Your basically walking 5 players into FA with those deals, atleast Arbitration.

At full price no less. Im all for holding off on too many long term contracts but if you're not going to get FA years out of the deal why pay top dollar?
I'm not saying you should rip players off but you need 4 more players on this team and have about 5 mil to spend doesnt leave much wiggle room. Plus thats only 1 extra (7)defensemen and the sabres need at least 8 to start the season so they can pick one up on waivers, call a guy up, maybe trade picks for a bubble guy and get 11ish by mid season.

JJ is gonna get some money, don't think this is out of Whack Money Wise. Kid is 5th in the league with 16 5vs5 goals, could hit 30 this year. Just don't like the term on some. Cong is right though Adams has a lot of decisions coming. Kinda backed himself into a corner to.

It's not walking anyone to UFA status except UPL.

All of Ryan Johnson, Krebs, Peterka and Quinn would have 2 years left of RFA eligibility after these deals are up.

They would have $11M to spend on 5 to 6 bottom of the roster players to bring in, with the expected $92M cap limit in 2 seasons, and that's if they don't just go with internal promotions at forward, like Rosen and Savoie.

I don't think Quinn gets that and it's not because of his talent, which is pretty obvious. Dude has been having trouble staying on the ice. January 2022, LBI week-to-week; June 2023, Achilles out until December; January 2024, LBI, week-to-week. Can't do that kind of money for a player that's struggling with injuries on a yearly basis. Two-year bridge is cool, but I'm gonna tamp that back to $3M per, give or take. And that's if I'd even extend him this off season.

As for the rest, go for JJ extension this year--$4-4.5M; Casey $5.5-6M (five year deal?); Levi, UPL and Krebs a little less, RJ a little more. Am thinking a total savings from your projection of at least $3M.

That said, I get your thought process.

Miss you on HB brother 🙏

You did notice this is a projection for the 25-26 season?

I did an analysis on some Quinn and Peterka comparables, and it was a 4% of cap hit for Quinn, which is close to $4M, which is why I rounded up.

Quinn also played in 75 games last season.

No injury issue then.

Overall, Casey and JJ are only trending up.

The price is only going to rise along with that.

I don't get why they haven't talked with Casey

So it's not that they're going to ufa its that your closing the gap from now to then and paying them, not an unfair, full price. As if they were complete and developed. Now 2 years from now they very well be openning the season as solid nhl players but for now these guys all have more to learn and a 50-60pt guy with 7 seasons under his belt @ 27 is worth that or more with intangibles, but 22 year olds with 3 season and they just reached those point totals fir the first time....if you cant get a better than market deal i would feel you gave to trade at least 1 of them to open the roster space for some one whose proven consistently over many season they can play a solid game and put up 50+pts.
Also im coming from a point where the teams not going to magically improve just because its next year. So whose your go to face off guy? Whose shoring up your PK? Who's the captain? At the money your offering it better be mitts and JJ but it isnt yet so its hard to justify.
I should say tho that i think your right, what you have here is what will probably happen.
We'll still be one of the youngest teams, we'll have less leadership and the only real experience on the roster will be that of losing consistently at the nhl level.
Here's to hoping im horribly wrong 🍻

This team will struggle just like this year's team has. These are all perimeter players who are not great on D. Sabres need guys who will go to the net and protect the net. They need guys who will go to the corners and dig out the puck. The whole forward group will want to sit at the blue line and look for an outlet pass instead of back checking. Too much of the D corp will be more worried about skating up the puck than getting the puck out of the zone.

Sabres need to make some changes and have the ammo (prospects) to do so. I just don't know if they will.

Thank you my friend. I hope I'm right, but not for me, for the cap (that is if KAGM will actually use that space.)