Clipped this article from the Rochester D&C, wanted to share it...

I'll make my own comments in a seperate post.


Commentary: Sabres to Miller: We won't pay — or win


Kevin Oklobjiza
Staff writer



(February 27, 2008) — Ryan Miller just won MegaMillions.

And he didn't even need to buy a ticket from the New York Lottery.

The Buffalo Sabres' star goaltender let Brian Campbell buy it for him.

In once again failing miserably to sign a key player, the Sabres confirmed what every one of their players already knew too well: Winning is not the ultimate objective.

Because they couldn't sign Campbell, they were forced to trade their All-Star defenseman.

The Tampa Bay Lightning faced a similar situation and they got a deal done with defenseman Dan Boyle ($40 million for six years).

The Sabres chose to remain true to their budget. They know the franchise's future depends on smart fiscal management. Fans will only spend so much on tickets and corporate money is limited.

Of course, fans also won't support a loser. And players won't choose to play with one. That's why during negotiations over the past few days, Campbell likely at some point said: "Don't bother, I want to win, I won't sign."

So Campbell was traded to the San Jose Sharks. For that, the Sabres deserve some credit. They obtained tangible value from the Sharks. The Sabres get a very good young right winger, Steve Bernier, and a first-round draft pick.

Bernier is big, thick, strong and has a very good shot. He has no problem driving to the net and playing in traffic. He can rule the corners. He'll turn 23 on March 31.

He will be a player — the type Buffalo really doesn't have. Fans will love his game.

The first-round pick means Buffalo could get a good player for the future in what is a very deep draft.

But to the players on the team right now, the Campbell trade reaffirmed what they already believe: that winning isn't the true goal. The trade told them leadership in the room doesn't matter. They were told them no star player is worth keeping.

In the past two years, Buffalo's refusal to complete midseason contract extensions with Jay McKee, Chris Drury, Daniel Briere and J.P. Dumont prompted them all to leave via free agency. Campbell turned down a reported three-year, $17.1 million offer and would have taken the same path. Thus, the trade.

So in reality the Sabres sent another message: That fan loyalty doesn't matter.

Thanks for buying those season tickets for a team that doesn't exist anymore. Yeah, we sold them to you when Campbell, Drury and Briere were winning the Presidents Trophy and staring down the Stanley Cup.

Well, don't worry: Ales Kotalik, Clarke MacArthur, Daniel Paille and Jochen Hecht can get the job done.

Oh, and those really cool new jerseys? Sorry that you spent $150 for the Brian Campbell look.

At least you know what to do with it now, right?

Just toss it on that pile with the Drury jersey. The Briere jersey. The McKee jersey. The Dumont jersey. The Mike Grier jersey.

That's also where you can toss your Ryan Miller jersey in another year.

What, you say? They can't possibly let Miler get away, can they?

They already have. Why would Miller want to stay? He has seen a Stanley Cup contender stripped to a team barely capable of making the playoffs.

Miller will ride out one more season in Buffalo. Then when he becomes an unrestricted free agent in July 2009, he'll bolt to a team that wants to win a Stanley Cup.

That's about the time Dominik Hasek will finally be put out to pasture in Detroit. The Red Wings will give about $8 million a year to Miller, bringing home the home state hero from East Lansing.

About the same time, Sabres fans will start to understand what Amerks fans went through this season.

sorry man


One thing I'll miss about Bernier is seeing him leaning against a defenceman with one hand on his stick. I don't think he'll be scoring too many goals but you'll get a good 20-25 out of him. Unless he really steps it up I guess.

For me, the above article is all about a journalist needing a villain for a story. The Big Bad Sabres don't want to pay their players what they're worth, and would rather have a losing team than a losing financial statement at the end of the year.

The thing is, that's business. Tom Golisano is running a business, successfully, and it's a business that was run into the ground long before he ever got there. Buffalo, NY is a hockey town, but it's not a rich town, the fans can't afford to spend an average (I'm using last season's numbers here) of $55 per ticket like the fans in New Jersey, or $49 per ticket (if you can get one) like the fans in Toronto. The Sabres provide a good product at a fair price ($30 per ticket, on average), and yet the media demonizes them because the byproduct of that is that the team can't necessarily afford to go out and sign expensive free agents or pay as much as another team probably would for a departing player's services.

