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Sabres Willing To "Keep Some" Of Vanek's Salary If Traded?

September 11, 2013, 12:37 PM ET [8 Comments]
GARTH'S CORNER
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Updated 12:45 pm EDT:

CBC's Elliotte Friedman has reliable sources. Today, he tweeted that the Sabres are willing to absorb a portion of Thomas Vanek‘s$7.14 million cap hit, in order to trade him away.

Thats on way to activate a stagnant NHL trade market. Such a move would be of huge benefit to a team like the Minnesota Wild who are up against the cap and would love to add a 35-40 goal scorer like Vanek. Wild GM Chuck Fletcher has only $2.7 million remaining in his salary cap budget.

The clock has begun ticking on the final year of Vanek's contract. Ditto Ryan Miller and Steve Ott. Vanek's 2013 salary is $6.4 million. His cap hit is $7.14 million.

Vanek told me last week that he reserves the right to wait and see how the young kids perform in training camp and at the beginning of the regular season. He told me that he's very impressed by all of the talented, young players in the Buffalo organization. He told me that kids need veterans to show them how to endure the rigors of an 82 game season, like Mike Grier and Chris Drury did for him early on in his NHL career.

Vanek has not asked the Sabres to trade him.

Darcy Regier said today that the trade window for Vanek and Ryan Miller is closed for the time being, which implies that it will re-open in the future. When? 20 games into the NHL season? U.S. Thanksgiving?


Would the Sabres be willing to eat part of Ryan Miller's $6.5 million contract?




My two cents:

Vanek will use the first part of the season to evaluate the Buffalo vets, prospects and the coaches. He may well be blown away by the new team culture and the winning ways. he may be disappointed. He's in wait and see mode. I can very easily see Vanek signing an extension to stay in Buffalo after his period of analysis and due diligence.

NHL 40 goal scorers are a rare breed of cat. When you get one, you keep him. Vanek is only 29 years of age. His best years are still ahead of him. I believe that you will see Miller leave before Vanek leaves Buffalo.

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Today, Miller answered questions about his future in Buffalo.


“I just want to make sure that I’m a positive influence on this team moving forward and that Buffalo has a lot of success or a foundation to build success on in the future because I do care about this area and the people. I do believe they deserve to be cheering for a team deep into June. My hope is that we can do that this year.”


Miller didn't scoff at the idea of signing a contract extension with Buffalo:

“I’m not going to close off anything,” he said. “There’s a chance to kind of see how things go. I think they want to see how things go as well.”




***


Sabres head coach Ron Rolston said today that he will select the new team captain. Looks like Steve Ott and Thomas Vanek are the front runners for the captaincy. Rolston said he's open to giving the "C" to a player who is on an expiring contract.


Rolston will rotate the "C" during the exhibition games.

***
Rolston also said that Teppo Numminen will be coaching from the bench this season, rather than sitting in Sabres coaching suite. New hire Jerry Forton will watch games from up top, while Rolston, Teppo, and Joe Sacco man the Sabres bench during games.



FINALLY!

According to reports, Darcy Regier is talking publicly about the status of his still unsigned RFA center Cody Hodgson.


Regier met with media members this morning to debrief all things Buffalo Sabres.


Just when you thought it was safe to assume that Regier is holding fast to a "bridge contract" or nothing else for Hodgson, Regier said that he is talking about both short- and long-term contracts with Hodgson's agent Ritch Winter. Regier said he spoke with Winter this morning.

Regier said that there is a sense of urgency to get Hodgson on the ice for Thursday's first day of training camp.

“The efforts that are being made by both sides would indicate that we want to get something done as quickly as possible,” Regier said.



Hodgson, acquired at the 2011 NHL trade deadline, finished second in team scoring behind Thomas Vanek in 2013. CoHo complied 34 points in 48 games last season in Buffalo. He also scored 19 points in 19 games in Rochester during the NHL work stoppage.

In 139 NHL games, Hodgson has scored 35 goals and added 42 assist for 77 points.




Just when you thought it was safe to assume that Hodgson will be signing a two year, $6 million "bridge" contract like the one that Nazem Kadri signed on Tussday night, along comes Regier to add a new wrinkle.

Is Regier leaning towards locking Hodgson up with a 6 year, $24 million deal like the one the New Jersey center Adam Henrique inked last month? History may repeat itself in Buffaloas Regier signed Derek Roy to the same 6/$24M contract back in the day. It was a win-win for Roy and the Sabres. Regier may want to go there again. I like the idea of locking up CiHo for five or six seasons at the $4M AAV. The NHL projects that the salary cap will escalate to as high as $80 million in the next three seasons. Why not lock-up a key cog now at an extremely cap-friendly AAV? Makes smart dollars and cents to me.

I expect the deal to be done last thing today or first thing tomorrow morning.

The Sabres will be on the ice first thing Thursday morning.



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As I told you last month in this space, Sabres goalie Ryan Miller will be switching brand allegiances for the coming season. Milelr has long been a Reebok goalie gear guy. This season, he will switch to Vaughn gear.

Miller tweeted a pic of his new, smaller leg pads today.





Notice the 2" reduction at the top of his pads. The NHL and NHLPA agreed to reduce the rise by 10% (top of pads to hips) for this season, and beyond.


I'm not an NHL goalie, however, I'm concerned for two reasons with the reduction in the height of goalie pads like Miller's.

The hole will become more exposed in the new world order. Less pad up top to collapse to cover the five hole means more vulnerability to scoring chances. Also, the goalie's knees are going to be more expose which may lead to injuries.



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