Though there’s still no real news on Jack Eichel and his continued standoff with the Buffalo Sabres, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet did give a bit of an update on the situation last night. Part of that update is that the Sabres do not want to retain salary on Eichel’s massive contract, which certainly isn’t unexpected but does make trade more difficult.
In fact, Friedman notes that the Colorado Avalanche called Buffalo about Eichel, but when the Sabres said they wouldn’t retain salary the conversation ended immediately. That’s likely not the only contender in that situation, as Eichel’s $10MM contract is difficult to fit in for anyone pushing the salary cap upper limit. Buffalo is willing to take contracts back, but it appears as though they don’t want to be tied to Eichel at all moving forward.
- Calgary Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson has escaped without a suspension after his incident with Edmonton Oilers forward Kailer Yamamoto last night. Andersson has been fined $5,000, the maximum allowable under the CBA, for roughing. The two got into it and it appeared to many as though Andersson delivered a headbutt to Yamamoto’s face, but the league determined that the actual play did not rise to a level of suspension.
- After three games and three losses, the Chicago Blackhawks find themselves in trouble to start the season and already there have been calls to change the coaching staff. Mark Lazerus of The Athletic examines the bad start and notes that head coach Jeremy Colliton’s seat is getting hot, while Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports writes about how the “urgency is building” despite it being so early in the season. The Blackhawks have allowed 13 goals in their first three games, tied with the Tampa Bay Lightning for the most in the NHL so far.
Pegula and Adams are utter morons, no other way to put it.
Eichel, the health risk, at $10 million a year is worth something to a handful of teams.
Eichel at $5 million a year, even with the health risk? Almost every team in the league would be calling about that.
The return would be significantly higher and they won’t need the cap space any time soon anyway . It’s an absolute no brainer for them to retain half of his salary…but neither Adams or Pegula have brains.
Dude spent a fortune on Ville Leino and Christian Ehrhoff and Kyle Okposo and Dan Bylsma but won’t spend a few bucks to turn a franchise embarrassing disaster into a franchise altering trade. Why?
PS- If they retain salary to get a bigger trade return…AND something goes wrong with his surgery and his neck, they are off the hook for their half of his salary…BUT they get to keep all of the trade return. Morons.
I’m not sure of that. No fan of Buffalo management, but if he has his surgery, and they are on the hook for some salary, they pay even if he goes LTIR elsewhere. And this goes on the cap.
If they take bad contracts back they can do buyouts and limit the cap hit somewhat.
The whole thing has been handled very poorly.
If they eat half his salary AND take back bad contracts, they will still be under the cap BUT they might actually get enough in return to actually win one day.
Pegula spent $67 million on Leivo and Ehrhoff, he can’t spend some money to Lindros that return?
I don’t think the Sabres can’t retain 5M of Eichel’s contract. If I understand the rule correctly, when a team trades a contract, the overall amount it can retain from the remainder of the contract cannot be more than 15% of what the cap in the year of the trade (that’s a separate rule from the more widely-known 50% rule). This year that’s only 12.225M, and if I understand the rule correctly, that retention needs to be spread over the 5 remaining seasons of the contract (incl. this season), which is 2.445M / season.
If that’s the case, BUF refusing to retain salary is smart management. Retaining 2.445M of Eichel’s cap will not significantly improve the assets you’re getting back. What it will do is take up one of the 3 retention spots you are allowed. So, as things stand, BUF can at this year’s deadline retain 1/2 of the cap hits of three of Miller, Butcher, Eakin or Hagg (or any expiring contract they get back for Eichel as salary ballast), which in each case could mean getting a pick that’s one round higher than otherwise. Then they can repeat next year using retention on Okposo and Girgensons, and acquire someone in the summer the way they did Butcher this year where they can hope to get more for them by retaining 50% of their salary at next season’s deadline. But if they use the retention slot on Eichel, that’s one less slot they can use on expiring contract every year for the next 5. The improvement in assets you get back from retaining a mere 2.445M of Eichel’s salary is not enough to offset the asset improvements you’d be losing by not having that extra retention slots.
You might be right, but I have no idea what rule you are talking about.
Two slots, and up to 50% are the only things I’ve ever seen regarding retention rules.
If this is so…making Eichel a $7.5 M AAV player still opens up his market considerably compared to $10 M per, and still likely brings back more than making a mediocre depth rental cheaper.
The rule I was referring to is point #4 in the section about salary retention in the Capfriendly CBA FAQ (link to capfriendly.com). Puckpedia also has it, as does the Wikipedia entry about the cap.
But as I reread it, I may have misunderstood it after all. Not sure if the limit indeed applies to how much you can retain off a multiyear contract, or if applies more simply to how much of your overall cap in a given year can be used for salary retention. Rereading those sources, while the Wikipedia entry implies the former, Capfriendly and Puckpedia imply the latter – and if that’s what the rule means, BUF can retain up to half of Eichel’s salary/cap hit, but has an overall limit of 12.55M on all 3 retention slots it uses this year (which they are unlikely to reach).
Apologies for the confusion.
Thanks.
Idiotic to use signings from ten years ago to “make” one’s point, (re Leino and Ehrhoff contracts).
If you think the timeline changes the point at all, I assure you, you have missed the point.
Pegula has consistently flushed money left and right as Sabres owner on things that virtually anyone could have told him wouldn’t help at all. But, he’s a miser when it comes to things that will actually help the team (hiring real scouts instead of video scouts, retaining salary on Eichel, etc.).
Eichel at $5 million (for 5 years) brings a return somewhere between the first Duchene deal and the Lindros deal…even with the health risk.
Eichel at $10 million with health risks, well…you’ll do better than the Thornton trade. Probably.
I agree the whole thing has been handled like a bunch of kids playing chicken. Neither side wants to flinch. Until he gets the surgery he wants he’s a useless piece. Wouldn’t it be better to let him have the surgery and then see what you’ve got? I’m sure his contract is insured against injury as all contracts that big are. Unless the insurance company has said they won’t pay, then I don’t get it. Nobody can take on that contract now as everyone is basically maxed out. A surgery of that magnitude will ensure a long recovery process no matter what so why delay it? It’s moronic at best.
How has it been handled poorly?
The Avalanche is a team that has a few key players to resign themselves down the road. Eichel himself demanded to be traded but the team is under no timetable to make it happen nor do they have to do it during this past offseason. Eichel’s previous agents spent more time issuing letters than actually trying to get involved in the process like Brisson is doing now. A lot of arm chair GMs expect the Sabres to just take pennies on the dollars because they assume the team has no other options. Eichel decided to take a 8 year extension instead of a shorter length one so he put himself into this situation. I expect a trade of Eichel to happen by around the Thanksgiving holiday. But no way should the Sabres retain half salary in a trade unless they are receiving extra compensation. Taking back a short term salary cap hit is the better option for both sides.
They could have let him have the surgery he wanted. Been done w players in other sports. If so, he maybe doesn’t demand a trade.
Now they are going to be dependent upon the success of that surgery anyway. It’s going to result in less return and an return will be conditional.
Jeremy Colliton needs to be fired ASAP. Any coach that lets the other team score less than 20 seconds into 3 straight games should be fired just for being bad at his job. Not only is he constantly shuffling lines confusing his own people, but if that’s the level of preparation he provides #Collitonneedstogonow.