Former Buffalo Sabres general manager Darcy Regier was pretty much dead on when he was building his team for the "new NHL" prior to the 2004-05 lockout. He came out of that owner-imposed loss of a full season with a team that was poised to become the most exciting group of players in the NHL.
Regier came out of the Dominik Hasek/Michael Peca "hardest working team in hockey" era and began to build more with speed and skill as well as a focus on puck-movers on the blueline. Coming out to the lockout Chris Drury, Daniel Briere, Thomas Vanek, Max Afinogenov, Tim Connolly, Derek Roy were either fast, skilled or a combination of both-up front while the defense had Brian Campbell, Teppo Numminen, Henrik Tallinder and Dmitri Kalinin who were noted for their skating and/or puck-moving and/or offensive abilities.
Having said that, the 2005-06 Buffalo Sabres also had some tenacity baked into the lineup with the likes of Mike Grier, JP Dumont, Jay McKee and Toni Lydman who could hold their place in the lineup while adding a ton of sandpaper to a team that had a lot of skill and finesse. That team was the surprise of the league that season and were it not for a rash of injuries on defense, they very well could have represented the east in the Stanley Cup Finals instead of the Carolina Hurricanes, who beat Buffalo in seven games in the conference finals and went on to win the Cup.
Showing posts with label darcy regier. Show all posts
Showing posts with label darcy regier. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 4, 2020
Thursday, April 7, 2016
Differing perceptions of .500
Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com
Back in February, 2012, the Buffalo Sabres had pulled themselves up to a record of 27-27-7 and former GM Darcy Regier touted the fact that the team had made it to the .500-mark. There were question marks all around with that mention as .500 normally would mean and even number of wins and losses and with an odd number of games played (in this case, 61) it's impossible to reach an that equilibrium. if you include losses plus overtime shootout losses, you get a record of 27-34, which, of course, is no where near .500 hockey.
But, Regier wasn't looking at it that way. While doing his weekly evening radio program with WGR's Mike Schopp and the Bulldog, he was calculating .500 as he said, the NHL was doing it by taking the most possible points and dividing it by two. In the above instance, with 61 games played there were 122 points on the board. With two points for each win and one point for an overtime loss, the Buffalo Sabres had reached 61 points which represents the .500 mark in points-percentage.
With Schopp taking the straight-up wins/losses and Regier taking the points-percentage position, they would go on for a short while discussing numbers and semantics. What was lost in the conversation at the time was why a team who had a $75M payroll after a 2011 off-season spending spree was around .500 to begin with. At that time the Sabres were behind three teams for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and had not made it out of the first round of the playoffs in four years.
That Regier would pull out the .500 card in that context was a source of consternation amongst most Sabres fans. Regier spent oodles of new owner Terry Pegula's money on free agents only to ice yet another middling team and was trying to justify it with a semantic argument.
Fast forward to 2016.
Back in February, 2012, the Buffalo Sabres had pulled themselves up to a record of 27-27-7 and former GM Darcy Regier touted the fact that the team had made it to the .500-mark. There were question marks all around with that mention as .500 normally would mean and even number of wins and losses and with an odd number of games played (in this case, 61) it's impossible to reach an that equilibrium. if you include losses plus overtime shootout losses, you get a record of 27-34, which, of course, is no where near .500 hockey.
But, Regier wasn't looking at it that way. While doing his weekly evening radio program with WGR's Mike Schopp and the Bulldog, he was calculating .500 as he said, the NHL was doing it by taking the most possible points and dividing it by two. In the above instance, with 61 games played there were 122 points on the board. With two points for each win and one point for an overtime loss, the Buffalo Sabres had reached 61 points which represents the .500 mark in points-percentage.
With Schopp taking the straight-up wins/losses and Regier taking the points-percentage position, they would go on for a short while discussing numbers and semantics. What was lost in the conversation at the time was why a team who had a $75M payroll after a 2011 off-season spending spree was around .500 to begin with. At that time the Sabres were behind three teams for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and had not made it out of the first round of the playoffs in four years.
That Regier would pull out the .500 card in that context was a source of consternation amongst most Sabres fans. Regier spent oodles of new owner Terry Pegula's money on free agents only to ice yet another middling team and was trying to justify it with a semantic argument.
Fast forward to 2016.
Friday, October 30, 2015
The seeds of Buffalo's rebuild were sewn in Pittsburgh.
Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com
When Terry Pegula took over ownership of the Buffalo Sabres in February, 2011, he immediately took off the financial chains that had been binding then GM, Darcy Regier. The team, which had a mandate of "just break even" from the previous ownership group, was now free to pursue any and all free agents available. Which they did.
In the 2011 off-season Regier proceeded to trade for defenseman Christian Ehrhoff and extend him to a long-term contract extension for $40m over 10 seasons. Next on the list was forward Ville Leino who Regier signed to a six-year, $27m contract after their failed effort to land free agent center Brad Richards. Although it was fun seeing the Sabres throw money around like their big city counterparts, these two signings were disastrous as both were bought out using the two compliance buyouts the league offered teams.
As we would find out in the fall of 2011, it wasn't a missing piece or two that had been keeping the Sabres from the playoffs and a possible extended run, it was Regier's team-building concept.
When Terry Pegula took over ownership of the Buffalo Sabres in February, 2011, he immediately took off the financial chains that had been binding then GM, Darcy Regier. The team, which had a mandate of "just break even" from the previous ownership group, was now free to pursue any and all free agents available. Which they did.
In the 2011 off-season Regier proceeded to trade for defenseman Christian Ehrhoff and extend him to a long-term contract extension for $40m over 10 seasons. Next on the list was forward Ville Leino who Regier signed to a six-year, $27m contract after their failed effort to land free agent center Brad Richards. Although it was fun seeing the Sabres throw money around like their big city counterparts, these two signings were disastrous as both were bought out using the two compliance buyouts the league offered teams.
As we would find out in the fall of 2011, it wasn't a missing piece or two that had been keeping the Sabres from the playoffs and a possible extended run, it was Regier's team-building concept.
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Call of the desert wild. Two centers for a Yotes team that's weak down the middle
Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com
Sportsnet's Elliott Friedman via his 30 Thoughts has the third and fourth overall picks of the NHL possibly in play this year. Arizona sits in the third spot while the Toronto Maple Leafs are right behind Coyotes at No. 4.
Friedman quotes Leafs co-GM (should they put "interim" in the title as well?) Kyle Dubas as saying (via the Toronto Star) "it's something we would definitely look at." Dubas then qualifies it by saying, “If someone else was adamant about a player, we’re pretty comfortable with the players in that (4-6) cluster," meaning they're probably not interested in going any lower than No. 6.
As it stands, the Leafs have two first-rounders (No. 24 from Nashville) but no second-round picks and according to Dubas, “We need to be acquiring as many draft pick assets as we can, as many prospects as we can. "If there was something that made sense, we’d be open to listening and having some thorough discussions on the fourth pick.”
Sportsnet's Elliott Friedman via his 30 Thoughts has the third and fourth overall picks of the NHL possibly in play this year. Arizona sits in the third spot while the Toronto Maple Leafs are right behind Coyotes at No. 4.
Friedman quotes Leafs co-GM (should they put "interim" in the title as well?) Kyle Dubas as saying (via the Toronto Star) "it's something we would definitely look at." Dubas then qualifies it by saying, “If someone else was adamant about a player, we’re pretty comfortable with the players in that (4-6) cluster," meaning they're probably not interested in going any lower than No. 6.
As it stands, the Leafs have two first-rounders (No. 24 from Nashville) but no second-round picks and according to Dubas, “We need to be acquiring as many draft pick assets as we can, as many prospects as we can. "If there was something that made sense, we’d be open to listening and having some thorough discussions on the fourth pick.”
Friday, December 5, 2014
I blame Kevin Devine and Darcy Regier as well as...
Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com
Pat LaFontaine, Ted Nolan and Tim Murray.
They're all responsible for the high-character core that's pulling the Buffalo Sabres up from the depths of the NHL. With a 6-1-0 run in the last seven games, the once 3-13-2, last place Sabres have now risen to their present 26th-overall standing.
Back in mid-November the team had showed some signs of life while mired in an awful start. After getting shellacked in Pittsburgh, they played fairly well at St. Louis the next game, yet still scored only one goal. They would play a little better at Minnesota while scoring three times, but still gave up six goals to the Wild, the third game in a row they surrendered six goals.
Avenging an earlier 4-0 embarrassment to the hated Toronto Maple Leafs in their next game was to be expected, but to destroy them 6-2 certainly raised some eyebrows. Surely it was just a shot of adrenaline that would soon pass before they hit the ice in Washington. Coming out on top of a 2-1 score against the Caps wasn't all that far-fetched either, but had it some wondering how a bottom-dweller like Buffalo managed to bottle up "The Great-8" and company.
For a team that most felt would bounce along the bottom of the league all season, something just didn't seem right.
Pat LaFontaine, Ted Nolan and Tim Murray.
They're all responsible for the high-character core that's pulling the Buffalo Sabres up from the depths of the NHL. With a 6-1-0 run in the last seven games, the once 3-13-2, last place Sabres have now risen to their present 26th-overall standing.
Back in mid-November the team had showed some signs of life while mired in an awful start. After getting shellacked in Pittsburgh, they played fairly well at St. Louis the next game, yet still scored only one goal. They would play a little better at Minnesota while scoring three times, but still gave up six goals to the Wild, the third game in a row they surrendered six goals.
Avenging an earlier 4-0 embarrassment to the hated Toronto Maple Leafs in their next game was to be expected, but to destroy them 6-2 certainly raised some eyebrows. Surely it was just a shot of adrenaline that would soon pass before they hit the ice in Washington. Coming out on top of a 2-1 score against the Caps wasn't all that far-fetched either, but had it some wondering how a bottom-dweller like Buffalo managed to bottle up "The Great-8" and company.
For a team that most felt would bounce along the bottom of the league all season, something just didn't seem right.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
An incredible haul for "the core" bolsters Sabres top-rated systerm
Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com
I'm not sure if t's a good thing or a bad thing that si.com put the Buffalo Sabres farm system at the top of it's list. Especially when author Allan Muir said, "it wasn't easy to whittle down the top five clubs. Well, it wasn't easy to narrow down two through five. No. 1 was a no-brainer."
But we'll take it for what it is. SI is not alone in this regard as Hockey's Future has the Sabres up top and most hockey people marvel at the talent Buffalo has been stockpiling.
And Muir rightfully gives some credit to former GM Darcy Regier, mainly for drafting defensemen--Rasmus Ristolainen, Nikita Zadorov, Mark Pysyk and Jake McCabe.
AGM Kevin Devine who was Head Scout throughout those years, and his scouting staff, deserve most of the credit for their work. The highest pick amongst those four is Ristolainen at 8th overall. Zadorov was 16th, Pysyk 23rd and McCabe 44th.
Regier deserves a heap of credit, though, for dismantling his "core" and getting a huge return for them as a whole on the trade market.
Five core players--Paul Gaustad, Derek Roy, Jason Pomiville, Thomas Vanek and Ryan Miller--were traded over the last two years. Add in some ancillary trades involving the initial return and it gets better.
I'm not sure if t's a good thing or a bad thing that si.com put the Buffalo Sabres farm system at the top of it's list. Especially when author Allan Muir said, "it wasn't easy to whittle down the top five clubs. Well, it wasn't easy to narrow down two through five. No. 1 was a no-brainer."
But we'll take it for what it is. SI is not alone in this regard as Hockey's Future has the Sabres up top and most hockey people marvel at the talent Buffalo has been stockpiling.
And Muir rightfully gives some credit to former GM Darcy Regier, mainly for drafting defensemen--Rasmus Ristolainen, Nikita Zadorov, Mark Pysyk and Jake McCabe.
AGM Kevin Devine who was Head Scout throughout those years, and his scouting staff, deserve most of the credit for their work. The highest pick amongst those four is Ristolainen at 8th overall. Zadorov was 16th, Pysyk 23rd and McCabe 44th.
Regier deserves a heap of credit, though, for dismantling his "core" and getting a huge return for them as a whole on the trade market.
Five core players--Paul Gaustad, Derek Roy, Jason Pomiville, Thomas Vanek and Ryan Miller--were traded over the last two years. Add in some ancillary trades involving the initial return and it gets better.
Saturday, July 5, 2014
Darcy Regier and his seeds scattered in the wind
Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com
Former Sabres GM Darcy Regier signing on with the Arizona Coyotes, and like seeds flying in the wind, he and his former core landed all over the place the last few days.
Regier signed a multi year deal to become Senior Vice President and Assistant GM in Arizona. He'll have his hands in every aspect of the hockey operations department.
'Yotes GM Don Maloney has known Regier for a long time and considers him "his closest friend on the management side of the NHL" according to Sarah McClellan of azcentral.com.
Said Maloney of the hire, "He's done it all. If you think about the experience he's had over the last 17 years in Buffalo, everything from great success, Stanley Cup final, bankruptcy, coming out of that. There was a point at the end where there were limited resources. So there's nothing he hasn't seen or done or tried."
Former Sabres GM Darcy Regier signing on with the Arizona Coyotes, and like seeds flying in the wind, he and his former core landed all over the place the last few days.
Regier signed a multi year deal to become Senior Vice President and Assistant GM in Arizona. He'll have his hands in every aspect of the hockey operations department.
