Sabres would have made Vanek highest-paid in NHL?

[SabreBlood]

Thomas Vanek could have been paid handsomely to stay in Buffalo. A source, in fact, says the Sabres were willing to make him the highest-paid player in the NHL.

more..

http://blogs.buffalonews.com/sabres...says-he-was-ready-to-move-on-from-sabres.html

If true...Does this not scare the heck out of every Sabres fan everywhere? Highest-paid player in the entire league? A mostly one dimensional player? Granted, the man can score with most of the best, but come on. If Regier/Pegula were really willing to do this, I'm scared to death about the future of this team.

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[Deevo]

Terrifying if true.

 

[haseoke39]

agreed. I think the Sabres have mostly done the right thing throughout this rebuild, but the leaks about 7.5M for Doan and Vanek's offer and etc etc make me wonder if the team is just being forced into imploding rather than doing it with focus.

 

[jamers]

Could have been drawn up with a lower actual cap hit. Bonus incentives and the like. Also could have been a short term deal designed to stop gap the rebuild years.

 

[struckbyaparkedcar]

Probably a combination of feeler offer and the maximum yearly pay difference, not seriously considering paying him a higher cap hit than Sid and whoever.

 

[stokes84]

TBN has real credibility issues when it comes to this team. Take with a grain of salt.

 

[Paxon]

We already discussed this but there are many ways this vague statement could be taken, if it even represents the truth. If they offered him crazy money over 2 or 3 years, there's nothing wrong with that. They have the cap space and the owner ready to burn money. Offering top dollar long term would have been horrible. Maybe they offered a long-term deal as frontloaded as possible. I doubt we'll ever get to the bottom of it, but I'm pretty confident that didn't offer him top dollar over many years. If they did, I'd be very concerned that Pegula has become a meddler.

 

[pigpen65]

TBN has real credibility issues when it comes to this team. Take with a grain of salt.

Ironically, the Buffnews is the last place to go for Sabres news. You would think a hometown paper would be the ones breaking news, but it is always the other way around. Some national outlet breaks Sabres news, then the Buffnews guys pick it up and rewrite it. I can't remember the last time the Buffnews had a beat on anything Sabres related. The last time was probably when Harrington broke that Kaleta was going to ask the team if they wanted him back, but that ended up being an out and out lie.

 

[Man of Principles]

Then comes news that he would have traded Vanek to Toronto.

 

[vcv]

Could have been drawn up with a lower actual cap hit. Bonus incentives and the like. Also could have been a short term deal designed to stop gap the rebuild years.

You can't offer bonuses to players unless (1) it is their ELC (2) it's an over 35 contract

So they couldn't have done that for a Vanek contract.

My guess is the offer was short-term.

 

[littletonhockeycoach]

TBN has real credibility issues when it comes to this team. Take with a grain of salt.

Yep...my take as well.....

 

[Jim Bob]

What is lacking in that report is how long that offer was for.

This team is nowhere near the cap. We know that Pegula and Regier talked about wanting to keep Vanek and Miller to "support the young players" through the rebuild.

I could see Pegula and Regier throwing out the idea of giving Vanek the max over a 2 or 3 year deal to retain his services, without getting into huge drop off in production due to age territory.

Kind of an alternate bridge contract where they overpay Vanek to stick around through the rebuild.

If they offered Vanek a max contract AND max length, well....

 

[struckbyaparkedcar]

Ironically, the Buffnews is the last place to go for Sabres news. You would think a hometown paper would be the ones breaking news, but it is always the other way around. Some national outlet breaks Sabres news, then the Buffnews guys pick it up and rewrite it. I can't remember the last time the Buffnews had a beat on anything Sabres related. The last time was probably when Harrington broke that Kaleta was going to ask the team if they wanted him back, but that ended up being an out and out lie.

The Grier signing in summer of 09.

 

[SackTastic]

Might have. Could have. Almost did

What matters,at least to me,is what they DO. Not what they maybe did.

 

[SackTastic]

Then comes news that he would have traded Vanek to Toronto.

If Toronto would have given an as good or better return, why not?

It's not like the Sabres are going to realistically be able to compete with the Leafs, or anyone else in this division, for a few years anyways.

 

[AirBriere48]

Ironically, the Buffnews is the last place to go for Sabres news. You would think a hometown paper would be the ones breaking news, but it is always the other way around. Some national outlet breaks Sabres news, then the Buffnews guys pick it up and rewrite it. I can't remember the last time the Buffnews had a beat on anything Sabres related. The last time was probably when Harrington broke that Kaleta was going to ask the team if they wanted him back, but that ended up being an out and out lie.

