The Roster Thread, Summer 2024

[MOGlLNY]

Would it?

Without a buyout Skinner has 22 million dollars in cash coming his way. He would only get two thirds of it instead. And the “punishment” is cap space…meaning money they literally aren’t allowed to spend. Looks to me like the choice is give Skinner a ten million dollar check this year alone or just over 14 for the whole contract…and save over 7 million in real dollars forever. And, again, the result is at least 2.5 million dollars the club isn’t allowed to spend for the next six years.

But the logic behind it is to create more space for themselves to (hypothetically) spend.

 

[My Cozen Dylan]

This is what I would call a realistic offseason:

- Luukkonen 4 x $4.5M
- Krebs 2 x $1.75M
- Buyout Skinner

[BUF/CAR] Jesperi Kotkaniemi for Henri Jokiharju
[BUF/DAL] Radek Faksa for a 2025 4th
[BUF/TB] Tanner Jeannot for a 2025 3rd

Sign Dylan DeMelo - 4 years x $5.25M

Peterka - Thompson - Tuch
Benson - Cozens - Quinn
Greenway - Kotkaniemi - Savoie/Kulich
Krebs - Faksa - Jeannot

Byram - Dahlin
Power - DeMelo
Samuelsson - Clifton

Luukkonen / Levi

 

[Ace]

But the logic behind it is to create more space for themselves to (hypothetically) spend.

In reality the plan is probably to threaten to take away 1/3 of his money to get him to waive his trade protection to keep all of it and get us off the hook for a larger amount and/or for less years.

I will believe they actually care about cap space when they get anywhere near it

Bottom line…a buyout saves Pegulabucks and dents the cap for six seasons…saving more Pegulabucks. That’s just a fact.

You say potato…I say ownership getting a 7 plus million dollar refund with a long term cap using kicker.

 

[MOGlLNY]

In reality the plan is probably to threaten to take away 1/3 of his money to get him to waive his trade protection to keep all of it and get us off the hook for a larger amount and/or for less years.

I will believe they actually care about cap space when they get anywhere near it

Bottom line…a buyout saves Pegulabucks and dents the cap for six seasons…saving more Pegulabucks. That’s just a fact.

You say potato…I say ownership getting a 7 plus million dollar refund with a long term cap using kicker.

I definitely think it’s a smokescreen to try and get him to waive as well. Hopefully that’s the case

 

[My Cozen Dylan]

I definitely think it’s a smokescreen to try and get him to waive as well. Hopefully that’s the case

If so, I would imagine there is a good chance they have the framework of a trade worked out?

 

[Matt Ress]

In reality the plan is probably to threaten to take away 1/3 of his money to get him to waive his trade protection to keep all of it and get us off the hook for a larger amount and/or for less years.

I will believe they actually care about cap space when they get anywhere near it

Bottom line…a buyout saves Pegulabucks and dents the cap for six seasons…saving more Pegulabucks. That’s just a fact.

You say potato…I say ownership getting a 7 plus million dollar refund with a long term cap using kicker.

What if they retain on him and spend to the cap. What say you good sir?

 

[Dingo44]

Want. Only $16! I had two different style sets of Sabres for mine and still have them.

EDIT: I bought the shirt.

Coleco Table Hockey Players -Buffalo Sabres by mafmove

 

[MOGlLNY]

God damnit I need the offseason

 

[Ehran]

With Edmonton's win tonight I guess we have to wait until at least Sunday to find out if Skinner is bought out.

 

[Sabresbyswords104]

With Edmonton's win tonight I guess we have to wait until at least Sunday to find out if Skinner is bought out.

Does it really make sense buying him out ? Why not just send him Down to ahl for next season ?

 

[Ehran]

Does it really make sense buying him out ? Why not just send him Down to ahl for next season ?

1. My post was tongue-in-cheek about the tweet posted further above in this thread about Eliotte Freeman (?) saying "Buffalo is considering buying Skinner out" and the 2 or 3 pages of discussion that followed.

