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Sabres announce Ryan Johnson signs 2 year ELC (Finally)

Brawndo

By Brawndo
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Derrico First Liner

Derrico

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9 minutes ago, kas23 said:

Well, there’s goes that dumb theory that the Sabres would’ve preferred a late 2nd rounder in 2024. 
 

That said, I have real concerns on why he didn’t sign earlier. In the least, he could’ve  played in every Amerks playoff game. He doesn’t seem like a competitor. 

Huge thumbs up to ur first point and thumbs down for your second.

PromoTheRobot All Star

PromoTheRobot

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5 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

The little fish have been taken care of.

Now it's time to address the real items of the offseason: Extensions for Dahlin and Power, determining what Joker and UPL and Mitts mean to the franchise, and then finding the veteran D and goalie. (OK probably not goalie because it's GM Sheevyn and we have all we need right here, but still a veteran goalie would be very, very helpful.)

What if he trades UPL and runs with Comrie and Levi?

DarthEbriate All Star

DarthEbriate

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9 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

So next year in Rochester, Johnson and Novikov are the 2 D prospects, right?  Anyone else?

Currently from the Sabres' perspective, yes. Everyone else is on an AHL deal.

LHD: Pilut, Davies-AHL, Bartkowski-AHL, Tischke-AHL || Johnson, Novikov, Jandric-AHL
(and Bryson as his salary would likely clear waivers at the start of the season, but may not later in the year if a team is crushed by injuries); Clague, possibly

RHD: Prow-AHL, Cecconi-AHL, Strand-AHL, Eliot-AHL || Metsa-AHL

 

It'd be really nice to keep Prow and Davies. Pilut probably can find a franchise that's willing to give him a shot as a 6/7 for a year, but he's an excellent AHL-level guy.

Brawndo Hall of Famer

Brawndo

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8 minutes ago, Bangarang said:

But didn’t we just sign Novikov and Komarov to 3 year ELCs? 

Johnson will be 22 when the 2023-24 Season starts, he can only sign a 2 year ELC at that point

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nfreeman Hall of Famer

nfreeman

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I think it’s worth noting that KA deserves some credit here for selling Johnson, a pretty good prospect who easily could’ve been a UFA and would’ve had many appealing options, on the Sabres’ organization.

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JohnC First Liner

JohnC

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48 minutes ago, kas23 said:

Well, there’s goes that dumb theory that the Sabres would’ve preferred a late 2nd rounder in 2024. 
 

That said, I have real concerns on why he didn’t sign earlier. In the least, he could’ve  played in every Amerks playoff game. He doesn’t seem like a competitor. 

Why doesn't he seem like a competitor to you? Do you think the GM would have signed him to a deal if he had any concerns about his competitiveness? The prospect simply wasn't ready to sign when he finished his college season. Maybe he needed a break before making a decision that will set the course in his hockey career? So what's the big deal if there was a delay in getting him under contract? 

The GM is getting the hockey work done in a very systematic and businesslike manner. No more turmoil and dysfunction in the operation. The focus is on team and how to get better. There is a stability here that hasn't existed in a long time. The GM is doing a terrific job. 

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Taro T Hall of Famer

Taro T

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And just like that, within a week, the Sabres D pipeline, while still having room for improvement, no longer looks like a disaster.

Great job, Mr. Adams.  Now bring in 2 more legit NHLers.

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Taro T Hall of Famer

Taro T

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1 hour ago, DarthEbriate said:

The little fish have been taken care of.

Now it's time to address the real items of the offseason: Extensions for Dahlin and Power, determining what Joker and UPL and Mitts mean to the franchise, and then finding the veteran D and goalie. (OK probably not goalie because it's GM Sheevyn and we have all we need right here, but still a veteran goalie would be very, very helpful.)

The extensions, just like bringing in a UFA (in any capacity), can't happen officially for ~5 more weeks.  Until July 1 those 2 aren't in the last year of their current deals.

Pretty sure item 2 on your list has already happened and because of that, we MIGHT see a Mittelstadt &/or Jokiharju re-sign shortly after the 1st 2 guys get new contracts.

Still am not convinced there won't be a veteran goalie brought in.  Will come down to how much he'll cost and how long the term would have to be.  But am fairly confident that running back next year with what they have in net is plan B or plan C.  But a plan B or plan C that they're reluctantly comfortable with, which means they won't be in desperation mode trying to lock down plan A.

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RochesterExpat Third Liner

RochesterExpat

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I read a bunch on ELC contracts this morning and they’re not as uniform as I thought. Teams have quite a bit of control on bonus categories and which (if any) bonuses the player is eligible for. The range of base salary isn’t big, but there’s another (up to) 7 figures hidden away. From his draft year, 70% of prospect contracts have bonuses attached to them. Not a lot are max bonus. A team is also capped at 7.5% of salary cap in performance bonuses which could be an issue for Buffalo given all the other players on ELCs. Funny enough, for draft year 22 and later the contract structure has changed to be both friendlier to the team and to the prospect. But Johnson doesn’t fall under that CBA.

