Taro T

That show is friggin' hilarious. I started watching it about 3 weeks ago and catch it every Thursday. To say it is "irreverant" is putting it mildly. The show skewers absolutely everything.

Point taken.

He can't be an idiot, he's in Mensa, and everyone in Mensa tells people that they are smart. They couldn't do that if they weren't smart. So he MUST be smart. Right?

Agreed. I think using video to make your travelling scouts much more efficient is an excellent idea. I think using video to reduce the size of your scouting department is a terrible idea. Hopefully, the department does function as well as it did in the past, but I'd much prefer the goal to be IMPROVING the function. Can you imagine how much it would mean to the organization to be able to go from the current effectiveness (typically 2-3 NHLers per draft, which given the crapshoot the draft is, is reasonable) up to 4 NHLers per draft or go from the current 0-1 studs per draft up to getting 1 top line or a #1/2 D man out of each draft? Oh well, most true innovators are laughed at initially. I can only hope that that is the case in this instance, but I fear the people laughing are onto something.

He seems like a good guy. Who knows, maybe the team will have some more cap room next year and will still be willing to spend to near the cap and they'll be able to work out a fair deal at that time. That's my hope, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for it.

To answer your ONE question: yes, yes, and yes. You seem to have it.

Had, not have. I was referring back to last season's payroll and profit when mentioning the $31MM. Sorry for any confusion caused.

Arbitration, as with most anything else, does have the potential to bite a player in the butt. (Of course, it also has the potential to bite the team in the butt.) There were 69 players that filed for arbitration this off season. Of those, 56 settled before going to arbitration (meaning contract negotiations that probably would have lasted until late September or into early October were done ~2 months quicker). 11 players got awards that the team accepted, so players like Briere and Gomez are now $5MM men. Only 2 players had their team walk away from the arbitrator's award (Tanabe and Dumont). The system "worked" for ~97% of the guys that filed for arbitration. Even for players that had the arbitrator side with management, they now have a contract and can report to camp on time and nearly all of them become UFA's after this season. Not having a season disrupted by negotiating through camp and possibly October benefits even those guys. You are absolutely correct that it is a flawed system, but if it didn't exist a lot more of the 67 that did get deals would not have them now. As for no one giving Dumont $2.9MM/year, that is probably true, but we won't know that for certain until we see what he signs for. I could possibly see Montreal or St. Louis offering him $9MM over 3 years, although I think he had a much better chance of seeing something like that if he was an UFA on day 1. Also, had the Sabres total payroll likely ended up at $43MM w/ Dumont signed rather than $46MM and over the cap, I think that the Sabres would have signed him even though they were unhappy with the award. When Dumont filed for arbitration, Tanguay, Gaborik, and Havlat had not signed their new deals. All 3 of those deals had an effect on the contracts awarded to forwards.

That is the entire purpose for including arbitration in the CBA. It gives the player the opportunity to get a contract in a very reasonable time period or it gives him UFA status. Either way, a holdout is unlikely. Especially with the new CBA including a clause that pretty much keeps players holding out into December from being able to play at all that season.

In the interview w/ D'ohopp, Darcy stated that he tried to trade Dumont but the only offers he got for him were for an NHLer coming back. Basically, they weren't going to get any salary relief. If they had signed Dumont their payroll (as used for calculating where they are in relation to the salary cap) would have been at $41.9MM with 20 players signed. They still have Miller and Kalinin to sign and 1 other player that could be on the team to have a full roster of 23 players. (Because the farm team is so close, they may only use 22 players to save ~$500k.) There is no way they could get those 2 signed for any deal that would cost less than the $2.1MM they would have had available. Teams can exceed the salary cap by 10% until the end of training camp. At that time, any team above the cap would need to reduce payroll IMMEDIATELY. It would appear that Darcy felt he would have even fewer and worse options at the beginning of October than he had now. Had he signed Dumont and then cut him on October 1, the team would have only saved 1/3 of his $2.9MM contract. They would have given him 1/3 this season and 1/3 next season. Instead of having $2.9MM of cap room this year and next, the team would gain almost $2MM in cap room this year and then get charged nearly $1MM next year. For a team that officially showed only a modest profit on a $31MM salary (which is what payroll was when IR'd salaries are included), throwing away nearly $2MM on a payroll that will be ~$7MM higher is not exactly fiscally prudent. Hopefully, the offer the Sabres made will be something that JP can live with and other teams don't beat. I'd be surprised to see that happen, though.

