Salary Cap: Moulson Contract

[The Red Helmet]

Was hoping someone could clear this up for me real quick. Say we waive Moulson in the off-season and he is not claimed. If he accepts his assignment in Rochester, does that count against the Sabres cap?

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[Jame]

About 4 mil would

(Someone will explain)

 

[CupWanted]

About 4 mil would

(Someone will explain)

You can save 950k off a guys cap hit if you bury them. Blame Wade Redden, Ales Kotalik, and Scott Gomez for this.

 

[The Red Helmet]

That is actually not that bad at all. We can bury him there and really not have to worry considering the Sabres current cap situation. I think resigning Kane is unlikely but there shouldn't be a problem getting Reinhart and Eichel locked up long term when the time comes, even with the O'Reilly and pending RR contracts.

 

[My Cozen Dylan]

That is actually not that bad at all. We can bury him there and really not have to worry considering the Sabres current cap situation. I think resigning Kane is unlikely but there shouldn't be a problem getting Reinhart and Eichel locked up long term when the time comes, even with the O'Reilly and pending RR contracts.

It's still $4M in dead weight salary. It may not affect us right away, but it's still handicapping.

 

[CupWanted]

I think the usage for Moulson hasn't been good all year. They need to give Moulson and Ennis the FES treatment of a couple years ago. Heavy ozone starts against low QoC. Ennis is the play maker, Moulson cleans up the garbage, and whoever centers that line is the trigger man in the slot. I've been wanting to saddle Eichel with these two all year but that's a ton of defensive responsibility to saddle a teenager with so I get why it hasn't happened.

 

[Daz28]

Buyout saves the owner some money tho. Wonder how it works if he refuses the assignment to the A??

 

[My Cozen Dylan]

Buyout saves the owner some money tho. Wonder how it works if he refuses the assignment to the A??

A buyout would also be on our cap for six years.

 

[BananaSquad]

Not another buyout, its just best to ride this contract out, hopefully he can find the back of the net again.

 

[dotcommunism]

Buyout saves the owner some money tho. Wonder how it works if he refuses the assignment to the A??

If he refused an AHL assignment, his contract could be terminated. Thirteen million dollars makes riding buses worthwhile, I'd have to imagine

 

[Shmuffalo]

Buyout saves the owner some money tho. Wonder how it works if he refuses the assignment to the A??

Breach of contract, unless he has a NMC. Sabres get away scot free

 

[SackTastic]

He doesn't have a NMC. Modified NTC only based on a scan of the current contract tracking sites.

And yes, if MM didn't report to play where he was assigned, he doesn't get paid, and for that time period he doesn't count against the cap either.

There's no real cap concern for a while. They're in a good spot, even with some LOL contracts on the books today. The stress year _could_ be after 17-18 when 15 and 23 are coming off their rookie deals. I could easily see a scenario where TM long terms them right there as franchise cornerstones, but lots can happen between now and then.

Regardless, cap space isn't a worry.

 

[wheelklown]

Let's just all cross our fingers that he retires. Tomorrow.

 

[MackAttack26]

Put him in a scoring role this year since it's not like we are making the playoffs this year anyway. Hope he produces a decent amount for a stretch of games and then try to trade him with like 25% retained in the offseason for about nothing in return. That's my hope anyways.

 

[brian_griffin]

I think the usage for Moulson hasn't been good all year. They need to give Moulson and Ennis the FES treatment of a couple years ago. Heavy ozone starts against low QoC. Ennis is the play maker, Moulson cleans up the garbage, and whoever centers that line is the trigger man in the slot. I've been wanting to saddle Eichel with these two all year but that's a ton of defensive responsibility to saddle a teenager with so I get why it hasn't happened.

It's a ton of defensive responsibility for anyone, regardless of age.

If he refused an AHL assignment, his contract could be terminated. Thirteen million dollars makes riding buses worthwhile, I'd have to imagine

He could buy his own bus.

(1) Put him in a scoring role this year since it's not like we are making the playoffs this year anyway. (2) Hope he produces a decent amount for a stretch of games and then try to trade him with like 25% retained in the offseason for about nothing in return. (4) That's my hope anyways.

You forgot to add step (3) where one of the 29 NHL GMs get amnesia.

 

[Husko]

Just ride it out and hope that he going into the final year, when we finally need the cap space, you can find a GM to take the contract off our hands. Expansion team, rebuilding team needing to get to the cap floor, someone.