'Yotes GM Don Maloney has known Regier for a long time and considers him "his closest friend on the management side of the NHL" according to Sarah McClellan of azcentral.com.
Said Maloney of the hire, "He's done it all. If you think about the experience he's had over the last 17 years in Buffalo, everything from great success, Stanley Cup final, bankruptcy, coming out of that. There was a point at the end where there were limited resources. So there's nothing he hasn't seen or done or tried."
Thursday, May 1, 2014
What Sabres fans can take away from the first round of the 2014 playoffs
The St. Louis Blues were like Sabres
The St. Louis Blues were ousted by the defending Stanley Cup Champs in six games. In addition to former Sabre Ryan Miller, who was a 2014 trade deadline acquisition by St. Louis, three other former Sabres were on that team: Steve Ott, Jordan Leopold and Derek Roy.
There's a possibility that none will there next season. Miller, Ott and Roy are all UFA's while Leopold has one more year remaining on his contract that pays him $2.5M.
Although Leopold probably will be back, at least until the trade deadline, he really didn't do much of anything in his bottom-pairing role. He's an average player with average size and average skating ability that doesn't add a specific quality to the team. Vanilla, just like in Buffalo.
As for the others, Roy was a healthy scratch for two games and invisible for the four he played in. In typical fashion, when the heat was turned up, Roy folded. Which was exactly what he did for the Sabres.
Ott was the player that he is--a third line pest--which was fine until the final game when he got smoked by the highly skilled Hawks. Too many penalties and the injury to David Backes had him on the ice way too often throughout the series. It shows just how little talent Buffalo had when they were using Ott in a top-six role.
Although he could be back, Ott might better serve himself with a third-line role on a better team at a discount to his $3.2M salary or in a larger role on a lesser team for more money.
The St. Louis Blues were ousted by the defending Stanley Cup Champs in six games. In addition to former Sabre Ryan Miller, who was a 2014 trade deadline acquisition by St. Louis, three other former Sabres were on that team: Steve Ott, Jordan Leopold and Derek Roy.
There's a possibility that none will there next season. Miller, Ott and Roy are all UFA's while Leopold has one more year remaining on his contract that pays him $2.5M.
Although Leopold probably will be back, at least until the trade deadline, he really didn't do much of anything in his bottom-pairing role. He's an average player with average size and average skating ability that doesn't add a specific quality to the team. Vanilla, just like in Buffalo.
As for the others, Roy was a healthy scratch for two games and invisible for the four he played in. In typical fashion, when the heat was turned up, Roy folded. Which was exactly what he did for the Sabres.
Ott was the player that he is--a third line pest--which was fine until the final game when he got smoked by the highly skilled Hawks. Too many penalties and the injury to David Backes had him on the ice way too often throughout the series. It shows just how little talent Buffalo had when they were using Ott in a top-six role.
Although he could be back, Ott might better serve himself with a third-line role on a better team at a discount to his $3.2M salary or in a larger role on a lesser team for more money.
Monday, February 3, 2014
If this report is true, thank you Thomas Vanek
According to the Long Island Newsday, NY Islanders GM Garth Snow reportedly made a substantial offer to former Sabre/present Islander Thomas Vanek which is "believed to be in the same range as Vanek's current seven-year, $50 million deal."
The report states that Vanek rejected it.
Which is great news for the Buffalo Sabres.
The report states that Vanek rejected it.
Which is great news for the Buffalo Sabres.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Does Buffalo really want Jim Benning as GM?
Former Sabres Director of Amateur Scouting, Jim Benning, will be interviewing with Pat LaFontaine for the GM opening in Buffalo. He was granted permission by the Boston Bruins, his present employer.
Benning has been with the Bruins since the July 2006 when he was hired as director of player personnel. One year later he was named Assistant GM under Peter Chiarelli.
Before that, Benning was with the Sabres organization for 12 seasons. From 1994-1998 he was a scout for the club. The final eight seasons he was Buffalo's head scout under former GM Darcy Regier.
While Regier was busy dismantling "the hardest working team in hockey," Benning was the voice in Regier's ear concerning the drafting of the players that were to form "the core"--Regier's "vaunted" group of players that folded after the new-NHL went away.
From 1999-2006 Benning was responsible for some gems outside the first round and into the latter rounds like Ryan Miller (#138) in 1999, Derek Roy (#32) and Jason Pominville (#55) in 2001, Dennis Wideman (#241) in 2002 and Andrej Sekera (#72) in 2004.
All of those players, core players, save for Miller are gone. And Miller looks to be on the way out as well.
The Sabres are headed into the next two drafts with a bevy of first and second-rounders (trading Miller and/or Matt Moulson and/or any other player will probably add to that total.)
As head scout for Regier, Benning was responsible for guiding the Sabres draft. Here's a list of players selected in the first two rounds for Buffalo under Benning's stewardship:
Of that group only Stafford, Enroth and Weber remain.
If you were wondering why the Sabres are 5-17-1 right now and in full rebuild mode, take a look at that group.
The core that former GM Darcy Regier and his head amateur scout Jim Benning built is gone after years of vanilla, middling play.
So, just to get this straight, the departed GM Regier, brainchild of "the core," leaves the Sabres with a ton of draft picks for that failed group, and now they're interviewing the guy responsible for the amateur draft legwork to possibly rebuild the team?
I don't get it.
Benning has been with the Bruins since the July 2006 when he was hired as director of player personnel. One year later he was named Assistant GM under Peter Chiarelli.
Before that, Benning was with the Sabres organization for 12 seasons. From 1994-1998 he was a scout for the club. The final eight seasons he was Buffalo's head scout under former GM Darcy Regier.
While Regier was busy dismantling "the hardest working team in hockey," Benning was the voice in Regier's ear concerning the drafting of the players that were to form "the core"--Regier's "vaunted" group of players that folded after the new-NHL went away.
From 1999-2006 Benning was responsible for some gems outside the first round and into the latter rounds like Ryan Miller (#138) in 1999, Derek Roy (#32) and Jason Pominville (#55) in 2001, Dennis Wideman (#241) in 2002 and Andrej Sekera (#72) in 2004.
All of those players, core players, save for Miller are gone. And Miller looks to be on the way out as well.
The Sabres are headed into the next two drafts with a bevy of first and second-rounders (trading Miller and/or Matt Moulson and/or any other player will probably add to that total.)
As head scout for Regier, Benning was responsible for guiding the Sabres draft. Here's a list of players selected in the first two rounds for Buffalo under Benning's stewardship:
- 1999--Barret Heitsen (#20,) Milan Bartovic (#35,) Doug Janik (#55,) Mike Zigomanis (#64)
- 2000--Artem Kryukov (#15,) Girard Dicaire (#48)
- 2001--Jiri Novotny (#22,) Roy, Chris Thorburn (#50,) Pominville
- 2002--Keith Ballard (#11,) Daniel Paille (#20)
- 2003--Thomas Vanek (#5,) Branislav Fabry (#65)
- 2004--Drew Stafford (#13,) Michael Funk (#43)
- 2005--Marek Zagrapan (#13,) Phillip Gogula (#48)
- 2006--Dennis Persson (#24,) Jonas Enroth (#46,) Mike Weber (#57)
Of that group only Stafford, Enroth and Weber remain.
If you were wondering why the Sabres are 5-17-1 right now and in full rebuild mode, take a look at that group.
The core that former GM Darcy Regier and his head amateur scout Jim Benning built is gone after years of vanilla, middling play.
So, just to get this straight, the departed GM Regier, brainchild of "the core," leaves the Sabres with a ton of draft picks for that failed group, and now they're interviewing the guy responsible for the amateur draft legwork to possibly rebuild the team?
I don't get it.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
On Vanek, The Buffalo News and McDavid
Former Buffalo Sabres winger Thomas Vanek hit the ice last night for his new team, the NY Islanders. He did not hit the scoresheet, but was credited with one shot, two hits and 19 minutes of ice-time as the Isles dropped a 3-2 decision to the cross-town rival Rangers.
No reason to fret, Isles fans. Soon enough he'll show that he actually has some wheels, can back-check, won't be found cheating in the defensive zone and will be putting up points in bunches.
That's the way he rolls.
When all things come together, Vanek will marvel fans with his slapshot, tip-ins and deft passing and he will look as if he should be one of the highest paid players in the league. Then...
Usually around this time he'll slip into a slump, probably because a nagging injury that will keep him in and out of the line up short-term.
That's Thomas Vanek and that's why I'm glad that he reportedly rejected a Sabres offer to make him the highest paid player in the league.
Thank you, Thomas. You go follow that money trail somewhere else.
The Buffalo News still hating on Regier.
The above link on the offer to Thomas Vanek from the Sabres came from the Buffalo News' Jon Vogl, a good solid hockey writer.
But.
What seemed to do was subtly take a swipe at the Sabres organization. Not to defend what GM Darcy Regier has done at times, but this was a good move. Clearly Vanek didn't want to stay in Buffalo during a long rebuild. Here's what he wrote:
Of course he would, Jon. What player worth his salt wouldn't? At the end of the season, Vanek will be able to make money and pick his team.
It could be that I took it all wrong with that Vogl line, but there's no mistaking what Bucky Gleason of the News' was getting at when he penned, Good Vanek deal won't cover Regier' mistakes.
The Ol' Buckster busted out the knitting needles once again. The wanna-be GM/Sports writer who has "all the answers" finally, begrudgingly gave Regier some credit. Only it was cloaked in a piece that continues to dredge up mostly some bad moments in Regier's 17-year history as GM of the Sabres.
He writes that he could "do this (rag on Regier) all day." Yes, Buckster, we know that, you've been doing it for years now. And there's a lot that's agreeable about your ragging, pre-2012.
But may I add, Bucky, the "good Vanek trade" was after the:
Sorry Buckster. Get over yourself. This is the direction the team is going and Regier's in charge of the return on his core players. It's all Pegula cares about right now.
Fret not thou, thy champion of the Bucky Gleason Knitting Society, Regier will be gone soon enough. After he's finished dismantling his core while hording two more years of draft picks.
TSN's McKenzie: The rest of the (Vanek/Moulson) story.
There was more to the Vanek/Matt Moulson trade that met the eye.
Accoding to TSN's Bob McKenzie, the Buffalo Sabres will retain a portion of Vanek's salary as part of the deal with the NY Islanders. The amount is somewhere around $1.4m.
In addition, McKenzie reported that the 2014 1st round pick the Sabres are to receive is conditional.
Isles GM Garth Snow protected himself: if the Islanders finish in the bottom-10 in the league, they will have the option "to defer the first round pick to 2015."
There's not a Sabres' fan around that wouldn't mind defering. They want the opportunity to possibly gain another first round pick in the 2015 draft. The Connor McDavid Draft, so to speak.
Looking ahead to the 2015 Draft (yes, already.)
With the Sabres falling to the bottom of the heap this season, unless something weird happens, they will end up with at least a top-five and probably will end up in the top-three pick in the 2014 draft.
Even though it's said to be a thin draft, there is almost always high quality at the very top of the every draft.
But, 2015 has phenom Connor McDavid.
Yeah, yeah, you might say. There's always a lot of hype for a top pick in any sport.
When it comes to hockey, though, they're usually right. When the scouts say this guy will be next in line after Sidney Crosby and Mario Lemieux--a franchise altering center--they're usually on target or really not that far off if they miss.
The National Post covered McDavid as he skated with some of the NHL's best back in August. The overall feeling on McDavid was amazement with the question, "How old is this kid?"
He's 16 yrs. old and he has a good opportunity to make Canada's World Junior Team. If he does make it he will join the likes of joining Wayne Gretzky, Sidney Crosby, Eric Lindros, Jason Spezza and Jay Bouwmeester.
Scouts have been marvelling at McDavid's skills and although his 5'11" 170 frame will need to fill out a bit, Kris Baker of sabresprospects.com thinks it will and projects McDavid at about 6', 190 lbs. "He'll be like MacKinnon," he said. MacKinnon is presently 6' 185 lbs.
Sounds good to me.
With the Sabres in rebuild mode, maybe it's time to start thinking about stockpiling up some 2015 1st-rounders to increase the odds of landing him.
No reason to fret, Isles fans. Soon enough he'll show that he actually has some wheels, can back-check, won't be found cheating in the defensive zone and will be putting up points in bunches.
That's the way he rolls.
When all things come together, Vanek will marvel fans with his slapshot, tip-ins and deft passing and he will look as if he should be one of the highest paid players in the league. Then...
Usually around this time he'll slip into a slump, probably because a nagging injury that will keep him in and out of the line up short-term.
That's Thomas Vanek and that's why I'm glad that he reportedly rejected a Sabres offer to make him the highest paid player in the league.
Thank you, Thomas. You go follow that money trail somewhere else.
The Buffalo News still hating on Regier.
The above link on the offer to Thomas Vanek from the Sabres came from the Buffalo News' Jon Vogl, a good solid hockey writer.
But.
What seemed to do was subtly take a swipe at the Sabres organization. Not to defend what GM Darcy Regier has done at times, but this was a good move. Clearly Vanek didn't want to stay in Buffalo during a long rebuild. Here's what he wrote:
"Thomas Vanek could have been paid handsomely to stay in Buffalo. A source, in fact, says the Sabres were willing to make him the highest-paid player in the NHL.
He'd rather win than take part in a rebuild, which has been his message since last season."
