12 forwards? Who are you counting after the ten under contract, Kennedy and Kaleta, or Ennis and Gerbe?

Ennis and Gerbe, who are both under contract and finished the season with the team. I don't count Kaleta or Kennedy because neither of them have signed a contract yet.

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mechaphil

Good to be accurate but I'd like to see you include em, theyre as good as signed. Phil, as of who is signed right now, and throwing in Kennedy and Kaleta..... and toss in Ennis.....could you give us a rough figure of what that cap hit would be? Leaving out Ellis and Mair for now

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"I can't really hear what Jeremy says, because I got my two Stanley Cup Rings plugging my ears...." -Patrick Roy in reference to Jeremy Roenick's trash talking

Ennis is already included in the cap, actually. But, if I were to guess, Kennedy would get $1.4M and Kaleta would get $1.3M. I'm skewing high so I can err on the side of caution. If I were to add in both contracts, the Sabres would have $55.2M and with bonuses factored out they'd have $5.5M left in cap space.

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mechaphil

Kennedy - about 1 mil
Kaleta - about 800-900k
Ennis - 850k

That would be 13 forwards and a total cap hit of about 52.3 mil.

- Phil I hope Kennedy and Kaleta don't go that high...not fair considering Niedermayer's deal and Myers at 1.3 mil.

Hmmm. I like your overestimate but I'm thinkin you'll probably end up being pretty damn close to what TK and Pat end up with. I would not be surprised if, and after the Neidermayer signing, am pretty confident in, the fact that the team we have now is the team we see all season until the deadline. Darcy has missed out on some key additions he could have landed the last few years but being so close to the cap he couldn't swing. I think he might be positioning himself to be able to make a big time deadline move with that cap room. This of course is assuming he sees us in the top of the east again with this same team riding miller which is not out of the question.......

$5.5 million cap room at the deadline with a few minor moves could bring in some serious talent for a cup run if we're in that type of position. Serious talent as in a top flight UFA scorer and top 4 D man.....god I love dreaming

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"I can't really hear what Jeremy says, because I got my two Stanley Cup Rings plugging my ears...." -Patrick Roy in reference to Jeremy Roenick's trash talking

That kinda room would allow us to bring in Brad Richards and his 91 points last season, assuming Dallas is not in the playoff picture again....

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"I can't really hear what Jeremy says, because I got my two Stanley Cup Rings plugging my ears...." -Patrick Roy in reference to Jeremy Roenick's trash talking

For the record, in the summer of 2011, the Sabres will have 11 roster players and 5 non-roster players hitting either UFA or RFA (this assumes Stafford is on the team, still).

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mechaphil

It defenitely would be weird...my dislike for Chara goes back to even before he was on Ottawa. Watching Islanders games in college, I was really put off by him. Even then, he seemed like a dick.

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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

So this kinda fits with my theory....the team will need to be damn near rebuilt either way in 2011. Maybe Darcy is gearing up for this to be his all-or-nothin run for the cup?

So, Am I to assume this is the lineup as we sit?

Vanek - Roy - Stafford
Ennis - Connolly - Pommers
Hecht - Neidermayer - Grier
Kennedy - Goose - Kaleta
/McCormick?

I like that lineup a lot, but personally, Id prefer to see Stafford moved, Pommers bumped to the first line and Kassian playin RW on either the 2nd or 3rd line. I think after camp, this team will have no choice but to make room for him, the kid is an animal and a desperately needed animal at that

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"I can't really hear what Jeremy says, because I got my two Stanley Cup Rings plugging my ears...." -Patrick Roy in reference to Jeremy Roenick's trash talking