Over the last few days, various hockey pundits have come out and confirmed something that we all expected was true a few months ago. The Buffalo Sabres were the team that offered the four year, $30 million deal to Shane Doan. We highlighted our concerns about the possibilities of the Doan deal way back on July 14th and those concerns are still valid. As the hockey offseason continues to drag on, one thing becomes clear. No matter the contract that was offered to Doan, he still isn’t coming to Buffalo.
It’s a month later from when the offer was reportedly proposed and Shane Doan still hasn’t signed with any team as of yet. In fact, he has visited a bunch of teams in both the Eastern and Western Conferences and Buffalo wasn’t one of those teams on the list. That should give all indications that no matter how big the contract is that Doan isn’t interested in coming to the Sabres.
The contract shows that the Sabres are still trying to improve the team no matter the inactivity that the team has actually made. Also, because Doan hasn’t signed anywhere yet may also be an indication of why things haven’t happened on any other front. If by some miracle, Doan does decide to change his mind and sign with the Sabres, there really would be no need to make a trade for Bobby Ryan or anyone else. It also changes negotiations on a possible Tyler Ennis signing based on how much salary cap space there is available. According to CapGeek, the Sabres have $8.6 million left in cap space and Doan’s $7.5 million cap hit would eat into much of that.
Having Shane Doan would improve the team, but comparing the benefit of having him on the team combined with the immense salary cap hit would make the deal moot in a year or two. Sabres fans shouldn’t have to worry about that much though, because Doan still will not be coming to Buffalo.