Sabres roster in 05/06

by Steve

The Sabres are hot right now. It almost hearkens back to the glory days. Ya know, 2005/2006, it was fast and loose, no more lock out, no more trap, and plenty of goals. Damn that team was good. They were a team of destiny. No one thought the Sabres would be good, it was the post lock out era and we still had the friggen goat head jerseys.

That team became the poster child for the new NHL. Fast, high scoring, young, and cheap. Some how after only 2 seasons they went from one of the best to one of the worst. The NHL changed back after this quick hick up of a more exciting NHL and went back to boring and low scoring. Salaries jumped exponential and the Sabres again became the poster child for what was wrong with the NHL. They lost all their players, everyone got paid like kings and the players that were left ended up sitting on the side lines as the playoffs started in 07/08.

So here is a breakdown of that roster and their current salaries in the new old NHL.
(at least 48 games played [08/09 salary given])

Max Afinogenov $3,500,000
Chris Drury $7,100,000
Ales Kotalik $2,500,000
Daniel Briere $8,000,000
Tim Connolly $3,500,000
Thomas Vanek $8,000,000
Derek Roy $3,500,000
Brian Campbell $7,140,000
Jochen Hecht $3,000,000
JP Dumont $4,000,000
Teppo Numminen $1,100,000
Jason Pominville $1,375,000
Paul Gaustad $1,700,000
Mike Grier $1,775,000
Henrik Tallinder $2,900,000
Dmitri Kalinen $2,100,000
Jay McKee $4,000,000
Toni Lydman $3,150,000
Rory Fitzpatrick $500,000
Ryan Miller $3,500,000
Martin Biron $3,500,000

total $75,840,000
god damn and I'm sure the rest of the NHL is saying the same thing. If only Darc/quinny had the foreskin err foresight to have signed Briere and Drury before they hit free agency. Actually if only they had signed Briere before his infamous arbitration hearing. Where he was offered 1 year $5 mil.

But hey, on the bright side our only soon to be restricted and non restricted players are Connolly, Sekera and Stafford and its not like they've been playing well and will be getting paid big time this offseason, aw shit. Well, here's hoping we at least win a playoff series or at least get to the playoffs.