The article talks about Jay McKee leaving town, but doesn't bother to mention that he left town to accept an offer that was way outside the bounds of what he was actually worth ($4 million per season from St. Louis). Mike Grier was offered $1.7 million dollars to be a 20-point forward, a contract Buffalo would have been foolish to try and match (kids from Rochester are coming up and beating those numbers for half the money or less). I know Grier has intangibles that make him valuable, but he's not worth his contract. JP Dumont left Buffalo because an arbitrator decided he was worth more money than his market value, and Nashville had the resources to give it to him when Buffalo opted not to. A lot has been made out of the Drury/Briere decision, and deservedly so. Buffalo screwed the pooch by not locking those two guys up as early as they possibly could. They repeated the mistake with Brian Campbell by not signing him to a 5-yr $25 million deal when they had the opportunity, and they'll pay for it.

The author of this article tries to make heroes out of Tampa Bay for signing Dan Boyle to a six year deal worth $40 million, while in the same breath suggesting that Ryan Miller won't want to sign with Buffalo because they didn't give a similar deal to Campbell. Here's where it's painfully clear that the author doesn't have a clue what he's talking about, if Buffalo *had* given that kind of a deal to Campbell, they could have kissed Miller good-bye right there and then, because there would be no possible way to keep him *and* build a contending team around him. It would have been the Dominic Hasek days all over again, where the goalie makes $8 million per year and Derek Plante is leading the team in scoring with a whopping 56 points.

I know I'm coming off as a Buffalo apologist here, but what I actually am is a realist. The Sabres letting McKee go for a bigger offer was the right move. Letting Dumont walk rather than paying him money he wasn't worth was the right move. Drury/Briere was a mistake, I won't try to rationalize refusing to give them each $5 million per season and then giving Thomas Vanek $10 million by himself, it was a foolish play by Regier/Quinn. Brian Campbell should have been locked up before the season started, Ryan Miller *will* be locked up before next season starts. He'll get his long term deal comparable to Henrik Lundqvist's deal, probably a bit longer and a bit more money, and the Sabres will still have their core to build around. Two firsts in this years deep draft will go a long way towards that end, and while there isn't as many great kids in the pipeline as there used to be, they still have quite a few good prospects with a future in the NHL.

I'm expecting the Buffalo front office to learn from the mistakes they've made with Drury/Briere/Campbell (I don't consider the other three to be mistakes) and apply the lessons learned to Ryan Miller, Jason Pominville, Paul Gaustad and Drew Stafford the way they've applied them to players like Derek Roy and Thomas Vanek (yes, Vanek's contract is ridiculous this year and next, but having a 40-50 goal scorer on the books for $6.4 million in the prime of his career will be great for a five year stretch starting in '09).


Ok, I'm done venting now, this article was just so annoyingly rabble-rousing that I needed to vent to some people who know about hockey, rather than writing a letter to the editor and to a writer who clearly doesn't. He makes it sound like Miller's going to leave because of Campbell, when in actuality Campbell was allowed to leave so the team would be able to keep Miller and some others.

Campbell seemed genuinely upset at being traded yesterday so i dont think the article has much merit.

The stance i take is that the Buffalo management realises that the team is on the bubble this year with no realistic shot of taking it all, so rather than resigning it all they decided to trade away an asset that was as yet unsigned for 1 excellent youngster and a very decent pick in the next draft, thus giving themselves a better shot for the future. Better to do that than let people go via FA as with Briere and Drury.

I agree with you, they don't stand much of a chance of getting through the Eastern Conference playoffs against stronger teams like Montreal, Ottawa and Pittsburgh, and whomever makes it out of the East will be Western Conference fodder in any event.

I'm actually very pleased with the return that Regier was able to get on Campbell, I was picturing something like the 2nd round pick that Biron brought in last season, or at best *maybe* a roster player like Bernier or Carle by themselves. Getting the 1st round pick was a nice piece of icing.

Obviously I'd love to have Campbell, but I don't subscribe to the notion that you have to pay your employees whatever another company is willing to give them. There will always be another team with a better cap situation throwing money around like they just plucked it off a tree in the parking lot. Chris Drury and Daniel Briere are both getting paid more than they're worth this season and it shows (yes, Vanek is too, I concede that, but it's a different situation). Next year Campbell will be getting paid more than he's worth, other teams are content doing business that way and for the most part Buffalo isn't.

Sounds good to me.

