Player Discussion Brian Gionta

[sincerity0]

I would have zero problem with bringing Gio back for one more year. I think he plays his role fine.

Having him back for another year will keep less pressure on the young forwards the team will have up next year.

 

[Chainshot]

You sit down and ask Gio what he wants to do. You don't kick a respected vet to the curb like some sort of Quinn-lead Regier.

 

[Chad Thundercock]

An attitude like these won't draw more free agents to Buffalo. Doing right by Gionta will go far in free agency.

You want Shattenkirk? Treat current players right and have a family atmosphere. The reputation of the Sabres with players around the league isn't worth trading Gionta against his will for some mid round picks.

Do you seriously believe a free agent in his prime will give a single damn about a team disposing of a 38 year old player.

Stop trying so hard.

 

[Der Jaeger]

Do you seriously believe a free agent in his prime will give a single damn about a team disposing of a 38 year old player.

Stop trying so hard.

You're right. A team that trades their Captain, when he doesn't want to be traded, is going to get a wonderful reputation among the players around the league. Players will flock.

Now to reality. Players notice a team who puts its expiring free agents to contenders (McGinn), and holds onto veterans (Legwand) instead of trading them for peanuts. Players talk.

 

[La Cosa Nostra]

Oh so the players decide what goes on and not management, got it. Again with this "family" organization. A guy like Shattenkirk won't care if we decide to trade Brian Gionta at the deadline or opt not to re-sign him. Gionta is a bottom 6 player making over $4 mil. He deserves about $2.5 mil max. So if the Sabres don't want him back, they should still talk to Gionta and take him back if he wants it?

Gionta is done, he's not that good and is way overpaid. It's not up to Gionta if he doesn't want to be traded. He has a NTC not a NMC. If he is dealt that's too bad. If it makes the Sabres better then that's what should be done. Sorry, stop treating second rate players like Gionta like a guy who spent 15 years here and led us to 2 cups. What, we should just do what Gionta wants because he captained us during the tank?

 

[stokes84]

You're right. A team that trades their Captain, when he doesn't want to be traded, is going to get a wonderful reputation among the players around the league. Players will flock.

Now to reality. Players notice a team who puts its expiring free agents to contenders (McGinn), and holds onto veterans (Legwand) instead of trading them for peanuts. Players talk.

Winning talks. Money talks. Gionta is meaningless.

Not to mention our great leader just took maybe the worst penalty of the season tonight. He can leave.

 

[sincerity0]

You're right. A team that trades their Captain, when he doesn't want to be traded, is going to get a wonderful reputation among the players around the league. Players will flock.

Now to reality. Players notice a team who puts its expiring free agents to contenders (McGinn), and holds onto veterans (Legwand) instead of trading them for peanuts. Players talk.

Players care about money and winning. It's a business. If Gionta didn't want to be traded he should have bargained for a NTC for all three years.

 

[enthusiast]

Random Free Agent won't care what the Sabres do to Respected Vet but his agent very well might.

 

[Samsonite23]

Oh so the players decide what goes on and not management, got it. Again with this "family" organization. A guy like Shattenkirk won't care if we decide to trade Brian Gionta at the deadline or opt not to re-sign him. Gionta is a bottom 6 player making over $4 mil. He deserves about $2.5 mil max. So if the Sabres don't want him back, they should still talk to Gionta and take him back if he wants it?

Gionta is done, he's not that good and is way overpaid. It's not up to Gionta if he doesn't want to be traded. He has a NTC not a NMC. If he is dealt that's too bad. If it makes the Sabres better then that's what should be done. Sorry, stop treating second rate players like Gionta like a guy who spent 15 years here and led us to 2 cups. What, we should just do what Gionta wants because he captained us during the tank?

Shattenkirk won't care unless he knows gionta. Or knows a guy who knows gionta. Hockey players talk to each other. It's a very good idea to respect your players. Especially the captain who chose to go to your ****** team.

 

[Sabreality]

Random Free Agent won't care what the Sabres do to Respected Vet but his agent very well might.

He was gifted a generous contract that his agent knows wasnt warranted. He made out nicely already, he knows the score.

