{"id":452419,"date":"2024-09-30T12:14:56","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T16:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=452419"},"modified":"2024-09-30T12:14:56","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T16:14:56","slug":"nhl-rumours-projecting-buffalo-sabres-rfa-future-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/09\/30\/nhl-rumours-projecting-buffalo-sabres-rfa-future-deals\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Rumours: Projecting Buffalo Sabres RFA Future Deals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s time for another round of NHL rumours. We&#8217;re almost to the month of October and the start of the season. However, the NHL rumours are always churning. General managers have been busy making moves, but they&#8217;re always planning for the future. A number of teams are going to try to lock down their restricted free agents. One of those clubs is the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/09\/26\/buffalo-sabres-name-new-captain\/\" target=\"_self\">Buffalo Sabres.<\/a> This edition of NHL rumours looks at future contracts for a number of their young players.<\/p>\n<p>All NHL rumours come from the original source and are subject to change.<\/p>\n<h2>NHL Rumours<\/h2>\n<h3>Buffalo Sabres Looking to Sign RFAs<\/h3>\n<p><em>Rumour: The Athletic&#8217;s Matthew Fairburn took a look at <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/5799368\/2024\/09\/28\/buffalo-sabres-salary-cap-peterka-contract\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">what future contracts<\/a> may look for their upcoming RFAs. Names like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/p\/peterjo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-09-30_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John-Jason Peterka<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/q\/quinnja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-09-30_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jack Quinn<\/a>, Bowem Byram and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/l\/levide01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-09-30_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Devon Levi<\/a> were mentioned.<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Sabres have extra cap space, and that\u2019s frustrating to some fans. Kevyn Adams has said it\u2019s a function of planning for future contracts. <\/p>\n<p>So I dove deep into Buffalo\u2019s salary cap picture for 2025 with the help of \u2066<a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AFPAnalytics?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@AFPAnalytics<\/a>\u2069 projections <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8SLZsAElUp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/8SLZsAElUp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Matthew Fairburn (@MatthewFairburn) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MatthewFairburn\/status\/1840027679908589812?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 28, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>Analysis:<\/em> Buffalo currently has $7 million in free salary cap space at this moment. However, Fairburn points out that Sabres General Manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/a\/adamske01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-09-30_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevyn Adams<\/a> isn&#8217;t in a rush to spend that. There is some annoyance that the team wasn&#8217;t able to make a massive splash in the free agent market. The fan base is still waiting to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs after 13 seasons.<\/p>\n<p>However, thoughts are already turning to next year and the multitude of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/09\/17\/buffalo-sabres-sign-rfa-forward\/\" target=\"_self\">young players on the roster<\/a>. Buffalo already has nearly $61 million committed to 12 players next season.<\/p>\n<p>The salary cap is expected to go up to around $92 million, so the club will have around $31 million to spend to fill out the roster. However, there are a number unrestricted and restricted free agents that need signing. There are going to be some decisions that will need to be made this coming off-season.<\/p>\n<h4>The Youth Movement<\/h4>\n<p>One thing the Sabres are doing is leaning on<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/08\/22\/2023-buffalo-sabres-top-prospects\/\" target=\"_self\"> a lot of young players<\/a> that are on entry-level deals. However, there will be a time where Adams is going to pay the piper. There&#8217;s going to be a well-deserved salary increase for a number of players.<\/p>\n<p>The main one that Fairburn thinks will get a big bump in in pay is Peterka. We see a long-term contract projection of over $7.6 million per season for the next six years. A bridge deal would net over $5.1 million for two seasons. The German&#8217;s deal is going to take up some of that free space, but another season like 2023-24 will see it well worth the money.<\/p>\n<p>Quinn&#8217;s deal is also slated to take up a decent portion of that cap space. According to Fairburn&#8217;s projections, a long-term deal would likely be six years with an average cap hit of over $7.1 million. A bridge deal would be for two years with a nearly $4.2 million AAV.<\/p>\n<h4>Making it Fit<\/h4>\n<p>The main question is seeing Buffalo can make these deals fit. Fairburn said it&#8217;s likely, but it may take some fancy moves from Adams. Players like Peterka and Quinn are definitely worthy of long-term deals. However, Bryam and Levi may have to take bridge deals at the moment.<\/p>\n<p>This season&#8217;s performances can also make that average cap value fluctuate. Big years from any of these players could force Adams to have to fork more money over to keep them. Let&#8217;s also keep in mind that the offer sheet isn&#8217;t as taboo as it used to be.<\/p>\n<p>One other thing Adams has to weigh is if he wants to keep a group together that hasn&#8217;t even made the post-season. Buffalo defying the odds and making the playoffs would change a lot of things. However, it will be <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/09\/03\/puck-drop-preview-2024-25-buffalo-sabres\/\" target=\"_self\">hard to break through<\/a> in an always-loaded<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/07\/31\/bruins-atlantic-division-dominate\/\" target=\"_self\"> Atlantic Division.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo by: Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s time for another round of NHL rumours. We&#8217;re almost to the month of October and the start of the season. However, the NHL rumours are always churning. General managers have been busy making moves, but they&#8217;re always planning for the future. A number of teams are going to try to lock down their restricted [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":452420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4547,4548,4321],"tags":[3509,6481,5689,7736,4851,5168],"class_list":["post-452419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sabres","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-rumours","tag-bowen-byram","tag-buffalo-sabres-rumours","tag-devon-levi","tag-j-j-peterka","tag-jack-quinn","tag-kevyn-adams"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}