You say that the Sabres front office will learn from their mistakes....So why havent they learned already from Mckee,Grier,Drury,Briere and now Campbell...Thats 5 mistakes...They might of made the same mistake with Vanek too, if Kevin Lowe didnt push them into signing him...I actually like the Sabres however the players in the locker room have to be upset that year after year management refuses to negotiate with their stars and basically they are forced to leave...The Sabres somehow seem to constanstly grow great young players, however at some point they have take a stand and spend the money to keep these guys. Having said that I also believe the contract given too Dan Boyle was just stupid and will bite Tampa in the ass in the future...

Adam I am basically on your side in this issue, however there has to be some responsibility on the owners part for basically taking a Stanley Cup contender with the talent they had to a team struggling to make the playoffs.

yeah, ryan miller's amped commercial would look better with him in a Wings jersey.

Without question, I agree with you. The issue is in the way ownership approaches the game of hockey. Some owners consider NHL (and other pro sports, see: Cuban, Marc) franchises as Big Boys Toys and will do anything and everything possible to win at all costs. Tom Golisano shows us more and more every year that he is not such an owner, he approaches his NHL franchise as a business, and I'm fairly convinced at this point that his main goal in purchasing the Sabres was to increase the value of the franchise and sell the team for a large profit.

I understand his possible reasoning to a certain extent, for not throwing caution to the wind and spending beyond the means of the franchise to get a winner, he has a huge publicly traded corporation to think about, and he's the very public face of it. If investors see him throwing caution to the wind in one area of his life, it's a very real possibility that they'll seek to invest their money with a person a little more stable in his personal life. This is an absolute reality in business, Bill Gates plays blackjack in Vegas for no more than $5 per hand for this exact reason. Golisano keeps the team on a very tight budget that guarantees viability, in the basic worst case scenario the Sabres will still operate very close to being in the black.

Do I like it? Not really, but I *do* like having a local hockey team to root for, even if it means I have to tolerate some of the decisions made without consulting me...lol. Before Golisano bought the team they were being operated by Bettman and the NHL because their former owners (the Rigas family) were criminals who stole from their own company (Adelphia) to finance all of their Big Boys Toys. Given the choice between what I have and what I had as far as hockey ownership, I'll take Tommy G and his tight ship methods all day long, at least with him the Sabres will always be right here in Western NY for me to keep up on, even if they're not right there for Lord Stanley's Cup every year.

A couple of arguments against your points:

You agree with me that Boyle's contract was a mistake for Tampa, but you think Buffalo should have given a similar or larger one to Campbell? How can giving one guy a grossly inflated contract be a mistake, and not giving a similar guy a similar contract also be a mistake?

I've explained my views on McKee and Grier, I just don't believe that not signing these two players to a contract similar to the ones they now have was a mistake at all. I think the mistake with Campbell was made by allowing him to start another All-Star season without a contract extension in place, if they had signed him to a Dan Boyle like contract right before the deadline it would have been a tremendous error. Drury and Briere were obvious blunders that I hope will be learned from. The Sabres learned from the lessons following 05-06, where a large number of the team's RFA's went to arbitration and got massively inflated contracts compared to value, and they locked up nearly all of their RFA's this past season before the arbitration deadline, conceding that it's better to overpay a little than be forced into overpaying a lot or face losing the asset altogether. They learned it with Derek Roy and were in the process of locking Vanek up before Kevin Lowe swooped in with his offer sheet. At that point it was too late to just give the farm to Briere and take the picks from Edmonton, Regier had no choice but to accept Vanek's contract after losing the Captains.

I agree with your other points, but this has got to be wrong. No way average ticket for Buffalo is $30. I dont think there are any Sabres tickets you can even get for $30 anymore, are there? Worst seat in the house is $41 I believe.

You would know better than I, but it just seems off. I know they increased pricing last year, but I dont think it was that much.

I went to some games in the past, but now even Sabres prices are getting high in my opinion.

I was questioning the Leaf ticket prices that were listed, as well. $49?

It's $49 for a beer and two hotdogs.

There are $49 tickets...they are very high though and few are available..

Anyone have the data for average ticket prices ?

Very well said, Adam. I completely agree. You really should send it in to the paper.

Beginning in 2001-02 Team Marketing Report stopped including premium seating in average ticket prices.

~ source

Thanks Dale, that was my exact source for the numbers used.

Thanks also for your compliment, I might send it in, not sure though.

You should send it also to the owners...Its a great read and I am sure they would appreciate what the true fans really think..

