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Ooh! Aah! Sabres on the Warpath!, NY • United States • 35 Years Old • Male


Last year Ales Kotalik scored 43 pts in 79 games. This put him in 63rd place in the league among wingers. His salary for the season was 2.5 million which was tied for 56th for wingers tied with 8 others. Does this mean he was overpaid for his production and is he worth this much or more in a contract extension?

Out of the 62 wingers that scored more points than Kotalik last season 25 of them had salaries below his. With this stat it seems there is a lot of cheaper help out there. Not so fast. Out of these 25, 6 were under contract for the next year at a reasonable rate. Of the 19 who signed new contracts, 2 were less than Kotalik(Mark Recchi, Andrew Brunnette), 2 were the same(Brad Boyes, Zach Parise), and 15 were more.

So the average salary of these new contracts is:
3.72 million

So what is Kotalik worth?

Last season there were 9 wingers within 3 pts and 6 games of Kotalik. Excluding Shanahan their salaries for this year range from 675 thousand to 4.7 million with an average salary of 2.92 million.

Looks to me like we should keep this guy around. It looks like he should receive an offer in the 2.5-3 million range unless he wants to play somewhere else. Who thinks we should keep him, and who thinks we should get rid of him?
Filed Under:   Buffalo   Sabres   Kotalik   airtsabes  
November 6, 2008 5:42 PM ET | Delete
Lets see if he keeps playing the way he is on the first line. If so 2.5-3mil/per sounds about right. If he goes back to his lazy ass ways, time to ship him! He looks great so far.
November 6, 2008 5:49 PM ET | Delete
We should keep him, but may not be able to. I don't see a way we can pay him over $4m a year, and if he's still on pace for 30/30, it's likely going to take more than that.
November 7, 2008 9:41 AM ET | Delete
There is no way we keep him if it will cost 4mil a year. Maybe they should try to extend him now before he thinks too much about being a UFA.
November 7, 2008 10:47 AM ET | Delete
Seeing as his performance took a huge jump in a contract year, I'm giving it a big "NO!" He's shown he doesn't normally perform at this level, and we've already got a bit of a logjam at forward. I think we should use his performance this year and let him get signed by the rangers for 5 years $25 million after the season.
November 7, 2008 1:18 PM ET | Delete
He most certainly does not...he should be rewarded based on paying the price consistently over the long term. I would rather give Gerbe a shot at the position.
November 7, 2008 4:38 PM ET | Delete
I think Gerbe plays center and I am assuming he will probably be taking over Connoly's spot. I think if we can lock Kotalik up at a reasonable rate (~3mil) we can really use a guy with his skill set. (Especially the shootout)
January 20, 2009 12:40 PM ET | Delete
i say goodbye to him, for one we can't pay him 4 mil and he has a bad worth ethic!! plus if gerbe takes over TC spot he would probly fit that injured bill with his size
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