[jreid19]

Originally Posted by Snoop

Trust me, Buffalo had the money ... they were just too dang stubborn and waited WAY too long to negotiate new deals with these guys. It got to the point where Briere and Drury said "f-u" and jumped ship.

I work with 2 hard-core Buffalo fans and they assure me that they had plenty of money to spend.

Partially correct. They could've signed Briere to a 5yr/$25mil which reports suggested he would have taken after he was rewarded 1/$5 from arbitration. They gave him the arb but balked at the "long-term" deal. Then they didn't contact Danny or his agent until after Drury had left but by then the damage was done. Drury is even better. The Sabres policy was not to negoitate during the season feeling it may disrupt the team. Fortunately they didn't follow that with Drury. Unfortunately after agreeing in principle to a deal worth $35mil over 5 years they never presented him a contract to sign. All of which came out after he signed with the Rangers.

Originally Posted by JohnSpringer

Then why haven't they spent it on other players? They had to spend it on Vanek or would have lost him but they haven't been going after anybody.

There is a reason fans began calling Tom Golisano, Cheap-isano.

Originally Posted by Snoop

Part ego ... part frugality ... part fear. Buffalo ownership doesn't like negotiating with hockey players ... they like to make a nice profit ... and they are afriad of risk.

Ding

Originally Posted by PRStoetzer

Unless you are over the cap under the limited exceptions (bonuses and Long Term Injury Exception).

During the 2006-07 season, the Wings took a cap hit $400,000 for bonuses paid to Steve Yzerman during the 2005-06 season because those bonuses pushed Detroit over the cap. The Wings also were over the cap in 2005-06 due to Jiri Fischer's LTI.

The Long Term Injury Exception was used on Tim Connolly that season.

Originally Posted by StorkMSU

I live in Buffalo (and listen to sports radio every morning...god am I sick of the Bills and the Sabres), so I have some insight into this argument...

1.) Though the Sabres sell-out most games, their ticket prices are lower than most in the NHL. In 06-07, Sabres tickets (at an average of $30.07) were third cheapest in the NHL (St. Louis - $28.23 and Phoenix - $25.41 were the only teams lower) and they were the President's Trophy winner that season. For reference, Wings tickets were $43.13 (which was also the league-wide average...surprisingly) and the most expensive tickets were in Vancouver at $58.96 (nearly double those in Buffalo).

2.) The corporate support for the Sabres is not what it is for other teams (suites are a large portion of arena revenue). Remember, the Sabres were near bankrupt in 2002 after the Adelphia fiasco (essentially the same year Hasek essentially forced the trade out of Buffalo). Corporate box sales are up again with the Sabres' recent sucess, but fan trust in owner Tom Golisano and GM Darcy Rieger is quickly waning.

3.) Buffalo has the 2nd lowest metro-area population (1.25M) of any U.S. based NHL team (Raleigh, NC is the lowest at 0.99M) and is thus a true "small market team."

4.) Not only is Buffalo a relatively small city, it is also a "rust-belt" city that did not have the same revival that other rust-belt cities saw in the 90's. The Sabres actually rely on a lot of support from southern Ontario to fill arena seats.

That being said, the Sabres can probably afford to spend more than they are right now. I assume they are holding some money for next season so they can push to re-sign Ryan Miller() and Jason Pominville (similar to the Wings holding money to re-sign Z and Mule).

Ding, all points on point and correct. The only question is do you actually get Bills and Sabres talk in the morning or do they still talk Lost, Survivor, and American Karaoke? Sorry I had to, I used to love listening to WGR but rarely listen to anything other than Sirius now. Even when I do listen to regular radio its Brad Riter and not WGR, and that was even while I was still employed by them.