Good job Adam.

TY Sir.

Well, I sent it. Polished the original a bit and sent one copy to the Editor, and a second to webmaster@sabres.com which probably won't get anywhere but it's the only email addy I have for the team.

Makes me feel better about the whole thing, in any event. <grin>

Good job, I concur this is a good read !

Thanks man, I appreciate it.

Here's the actual letter I sent in, cleaned up some of the language, added/modified a few details, and took the overall pissy tone out as much as possible. It's very close to the original (posted here first!), but a little neater with some points expanded on.




Dear Editor,



For me, Kevin Oklobjiza's article in Wednesday's edition is all about a journalist needing a villain for a story. The Big Bad Sabres don't want to pay their players what they're worth, and would rather have a losing team than a losing financial statement at the end of the year.

The thing is, that's business. Tom Golisano is running a business, successfully, and it's a business that was nearly run into the ground long before he ever got there. Buffalo, NY is a hockey town, but it's not a rich town, the fans can't afford to spend an average (I'm using last season's numbers here, which do not include premium seating) of $55 per ticket like the fans in New Jersey, or $49 per ticket (if you can get one) like the fans in Toronto. The Sabres provide a good product at a fair price ($30 per ticket, on average), and yet the media chooses to demonize them because the byproduct of that is that the team can't necessarily afford to go out and sign expensive free agents or pay as much as another team probably would for a departing player's services.

The article talks about Jay McKee leaving town, but doesn't bother to mention that he left town to accept an offer that was way outside the bounds of what he was actually worth ($4 million per season from St. Louis). Mike Grier was offered $1.7 million dollars to be a 20-point forward, a contract Buffalo would have been foolish to try and match (kids from Rochester are coming up and beating those numbers for half the money or less). I know Grier has intangibles that make him valuable, but he's not worth his contract. JP Dumont left Buffalo because an arbitrator decided he was worth more money than his market value, and Nashville had the resources to give it to him when Buffalo opted not to. A lot has been made out of the Chris Drury/Daniel Briere decision, and deservedly so. Buffalo made a terrible mistake by not locking those two guys up as early as they possibly could. They repeated the mistake with Brian Campbell by not signing him to a reported 5-yr $25 million deal when they had the opportunity, and they'll pay for it.

The author of this article tries to make heroes out of Tampa Bay for signing Dan Boyle to a six year deal worth $40 million, while in the same breath suggesting that Ryan Miller won't want to sign with Buffalo because they didn't give a similar deal to Campbell. Here's where it's painfully clear that the author doesn't really understand the realities of hockey in the Salary Cap Era; if Buffalo *had* given that kind of a deal to Campbell, they could have kissed Miller good-bye right there and then, because there would be no possible way to keep him *and* build a contending team around him. It would have been the Dominik Hasek days all over again, where the goalie makes $8 million per year and Derek Plante is leading the team in scoring with a whopping 53 points.



Look at the problems Tampa Bay was facing with well over 50% of their salary cap hit devoted to 4 players (Brad Richards, Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier and Dan Boyle). Their secondary scoring was nonexistant, their goaltending was shoddy at best, and while they were able to limp into the playoffs last year they were swiftly dealt with by a vastly superior New Jersey Devils team that had more depth in all key areas. For Buffalo to devote over 50% of their cap to Vanek, Roy, Campbell and Miller would doom them to a similar fate. Tampa Bay has faced the harsh reality of the Cap Era, and was forced to trade Brad Richards to get away from their fateful mistake of devoting so much to so few.

I know I'm coming off as a Buffalo apologist here, but what I actually am is a realist. The Sabres letting McKee go for a bigger offer was the right move. Letting Dumont walk rather than paying him money he wasn't worth was the right move. Drury/Briere was a mistake, I won't try to rationalize refusing to give them each $5 million per season and then giving Thomas Vanek $10 million by himself, it was a huge mistake by Regier/Quinn. Brian Campbell should have been locked up before the season started, Ryan Miller *will* be locked up before next season starts. He'll get his long term deal comparable to Henrik Lundqvist's deal (6 years, $41.25 million), probably a bit longer and a bit more money, and the Sabres will still have their core to build around. Two first round picks in this years deep draft will go a long way towards that end, and while there isn't as many great kids in the pipeline as there used to be, they still have quite a few good prospects with a future in the NHL.