 

[MayDayMayDay]

I think the usage for Moulson hasn't been good all year. They need to give Moulson and Ennis the FES treatment of a couple years ago. Heavy ozone starts against low QoC. Ennis is the play maker, Moulson cleans up the garbage, and whoever centers that line is the trigger man in the slot. I've been wanting to saddle Eichel with these two all year but that's a ton of defensive responsibility to saddle a teenager with so I get why it hasn't happened.

This is where Girgensons being out really hurts us. That MEG line from last year w/ Girgs at center had great chemistry at times. That's a potentially solid secondary/tertiary scoring line on a very good team. With him out, I kind of wouldn't mind seeing Foligno back in w/ Mols & Enzo at C getting those Ozone starts. But if they lose the draw, that's an odd-man rush heading back our way 50 percent of the time.

 

[SabresBillsBuffalo]

Let's just all cross our fingers that he retires. Tomorrow.

Lmao

 

[Djp]

in the land of hypothetical---how would you react if after the season you come to find out he was playing with an injury??? like to the groin like how the Bils WR was since week 2.

 

[joshjull]

You can save 950k off a guys cap hit if you bury them. Blame Wade Redden, Ales Kotalik, and Scott Gomez for this.

Actually blame the GMs that gave these guys their contracts.

 

[Husko]

in the land of hypothetical---how would you react if after the season you come to find out he was playing with an injury??? like to the groin like how the Bils WR was since week 2.

I'd wonder why we didn't just shut him down for the year

 

[Cirris]

Actually blame the GMs that gave these guys their contracts.

Yeah, pretty much this.

This is Tim Murray's first contract blunder.

If Moulson was even producing at a lower clip you might have been able to sell him while retaining 40% salary.

But at this rate, he's dead weight. No one is going to want someone like that. They'd rather wait until the Sabres bite the bullet and buy him out and then sign him to a cheap one year deal, a la Hodgson.

As for waiving him and putting him in Rochester. If you do that your still paying him full salary remaining, 15 million. Buying him out would cost 5 million, if I'm correct. By burying him and forcing him to play in the minors, you're saving cap room down the road when it's time to resign Risto and the wonderkids. You're eating most of salary on the cap now when you still have the cap room to deal with it.

 

[Punished ROR]

in the land of hypothetical---how would you react if after the season you come to find out he was playing with an injury??? like to the groin like how the Bils WR was since week 2.

An injury? Maybe not convincing enough.

Now if he had a torn groin, torn labrums, broken ankles hastily repaired with papier-mâché ... then I might buy it.

 

[Cirris]

in the land of hypothetical---how would you react if after the season you come to find out he was playing with an injury??? like to the groin like how the Bils WR was since week 2.

I'd still be pissed off. If he's injured enough that he has become a detriment to the team, he needs to shut it down and go on IR to deal with it. We have kids in the minors that could show us what they're made of in the meantime.

 

[SackTastic]

Yeah, pretty much this.

This is Tim Murray's first contract blunder.

If Moulson was even producing at a lower clip you might have been able to sell him while retaining 40% salary.

But at this rate, he's dead weight. No one is going to want someone like that. They'd rather wait until the Sabres bite the bullet and buy him out and then sign him to a cheap one year deal, a la Hodgson.

As for waiving him and putting him in Rochester. If you do that your still paying him full salary remaining, 15 million. Buying him out would cost 5 million, if I'm correct. By burying him and forcing him to play in the minors, you're saving cap room down the road when it's time to resign Risto and the wonderkids. You're eating most of salary on the cap now when you still have the cap room to deal with it.

I'm not sure I'd classify it as a blunder. It's not causing a cap problem now, and likely won't even at the end. The last 3 years he's paid (cash) $5M/$5M/$3M. The cheap clubs love deals that pay less than the cap hit, and any retained salary trade does that here. It's not a big deal.

I think people really need to understand how much of a last resort buyouts are. CoHo's buyout is sitting on the books until 2022-23. It's only about 800k in dead money those last 4 years, but still. It kinda shows you how ill regarded CoHo had become, because you KNOW they tried every possible option to move him.

Moulson isn't producing, nobody can dispute that. But it's a bit too easy in hindsight to crap on TM for it. Honestly, unless a contract screws a team from making a move they WANT to do, it's really not a problem.