Sabres notebook
Miller expresses commitment to team
By Mike Harrington -- News Sports Reporter
Updated: 07/23/08 10:18 AM
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- Ryan Miller discounted talk about returning to Michigan to play for the Detroit Red Wings.
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Goaltender Ryan Miller’s five-year contract extension was officially announced Tuesday in HSBC Arena, with Buffalo Sabres owner B. Thomas Golisano getting plaudits from both sides for committing to the $31.25 million deal.
“He was intimately involved in this whole process in a very good way,” said managing partner Larry Quinn.
“It’s awful nice to have ownership in place that cares about the team and cares about you as a person and I definitely feel that way,” Miller said. “We have a real great future here and that’s why I want to stay. I have a group of guys that I’m committed to. Personally, they’re great friends and great hockey players.”
Quinn lauded Miller’s decision to give up what could have been a lucrative payday in unrestricted free agency next summer.
“He’s been with us a long long time and this was his first opportunity to decide he wanted us,” Quinn said. “Up until that time, it was somewhat of a one-way street. He’s reached an agreement with us that pays very well but I think Ryan left a significant amount of money on the table when you consider free agency.
“I love the buy-in that he’s given the organization. . . . It’s a different chapter in his career and we’re really looking forward to it.”
“I buy into what they’re about,” Miller said. “I have a great relationship with everyone in this organization. It made a lot of sense to stay here. I have great friends and teammates. I trust my coaches, I trust my management and that’s not a situation you can always step into, especially with free agency.”
Miller, a former Hobey Baker winner at Michigan State, is a Michigan native who has dealt with constant chatter that he might be interested in signing a free agent deal with his hometown Detroit Red Wings. But he has always discounted such talk when asked and reiterated that stance Tuesday.
“Everyone talked about Detroit, but to be honest, I was just a big fan of hockey growing up,” Miller said. “I respected the Red Wings, but there was really no point where I was looking to leave. I had another year on my contract and I was excited to play with my teammates and my friends.”
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With Miller in the fold, the Sabres’ main focus now turns to working out a long-term extension with winger Jason Pominville.
“We’ll pick that up this week,” said General Manager Darcy Regier. “I did some work on it [Tuesday] morning and we’ll certainly be in touch with him within a short time.”
Pominville will make $1.375 million this season and will then be a restricted free agent prior to the 2009-10 season. He’s almost certain to at least triple his salary on a new deal.
A finalist for the Lady Byng Trophy, Pominville finished second on the team in scoring last year with 80 points (27 goals, 53 assists) and had a team-best plus-16 rating.
“I certainly respect what Jason has ahead of him,” Regier said. “He has one more year with us, another year of restricted and then he becomes unrestricted. I don’t want in any way to diminish the thought process he has to go through as to whether or not he wants to be here. But I do believe that when Ryan signs, Paul [Gaustad] signs and you’ve got [Thomas] Vanek and [Derek] Roy and others, that group is together.”
Those players formed the core of the Rochester team that won 51 games and finished first overall in the American Hockey League in 2004-05 while the NHL season was canceled due to the lockout. And Regier said keeping that group together will be a key selling point with Pominville.
“It sounds easy. It’s simple but it’s hard,” Regier said. “The dressing room is a big deal. It’s a big deal to walk into the room and say, ‘I like that guy, I like that guy, I like that guy.’ It’s a bigger deal to say you trust them and a bigger deal again to say you’ll go to work for them.”
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Sabres spokesman Michael Gilbert said the team is working through the process of setting its ticket prices and the designation of home games for its variable ticket structure, and an announcement should be made in the next week or two.
The Sabres are also in the process of finalizing their preseason schedule and it should be released soon. The Sept. 22 game in Toronto, which features free tickets given out to Southern Ontario fans in a promotion with Coke Zero, is expected to be the opener.
