As you all know, Nathan Gerbe is signed, 3 years, $4.3 million. Great number for a guy who lit it up in the second half of last year and played well in the playoffs. This dodges one potential RFA offer sheet target (not that it was all that likely) and keeps the honey badger in the fold. Can’t wait to see his performance in the upcoming year. Lot’s of room left to make moves. So exciting right now.
Category: Sabres
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Mystery Players, Center Edition
Let’s play a game. I’ll give you the stats for several centers in the league, and you tell me which ones are ‘number one’ centers. Ready, GO:
- Player A: 28G, 49A for 77 points, 1.07 points/game in 2010/2011. 24G, 57A for 91 points, 1.14 P/G in 2009/2010.
- Player B: 24G, 58A for 82 points, 1 P/G for 2010/2011. 26G, 43A for 69 points, .86 P/G for 2009/2010.
- Player C: 32G, 44A for 76 points, .95 P/G for 2010/2011. 25G, 43A for 68 points, .89 P/g for 2009/2010.
- Player D: 19G, 57A for 76 points, 1.13 P/G for 2010/2011. 19G, 50A for 69 points, 1.05 P/G for 2009/2010.
- Player E: 21G, 36A for 57 points, .92 P/G for 2010/2011. 23G, 34A for 57 points, .95 P/G for 2009/2010.
So who are they? Drum roll, please!
A: Brad Richards
B: Derek Roy (10/11 numbers extrapolated to a full season)
C: Jonathan Toews
D: Ryan Getzlaf
E: Jason SpezzaA couple of those guys missed 10-15 games in a season (Spezza and Getzlaf especially), but the numbers are still close, aren’t they? And yet, some folks around town scoff at Roy as a top-flight center. There’s usually one or two centers who outperform the crowd (Sedin or Crosby for example) but beyond that, this is what you get as a number one C. I was curious about these numbers, and I hope this gives you another perspective on the center pursuit by the Sabres.
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THE Most Important Sabres Question You Will Ever Answer
[poll id=2]
It started when I heard Rhett Warrener (and possibly Jordan Leopold?) call Robyn Regehr ‘Reggie’ in interviews, and I haven’t been able to shake this VERY IMPORTANT question ever since. Many of you know I have a problem with Andrej Sekera being called ‘Reggie’, because the J IS SILENT in his name. But! Robyn Regehr’s claim in that regard is no better – Reg-ear is the G sound, not the J sound. This team, as far as I’m concerned, has NO Reggie.
Actually, not that I think about it, Silent J would be an outstanding nickname for Sekera. I think it shall be my goal this season to get that into common usage. Help me out!
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We’re Still Talking About HIM?
Tim Connolly. Say that name near Sabres fans, and you’ll get a reaction. Largely, a negative one. Maybe a few will reminisce about when he was ‘good’, recall his play in the playoffs after the lockout, but then they bring up the injuries, the concussions, and you end up back at the same place – good riddance!
Except…have you seen the other options for centers out there? You’ve got Brad Richards on the radar (you and every other team that is), but then what? For UFA’s, the field is pretty bleak. Jason Arnott? Eric Belanger? Brooks Laich? Laich might be the best bet, but nobody out there is screaming Number ONE center loudly (or Number TWO for that matter). RFAs aren’t happening either. Offer sheets for the good ones will be matched, and if they aren’t ‘good’, see above. You aren’t finding Danny Briere on the scrap heap every year. Though if they could pull it off again…well, we can dream.
So that leaves trades. The trick here is having what others want, and the other team needing to make a move for some reason. The fact that the salary cap went up as much as it did complicates that – not as many teams need to shed salary to keep their best players. There are some targets out there (Stephen Weiss? Paul Stastny?) but their are complicating factors (for Weiss, the Panthers are barely hitting the floor, and Weiss’s cap hit is over $3mil, and Stastny has a big money deal on another team near the floor).
That brings things back to Tim Connolly. He’s a known quantity, for better or worse. He’s had productive stretches, though not in the playoffs lately. He’s been brittle. He infuriates you with his potential. He doesn’t talk to the media very much, so despite the fact that he’s been here seemingly forever, we don’t really know him. At least for Max, he had the language barrier, but Timmy is from this very state.
Look, we all know the Sabres NEED a center for one of the top two lines. I don’t think TC can do that anymore. However, this year is not a year with an easy solution to that problem. Sign Brad Richards! but for how much and how long? Despite the loosened purse strings and Darcy flexing his deal-making muscles, you still don’t want to kill your flexibility. Especially with Tyler Myers coming due for a pay upgrade. Timmy might just be the only feasible option (at a much lower price than the last contract) while we wait and see if someone else comes available, or someone like Luke Adam takes hold of a spot. I’m not sure I like it any more than you do, but what I am saying is, don’t be surprised if it does happen.
