Terry Pegula's Driving The Front Loader In Buffalo

The best owner in the game is tossing his bags of money around again. Most teams in the NHL will cut cheques or do online banking to pay its players, but Terry Pegula likes to personally deliver hard, cold cash to his players. Today the Buffalo Sabres signed Tyler Myers to a 7 year, $38.5M contract extension that kicks in next season. The cap hit is a respectable $5.5M which is a great deal for the Sabres as Myers is a stud on the back end and is still only 21 years old.

When you look at the how the contract is structured you can tell the Sabres are really enjoying this nice loop hole in the NHL's CBA. Myers contract pays him 12 million in Year 1, and then $6 million, $5 million, $5 million, $4 million, $3.5 million and $3 million. It is really odd to see a contract drop that much for a player that will still be in his prime. I am guessing that the Sabres are thinking the salary cap is going to drop a lot in the next few years.

The Myers contract is an example of another front-loaded contract given out by the Sabres. In July, the Sabres signed Christian Ehrhoff to a 10 year contract that is a great cap hit of $4M a season, but the first season pays Ehrhoff $10M and $8M in his 2nd season. Ville Leino's contract is not as front loaded, but still sees him receive a $9M signing bonus. Many NHL GM's have gone this route of the front-loaded contracts and a few have also been strongly against it. Just ask Brian Burke what he thinks of these deals and you might get punched in the face.