Welcome to Bizarro Sabres World.
First, word leaks out that the team wants to hand a 4 year, $30 million contract to veteran winger Shane Doan. Wait… what? The Sabres? This is the same GM that presided over the Peca, Hasek, Drury, Briere, and Campbell fiascos, correct? The guy who had to “educate the fans” about small market NHL economics? The guy who inspired the #DoSomethingDarcy Twitter hashtag as recently as 5 months ago? OK.
Thing is… that’s not even the weird part. The twist is that fans and media are now in a position where they’re asking “should the Sabres be willing to part with money that they WANT to spend on a guy who brings exactly what they want to add?” How did we get here? (Fracking, I guess.)
Short answer: YES.
Long answer: Here are 30 reasons why the Sabres should, in fact, do exactly what they’ve already done… offer 30 million dollars to Shane Doan.
1 – He’s a top-six forward.
2 – As talented as Doan is offensively, he gravitates to the dirty areas. He’s won’t hesitate to to take the body or drop the gloves when need be.
3 – Doan fits perfectly on the new-look “Tuffalo” Sabres. John Scott and Steve Ott are here to make the Sabres “more difficult to play against.” Adding Doan continues the trend.
4 – A guy like that should play in the Eastern Conference. He belongs on the ice with Boston, Toronto, Philly, etc.
5 – Vanek would no longer be the highest paid player on the team. This type of guy SHOULD should be your team’s top earner.
6 – Players around the leauge would respect a team that wants to give that much to standup guy like Doan. And this could help with future free agents.
7 – He’s clearly NOT all about the money. If so, he would have signed already.
8 – Loyalty. Dude has been in a monogamous relationship with the Phoenix Coyotes! (Please ignore that the loyalty point would be greatly diminished should he choose to sign here and just keep reading.)
9 – There are plenty of ways for the Sabres to manage the contract. Let’s say they give Doan $10mil, 10mil, $5mil and $5mil. Pegula can buy out the last two years or pay him and assign him to the minors. Don’t assume you know more about managing the long-term cap ramifications than the Sabres do.
10 – There’s a good chance that there will be less restrictive and less punitive methods for teams to get out from under long-term contracts in the the new CBA (whenever that gets done).
11 – Marcus Foligno. Having Doan there to teach Foligno how to be a pro every day is the best thing the Sabres can do for his development.
12 – Doan is an upgrade over Drew Stafford as a top six forward. Shane Doan is not only infinitely tougher than Stafford, he’s also better offensively. Doan has scored more points than Drew Stafford every year. And no one believes Stafford is just about to “get it” any more, do they?
13 – The new core. The Sabres’ Stanley Cup will be won on the backs of the new core… Hodgson, Ennis, Myers, McNabb, Grigerenko, Girgensons, Foligno. At the very least, we want them learning by osmosis from Doan for the next couple years.
14 – The Boston Bruins. Buffalo NEEDS to see what happens if Milan Lucic runs Ryan Miller with Ott, Scott, AND Doan on the Sabres roster. Won’t. Be. Tolerated.
15 – If you take out his teammate, Shane Doan will fight you.
16 – He’s one of those ultra-serious Drury/Peca types. Teammates will tell you they’ve seen him smile, but it can’t be captured with conventional photographic equipment. Guys like that save their public smiles for the Cup ceremony.
17 – Playoff intensity.
18 – Adult playoff beard.
19 – “He’s spent his entire life trying to get one thing.”
20 – He’s secretly playing (and winning) a game of NHL Captain King of the Mountain. Vanquished competitors include Dustin Brown and Ryan Callahan above, now Brendan Morrow.
21 – Someone chose to set this guy’s highlight reel to Iron Maiden, and it doesn’t even seem ridiculous.
22 – Level of Compete. Darcy and Lindy have openly admitted the Sabres need to raise their “level of compete.” In a three word cliche, that’s exactly what Shane Doan brings. The dude played hard while playing in front of 6 people in a desert… what will his game look like in front of a packed house on a Friday night vs Boston?
23 – Net-front-presence beating balance. Doan can share some of the lower-back-cross-check load with Vanek… and in turn, keep Vanek healthier longer.
24 – Scoring. He’s good for 20 goals at least, replacing Derek Roy’s production… and not from the perimeter.
25 – If half this year will be lost to the lock out, Doan’s legs will be fresh for an extended playoff run. And this half season should give him some gas for a strong 2013-14.
26 – Headline writers rejoice with endless supply of Doan puns like…
27 – “Doan: Believe The Hype” or “Doan Come Around Here No More” or “Doan Stop Believing”
28 – Ideally, Sabres can convince Martin Gelinas to come out from behind the Calgary bench (significantly cheaper than Doan) and, poof, you can roll out a line of Gelly Doan Ott.
