The 2024-2025 Roster Thread

[ClearTheTrack]

And then you have this comment about Buffalo: "I have some friends there and they love playing there."

The weather is the weather. And if the player, or his significant other, wants to live somewhere warmer, there is nothing they can do.

There is somewhat of a "low cost of living offsets the state income taxes" argument to be made.

But, while one argument that former players don't live in Winnipeg is an argument against Winnipeg, that is not an argument you can make against Buffalo.

And it's not just guys that work for the team that stick around. You have Peters and Rivet still here after choosing to walk away from being censored by the team.

It does come down to winning...

The taxes issue is so complicated and probably so much player opinion is driven by ignorance - I don't mean that in a harsh way (why would any of them delve into complex state and regional tax rates - for fun?) but just reality - that opinion becomes "reality" and that's that.

If you believe this - and it seemed well-sourced and detailed enough to at least be worth the discussion - the Sabres are not far off the median in terms of an overall tax hit to their players:

https://thehockeynews.com/news/hockey-taxes-what-an-nhl-player-pays-in-taxes-depending-on-their-team

 

[Jim Bob]

The taxes issue is so complicated and probably so much player opinion is driven by ignorance - I don't mean that in a harsh way (why would any of them delve into complex state and regional tax rates - for fun?) but just reality - that opinion becomes "reality" and that's that.

If you believe this - and it seemed well-sourced and detailed enough to at least be worth the discussion - the Sabres are not far off the median in terms of an overall tax hit to their players:

https://thehockeynews.com/news/hockey-taxes-what-an-nhl-player-pays-in-taxes-depending-on-their-team

Well, when you have players who have played in multiple locations, they have the ultimate knowledge: lived experience.

The other thing that we don't know is if "taxes" are a convenient excuse that players sometimes use to not go somewhere that they don't want to live without stating the real reason that would cause them to catch a lot more flak.

 

[Ace]

We could have negative tax rates that pay you to make money in Buffalo and Adams still wouldn’t get anything done.

 

[Fjordy]

Fairburn said that life in Buffalo is cheaper and that this is no excuse for the GM not to improve the team in various ways. Fairbun at least talks to the players regularly.

 

[Sabre Dance]

I’m officially done with the Buffalo Sabres after they trade Dylan Cozens. They are the dumbest franchise in professional sports.

I’ve pretty much been done with them anyways but they deserve all negative attention they receive. Absolute clown show.

 

[Chainshot]

I'm already going on record that I will hate the return.

You poked the Krebs voodoo doll last night so hard that it jabbed the Cozens' one underneath it, didn't you?

 

[Ace]

I’m officially done with the Buffalo Sabres after they trade Dylan Cozens. They are the dumbest franchise in professional sports.

I’ve pretty much been done with them anyways but they deserve all negative attention they receive. Absolute clown show.

The potential to trade Dylan Cozens is the only thing keeping me around.

He’s not good and he’s paid to be great. On a team that doesn’t spend…that’s a disaster. They aren’t going to change their payroll. They have to allocate their money better. He had one year where he shot so far above anything he will ever shoot again and got paid for it. Mistake.

Of every player talked about moving there isn’t one I am less worried of breaking out than Dylan Cozens. He has no elite trait. He doesn't even have a great one. Unless you count his luck in a contract year.

I can’t wait to never watch him play in a Sabres jersey again. It’s what gives me life.

Team needs major changes up front and it takes me zero seconds to get to who should be shipped out.

 

[ValJamesDuex]

Probably just hurt. Or a "maintenance day".

LBI

 

[joshjull]

8-10% of a population is well above the sample size in almost every poll the public gets its eyes on between politics, health, etc.

If they distributed the surveys thoughtfully, ie not just to 10 year vets or players they know, then this survey is about as statistically significant as can be.

This survey, which matches the common sense eye test, deserves plenty of stock.

You’re not seriously trying to compare this to what professional pollsters do?

Pollsters have their issues, but they have methodologies to work off in an attempt to get the best cross section possible. Some are much better than others at it. It’s also understood that even one metric/input being off can mess up the results.

Pollsters also give a lot of underlying data to get to the reasons for things. Like why did voters prefer candidate X; 35% said the economy, 20% said the military, etc. What do we get from this article? Gossip. It’s written like a gossip column.

We get the following gossip as “ support”for the survey results………………..

Bruce Cassidy at No. 2 is an interesting development, though, given the success he’s had with the Vegas Golden Knights.

