I knew that they wouldn't be able to afford to keep both of them, but not signing either seems like a really odd move to me.
2007-09-26 16:47:53 · 8 answers · asked by Captain Hammer 6 in Sports ➔ Hockey
1. They both got HUGE contract offers elsewhere and they didn't expect them to be offered quite so much money. I think Drury got overpaid for his deal and the Sabres were right to let him walk. The Sabres probably could have offered Briere a deal similar to what the Flyers offered, but if they had, they wouldn't have been able to sign other players.
2. Another thing to take into consideration is that the Sabres spent a lot of money this offseason re-signing Thomas Vanek and Derek Roy. Maybe there just wasn't enough money left after those signings, or if they signed Briere/Drury they'd have to let Vanek (their leading goal scorer) go?
3. The Sabres are a pretty deep team and have a lot of younsters emerging as good players. Derek Roy broke out last season, Jason Pominville, Thomas Vanek, Maxim Afinogenov, Drew Stafford, Ales Kotalik, Dan Paille, Clarke MacArthur, etc. They may have felt that they are a good enough team that they can afford to let them both go and some youngsters will step up in their place. Despite letting their top 2 centres go they still have 5 or 6 adequate centres in Derek Roy, Jochen Hecht, Tim Connolly, Adam Mair, Paul Gaustad, and possibly Marek Zagrapan.
4. Who knows how much the Sabres' limit on spending is? We don't know how much revenue they generate vs. their expenses, so maybe they simply couldn't afford to re-sign either one without losing money? The Sabres cap hit for this season is around $45 million. Adding a salary like Briere's or Drury's to the current team payroll would put them over the salary cap, meaning that the team would have to let go of another good player with a sizeable salary in order to remain under the cap.
5. Dury and Briere were both looking for long-term deals that would take up a big chunk of the salary cap. However, in the next 2 years the Sabres are going to need a lot of cap space in order to re-sign some very important players like Ryan Miller, Afinogenov, Kotalik, Pominville, Stafford, Spacek, Campbell, and Kalinin, so they will need some free money in the near future. They will have at least 15 free agents in the next 2 years.
Whatever the reasons, I'm sure that they tried the best they could to keep everyone, but they simply couldn't without letting go of another big piece of the team either this season or in the next year or two.
2007-09-26 18:53:36 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think that Drury and Briere are both great players. They were awesome in the regular season but once you get to the post season, there is an issue. You can come first in the regular season, but that doesn't mean you will win the cup. Briere is an awesome regular season player, but isn't a playoff person. Drury is much better in the playoffs but doesn't do fabulous in the regular season. It is a tough descision. I am going to have to say to keep drury. i think briere will probably go to another team that he believes in more. Maybe zubrus will go instead of briere? You never know.
2016-03-19 01:05:30 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
hey ronnie why dont you pay attention thomas vanek is still a buffalo sabre so you need to keep ure mouth shut about buffalo real horrible city last 2 years every game has been sold out read the facts you idiot
2007-09-27 05:44:39 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
During the strike teams were advised by the nhl to sign players to short contracts. Buffalo was one of the only teams to follow this and it screwed them over
2007-09-26 17:22:30 · answer #4 · answered by g 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Short answer -- they waited too long to get a deal done. By the time they reached out, the players' market value had gone up and they were willing to see what they could get. So it became too late for the Sabres.
2007-09-26 16:51:07 · answer #5 · answered by wdx2bb 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
well they had to re-sign derek roy too... and maybe briere and drury felt it was time to move on...
2007-09-27 04:04:37 · answer #6 · answered by McMoose--RIPYAHS 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It all comes down to money.Its a business.And with that being said,management thinks they can win without them.
They know exactly what they are doing.Dont fool yourself.Buffalo
still has gas in the tank.
2007-09-26 17:20:34 · answer #7 · answered by Darren 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
it has nothing to do with who buffalo had to sign and how much it was going to cost them. Buffalo is a horrible city, and you dont see big name players wanting to go there or resigning. no one wants to play in buffalo. even vanek signed a offer sheet with Edmonton. that shows you how bad guys want out.
2007-09-27 04:45:16 · answer #8 · answered by Ronnie Gardocki 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋
They let them go for salary cap reasons.
2007-09-27 05:31:18 · answer #9 · answered by frigon_p 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