Of course he would, Jon. What player worth his salt wouldn't? At the end of the season, Vanek will be able to make money and pick his team.
It could be that I took it all wrong with that Vogl line, but there's no mistaking what Bucky Gleason of the News' was getting at when he penned, Good Vanek deal won't cover Regier' mistakes.
The Ol' Buckster busted out the knitting needles once again. The wanna-be GM/Sports writer who has "all the answers" finally, begrudgingly gave Regier some credit. Only it was cloaked in a piece that continues to dredge up mostly some bad moments in Regier's 17-year history as GM of the Sabres.
He writes that he could "do this (rag on Regier) all day." Yes, Buckster, we know that, you've been doing it for years now. And there's a lot that's agreeable about your ragging, pre-2012.
But may I add, Bucky, the "good Vanek trade" was after the:
- Great Pominville trade and
- Pretty Damn Good Leopold and Regehr trades and
- the Solid Roy trade and
- the Very, Very Good, Possible Steal, Hodgson trade and
- the Unfathomably Lopsided, Freakin' Awesome Gaustad trade
Sorry Buckster. Get over yourself. This is the direction the team is going and Regier's in charge of the return on his core players. It's all Pegula cares about right now.
Fret not thou, thy champion of the Bucky Gleason Knitting Society, Regier will be gone soon enough. After he's finished dismantling his core while hording two more years of draft picks.
TSN's McKenzie: The rest of the (Vanek/Moulson) story.
There was more to the Vanek/Matt Moulson trade that met the eye.
Accoding to TSN's Bob McKenzie, the Buffalo Sabres will retain a portion of Vanek's salary as part of the deal with the NY Islanders. The amount is somewhere around $1.4m.
In addition, McKenzie reported that the 2014 1st round pick the Sabres are to receive is conditional.
Isles GM Garth Snow protected himself: if the Islanders finish in the bottom-10 in the league, they will have the option "to defer the first round pick to 2015."
There's not a Sabres' fan around that wouldn't mind defering. They want the opportunity to possibly gain another first round pick in the 2015 draft. The Connor McDavid Draft, so to speak.
Looking ahead to the 2015 Draft (yes, already.)
With the Sabres falling to the bottom of the heap this season, unless something weird happens, they will end up with at least a top-five and probably will end up in the top-three pick in the 2014 draft.
Even though it's said to be a thin draft, there is almost always high quality at the very top of the every draft.
But, 2015 has phenom Connor McDavid.
Yeah, yeah, you might say. There's always a lot of hype for a top pick in any sport.
When it comes to hockey, though, they're usually right. When the scouts say this guy will be next in line after Sidney Crosby and Mario Lemieux--a franchise altering center--they're usually on target or really not that far off if they miss.
The National Post covered McDavid as he skated with some of the NHL's best back in August. The overall feeling on McDavid was amazement with the question, "How old is this kid?"
He's 16 yrs. old and he has a good opportunity to make Canada's World Junior Team. If he does make it he will join the likes of joining Wayne Gretzky, Sidney Crosby, Eric Lindros, Jason Spezza and Jay Bouwmeester.
Scouts have been marvelling at McDavid's skills and although his 5'11" 170 frame will need to fill out a bit, Kris Baker of sabresprospects.com thinks it will and projects McDavid at about 6', 190 lbs. "He'll be like MacKinnon," he said. MacKinnon is presently 6' 185 lbs.
Sounds good to me.
With the Sabres in rebuild mode, maybe it's time to start thinking about stockpiling up some 2015 1st-rounders to increase the odds of landing him.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Thomas Vanek traded to the Islanders for two draft picks and some Moulson
Last night Buffalo Sabres GM, Darcy Regier, announced that the team had traded forward Thomas Vanek to the NY Islanders for winger Matt Moulson, a 1st-round pick in 2014 and a 2nd-rounder in 2015.
The Sabres are once again stocking up on top-60 draft picks. This will be the third year in a row that they've had two first rounders and as of right now they're slated to have three second rounders from 2013-2015. Also, as of right now, they will have drafted or are slated to draft 17 players in the first two rounds over a four year period from 2012-2015.
As for Vanek, despite being named co-captain, he looked pretty much disinterested throughout this season, although he did manage four goals and nine points through 13 games.
His disenchantment easily dates back to the trade of his friend and neighbor, Jason Pominville, to Minnesota at the 2013 trade deadline and it's possible it goes back even further to when Pominville was named team captain in 2011.
Vanek was, and always has been very tight-lipped about his future. Very business-like. When he was up for his contract back in 2007, he and his agent said very little and he ended up signing that $50m offer-sheet from Edmonton.
The same situation was rearing it's ugly head now and the Sabres wisely decided to move the talented winger.
There were no guarantees he'd re-sign with the team and rather than let him walk at the end of the season, they moved him to Long Island. Which turns out to be a surprising trade. Albeit only somewhat of a surprise from the NY Islanders perspective.
With the Islanders defense and goaltending highly questionable, it was widely assumed that the Isles, if they were interested in anything from Buffalo, would be looking at goalie Ryan Miller.
Those were two areas of concern that they need to address if they want to take the next step in the playoffs. The other, less well known area according to Jeff Capellini of CBS, NY, was "finding a true sniper to play with John Tavares."
Although Moulson is a proven 30-goal scorer playing mostly with Tavares, "Vanek is a world class player."
Capellini goes on to write that, yes, Moulson wass a fan favorite, but the trade "was the type of game-changing decision that this fan base had demanded for a very long time."
" I believe," he continued, "when the fans get over the fact that a player they had nothing but love and respect for is gone and a player who has flat-out stellar first-line sniper ability is accepted, they’ll be happier and see the bigger picture."
Although Moulson is not a top-line winger, he does have attributes that fit in with what the Sabres organization is trying to build. Said Regier at the presser, "Matt is a goal scorer and plays in the hard areas." And despite the fact that his scoring can mostly be attributed to playing with Tavares, the fact that he's had three 30-goal seasons shows he can finish, which is something that's been lacking in Buffalo for a while now.
Make no mistake, Moulson may not be the answer moving forward. In fact, most think the the impending UFA will make for a great trade deadline chip for another high pick and/or prospect, leaving the team with plenty of wiggle room.
According to Newsday, Long Island, Moulson was looking for a long-term contract and was miffed that nothing had transpired, especially in light of the long-term Josh Bailey and Travis Hamonic contracts.
And, Capellini writes, "Moulson was likely going to look for a hefty payday in the off season, one that would have challenged Tavares’ yearly income. The Islanders were never going to give a largely one-dimensional offensive player that kind of coin."
Snow thinks his team is better than they've been performing and that they "needed to take the next step. [Vanek] is an elite player in this league and he'll help us now and in the future."
That "in the future" part suggests that they're looking at Vanek as more than just a four month rental.
The Austrian-born sniper finally has a #1 center to work with and sparks should fly. If he can put some serious numbers, he just might like it on the island, and re-sign long term with the Islanders instead of heading west to Minnesota, his rumored destination this off season.
That's the gamble they took. But it's a good trade for them, even with giving up the picks. They've been rebuilding for a long time and they're tired of picks.
All-in-all it's a great trade for the Sabres for what they're doing and for the Islanders, it could turn out to be a great one as well.
And Darcy Regier continues to dismantle his core for a handsome sum.
The Sabres are once again stocking up on top-60 draft picks. This will be the third year in a row that they've had two first rounders and as of right now they're slated to have three second rounders from 2013-2015. Also, as of right now, they will have drafted or are slated to draft 17 players in the first two rounds over a four year period from 2012-2015.
As for Vanek, despite being named co-captain, he looked pretty much disinterested throughout this season, although he did manage four goals and nine points through 13 games.
His disenchantment easily dates back to the trade of his friend and neighbor, Jason Pominville, to Minnesota at the 2013 trade deadline and it's possible it goes back even further to when Pominville was named team captain in 2011.
Vanek was, and always has been very tight-lipped about his future. Very business-like. When he was up for his contract back in 2007, he and his agent said very little and he ended up signing that $50m offer-sheet from Edmonton.
The same situation was rearing it's ugly head now and the Sabres wisely decided to move the talented winger.
There were no guarantees he'd re-sign with the team and rather than let him walk at the end of the season, they moved him to Long Island. Which turns out to be a surprising trade. Albeit only somewhat of a surprise from the NY Islanders perspective.
With the Islanders defense and goaltending highly questionable, it was widely assumed that the Isles, if they were interested in anything from Buffalo, would be looking at goalie Ryan Miller.
Those were two areas of concern that they need to address if they want to take the next step in the playoffs. The other, less well known area according to Jeff Capellini of CBS, NY, was "finding a true sniper to play with John Tavares."
Although Moulson is a proven 30-goal scorer playing mostly with Tavares, "Vanek is a world class player."
Capellini goes on to write that, yes, Moulson wass a fan favorite, but the trade "was the type of game-changing decision that this fan base had demanded for a very long time."
" I believe," he continued, "when the fans get over the fact that a player they had nothing but love and respect for is gone and a player who has flat-out stellar first-line sniper ability is accepted, they’ll be happier and see the bigger picture."
Although Moulson is not a top-line winger, he does have attributes that fit in with what the Sabres organization is trying to build. Said Regier at the presser, "Matt is a goal scorer and plays in the hard areas." And despite the fact that his scoring can mostly be attributed to playing with Tavares, the fact that he's had three 30-goal seasons shows he can finish, which is something that's been lacking in Buffalo for a while now.
Make no mistake, Moulson may not be the answer moving forward. In fact, most think the the impending UFA will make for a great trade deadline chip for another high pick and/or prospect, leaving the team with plenty of wiggle room.
According to Newsday, Long Island, Moulson was looking for a long-term contract and was miffed that nothing had transpired, especially in light of the long-term Josh Bailey and Travis Hamonic contracts.
And, Capellini writes, "Moulson was likely going to look for a hefty payday in the off season, one that would have challenged Tavares’ yearly income. The Islanders were never going to give a largely one-dimensional offensive player that kind of coin."
Snow thinks his team is better than they've been performing and that they "needed to take the next step. [Vanek] is an elite player in this league and he'll help us now and in the future."
That "in the future" part suggests that they're looking at Vanek as more than just a four month rental.
The Austrian-born sniper finally has a #1 center to work with and sparks should fly. If he can put some serious numbers, he just might like it on the island, and re-sign long term with the Islanders instead of heading west to Minnesota, his rumored destination this off season.
That's the gamble they took. But it's a good trade for them, even with giving up the picks. They've been rebuilding for a long time and they're tired of picks.
All-in-all it's a great trade for the Sabres for what they're doing and for the Islanders, it could turn out to be a great one as well.
And Darcy Regier continues to dismantle his core for a handsome sum.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Suck it up, Sabres fans, no one said it would be easy
1-7-1
That would be the Buffalo Sabres record after their 3-0 loss at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.
The reason for the loss was painfully obvious--a big discrepancy in talent. The Canucks boast, among other talents, the Sedin twins, Henrik and Daniel, who have combined for 18 points over the first eight games of the season. Their defensemen lead the league in scoring as a group with Jason Garrison's two goals and six assists setting the pace.
As for the Sabres, they are at the bottom of the league in scoring with an average of 1.11 goals per game. Their only bonafide top-line player is Thomas Vanek. He has three goals and two assists.
In last nights game Vanek thought he scored his fourth of the season. He ripped a shot high glove-side over Roberto Luongo and everyone thought that the Sabres had cut the 'Nucks lead to 2-1. But video replay showed that the puck clanged off of the crossbar, hit the far post and trickled on the goal line never crossing it.
No goal.
Buffaluck.
In any event, there's only one team worse than the Sabres right now, the Philadelphia Flyers. At least we knew this team would be bad. The Flyers early troubles really came out of nowhere.
Even knowing that this team is bad can't take away the pain of watching the games. This is not to say that the players on the ice aren't trying. Nor is it saying that the team is poorly coached. But when Steve Ott is playing top-line minutes, it shows that the talent-level isn't close to where it should be.
To emphasize the point, Ott made a nice toe-drag on a break Thursday night, but his shot hit his linemate Cody Hodgson who was being steered into a goalie interference penalty by a 'Nucks d-man. Ott had both sides of the net open, but shot it in the middle where the traffic was.
Yup. It's gonna be a long year.
For years now Sabres fans have been clamoring for a top pick in the draft. They'd been watching the team finish in the middle of the pack year-in, year-out with nothing to show for it. When the Sabres made the playoffs, they didn't have the horses to win a series. When they didn't make it to the dance, they ended up picking in the middle of the first round.
When Sabres GM Darcy Regier told fans during the summer to be prepared to "suffer," he wasn't just whistlin' Dixie.
On WGR's Howard Simon Show Thursday morning, Sabres President Ted Black says he hears the fans and feels their pain, but it's imperative they stick to their plan. "We have to stay the course," he said. "We can't panic. I understand and acknowledge the frustration. Everybody wants to talk about the rebuild and getting a lot of picks and drafting high.
If you end up drafting high, it's wonderful. But the pain of getting there is great."
The "frustration" he's talking about is personified by the incessant booing from fans at the F'N Center. In effect they're booing the GM and an organization that's been asking them for patience for a number of years. And they're fed up. The only thing patience has gotten them over the 16 years is mediocrity with a mere two years of hope thrown in.
The architect of this is Regier, and they want him gone.