29 – Without risk, there is no reward.
30 – We’re at 30 and we’re not done. Here are some more pro-Doan justifications from WGR’s Chris “Bulldog” Parker.
“1 – He’s a top-six forward.”
Maybe by Sabres standards. Meaning he would have to push somebody out of top-six minutes. So whose place does Doan take, then? You’ve got Stafford, Vanek, Pominville, Hodgson, Foligno, and Ennis (when signed). Do you stunt Foligno’s growth and minutes in favor of the 35 year old? I’m not a math whiz, but I don’t think you can fit 7 people into the top 6
2 – “As talented as Doan is offensively, he gravitates to the dirty areas. He’s won’t hesitate to to take the body or drop the gloves when need be.”
Cool. Milan Lucic does this, and does it better (the fighting and the scoring) for a ~$4 million cap hit. Is Doan worth almost double that?
3 – “Doan fits perfectly on the new-look “Tuffalo” Sabres. John Scott and Steve Ott are here to make the Sabres “more difficult to play against.” Adding Doan continues the trend.”
Can you quantify this in any way? He’s “gritty”. Whoop. You don’t pay gritty players at the end of their careers a cap hit of over $7 million. Pay Mark Recchi money for a Mark Recchi player.
4 – “A guy like that should play in the Eastern Conference. He belongs on the ice with Boston, Toronto, Philly, etc.”
Complete opinion, not an actual reason.
5 – “Vanek would no longer be the highest paid player on the team. This type of guy SHOULD should be your team’s top earner.”
Complete opinion, not an actual reason.
6 – “Players around the leauge would respect a team that wants to give that much to standup guy like Doan. And this could help with future free agents.”
Complete speculation. It’s just as likely that players around the league would see Buffalo as a rootinest-tootinest money waster and that their agents could fleece the Sabres on every deal. This is completely hindsight.
7 – “He’s clearly NOT all about the money. If so, he would have signed already.”
So what’s he clearly all about then? Because by this logic, he is also clearly NOT all about the Buffalo.
8 – “Loyalty. Dude has been in a monogamous relationship with the Phoenix Coyotes! (Please ignore that the loyalty point would be greatly diminished should he choose to sign here and just keep reading.)”
Ignoring as per your instructions.
9 – “There are plenty of ways for the Sabres to manage the contract. Let’s say they give Doan $10mil, 10mil, $5mil and $5mil. Pegula can buy out the last two years or pay him and assign him to the minors. Don’t assume you know more about managing the long-term cap ramifications than the Sabres do.”
Learn about 35-year old contract rules. Here’s a link: http://capgeek.com/faq/how-do-buyouts-work.php
“The remainder of this explanation assumes the player was not 35 or older when he signed his contract (in which case a buyout saves the team financially but does not reduce the player’s cap hit).”
10 – “There’s a good chance that there will be less restrictive and less punitive methods for teams to get out from under long-term contracts in the the new CBA (whenever that gets done).”
Purely speculative.
11 – “Marcus Foligno. Having Doan there to teach Foligno how to be a pro every day is the best thing the Sabres can do for his development.”
You can get this with a $3 million cap hit on Arnott or a similar deal. Hell, they can pay Mike Grier to yell in Foligno’s ear and it won’t count against the cap. This is not a reason for a $7.5 million cap hit.
12 – “Doan is an upgrade over Drew Stafford as a top six forward. Shane Doan is not only infinitely tougher than Stafford, he’s also better offensively. Doan has scored more points than Drew Stafford every year. And no one believes Stafford is just about to “get it” any more, do they?”
As someone who can’t stand Drew Stafford, I want to agree with you here. Except you had to go and use the word “infinitely”, which is straight up bush league.
13 – “The new core. The Sabres’ Stanley Cup will be won on the backs of the new core… Hodgson, Ennis, Myers, McNabb, Grigerenko, Girgensons, Foligno. At the very least, we want them learning by osmosis from Doan for the next couple years.”
Seven. Point five. Million dollar. Cap hit.
You don’t bring on that cap hit to hope his character rubs off on the young-ins. It’s a complete waste of money.
14 – “The Boston Bruins. Buffalo NEEDS to see what happens if Milan Lucic runs Ryan Miller with Ott, Scott, AND Doan on the Sabres roster. Won’t. Be. Tolerated.”
They’ve added Ott and Scott as well as minor leaguer tough guys. They play Boston 7 times next season. That would be over $1 million cap hit per Boston game just to have a 35-year-old guy say, ‘Don’t touch my goalie.’
