Ruff vs The Roster

TBN's Sabres Edge blog and Puck Daddy both have posts about Ruff calling out his core players and Derek Roy making comments on locker clean out day that taking shots like that in the media isn't productive.

Paul Hamilton was on WGR this morning and talked about how he's hearing that the players are tiring of Ruff dressing them down both in private and in the media. With Terry Pegula and Ted Black being strongly behind both Darcy Regier and Lindy Ruff, it will be interesting to see what players get moved off the roster this summer.

Now IF the decision is to keep Regier and Ruff and move some "core players" this summer, here is how I see things going down.

I will not be surprised if they are not back next year:

Derek Roy is entering the final year of a contract that will pay him $5.5M but only count $4M against the cap. That deal would appear to be more attractive to a big budget team that cares more about cap space than actual  salary.

Thomas Vanek has been one of Ruff's whipping boy and the former 40 goal scorer likely will have some quality trade value despite his cap hit of over $7M.

UFAs Jochen Hecht and Brad Boyes are unlikely to be re-signed. Hecht because of the concussion issues he had this season and Boyes because he was entirely ineffective this season.

Guys that I would like to see move, but probably won't:

Drew Stafford was part of the hot line at the end of the season with Tyler Ennis and Marcus Foligno and I think that will buy him another year in the Blue & Gold. That will be a mistake as he's a guy with penchant for picking up his play only in a contract year and he has three more seasons left on his current deal.

Ryan Miller is another piece of the core that didn't have a great year. Like Vanek, he has a big cap hit, but could have some sizable trade value. I'd move Miller this summer, but I doubt it happens.

I wouldn't shed a tear if Robyn Regehr and/or Jordan Leopold gets moved this off season as they are both entering their contract years. The Sabres have a lot of depth on defense and getting some more young blood on the blueline won't be a bad thing.

What the Sabres need to add:

It's like a broken record, but this team needs more character, more size, more grit, and more skill.

What I'd really like to see happen is that the team creates a new core around Tyler Ennis, Tyler Myers, Cody Hodgson, Marcus Foligno, and some new under-25 blood.

Zach Parise is the lone UFA that I would like to see on the Sabres go after. I'd much rather see them focus on the trade market to add some more guys like Cody Hodgson to the mix on the NHL roster.