I'm expecting the Buffalo front office to learn from the mistakes they've made with Drury/Briere/Campbell (I don't consider the other three to be mistakes) and apply the lessons learned to Ryan Miller, Jason Pominville, Paul Gaustad and Drew Stafford the way they've applied them to players like Derek Roy, Jochen Hecht, and Thomas Vanek. The game of hockey in this day and age is all about modifying your approach on a consistent basis, and the Sabres players, coaches, executives and staff are true masters of that craft.



The Buffalo Sabres and their commitment to winning will be just fine, Mr. Oklobjiza, but thanks for your concern.

But what they have as the average, I dont even see as available for worst seat in house? I don't get it, what am I missing?

Hope the article gets published Adam, certainly well written on your part.

Thanks Arp.

I'm looking at the Sabres site right now, and the price for the worst seat in the house to see the worst game of the season (their Value game price for a 300 Level IV seat) is $20. The same seat goes for $68 for the best games of the season (Pittsburgh, Toronto, any good weekend game, etc).

I'm using last seasons numbers and I know the price has gone up slightly since then, I don't know what the formula is for the source Dale and I used but I'd have to assume it's applied across the board, so even if the numbers aren't 100% accurate and up to date, the basic point is still valid. Last season the Sabres were charging a little over 30% less than the NHL average for a ticket.

Once they missed signing them to long term deals there was no way they would sign in the last year of their deal when they could get overpaid as a free agent.
At the same time Buffalo could not trade them for prospects at the deadline when they are in 1st in the Eastern Conference.
Yes their mistake was not signing them to long term deals earlier but once they had the team they did in 2007 they couldn't trade them away like they did Campbell. It's a totally different situation.

No, of course Buffalo couldn't trade either of them before the deadline when they were shoo-in's for the President's Trophy and presumptive Stanley Cup favorites, but they certainly could have offered the both of them a long-term extension before Briere went to arbitration and got awarded a 1-yr deal that was more expensive than any single year of a deal would have been for either player before the arbitrator got involved...

My point was that Buffalo should have made a major push to lock those key guys up with sweetheart deals before the market got blown out of the water by the 2006 arbitration season (that's when salaries started going back to the levels they were at pre-lockout, I'm not sure Buffalo could have seen that coming but hindsight is always 20/20).

By the same token, Buffalo *should* be signing Pominville, Gaustad, Bernier and Stafford to solid 3-4 year deals at good money after this season ends (before July 1st), and they absolutely have to give Miller a lot of money to remain The Franchise. MacArthur and Paille are RFA after this season as well, but they're not really the kind of players that teams will be throwing offer sheets at.

The rumour is that the Sabres read your article last night and decided to go nuts to honour you with an 8 goal outburst.

Don't think I don't appreciate it! A similar effort against Montreal on Friday wouldn't be unwelcome either, although I don't want to be greedy. If they only score 7 against the Habs I'll probably manage.

Sorry Adam but its getting to be crunch time so I am going to have to hope for the Sabres demise...The Leafs chances are slim right now, but I am still hoping...Cheering for Montreal makes me feel dirty and cheap...

Why not cheer for Buffalo to knock Montreal down the ladder so Toronto can pass them for the #8 spot? You'd feel doubly great about making the playoffs if it was at Montreal's expense!

You know I'm right.

yes that would be great, but I think they are just too far ahead at the moment

I'm just hoping for the Sabres to win in a 3 point game

I'm still really looking for Buffalo to finish strong and get up to the top of the Northeast in the last 18 games. 7 points behind Ottawa right now, and they play a home and home in March that will likely be HUGE for both teams. They don't have an easy road (3 games against Montreal and Toronto, 2 games against Ottawa, Carolina, Boston, and 1 game against Philly, Detroit, Tampa, Washington, the Rangers and Pittsburgh) but if they play good solid hockey, it's most definitely possible. I think the final week of the season is going to be a battle for the Northeast Division between Montreal, Ottawa and Buffalo.

The thing I'm afraid of right now is Brian Murray...with him back in charge I'm expecting Ottawa to go on a big rush to close out the season. Why couldn't he have waited until the last week of the season to properly pull a Lou?

Have to admit it was good timing though -- enough time for Paddock to try and turn things around but enough time to get the Sens going in the right direction for post season.

I really think this whole thread should have been in the Sabres thread. I am getting sick of writing to myself in that thread.

I'm more of a "macrohockeyforum" kind of guy. I like to spread it out.