Little more then the 2 or 3 years I wanted but if he can learn to play even a modest amount of defense this deal is a steal.

That's a bad contract.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

Why do you think it's a bad contract VF?

Not here to disagree. I hope he earns his monies.


Right now it looks like shyt. If he can do decent on the defensive end and not be a liability it could be a very good contract for a very long time. I honestly see no reason why he could not perform at a Roy level without the turnovers.

I mean shit if Grigs turns out to be what we expect we have a fucking stout line going up the middle for the next 3-4 years. That is easy to build around.

This isn't too bad to me. We have plenty of cap space and will only be getting more next year. even at 4.75 million it's not that bad. A hair overpayment but I'm sure Rolston will get even more out of this kid this year.

Edit: Well looks like it's 6 years at $25.5 million, and that is 4.25 million a year.

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A bit over paid and way too long. At least the Sabres opponents will be happy. When he's on the ice it will increase their chance of scoring.

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I feel like the Sabres just gave in. I think Hodgson has more to prove, especially defensively. Offensively, he's extremely talented and it shows, but I want him to be a complete player. I think handing him a 6-year contract completely stunts that development just in the way he thinks about how he plays. A bridge contract would have been a little more of a prove it contract, and would have given him more to work on, or at least a little motivation. I feel like this gives him the chance to mail it in if he wanted to.

Like I said, I think he's a talented player, I just would have liked to see a little bit more out of him until we gave him this big extension.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

Ah, gotcha, solid reasoning. Maybe i'm just wearing blinding homer glasses, but I get the feeling from the guy that he's pretty self motivated. Hopefully with that sort of mindset this scenario allows him to flourish instead of wither. We'll see, if he flourishes this contract will seem like a steal for the last few years of it.

That's one thing that gets to me about this contract. If he thinks he is worth that much now why sign for 6 years where you would theoretically be worth more
and be in the prime of your career during the last 2-3 years. He will be getting the same if not less after this contract is over. If I were him play the 2-3 at this per year value and hope I rake a 4-6 year deal worth more after the bridge contract. Who knows. Maybe he is cash strapped, maybe he genuinely wants to stay in buffalo, maybe he knows what his long term ceiling is. This contract just seems odd given his years played, especially with one being a lockout season

Yeah, we'll never know what motivated him to sign this contract. Like Vanek-fanatic said, I was hoping Darcy wouldn't buck the system and stick to his guns with a bridge. Of course he couldn't, thats just not Darcy. Now we're stuck with Hodgson for the next six years. He has absolutely no reason now to fix his game until the last year of the contract. That's five years of him letting the opposing team score at will while he's on the ice.

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I don't think it's that drastic. My thing about defense is that it's very rare for a player to develop the defensive side of his game after a certain point. Most players are good two-way players from the get-go. Toews, Bergeron, Pominville, even Tim freaking Connolly come to mind. Tim Connolly was a phenomenal defensive center. Watching Zemgus Girgensons play in Rochester, he definitely has that part of his game taken care of. I've never seen that out of Hodgson. The only player I can think who fixed that part of his game later on in his career is Ilya Kovalchuk. The Devils turned him in to a phenomenal defensive player out of no where after years of tolling about in Atlanta. Maybe it was the situation and he didn't care as much, but I've never seen someone commit and be good at defense as quickly as Kovalchuk did.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

It's a lot of trust on the sabres end. There is something we do not know.

If Timmy never went into his injury fiasco he would have been a fucking star in this league. Really sad

I thought he would get similar money to what Kadri got

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"...they came down into the stands and asked if I knew how to do play by play. I said...No. But. I'll take a shot at it if you want".- Rick Jeanneret

Contract length does not make sense for
either party if you really think about it. He flops and the sabres eat shit for 6 years or he flourishes and Coho is paid less then he probably deserves for 2-4 years. It's like gambling on both ends just for the sake of gambling.

Exactly this. A bridge contract worked the opposite way, though. If he completely outperforms the bridge, he'd be WAY overpaid in two years.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

Nobody forced his hand on this so I am kind of confused. I am thinking from
Cohos standpoint not management. If managent pulled this deal off and he performs well
this is would end up being one of the better contracts the sabres have given out.

This is practically the exact same contract the Sabres handed Derek Roy. If Hodgson can post Roy-like numbers, this contract works, and I think Hodgson is perfectly capable of that.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

I'm just excite he's back, for all of his defensive woes, he can be very capable on the offensive side of things. I believe he knows what to work on to get better defensively.

I'm also sure working with Gary Roberts again improved his already much improved skating.

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