NHL Salary cap goes up to 88M

[GoPuckYourself]

https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-salary-cap-will-rise-to-88-million-in-2024-25
 

Do the Sabres do anything different with this news?

[Taro T]

3 minutes ago, GoPuckYourself said:

https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-salary-cap-will-rise-to-88-million-in-2024-25
 

Do the Sabres do anything different with this news?

Yeah, they don't worry as much about giving Kane an incentive laden contract that pushes a lot of his earnings into next season.  😉 

[tom webster]

As I’ve been saying, it will be $92M the next year and should go up at least 5% each year till the end of the CBA.

[jad1]

13 minutes ago, GoPuckYourself said:

https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-salary-cap-will-rise-to-88-million-in-2024-25
 

Do the Sabres do anything different with this news?

It looks like Ben Bishop is about to be paid (again).

[CallawaySabres]

29 minutes ago, GoPuckYourself said:

https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-salary-cap-will-rise-to-88-million-in-2024-25
 

Do the Sabres do anything different with this news?

They could offer to Okposo and lure him back to be Captain again. I mean, they need Stanley Cup pedigree. 

[GoPuckYourself]

1 hour ago, CallawaySabres said:

They could offer to Okposo and lure him back to be Captain again. I mean, they need Stanley Cup pedigree. 

[Stoner]

Hoo boy it's gonna be a long night for some Spacers.

[Pimlach]

More room to improve the roster.  

[Thorner]

Other, good teams get cap relief they desperately need, we get cap relief while seeing our advantage in this area over other teams weakened as we already had space beforehand (when other teams did not) 

space we didn’t use ended up a missed opportunity 

alas 

Rich richer 

[Pimlach]

9 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Other, good teams get cap relief they desperately need, we get cap relief while seeing our advantage in this area over other teams weakened as we already had space beforehand (when other teams did not) 

space we didn’t use ended up a missed opportunity 

alas 

Rich richer 

True that it’s another missed opportunity.  Adams can only move forward and take advantage of it.  Its salary space for another good player. 

[inkman]

8 hours ago, Pimlach said:

More room to improve the roster.  

As long as it’s via trade and not UFAs.  What’s the hit rate for free agents?  It’s gotta be well under 50%.  

[Night Train]

9 minutes ago, inkman said:

As long as it’s via trade and not UFAs.  What’s the hit rate for free agents?  It’s gotta be well under 50%.  

Or just keep giving out 7-8 year deals to young guys already here. That's worked well....not..

[dudacek]

12 hours ago, Pimlach said:

True that it’s another missed opportunity.  Adams can only move forward and take advantage of it.  Its salary space for another good player. 

 

3 hours ago, Night Train said:

Or just keep giving out 7-8 year deals to young guys already here. That's worked well....not..

The 7-year deal were an example of the Sabres trying to take advantage to the opportunity.

We shall see how successful they were as those contracts age.

[PerreaultForever]

On 6/10/2024 at 2:28 PM, CallawaySabres said:

They could offer to Okposo and lure him back to be Captain again. I mean, they need Stanley Cup pedigree. 

I know you are joking, but it also wouldn't surprise me if Adams did this. 

[thewookie1]

5 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

I know you are joking, but it also wouldn't surprise me if Adams did this. 

I could see him returning as a non-player but not as a player

[LGR4GM]

maybe forcing fans to have 6 different TV subscriptions to watch games is bad? Or making tickets to random Wednesday games on November 90$ plus fees isn't a great busy model?

 

[mjd1001]

22 hours ago, dudacek said:

 

The 7-year deal were an example of the Sabres trying to take advantage to the opportunity.

We shall see how successful they were as those contracts age.

I'm not saying paying guys early works all the time, but I think if you want to be 'great' and not just 'good', you have to take the chance to do that.  

Again, you won't always hit on them, but when you do lock up guys early, you get McKinnon on a team friendly deal that helped you win the cup, Makar making $9m (most think that is a bargain), Drasaitl making $8.5 through most of his prime, Hughes in New Jersey who is probably already a top 10 player making $8m long term for the next part of a decade as he gets better...etc.

If you wait to pay your guys until they 'prove it', you have Toronto. You don't have any 'busts', but you end up paying the top 4 of your 23 guys over 50% of your cap.  Sure, they 'proved it' to you first, but you end up paying more...that is the recipe for having a very good team but also the recipe for not having a great team.