2. Skinner has a full no-movement-clause. Meaning he can't be traded, waived, etc., without his consent. I can't conceive of him agreeing to riding the bus in Rochester.

 

[Push Dr Tracksuit]

1. My post was tongue-in-cheek about the tweet posted further above in this thread about Eliotte Freeman (?) saying "Buffalo is considering buying Skinner out" and the 2 or 3 pages of discussion that followed.

2. Skinner has a full no-movement-clause. Meaning he can't be traded, waived, etc., without his consent. I can't conceive of him agreeing to riding the bus in Rochester.

If everyone pooled their money maybe we could get the dark web to fabricate some gambling debts on Sabres games.

 

[DapperCam]

The NHL is all about agents and GMs leaking half truths to journalists to negotiate, or create some sort of perception about their team or client.

So you have to ask yourself, why would the Sabres front office leak this story about possibly buying out Skinner (which would probably be bad for Skinner, because he won't get the full amount of his top-of-market contract).

Two ideas I have
1. Convince Skinner to waive some aspect of his NMC (maybe they have the framework for a trade in place).
2. Get Skinner to make some sort of commitment to Ruff and Adams to play however the team wants him to play this upcoming season. He fell off a cliff the second half of last year, not sure if he was injured, having motivation problems, or something else. I have motivation problems at work too, so I can relate with Jeff there.

If he gets bought out, I think Peterka replaces his spot on the top line (not an expensive UFA).

 

[Old Navy Goat]

Aren't you required to put Skinner on waivers for the purpose of buying him out before actually buying him out?

 

[Chainshot]

The NHL is all about agents and GMs leaking half truths to journalists to negotiate, or create some sort of perception about their team or client.

So you have to ask yourself, why would the Sabres front office leak this story about possibly buying out Skinner (which would probably be bad for Skinner, because he won't get the full amount of his top-of-market contract).

Two ideas I have
1. Convince Skinner to waive some aspect of his NMC (maybe they have the framework for a trade in place).
2. Get Skinner to make some sort of commitment to Ruff and Adams to play however the team wants him to play this upcoming season. He fell off a cliff the second half of last year, not sure if he was injured, having motivation problems, or something else. I have motivation problems at work too, so I can relate with Jeff there.

If he gets bought out, I think Peterka replaces his spot on the top line (not an expensive UFA).

I would think it is more likely that Skinner's reps would float this around to see if anyone is interested.

 

[Sabre the Win]

The NHL is all about agents and GMs leaking half truths to journalists to negotiate, or create some sort of perception about their team or client.

So you have to ask yourself, why would the Sabres front office leak this story about possibly buying out Skinner (which would probably be bad for Skinner, because he won't get the full amount of his top-of-market contract).

Two ideas I have
1. Convince Skinner to waive some aspect of his NMC (maybe they have the framework for a trade in place).
2. Get Skinner to make some sort of commitment to Ruff and Adams to play however the team wants him to play this upcoming season. He fell off a cliff the second half of last year, not sure if he was injured, having motivation problems, or something else. I have motivation problems at work too, so I can relate with Jeff there.

If he gets bought out, I think Peterka replaces his spot on the top line (not an expensive UFA).

His motivation problems the 2nd half of the season is probably because this team took themselves out of the playoffs by January with their self entitled mindset thinking they actually earned something the year prior. In hindsight Granato should have put this fire out earlier and brought them back to reality since Buffalo has a way of making you lose your love for hockey. It's happened to me this season, I quit on the team in the 2nd half probably for the same reason Skinner did. I won't hold it against him.

This same thing crippled ROR years earlier. No accountability in the locker and a self entitled mindset was a recipe for a bad season.

 

[NotABadPeriod]

Aren't you required to put Skinner on waivers for the purpose of buying him out before actually buying him out?

Yes. Unconditional waivers for the explicit purpose of buyout is an exception to the NMC though.