"That's what I'm hearing from around the league,” one player said.

"I haven't heard too many good things about the Vegas coach, Cassidy,” another said. “I don't really know him that well, but I haven't heard anything good about him."

One player didn’t even know Anaheim Ducks coach Greg Cronin’s name but picked him anyway: “Who is Anaheim’s coach?”

"I've heard from other players that he's not great to play for,” another player said. “They have a lot of decent skill that they should be a good team, but they're not."

I couldn’t stop laughing reading these player comments. They can be summed up as “I don’t know him man but I heard he sucked”. All I got out of this article is that 90+% of NHL players would play in any city outside of Winnipeg/Buffalo and play for any coach outside of Torts/Cassidy. So who cares who ranks where after. The numbers are pretty meaningless they’re so small.

It would have been helpful if they gave subcategory reasons to each of these topics. Like under what cities players don’t want to go, break it down by players who played there and those that didn’t. Same thing for who played for a coach or not.

 

[jc17]

LBI

Dropped the suitcase on his toe?

 

[Sabre Dance]

The potential to trade Dylan Cozens is the only thing keeping me around.

He’s not good and he’s paid to be great. On a team that doesn’t spend…that’s a disaster. They aren’t going to change their payroll. They have to allocate their money better. He had one year where he shot so far above anything he will ever shoot again and got paid for it. Mistake.

Of every player talked about moving there isn’t one I am less worried of breaking out than Dylan Cozens. He has no elite trait. He doesn't even have a great one. Unless you count his luck in a contract year.

I can’t wait to never watch him play in a Sabres jersey again. It’s what gives me life.

Team needs major changes up front and it takes me zero seconds to get to who should be shipped out.

They always trade our core players at their lowest point. It’s another mistake from a clown organization.

 

[TheBarnIsElectric]

Sounds like Mittelstadt is available. Would you trade Cozens for him? Do you think COL would do it?

Seems absurd, but trading Mitts created a hole at 2C for us and was supposed to fill theirs. Is it so far fetched that they would trade him back to us if they liked the return? Can any other team make an offer of another young player with top 6 potential like Cozens?

It's far-fetched, but it's an interesting thought, at least to me.

 

[joshjull]

Sounds like Mittelstadt is available. Would you trade Cozens for him? Do you think COL would do it?

Seems absurd, but trading Mitts created a whole at 2C for us and was supposed to fill theirs. Is it so far fetched that they would trade him back to us if they liked the return? Can any other team make an offer better than Cozens?

It's an interesting thought, at least to me.

Where are you getting that from?

I’d be interested in getting him back but not sure I’d want to ditch Cozens to do it.

 

[TehDoak]

On the contrary, it is worse if he sucks next season and we need to buyout him or keep him in the lineup instead of a good player. There is interest in Cozens around the league, as I already said, several GMs can easily pay for him, and I am not against trading him to such a team for parts that are good for us. Of course, there is no point in trading him for Chiarot or some such nonsense, but I think there will be interesting offers there.

So, I think its clear Adams won't trade Cozens for just a bag of futures at this point. So its not like we are going to get some great bag of future assets we can use later. We're going to get back a similar salaried player who is struggling as well. Its a 7M player, most teams are near the cap....we aren't going to retain for 5 years, so we are getting close to 7M back.

What deal makes sense for the Sabres that involves players with no or limited trade protection with near 7M in total salary where we are going to get back players that represent better than the potential upside of Cozens if we surround him with better coaching and better support players.

If you just assume that every GM has more resources and experience than Adams in making these deals and Adams is never the smartest guy in the room, the last thing you want is Adams moving on from a former top 10 pick who has been productive previously.

This is a lost season, we aren't making the playoffs.

Don't trade a 24 year old former top 10 pick when there is no incentive to do so.

Clean out the front office, improve the team around Cozens, improve the coaching staff.

If he still sucks next year, then move him or use the buyout. The 1/3 buyout makes it a
$1,183,333 buyout for 8 years when the salary cap is 100M. Trivial.

 

[ValJamesDuex]

Sounds like Mittelstadt is available. Would you trade Cozens for him? Do you think COL would do it?

Seems absurd, but trading Mitts created a hole at 2C for us and was supposed to fill theirs. Is it so far fetched that they would trade him back to us if they liked the return? Can any other team make an offer of another young player with top 6 potential like Cozens?

