Roster Building with the New Cap Increases

[inkman]

31 minutes ago, dudacek said:

"There's a belief that..."

OK. Now find me one with Byram saying those things.

Argh Friedman and Marino are the bane of my existence.  Constantly purporting opinion as fact.  My apologies. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

26 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Ship out Samuelsson, give his 4mil to Byram for 6yrs and that gives Byram about 8mil in salary. Actually, I would do 5yrs. Sabres are currently the #1 team in the NHL for defender points I think. 

5yrs, 7.85mil for Byram, boom done. Give him a 10team NTC. 

Then get rid of Power and use that $8.35 mill on players to pair with Dahlin and Byram.  

Then find a way to move on from Cozens and his $7 mill contract and utilize that money to fix the top 6 forwards (read playmaker). 

[PerreaultForever]

Offer sheets. Make some offers players can't refuse. 

[thewookie1]

My biggest concern about Byram is that he doesn't seem to do well outside of being Dahlin's partner. Plus I have no intention to trade away Power no matter how soft he might be.

[SABRES 0311]

17 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Ship out Samuelsson, give his 4mil to Byram for 6yrs and that gives Byram about 8mil in salary. Actually, I would do 5yrs. Sabres are currently the #1 team in the NHL for defender points I think. 

5yrs, 7.85mil for Byram, boom done. Give him a 10team NTC. 

I don’t think he takes anything less than what Power makes.

[EM88]

7 hours ago, thewookie1 said:

My biggest concern about Byram is that he doesn't seem to do well outside of being Dahlin's partner. Plus I have no intention to trade away Power no matter how soft he might be.

I think he is good, but not great, without Dahlin. He can eat minutes.  Is that a function that he isn't that special, or that outside of Dahlin whoever he is paired with is not that good?

He is skilled.  With Dahlin they make a great pairing. How much is that worth? How much you pay him is one of the top questions of the offseason.

It is not just Dahlin carrying Bryam either. When I watch them play I see Dahlin having his best games when paired with Byram. They seem to bring out the best in each other.

[JohnC]

20 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Then get rid of Power and use that $8.35 mill on players to pair with Dahlin and Byram.  

Then find a way to move on from Cozens and his $7 mill contract and utilize that money to fix the top 6 forwards (read playmaker). 

Will you please stop with the Power harangue! He's not going anywhere, and you very well know that. I recommend that you target your venom toward the many other valid targets on the team and staff. With respect to Cozens, I would move him to wing and try to come up with another player to center for him. 

[bunomatic]

On 2/4/2025 at 12:09 PM, kas23 said:

Oooh. Love the innuendo. Wonder if this means anything.  

Looks a little sleepy ?

[LabattBlue]

Roster building?  KA skipped that master class on his way to becoming an NHL GM.  
 

I would love to be a fly on the wall when other NHL execs talk about the Sabres organization.  

[Flashsabre]

Would you trade Quinn+ a small add for Zegras with the plan that Zegras plays at. Centre.

Zegras like Cozens has struggled for 2 years now. The Ducks play him as a wing while I think he is much better as a centre while the opposite is true if Cozens.

I know Zegras isn’t the gritty type Sabres fans want but his playmaking would be an asset for all the shooters.

I would then move Cozens for a top 4 RHD for Power.

And to be clear I’m not advocating for this trade, just putting the idea out there for discussion as the team needs a playmaking centre.

[St. Pete Gogolak]

Take a look at the 2020 - 2021 Sabres roster.  Eichel, Reinhart, Thompson up front, Dahlin, Risto, McCabe, Montaur backline, Ullmark and UPL in goal.  Tell me that if that team stayed together with some tweaks, it would be at a minimum a playoff team, maybe a legitimate Cup contender.  (I know, dozens of reasons that didn’t happen).  Moral of the story?  There shouldn’t be anything done with this roster going into next year other than some tweaks - re-sign Zucker and Greenway, dump Mattias, Joker and Bryson, for God’s sake find a veteran, physical RHD to pair with Power, if possible find a vet playmaking center, move Cozens to wing, give Cozens and Quinn next year to show they are viable NHL’ers.  

[GASabresIUFAN]

Wheeler at the Athletic has Minn with the No. 2 prospect pipeline.  The Wild have built this pipeline all while remaining competitive (playoffs 10 of 13 years) despite buying out multiple huge contracts.  

The Washington Capitals, who rebuilt their NHL team on the fly and now have the best record in the NHL, have also managed to rebuild their pipeline which is ranked 9th by Wheeler.  The Caps have made the playoffs 11 of the last 13 years and won a Cup.  

The Sabres pipeline, despite 13 years straight of missing the playoffs, is ranked 11th.  Just 2 more examples of how badly this team is managed.  

This whole organization is rotten to the core.  They have zero idea how to draft, develop or build an NHL team.  The higher cap is just going to make things worse.  Well managed teams will use the extra cap dollars to win, while the Sabres become the Miami Marlins of the NHL.

 

 

 

 

 

[dudacek]

I don’t think people fully grasp what kind of contracts this escalation will bring.

Saw elsewhere that in terms of a percentage of the cap, the numbers Zdeno Chara signed for in his big deal with the Bruins in an escalating cap world will equate to $16.3M this summer.

In the first year of his $8.3M 7-year deal, Owen Power is making 9.5% of the cap.

Part of the reason that looks bad right now is because three years ago that deal, under a mostly flat cap, was worth maybe $8.5M in today’s dollars and we’ve gotten used to that world.

But three years from now, that will translate to just $6M in today’s dollars.

Inflation is going to make a lot of players very wealthy over the next few summers.

Edited February 14 by dudacek

[JohnC]

20 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I don’t think people fully grasp what kind of contracts this escalation will bring.

Saw elsewhere that in terms of a percentage of the cap, the numbers Zdeno Chara signed for in his big deal with the Bruins in an escalating cap world will equate to $16.3M this summer.

In the first year of his $8.3M 7-year deal, Owen Power is making 9.5% of the cap.

Part of the reason that looks bad right now is because three years ago that deal, under a mostly flat cap, was worth maybe $8.5M in today’s dollars and we’ve gotten used to that world.

But three years from now, that will translate to just $6M in today’s dollars.

Inflation is going to make a lot of players very wealthy over the next few summers.

The problem isn't that our GM wasn't wise in thinking ahead about the increasing cap landscape when securing his young core with extended contracts, such as Tage, Power, Cozens etc. It's that he didn't add enough supporting talent when he had the opportunity to do so to get a better production from them and collectively for the team. Last offseason, the GM added players such as Zucker, McCleud and some other players for the lower lines. These in general were good pickups. However, adding another Zucker caliber player and another veteran defenseman could have better balanced and rounded out this roster. In my view it was doable. That was a mistake. 

[FrenchConnection44]

On 2/4/2025 at 2:09 PM, kas23 said:

Oooh. Love the innuendo. Wonder if this means anything.  

Let’s make it happen. Frees up cap space  and might get a player in return. 

[thewookie1]

Mitch Marner could be a possibility if he doesn’t stick with Toronto. His issue though is being another player that’s soft. But at least he’s good defensively apparently