Buffalo Sabres UFA Options: The Case Against Stamkos

Buffalo Sabres fans may want the big fish in the pond, but we examine the reasons against.

The other day I decided to hop into the “Should the Buffalo Sabres pursue UFA Steven Stamkos?” debate, a debate which I had stayed relatively quiet on for the past few weeks. Rather than try and discuss the hot topic all in one post, however, I decided to divide my take into halves. If you have not read my post on why the Sabres should pursue Stamkos, read it here – it’s pretty good, if I don’t say so myself (humility!), and the opinions that our readers added in the comments below are worth your time to browse.

In this post, though, I focus on why the Buffalo Sabres should not waste their time courting Stammer, and after that I will leave it to all of you to decide which is the best option for the franchise. Not that anyone in Buffalo’s front office gives a turd!

1. Goodbye flexibility, hello salary cap hell!

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I don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on the financial aspects of professional hockey – to paraphrase Doctor “Bones” McCoy, “I’m a writer, not an accountant!” – but even I understand that signing Steven Stamkos is going to severely limit whom the Sabres can sign in the future.

Stamkos currently carries a cap hit of $7,500,000 per season, but that might seem like a bargain compared to what he winds up costing the “lucky” team to sign him this summer. All signs point to Stammer commanding a long-term deal, a la Patrick Kane, Corey Perry, and Jonathan Toews, which means the Sabres would be looking at an 8-year contract that would carry a cap hit of anywhere between $10-12 million per season. Hell, Stamkos could ask for as much as $14.6 million a season, which would be 20% of the projected $73 million dollar salary cap – would you honestly want the Sabres carrying that albatross around their necks through 2023-24?

Your answer to that questions depends on how much you like the current players on the Buffalo Sabres’ roster. If the Sabres sign Rasmus Ristolainen to a two-year extension as expected, it will be much more difficult to get him to resign him before he becomes a free agent in 2018. Beyond that, the Sabres will have tough decisions to make when Sam Reinhart and Jack Eichel are set to receive pay raises – and we have not even discussed how in the hell the Sabres are going to bring a top-4 LHD into the 716 yet.

2. Stamkos may already be on the decline

Statistically speaking, Stammer’s best seasons are already four seasons behind him, as he torched the NHL for 90+ points three seasons straight between 2009-2012. While he has topped 40 goals in a season four times, Stamkos has only managed to accomplish this feat once in his past four seasons, and while it is not entirely fair to factor his 2013-14 season into this discussion (the man did break his leg, after all) – well, life’s not fair, now is it? Stamkos is still relatively young at age 26, and he may still place another Maurice Richard or even an Art Ross trophy on his mantle before all is said and done, but it is entirely possible that his best years are behind him . . .

. . . and that is before I even mention the season-ending surgery Stamkos had to have in order to remove a blood clot from his collarbone. The Buffalo Sabres recently announced that forward Cody McCormick would retire due to a blood clot in his leg, so don’t dismiss Stamkos’ condition just because the surgery seems to have gone well. Chances are, this is a one-time occurrence, but there is always a chance that Stamkos could have this happen to him again. That, and the fact that his skills may already be in decline, just do not jive with his becoming the highest-paid player in the NHL.

Next: Buffalo Sabres Player Grades: Jack Eichel

3. The Sabres would no longer be Eichel’s (or anybody else’s) team with Stamkos onboard

We all know that Jack Eichel is a generational talent, a game-changer, the future of the Buffalo Sabres franchise. But what would happen to him if the Sabres brought in Steven Stamkos?

For starters, the process of handing the team over to Eichel would be put on hold. No, Eichel is not old enough to be a captain yet, and I know there are other players on the team who will help determine the future of the Sabres, but when you bring a superstar like Stamkos on board who still has many years of life in him, the younger players naturally take a backseat. This may not be a bad thing, as Eichel and Sam Reinhart can learn a lot from Stamkos, but it most definitely shifts the focus away from those younger players and onto a player who commands the spotlight. Eichel and Reinhart had fantastic rookie campaigns and deserve to become the faces of the Buffalo Sabres, which will be damn near impossible with Steven Stamkos in town. Could this cause one of these players to consider playing elsewhere? You hope not, but with professional athletes come egos, so you never know.

The real damage could come in the form of line combinations – you think Stamkos is going to come to Buffalo in order to skate on the third line? Even if he agreed to shift from center to right wing and play alongside Eichel, now we have a situation in which Reinhart is skating on the third line. The best case scenario would be a starting lineup of Ryan O’Reilly – Stamkos – Evander Kane, and while I could see that happening, it again all depends on whether Stamkos would accept this shift. Demoting Eichel, Reinhart, or both to the third line to make room for Stamkos is not the direction to take following the breakout season these rookies just completed.

The debate will rage on until Steven Stamkos gets signed by someone, and that is the beauty of the blogosphere, Twitterverse, and everywhere else fans congregate to discuss their favorite teams. When I weigh the options, it seems to me as if there are smarter options out there for the Buffalo Sabres, but you cannot deny the fact that Stamkos would have an instant impact for the team and Western New York. If you have not already done so, share your opinions on whether the pros outweigh the cons when it comes to Stammer playing in the 716.

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