But the Sabres organization isn't looking at Regier's full body of work that stretches back to 1997. They're only looking at the years Terry Pegula has owned the team. More specifically, when it comes to Regier, Sabres upper management is looking at how Regier is breaking down his "core" and the return he's getting. They're basically starting with the trade of fourth-line center Paul Gaustad for a first-round pick at the 2012 trade deadline.
On GR, Black talked of a "four-year plan" that started with the 2012 Draft and he emphasized not being distracted by the day-to-day occurrences this year. The focus should be on the big picture "of where we are and where we want to go, not getting too bogged down in wins and losses," he said. "It's gonna be a long season. It could be a long process."
The process he's talking about is breaking down "the core" and re-building through the draft, a process that has already begun.
Within the Sabres plan, that "four year cycle," Black mentioned they will have selected, and are slated to select through the next two drafts, a total of 15 first and second round picks. He points out that it's unprecedented in Sabres history and says that only one franchise has had that many in a four-year period pointing to the Montreal Canadians of the 70's.
"That's what we've committed to doing," he said. "We're trying to get as many picks as we can because that's the best place to get top players, through the draft."
Of course what they do with those picks, and how they develop them, will determine whether or not the "suffering" was worth it. But we'll get to that at a year or two down the road.
Later in the evening, an "embattled" Regier was on WGR's Schopp and the Bulldog.
He also acknowledged the boos that were raining down on the team and the calls for his head but said that the entire organization is on the same page and they can't deviate from the course. "I have no illusions," he said, "about what it will take to win a championship. It won't be easy, it will be very difficult. There will be periods like this that we will have to be prepared to work through."
Regier had warned the fans that there would be "suffering." Although I'm pretty sure no one thought it would be this bad this early. Not even himself.
"I fully expect that, myself included, we're going to go 'Oh my God! This is harder than than I thought. This is more difficult than I thought it was going to be,'" he said.
"I thought that when we started," he continued, "and I probably have as much or more experience than anyone in this area."
But Pegula and his charges will continue to focus on the big picture despite the unrest at the F'N Center. "Any kind of day-to-day evaluation that deviates from that--whether we lose a game, or lose two games, or have a start we've had," said Black, "we have to pull back and think big picture. We can't sell out the short run. We can't panic and say, 'Oh my gosh!' to satisfy this need to race to 8th, 9th, 10th place."
He finished that point, "We need to be fully committed to what we're doing right now."
Which is bottoming out and rebuilding.
Unbeknownst to many who were blinded by the "big city signings" two years ago, Pegula has been committed from the get-go to scouting, drafting and developing home grown talent.
He addressed it at his first presser, "There's no NHL salary cap on scouting budgets and player development budgets, I plan on increasing our...scouting budgets"
And he put his money where his mouth was.
According to Black, "in terms of scouting, it's the department where we've put the most effort into and that's where we need to get the most returns."
The "effort" he was talking about was a financial commitment to increase the number of scouts on this continent as well as have a stronger presence overseas.
"Our scouts currently are at 26 or 28," he said. "That's European, American, Canadian coverage. We're far more covered and get a lot more information than we used to."
This was coming on the heels of the previous regime that had shrunk the scouting staff to a bare minimum in favor of video.
Scouting, drafting and player development are ideals that don't lend themselves to instant gratification. From the re-education of Tyler Myers, to younings like Joel Armia, Zemgus Girgensons and Rasmus Ristolainen there will be growing pains as they find their way in the NHL. And unfortunately for them, they're being thrown into the fire at the F'N Center.
Regier thinks it's unfortunate that their initiation to the Buffalo Sabres is a repeated chorus of boos. "It can be unfortunate on one hand," he said, "but you [must] do what you have to do. And you have to overlook some things that you can't change and don't have the ability to impact or influence."
He continued with that train of thought, maybe subconsciously drawing parallels to what he's going through, specifically the report that he was on the hot seat and could be shown the door soon. He said that the players can actually influence things that are out of their control by focusing on their game.
"It is to do your own work first and support the other people you're working with," he said. "That's all you can do. And to the extent that you're gonna run around chasing things you have no control over, you're just gonna make it worse. At some point in a players career, the sooner they understand that, the better they're going to be because it will allow them to focus on their own work."
I had the pleasure of talking to a scout from the Los Angeles Kings last night who was genuinely concerned that the whole situation was getting to Regier. He liked Regier as a person and respected his body of work.
As a long-time scout for the Kings, he also knew firsthand of the pains of rebuilding.
They were in a very similar situation as the Sabres at one point around 2000. They were middling and eventually dropped to the bottom of the league. It was only after bottoming out--and in the process landing Drew Doughty--did they begin their ascent to the top of the mountain.
And it's a model worth looking at.
It's a long road, Sabres fans. No one said it would be easy, so suck it up.
That would be the Buffalo Sabres record after their 3-0 loss at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.
The reason for the loss was painfully obvious--a big discrepancy in talent. The Canucks boast, among other talents, the Sedin twins, Henrik and Daniel, who have combined for 18 points over the first eight games of the season. Their defensemen lead the league in scoring as a group with Jason Garrison's two goals and six assists setting the pace.
As for the Sabres, they are at the bottom of the league in scoring with an average of 1.11 goals per game. Their only bonafide top-line player is Thomas Vanek. He has three goals and two assists.
In last nights game Vanek thought he scored his fourth of the season. He ripped a shot high glove-side over Roberto Luongo and everyone thought that the Sabres had cut the 'Nucks lead to 2-1. But video replay showed that the puck clanged off of the crossbar, hit the far post and trickled on the goal line never crossing it.
No goal.
Buffaluck.
In any event, there's only one team worse than the Sabres right now, the Philadelphia Flyers. At least we knew this team would be bad. The Flyers early troubles really came out of nowhere.
Even knowing that this team is bad can't take away the pain of watching the games. This is not to say that the players on the ice aren't trying. Nor is it saying that the team is poorly coached. But when Steve Ott is playing top-line minutes, it shows that the talent-level isn't close to where it should be.
To emphasize the point, Ott made a nice toe-drag on a break Thursday night, but his shot hit his linemate Cody Hodgson who was being steered into a goalie interference penalty by a 'Nucks d-man. Ott had both sides of the net open, but shot it in the middle where the traffic was.
Yup. It's gonna be a long year.
For years now Sabres fans have been clamoring for a top pick in the draft. They'd been watching the team finish in the middle of the pack year-in, year-out with nothing to show for it. When the Sabres made the playoffs, they didn't have the horses to win a series. When they didn't make it to the dance, they ended up picking in the middle of the first round.
When Sabres GM Darcy Regier told fans during the summer to be prepared to "suffer," he wasn't just whistlin' Dixie.
On WGR's Howard Simon Show Thursday morning, Sabres President Ted Black says he hears the fans and feels their pain, but it's imperative they stick to their plan. "We have to stay the course," he said. "We can't panic. I understand and acknowledge the frustration. Everybody wants to talk about the rebuild and getting a lot of picks and drafting high.
If you end up drafting high, it's wonderful. But the pain of getting there is great."
The "frustration" he's talking about is personified by the incessant booing from fans at the F'N Center. In effect they're booing the GM and an organization that's been asking them for patience for a number of years. And they're fed up. The only thing patience has gotten them over the 16 years is mediocrity with a mere two years of hope thrown in.
The architect of this is Regier, and they want him gone.
But the Sabres organization isn't looking at Regier's full body of work that stretches back to 1997. They're only looking at the years Terry Pegula has owned the team. More specifically, when it comes to Regier, Sabres upper management is looking at how Regier is breaking down his "core" and the return he's getting. They're basically starting with the trade of fourth-line center Paul Gaustad for a first-round pick at the 2012 trade deadline.
On GR, Black talked of a "four-year plan" that started with the 2012 Draft and he emphasized not being distracted by the day-to-day occurrences this year. The focus should be on the big picture "of where we are and where we want to go, not getting too bogged down in wins and losses," he said. "It's gonna be a long season. It could be a long process."
The process he's talking about is breaking down "the core" and re-building through the draft, a process that has already begun.
Within the Sabres plan, that "four year cycle," Black mentioned they will have selected, and are slated to select through the next two drafts, a total of 15 first and second round picks. He points out that it's unprecedented in Sabres history and says that only one franchise has had that many in a four-year period pointing to the Montreal Canadians of the 70's.
"That's what we've committed to doing," he said. "We're trying to get as many picks as we can because that's the best place to get top players, through the draft."
Of course what they do with those picks, and how they develop them, will determine whether or not the "suffering" was worth it. But we'll get to that at a year or two down the road.
Later in the evening, an "embattled" Regier was on WGR's Schopp and the Bulldog.
He also acknowledged the boos that were raining down on the team and the calls for his head but said that the entire organization is on the same page and they can't deviate from the course. "I have no illusions," he said, "about what it will take to win a championship. It won't be easy, it will be very difficult. There will be periods like this that we will have to be prepared to work through."
Regier had warned the fans that there would be "suffering." Although I'm pretty sure no one thought it would be this bad this early. Not even himself.
"I fully expect that, myself included, we're going to go 'Oh my God! This is harder than than I thought. This is more difficult than I thought it was going to be,'" he said.
"I thought that when we started," he continued, "and I probably have as much or more experience than anyone in this area."
But Pegula and his charges will continue to focus on the big picture despite the unrest at the F'N Center. "Any kind of day-to-day evaluation that deviates from that--whether we lose a game, or lose two games, or have a start we've had," said Black, "we have to pull back and think big picture. We can't sell out the short run. We can't panic and say, 'Oh my gosh!' to satisfy this need to race to 8th, 9th, 10th place."
He finished that point, "We need to be fully committed to what we're doing right now."
Which is bottoming out and rebuilding.
Unbeknownst to many who were blinded by the "big city signings" two years ago, Pegula has been committed from the get-go to scouting, drafting and developing home grown talent.
He addressed it at his first presser, "There's no NHL salary cap on scouting budgets and player development budgets, I plan on increasing our...scouting budgets"
And he put his money where his mouth was.
According to Black, "in terms of scouting, it's the department where we've put the most effort into and that's where we need to get the most returns."
The "effort" he was talking about was a financial commitment to increase the number of scouts on this continent as well as have a stronger presence overseas.
"Our scouts currently are at 26 or 28," he said. "That's European, American, Canadian coverage. We're far more covered and get a lot more information than we used to."
This was coming on the heels of the previous regime that had shrunk the scouting staff to a bare minimum in favor of video.
Scouting, drafting and player development are ideals that don't lend themselves to instant gratification. From the re-education of Tyler Myers, to younings like Joel Armia, Zemgus Girgensons and Rasmus Ristolainen there will be growing pains as they find their way in the NHL. And unfortunately for them, they're being thrown into the fire at the F'N Center.
Regier thinks it's unfortunate that their initiation to the Buffalo Sabres is a repeated chorus of boos. "It can be unfortunate on one hand," he said, "but you [must] do what you have to do. And you have to overlook some things that you can't change and don't have the ability to impact or influence."
He continued with that train of thought, maybe subconsciously drawing parallels to what he's going through, specifically the report that he was on the hot seat and could be shown the door soon. He said that the players can actually influence things that are out of their control by focusing on their game.
"It is to do your own work first and support the other people you're working with," he said. "That's all you can do. And to the extent that you're gonna run around chasing things you have no control over, you're just gonna make it worse. At some point in a players career, the sooner they understand that, the better they're going to be because it will allow them to focus on their own work."
I had the pleasure of talking to a scout from the Los Angeles Kings last night who was genuinely concerned that the whole situation was getting to Regier. He liked Regier as a person and respected his body of work.
As a long-time scout for the Kings, he also knew firsthand of the pains of rebuilding.
They were in a very similar situation as the Sabres at one point around 2000. They were middling and eventually dropped to the bottom of the league. It was only after bottoming out--and in the process landing Drew Doughty--did they begin their ascent to the top of the mountain.
And it's a model worth looking at.
It's a long road, Sabres fans. No one said it would be easy, so suck it up.
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Sabres win first of the season, Regier on the way out? Plus...
Patrick Kaleta gets 10 games and...
Cody Hodgson has a couple of things to say about his time in Vancouver.
First.
The Buffalo Sabres are no longer winless leaving the New Jersey Devils as the only winless team in the NHL.
The Sabres pulled out a 4-3 shootout win on Long Island in a hard-fought game where the Sabres got stronger as the game went on.
Coach Ron Rolston had this to say postgame, "I think a lot of the emotion of the game helped our guys. A lot of the rough stuff going on, the hits in the game were emotional where our guys were really plugged into the game the whole night just because of that.
Guys took it to heart of where we're at."
Where they were at was the bottom of the league. Now with the win, they join Edmonton, Philadelphia and the NY Rangers with one win on the season.
Quick note: None of those teams were expected to go through "suffering" this season.
Marcus Foligno netted his first of the season to tie the score at three with just over two minutes to go in regulation.
After losing the draw in the Islanders zone, defenseman Tyler Myers stopped a clearing attempt at the blueline and fed Foligno in the high slot. Foligno whirled and sent a seeing eye shot that beat Evgeni Nabokov glove-side with Drew Stafford parked in front of the net.
The line of Foligno and Stafford centered by Tyler Ennis clicked last night with Ennis also scoring his first of the season pouncing on a puck lying in the crease behind Nabokov.
All told that line was good for two goals and an assist and were a collective plus-6.
The other goal last night was by Thomas Vanek, his third of the season off a feed from Hodgson on the powerplay. Hodgson collected his fifth point in the last five games.
