Sabres Extend Devon Levi! w/ Paul Hamilton | The Jeremy and Joe Show

Sabres Extend Devon Levi! w/ Paul Hamilton | The Jeremy and Joe Show

Meanwhile, we did have some Sabres news and we’ll welcome in Mr. Paul Hamilton for that. His appearance brought to you by Rilax Honda. Rayax, we got this. Paul, Devin Levi, a two-year extension for him and uh modest money. I don’t know if there’s anything surprising about it to you, if it’s lower than you thought it might be, but uh the Sabres uh signed their top goalender prospect for another two years. Well, I was thinking about this yesterday and I think yeah, I do think it’s a little bit lower than maybe I expected, but the tradeoff might be he gets paid more in the American Hockey League, which I don’t know yet. I haven’t seen any figures on that, what he’ll make in the AHL. So, that could have been, you know, what they what they decided to do. Now, some of the other contracts that were done, uh, like two-year deals, the first year wasn’t a was a two-way contract. The second year was a one-way. So, you know, maybe something like that was done where he would make a little bit more in the AHL this year and then if he went to the AHL and he would have to face waiverss next year, um, you know, he would make his NHL salary down there. So, you know, those are the types of concessions maybe that were made to get a little bit lower salary. Uh, this year would be 775 and next year would be 850. That would make sense, Paul, because this is really the first year that going in they fully I think fully plan on him starting the year in Rochester. I mean, the fir two years ago he’s the starter to to open the season and then even last year they waved Rhymer. Um, so like in this year with signing Lion, I feel like it’s not even really that much of a question, right? Unless it is for you that he’s going to start in Rochester. No, it’s not for me. And if you remember last year, it he was half the starter. They alternated and it didn’t work for either goalender. It was it was a disaster. So that’s when they decided uh and that’s when they got Rhymer back uh from Anaheim and they only needed him for a little while because Gibson was uh injured and then when Gibson came back they waved him and Buffalo took him back but the alternating back and forth did not work at all. So uh you know that so he he kind of was the starter last year too. I call him the halfarter. Um and it just it did it didn’t work and he wound up in the American Hockey League and yes, I would expect that he will start there this year. Also, Paul Hamilton joining us on the Western Hotline. Um yeah, just seeing here that maybe it is a oneway, so he’d be guaranteed the same salary either way. Um that there I don’t think they were sure yet either where you’re looking. um because they they do uh their thing and um before they they they didn’t actually write a one-way deal, but they the AHL salary that they have it is the NHL salary. Um I when I look at that too, I don’t know if I don’t know if Terry Pagula would be on board with that, you know, doing the doing a one-way deal on on both years or um so it’s possible. Yeah, I mean it is possible that they could have done it that way and he’s going to make his NHL salary in the American Hockey League. Um I I just its pagula would have been been up for that. It feels like they would want to give him something, Paul. This is a player that of course they had a lot of hope for and whether they put him into a starting spot too soon and they asked him to go to Rochester and he’s really kind of done everything they wanted down there, right? It feels like, you know, if you’re just an objective observer saying like that’s that seems appropriate to say like, okay, you know, we’re still waiting for you to get up here. Kevin Adams when he talked about it said it’s up to him when he’s up with the NHL team. And you know, that that’s kind of a figurative way to say when you put it all together. So I I guess their concession to him might in fact be like, “Sure, NHL salary. Just finish doing the work and get up here. We’re ready for you.” And it’s not like it’s $23 million. at 775,000. No, you can say, well, an AHL player makes some in some cases under 100,000, but still uh you know, there there are different circumstances here. And it also took until late July to get it done. And I had been wondering, you know, is is Levi at the end of his rope as far as going to the American Hockey League? Um I even I had nothing. No, I didn’t hear this from anybody, but in the back of my mind, I’d wondered if he was trying to get traded, you know, thinking, you know what? I I don’t see a future here, you know, with with, you know, what they’re doing. And um again, that was just in my mind. I was I was just kicking that around, wondering, why is this taking so long? Is he maybe does he want to maybe go somewhere else where he’ll get an NHL chance right away? Um but, uh you know, might have been just what we’re talking about here. you know, just getting an NHL salary while you’re in Rochester and that’s your reward for hey, you know, we feel it’s still in your best interest of the development to be in Rochester this year. I know maybe that’s not the destination you were thinking. So, you know, here’s, you know, here’s your NHL salary for doing it. We had one other thing, Paul, I don’t think we’ve talked since Connor Timonss got a two-year deal from the Savers as well. That was maybe going to arbitration. They avoided that and they got a two-year deal done. Yeah. And that was uh you know reading it’s you know at some of the sites they were thinking maybe around 27 and he’s at 22. So uh I think that’s a comfortable contract. Now Levi when we’re talking about salary cap space I do not have him in there. I have him in Rochester. So he would not count against the cap and what I’m the figures I’m looking at here. Um, I’ve got the extra guys as Bryson Jones and Danforth. Um, or don’t depending on who winds up in the lineup or Malenstein, whatever. But I have I have them with one extra forward and two extra D, which I have them 5.19 under the cap. So, um, I’m going to say the same thing I said last