"What has [Darcy] done wrong?"

Those five words from owner Terry Pegula on WGR's Hockey Hotline sent the Buffalo sports world into a tizzy. (for a good overview visit Jon Vogl of the Buffalo News)

If there's anything that will get the Buffalo sports community riled up it's questioning their view of a certain person, player or topic.

To answer Pegula's question, "what has he done wrong?" his GM, Darcy Regier, has done a lot of things "wrong."

Just like with any other GM you can nitpick a certain draft pick, trade or free agent signing to justify a point of view. You can say Regier is too loyal to his players, or that he overpaid a player or is too slow to change or that his coaching choices--keeping Lindy Ruff too long or not having an extensive coaching search--are suspect. And it could all be true.

All of that has been addressed here at one time or another.

But the issue with Regier, one single thread that has run through nearly all of those blogs, is his team-building philosophy. He has had a specific type of player in mind to fit his vision of how to build a winner ever since he was hired. Unforutnately for the organization and Sabres fans, over the past 16 years that type of player--and group of players--had success for just two seasons, the two seasons following the 2004-05 lockout.

He built, a Ferrari for a short-lived "no-touch" league and it was hailed as "the model for the new NHL."

Once the new-NHL was laid to rest (basically in 2007-08) his team missed the playoffs four times and was bounced in the first round twice as a Ferrari can't handle tough terrain.

Heres' a quick summary of his moves that lead to a team that couldn't compete in a tougher, post new-NHL era..

At the 1998 draft, with the 18th pick the Sabres selected puck-moving defenseman, Dmitri Kalinin. One pick later, the Colorado Avalanche selected gritty, stay at home defenseman Robyn Regehr, a player said to be coveted by Regier for years before landing him in a trade in 2011. Puck-movers would be a staple of Regier's blueline with very little love given to the tough, gritty, stay-at-home types.

Three years later, the beloved "hardest working team in hockey" was dismantled by Regier as he began his rebuild. Fan-favorite, Michael "Captain Crunch" Peca was traded to the NY Islanders, for a soft, highly-skilled, Tim Connolly.

In 2003 Regier acquired gritty center Chris Drury in a three-team trade, but had to give up 2002 first round draft pick, Keith Ballard.

Regier was said to be against trading his prized puck-moving defenseman, but team president Larry Quinn stepped in and the deal was consumated.

This pattern of gravitating towards the skill side of the hockey equation would continue as the Sabres faced a cap-dilema in the 2006 off-season.

Regier was forced to make a choice to remain under the cap. Either gritty winger JP Dumont or skilled winger Ales Kotalik would be re-signed. Regier chose keep the latter, remaining true to his team-building philosophy.

Later, after the team was manhandled by Ottawa in the 2007 playoffs, Drury--with bruised face from blocking a puck with it --would say that the team around him didn't know how to win in the playoffs.

The next six years would have the Sabres overladen with soft-but-skilled players who couldn't win when the going got tough. Hank Tallinder, Kalinin and Kotalik, Derek Roy and Jason Pominville, Ballard, Clarke MacArthur, Andrej Sekera, Drew Stafford, all of whom (save for Ballard) had long careers with the Sabres. All of them in Regier's mold.

Throughout three regimes prior to Pegula taking over, Regier's team-building model always favored skill (or percieved skill) over grit and tenacity. Outside of the "new-NHL" the Buffalo Sabres were considered easy to play against.

Yet Regier continued with this philosophy. His first transaction under Pegula was trade-deadline acquisition, forward Brad Boyes.

With the financial constraints gone Regier traded for Boyes a player who had a stellar season in the first post-lockout years then faded as the NHL got tougher. He turned out to be a perimeter player that could not get the job done when the going got tough. Just like the team Regier built.

In defense of the GM, he can get the job done more often than not. The returns for his "core" players in trades over the last two seasons have been exceptional, and well-documented, leaving Ken Sawyer to proclaim Regier as a "hockey genius."

Pegula has said time and again that he's not concerned with anything prior to his taking over as owner of the team. He likes Regier and looks soley at what his GM has done since he took over. Which is pretty impressive.

Pegula has given Regier his marching orders. In the GR interview, the owner alluded to what he likes--players who will not be outworked--and pointed to Zemgus Girgensons as that type of player. He mentioned Johan Larsson as well and also mentioned that head coach Ron Rolston in that same light. And we should also mention that tough, gritty Steve Ott came from Dallas in the Derek Roy trade.

These are pieces Regier has brought on board under the ownership of Pegula. And one would believe that there will be more of that in the weeks to come.

There's no doubt that Regier can land the pieces for whatever direction the team wants to go, which makes him pretty valuable. This draft will be a good indication of how they want to move forward and what types of players Regier will be using to rebuild with.

Last month Regier was on WGR talking about them. In summary, it seems he's finally figured out that it will take size and hard work to compete in the NHL today, "I do generally think the game is getting bigger and you [need] to have people who are willing to compete and you [need] to have size in your lineup." he said. "There's a shift in that general direction over what we saw coming out of the [2004-05] lockout."

By jove, I do believe he's got it.

Like it or not, the Buffalo sports community will have Darcy Regier as the Sabres GM, for now, and this draft will show just how much he'll be adhering to Pegula's mandate for "hard working" players.

There will be choices between a more skilled prospect as opposed to a more gritty, two-way prospect throughout the draft.

Which way will he go?

After 16 years, Regier may have finally learned what it takes to build a winner in the NHL. And it isn't his former core and core-like players.