 

[Old Navy Goat]

Yes. Unconditional waivers for the explicit purpose of buyout is an exception to the NMC though.

So until we see him placed on waivers there's no reason to get excited

 

[Djp]

The NHL is all about agents and GMs leaking half truths to journalists to negotiate, or create some sort of perception about their team or client.

So you have to ask yourself, why would the Sabres front office leak this story about possibly buying out Skinner (which would probably be bad for Skinner, because he won't get the full amount of his top-of-market contract).

Two ideas I have
1. Convince Skinner to waive some aspect of his NMC (maybe they have the framework for a trade in place).
2. Get Skinner to make some sort of commitment to Ruff and Adams to play however the team wants him to play this upcoming season. He fell off a cliff the second half of last year, not sure if he was injured, having motivation problems, or something else. I have motivation problems at work too, so I can relate with Jeff there.

If he gets bought out, I think Peterka replaces his spot on the top line (not an expensive UFA).

Skinner being bought out is a logical thing when factoring who the new coach will be. this is true across the league with new coaches not meshing with current roster players. You dont need some leak.

As for the roster its not that simple

The way i look at it. is looking at this over the next 3 yrs.

If you work the roster with just 1 of Quinn/Peterka on the roster and Jokiharju and Krebs not on it and you have

the remaining 7/5/0 roster
add
2 ELC F rookies at1.9M
2G for $6M
a 7D for $6M
a 13F for $1M

**************************

Skinner-thompson-ELC
xxx-Cozens-Quinn/Peterka
Benson-xxx-Tuch
Greenway-xxx-ELC
13F

Samuelsson-Dahlin
Power-xxx/Byram
xxx/Byram-Clifton
7D

UPL
BG/Levi

this leaves you with 10/6/2 roster
If you look ahead the next 2 years in players increases salarys and the rising cap
Quinn/Peterka, Benson get 3.5M 2 yr bridges, Byram gets to 5.5M, Tuch to $6M, Greenway to $3.5M. BG 24/25 gets 1.5M which is what Levi gets in 25/26 and 26/27.

24/25-$13.7M
25/26-$12.2M
26/27-$12.7M

this space would go to cover 4C,3C, winger, and a 3LD/2RD

With 4C this may be cheap 2M or less replaced by Ostlund in 25/26

you target a 3C who may drop to 4C with no more than 3 years of around $4M
the 3LD/2RD could be a one yr rental player who is replaced by RyJo in 25/26

the concern I have with D/G is too much long term cap in D/G above the ideal amount. with 3/7 of cap for 7D/@G or top 5 D and SG for 40% of the remaining cap after setting aside 11M of for the bottom 8 players of 4F/2D/BG and one wild card.

currently Buffalo exceeds these before you even fill out the last D spot.

With Winger you can look to keep Peterka/Quinn and just get a rental player for 24/25 or you use one of them to trade away and then look for someone for the next 3+ yrs

in terms of cap

4C could be 2M this yr, then ELC Ostlund next year
3C for $4M
the D could be $3M this year then $1.5M for RyJo nect year.

this adjusts the space to

24/25-$13.7M-2-4-3=$4.7M

25/26-$12.2M-0.95-4-1.5=$5.75M

26/27-$12.7M-0.95-4-1.5=$6.25M

with a spot for a winger.

If they were to trade Skinner with retention like $4M opening up $5M each year gives them more flexiblity than a buy out would. this year its low, but the next 2 yrs it would be high it frees up 7.55M this year but that drops to 4.55 then 2.55 then 3 more years of 2.44M dead space


I expect in summer 2026 or summer 2027 one of Byrum/Power gets traded

 

[truthbluth]

Elliott really hasn’t been right about the Sabres in a long time. I hope that pattern changes.