 

[Der Jaeger]

Oh so the players decide what goes on and not management, got it. Again with this "family" organization. A guy like Shattenkirk won't care if we decide to trade Brian Gionta at the deadline or opt not to re-sign him. Gionta is a bottom 6 player making over $4 mil. He deserves about $2.5 mil max. So if the Sabres don't want him back, they should still talk to Gionta and take him back if he wants it?

Gionta is done, he's not that good and is way overpaid. It's not up to Gionta if he doesn't want to be traded. He has a NTC not a NMC. If he is dealt that's too bad. If it makes the Sabres better then that's what should be done. Sorry, stop treating second rate players like Gionta like a guy who spent 15 years here and led us to 2 cups. What, we should just do what Gionta wants because he captained us during the tank?

Winning talks. Money talks. Gionta is meaningless.

Not to mention our great leader just took maybe the worst penalty of the season tonight. He can leave.

Players care about money and winning. It's a business. If Gionta didn't want to be traded he should have bargained for a NTC for all three years.

I wonder what you guys do for a living. Does your work place depend on cohesion, motivation, and a positive work environment?

When you work in a law firm, or a bank, or a factory, the bottom line matters most and employees are just cogs in the machine, to a degree.

When you work for a fire department, military unit, or a sports team, all the things I mentioned above matter. A lot. Shipping a team captain out because it's just a business is a great way to ruin a team.

The only team run like a business to have extended success is the Patriots. Teams like the Steelers, 90s Red Wings, 90s Devils, 80s 49ers were all run a family organizations and had a lot of success.

I'm glad you guys aren't our GM.

 

[Yatzhee]

Shattenkirk won't care unless he knows gionta. Or knows a guy who knows gionta. Hockey players talk to each other. It's a very good idea to respect your players. Especially the captain who chose to go to your ****** team.

The Rangers are a prime example that your dog don't hunt.
The other posters are correct, players of Gionta's age won't make a bit of dam difference in their decision, winning culture does.

 

[La Cosa Nostra]

Shattenkirk won't care unless he knows gionta. Or knows a guy who knows gionta. Hockey players talk to each other. It's a very good idea to respect your players. Especially the captain who chose to go to your ****** team.

So not trading a player and re-signing them if they want to be back is respecting your players. Good grief. Him being captain is irrelevant. And he didn't choose to merely come here, he got paid about double what he was worth to come here. Sabres owe him nothing. Gionta is a reason why this is a ****** team, when you pay a bottom 6 player top 6 money.

No star FA in his mid 20s cares about what happened to a 38 year old Gionta. I guess Chicago is a bad organization the way they kicked all those players to the curb after winning those cups. They should have had a team meeting and made the star players take less so Kris Versteeg could have gotten more money. Family atmosphere ya know.

 

[wunderpanda]

What do you want to see happen with Gio?

UFA at end of year.

Gionta is 35 games away from #1000, 18 goals away from 300, 11 assists away from 300, 29 away from 600 points. I'd like him to be a Sabre for some of those milestones.

 

[Cirris]

It's just time to move on and give the C to ROR or Eichel. You can't do that when you're taking it off the shirt of a teammate and have it not feel awkward for the dressing room.

Also, if we REALLY want to be a playoff/cup contender, we need few an upgrade at wingers. Gionta will continue to weaken and weaken as age catch him.

If Murray and the Sabres want to give him an honorable option to his service maybe they can see if he wants to stay on as a office/coaching roll with the Amerks for a few years.

 

[OkimLom]

Winning matters. So does treating your players with respect and class.

It may not lure players to Buffalo, but is sure as hell will make it a lot easier to keep them here.

Drury's decision to leave was made so much easier because of how we treated Briere. If Danny is treated with a fair contract, it makes Drury's decision to leave that much harder. This was a team that was maybe one or two players away from going back to the finals and possibly the cup. Because of Darcy's decision to treat Danny unfairly, it left a black mark on the franchise.

 

[Gras]

It's just time to move on and give the C to ROR or Eichel. You can't do that when you're taking it off the shirt of a teammate and have it not feel awkward for the dressing room.

Also, if we REALLY want to be a playoff/cup contender, we need few an upgrade at wingers. Gionta will continue to weaken and weaken as age catch him.