***
Last season, Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet.ca said that Sabres' goalie Ryan Miller's days might be numbered. Although Miller is still on the team, he was being shopped around at the deadline and around Draft Day. (for a quote and more on Miller, click here)
Now, says Kypreos, Buffalo GM Darcy Regier's days are numbered.
He said last night that Regier "is on the hot seat." Speculation had Regier being replaced around Christmas, but that timetable was moved up due to the dismal start of the team.
Since then, that rumor has been denied by the Buffalo Sabres.
Despite squashing the school-girl giddiness of his WGR partner, Jeremy White, Howard Simon tracked down someone within the Sabres hierarchy and got this text from the Sabres, "there is zero truth to the report."
Methinks the fans inside of the F'N Center will have something to say about this when the Vancouver Canucks visit on Thursday.
***
Vancouver is off to a good start at 4-3-0 under new head coach John Tortorella. They have a couple of holes in the line-up including down the middle where Hodgson once played.
'Nucks GM Mike Gillis traded Hodgson for winger Zack Kassian in 2012.
Hodgson was said to be a high maintenance player with Gillis going as far to say the he spent more time on the center and his problems than the rest of the team combined.
It was also said that Hodgson had an overbearing father and he was said to be unhappy with his playing time in Vancouver.
In an article with Tony Gallagher of the Vancouver Province, Hodgson wanted to "clear the air" on both those issues.
'I’ve been hearing all this stuff about my dad being involved with the team and making calls to the team and I wanted to tell everyone that my dad had nothing to do with it,' he said. 'This isn’t Pee Wee hockey where the dad can call up the coach and interfere with what’s going on. This is professional hockey and that sort of thing doesn’t happen. He never called the team.'
And as for his ice time, he said, 'I never once asked for more ice time when I was in Vancouver, even though the media asked me every day if I thought I should be playing more. I was just happy to be playing in the NHL when I was there at that stage of my career.'
He also said that 'someday [he'll] talk more about his time in Vancouver.'
Gallagher also talks about the struggles the Canucks have had finding a center to replace Hodgson likening the situation to that of "the Flyers enduring a search for a goaltender."
And, Gallagher points out, the trade that had Kassian going to Vancouver for Hodgson? "Kassian," he said, "hasn’t exactly been Milan Lucic since he got here."
***
And finally, Patrick Kaleta got a 10-game Shanaban for his hit to the head on Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson.
A video that Brendan Shanahan uses shows that Kaleta missed the check and connected with Johnson's chin.
Stupid, Patty, stupid. And dangerous.
Kaleta is hated throughout the league, some of it warranted, some exaggerated. (Adam Proteau of The Hockey News thinks the suspension wasn't enough.)
Having served three of his ten games already, Kaleta will be eligible to return in early November and will be over $150,000 lighter in the pocket book.
Cody Hodgson has a couple of things to say about his time in Vancouver.
First.
The Buffalo Sabres are no longer winless leaving the New Jersey Devils as the only winless team in the NHL.
The Sabres pulled out a 4-3 shootout win on Long Island in a hard-fought game where the Sabres got stronger as the game went on.
Coach Ron Rolston had this to say postgame, "I think a lot of the emotion of the game helped our guys. A lot of the rough stuff going on, the hits in the game were emotional where our guys were really plugged into the game the whole night just because of that.
Guys took it to heart of where we're at."
Where they were at was the bottom of the league. Now with the win, they join Edmonton, Philadelphia and the NY Rangers with one win on the season.
Quick note: None of those teams were expected to go through "suffering" this season.
Marcus Foligno netted his first of the season to tie the score at three with just over two minutes to go in regulation.
After losing the draw in the Islanders zone, defenseman Tyler Myers stopped a clearing attempt at the blueline and fed Foligno in the high slot. Foligno whirled and sent a seeing eye shot that beat Evgeni Nabokov glove-side with Drew Stafford parked in front of the net.
The line of Foligno and Stafford centered by Tyler Ennis clicked last night with Ennis also scoring his first of the season pouncing on a puck lying in the crease behind Nabokov.
All told that line was good for two goals and an assist and were a collective plus-6.
The other goal last night was by Thomas Vanek, his third of the season off a feed from Hodgson on the powerplay. Hodgson collected his fifth point in the last five games.
***
Last season, Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet.ca said that Sabres' goalie Ryan Miller's days might be numbered. Although Miller is still on the team, he was being shopped around at the deadline and around Draft Day. (for a quote and more on Miller, click here)
Now, says Kypreos, Buffalo GM Darcy Regier's days are numbered.
He said last night that Regier "is on the hot seat." Speculation had Regier being replaced around Christmas, but that timetable was moved up due to the dismal start of the team.
Since then, that rumor has been denied by the Buffalo Sabres.
Despite squashing the school-girl giddiness of his WGR partner, Jeremy White, Howard Simon tracked down someone within the Sabres hierarchy and got this text from the Sabres, "there is zero truth to the report."
Methinks the fans inside of the F'N Center will have something to say about this when the Vancouver Canucks visit on Thursday.
***
Vancouver is off to a good start at 4-3-0 under new head coach John Tortorella. They have a couple of holes in the line-up including down the middle where Hodgson once played.
'Nucks GM Mike Gillis traded Hodgson for winger Zack Kassian in 2012.
Hodgson was said to be a high maintenance player with Gillis going as far to say the he spent more time on the center and his problems than the rest of the team combined.
It was also said that Hodgson had an overbearing father and he was said to be unhappy with his playing time in Vancouver.
In an article with Tony Gallagher of the Vancouver Province, Hodgson wanted to "clear the air" on both those issues.
'I’ve been hearing all this stuff about my dad being involved with the team and making calls to the team and I wanted to tell everyone that my dad had nothing to do with it,' he said. 'This isn’t Pee Wee hockey where the dad can call up the coach and interfere with what’s going on. This is professional hockey and that sort of thing doesn’t happen. He never called the team.'
And as for his ice time, he said, 'I never once asked for more ice time when I was in Vancouver, even though the media asked me every day if I thought I should be playing more. I was just happy to be playing in the NHL when I was there at that stage of my career.'
He also said that 'someday [he'll] talk more about his time in Vancouver.'
Gallagher also talks about the struggles the Canucks have had finding a center to replace Hodgson likening the situation to that of "the Flyers enduring a search for a goaltender."
And, Gallagher points out, the trade that had Kassian going to Vancouver for Hodgson? "Kassian," he said, "hasn’t exactly been Milan Lucic since he got here."
***
And finally, Patrick Kaleta got a 10-game Shanaban for his hit to the head on Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson.
A video that Brendan Shanahan uses shows that Kaleta missed the check and connected with Johnson's chin.
Stupid, Patty, stupid. And dangerous.
Kaleta is hated throughout the league, some of it warranted, some exaggerated. (Adam Proteau of The Hockey News thinks the suspension wasn't enough.)
Having served three of his ten games already, Kaleta will be eligible to return in early November and will be over $150,000 lighter in the pocket book.
Friday, July 19, 2013
Why is The Hockey News' Adam Proteau so concerned with the Sabres' inactivity so far?
Noted hockey writer Adam Proteau has very little to write about this summer. Just like the hockey world in general.
It's the dog days of summer and we're just getting off a week where fans of the big-four North American sports were relegated to MLB's Home Run Derby and All-Star Game, The ESPY's and the International League All-Star Game.
"It’s nearly August, for hockey gods’ sake." cries out Proteau. "Does anyone want to tell Sabres GM Darcy Regier and his Capitals counterpart George McPhee?"
That was the opener to his piece Sabres, Caps must stop standing pat, and Proteau proceeds to bemoan the lack of activity from two teams he says are "doing their best statue impersonations at a time in each team’s history that cries out for at least a modicum of change."
Sabres fans know that goalie Ryan Miller and winger Thomas Vanek are on the block. We also know that Regier is slow, calculated and meticulous when it come to moving pieces. We know that it takes two to tango and that there are many GM's in the league who are just like Regier when it comes to valuing their players.
Therefore, nothing is happening right now with Miller and Vanek and there's the possibility that the Sabres could enter camp with both on the roster. Which, for Proteau, constitutes a "devotion to the core [which] is more than a little curious. It’s bordering on pathological and getting closer to crossing that border with every day of transactional inactivity."
Miller and Vanek are the last two pieces of Regier's "core." And they happen to be the best two players of that underachieving group that havd not gotten past the first round of the playoffs since 2007.
"Loyalty," writes Proteau, "is admirable to a degree, but eventually that attitude turns into organizational inertia and that’s what puts teams in a competitive death spiral."
Proteau is about two years behind his "loyalty" assessment with Regier and the Sabres.
When owner Terry Pegula took over, he allowed Regier to keep his "core" intact and allowed the GM to add whatever pieces that were necessary.
They failed. And Regier's "core" is in the process of being dismantled.
Since their last playoff appearance in 2011, (Pegula's first few months as owner,) only five players who played 60 or more games for the team that year remain with the big-club: Miller, Vanek, Drew Stafford, Tyler Ennis, and Tyler Myers.
Defenseman Mike Weber, forward Patrick Kaleta and back-up goalie Jhonas Enroth, although not playing in 60 games, also played significant roles on the team.
That's a roster turnover of nearly two-thirds in the last two seasons, and of those eight players that are presently on the roster, only three are over the age of 26: Miller (33,) Vanek (29,) and Stafford (27.)
Despite Proteau's claim that the Sabres shouldn't "make a deal just to make headlines," that seems to be what he's getting at.
Proteau wants, needs, "headlines."
That's his concern.
As for us Sabres fans? We know the drill.
Regier will pull something off that no one expected at a time when no one is watching. That's how he rolls.
No cause for concern at this point.
It's the dog days of summer and we're just getting off a week where fans of the big-four North American sports were relegated to MLB's Home Run Derby and All-Star Game, The ESPY's and the International League All-Star Game.
"It’s nearly August, for hockey gods’ sake." cries out Proteau. "Does anyone want to tell Sabres GM Darcy Regier and his Capitals counterpart George McPhee?"
That was the opener to his piece Sabres, Caps must stop standing pat, and Proteau proceeds to bemoan the lack of activity from two teams he says are "doing their best statue impersonations at a time in each team’s history that cries out for at least a modicum of change."
Sabres fans know that goalie Ryan Miller and winger Thomas Vanek are on the block. We also know that Regier is slow, calculated and meticulous when it come to moving pieces. We know that it takes two to tango and that there are many GM's in the league who are just like Regier when it comes to valuing their players.
Therefore, nothing is happening right now with Miller and Vanek and there's the possibility that the Sabres could enter camp with both on the roster. Which, for Proteau, constitutes a "devotion to the core [which] is more than a little curious. It’s bordering on pathological and getting closer to crossing that border with every day of transactional inactivity."
Miller and Vanek are the last two pieces of Regier's "core." And they happen to be the best two players of that underachieving group that havd not gotten past the first round of the playoffs since 2007.
"Loyalty," writes Proteau, "is admirable to a degree, but eventually that attitude turns into organizational inertia and that’s what puts teams in a competitive death spiral."
Proteau is about two years behind his "loyalty" assessment with Regier and the Sabres.
When owner Terry Pegula took over, he allowed Regier to keep his "core" intact and allowed the GM to add whatever pieces that were necessary.
They failed. And Regier's "core" is in the process of being dismantled.
Since their last playoff appearance in 2011, (Pegula's first few months as owner,) only five players who played 60 or more games for the team that year remain with the big-club: Miller, Vanek, Drew Stafford, Tyler Ennis, and Tyler Myers.
Defenseman Mike Weber, forward Patrick Kaleta and back-up goalie Jhonas Enroth, although not playing in 60 games, also played significant roles on the team.
That's a roster turnover of nearly two-thirds in the last two seasons, and of those eight players that are presently on the roster, only three are over the age of 26: Miller (33,) Vanek (29,) and Stafford (27.)
Despite Proteau's claim that the Sabres shouldn't "make a deal just to make headlines," that seems to be what he's getting at.
Proteau wants, needs, "headlines."
That's his concern.
As for us Sabres fans? We know the drill.
Regier will pull something off that no one expected at a time when no one is watching. That's how he rolls.
No cause for concern at this point.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Lock the Blues' Armstrong and the Sabres' Regier in a room until a deal is done
Rumors perked up over the past week concerning long-time Sabres goalie Ryan Miller.
Miller's name first surfaced on the trade market back in March when Sportsnet's Nick Kypreos (via prohockeytalk) said:
It's been four months since Kypreos said that and in that time, Sabres GM Darcy Regier has been unable to come up with a trade to his liking.
And it's driving Sabres fans nuts.
WGR's Matthew Coller wrote a piece about Miller's trade value being "gonzo" after a number of teams traded for or signed goalies this past week during the draft and the start of free agency.
There had been talks between the St. Louis Blues and the Buffalo Sabres going on, but according to a Pierre LeBrun tweet, the ESPN insider said, "the price was too high."
The "price" was not revealed.
Regier, though, is known for overvaluing his players. Former Toronto Maple Leaves GM Brian Burke, in a candid interview with The Score, called Regier "unreasonable" and "unrealistic" when it came to the value Regier put on his players. And it got to the point where Burke "didn't want to waste an hour" with a GM like that.
