If so who do they lose, Zubrus, Vanek, Mair, Peters, If not who do you keep, and If you could keep one or the other Drury, or Briere who do you keep?
2007-06-15 16:34:36 · 14 answers · asked by zy2397 2 in Sports ➔ Hockey
The Sabres have 13 players signed for next season with a lot of free agents left to re-sign.
Drury, Briere, Mair, Numminen, Zubrus and Conklin will be UFAs in the offseason.
Vanek, Roy, Peters, Paille and Paestch will be RFAs in the offseason.
Assuming the cap goes up to $48 million, the Sabres have roughly $20 million to spend on the rest of the roster.
Drury/Briere will both demand near $6 million.
There's no way the Sabres will give up a young talent like Vanek so expect him to get around $2.5-3.5.
Roy might get around $1.5-2
and Numminen will get around $3 if he doesn't retire.
Assuming best case scenario, that'll be $13 million alloted to 4 players...tack on another $6 for the other half of Briere/Drury and you have $1 million left to sign 6 more guys so unless Briere or Drury is willing to take a huge paycut, one of them won't be with Buffalo come next season.
2007-06-15 21:11:35 · answer #1 · answered by Dennis0430 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
well first of all, vanek has to stay. hes nor unrestricted so the only way he could possibly leave was if he applied for arbitration. i doubt hes doign this consideirng he built a brnad new hosue in the buffalo area and the sabres are planning to tenor his contract.
as for the drury briere and zubrus situation.. there is a slim chance they could keep both. drury and briere both are willing to take pay cuts to stay in buffalo, and zubrus won't demand that much money to begin with. if they can only keep two of them though, it would be drury and zubrus. drury is such an amazing player and captain and always come up in the clutch, and zubrus is a hard hitting strong fore checker that will set up alot of plays. briere is a talented player but not needed in buffalo. the sabres already have guys like vanek, pominville, and connoley that already do wat briere does.
final opinion: drury, and zubrus stay with the sabres, vanek gets a long-term contract, peters is gone, and mair is signed for a low amount and another year.
2007-06-16 09:56:24 · answer #2 · answered by yanks4ever3 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, they won't keep both, they don't have the money...this has been talked about since they were ousted. Drury has a good chance of coming back...then it's the Briere lottery. Personally, Briere's passing has improved and all around ability. With the loss of Briere's assists, their scoring chances will go down. I am of an unpopular population that finds Briere to be the much better player, but that's life. Drury scored 5 more goals and Briere was the reason for a good amount, but all the upstairs sees is goals. I don't know that talks of where Briere might go...I've been paying too much attention to the awards the last couple of nights.
2007-06-15 18:00:28 · answer #3 · answered by J R 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't know what the Sabres' financial numbers are, but so far, they won't hold on to both Drury and Briere. There's just not enough cap room. And correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Zubrus a rental player from Washington? His contract should be up on July 1st anyways. If it were up to me, I'd take Drury over Briere any day. Drury's just one hard-working bastard on every aspect of hockey, while Briere's just a scoring machine. Remember, it's the little things that wins games, and the little things that Drury does is what makes him good.
2007-06-15 16:42:19 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The rumour around the league is that Buffalo is expecting to have both players under contract by July 1st. Briere has already stated that he will take less than market value to stay in Buffalo (how much 'less' is still the question).
Buffalo really wants Drury back because to the team management he is the leader and inspirational guy who has won at every level he's played (including baseball). The Drury camp is less committal about staying in Buffalo however and Drury does have a house in LA, LA wants him, and LA has the cap room (to the poster about Boston, Jeremy Jacobs will not sign Drury for what Drury is worth).
If Briere signs with Philadelphia or Montreal, Drury will get what he is asking for in Buffalo (rumoured to be in the $6.5MM per year range)
2007-06-16 05:48:11 · answer #5 · answered by Like I'm Telling You Who I A 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i have heard from a lot of people is that vanek is staying so I'm thinking that they lose zubrus and drury because of the money vanek is going to get. mair and peters don't make that much money so they are going to stay and briere is the captain. you just don't let your captain go to free agency!
2007-06-16 02:31:02 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Briere, yes. Drury, no. Drury was more of a complimentary player. Briere is the face, the heart, and the engine of that team. No way you let Briere go.
2007-06-16 04:23:28 · answer #7 · answered by stevis78 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No, I think they might keep Drury but Briere will probably go to Montreal
2007-06-16 05:32:46 · answer #8 · answered by kerrinrobertson 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because of the salary cap, they can only afford to keep 1 of them. They'll probably hold on to Briere cuz hes younger and a future super star.
2007-06-16 07:56:08 · answer #9 · answered by haran_hockey 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They'll keep Briere and probably part with Drury
2007-06-16 04:55:14 · answer #10 · answered by paul m 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