Shutdown Pair

Tag: Raffi Torres

  • Gameday 2010-2011 – Canucks at Sabres and SO MUCH MORE

    The Vancouver Canucks come to Buffalo for a rare visit, in the 40th anniversary year of both teams’ existence.  According to the Buffalo News, it’s Miller versus Schneider tonight, denying Ryan Olympic vengeance, barring an outburst of Sabres goals to chase Cory Schneider.  Craig Rivet is “getting very close to playing” or retiring, if you believe ESPN.com’s NHL rumor mill.

    • The Islanders shuffled the deck chairs on the Titanic and fired Scott Gordon as coach.  He will be a consultant, which means they don’t want to be paying a guy to do nothing (other than Yashin).
    • The whole Colin Campbell fiasco should be getting more mainstream play.  Most likely the big guns are doing their own diligence first, though, so hopefully we see stuff soon.
    • Raffi Torres (now on the Canucks) has 7 goals.  *sigh*
    • As mentioned in the Buffalo News’s notes up there, this would be the 10th backup goalie the Sabres have faced, which is what happens when you a: have been bad and b: other teams have goalie injuries

    I should be watching tonight, this could be another big statement game against one of the best in the West.

  • Get to know Shaone Morrisonn

    I only had to check the spelling once for the title, but as stated, Shaone (pronounced like Shawn) Morrisonn was signed by Buffalo to a 2 year deal.  Financials not confirmed, rumored to be around $1.75mil/year but huge grains of salt there.  He’s 27, having played the last several years with Washington, at times paired with Mike Green.  1G, 11A last year, he is more of a stay-at-home guy that clears out the front of the net (6’4″, 210 lbs).  He had 163 hits last year, which would’ve put him first on the Sabres ahead of Kaleta.  His 104 blocked shots last season would put him second to Tyler Myers.

    Other notes on Morrisonn:

    Really, with all of this, he reminds of Jay McKee.  Big, similar numbers, shot blocker, hard hitter, all around tough guy.  Not a big splashy move, but definitely a guy that can play a role on this team now.

  • Something for Nothing?

    Bit of a warning:  I plan to ramble a bit here, as I may end up convincing myself I’m wrong.  It’s a work in progress.

    One of the recurring themes you hear when talking about guys in their walk years (especially on bad teams, or small market teams that ‘can’t afford them’) is that the GMs have to get something back for them.  The Sabres recently had that with Brian Campbell, and most likely will hear about Tim Connolly in regards to this for this season regardless of what he does.

    But the salary cap changes this, to my mind.  You always ‘get something back’ for a UFA, cap space.  When (if?) Timmy is not re-signed at the end of this season, you are getting back $4.5M in cap space, a tidy sum.  I’m not arguing that $4.5M in cap space is better than $4.5M and a 2nd round pick, but it IS something.  And it IS better than $2m in cap space and someone on the level of Drew Stafford or Clarke MacArthur (or Raffi Torres).  This makes sense to me, but I *am* sleep deprived, so feel free to poke some holes.

  • UFA! UFA! UFA!

    Since the Buffalo Sabres have been eliminated for a while now, I think it’s safe to take a look at the pending UFAs and see who we want to bring back.  The Sabres got out ahead of us, by announcing the signing of Mike Grier to a 1 yr, $1.4 million deal the other day.  He said right off he wanted to be back, so this was the easiest decision GMDR and company have made.  Grier is an important part of the PK as well as being the sort of hard worker you want the younger guys learning from and leaning on.

    The rest of the UFAs, with last season’s cap hit after:

    • Raffi Torres – $2,250,000
    • Adam Mair – $758,333
    • Matt Ellis – $500,000
    • Toni Lydman – $2,875,000
    • Henrik Tallinder – $2,562,500
    • Patrick Lalime – $1,000,000

    Not including the AHL roster filler guys like Joe DiPenta (although Cody McCormick did make an impression).  Looking at the forwards, I’d be fairly certain Raffi Torres is not sticking around.  He just never found ‘it’ here, and he has his sights set on other locales anyway.  Mair and Ellis are a bit different, though.  It’s easy to say ‘let them both go!’ and bring in Gerbe or Ennis or someone like that, but it’s not that simple.  Mair has stuck around longer than you’d imagine, simply due to the fact that he’s one of the few ‘tough’ Sabres.  But there are guys coming up (Zack Kassian, for one) who can provide that with more upside.  Matt Ellis seems more likely to be back, especially if he is willing/able to go on a two-way deal.  Lindy seems to be a big fan, and he has been a consistent effort guy, which you can’t always say for the top six as currently formed.

    For the defense (your honor), Tallinder and Lydman are both heading towards free agency.  Keeping both seems unlikely, but I’m not sure which one I would choose.  Lydman may be better all around, but I also have a hard time letting go of the guy Tyler Myers developed so much chemistry with.  Keeping neither is also an option, though the questions around Rivet’s shoulder might make at least one coming back more likely.

    As for backup goalie, Patrick Lalime may be the best option out there as far as a guy willing to take that role, unless Marty Biron decides it’s worth coming back.  To be honest, the numbers weren’t much different last year between the two, but Marty is still a fan favorite and has an obvious love of the area.  Management is probably comfortable with either guy, so the wants and needs of other teams may be the biggest factor here.

    A trade involving the upper half of the roster is still possible, and I know some of you are hoping it’s likely, to give the forward lines a bit of a shakeup.  I don’t think that does much to change what the Sabres do with these guys, though.  Will be looking at RFAs another time.