WGR's Howard Simon posed the question to TSN's Darren Dreger on his morning show, saying "the long-held belief amongst Sabres fans is that Regier, fairly consistently, over-plays his hand" when it comes to his players' value and asked, "is that what people believe around the league?"
Dreger's response, "Yes. The book on Darcy Regier is that he does overvalue his players and he is also too cautious, too conservative. But, when it comes to overvaluing players, every single manager, every owner does that. They just do. They're just trying to maximize the rate of return."
St. Louis Post Dispatch writer Jeff Gordon agrees and points to Blues GM Doug Armstrong.
While Armstrong "can make the Big Trade when necessary," says Gordon, "he tends to make changes on his terms, when circumstances favor the Blues. If that means the team has to carry three goaltenders for a while or experiment with myriad line combinations in the fall, so be it."
Two stubborn GM's, not unlike most GM's in professional sports.
Regier takes the rap in Sabreland because we've seen this throughout his 16-year tenure, and he always seems to want to be on the winning end of a trade.
He is capable of making a hockey trade, though, and we witnessed that at the 2012 trade deadline when he sent Zack Kassian to Vancouver for Cody Hodgson. Both teams had specific needs and both teams got what they wanted in the deal.
Likewise, St. Louis and Buffalo both have needs.
The Blues are knocking on the door of Stanley Cup contention with goaltending holding them back.
The Sabres are rebuilding.
The basis is there, but both need to put aside their ego.
Perhaps we need to lock them in a room until a deal gets done.
Miller's name first surfaced on the trade market back in March when Sportsnet's Nick Kypreos (via prohockeytalk) said:
"The other interesting name that's starting to float around is, yes, Ryan Miller. Miller's got another year at over $6M next season, but he's not going to get a contract extension and it's time to move on. They'd dearly love to move him at the deadline, but with that shrinking goaltender market out there it might not be the case. They might have to wait until the summer or even into next season.
But Ryan Miller's days are numbered in Buffalo."
It's been four months since Kypreos said that and in that time, Sabres GM Darcy Regier has been unable to come up with a trade to his liking.
And it's driving Sabres fans nuts.
WGR's Matthew Coller wrote a piece about Miller's trade value being "gonzo" after a number of teams traded for or signed goalies this past week during the draft and the start of free agency.
There had been talks between the St. Louis Blues and the Buffalo Sabres going on, but according to a Pierre LeBrun tweet, the ESPN insider said, "the price was too high."
The "price" was not revealed.
Regier, though, is known for overvaluing his players. Former Toronto Maple Leaves GM Brian Burke, in a candid interview with The Score, called Regier "unreasonable" and "unrealistic" when it came to the value Regier put on his players. And it got to the point where Burke "didn't want to waste an hour" with a GM like that.
WGR's Howard Simon posed the question to TSN's Darren Dreger on his morning show, saying "the long-held belief amongst Sabres fans is that Regier, fairly consistently, over-plays his hand" when it comes to his players' value and asked, "is that what people believe around the league?"
Dreger's response, "Yes. The book on Darcy Regier is that he does overvalue his players and he is also too cautious, too conservative. But, when it comes to overvaluing players, every single manager, every owner does that. They just do. They're just trying to maximize the rate of return."
St. Louis Post Dispatch writer Jeff Gordon agrees and points to Blues GM Doug Armstrong.
While Armstrong "can make the Big Trade when necessary," says Gordon, "he tends to make changes on his terms, when circumstances favor the Blues. If that means the team has to carry three goaltenders for a while or experiment with myriad line combinations in the fall, so be it."
Two stubborn GM's, not unlike most GM's in professional sports.
Regier takes the rap in Sabreland because we've seen this throughout his 16-year tenure, and he always seems to want to be on the winning end of a trade.
He is capable of making a hockey trade, though, and we witnessed that at the 2012 trade deadline when he sent Zack Kassian to Vancouver for Cody Hodgson. Both teams had specific needs and both teams got what they wanted in the deal.
Likewise, St. Louis and Buffalo both have needs.
The Blues are knocking on the door of Stanley Cup contention with goaltending holding them back.
The Sabres are rebuilding.
The basis is there, but both need to put aside their ego.
Perhaps we need to lock them in a room until a deal gets done.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Sabres first round in the 2013 Draft brings in two big defensemen
Sabres owner Terry Pegula took over the team in 2011, just a little over two years ago.
One of his mantras during his first presser was, "I want to keep not only statistically good players, but winners, gritty players."
At the 2012 Draft last year, Kevin Devine the Sabres assistant general manager and director of amateur scouting, stated that the team wanted to get "bigger, stronger, faster."
Presently in the midst of a rebuild/team makeover, Buffalo went into the draft with many needs up and down the lineup--including top-line talent and defensive help. They went into Sunday with two first-rounders and two second-rounders and a total of 10 picks.
There was a wealth of offensive talent at the very top, some two-way standouts just below and some highly regarded defensemen said to be amongst the top-10.
The Sabres couldn't crack the top-four of the draft where Devine said there were two drop-off points--one after Nathan MacKinnon and Seth Jones, the other said to be after Jonathan Drouin and Alexsander Barkov. Another drop-off point, Devine implied, was somewhere around the 9th/10th pick.
Most fans had high expectations an impact forward and a solid defenseman, in either combination, to be taken by the Sabres if they stayed at No. 8 and No. 16.
At yesterday's draft one could feel the collective sigh coming out of the F'N Center, home to the Sabres Draft Party, when Buffalo selected defenseman Nikita Zadorov with the 16th pick in the draft.
Not that it was a bad pick by any stretch of the imagination. In fact most thought Zadarov would be gone anywhere from No. 10 to the mid-teens--within that fourth tier of players.
And most Sabres fans would've liked the pick had the team not selected a defenseman with their first 1st-rounder.
At No. 8 the Sabres drafted 6'3" 205 lb. Finnish defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, a player Devine said they "keyed on" heading into the draft.
Ristolainen is a big, strong defenseman who plays with an edge and can move the puck out of his zone. He spent the last two seasons playing against men in the Finnish Elite league and acquitted himself extremely well. He logged well over 20 minutes a game and was used in all situations as an 18 yr. old.
Projections for Ristolainen have him NHL ready. Just how ready is yet to be determined. Devine said post-draft that "he has a good chance of playing in the league next year." Ristolainen is under no Canadian Hockey League constraints and will either be in Buffalo or Rochester to start next season.
As for Zadorov, the Sabres had no intention of grabbing another defenseman with their 16th pick, "we had [Ristolainen and Zadorov] neck and neck," said Devine, mentioning that having Zadorov drop was "our biggest surprise."
"We were looking to move up [from No. 16] but teams were saying no and [Zadorov] kept sliding and sliding," said Devine with almost a Cheshire grin on his face. "So, to get those two big guys [without trading up] was pretty nice."
Nice is not a word when it comes to those two, especially Zadorov.
"Yeah, I like to hit," he beamed at his presser.
"In Russia it's not a physical game," he said. "Here in Canada everybody plays physical and play against you stride for stride. You should be ready every second."
In Zadarov the Sabres got themselves a huge, mobile defenseman with some offense and a mean streak.
So with one stroke of a 2013 first-round draft-brush, seemingly much to the dismay of some fans, the Buffalo Sabres revamped their blueline. Some would say at the cost of passing a possible difference maker up-front.
The Skinny
There are seemingly many things at work under the surface of these two picks.
First and foremost it signals a shift in a team-building philosophy that once largely centered around skilled, puck-movers on the back end.
Gone are the days where we'd see five Brian Campbells to one Jay McKee on the back-end. Throughout the last six, largely forgetable seasons, the Sabres back-end was about as soft as it could be outside of gritty veterans like Craig Rivet and Robyn Regehr.
A more balanced defense with the addition of heft and nasty is a good thing for everyone on the team, especially in goal.
Long-time Sabres goalie Ryan Miller has been run at for years, the Milan Lucic incident being the most recent, with little recourse and it looks as if that should no longer take place.
Picking the best player available has always been how Buffalo works the draft and in their minds they worked it just like that with the Ristolainen and Zadorov picks.
But it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to think that picking these two big defensemen will have some influence upon whether Miller re-signs or moves on.
Miller seems like a very loyal guy, and as he looks upon (up at) these two defensemen, he could see them as templates of the future on defense, and it very well could sway him into sticking around through the rebuild.
Yet another factor seemingly at work in the selection of these two defensemen is the influence of scouts from Europe.
Long-time NHL defenseman and former Sabres player Teppo Numminen has been an assistant coach for the Sabres for the last two seasons. Before that he was a scout with the Finnish National Team.
It's safe to assume that Numminen had access to scouting reports from numerous contacts in Finland concerning Ristolainen, his fellow countryman. And it wouldn't be at all surprising if the he was on hand for a few games himself.
The Sabres also have a full time presence over in Europe in amateur scout Fredrik Andersson.
Andersson was hired to scour Europe for late round goalies-gems like Nashville's Pekke Rinne. Last year the Sabres drafted goalie Linus Ullmark in the 6th round and he's quickly rising up the Sabres prospect ranks.
It wouldn't be too surprising to hear that Andersson had taken in a number of Ristolainen's games and had a full (obviously positive) report for Devine and Co.
And if those underlying factores weren't enough, one might also note that both Ristolainen and Zadorov have fellow countrymen on the team.
Regier and Devine had been telegraphing for weeks that some of the young players from overseas might find comfort in having a fellow countryman to grow with.
Most had assumed that Elias Lindholm would learn the pro ropes from fellow Swede, Jhonas Enroth, but that factor alone, obviously and correctly, wasn't enough to sway Regier and Devine to move up for and draft Lindholm.
They did find a match to their liking though in Ristolainen. He will be entering the North American pro ranks with fellow Finn, and World Junior teammate, Joel Armia (#16 overall, 2011.)
And Zadarov, who is just learning the English language having been in North America for only a year, will have fellow countryman Mikhail Grigorenko (#12, 2012) to buddy up with in the Sabres organization.
Many had been thinking that RW Valeri Nichushkin would be buddying up with Grigorenko to formulate two-thirds of a line. But the Sabres passed on the Russian due to his links to the KHL and his ultimatum that it would be either the Russian pro league or the NHL this year. Nothing else.
Pairing countrymen wasn't the driving force behind the picks, but it does add a layer of comfort for all four of the players involved and may help increase their chances for success in the NHL.
The Review
I was as deadened as anyone when they picked Zadarov at No. 16 in the draft this year, thinking there's now way they'd go defense twice in the first round.
But taking everything into consideration, the Sabres did well in picking both Ristolainen and Zadorov, two big, strong defensemen.
Bo Horvat was available at No. 9 and would have been a real solid pick, but they already have a player of that ilk in Zemgus Girgensons.
The shot at a trade up to No. 5 for Lindholm that was passed on by the Sabres is mildly disturbing, but I actually liked Horvat better than Lindholm so it really matters not to me.
What it comes down to is the Sabres are continuing to change the type of player they want to build with.
Ristolainen and Zadarov are two big boys who seem mature to the point where they look like men and both should be with the Sabres in the very near future. They're a couple of towering d-men who can play the game at high speed and seem intent upon protecting their own end in their own, somewhat different, way.
It's a postitive for Miller (or whomever else ends up in net,) it's a postive for the forwards who can play the game while having their backs covered, and it's a positive for their fellow countrymen (as well as themselves) as all four--Ristolainen, Armia, Zadorov and Grigorenko look to have an impact on the team within the next two seasons.
All-in-all, it was a real good first round for Kevin Devine and the Buffalo Sabres.
One of his mantras during his first presser was, "I want to keep not only statistically good players, but winners, gritty players."
At the 2012 Draft last year, Kevin Devine the Sabres assistant general manager and director of amateur scouting, stated that the team wanted to get "bigger, stronger, faster."
Presently in the midst of a rebuild/team makeover, Buffalo went into the draft with many needs up and down the lineup--including top-line talent and defensive help. They went into Sunday with two first-rounders and two second-rounders and a total of 10 picks.
There was a wealth of offensive talent at the very top, some two-way standouts just below and some highly regarded defensemen said to be amongst the top-10.
The Sabres couldn't crack the top-four of the draft where Devine said there were two drop-off points--one after Nathan MacKinnon and Seth Jones, the other said to be after Jonathan Drouin and Alexsander Barkov. Another drop-off point, Devine implied, was somewhere around the 9th/10th pick.
Most fans had high expectations an impact forward and a solid defenseman, in either combination, to be taken by the Sabres if they stayed at No. 8 and No. 16.
At yesterday's draft one could feel the collective sigh coming out of the F'N Center, home to the Sabres Draft Party, when Buffalo selected defenseman Nikita Zadorov with the 16th pick in the draft.
Not that it was a bad pick by any stretch of the imagination. In fact most thought Zadarov would be gone anywhere from No. 10 to the mid-teens--within that fourth tier of players.
And most Sabres fans would've liked the pick had the team not selected a defenseman with their first 1st-rounder.
At No. 8 the Sabres drafted 6'3" 205 lb. Finnish defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, a player Devine said they "keyed on" heading into the draft.
Ristolainen is a big, strong defenseman who plays with an edge and can move the puck out of his zone. He spent the last two seasons playing against men in the Finnish Elite league and acquitted himself extremely well. He logged well over 20 minutes a game and was used in all situations as an 18 yr. old.
Projections for Ristolainen have him NHL ready. Just how ready is yet to be determined. Devine said post-draft that "he has a good chance of playing in the league next year." Ristolainen is under no Canadian Hockey League constraints and will either be in Buffalo or Rochester to start next season.