year. I’ve heard nothing that would tell me that they did not sign or trade for a player because of money. that well we don’t want to spend the money and you know we’re gonna we’re not going to do that. I don’t think 5.19 million is that big a deal. Last year it was six and I said the same thing. Um I know there are some that that feel it’s the most egregious thing that Kevin Adams has ever done and they have said so u not spending up to the cap when we’re only talking about you know $6 million basically it’s 5.19 or I’m sorry 5.2 basically. Yeah. So, uh, you know, so that to me that is not a big deal. They’ve got the players that they wanted. Um, well, what about Eers? Somebody might be saying out there. Well, Eers didn’t want to come here. He made that quite clear not this past offseason, the off season before, uh, when the Sabres were attempting to trade for him that, well, I’m that’s great, but, you know, I don’t want to sign a long-term deal with the Buffalo Sabres. So, you know, that really, you know, he was the be a good free agent that was out there, but he wasn’t going to be signing with the Buffalo Sabres. It seemed like Carolina was his destination the whole way. That that’s where, you know, we kind of heard right away and that’s where he wound up, but uh the Buffalo Sabres weren’t a place. Now, they still could have signed him. They just would have had to trade it trade somebody, which is fine. You know, if you if you bring him in, you he would have put you over. You can’t have Byum. You can’t have Byum at that point or somebody else. Yeah. Or somebody else. You know, you would had to, you know, maybe maybe it’s not Timonss, you know, maybe his 2.2, which probably would have given you enough uh to make that deal uh or Timonss and somebody else who with a lower salary. You trade them away and and and you can do it. So, uh, but that’s I just have not heard of any player that, uh, you know, they haven’t and they they, you know, kept Byum, you know, and put his salary up on the on, you know, his 6.25 onto the cap. A lot of folks felt, why are you keeping him? You should be trading him for a forward or or something like that. So, you know, his his salary wind up there. So, personally, I just don’t think 5.19 is all that big a deal to be worried about. I if if you’re worried about what Kevin Adams is doing in the Buffalo Sabres, I think there are a lot bigger fish to fry than the 5.19 million that are sitting there right now. Paul, there’s this is kind of a league thing, too. There’s 14 teams right now that have more cap space than the Sabres do. That actually, by the way, sets up for a strange NHL seasons. the cap went up and honestly there just weren’t enough players in free agency for all of these teams to spend it. So like right now I’m looking there’s only six teams that are within a million of the cap that are spending to it. And as I mentioned like there’s a ton of teams that are more than 10 million. So I don’t know what that means for like movement and transactions this year as like a leaguewide matter, but I’ve never seen a season where like this many teams have have a bunch of cap space. And in the chart that I have too, um, you know, you you look at I even look at next year, you know, contracts that are coming up and that’s the Alex Tuck contract. That’s the biggest one if they can get him signed. Yeah. I’m thinking it’s got to be around eight. Maybe you guys would have a different opinion on that. But if if they resign him, I got I’m I’m thinking it’s got to be around $8 million somewhere in there. Um, Kessle Ring is going to get a lot more than, you know, 1.4 four million. So, it’s some he would be some, you know, somebody that they want. Krebs wouldn’t be that much. Benson, I I don’t know where Benson would be. I think we got to see how he plays this year. What what his production is because what what would he what would he get? I I don’t have a clue right now what that would be. Um again, I think we got to see where his production is, where he plays in the lineup. And uh but he would be another guy that uh would would be up next year, too. Paul Hamilton on the Western Hotline. Thanks, Paul. Saw you at Bill’s camp. How’d it go for you? Good time. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, I go down there and and help out S when I can, including today. Are you bringing the kids today? No, we are not coming to this game today. Initially, we’re going to, but we went to camp on Tuesday. We’re going to go to the preseason game. Uh, so we kind of audible and we are not going to this tonight. Do they like camp? Yeah. Yeah. They have like the ninja warrior stuff, the rings. They’ve got, you know, throw the footballs, race each other. Yeah, they had a good time. It was hot when we were there on Tuesday. Do they bring hockey sticks to camp? Hockey sticks? No, they bring hockey sticks to hockey games though. Well, they bring hockey sticks to everything. Seems like I have to bring I have to bring hockey sticks to hockey games because if I don’t bring the hockey sticks with us, they will demand they want more hockey sticks. So that’s why we learned our lesson. Now we bring hockey sticks to every I don’t know. I think I for some reason I think I I thought I remembered them with hockey sticks at at football too. Maybe maybe last year. Yeah. Thanks, Paul. Take care. Paul Hamilton on the Western Hotline on uh Deon Levi in his contract, which I believe we might find out is a one-way

Jeremy White and Joe DiBiase are joined by Paul Hamilton to discuss the Sabres resigning goaltending prospect Devon Levi to a 2-year deal, 2-way contract worth $812,500 per year. Paul starts off by explaining why Levi’s salary may look lower than some people expected, pointing out it’s possible he gets paid more in the AHL than most others. Paul also explains what the projected plan is for Levi as the next Sabres season approaches. Then the guys turn to the rest of the Sabres roster, as Paul shares his thoughts on the improved defense corps. He also is sure to push back on the complaint many fans have that the Sabres aren’t spending to the salary cap.

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