15 – “If you take out his teammate, Shane Doan will fight you.”
So he’s Chuck Norris now? Speculative.
16 – “He’s one of those ultra-serious Drury/Peca types. Teammates will tell you they’ve seen him smile, but it can’t be captured with conventional photographic equipment. Guys like that save their public smiles for the Cup ceremony.”
Lindy doesn’t smile either. Look how many Cups that’s won.
17 – “Playoff intensity.”
…the Phoenix Coyotes have made it out of the first round one year. In their entire existence.
18 – “Adult playoff beard.”
Beard argument. You know who grows an adult playoff beard? Patrick Kane. Oh wait, no, he doesn’t grow a beard. He does manage to win a Cup without one though. Strange.
19 – “He’s spent his entire life trying to get one thing.”
…no comment.
20 – “He’s secretly playing (and winning) a game of NHL Captain King of the Mountain. Vanquished competitors include Dustin Brown and Ryan Callahan above, now Brendan Morrow.”
…wow.
21 – “Someone chose to set this guy’s highlight reel to Iron Maiden, and it doesn’t even seem ridiculous.”
Maybe you should’ve have married yourself to 30 reasons.
22 – “Level of Compete. Darcy and Lindy have openly admitted the Sabres need to raise their “level of compete.” In a three word cliche, that’s exactly what Shane Doan brings. The dude played hard while playing in front of 6 people in a desert… what will his game look like in front of a packed house on a Friday night vs Boston?”
This just in: the Coyotes also play 41 games a season away from the desert.
23 – “Net-front-presence beating balance. Doan can share some of the lower-back-cross-check load with Vanek… and in turn, keep Vanek healthier longer.”
Doan’s grit makes Vanek healthy. Got it.
24 – “Scoring. He’s good for 20 goals at least, replacing Derek Roy’s production… and not from the perimeter.”
Seven point five million dollar cap hit for a 20 goal player. That goes on the list of 30 reasons NOT to sign him.
25 – “If half this year will be lost to the lock out, Doan’s legs will be fresh for an extended playoff run. And this half season should give him some gas for a strong 2013-14.”
Sign him…because he’s old…and the lockout will rest him up. This is the sense that made.
26 – “Headline writers rejoice with endless supply of Doan puns like…”
This is not a reason, this is a preface to the next reason.
27 – ““Doan: Believe The Hype” or “Doan Come Around Here No More” or “Doan Stop Believing””
Because what this team is missing is puns. There aren’t thousands of Sabres fans who make puns for every_single_player.
28 – “Ideally, Sabres can convince Martin Gelinas to come out from behind the Calgary bench (significantly cheaper than Doan) and, poof, you can roll out a line of Gelly Doan Ott.”
Holy Speculation Batman!
29 – “Without risk, there is no reward.”
Hang in there, kitten.
30 – “We’re at 30 and we’re not done. Here are some more pro-Doan justifications from WGR’s Chris “Bulldog” Parker.”
You were done at 5. Linking to Bulldog’s “I-I-I-I…I want a guy with a BEARD!” column isn’t exactly lending strength.
And here is 1 reason they should not….
The Sabres would be eating up (using this season’s $70 million cap hit as the comparison) over 10 percent of the cap for the next four years on an aging player as players like Brayden McNabb, Tyler Ennis, Cody Hodgson finish their entry-level deals and are due a raise. This would be cap disaster towards your future !!
Don’t get me wrong on the point re: beating Callahan, Morrow, and the like. But, correct me if I’m wrong, isn’t that why they signed John Scott at 1/14th the cap hit?
Dave- Good article. I agree, what do we have to loose right? a playoff spot? If Vanek is work 52 to the Sabs, Doan is surely worth 30. Overpaying? maybe… for once Darcy is going to spend on bringing someone in. Do it.. Support it.. It will happen again.
Dan – Time for you to start your own blog with your own opinions? I think so.
John – Black & Blue & Gold, actually. You are welcome to tear my opinion pieces to shreds.
Dave – You know, I’m going to publicly apologize for the way in which I stated my viewpoint. I disagree with wanting this player on this team, and I disagree with all but a few reasons that you’d like to see this team have him eat up cap space. But I didn’t need to comment on it in the way I did. A simple one to two line comment would’ve sufficed.
We’re here for the discourse… Keep it coming!
I’m glad you can roll with it. I just realized that I likely crossed that line between discourse and treating you like you’re some kind of enemy. You’re not. You write about a team you like, and you do so because you enjoy it.
There is zero chance of him coming here so why waste your time writting this article?