This only three games, then Risto will switch the chip in his head and he will become an idiot on the ice again, at least it has always been like this before.
The Finnish Hockey equivalent of Buzz Lightyear's Spanish mode.
Either Olofsson or reinhart is gone for sure if we retain Hall. The plan of course would be that Quinn replaces that winger long term. The other thing looming over us is that we will once again need a 2C when Staal walks unless Cozens suddenly grabs about 3 more gears and takes that role.
Suddenly? It's early in this season. All we need to see is the slope of the improvement trajectory over the ice time he's given this season. We don't need Cozens to show he's a bona fide 2C next week, next month, or by the end of this season.
Assuming this is true......
Better later than never!!!!
It may not be trade / signing activity, it may just be BUF calling to find shoulders to cry on. Adams to Dubas: Our goaltending is weak. Dubas reply: Not as weak as your players we signed for this year.
Hall doesn't sign in Buffalo if we don't make playoffs, simply put.
In a regular season, that may be true. In a shortened season, I think there's wiggle-room at least in theory. In an 8-team division, there will be 224 possible wins distributed amongst the teams assuming the full shortened season can be played. If the Sabres don't make the playoffs, it will be impossible to judge if the Sabres could have made the playoffs in a shortened season with different teams in their division, or if they would have made the playoffs in a different division (rather irrelevant), or if they would have made the playoffs in a regular season schedule and traditional division alignment. Even the typical "look-back" method of sorting teams at season's end by goal differential can't apply this season. Typically teams with positive goal differential make the playoffs and negative goal differential miss, regardless of points or points percent. And typically only a couple discrepancies emerge in the ~12th-20th slots (when ranking by goal differential). This season, that won't be indicative either. So I think it may come down to how Hall feels personally about prospects to win a Cup (with BUF) and how he feels he fits with the Sabres, Eichel, others, and his happiness in BUF. Which I admit may be difficult to assess in a shortened season where he'll likely only spend 60 nights or so in BUF / WNY, and minimal downtime given shortened season and pandemic.
I do agree with
@Fezzy126 that projecting to next season, one should assume a flat cap, no max-$ deals, and that pending UFAs and RFAs will need to take less $ and therefore also less term to re-sign. So if we look at the modes of a salary distribution, the top-end won't grow in population, the ELCs and league-minimum deals will grow as a percentage of all contracts, and there will be a "flattening" in total $ and decrease in total numbers of the mid-range $ deals across the league, i.e., in the $1.5-5M range.
Hall will still have leverage, because he's Hall. Other lower-tier "pseudo-stars", like Dahlin, Reinhart, Oloffsson will likely lose leverage. Players will move teams, but the net total pie isn't growing larger so either a larger percentage of teams will need to spend closer to the cap, or buyouts will become more popular. I'd bet on the latter.
I doubt Miller would've signed here since he moved the California in the first place to be close to his wife.
I wouldn't necessarily equate the prior career / family decision with a 3+ month assignment in a shortened season on a 1-year contract. Many marriages / families survive short-term work assignments apart from each other, and are clearly not as well-compensated. Miller re-signed for $1M. Would he have signed for $1.3M in BUF? $1.5M? Would it have been worth it for BUF? Who knows.