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Sabres Draft Six and Land Regehr
To be honest, I wasn’t able to be as into the draft this year as I wanted to, thanks to family obligations and time constraints. The players the Sabres drafted are here. Some things haven’t changed from the past few years. Most of them are big, over 6 feet tall. Most are North American, though they finally broke out of that by drafting Joel Armia from Finland with their first pick (at 16). From the report by Kris Baker on Armia, sounds like a guy to watch a couple of years down the road.
The Sabres also got their man in Robyn Regehr, acquired in a trade from the Calgary Flames. We also got Ales Kotalik back, who might play (he DID have his best years here) or who might go to Portlan–er, Rochester, or who could always go play in Europe. Buffalo also nets a 2nd round pick next year, while giving up Chris Butler, who showed promise at times but could never seem to get past Sekera on the depth chart, and Paul Byron. Regehr is big and tough and migh just settle in as a partner for Tyler Myers. It’s one of those spots people thought needed to be addressed this offseason (a veteran D, a top-flight C), and it didn’t cost the Sabres too much. There are plenty of good prospects still stacked up, and there’s room for more deals to be done.
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Schedule Day and Robyn Regehr
The Sabres and the rest of the NHL have released the schedule for next year, but I bet most of you are already investigating just who Robyn Regehr is and who we might be giving up to get him. Assuming he waives his NMC. He’s a solid hitter, also defensively, and might just be the partner Myers needs. I like him, and hope the deal happens. Best part is, the Sabres are involved and active.
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The Sabres Blogger Summit
I was having my fun with this yesterday, tweeting a few reasons why I’m not attending, but of course, I wasn’t actually invited to tomorrow’s event. One wonders how the attendees were picked, but we’ll never know. Am I too nice to the team? Do I not blog enough? Am I not enough of a squeaky wheel? I wonder. Anyway, I was surprised when it was announced that we could watch the proceedings. No better way to make the more amateur bloggers (as in, the ones that don’t go on the radio or what not) nervous than to put ’em on video.
In all seriousness, the folks that are going are a great crew, and we should get some solid information out of it. If it goes well, hopefully it becomes a regular thing. Have fun guys!
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Sabres Sign Pysyk
Multiple reports have the Sabres signing 2010 1st rounder Mark Pysyk to his entry level contract, though he is most likely going to return to juniors next season for a fourth season. Sabres Prospects has the rundown including Mark’s recent stats. He captained the team, and seems likely to be on Canada’s next World Junior Championships team.
Pysyk is active on Twitter, mostly chirping his Edmonton Oil Kings teammates, and creeping on Taylor Swift. Were he to make the team next year (an outside shot, he can do the 9 game tryout if he really impresses at camp), he might just be the first Sabres tweeter since Drew Stafford. That we know of, anyway.
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Sabres Sign Foligno
Marcus Foligno, that is. Combine Foligno with Kassian and an increased role from Weber (and a few others on the roster now), and this is a Sabres team that is getting tough in the next few years.
Foligno posted career highs in goals (23), assists (36) and points (59) for Sudbury of the Ontario Hockey League. The league’s coaches also named him the best body checker in the Eastern Conference.
Best body checker? I’ll take that. Buffalo has some strong, talented players in the pipeline, and think I might love how this team looks and plays in a couple of years. This year too, maybe, depending on how the offseason goes. Let’s make some moves!
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On Vanek and Stamkos
Let me preface all this with: I don’t think anyone will do an offer sheet on Stamkos, least of all the Buffalo Sabres. I don’t think there’s an amount of money you could offer that would get him, no way Tampa let’s him go now that they finally seem ready to stay competitive again.
That being said, the talk of Stamkos has gotten me thinking about Vanek and the Sabres. There are two questions I’d like to put to you fine people:
1. Would Steven Stamkos score 50 goals as a member of the Sabres?
2. Will Thomas Vanek ever score 50 goals as a member of the Sabres?
This is assuming Lindy Ruff is still coach, also. For number one, I am thinking no, probably not. He’d be a 40 goal guy, for sure, but I just don’t see Lindy Ruff using him in ways that would lead to 50+. Would Ruff double-shift him? Put him out for a whole power play? Stamkos averages a full minute more of PP ice time than any Sabre – and that was Derek Roy. Vanek was next at 3:15 per game. You could look at it like this: the Lightning had about 1 minute more per game of power play time, and Stamkos was always on the ice for it. No, the ‘system’ wouldn’t have that happening. Not that I think that’s completely bad – the system works when the parts are competent – but it’s enough that Stamkos would not eclipse the 50 goal mark. He’d get the same grief Vanek got after signing his big offer sheet at that point, “we signed this guy and he’s not scoring???” even though it also wouldn’t be his fault.
That brings us to question number 2. I personally don’t think Vanek will ever break 50 goals, for much the same reasons as above. Though I’d be interested to see him back with a true playmaking center now, with another working line of actual scoring to keep the pressure off. Even with that, I think Lindy’s preference is to keep things more balanced, so Vanek would have to go OFF (think Stafford hat tricks last year with his normal tip-ins and deflections). Don’t see it happening.
Don’t agree? Comment away…let’s kill off some of this ‘no Sabres hockey’ time.