12 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

Well I’m more angling towards a player with a few different offers

 

Personally I’d start working on our RFAs now because the sooner we hit the cap floor; the more valuable our cap space becomes in trades.

The only ones of any consequence are Olofsson & UPL.

Olofsson's deal likely will take a little time as both sides have several variables working in their favor for why it should be at least x/ years or no more than y/ years.

UPL's contract isn't of much consequence in the grand scheme.

Everybody else that the Sabres hold the rights to is either under contract for this year or Ra-cha-cha bound.  (Possible outlier being Johnson.  He still hasn't officially made a decision yet afaik.) So, they don't factor into cap space discussions. 

12 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

Well I’m more angling towards a player with a few different offers

 

Personally I’d start working on our RFAs now because the sooner we hit the cap floor; the more valuable our cap space becomes in trades.

The only ones of any consequence are Olofsson & UPL.

Olofsson's deal likely will take a little time as both sides have several variables working in their favor for why it should be at least x/ yr or no more than y/ yr.

UPL's contract isn't of much consequence in the grand scheme.

Everybody else that the Sabres hold the rights to is either under contract for this year or Ra-cha-cha bound.  (Possible outlier being Johnson.  He still hasn't officially made a decision yet afaik.) So, they don't factor into cap space discussions. 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

48 minutes ago, Taro T said:

And this is the opposite of the owners being cheap.  They literally paid over $3MM for an extra 7th round pick.

Isn't insurance going to be paying?

[Curt]

50 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

I'm being lazy.  So do the Sabres actually pay his salary for 22-23, or is it just a cap space transaction?

Sabres do pay his salary, but since he is hurt, supposedly insurance is covering almost the entire thing anyway.  So Sabres get a 7th in exchange for a small amount of cash.  They were not going to spend to the cap ceiling anyway.

[GASabresIUFAN]

I think this deal is terrible news for next season.  KA of course could prove me wrong, but getting a 4.9 mill cap hit is basically saying that he isn't even willing to spend money on even decent players to get to the cap floor.  I'm now very worried that Anderson/UPL is the goaltending plan despite the Campbell rumors.  That would be unacceptable and a show of bad faith from KA.  The best that can be said is that KA did this to insure he gets to the cap floor and now can be flexible with whom he acquires. 

The transaction is nearly meaningless from an actual $ standpoint.  Most of the money Bish will get will be paid by Dallas' insurance company.  For Dallas this is a great deal.  They clear Bish's cap hit for only a 7th rd pick. 

 

 

Edited June 10, 2022 by GASabresIUFAN

[Sabres Fan in NS]

First the Pilut and now this.  Perfect offseason so far.

[Curt]

51 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

Also, does he count as one of the 50 contracts or whatever the max contract number is?

 

I would assume yes.  Can’t think of a reason why he wouldn’t.  Teams don’t usually use all 50 contracts in any given season anyway though.

[Taro T]

1 minute ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

Isn't insurance going to be paying?

Asked that question earlier.  Don't know the answer.  Not sure his contract is big enough that Dallas would've been willing to pay the premium to have; & if they did, no data on whether the beneficiary is transferable (but would expect it is).  If there wasn't a policy in place, they won't be able to get one at reasonable cost.  And even if there is coverage, it typically doesn't kick in until after the 20th missed game.  So, they still paid nearly $1MM for a 7th round pick at the end of the day in a best are (for them).

[Curt]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

Can’t say I’m too fond of this one, unless there’s another shoe to drop.

Not the move itself, which is utterly (*shrugs*), but that it suggests Adams has good reason to believe he might not be getting to the floor this year.

Yeah, I see how you could read that into it.  We will see how the offseason is handled.

[bob_sauve28]

 

This seems like a real nothing burger 

[thewookie1]

Alright, this is what I mean by making our cap more valuable.

With Bishop on IR, we are still 14mil under the cap. As long as we are beneath the cap; teams won't be quite as willing to bribe the Sabres to eat cap as we'd need cap. Essentially we end up in the same situation as we did in the Boychuk trade with us needing cap just to hit the floor thus we held little leverage.

