Sabres will be closer to cap than many think

Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) – After coming to terms with Beck Malenstyn on Monday, the Sabres have two more restricted free agents to get under contract.

NHL Arbitration hearings go through Aug. 4 and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is scheduled for one. Malenstyn was too, but he and the Sabres agreed on his two-year contract before the hearing. It's possible Luukkonen could do the same. Peyton Krebs doesn’t have arbitration rights.

Many are hung up on how much the Sabres will spend and to me, it doesn’t make any difference whatsoever. I’ll run down later the 23 players and Jeff Skinner who I have counting against the Sabres cap and how much room they have, but to me, it’s who the players are? Spending to the cap doesn’t matter if you have the wrong players.

The year Buffalo used $8 million to sign Taylor Hall, they were right up against the cap and where did that get them?

The other thing that some aren’t thinking about is next season this team will need to sign Jack Quinn, JJ Peterka, Bo Byram and Devon Levi. You have to have space for that to happen. Adams could spend to the cap with one-year contracts just to satisfy some people, but to what end?

I have the Sabres around $13.4 million under the cap. I would guess Luukkonen will take between $4.5 million to $5 million of that. Krebs might get around $1 million. That means at the end of the day, they wouldn’t be that far under the cap.

As far as money actually being paid out, Terry Pegula will spend just over $4.6 million more than the salary cap figure. Part of that is because Rasmus Dahlin this season will make $2 million more than his $11 million salary cap figure.

Skinner will count $1.44 million against this season’s cap. Here are the players I have on my cap that I think will make up the 23-man roster.

Peterka – Thompson – Tuch

Benson – Cozens – Quinn

Greenway – McLeod – Zucker

Malenstyn – Lafferty – Aube-Kubel

Krebs

Dahlin – Power

Byram – Jokiharju

Samuelsson – Clifton

Gilbert – Bryson

Luukkonen – Levi