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Rein Bread

July 16, 2018, 11:18 PM ET [16 Comments]
GARTH'S CORNER
NHL news by Garth • RSSArchiveCONTACT

@samsonreinhart comin’ at ya

A post shared by Buffalo Sabres (@buffalosabres) on





Buffalo Sabres GM Jason Botterill has had himself one productive, busy month of July.
Botterill’s Sabres finished in 31st place overall in 2017-18. In April, he promised sweeping changes to his team’s roster and he wasn’t fooling. The demolition man in Botterill has been hacking, slashing, trading and signing his restricted free agents.

In June, Botterill opted to not decline tendering an offer to his RFA goalaie Robin Lehner. Just ahead of the NHL Draft in Dallas, Botterill traded a third-round draft choice for future 30 goal scorer Conor Sheary. On July 1, the Ryan O’Reilly blockbuster trade happened only because Botterill drove a heard bargain. His ask was five premium pieces for O’Reilly or no deal. St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong went to the place where no other NHL GM was willing to go on O’Reilly. Armstrong up his ante to comply to Botterill’s five premium piece asking price.

To date, Botterill has welcomed six new players into the fold in Conor Sheary, Tage Thompson, Patrik Berglund, Vlad Sobotka, Carter Hutton, and Matt Hunwick. Botterill shook hands and parted ways with six players in Ryan O’Reilly, Robin Lehner, Benoit Pouliot, Jordan Nolan, Viktor Antipin and Jacob Josefson.

To know Botterill is to know he puts his money where his mouth is. Botterill won three Stanley Cups (2009, 2016, 2017) while he was the assistant general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins. I like to think of Botterill’s template as being like that of a pizza maker. Botterill is a passionate proponent of drafting and developing the core players who comprise the crust of his teams. He uses trades as the sauce. He adds free agents as toppings to complete the perfect “pizza”.

In the past few days, Botterill has signed several restricted free agent to one-year “show me” contract.

On Monday, forward C.J. Smith was signed. Smith was the 2017-18 Rochester Amerks Rookie of the Year.



On Sunday afternoon, Botterill inked power forward Justin Bailey, a Buffalo native. Bailey has scored 53 goals in the past three seasons for the Amerks. He is expected to make the opening night roster this season.




On Saturday, Botterill did business with RFA wingers Danny O’Regan and Nick Baptiste who will be auditioning for opening night roster spots.





On Thursday, Botterill signed forward Sean Malone to a one year contract.






Last week, Botterill and head coach Phil Houlsey hired Steve Smith to be an assistant coach.




Remember when Botterill won the NHL Draft Lottery on April 28? Botterill selected superstar defenseman Rasmus Dahlin with his first overall pick at the 2018 NHL Draft in late June.




Last week, the Sabres signed the slick Swede to his entry level contract.






Botterill also signed free agent s in goalie Scott Wedgewood and defenseman Brandon Hickey.





Botterill also locked up veteran goalie Carter Hutton to a spankin’ new three-year contract. Hutton will split the crease with Sabres top propsect goalie Linus Ullmark.





So, what’s the next item on Botterill’s summer agenda?

Family vacation?

No. Botterill is in the midst of negotiating the new contract of restricted free agent forward Samson Reinhart.

The second overall pick in 2014, Reinhart has scored 65 goals and added 75 assists for 140 points in 249 career games during his three-year tenure in Buffalo.

In 2017-18, Reinhart achieved career highs in goals scored (25) and points (50).

Reinhart has been a consistent scorer at even strength and on the power play.

Reinhart scored a career 12 power play goals last season and has 29 PPG in his career. Reinhart has 48 PP points in his career.

Reinhart got a huge boost on Monday when two restricted free agents signed new deals which are now contract comps for Reinhart and his agent to use to get him the best deal possible.

The Anaheim Ducks signed forward Adam Henrique to a 5-year, $29,250,000 contract that carries a $5.85 AAV.

The Calgary Flames inked forward Elias Lindholm to a 6-year, $29.1 million contract that carries a $4.85M AAV.

Reinhart was drafted as a center, however, has been used exclusively as a winger during his three season in Buffalo. In 2017-18, Phil Housley played a hunch and placed Reinhart at the net front forward position and it paid dividends for Reinhart.

On July 15, the Columbus Blue Jackets locked up RFA forward Oliver Bjorkstrand to a new 3-year, $7.5 million contract that carries a $2.5M AAV.

On July 11, the Detroit Red Wings signed RFA forward Anthony Mantha to a 2-year, $6.6 million contract that carries a $3.3M AAV.

On July 5, Red Wings GM Kenny Holland signed RFA forward Andreas Athanasiou to a 2-year, $6 million contract that carries a $3M AAV.

Also on July 5, the Columbus Blue Jackets signed forward Boone Jenner to a 4-year, $15,000,000 contract extension that carries a $3,750,000 million contract.


On July 2, Calgary Flames GM Brad Treliving made an honest man of James Neal who earlier this month signed a new 5-year, $28,750,000 contract extension that carries a $5,750,000 salary cap hit.

Also on on July 2, the San Jose Sharks signed RFA forward Tomas Hertl to a new 4-year, $22,500,000 contract that carries a $5.625M AAV.

With the recent signings of Henrique, Lindholm, Bjorkstrand, Mantha, Athaniasiou, Jenner, and Neal, one wonders what is fair market value for Reinhart?


We now know that the salary cap floor is set at


What will the final Draft of Botterill’s new contract look like?

Suffice to say that Reinhart will not be signing an 8-year,
$76 million contract that carries a $9.5M AAV nor a 7-year, $49 million ($7M AAV) nor contract like his former Buffalo linemate Evander Kane signed in San Jose.

Reinhart's camp will be looking for term and market comparable AAV.

At what cost Reinhart?

Since the middle of the 2017-18 season, I have had the sneaking suspicion that Botterill isn't entirely sold on Reinhart as a long term, core player in Buffalo. Last summer, Botterill told Reinhart to "show me". Reinhart responded by struggling mightily to score goals from October until Christmas time. Then, Reinhart scored 37 points (18G,19A) in his final 38 games of the season. His 20 goals in 43 games in 2018 tied him for 12th-most in the NHL from January 1 until the end of the season.

Did the pressure of playing at a high rate during a contract season get to Reinhart? Was he upset that his friend Evander Kane was being shopped?

There is no question about Reinhart’s ability to score goals and create offense. Botterill and Phil Houlsey want to see Reinhart eliminate the deep valleys in his points production. Will the 208-19 season be his breakout campaign where he achieves the 70-80 point plateau for the first time?

Reinhart will have to find a new center man to set him up. Ryan O’Reilly was good for Reinhart. The two forwards complimented one another well. His play improved dramatically when he was paired with center Ryan O'Reilly from New Year's Day 2018 Winter Classic game versus the NY Rangers. Kyle Okposo added balance and creativity to the Reinhart-O’Reilly duo. Will Reinhart find immediate chemistry with Casey Mittelstadt on the second line?

Although he scored 25 goals and 25 assist last season, Botterill and Housley were looking for more consistency from the young forward. Reinhart's struggles were well documented in October, November and December.

In 2017-18, Jack Eichel (21 years old) and Samson Reinhart (22 years old) became the first pair of 25-goal scorers under 23 years of age for the Sabres since Alexander Mogilny and Donald Audette each topped 25 as 22-year-olds in the 1991-92 season.

I see Reinhart signing a five year deal in the $25 million ($5M AAV) range, a smidge less than the five year, $26.25 million ($5.25M AAV) contract that J.T. Miller signed with the Tampa Lightning in June.
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