Patrick Marleau anybody?

[BillsSabresB.C.T. Fan]

he's an UFA Sabres say that they have the :$:


he's a goalscorer
he can QB a PowerPlay
he can play anywhere on the ice C, LW, RW
he's played with Rivet, Grier in San Jose


44G, 39A=83 pts.

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[G Wolly]

His eyebrows always make him look like he's feeling bad about something

[TheGhostofJimKelly]

You know, if this is the direction the team wanted to take I would be all for it. The problem is the amount of money that he will command and what is available to this team. Marleau is 30, he scored 44 goals last season, 39 assists, and made 4.5 million last season. Brian Gionta (same age) scored 20 goals and 40 assists in 2008, Montreal paid him $25 million for 5 years. Marian Gaborik (three years younger then Marleau) was hurt most of 2008, but in 2007 had 42 goals and 41 assists, pretty similar numbers, and received a 37.5 million dollar contract for 5 years. Mike Cammallari (three years younger) had 39 goals and 43 assists, that landed him $30 million over 5 years. Last but not least, you have Marian Hossa who is the same age, he is a pretty comparable player to Marleau (IMO), good in both ends, goal scorer, but one is a center and one is a winger. In 2008 Hossa scored 40 goals and 31 assists. Those are four goals and eight assists (12 points for us slower people) and last year Chicago gave him a 12 year, 62.4 million dollar contract.

So after looking at these numbers, Marleau has better numbers then all of the players. The salaries for these guys per year is 5, 7.5, 6, and 5.2 The best guess is that Marleau can command around seven million per year. That is a pretty huge pill to swallow for a team that was 2.4 million dollars away from the salary cap last season.

Even if you don't sign your UFAs and you still have your RFAs, you would have to dump major salary in order to even think about Marleau.

[bigbub2352]

i would do it in a 2nd sign him up and dump roy or connoly to florida for nathan horton throw in a butler or sekera if u have to

vanek horton marleau

hmmmmmm........

[JD]

Horton-Marleau-Iginla

[DMBcrew36]

eh... I don't know

[TheGhostofJimKelly]

OK, again it comes down to money. Horton makes $4 million per. Roy and Connolly make 4.5 and 4 million per, you would still not have enough money for Marleau. If you dump both you are starting to get in that range. Connolly is in his last year and Roy's salary escalates in his last two.

[hydro]

I thought only the average money throughout a contract counts toward the cap. His salary escalating wouldn't matter.

[OpIv37]

Not gonna happen. This organization believes in the status quo, and they're not going to change for something as trivial as results on the ice.

[BillsSabresB.C.T. Fan]

here's the part of the interview where Regier says that they have room under the cap and further in he says that he has to bolster the team.

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Also keep in mind that this is the Sabres 40th Anniversary season, they have a new road jersey coming out which will be the same as the blue alternate jersey but it will be only in white, and a big name UFA will trigger jersey sales, I just have a feeling that they will make a big splash in FA this offseason that's all.

[SabreEleven]

Not gonna happen. This organization believes in the status quo, and they're not going to change for something as trivial as results on the ice.

This plus they believe that they'll win the Cup with the team as is...It's pretty comical.

[DrGraves]

Why it wouldn't happen:

No one wants to come play in Buffalo.

[DrGraves]

Another reason it wouldn't happen.

Why would you leave the best line in the NHL for franchise that clearly is not dedicated to winning, but dedicated to players that don't pan out (see stafford, roy, pominville, connolly)

[TheGhostofJimKelly]

I thought only the average money throughout a contract counts toward the cap. His salary escalating wouldn't matter.


My thought was on a team taking on Roy's contract and the fact that it goes up the next two years.

[RockStar36]

Yep. Sign me up.

[trapezeus]

i don't know if its as bad as OP says. I think the idea with sabres management is find the youth early, when they have more to prove and have less money. it kinda makes sense. Why not commit to a roy/stafford and hope it works during their early/mid 20's, then double a salary on a guy who is coming just for the money on the back end of career?

The sabres should throw more money into scouting and pull off their plan better and have less misses or more people in portland who are potential stars.

they seem to have an abudance of guys who come up to play average to above average at first. maybe lindy is the issue, maybe buffalo is the sideways flash, and until we touch jim kelly, we won't realize.

[OpIv37]

i don't know if its as bad as OP says. I think the idea with sabres management is find the youth early, when they have more to prove and have less money. it kinda makes sense. Why not commit to a roy/stafford and hope it works during their early/mid 20's, then double a salary on a guy who is coming just for the money on the back end of career?

The sabres should throw more money into scouting and pull off their plan better and have less misses or more people in portland who are potential stars.

they seem to have an abudance of guys who come up to play average to above average at first. maybe lindy is the issue, maybe buffalo is the sideways flash, and until we touch jim kelly, we won't realize.

the problem is that none of them EVER work out. They do great at finding role players and pretty good at finding guys who are slightly above average, but terrible at finding true scorers. The best success they've had was with Drury and Briere, neither of whom came up through their system.

So, if they prefer to bring guys up through the system, then get better at identifying the true stars and getting them into the system. But right now, we have the wrong guys and the organization seems content to stay within the system rather than trying to do something about it.

[SkateZilla]

Vanek - - Marleau - - SkateZilla

:rockout: :rockout: :rockout:

[trapezeus]

in a salary cap world, it doesn't make sense to go after the superstars at this point. They are too old, stay on the books forever, and cost a ton.

Yeah, briere is having an amazing playoff run, but his $8mm seasons so far have drawn scorn.

The NHl is all about getting in and getting hot. you can do that on the cheap and with hungry players.

Agreed, they don't find too many superstars, but look at the penguins. in that last series, they tried to just use their 1 line and they were tanked at the end of game 7 and they had no other options but to keep double shifting.

The sabres need either a real gritty center to line up with Vanek, make DR a second line center, move connolly off the team, and then have gaustad head the 4th line. then they need to keep griere, kennedy, gerbe, ennis. build up around that on the wings. pomminvile can take a hike.

It seems like they are already starting to make moves on defense that sends talinder moving.

They will need another veteran D and winger to just help the kids progress. They just need to find heart. and sadly, as much as i like lindy, he seems to be so work, work work, that his players aren't really connected to the whole thing. they need a leader who has fire that isn't lost on half the roster.