After signing:

Olofsson 4x5mil

Bryson 2x1.85mil

UPL 2x1.5mil (300k in Rochester)

And all the other random guys whom don't hit the cap; we still need another 7mil in cap. However, now we are within a couple signings of getting to the floor. No longer would the Sabres need to sign Gaudreau to 14mil just to get close to the cap floor with 1 signing. Or 2 7mil signings. 

Now if you spend 7mil on Comrie and DeSmith for instance on matching 2x3.25/3.75 respective contracts and to play it safe, Subban at 3x4mil you are still sitting with 15mil + in cap space and that's with Bjork at your 14th F and no 7th Dman (R2 is 13th F with 1mil contract)

 

At that point you only need 1 Dman and everything else can be left free if desired. Thus forcing other teams to pay us to eat their other cap dumps

Just a look at an AGM https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/3322124

Edited June 10, 2022 by thewookie1

[dudacek]

47 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I think this deal is terrible news for next season.  KA of course could prove me wrong, but getting a 4.9 mill cap hit is basically saying that he isn't even willing to spend money on even decent players to get to the cap floor.  

From a Buffalo transaction standpoint this deal is meaningless.  We get a 7th and the cap hit, Bish gets his money from the insurance company, and Dallas gets cap relief.  

From an off-season plan standpoint, I'm now very worried that Anderson/UPL is the goaltending plan despite the Campbell rumors.  This would be unacceptable and a show of bad faith from KA.

The Sabres were probably going to acquire 3 significant contracts this year: a goalie, a defencemen and Olofsson.

I was hoping they might acquire more than 3. All this means is they probably won’t.

Even with this, they still need to spend at least 14 million more. That means they probably have to spend at least 4 or 5 million each on at least 2 players minimum and can easily spend more.

I don’t think it has any bearing on the goalie situation whatsoever.

 

35 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

 

This seems like a real nothing burger 

Yep.

Edited June 10, 2022 by dudacek

[Contempt]

2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Good work Adams. Picked up a 7th for nothing. 

I would think a 7th round choice would cost less than 3.5M if you tried to outright buy one from a team.

[Trettioåtta]

I’m surprised we only got a seventh. Sure we need to get to the cap floor but Dallas just paid a seventh for like 7% more cap space in a stagnant cap eta. That’s a bargain 

[dudacek]

If you look at the recent rumours, Subban @4ish, VO at 5ish, and a goalie at 5ish puts them right at the floor. Add in this year’s JAG contracts and they might still be under the floor without the Bishop deal. This means they don’t have to worry.

It’s a prudent use of Terry’s money that doesn’t hurt the team on the ice in the slightest.

It just doesn’t help it either.

Edited June 10, 2022 by dudacek

[Contempt]

1 minute ago, dudacek said:

If you look at the recent rumours, Subban @4ish, VO at 5ish, and a goalie at 5ish puts them right at the floor. Add in this year’s JAGs and without the Bishop deal they might still be under the floor.

Which Subban at 4? I'm not sure there are ANY Subbans currently worth that. Maybe as a package deal for both.

[Taro T]

5 minutes ago, dudacek said:

The Sabres were probably going to acquire 3 significant contracts this year: a goalie, a defencemen and Olofsson.

That is going to add up to somewhere between 10 and 20 million. They need to spend to spend at least 14. This ensures they get there.

I was hoping they might acquire more than 3. This means they probably won’t.

I don’t think this has any bearing on the goalie situation whatsoever. They still almost have to spend 4-6 million on at least 3 players.

 

Yep.

Don't know that it means they WON'T bring in a 4th (& ideally a 5th) but it now means they don't absolutely have to or end up buying a Boychuk just to insure they stay above the floor regardless of other moves.

It also means, should they now be close to the midpoint of the cap that after the season starts they could still be part of a 3 way deal & not worry about having to be part of the 2nd trade to make sure they never fall below the floor.

