Sep 16, 2026 · 1 hr 2 min · 11 segments
The Sabres open training camp this week with the door open for their exciting young core. We run down Noah Ostlund's new contract and how it fits into the other contracts the Sabres signed this…
Yeah, should be a banner evening, literally and figuratively, on opening night when the Sabres open the season.
And a lot of new things here.
You mentioned the 84-game season.
Short of preseason scheduled this year, only four games for each team versus the more expanded schedule that could be anywhere from five to seven.
I think some teams maybe even have been playing eight games there for a little bit.
Midnight tonight on Tuesday the 15th, as we record this, Teams can no longer assign players to eight-year contracts.
The maximum will be seven.
And all other remaining kind of the outstanding pieces of the new CBA, anything that was left and held, will go into effect tonight.
Or tonight as we record this, I should say, on the 15th.
So it's a dawn of a new era, if you will, in the NHL in many ways.
The expanded cap has been running full tilt, and we've seen that in a number of forums, most notably on some of these late signings that came through on September 14th and September 15th.
Two big ones on the 15th in particular, Ryan Leonard and Drake Bathurston, each signing for eight years, both getting a cap hit over $10 million.
And I think for a lot of people, that $6 million cap hit, $6.6 million cap hit, just probably hits them in the chest.
How is he worth that much money? Yeah.
It is a reflection of the new normal in the NHL because Ryan Leonard is getting $10 million and he has 84 games played in his career.
20-goal season under his belt, mind you, but only one of them.
And so teams are acting quickly.
And obviously the eight-year limit is part of this though, Tyler, but quite a drastic change here.
compared to previous years it's it's pretty wild to try to try to you can't even do it to compare some of these contracts
yeah and i think it's it's a combination of things like i think i think front offices are getting smarter and that you know they're they're realizing the the the years in which you should pay players big money you know that you you want to lock up guys for basically their 20s right you know it's no longer the the long-term big money deals to the 29 30 31 year old free agents or at least very few um And I think, too, teams are realizing, especially in this kind of new world where the cap just continues to go up and up and up, the earlier you can lock somebody up long-term, the better it is for a number of reasons, right? Obviously, if that player hits and is...
is the player you project the player out to be, because again, a lot of these players are signing out of ELCs or out of bridge contracts, then that deal becomes a bargain, right? We saw it with Tage.
Yeah, should be a banner evening, literally and figuratively, on opening night when the Sabres open the season.
And a lot of new things here.
You mentioned the 84-game season.
Short of preseason scheduled this year, only four games for each team versus the more expanded schedule that could be anywhere from five to seven.
I think some teams maybe even have been playing eight games there for a little bit.
Midnight tonight on Tuesday the 15th, as we record this, Teams can no longer assign players to eight-year contracts.
The maximum will be seven.
And all other remaining kind of the outstanding pieces of the new CBA, anything that was left and held, will go into effect tonight.
Or tonight as we record this, I should say, on the 15th.
So it's a dawn of a new era, if you will, in the NHL in many ways.
The expanded cap has been running full tilt, and we've seen that in a number of forums, most notably on some of these late signings that came through on September 14th and September 15th.
Two big ones on the 15th in particular, Ryan Leonard and Drake Bathurston, each signing for eight years, both getting a cap hit over $10 million.
And I think for a lot of people, that $6 million cap hit, $6.6 million cap hit, just probably hits them in the chest.
How is he worth that much money? Yeah.
It is a reflection of the new normal in the NHL because Ryan Leonard is getting $10 million and he has 84 games played in his career.
20-goal season under his belt, mind you, but only one of them.
And so teams are acting quickly.
And obviously the eight-year limit is part of this though, Tyler, but quite a drastic change here.
compared to previous years it's it's pretty wild to try to try to you can't even do it to compare some of these contracts
yeah and i think it's it's a combination of things like i think i think front offices are getting smarter and that you know they're they're realizing the the the years in which you should pay players big money you know that you you want to lock up guys for basically their 20s right you know it's no longer the the long-term big money deals to the 29 30 31 year old free agents or at least very few um And I think, too, teams are realizing, especially in this kind of new world where the cap just continues to go up and up and up, the earlier you can lock somebody up long-term, the better it is for a number of reasons, right? Obviously, if that player hits and is...
is the player you project the player out to be, because again, a lot of these players are signing out of ELCs or out of bridge contracts, then that deal becomes a bargain, right? We saw it with Tage.
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