Sabres Shake Up Summer Doldrums By Re-Signing Sekera And Ellis
Just as things started to slow down around One Seymour H. Knox III Plaza, Darcy Regier today put the finishing touches on new deals for both defenseman Andrej Sekera and forward Matt Ellis.
By signing Andrej Sekera to a multi-year extension, both the club and player will be able to avoid the unpleasant ordeal known as salary arbitration. As I wrote in a previous post, the point of contention was term length and that I felt the team would announce a new deal before the Slovak’s July 25 arbitration hearing. While he put up 29 points and flat out dominated at times, Sekera’s season was temepered by stretches of maddening ineffectiveness. It’ll be interesting to see what he’ll be making, which is what will make or break this deal for a lot of fans.
By signing Matt Ellis to his own multi-year extension, everyone wins. The Sabres get a model fourth-liner and great depth forward, the Amerks get veteran know-how and work ethic necessary for the development of prospects, and Ellis gets some job security from the organization that he’s had the most success with. On the flipside, the Sabres seem to have plenty of success themselves with Ellis in the line-up.
Matt Ellis re-signs. Sabres' record with him on the roster in the last 3 years: 76-39-16 (.641 pts). Without: 53-49-13 (.517 pts). #Sabres—
Ian Ott (@NickelCityIan) July 19, 2011
Black & Blue & Gold will have details on cap hit and term length as they become available, but if you’re impatient you can navigate over to the CapGeek pages for Andrej Sekera and Matt Ellis and pound the F5 key on your keyboard repeatedly.
UPDATE: Bill Hoppe has the term length details for Ellis’ extension.
#Sabres Matt Ellis has s two-year deal: a two-way contract this year and a one-way in 12/13. #Buffalo—
Bill Hoppe (@BillHoppeSabres) July 19, 2011
UPDATE 2: Shawn Stepner from WBKW with all the details on Sekera’s new deal.
#Buffalo #Sabres Defenseman Andrej Sekera contract details: 4-year deal worth $11 million ($4,750,000 signing bonus by July 2012)—
Shawn Stepner (@StepnerWKBW) July 19, 2011
Can’t argue with the D looking very solid. I’m hoping his cap hit isn’t too far over $2M, seeing as he’s looking to be a 3rd pairing defender.