As for Zadorov, the Sabres had no intention of grabbing another defenseman with their 16th pick, "we had [Ristolainen and Zadorov] neck and neck," said Devine, mentioning that having Zadorov drop was "our biggest surprise."
"We were looking to move up [from No. 16] but teams were saying no and [Zadorov] kept sliding and sliding," said Devine with almost a Cheshire grin on his face. "So, to get those two big guys [without trading up] was pretty nice."
Nice is not a word when it comes to those two, especially Zadorov.
"Yeah, I like to hit," he beamed at his presser.
"In Russia it's not a physical game," he said. "Here in Canada everybody plays physical and play against you stride for stride. You should be ready every second."
In Zadarov the Sabres got themselves a huge, mobile defenseman with some offense and a mean streak.
So with one stroke of a 2013 first-round draft-brush, seemingly much to the dismay of some fans, the Buffalo Sabres revamped their blueline. Some would say at the cost of passing a possible difference maker up-front.
The Skinny
There are seemingly many things at work under the surface of these two picks.
First and foremost it signals a shift in a team-building philosophy that once largely centered around skilled, puck-movers on the back end.
Gone are the days where we'd see five Brian Campbells to one Jay McKee on the back-end. Throughout the last six, largely forgetable seasons, the Sabres back-end was about as soft as it could be outside of gritty veterans like Craig Rivet and Robyn Regehr.
A more balanced defense with the addition of heft and nasty is a good thing for everyone on the team, especially in goal.
Long-time Sabres goalie Ryan Miller has been run at for years, the Milan Lucic incident being the most recent, with little recourse and it looks as if that should no longer take place.
Picking the best player available has always been how Buffalo works the draft and in their minds they worked it just like that with the Ristolainen and Zadorov picks.
But it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to think that picking these two big defensemen will have some influence upon whether Miller re-signs or moves on.
Miller seems like a very loyal guy, and as he looks upon (up at) these two defensemen, he could see them as templates of the future on defense, and it very well could sway him into sticking around through the rebuild.
Yet another factor seemingly at work in the selection of these two defensemen is the influence of scouts from Europe.
Long-time NHL defenseman and former Sabres player Teppo Numminen has been an assistant coach for the Sabres for the last two seasons. Before that he was a scout with the Finnish National Team.
It's safe to assume that Numminen had access to scouting reports from numerous contacts in Finland concerning Ristolainen, his fellow countryman. And it wouldn't be at all surprising if the he was on hand for a few games himself.
The Sabres also have a full time presence over in Europe in amateur scout Fredrik Andersson.
Andersson was hired to scour Europe for late round goalies-gems like Nashville's Pekke Rinne. Last year the Sabres drafted goalie Linus Ullmark in the 6th round and he's quickly rising up the Sabres prospect ranks.
It wouldn't be too surprising to hear that Andersson had taken in a number of Ristolainen's games and had a full (obviously positive) report for Devine and Co.
And if those underlying factores weren't enough, one might also note that both Ristolainen and Zadorov have fellow countrymen on the team.
Regier and Devine had been telegraphing for weeks that some of the young players from overseas might find comfort in having a fellow countryman to grow with.
Most had assumed that Elias Lindholm would learn the pro ropes from fellow Swede, Jhonas Enroth, but that factor alone, obviously and correctly, wasn't enough to sway Regier and Devine to move up for and draft Lindholm.
They did find a match to their liking though in Ristolainen. He will be entering the North American pro ranks with fellow Finn, and World Junior teammate, Joel Armia (#16 overall, 2011.)
And Zadarov, who is just learning the English language having been in North America for only a year, will have fellow countryman Mikhail Grigorenko (#12, 2012) to buddy up with in the Sabres organization.
Many had been thinking that RW Valeri Nichushkin would be buddying up with Grigorenko to formulate two-thirds of a line. But the Sabres passed on the Russian due to his links to the KHL and his ultimatum that it would be either the Russian pro league or the NHL this year. Nothing else.
Pairing countrymen wasn't the driving force behind the picks, but it does add a layer of comfort for all four of the players involved and may help increase their chances for success in the NHL.
The Review
I was as deadened as anyone when they picked Zadarov at No. 16 in the draft this year, thinking there's now way they'd go defense twice in the first round.
But taking everything into consideration, the Sabres did well in picking both Ristolainen and Zadorov, two big, strong defensemen.
Bo Horvat was available at No. 9 and would have been a real solid pick, but they already have a player of that ilk in Zemgus Girgensons.
The shot at a trade up to No. 5 for Lindholm that was passed on by the Sabres is mildly disturbing, but I actually liked Horvat better than Lindholm so it really matters not to me.
What it comes down to is the Sabres are continuing to change the type of player they want to build with.
Ristolainen and Zadarov are two big boys who seem mature to the point where they look like men and both should be with the Sabres in the very near future. They're a couple of towering d-men who can play the game at high speed and seem intent upon protecting their own end in their own, somewhat different, way.
It's a postitive for Miller (or whomever else ends up in net,) it's a postive for the forwards who can play the game while having their backs covered, and it's a positive for their fellow countrymen (as well as themselves) as all four--Ristolainen, Armia, Zadorov and Grigorenko look to have an impact on the team within the next two seasons.
All-in-all, it was a real good first round for Kevin Devine and the Buffalo Sabres.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Defending Pegula and Regier
Back in the summer of 2011 when new Sabres owner Terry Pegula was making waves by throwing big money at free agents, he was also investing heavily in other, less flashy areas of the organization. "There is no NHL salary cap on scouting budgets or player development budgets, " he said at his first presser declaring that he planned on increasing those budgets.
More scouts in the field and a Sabres Combine for draft prospects were amongst the areas receiving additional finances.
In direct contrast to the immediacy of his free agent splurge, the benefits of an increased focus upon scouting and player development wouldn't be seen for at least a few years down the road.
It looked to be a two-fold approach to their goal of the winning the Stanley Cup: a direct influx of free agent talent for an immediate, short-term run into the playoffs while underneath the surface, a feeder group of prospects would be developing for long-term success.
Unfortunately for the team and it's fans, the short-term plan imploded. The team did not move forward with an augmented core, missed the playoffs two years running and had their worst finish in 10 years last season.
To make matters worse for an increasingly impatient media and fan-base, Regier, the GM who built the team, is now in charge of breaking it down and rebuilding it.
As the team gets ready for the draft, picking at the highest slot since 2003, the entire Pegula regime is under attack. And the source of this disdain is Regier with tertiary disgust being thrown at Pegula for keeping his GM on board.
The Buffalo News' Jerry Sullivan calls it "Trouble in hockey heaven" as he takes Pegula to task in a recent article. Sullivan and his understudy, Bucky Gleason, have never hidden their contempt for Regier and undeniably and unabashedly want to see his ass shown the door.
Sullivan has been railing against Regier, and at times directly attacking Pegula because of Regier, for a couple of years, "It has become a joyless, redundant exercise," he wrote, "to criticize the Sabres and their owner, Terry Pegula. You're whispering into a tornado of denial, helpless in the face of one man's refusal to entertain the wide-held notion that his general manager might be a problem."
The source for Sullivan's latest rant was Pegula's appearance on WGR's Hockey Hotline, a Sabres radio show with direct ties to the organization.
With these five words Pegula sent the media into a frenzy, "What has [Regier] done wrong?"
Pegula was said to be in hiding by his detractors. His team stumbled on the ice this season and he had not made a public appearance to talk about his hockey team since January when he announced Regier's contract extension. Everyone, especially the sports department at the Buffalo News, wanted answers.
In the interview on GR, they were instead treated to a somewhat smug rebuttle of Regier's critics. An obviously irritated owner was sticking by his GM.
What has Regier done wrong? Those in Sabreland have a littany of transgressions from which to choose from when it comes to his decisions over the last 16 years. But they forget that Pegula is looking only at Regier's job performance for the two-plus years he's owned the team. Pegula has stated this time and again.
A mere two days after Pegula made his appeareance, Regier held the Sabres annual draft presser and blew up every GM wannabe's dream scenario by stating simply and honestly, "to move [from 8th in the draft] up into those top [three-five] spots will be extremely difficult if not impossible."
This was yet another transgression. It dashed NHL-13 fantasies of trading goalie Ryan Miller, Mikhail Grigorenko and the 8th pick to Colorado for the 1st overall pick and a chance to draft Nathan MacKinnon.
Unlike other times when there was an outcry for honesty and transparency, the truth of Regier's statement was an unwelcomed bucket of cold water. A large portion of the fan base, it would seem, wanted to go on believing that there actually was a chance to move up and draft a potential superstar.
In an epic rant on WGR, afternoon co-host Chris "Bulldog" Parker blasted that mentality, "That's how bad it is?" he barked at host Mike Schoppsie. "You wanna pretend that something might happen that isn't really going to happen?"
"You wanted them to suspend belief for ten more days that they might be able to draft Nathan MacKinnon. That's what you were hoping for out of them?
HOLY COW!!!"
Although the Sabres short-term plan was rocked like the Milan Lucic steamroll of Ryan Miller, the long-term team-building plan is still in place.
The fruits of this process are still well beyond Pegula's stated three-year Stanley Cup plan. But the foundation is beginning to take shape.
The Sabres' scouting staff has increased significantly including a larger overseas presence like the hiring of Fredrik Andersson who is scouring Europe to unearth latter-rounds goalie gems.
He found Linus Ullmark, last year's sixth round pick, who's rising fast on the Sabres depth chart.
Ullmark was one of many prospects brougth to Buffalo to attend the Sabres Combine, something that was a dream of head amateur scout Kevin Devine under the previous regime. With Pegula's financial resources and commitment to scouting and player development, Devine's dream became a reality. Draft prospects now hit the ice at the F'N Center while the organization gets a first-hand look at what they have to offer.
There has also been a fundamental change in the players that the Sabres want to build with.
At his first presser Pegula stated that he wants "not only statistically good players but winners, gritty players." Anyone who's watched the team since 2007 knows that this team was generally the opposite of that. The previous core could put up numbers, but they were routinely described as "easy to play against."
Two faces of Regier's old core, Derek Roy and Jason Pominville--both consistently amongst the top-three scorers on the team but lacking grit--were traded. The bellweather of the Sabres' philosophical change in players might be the trading of Roy for gritty winger Steve Ott in the 2012 off season.
In Pegula's GR interview this past week, he stressed his affinity for "hard workers" and pointed to Zemgus Girgensons who was drafted with the second of the Sabres two 1st-round picks last year, a pick Regier traded up for.
Johan Larsson, part of the Pominville trade, was also pointed to as a hard worker by Pegula.
Both Girgensons and Larsson look to be a big part of the team's "new core" going forward, a core that follows Pegula's stated desire to land "not only statistically good players, but winners, gritty players."
These are players targeted by Pegula's hockey ops team headed by Regier.
The media and fans have seen Regier's team-building prior to Pegula and it was a failure save for two seasons. Pegula, on the other hand, looks at what his GM has done in the two years since he took over the team. Regier was given his marching orders and has impressed his boss. That's what Pegula is looking at when he asked the question "what has he done wrong?"
In this battle between disenchanted fans/irate media members and Pegula, I choose to side with the owner.
I really don't think Regier's done much wrong since the decision was made to purge his core. To the contrary, I think he's pulled off some impressive trades.
If Regier's role and main focus right now is to acquire the assets that others within the organization deem fit to build with, great. I think he's done an outstanding job thus-far.
And if you choose to look at this defense of Pegula and Regier as coming from someone drunk from drinking the kool-aid. So be it.
I like the long-term building blocks and right now I don't care that Reiger's in charge. I hold no grudges, nor do I take anything personally when it comes to the team and how it's run.
The Sabres are on the right track. A slower track than anyone anticipated or desired, but the right one none the less.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/regier-is-the-right-man-for-sabres-for-now/article14900235/ Oct. 16, 2013
More scouts in the field and a Sabres Combine for draft prospects were amongst the areas receiving additional finances.
In direct contrast to the immediacy of his free agent splurge, the benefits of an increased focus upon scouting and player development wouldn't be seen for at least a few years down the road.
It looked to be a two-fold approach to their goal of the winning the Stanley Cup: a direct influx of free agent talent for an immediate, short-term run into the playoffs while underneath the surface, a feeder group of prospects would be developing for long-term success.
Unfortunately for the team and it's fans, the short-term plan imploded. The team did not move forward with an augmented core, missed the playoffs two years running and had their worst finish in 10 years last season.
To make matters worse for an increasingly impatient media and fan-base, Regier, the GM who built the team, is now in charge of breaking it down and rebuilding it.
As the team gets ready for the draft, picking at the highest slot since 2003, the entire Pegula regime is under attack. And the source of this disdain is Regier with tertiary disgust being thrown at Pegula for keeping his GM on board.
The Buffalo News' Jerry Sullivan calls it "Trouble in hockey heaven" as he takes Pegula to task in a recent article. Sullivan and his understudy, Bucky Gleason, have never hidden their contempt for Regier and undeniably and unabashedly want to see his ass shown the door.
Sullivan has been railing against Regier, and at times directly attacking Pegula because of Regier, for a couple of years, "It has become a joyless, redundant exercise," he wrote, "to criticize the Sabres and their owner, Terry Pegula. You're whispering into a tornado of denial, helpless in the face of one man's refusal to entertain the wide-held notion that his general manager might be a problem."
