TL;DR the contracts for our good players are great but are “weighed down” by overpaying our bottom of the lineup guys because we have the extra cap space as of now
Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch proved they were star players last season and now have the best contracts on Buffalo, bar none. Some defensive improvement for Thompson would go a long way toward placing him with the league’s very best and making his contract an even bigger steal.
Rasmus Dahlin has potential to join those two depending on the term length of his next deal. He’s projected to be worth $9.6 million next season — but given his age, trajectory and a rising cap he’s worth closer to $12 million on an eight-year deal after that. Unless the Sabres make him the highest-paid defenseman in the league, he’s still going to have a very worthwhile contract this time next year.
Aside from Dylan Cozens’ perfect contract and a nice one-year pact for an improving Casey Mittelstadt, the rest of the Sabres cap sheet doesn’t look great. They’re paying five league-minimum defenders much more than they deserve (though they’ll all be up in a year) and there are several forwards who are much richer than they should be.
At the top of that list is Jeff Skinner, though his negative surplus value used to be much worse. His bounce-back last season was a very pleasant sight — it just doesn’t bring his projected value level up with his cap hit.
**Warning:** This is from Dom Luszczyszyn who is a 🤡 and known Toronto Stan, but it’s still a good conversation starter. To give context to that, for his rankings on _Which teams spend their money most wisely?_ he had Toronto #2 last season and #14 this season. Buffalo is #19. 😂
His rankings have Skinner, who just posted 35 goals and 82 points last season with 33 goals and 63 points the season before as a ~$7.3M contract. Assuming his model is using a 3 year look back and counting the 7 goal and 14 point season under the coach we don’t name but still, there is no way a 35 goal/82 point forward on $9M is a -$7.3M contract. His model also shows the `Dylan Cozens’ perfect contract` as being a B- in the rankings. How does a B- equate to a perfect contract? Only Dom knows. Lastly, has the top pair Samuelsson contract at $4,2M as a -$6.3M contract.
abs0lutelypathetic
This model is rather busted to be fair
distancetomars
As per this article, our best defensive defenceman should be fired into the sun. Luckily the authors’s model never really translates well into results.
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TL;DR the contracts for our good players are great but are “weighed down” by overpaying our bottom of the lineup guys because we have the extra cap space as of now
– [Here are the salary ranges used](https://imgur.com/a/tSwRq4g)
– [Here are the contract values for Buffalo](https://imgur.com/a/iD6HOyq)
## 19. Buffalo Sabres
### Last season: 23rd
Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch proved they were star players last season and now have the best contracts on Buffalo, bar none. Some defensive improvement for Thompson would go a long way toward placing him with the league’s very best and making his contract an even bigger steal.
Rasmus Dahlin has potential to join those two depending on the term length of his next deal. He’s projected to be worth $9.6 million next season — but given his age, trajectory and a rising cap he’s worth closer to $12 million on an eight-year deal after that. Unless the Sabres make him the highest-paid defenseman in the league, he’s still going to have a very worthwhile contract this time next year.
Aside from Dylan Cozens’ perfect contract and a nice one-year pact for an improving Casey Mittelstadt, the rest of the Sabres cap sheet doesn’t look great. They’re paying five league-minimum defenders much more than they deserve (though they’ll all be up in a year) and there are several forwards who are much richer than they should be.
At the top of that list is Jeff Skinner, though his negative surplus value used to be much worse. His bounce-back last season was a very pleasant sight — it just doesn’t bring his projected value level up with his cap hit.
**Warning:** This is from Dom Luszczyszyn who is a 🤡 and known Toronto Stan, but it’s still a good conversation starter. To give context to that, for his rankings on _Which teams spend their money most wisely?_ he had Toronto #2 last season and #14 this season. Buffalo is #19. 😂
His rankings have Skinner, who just posted 35 goals and 82 points last season with 33 goals and 63 points the season before as a ~$7.3M contract. Assuming his model is using a 3 year look back and counting the 7 goal and 14 point season under the coach we don’t name but still, there is no way a 35 goal/82 point forward on $9M is a -$7.3M contract. His model also shows the `Dylan Cozens’ perfect contract` as being a B- in the rankings. How does a B- equate to a perfect contract? Only Dom knows. Lastly, has the top pair Samuelsson contract at $4,2M as a -$6.3M contract.
This model is rather busted to be fair
As per this article, our best defensive defenceman should be fired into the sun. Luckily the authors’s model never really translates well into results.