depends on how Girgensons pans out^
I can’t believe there are people who think this was a bad move for the Sabres.
Management had already offered Vanek a deal that would make him the highest paid player in the NHL (let’s not get into how dumb that was and just thank Jebus it didn’t happen). So we got a player almost as good to rent for the rest of the season that we can then sell to someone making their playoff run at the trade deadline for even more picks.
Darcy may sign free agents like a drunken idiot but he’s great when it comes to trades. And I’m still not sure how much blame you can place on Darcy for our free-agent overpays considering no one worth a damn actually wants to come here. Let it sink in for a minute that Vanek TURNED DOWN highest paid in the LEAGUE just to GTFO of here. Not a guaranteed counter offer somewhere else, just a guarantee of not playing for the Sabres anymore.
Great trade. Two picks alone for Vanek is more than compensatory. Moulson on top of it (whether or not he turns into a 2nd rounder himself) is icing on the cake. Casual hockey fans (i.e.- 98% of Sabres fans) don’t understand that a Moulson for Vanek is a blockbuster trade nowadays.
I’m also skeptical of whether or not Vanek was really offered that. I’m very, very suspicious that it wasn’t a PR leak to calm people down a “thank god they didn’t” mindset like yours, however I will find out more tonight and report back.
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Sabres also retained ~$1.4 million of Vanek’s salary to make this trade happen.
Buffalo is also paying 1.2mil of his Salary which is chump change IMO
<EDIT>
Beck has the correct number
It’s not like it Bob’s Hockey Blog or the Fake Darcy twitter feed that was reporting this:
And what’s so hard to believe? This is the same organization that gave Tyler Myers a 10 million dollar signing bonus. You don’t think they’d throw more than 9.5 million/yr at Vanek (Ovechkin’s salary as current top paid NHL player)?
I fully believe it happened and I’m really happy Vanek didn’t take it. It also shows me the guys running the ship aren’t as committed to rebuilding through the draft as the need to be if they’re willing to risk that kind of cap hit on keeping Vanek.
The Buffalo News reported it. The Sabres deny it. I’ll find out from the horses mouth tonight. I doubt it. I mean, John Vogl and company also cited Yakupov for Miller as being possible/reality.
I don’t want a player here who doesn’t want to be here. This just tells me that Vanek was looking for a way out before this season started.
I can’t wait to see him play in an Islanders uniform.
Better act fast because I bet he’s in a Minnesota uniform by next season.
NHL’s worst kept secret.
Also found out that if the islanders 1st round pick theyre giving us ends up being in the top ten they have the right to defer the 1st round pick to 2015 which is pretty retarded.
The 2015 draft is already looking like a way better draft than the 2014 draft, so I’m cool with that.
This is what I’ve been hearing. Either way Top 10 draft pick is a good draft pick regardless of the year.
The official un-official answer? There’s a difference between fielding an offer to a current player in the pretense that “if you’re willing to stay here, we will make you the highest paid player in the league” to gauge his interest in staying and actually negotiating a contract. If a player is offered to be the highest paid player in the league and they don’t want to stay or show no signs of interest, you know where you stand with said player. If he was offered this, it was only a gauge.
^ Semantics. Bottom line Vanek could have made big bucks staying here (probably more than he was worth) and left anyway because winning while he can still play > absolute top dollar. Kudos to him.
Management can try and hide from the “highest paid in NHL” for someone like Vanek blackeye by splitting hairs over the how it wasn’t an official offer and just a feeler but if they put the feeler out there chances are they would have followed through had Vanek shown interest.
I don’t blame him for walking. You’re entirely correct, kudos to him. However, after 4 beers last night, management was still sticking by the story that the offer was never made and if it was, it was in passing “if you’re interested in staying we would consider paying you $9/million a year” Definitely not news worthy, definitely nothing official. Definitely the Buffalo News guys stirring the pot…again. Then Milbury came on and we trashed him for about an hour. Then again, you have to look at things like, “Hey, I’ve made $50 million in my career, I have $30 million banked. Is going home to Minnesota and taking a $15 million cut over 7 years, as opposed to staying in Buffalo/NY worth it?”
Always remember, when your winning the newS isn’t there for you and when you’re losing, they are trying to make your life even more miserable. Bucky and Vogl are two of the worst hockey columnists in the league.
Know how to spot when someone is trying to back peddle and cover their ass? When they use statements like “We definitely didn’t do that” followed by “but if we did we did it like this which makes it not as bad”.
Bill Clinton 101
I worded that wrong. (Now I’m back peddling :lol: )
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My friend said that as far as he knew, no offer was made. A team would only do that to gauge a person’s interest. If the Sabres did in fact do that, that was the only reason they would’ve. If they did. The topic wasn’t discussed much, as it doesn’t really matter that much. The good news is that Moulson is excited to be here.
I think they gave up on re-siging Vanek a long time ago.
The news is not someone who is going to be your friend. No matter how it is.
News: “Ryan Miller, do you do heroin?”
Ryan: “No, of course not”
“RYAN MILLER DENIES HEROIN USE” is their headline. The reason players and management give such vanilla answers is because everything that is said can and will be used against them. I don’t go looking to the Buffalo News for inside hockey information.
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Highest paid player is also relative. Ovechkin hasn’t signed a contract in 8 years. $10m a year 8 years ago was ludicrous. Crosby/Malkin would fetch $12 million, if not more…but they took hometown discounts. It wouldn’t really take much to make Vanek the highest paid player in the league. If Corey Perry can make $8.5m a year, I don’t see why Vanek won’t get at least that. Same goes for Kessel. Phil Kessel is an $8 million dollar a year player, let that sink in. Even better, if Leino can make $4.5m a year…
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Lundqvist may fetch $9m+ as a goalie. Insane.
“Leino can make $4.5m…”
To play in Buffalo. I think most teams wouldn’t pay near that much but we had to pay a premium because despite Pegula claiming he was building hockey heaven that would attract talent his delivery has been mixed. Yay for building and locker room upgrades but for a team that is supposed to be “all about winning” it doesn’t look good when your exhaustive worldwide search for a new coach finds the guy an hour away in your farm team and you don’t even interview anyone else.
I agree. However take your microscope off of Buffalo and look around. Toronto signed Clarkson for huge money. Glen Sather has continually signed people to ludicrous contracts (Gomez, Redden). Unfortunately, for GM’s and they end up over paying in an effort to make ANY move they can. It happens every July. Brad Richards for christ sake. Loungo is un-movable! His contract sucks by his own admission.
This team has never, ever been built in 41 years to be a championship team. Why start now?
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PS - Someone else would’ve paid him $4m +
Beck, I like a lot of what you have to say and I am glad that I’m in the 2% of Buffalo fans that get it. It’s hard to be a Sabres fan because all you want is to see them win the fucking Stanley Cup and knowing that they have no shot in the immediate future is frustrating as hell. I like Moulson’s game, hope he does well here and maybe decides to stay. If not, get some picks for him and adios. The Sabres will be an exciting, winning team in the future and I cant wait for that. Def do not trust those dicks at the Buffalo News, they dont know shit. Hopefully they trade Miller in the very near future and get some good young talent from the West that can put the puck in the net.
Looks like Colorado needs a goalie in a hurry, WTF. Kidnapping, nice.