Bay Side
June 11th, 2007, 8:47:24 PM
http://www.thehockeynews.com/en/news/news.asp?idNews=24771
Conventional wisdom suggests the Buffalo Sabres should have enjoyed Chris Drury and Daniel Briere while they had them because in the salary cap world, there’s no way they’ll be able to keep both of them.
“You know what conventional wisdom is, don’t you?” asked GM Darcy Regier. “It’s the wisdom of convenience.”
Both Briere and Drury are eligible for unrestricted free agency July 1 and there has been a sense in the hockey community at least one of them will have to go. Regier refutes that notion, saying the math could very well work in the Sabres’ favor.
“I don’t know exactly where that is coming from because we’re not at a tipping point,” Regier said. “We’ve never viewed it as one or the other.”
That’s not to suggest the Sabres will continue to be one big, happy family, but to concede the Sabres won’t be able to keep both is premature.
The fact is, the Sabres are quite nicely set up for next season. They have a total of 13 core players – goalie Ryan Miller, defensemen Henrik Tallinder, Brian Campbell, Toni Lydman, Dmitri Kalinin and Jaroslav Spacek and forwards Tim Connolly, Maxim Afinogenov, Jason Pominville, Ales Kotalik, Jochen Hecht, Paul Gaustad and Drew Stafford – under contract for $28.4 million.
The salary cap is expected to rise next season to somewhere between $47 million and $49 million, so for the sake of argument, let’s just assume it’s going to be $48 million. That leaves the Sabres almost $20 million, if they choose to go to the upper end of the cap, to fill out their roster. After two straight seasons of sellouts and lengthy playoff runs, the Sabres should be able to handle it.
They need a backup goalie and a couple of depth defensemen and they must re-sign restricted free agents Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy, Andrew Peters and Dan Paille and either re-sign or replace Dainius Zubrus, Teppo Numminen and Adam Mair.
Let’s say they can get a hometown discount and sign both Briere and Drury for a combined total of $12 million or $13 million. That takes them up to $41.4 million. Vanek and Roy will cost a combined $3 million, which takes you to $44.4 million. A backup goalie and Peters will cost a combined $1 million and they’ll be able to sign Paille for $800,000 on a two-way deal. That takes us to $46.2, which would mean they’d technically be able to sign Zubrus, but they wouldn’t be allowing themselves much wiggle room.
Conventional wisdom suggests the Buffalo Sabres should have enjoyed Chris Drury and Daniel Briere while they had them because in the salary cap world, there’s no way they’ll be able to keep both of them.
“You know what conventional wisdom is, don’t you?” asked GM Darcy Regier. “It’s the wisdom of convenience.”
Both Briere and Drury are eligible for unrestricted free agency July 1 and there has been a sense in the hockey community at least one of them will have to go. Regier refutes that notion, saying the math could very well work in the Sabres’ favor.
“I don’t know exactly where that is coming from because we’re not at a tipping point,” Regier said. “We’ve never viewed it as one or the other.”
That’s not to suggest the Sabres will continue to be one big, happy family, but to concede the Sabres won’t be able to keep both is premature.
The fact is, the Sabres are quite nicely set up for next season. They have a total of 13 core players – goalie Ryan Miller, defensemen Henrik Tallinder, Brian Campbell, Toni Lydman, Dmitri Kalinin and Jaroslav Spacek and forwards Tim Connolly, Maxim Afinogenov, Jason Pominville, Ales Kotalik, Jochen Hecht, Paul Gaustad and Drew Stafford – under contract for $28.4 million.
The salary cap is expected to rise next season to somewhere between $47 million and $49 million, so for the sake of argument, let’s just assume it’s going to be $48 million. That leaves the Sabres almost $20 million, if they choose to go to the upper end of the cap, to fill out their roster. After two straight seasons of sellouts and lengthy playoff runs, the Sabres should be able to handle it.
They need a backup goalie and a couple of depth defensemen and they must re-sign restricted free agents Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy, Andrew Peters and Dan Paille and either re-sign or replace Dainius Zubrus, Teppo Numminen and Adam Mair.
Let’s say they can get a hometown discount and sign both Briere and Drury for a combined total of $12 million or $13 million. That takes them up to $41.4 million. Vanek and Roy will cost a combined $3 million, which takes you to $44.4 million. A backup goalie and Peters will cost a combined $1 million and they’ll be able to sign Paille for $800,000 on a two-way deal. That takes us to $46.2, which would mean they’d technically be able to sign Zubrus, but they wouldn’t be allowing themselves much wiggle room.