Edited June 12 by mjd1001

[Taro T]

6 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

I'm not saying paying guys early works all the time, but I think if you want to be 'great' and not just 'good', you have to take the chance to do that.  

Again, you won't always hit on them, but when you do lock up guys early, you get McKinnon on a team friendly deal that helped you win the cup, Makar making $9m (most think that is a bargain), Drasaitl making $8.5 through most of his prime, Hughes in New Jersey who is probably already a top 10 player making $8m long term for the next part of a decade as he gets better...etc.

If you wait to pay your guys until they 'prove it', you have Toronto. You don't have any 'busts', but you end up paying the top 4 of your 23 guys over 50% of your cap.  Sure, they 'proved it' to you first, but you end up paying more...that is the recipe for having a very good team but also the recipe for not having a great team.

The bolded can't be emphasized enough.  Teams need to lock up their good players early and those deals will turn into deals when the guys are actually in their primes.  And yes, they'll miss on some of those.  Predicting the future is never an exact science.  But if the scouting and analytics teams are quality, those misses will be few and far between.

It's also important to not be giving out full NTC/NMC contracts as those are what get you at least 6 years of Skinner on a deal that's overpriced by anywhere from $2-$8MM over what he's giving you (depending upon year).  

And paying guys when they show that they have a strong possibility of living up to their potential goes a long way towards "walking the talk" that they want to build from within and to the greatest extent reasonably possible keep their own guys in house and will reward guys when they demonstrate they deserve it.  Which, should they ever actually get back into the playoffs again, would help alter the reputation as being a place players don't want to go.  If you win and treat people right, guys will want to be a part of it.

[dudacek]

I agree with concept of locking up the guys you believe in early.

The question don’t see being addressed is how many?

Skinner, Dahlin, Thompson, Cozens, Samuelsson, and Power, that’s 6

Luukkonen, Quinn, Peterka, Benson, Byram, Tuch and Levi are coming.

Tampa gave out term to Stamkos, Kucherov, Vasilevskiy, Hedman, McDonough, Palat and Killorn

And then augmented as they went along with Point, Hagel, Cirelli, Sergachev and Cernak.

So it's definitely possible and can be successful.

But stacking up that many value contracts, including some absolutely elite players could not have been easy.

[LGR4GM]

8 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I agree with concept of locking up the guys you believe in early.

The question don’t see being addressed is how many?

Skinner, Dahlin, Thompson, Cozens, Samuelsson, and Power, that’s 6

Luukkonen, Quinn, Peterka, Benson, Byram, Tuch and Levi are coming.

Tampa gave out term to Stamkos, Kucherov, Vasilevskiy, Hedman, McDonough, Palat and Killorn

And then augmented as they went along with Point, Hagel, Cirelli, Sergachev and Cernak.

So it's definitely possible and can be successful.

But stacking up that many value contracts, including some absolutely elite players could not have been easy.

My issue is the list of "coming up" while also including Skinner as locked up. Dude has 3 years left and Tuch has 2... so my point is Skinner is not locked up and after this season is probably being bought out so that's only 5. My hope is they trade Jeff this offseason but probably Forton and Pegula like him so they will put up roadblocks or some such shenanigans. 

Tuch doesn't have to be signed long term. UPL shouldn't be. Byram hasn't shown he should be. Levi hasn't shown he should be. That leaves Quinn, Peterka, and Benson. Benson has 2 years left at least. So is having 8 guys locked up for 5+ years really a massive problem? I suppose it depends on the contracts but my point is UPL, Levi, Tuch, and to this point Byram don't need to be locked up long term. We have fallen into this habit of viewing everyone as needing a 7+ year deal and they simply don't. IMPO anything 5 years or less is not long term. Levi and UPL shouldn't get 5+ years because goalies. Tuch shouldnt because age. Byram shouldnt because he hasn't been good yet. 

[dudacek]

24 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

My issue is the list of "coming up" while also including Skinner as locked up. Dude has 3 years left and Tuch has 2... so my point is Skinner is not locked up and after this season is probably being bought out so that's only 5. My hope is they trade Jeff this offseason but probably Forton and Pegula like him so they will put up roadblocks or some such shenanigans. 