 

[TehDoak]

This is what I would call a realistic offseason:

- Luukkonen 4 x $4.5M
- Krebs 2 x $1.75M
- Buyout Skinner

[BUF/CAR] Jesperi Kotkaniemi for Henri Jokiharju
[BUF/DAL] Radek Faksa for a 2025 4th
[BUF/TB] Tanner Jeannot for a 2025 3rd

Sign Dylan DeMelo - 4 years x $5.25M

Peterka - Thompson - Tuch
Benson - Cozens - Quinn
Greenway - Kotkaniemi - Savoie/Kulich
Krebs - Faksa - Jeannot

Byram - Dahlin
Power - DeMelo
Samuelsson - Clifton

Luukkonen / Levi

Pretty sure this team is like 10M under the cap.

I would think it is more likely that Skinner's reps would float this around to see if anyone is interested.

Pretty much this. A buyout is actually a pretty good scenario for skinner. He’d easily make up the 7M he is losing over the next few years. Probably trying to get a market for him.

 

[Jim Bob]

Pretty sure this team is like 10M under the cap.

If you have Savoie & Rousek as the 13th and 14th forwards and re-sign Bryson to 1x$2M as the 7th D, you have $3.366M in cap space.

 

[Mattilaus]

Would it?

Without a buyout Skinner has 22 million dollars in cash coming his way. He would only get two thirds of it instead. And the “punishment” is cap space…meaning money they literally aren’t allowed to spend. Looks to me like the choice is give Skinner a ten million dollar check this year alone or just over 14 for the whole contract…and save over 7 million in real dollars forever. And, again, the result is at least 2.5 million dollars the club isn’t allowed to spend for the next six years.

You are framing this in a way to make your personal argument look better but your logic is way off. You are saying pegulas are cheap because they are limiting the future cap by buying out skinner. They would be limiting it by paying skinner out now, not just out of thin air. It is more expensive to pay out 14 million now than to pay it out over 3 years. giving time for interest to accrue on that 14 million and if they spend to the cap they are saving 0 dollars, they are just still paying skinner to not play here.

You can't be like "oh they are cheap because they limited the cap by 2.5 million because of the skinner buyout!" while ignoring that the reason the cap is limited is that they already paid that money years ago.

 

[TehDoak]

If you have Savoie & Rousek as the 13th and 14th forwards and re-sign Bryson to 1x$2M as the 7th D, you have $3.366M in cap space.

View attachment 884321

If you drop Bryson, Savoie, and Rousek, that's 3.6M-ish in extra space. Replace them with two sub million vets, that gets you to 5M leftover space. But...I didn't realize Faksa/Koketiemi both made so much combined.

 

[Der Jaeger]

Lost me at Kotkaniemi and Debrusk's contract.

If we buy out Skinner, we need short contract's to replace him or else all we are doing is exchanging 9mil cap hits for up to 12mil in 2 years

Doesn’t need to be that way.

Soooooo far off on that Roy contract. He's probably getting closer to 7. Carrier probably gets more too.

Ok, sure. I was just putting a team together to show it was possible. See below:

This is what I would call a realistic offseason:

- Luukkonen 4 x $4.5M
- Krebs 2 x $1.75M
- Buyout Skinner

[BUF/CAR] Jesperi Kotkaniemi for Henri Jokiharju
[BUF/DAL] Radek Faksa for a 2025 4th
[BUF/TB] Tanner Jeannot for a 2025 3rd

Sign Dylan DeMelo - 4 years x $5.25M

Peterka - Thompson - Tuch
Benson - Cozens - Quinn
Greenway - Kotkaniemi - Savoie/Kulich
Krebs - Faksa - Jeannot

Byram - Dahlin
Power - DeMelo
Samuelsson - Clifton

Luukkonen / Levi

Like this. It’s possible.

If you have Savoie & Rousek as the 13th and 14th forwards and re-sign Bryson to 1x$2M as the 7th D, you have $3.366M in cap space.

View attachment 884321

And in that case I’d use that money to find another forward in place of Savoie/Kulich. $4m in cap space. Sign Carrier.