TBN has clearly been frozen out by the Sabres organization since Pegula took over. They have no contact from anyone remotely high up in management. Hence the constant axe-grinding from Bucky, Harrington, etc.

Makes it all the funnier when Bucky tries to break a "rumor" from an unnamed source that always gets debunked shortly afterward.

 

[Clock]

Already been said - wouldn't have been an issue on a short contract.

Would make sense that he was made captain as a potential ploy to get him to stick around, but even if so, more reason to appreciate Vanek for not messing around and letting Regier know he wasn't going to sign. IF this is true.

 

[jamers]

Already been said - wouldn't have been an issue on a short contract.

Would make sense that he was made captain as a potential ploy to get him to stick around, but even if so, more reason to appreciate Vanek for not messing around and letting Regier know he wasn't going to sign. IF this is true.

Yep. If it is true, I actually have more respect for him than I did before. He wants to win as soon as possible.

You can't offer bonuses to players unless (1) it is their ELC (2) it's an over 35 contract

So they couldn't have done that for a Vanek contract.

My guess is the offer was short-term.

I always forget that.

 

[Djp]

Could have been drawn up with a lower actual cap hit. Bonus incentives and the like. Also could have been a short term deal designed to stop gap the rebuild years.

Only in ELCs or 35+ contracts could you do bonus money. For example Iginla's contract in boston is low against this years cap but the bonus money in the contract (a good chunk) gets thrown to next years contract.


What I think they offered Vanek was to be the highest player in actually Salary the first 2 years and then drop the salary from then on out lowering the cap hit.

i dont recall what the highest salary for next season would be (not cap hit--actual salary)

An example: $11M, $11M, $9M, $7M, $5.5M, $5,5M, $5.5M, $5.5M 8 yr $60M ($7.5M cap hit)

 

[Djp]

If Toronto would have given an as good or better return, why not?

It's not like the Sabres are going to realistically be able to compete with the Leafs, or anyone else in this division, for a few years anyways.

They also probably knew something in talking to him with UFA stuff that they believe he would not have signed in Toronto.

 

[vcv]

Only in ELCs or 35+ contracts could you do bonus money. For example Iginla's contract in boston is low against this years cap but the bonus money in the contract (a good chunk) gets thrown to next years contract.


What I think they offered Vanek was to be the highest player in actually Salary the first 2 years and then drop the salary from then on out lowering the cap hit.

i dont recall what the highest salary for next season would be (not cap hit--actual salary)

An example: $11M, $11M, $9M, $7M, $5.5M, $5,5M, $5.5M, $5.5M 8 yr $60M ($7.5M cap hit)

If it's actual salary, then it would need to be more than $14M (Shea Weber). Also, new Salary Variance rules restrict year-to-year salary change from being more than 35% and any given year can be no less than 50% of the highest year in the contract.

So even $14.0001M, the lowest year could only be ~$7M.

 

[Pi]

They also probably knew something in talking to him with UFA stuff that they believe he would not have signed in Toronto.

I don't think we need Vanek from the Sabres. Only player I would hope the Leafs are very interested in would be Christian Ehrhoff.

We have top 6 wingers that each bring something different to the table in Kessel, JvR, Lupul, Clarkson. Vanek becomes a bit redundant and he wouldn't be cheap either.

Only place the Leafs will be spending any money/assets is to upgrade on Bozak at center or acquire a top pairing D like Ehrhoff.

 

[TehDoak]

A front loaded 8 year deal would have likely made him the highest paid next season. I'm curious to see if we attemp to reup moulson on a 4 to 5 million a year short term deal. We need some vets. If we buy out leino our vets next year would be Ehrhoff, Myers ennis and stafford

 

[vcv]

A front loaded 8 year deal would have likely made him the highest paid next season. I'm curious to see if we attemp to reup moulson on a 4 to 5 million a year short term deal. We need some vets. If we buy out leino our vets next year would be Ehrhoff, Myers ennis and stafford

The best they could do is offer him a contract like such:
14M, 9.1M, 7M, 7M, 7M, 7M, 7M, 7M.

$65.1M over 8 years for a $8.1375M cap hit? Why?

 

[haseoke39]

The best they could do is offer him a contract like such:
14M, 9.1M, 7M, 7M, 7M, 7M, 7M, 7M.

$65.1M over 8 years for a $8.1375M cap hit? Why?

As salaries keep getting inflated, an $8M cap hit for Vanek makes more sense today than a $7M cap hit for Vanek when the cap was set around $50M back in '07.