Daily Links for Monday, January 9

Also, we’re up to top-5 in Cap Hit and TOI lost due to injury despite being 11th last month and 21st the month before that.

No one is catching Columbus/Anaheim/Carolina, even if the Sabres get outshot by ten shots a game like they are currently.

Roy, Stafford & Pominville are scorers & this team has more than enough goal scorers to put 3 or 4 goals in a night, which is all they need w/the goaltenders & D. Offensive talent level is way more than adequate, the team simply does not produce.

If our core is 5 guys: Vanek, Pominville, Stafford, Roy, and Gaustad, I would only want to part with 2 of them: Gaustad and Stafford. Roy only becomes expendible if you can replace him with an equally productive center, which you cannot, so he stays. Vanek and Pominville obviously stay. Mabe Hecht can stay for another year to give some veteran, defensively-responsible presence. I like Gaustad and Stafford, but they are more valuable as trade pieces than as future Sabres at this point. Is trading 2/5 of your core “blowing it up”? I’m not sure, but if it is, I guess I agree. Where I disagree is that this needs to happen now. Anyone who follows stocks knows you don’t sell low, the team will finish strong after the injuries are healed and the lineup is more consistent. So in the offseason, buyers will be willing to give up a little more for our castaways. One change I would make immediately is moving Pominville to center. He is our best playmaker and he’s pretty damned good at faceoffs, and this allows a RW to move up to the top line, Stafford or Ennis or Leino maybe. No trades required for that improvement. I guess that’s up to Ruff, and I try to give him some slack for all he’s been handed this season, he deserves some patience for all he’s committed to this team over the years. That being said, if he can’t turn the team around to get back in the playoff hunt by March or so, I’d be OK with a new coach.

Do you have any potential coaching candidates to throw in the ring for discussion?

i don’t think his system is built for this team

Have we really seen how his system works with this team? Besides the Europe games (where we were good) and the first few games after that, we haven’t seen the actual Buffalo Sabres playing Ruff’s system.

he has been here so long and has been unable to win a cup.

to say there are no other coaches out there is a joke to me.

My plans are in motion.

Contracts are somewhat guaranteed. You CAN buy someone out but you’ll cripple your cap for a decent amount of time.

From CapGeek.com

Teams are entitled to buy out player contracts for a portion of the remaining value of the contract — paid over a period of twice the remaining length of the contract. Following are the buyout amounts:

Younger than age 26 at the time of buyout, 1/3 the remaining value
Age 26 or older at the time of the buyout, 2/3 the remaining value

The remainder of this explanation assumes the player was not 35 or older when he signed his contract (in which case a buyout saves the team financially but does not reduce the player’s cap hit).
When a player is bought out, the team still takes a cap hit for the player over a period of twice the remaining length of the contract. The amount of the cap hit (by year) is determined as follows:

Take the actual salary due for each remaining year
Take the Averaged Player Salary (cap hit) for the current contract
Calculate the buyout amount (as described above)
Spread the buy-out amount evenly over twice the remaining years of the contract
Take the number in No. 1 and subtract the number in No. 4. This is the "buyout savings."
Take the cap hit from No. 2 and subtract the buyout savings from No. 5.

so If you use Christian Ehrhoff as an example.

Christian Ehrhoff is 29 years old on the buyout date of June 15, 2012, setting the buyout ratio at 2/3 and the total buyout cost at $20,000,000 spread over 18 years. His contract was originally valued at $40,000,000 beginning in 2011 and ending in 2021, with $30,000,000 remaining from the buyout year forward. The following is a season-by-season breakdown of the buyout. A negative buyout cap hit indicates a credit.

2012-13: -$2,888,889
2013-14: $1,111,111
2014-15: $1,111,111
2015-16: $1,111,111
2016-17: $1,111,111
2017-18: $2,111,111
2018-19: $4,111,111
2019-20: $4,111,111
2020-21: $4,111,111
2021-22: $1,111,111
2022-23: $1,111,111
2023-24: $1,111,111
2024-25: $1,111,111
2025-26: $1,111,111
2026-27: $1,111,111
2027-28: $1,111,111
2028-29: $1,111,111
2029-30: $1,111,111

You lose between $1m to $4m in cap space per year for 18 years. That is an extreme example but it gets the idea across. The Last Sabre to be bought out was Tim Kennedy and the Sabres have had to pay $167k against the cap each of the last 2 seasons. (Player under 26 years old and had a contract for 1 year at $1M.) No matter the cost you don’t want to lose cap space, this is the reason players like Kotalik (Europe) and Morrisonn (Rochester) were demoted rather than bought out.