It's far-fetched, but it's an interesting thought, at least to me.

just to see Chad quit the business

Never go backwards, so no.

 

[TheBarnIsElectric]

Where are you getting that from?

I’d be interested in getting him back but not sure I’d want to ditch Cozens to do it.

Seravalli says he's available. Matt Larkin also speculated publicly that he could be had. Take it for what it's worth.

He was a healthy scratch recently.

 

[ValJamesDuex]

Weeks

 

[dickiedunnwrotethis]

Sounds like Mittelstadt is available. Would you trade Cozens for him? Do you think COL would do it?

Seems absurd, but trading Mitts created a hole at 2C for us and was supposed to fill theirs. Is it so far fetched that they would trade him back to us if they liked the return? Can any other team make an offer of another young player with top 6 potential like Cozens?

It's far-fetched, but it's an interesting thought, at least to me.

In a micro-second.

 

[Chainshot]

Noesen just wanted to validate leaving Thompson off the US team for the Four Nations by making sure he was unable to play.

In the meantime, IR shenanigan it to get some more recalls up for a look.

 

[Beerz]

You poked the Krebs voodoo doll last night so hard that it jabbed the Cozens' one underneath it, didn't you?

I burned Krebs in effigy.. it may have crisped up Cozens in the process.

Weeks

Should happen in 9 1/2 weeks

 

[Fjordy]

So, I think its clear Adams won't trade Cozens for just a bag of futures at this point. So its not like we are going to get some great bag of future assets we can use later. We're going to get back a similar salaried player who is struggling as well. Its a 7M player, most teams are near the cap....we aren't going to retain for 5 years, so we are getting close to 7M back.

What deal makes sense for the Sabres that involves players with no or limited trade protection with near 7M in total salary where we are going to get back players that represent better than the potential upside of Cozens if we surround him with better coaching and better support players.

If you just assume that every GM has more resources and experience than Adams in making these deals and Adams is never the smartest guy in the room, the last thing you want is Adams moving on from a former top 10 pick who has been productive previously.

This is a lost season, we aren't making the playoffs.

Don't trade a 24 year old former top 10 pick when there is no incentive to do so.

Clean out the front office, improve the team around Cozens, improve the coaching staff.

If he still sucks next year, then move him or use the buyout. The 1/3 buyout makes it a
$1,183,333 buyout for 8 years when the salary cap is 100M. Trivial.

Well I don't agree with that position. He plays with good players around him and I see the same thing, his brain is broken or he just doesn't want to be in Buffalo. I think we can find a good deal and stop overvaluing Cozens high and random shooting % in 22-23, he won't go back to that and his defense sucks, his PP sucks. I don't see the point in keeping him.

 

[ValJamesDuex]

Noesen just wanted to validate leaving Thompson off the US team for the Four Nations by making sure he was unable to play.

In the meantime, IR shenanigan it to get some more recalls up for a look.

Can you put James Bond rockets on Murray's skates ?

 

[Chainshot]

Can you put James Bond rockets on Murray's skates ?

I don't see anything wrong with him being the guy in front or beside the net on PP1. He is regularly willing to sacrifice his body to score goals at a professional level and when angry has shown he's willing to stand up for himself and others. For about 4 minutes of PPTOI and maybe 8 minutes total, they have done worse.

 

[debaser66]

They always trade our core players at their lowest point. It’s another mistake from a clown organization.

There is a difference if said player is actually a core player in reality.
The chances are good he will never get anywhere here with how he was developed.
I think this core needs to be dissolved they are mental midgets.
Keep the corner pieces like Dahlin and get rid of what you can.
Cozens had one good season scoring wise.
He is a phylon with zero Hockey IQ and plays like a chicken given his size.
He got every chance for 2 years in a row and never delivered.
He didn't put together anything worthwhile except that one season.

 

[DapperCam]

The comments about winning, as it pertains to Buffalo, is expected and reasonable.

But Winnipeg being at the top of the list despite recent success is proof that there was way more truth to the palm trees statement than people want to admit, and people unwilling to even entertain it are just burying their heads in the sand....or snow

No offense to Winnipeg, but it is not only cold (way colder than Buffalo), and they have to pay higher taxes, but it’s in the middle of nowhere. Buffalo is a short plane ride from NYC and a short car ride to Toronto. Many NHL players grew up within 100-150 miles of here.

If Buffalo were a playoff team every year I doubt they would be on many no trade lists.