What About This For the Sabres Centers?

Brad Richards
Derek Roy
Chris Drury
Paul Gaustad


The cool thing about Terry Pegula being owner and taking the chains off GM Darcy Regier is that Sabres can take a "dream scenario" and make it a reality.

Such was the case of recent acquisition, Robyn Regehr.

The 11-year veteran d-man, at first, nixed the trade to Buffalo through his no-movement clause. Then accepted. The disclaimer here is that it was almost a last resort. All things being equal, he'd probably have taken San Jose' over Buffalo more for logistical reasons than anything else.

The last resort for the big blueliner still could have been nixing the entire deal ala Danny Heatley to Edmonton.

But, the deal happened. And, according to Darren Dreger who was on WGR this morning, the National Hockey League has a different view of the Buffalo Sabres. There's a different feel to the organization.

Mine That Brad

Which brings us to the big fish in the unrestricted free agent market, Brad Richards.

Brad Richards has the world
at his feet as the unrestricted
free agent approaches July 1.

First, it would've been unheard of for the Sabres to even be in the mix on their end as recent as last season. We know the drill under Tom Golisano. And, conversely, we know how badly new owner Pegula wants to win the Cup.

From a free agent's perspective, Buffalo has gone from a "snowballs chance in hell" to serious consideration as evidenced by Richards' agent, Pat Morris, saying this on WGR's Howard Simon Show this morning, "If they call, we'll certainly receive them with open arms and listen."

The team has an upper-echelon goalie in Ryan Miller, a very strong back-end anchored by Tyler Myers and Regehr and a diverse, highly-skilled group of wingers, something echoed by Morris, "[The Sabres have] Excellent goaltending, an emerging defense and lots of forward that are skilled and lots of forwards that provide some grit and tenacity

Usually big-ticket free agents of Richards' ilk--highly skilled, veteran and approaching the down-side of their careers--will be looking for the whole shebang. They want the money they deserve, the term to keep them secure and a shot at the Stanely Cup.

In terms of Buffalo, the first two will be no object for an aggressive owner like Pegula. From Richard's perspective, the big hurdle would be how close the Sabres are to Cup-contenders.

With Dallas' ownership in flux, Richards has mentioned that a stable ownership would be a strong consideration, which the Sabres, obviously, have. The hockey market is also important and Morris had this to say when summing things up for his client, "He would like to first and foremost, when you've won a Stanley Cup, you want to win another one. He'd like to win again and have an opportunity to be with a team that has younger players coming in to fill and in a market where hockey matters every game, game in and game out with full buildings. A hockey market with an opportunity to win are the top 2 criteria."  

Convincing Richards to come to Buffalo would be a major coup for the Buffalo Sabres, and although they're not considered favorites in the race, unlike previous years they're in it.

In 2009 Mine That Bird won the Kentucky Derby. He was the second longest-odds in Kentucky Derby history and his margin of victory was the longest in over 60 years.

In the Sabres eyes, Mine That Brad, can win the roses in Buffalo, but a word to the wise from Morris, "Tell Darcy to be aggressive."

 The Prodigal Son

Prodigal son, Chris Drury?

Yeah, we all know what went down. And now Drury's dream comes to an end in NY with the Rangers. A buy out.

The Rangers will be making a strong pitch for Richards' services come July 1. They have some major restricted free agents to sign and there won't be enough cap-space to keep Drury and sign everyone they want.

Drury had his best statistical years in Buffalo and was a very strong leader on the team before he went for his childhood (and very lucrative) dream.

Former Sabres Chris Drury was
loved in Buffalo...until July 1, 2007.
Would the Sabres welcome him back?

Drury's departure was anything but amicable and with the way Pegula has been mending the wounds of the previous regime, it wouldn't be too far-fetched to see him mend this one.

I think Drury is a Pegula-type of player who fits his edict of "not only statistically good players, but winners, gritty players." Those are the types of players that he wants to have on the team.

And I think that Drury is a perfect example of that type of player.

All-in-all, the Sabres are in the mix for unrestricted free-agents this season and Terry Pegula is not fooling around. He wants it and he wants it now.

He has no problem with aggressiveness.

Hopefully GM Darcy Regier continues this off-season with "out-of-character" moves and bolsters the center position with an upset victory.