If Murray and the Sabres want to give him an honorable option to his service maybe they can see if he wants to stay on as a office/coaching roll with the Amerks for a few years.

I could see Gio handing off the C to ROR on his own if he comes back another year. Gio is still a respected leader in the league so a move like that would go a long way for him passing the torch.

 

[Sabre Dance]

Time to move on. Having a good year for his age, but move on.

 

[Alexns05]

So not trading a player and re-signing them if they want to be back is respecting your players. Good grief. Him being captain is irrelevant. And he didn't choose to merely come here, he got paid about double what he was worth to come here. Sabres owe him nothing. Gionta is a reason why this is a ****** team, when you pay a bottom 6 player top 6 money.

No star FA in his mid 20s cares about what happened to a 38 year old Gionta. I guess Chicago is a bad organization the way they kicked all those players to the curb after winning those cups. They should have had a team meeting and made the star players take less so Kris Versteeg could have gotten more money. Family atmosphere ya know.

Bottom 6 player for what team? You do understand that this "bottom 6" player is 4th among our forwards in scoring, right? Granted Eichel would be ahead of Gionta if he didn't get hurt and possibly Kane as well (although it would be close and Kane is very streaky). Either way that puts him comfortably in the top 6. Yeah I agree he doesn't deserve 4 mil but how many players actually deserve their contracts? We're still well below the cap.

And of course players want to be treated well. The whole reason that Gionta is in our top 6 to begin with is that no NHL free agent is dying to play for the Sabres. You don't make that worse by treating your captain like ****. And if you don't think players want to be treated well just look at players like Stamkos who passed up big $$ to stay in Tampa (accounting for the fact there is no state income tax in Florida but he still took a pay cut).

Anyway, I'd be more worried about our defense, then work on signing a few decent forwards before jumping the gun and dumping Gionta. Who do we have right now that is going to fill his spot so easily? It's not like anyone from Rochester has done anything worth while for us. Nylander is a coin flip whether or not he'll be ready next year.

Tell me WHO is dying to come to Buffalo without an inflated contract?? There's only a few teams with a worse chance of making the playoffs year in and year out, and even teams that are worse than us seem have more pull.

EDIT: Upon further research I noticed Gionta is 3rd on the Sabres in goals.

 

[Alexns05]

Him being captain is irrelevant.

No way you've ever been involved in any type of sport, even recreational, if that is what you actually think. Do you think these players are robots? Of course they have respect for a veteran captain and of course this affects the way they play day in and day out. If you screw over somebody like this then the younger players are going to question the direction of the organization. Especially on a bottom feeder team like Buffalo. I could see if we were Chicago and winning a cup 2 out of 3 years, then the players might not be too upset if they're winning and getting paid.

But a team that already has 0 pull whatsoever in signing players doesn't need to give players even less reason to come to Buffalo. Anyway, I don't know why you are blowing this out of proportion. If he's a free agent they will just offer to move him at the trade deadline to a contender if that's an option and then see if he wants to come back. Maybe offer him $1-1.5 mil for a one-year contract if he really wants to come back. But you're acting like everyone is saying we need to give him whatever he demands and it's going to be another 4 mil./year contract. That won't happen. But again like I said, you actually have to have people wanting to come to Buffalo in order to spend to the cap. And for now I don't see that as an issue. So quit nitpicking.

 

[Yatzhee]

He has captained a team right in the middle of a rebuild. He's a regionally local boy who has won a Stanley cup. He'll moat likely retire at years end.

Say what you will about Terry Pegula, but one thing he had changed is the perception of how the Sabres organization treats their players. It needs a winning culture.

 

[Oakstream]

Trade him to a contender at the deadline and then give ROR the C.

 

[Chainshot]

Treating respected veteran players like crap is how the team built their miserly, non-destination reputation under Regier.

 

[joshjull]

You sit down and ask Gio what he wants to do. You don't kick a respected vet to the curb like some sort of Quinn-lead Regier.

Exactly. Anything gained in trading him against his wishes is not worth the rep hit created by treating Gionta like that.

 

[Man of Principles]

Buffalo isn't exactly an enticing destination regardless of what happens with Gionta.