Darcy Regier told me today the Sabres are negotiating with Teppo Numminen to bring the veteran back and it appears the parties are getting close to a deal that I imagine would be for one year and at quite a bit less than last year's $2.6 million. Hmmmm. Here's what I see:
Pro-Teppo: He's a great guy, a class act. He'll be great in the locker room and on the bench in crunch times -- he was badly missed last year. He'll be a great influence on the young defensemen like Nathan Paetsch, Mike Weber and Andrej Sekera. Still has puck skills.
Anti-Teppo: He's 40 years old and coming off heart surgery!!!! How will he hold up to physical play? He played surprisingly well in the season finale at Boston but that was his one appearance. Can he really be expected to play even 10-15 minutes a game for an entire year? Will he need nights off on some of those 17 back-to-backs the Sabres have?
So are you thumbs-up or thumbs-down to getting Teppo back in the fold?
---Mike Harrington
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