The timing is interesting.  It had to happen before the draft to end up w/ this year's pick, but the draft is still weeks away.  Curious as to why it happened NOW.  (Maybe, it's as simple as this is when the GM's finally agreed to it.  But it just seems strange timing.)

[dudacek]

4 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Don't know that it means they WON'T bring in a 4th (& ideally a 5th) but it now means they don't absolutely have to or end up buying a Boychuk just to insure they stay above the floor regardless of other moves.

It also means, should they now be close to the midpoint of the cap that after the season starts they could still be part of a 3 way deal & not worry about having to be part of the 2nd trade to make sure they never fall below the floor.

The timing is interesting.  It had to happen before the draft to end up w/ this year's pick, but the draft is still weeks away.  Curious as to why it happened NOW.  (Maybe, it's as simple as this is when the GM's finally agreed to it.  But it just seems strange timing.)

Don’t you think it has more to do with Dallas setting up some dominoes to fall?

[Taro T]

Considering that there's $21.5MM between the cap floor & the ceiling, hoping they buy another (ideally better) pick for $4-5MM worth of cap space.

[DarthEbriate]

1 hour ago, Taro T said:

Likewise, but it's kind of the opposite of Botterill's 6th this year for a 6th next year, so it's good.

We must never, ever let JBott live this down. Ever.

This is the 2018 BUF 6th (156OA) to Toronto for 2019 TOR 6th (177OV). Traded 1:1 back and down... because clearly the Sabres were going to finish ahead of Toronto in the 2018-19 season standings. Because we'd just hired Coach Krueger.

Ultimately, the TOR 6th was packaged with BUF 7th to trade up into the 5th for Cederqvist so the jury is still out.

[Taro T]

2 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Don’t you think it has more to do with Dallas setting up some dominoes to fall?

Quite likely.  But prior to this they were showing $16MM in cap space w/ 16 players under contract.  Considering you can be over the cap by 10% in the summer, which gives them ~$25MM to work with if necessary, not sure why the timing was what it is from their perspective either.  Not many "real" trades until the playoffs end most years.  (Not that this is a real trade by most definitions either.)

[dudacek]

3 hours ago, Taro T said:

Considering that there's $21.5MM between the cap floor & the ceiling, hoping they buy another (ideally better) pick for $4-5MM worth of cap space.

Not saying they won’t, but this one seems to make it more unlikely to me.

It’s such small potatoes that I’m not sure why they’d do it if they had another deal lined up sure to get them over the floor.

But you never know what kind of web is being weaved behind the scenes. A lot of GMs are going to have to get creative and Adams is a logical partner.

Edited June 11, 2022 by dudacek

[DarthEbriate]

3 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Quite likely.  But prior to this they were showing $16MM in cap space w/ 16 players under contract.  Considering you can be over the cap by 10% in the summer, which gives them ~$25MM to work with if necessary, not sure why the timing was what it is from their perspective either.  Not many "real" trades until the playoffs end most years.  (Not that this is a real trade by most definitions either.)

Maybe just a simple bit of cleanup before they start inking their extensions. Robertson and Oettinger have earned long-term deals if Dallas is willing to lock them up. Honestly, that could kill most of their cap surplus right there. If they want to re-sign Klingberg... he'll get a solid vet contract.

[JoeSchmoe]

2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

2 things absolutely amaze me. 

First, that after 10 years of spending to the cap and being trash, some of you still equate spending to the cap with being good. The predictable push back on this move is also bizarre considering free agency hasn't started.

Second, that after everything that has gone since the Eichel trade, you still don't understand or accept where the team is and why they probably don't want to hand out massive deals this offseason. We know in 2023 and 2024 almost all the players we think are turning this thing around, need new contracts. 

The only logical reason they'd make this move is to get to the floor without really getting to the floor. Until there is any indication otherwise, I think there's plenty of reason for pessimism.

With all the cap room I was really hoping they'd give MAF a 2 or 3 year offer he couldn't refuse. 1 year to be the #1, then another 1-2 years to mentor Levi. I guess that isn't happening.