You are correct. It appears they did to reach an agreement prior to the hearing. When you had stated they reached an "agreement", I misinterpreted that to mean you were stating they had signed a contract. It's a kind of interesting negotiating ploy the Bruins used, which I will be interested in seeing if it tends to keep FA's from signing with them in the future. Basically, they still went through arbitration, they just both agreed in their written submission to the arbitrator that he was worth $1.275MM. Since they both were in agreement, there was no need for a hearing. Since both parties said he's worth $1.275MM, that is what the arbitrator awarded him. Once the arbitrator agreed with the 2 parties, that's when the Bruins' 48 hour clock started ticking. HAD the Bruins signed a contract with him, OR had they accepted the arbitrator's decision, THEN they would have been on the hook for 2/3 of the $1.275MM. Of course, had the Bruins and Tanabe agreed to tell the arbitrator that he was worth $1MM and had the arbitrator agreed with them, the Bruins WOULD NOT have been allowed to walk away from the deal. Or more technically, had they walked away from the deal, they would still have had to pay him 100% and they would take a 100% hit on their salary cap.

The Bruins were exercising their "walkaway" rights after the Arbitrator reached his decision. Had they agreed to a contract with Tanabe and then decided to dump him, they would have had to pay him 2/3 of the contract as a "buyout". Link

Millbank, my friend, once again your friends at TSN have let you down. They came close, but were not quite correct. The Sabres do have to accept the Mair award, but that is because it is less than $1,042,073 which is the actual walkaway threshold. The Bruins walked away from Tanabe's $1.2MM+ deal over the weekend. Starting next season, the walkaway threshold will increase at the same rate the average player salary increases.

Never been to that restaurant and I'm too tired to think of something witty to say about it's name. But the best Chinese food I've had in Ra-cha-cha is at Golden Phoenix on Rte 31 in Perinton.

I hope it works out for you and Monday really is the end of your ordeal. Looks like you picked the right announcement to have "3rd time's the charm" work out. As already stated, I hope it does. Good luck.

The Sabres signed Gaustad to a 2 year deal, per TSN. This leaves Dumont, Max, and Mair left eligible for arbitration. Link

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner. Assuming the Bills could have gotten a legitimate package for him (which shouldn't have been too much of a stretch), I would like to have seen them trade him anytime after ~'96.

AFAIK, $'s haven't been released yet, so we don't know how it affects the cap. I wouldn't be surprised to see the $'s slightly lowish due to the concussion problems. The team has a lot more options as far as trades are concerned by having guys signed long term vs on 1 year arbitration deals, so I'm having a hard time seeing where this is a bad thing.

Because we know you can never get too much Sabres info on the Bills board. Link

Um, he didn't call Mike Doh'opp a frat boy. He called Brad Riter a frat boy.

Um, what exactly would you consider "major news"? The Sabres signed 1/2 of their top D-pair and the kid that scored the shorthanded OT winner to put them in the semis yesterday. That isn't "major news"? Additionally, the Sabres Captain received an extremely high arbitration award a few days ago and the team is still deciding how to proceed on that one. The Sabres have 5 more players scheduled for arbitration next week. The Sabres are also trying to re-sign their starting goalie and another key defenseman. Oh, and BTW, the team president also had a strange newsconference yesterday regarding the public outcry against the team's new logo. While I realize that none of this may meet the standard out of towner's definition of "major news", for people living in Buffalo, which is where the station you are railing against broadcasts from, it IS news. The Sabres are generating a buzz in WNY. Simply because you aren't there to share in it, doesn't mean that it isn't happening. And as Apus pointed out, there really isn't much, or more accurately any, "news" at training camp just yet. As for the crack about OLN, yes, you are correct that nationally the NHL is under the radar of most. But in Buffalo, it isn't. In Buffalo, you were getting NFL style ratings for the games. Again, IN Buffalo people are far more excited about the Sabres right now than they are about the Bills.

The things you are going to see the other 67 regular season games.

Doing that on a lake is dumb enough, I've seen a couple of guys in a little aluminum boat with an outboard out a few miles into the Gulf of Mexico.

"It's not my fault, I didn't make that decision, I approved that decision. Don't you know the difference between making a decision and approving a decision. Get me the guy that made that decision, I want his *ss". Apologies to Rick Moranis, as I am certain I don't have the quote exactly right.

I'll believe it at 4:01.