Tuch doesn't have to be signed long term. UPL shouldn't be. Byram hasn't shown he should be. Levi hasn't shown he should be. That leaves Quinn, Peterka, and Benson. Benson has 2 years left at least. So is having 8 guys locked up for 5+ years really a massive problem? I suppose it depends on the contracts but my point is UPL, Levi, Tuch, and to this point Byram don't need to be locked up long term. We have fallen into this habit of viewing everyone as needing a 7+ year deal and they simply don't. IMPO anything 5 years or less is not long term. Levi and UPL shouldn't get 5+ years because goalies. Tuch shouldnt because age. Byram shouldnt because he hasn't been good yet. 

Don’t know that I agree on the particulars, but I do agree with this: not everyone can or should get a big, long-term deal.

It was actually kinda my point. 

The solution may be as obvious as you say - my current views aren’t dissimilar to yours - but there are a lot of variables that could send things sideways. The pressure to re-sign Tuch, for example, could be considerable. What if you have to choose between Quinn Peterka and Benson? Levi and UPL? What if Byram is a stud? Do you bet on any of these guys early like you did with Mule and Power?

(Skinner is playing out a long-term deal and is a good reminder of how some long-term deals play out. He isn’t on anyone’s list of players the Sabres should be re-signing to a long-term deal, that’s why I set it up like I did.)

Edited June 12 by dudacek

[xzy89c1]

we can buy out Skinner now!!!!! My dream is alive.

Will we be closer to the salary floor or the Cap?

[LGR4GM]

9 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Don’t know that I agree on the particulars, but I do agree with this: not everyone can or should get a big, long-term deal.

It was actually kinda my point. 

The solution may be as obvious as you say - my current views aren’t dissimilar to yours - but there are a lot of variables that could send things sideways. The pressure to re-sign Tuch, for example, could be considerable. What if you have to choose between Quinn Peterka and Benson? Levi and UPL? What if Byram is a stud? Do you bet on any of these guys early like you did with Mule and Power?

(Skinner is playing out a long-term deal and is a good reminder of how some long-term deals play out. He isn’t on anyone’s list of players the Sabres should be re-signing to a long-term deal, that’s why I set it up like I did.)

If I have to chose between Quinn, Benson, and JJP? I pick Benson. If Byram is a stud you can easily trade Owen Power to probably a dozen NHL teams. 

[Taro T]

55 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Don’t know that I agree on the particulars, but I do agree with this: not everyone can or should get a big, long-term deal.

It was actually kinda my point. 

The solution may be as obvious as you say - my current views aren’t dissimilar to yours - but there are a lot of variables that could send things sideways. The pressure to re-sign Tuch, for example, could be considerable. What if you have to choose between Quinn Peterka and Benson? Levi and UPL? What if Byram is a stud? Do you bet on any of these guys early like you did with Mule and Power?

(Skinner is playing out a long-term deal and is a good reminder of how some long-term deals play out. He isn’t on anyone’s list of players the Sabres should be re-signing to a long-term deal, that’s why I set it up like I did.)

Well, that's kind of where the handing out no full NMC/NTC's come in along with having a full plan of who will LIKELY will be ready in '25, '26, '27, etc. with an expectation of who will be moved out to make room for kids that have higher ceilings than the players that are here AND of which kids will get moved because they have lower ceilings than the players that are already here.

They've done a good job of building up the prospect pool and have good young talent on the big club.  And now they're entering into that next phase where the cap actually becomes constraining and they really do need to have a true plan to make it happen.  Personally, expect that Adams has a plan for this.  Will it work?  That's the $88MM Question.  😉 

[dudacek]

16 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Well, that's kind of where the handing out no full NMC/NTC's come in along with having a full plan of who will LIKELY will be ready in '25, '26, '27, etc. with an expectation of who will be moved out to make room for kids that have higher ceilings than the players that are here AND of which kids will get moved because they have lower ceilings than the players that are already here.

They've done a good job of building up the prospect pool and have good young talent on the big club.  And now they're entering into that next phase where the cap actually becomes constraining and they really do need to have a true plan to make it happen.  Personally, expect that Adams has a plan for this.  Will it work?  That's the $88MM Question.  😉 

Yep. From my perspective Adams comes across as capable in both his ability to lead people and his grasp on the business side of the hockey department.

I'm just waiting to see if he's right in his player evaluations.

Regardless of what adds he makes, the success and failure of his build is relying heavily on Thompson, Cozens, Power, Samuelsson earning their contracts.