Carl J. Ironsides
August 1st, 2007, 12:41:06 PM
I still am highly skeptical that the Sabres will go into next season with Dmitri Kalinin in the top six of their defense. I understand that trading Jaro Spacek is essentially not an option, but there's gotta be someone out there who would take Kalinin on a one-year, $2.5 million contract for a mid-level prospect or draft pick. Maybe I'm being naive, but Lindy wouldn't even play Kalinin or Spacek when it mattered most last year, so how confident could he as a coach possibly feel about these two, and at the same time, how much confidence did they lose by being benched?
The Sabres are walking a slippery slope with this defense.
Sabres’ salaries are sky high
By Tim Graham
Updated: 08/01/07 7:15 AM
The Buffalo Sabres this offseason lost two wealthy players and made one mere addition to their roster, slightly upgrading their backup goaltender position.
Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier has confessed publicly the reigning Presidents’ Trophy winners wouldn’t be as good this upcoming season.
Even so, their salary-cap number has spiked more than $2 million.
The Sabres on Tuesday rounded out their roster by signing defenseman Nathan Paetsch to a three-year contract. They have 13 forwards, seven defensemen, two goalies and a robust payroll.
“I think it probably is a strong possibility that this is the group we will start the season with,” Regier said. A few months ago, the Sabres were jammed against the old salary cap of $44 million.
Paetsch’s signing increased the Sabres’ working cap number to about $46.13 million, putting them roughly $4.1 million under the new NHL maximum. Their figure went up despite the departures of co-captains Daniel Briere and Chris Drury and forward Dainius Zubrus, players whose contracts represent $16.9 million worth of cap hits to their new teams.
The most damage was caused when the Sabres were forced to match the offer sheet winger Thomas Vanek signed with the Edmonton Oilers, bringing a cap hit of $7.143 million. Center Derek Roy is the next highest-paid Sabre after signing a contract last week with a cap number of $4 million.
So the young linemates will account for 24 percent of this season’s payroll.
“It’s a reflection of the marketplace that has become costlier,” Regier said. “The other part is some of our younger players are maturing and performing at a higher level, and that’s reflected in their salary.”
Drury could steal a Stanley Kowolski scene from “A Streetcar Named Desire” and show up at the HSBC Arena front doors, rip off his New York Rangers jersey and beg forgiveness — “Darrrcy! Darrrcy!” — and the Sabres couldn’t take him in given their current makeup.
Drury turned down a five-year, $30 million offer from the Sabres and eventually accepted a five-year, $35.25 million deal from the Rangers. Briere went with the Philadelphia Flyers for seven years and $52 million.
“One of the challenges for all teams is we would love to have the largest possible core of players we can have,” Regier said, “but the system is forcing teams to define their core players and pay at the market price, which impacts the number of core players you can have.
“I think around the league — and if you look two years back — the core is getting smaller. Teams aren’t able to horde players.”
Regier reiterated the only way the Sabres would have any new faces on their roster between now and the start of training camp would be through a trade, although he added the club wasn’t aggressively pursuing any particular options. Free agency appears out of the question.
Now that the last player has been signed, the next phase likely will be to address players whose contracts could be up next summer unless they sign extensions first. Due to hit the open market next summer for the first time are defensemen Brian Campbell and Dmitri Kalinin and winger Jochen Hecht.
“We’ll look at the players we have under contract and look at some of the players entering the last years of their contracts and work in that area as well to extend some contracts,” Regier said.
Paetsch’s one-way contract totals $2.55 million. He will make $700,000 this season, $800,000 the following season and $1.05 million in 2009-10.
For perspective on how salaries have soared in recent years, Campbell made $459,800 the season before last.
The Sabres are walking a slippery slope with this defense.
Sabres’ salaries are sky high
By Tim Graham
Updated: 08/01/07 7:15 AM
The Buffalo Sabres this offseason lost two wealthy players and made one mere addition to their roster, slightly upgrading their backup goaltender position.
Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier has confessed publicly the reigning Presidents’ Trophy winners wouldn’t be as good this upcoming season.
Even so, their salary-cap number has spiked more than $2 million.
The Sabres on Tuesday rounded out their roster by signing defenseman Nathan Paetsch to a three-year contract. They have 13 forwards, seven defensemen, two goalies and a robust payroll.
“I think it probably is a strong possibility that this is the group we will start the season with,” Regier said. A few months ago, the Sabres were jammed against the old salary cap of $44 million.
Paetsch’s signing increased the Sabres’ working cap number to about $46.13 million, putting them roughly $4.1 million under the new NHL maximum. Their figure went up despite the departures of co-captains Daniel Briere and Chris Drury and forward Dainius Zubrus, players whose contracts represent $16.9 million worth of cap hits to their new teams.
The most damage was caused when the Sabres were forced to match the offer sheet winger Thomas Vanek signed with the Edmonton Oilers, bringing a cap hit of $7.143 million. Center Derek Roy is the next highest-paid Sabre after signing a contract last week with a cap number of $4 million.
So the young linemates will account for 24 percent of this season’s payroll.
“It’s a reflection of the marketplace that has become costlier,” Regier said. “The other part is some of our younger players are maturing and performing at a higher level, and that’s reflected in their salary.”
Drury could steal a Stanley Kowolski scene from “A Streetcar Named Desire” and show up at the HSBC Arena front doors, rip off his New York Rangers jersey and beg forgiveness — “Darrrcy! Darrrcy!” — and the Sabres couldn’t take him in given their current makeup.
Drury turned down a five-year, $30 million offer from the Sabres and eventually accepted a five-year, $35.25 million deal from the Rangers. Briere went with the Philadelphia Flyers for seven years and $52 million.
“One of the challenges for all teams is we would love to have the largest possible core of players we can have,” Regier said, “but the system is forcing teams to define their core players and pay at the market price, which impacts the number of core players you can have.
“I think around the league — and if you look two years back — the core is getting smaller. Teams aren’t able to horde players.”
Regier reiterated the only way the Sabres would have any new faces on their roster between now and the start of training camp would be through a trade, although he added the club wasn’t aggressively pursuing any particular options. Free agency appears out of the question.
Now that the last player has been signed, the next phase likely will be to address players whose contracts could be up next summer unless they sign extensions first. Due to hit the open market next summer for the first time are defensemen Brian Campbell and Dmitri Kalinin and winger Jochen Hecht.
“We’ll look at the players we have under contract and look at some of the players entering the last years of their contracts and work in that area as well to extend some contracts,” Regier said.
Paetsch’s one-way contract totals $2.55 million. He will make $700,000 this season, $800,000 the following season and $1.05 million in 2009-10.
For perspective on how salaries have soared in recent years, Campbell made $459,800 the season before last.