Given his dad works in the league, I wonder if he was telling Johnson or his agent to make sure there was a bonus structure and it was such that they were “easy” bonuses to achieve. If you look at categories and conditions, a lot of the defensive bonuses aren’t exactly easy for a two way defender to get. It’s possible Johnson wanted to finish school and had no intention of playing in Rochester this spring anyway. If that was the case, we might have just been sitting here assuming he had no interest being on the team when the reality was it was just a contract negotiation like we’d see with a standard player contract (only on an ELC).

That could also explain why the “insider” language was always “Buffalo believes they can get a deal done” and not “Buffalo believes Johnson will sign.” It’s also telling that Friedman commented yesterday (or the day before?) that Buffalo was content with a compensatory pick and today we see Johnson signs his contract. It’s possible that was GMKA using the media similarly to how the front office allegedly used a mythical Calgary deal for Eichel to boost his value. “We’re content with the compensatory pick” is a public way of saying “that’s the best deal we’re going to offer” when GMKA has otherwise said consistently that he sees Johnson as a part of the future.

So while we rarely hear about ELC contract holdouts, I think that’s what this was. 

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Taro T Hall of Famer

Taro T

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2 minutes ago, RochesterExpat said:

I read a bunch on ELC contracts this morning and they’re not as uniform as I thought. Teams have quite a bit of control on bonus categories and which (if any) bonuses the player is eligible for. The range of base salary isn’t big, but there’s another (up to) 7 figures hidden away. From his draft year, 70% of prospect contracts have bonuses attached to them. Not a lot are max bonus. A team is also capped at 7.5% of salary cap in performance bonuses which could be an issue for Buffalo given all the other players on ELCs. Funny enough, for draft year 22 and later the contract structure has changed to be both friendlier to the team and to the prospect. But Johnson doesn’t fall under that CBA.

Given his dad works in the league, I wonder if he was telling Johnson or his agent to make sure there was a bonus structure and it was such that they were “easy” bonuses to achieve. If you look at categories and conditions, a lot of the defensive bonuses aren’t exactly easy for a two way defender to get. It’s possible Johnson wanted to finish school and had no intention of playing in Rochester this spring anyway. If that was the case, we might have just been sitting here assuming he had no interest being on the team when the reality was it was just a contract negotiation like we’d see with a standard player contract (only on an ELC).

That could also explain why the “insider” language was always “Buffalo believes they can get a deal done” and not “Buffalo believes Johnson will sign.” It’s also telling that Friedman commented yesterday (or the day before?) that Buffalo was content with a compensatory pick and today we see Johnson signs his contract. It’s possible that was GMKA using the media similarly to how the front office allegedly used a mythical Calgary deal for Eichel to boost his value. “We’re content with the compensatory pick” is a public way of saying “that’s the best deal we’re going to offer” when GMKA has otherwise said consistently that he sees Johnson as a part of the future.

So while we rarely hear about ELC contract holdouts, I think that’s what this was. 

It's possible it was an "ELC holdout" but considering he signed shortly after Minnesota finished its graduation week activities (like a day later) its alos possible that he was taking Adams advice and living in the moment of where he was at.

Will be very interesting to see what his bonuses are.  Puckpedia didn't have the contract as of ~30 minutes ago.

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Carmel Corn Second Liner

Carmel Corn

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Great news!  I had lost hope this would happen, so now our D pipeline is looking better in the last week.  Does this change any thinking about who we should be targeting in the draft?

Flashsabre First Liner

Flashsabre

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1 minute ago, Carmel Corn said:

Great news!  I had lost hope this would happen, so now our D pipeline is looking better in the last week.  Does this change any thinking about who we should be targeting in the draft?

You should always target BPA in the first round. They will probably add a couple more D in other rounds but they can choose who they feel is the best fit at #13 without reaching or use the pick to acquire a quality player.

Metsa was a good pickup. I can see him signed to an NHL deal in the next year.

Johnson, Lindgren, Novikov, Komarov, Metsa is a D pipeline. Add a couple more this draft and it is starting to round into form.

 

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French Collection First Liner

French Collection

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This is an NCAA grad that could have gone UFA, kudos to the organization in getting people to sign and get into the atmosphere ASAP in Rochester/Buffalo.

Players and agents will be getting the word around that this organization is on the rise and should be on their radars.

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mjd1001 Second Liner

mjd1001

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1 hour ago, Taro T said:

And just like that, within a week, the Sabres D pipeline, while still having room for improvement, no longer looks like a disaster.

Great job, Mr. Adams.  Now bring in 2 more legit NHLers.

Truly allows now for the draft to focus on the 'best player available' instead of reaching for a position to 'fill the pipeline.'

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