The source for Sullivan's latest rant was Pegula's appearance on WGR's Hockey Hotline, a Sabres radio show with direct ties to the organization.
With these five words Pegula sent the media into a frenzy, "What has [Regier] done wrong?"
Pegula was said to be in hiding by his detractors. His team stumbled on the ice this season and he had not made a public appearance to talk about his hockey team since January when he announced Regier's contract extension. Everyone, especially the sports department at the Buffalo News, wanted answers.
In the interview on GR, they were instead treated to a somewhat smug rebuttle of Regier's critics. An obviously irritated owner was sticking by his GM.
What has Regier done wrong? Those in Sabreland have a littany of transgressions from which to choose from when it comes to his decisions over the last 16 years. But they forget that Pegula is looking only at Regier's job performance for the two-plus years he's owned the team. Pegula has stated this time and again.
A mere two days after Pegula made his appeareance, Regier held the Sabres annual draft presser and blew up every GM wannabe's dream scenario by stating simply and honestly, "to move [from 8th in the draft] up into those top [three-five] spots will be extremely difficult if not impossible."
This was yet another transgression. It dashed NHL-13 fantasies of trading goalie Ryan Miller, Mikhail Grigorenko and the 8th pick to Colorado for the 1st overall pick and a chance to draft Nathan MacKinnon.
Unlike other times when there was an outcry for honesty and transparency, the truth of Regier's statement was an unwelcomed bucket of cold water. A large portion of the fan base, it would seem, wanted to go on believing that there actually was a chance to move up and draft a potential superstar.
In an epic rant on WGR, afternoon co-host Chris "Bulldog" Parker blasted that mentality, "That's how bad it is?" he barked at host Mike Schoppsie. "You wanna pretend that something might happen that isn't really going to happen?"
"You wanted them to suspend belief for ten more days that they might be able to draft Nathan MacKinnon. That's what you were hoping for out of them?
HOLY COW!!!"
Although the Sabres short-term plan was rocked like the Milan Lucic steamroll of Ryan Miller, the long-term team-building plan is still in place.
The fruits of this process are still well beyond Pegula's stated three-year Stanley Cup plan. But the foundation is beginning to take shape.
The Sabres' scouting staff has increased significantly including a larger overseas presence like the hiring of Fredrik Andersson who is scouring Europe to unearth latter-rounds goalie gems.
He found Linus Ullmark, last year's sixth round pick, who's rising fast on the Sabres depth chart.
Ullmark was one of many prospects brougth to Buffalo to attend the Sabres Combine, something that was a dream of head amateur scout Kevin Devine under the previous regime. With Pegula's financial resources and commitment to scouting and player development, Devine's dream became a reality. Draft prospects now hit the ice at the F'N Center while the organization gets a first-hand look at what they have to offer.
There has also been a fundamental change in the players that the Sabres want to build with.
At his first presser Pegula stated that he wants "not only statistically good players but winners, gritty players." Anyone who's watched the team since 2007 knows that this team was generally the opposite of that. The previous core could put up numbers, but they were routinely described as "easy to play against."
Two faces of Regier's old core, Derek Roy and Jason Pominville--both consistently amongst the top-three scorers on the team but lacking grit--were traded. The bellweather of the Sabres' philosophical change in players might be the trading of Roy for gritty winger Steve Ott in the 2012 off season.
In Pegula's GR interview this past week, he stressed his affinity for "hard workers" and pointed to Zemgus Girgensons who was drafted with the second of the Sabres two 1st-round picks last year, a pick Regier traded up for.
Johan Larsson, part of the Pominville trade, was also pointed to as a hard worker by Pegula.
Both Girgensons and Larsson look to be a big part of the team's "new core" going forward, a core that follows Pegula's stated desire to land "not only statistically good players, but winners, gritty players."
These are players targeted by Pegula's hockey ops team headed by Regier.
The media and fans have seen Regier's team-building prior to Pegula and it was a failure save for two seasons. Pegula, on the other hand, looks at what his GM has done in the two years since he took over the team. Regier was given his marching orders and has impressed his boss. That's what Pegula is looking at when he asked the question "what has he done wrong?"
In this battle between disenchanted fans/irate media members and Pegula, I choose to side with the owner.
I really don't think Regier's done much wrong since the decision was made to purge his core. To the contrary, I think he's pulled off some impressive trades.
If Regier's role and main focus right now is to acquire the assets that others within the organization deem fit to build with, great. I think he's done an outstanding job thus-far.
And if you choose to look at this defense of Pegula and Regier as coming from someone drunk from drinking the kool-aid. So be it.
I like the long-term building blocks and right now I don't care that Reiger's in charge. I hold no grudges, nor do I take anything personally when it comes to the team and how it's run.
The Sabres are on the right track. A slower track than anyone anticipated or desired, but the right one none the less.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/regier-is-the-right-man-for-sabres-for-now/article14900235/ Oct. 16, 2013
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
"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.
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.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Darcy Regier on team-building plus John Scott and other tidbits
It took a while.
Sabres GM Darcy Regier is finally of the mind-set that his group of soft-but-skilled, New-NHL core players can't compete in today's NHL.
Better late than never, I guess.
"I think what we're seeing in the game is it's shifting again to a bigger man's game," said Regier on WGR's Hockey Hotline. "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. There's a shift in that general direction over what we saw coming out of the [2004-05] lockout."
"We're headed to a very hard-working team and a very hard-working-game being," Regier continued in the interview, "I still think you need a blend. First of all you need competitors, but you need a blend of skill and you need a blend of work and the signature for us is to revolve around work."
It took Regier years to realize that the New-NHL came and went. He's been talking about "tougher to play against" for years and now he would like everyone to believe that the man who dismantled the hardest working team in hockey will rebuild a bigger version of that.
I'll believe it when I see it.
This off-season will give Sabres fans a clue as to whether Regier's really intent upon building like that or if it's lip service.
Looking back at past drafts, one must wonder if he's even capable of finding a player with those assets. When faced with a choice of skill or compete, he nearly always goes with the skill aspect:
Mike Weber (#57, 2006,) Corey Tropp (#89, 2007,) Brayden McNabb (#66, 2009,) and Zemgus Girgensons (#14, 2012) are the only ones in the top 100 picks during Regier's tenure that fit the compete aspect of the equation.
Does Regier have it within him to find those types of players?
He may recognize the need for bringing in players with size, grit and compete, but based upon his history, it's doubtful.
************
John Scott was re-signed for another year this week.
The knock on Scott has been that, outside of his enforcer/protector role, he was not worthy of playing a regular shift.
The big guy did his job as enforcer. Regier summed it up rather nicely on GR saying, "[Scott] created a safe work environment" for the team.
What surprised the organization, though, was his ability to log fourth-line minutes without being a detriment to the team.
Coach Ron Rolston used Scott up to 10 minutes for a few games later in the year based upon the solid work the he did when he played a regular shift.
That's a good thing for Buffalo.
Scott is also good in the locker room and his goofy antics have lightened things up a bit.
************
With the NY Rangers down 3-0 in their playoff series with Boston, head coach John Tortorella benched C Brad Richards for tonight's do or die game at the Garden.
Richards is having a horrendous playoff with only one goal. His play has been so bad in the eyes of "Torts" that before his scratch he was relegated to fourth-line duties.
Two years ago, Richards was the premier free agent on the market and Buffalo was amongst the teams ready to pony up the cash and term to sign the former Conn Smythe winner.
The Olean-Times Herald's Bill Hoppe briefly recounts that time.
"Not surprisingly," Hoppe writes, "the Sabres, then at the height of their spending frenzy, wanted Richards. The brain trust planned to go up and meet with Richards as free agency opened."
Regier and Co. decided they didn't have a chance and turned their attention to FA Ville Leino, whom they signed to a 6 yr./$27M contract.
Safe to say that neither of those two signings have worked out all that well and Hoppe surmises that both may end up being an amnesty buyout this off-season.
It should be noted, though, that Leino may not be an amnesty buyout candidate due to his injury which caused him to miss the final 13 games of this shortened season.
Perhaps that's part of the reason why the Rags scratched Richards rather then use him on the fourth line. He's healthy and eligible for the buyout, which would remove his $6.66M cap-hit from their books.
If he is bought out, some team will be able to land a quality center at a very reasonable price.
His precipitous drop from franchise-like #1 center to healthy scratch is curious to say the least. Teams will need to decide if his skill-level is in serious decline or if there were mitigating factors like Torts and/or possibly the addition of Rick Nash.
Something's not right.
I've often felt Richards was overrated and that he was able to ride that playoff MVP for far too long and for far too much money.
But, he's not that bad, is he?
He's still a top-line center and if he's available this summer, the Sabres might want to take a look at signing him.
I don't care what this year's playoff numbers say.
*************
Sabres back-up goaltender Jhonas Enroth is full of confidence after leading Team Sweden to the gold medal in the IIHF World Championship.
"I'm ready [to start]," he told Jon Vogl of the Buffalo News. "I've been growing a lot," he continued. "I learned a lot from this season. And last season too. My goal is to be a starter one year in the NHL."
That one full year is, presumably, to prove that he can be a full-time #1 goalie.
There seems to be a pretty good chance that he'll have that opportunity this coming season.
Ryan Miller is in the last year of his contract. The team has Enroth on the big club already, and their trade-deadline acquisition, Matt Hackett, is out of waiver options.
*************
Speaking of Miller, if he is on the move, no one knows where he might end up.
He has a limited no-trade clause where he can list eight teams that he doesn't want to be traded to. Unfortunately for the Sabres, teams like the NY Islanders, Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers, all of whom could use a #1 goalie, are probably on his no-trade list.
There are other teams who would make for an interesting trade partner, most notably the Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning and possibly the Washington Capitals or the Colorado Avalanche.
This could be a defining moment for the Sabres organization.
I have no idea what Regier is thinking or what the return would be, but one would guess that he'd love to be able to use Miller as a spring-board to a top-3 pick this season--read a trade with Colorado, Florida or Tampa Bay.
It's highly doubtful that the 'Lanche, who have the #1 overall pick in the draft, would trade that for Miller or even some package from the Sabres.
************
Colorado has a new head coach and VP of hockey operations in Hall of Fame goaltender Patrick Roy.
Roy is a legend in Colorado after leading the team to two Stanley Cups. He was brought in by another Avalanche legend, Joe Sakic, who was also a key cog on those Cup winning teams.
Colorado and Buffalo should not be dismissed as trade partners this summer.
Miller is in a similar situation in Buffalo that Roy was in Montreal before the latter demanded a trade. The Sabres #1 goalie has been derided in Buffalo for sub-par performances over the last couple of seasons and he even gave a booing home crowd a mock-wave.
Roy was humiliated in Montreal by his coach in an 11-1 loss. After finally getting pulled by Mario Trembley he said it would be his last game in Montreal.
He was traded to Colorado, won the Cup that same season and the rest is history.
When Miller was asked about similarities between his game and Roy's he said, "It doesn't mean I want to leave, but if that's what you're getting at, the guy won two Stanley Cups. So, hey, why not?"
The guy he's talking about is now in Colorado with questionable goaltending in Semion Varlamov and one would think that he'd rather have a true #1 goalie manning the crease.
Another connection with Roy and the Sabres is that concerning Mikhail Grigorenko.
Grigorenko played under Roy for the Quebec Remparts and had a stellar season before joining the Sabres after the lockout ended.
I'd asked Kris Baker of sabresprospects.com about the possibility of Roy being highly interested in Grigorenko but Bakes said that the Russian center wasn't a good fit in the locker room after his return to junior.
Even so, it wouldn't be all that surprising if the Sabres an Avalanche hooked up. What the pieces would be is the interesting part.
Sabres GM Darcy Regier is finally of the mind-set that his group of soft-but-skilled, New-NHL core players can't compete in today's NHL.
Better late than never, I guess.
"I think what we're seeing in the game is it's shifting again to a bigger man's game," said Regier on WGR's Hockey Hotline. "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. There's a shift in that general direction over what we saw coming out of the [2004-05] lockout."
"We're headed to a very hard-working team and a very hard-working-game being," Regier continued in the interview, "I still think you need a blend. First of all you need competitors, but you need a blend of skill and you need a blend of work and the signature for us is to revolve around work."
It took Regier years to realize that the New-NHL came and went. He's been talking about "tougher to play against" for years and now he would like everyone to believe that the man who dismantled the hardest working team in hockey will rebuild a bigger version of that.
I'll believe it when I see it.
This off-season will give Sabres fans a clue as to whether Regier's really intent upon building like that or if it's lip service.
Looking back at past drafts, one must wonder if he's even capable of finding a player with those assets. When faced with a choice of skill or compete, he nearly always goes with the skill aspect:
- 1998--D Dmitri Kalinin (#18 overall) over D Robyn Regehr (#19)
- Slick forwards Artem Kryukov (#15, 2000,) Jiri Novotny (#22, 2001,) Marek Zagrapan (#13, 2005,) Joel Armia (#16, 2011) and Mikhail Grigorenko (#12, 2012.)
- Puck-moving defensemen--Henrik Tallinder (#48, 1998,) Keith Ballard (#11, 2002,) Dennis Persson, (#24, 2006) TJ Brennan (#31, 2007,) Tyler Myers (#12, 2008) and Mark Pysyk (#23, 2010) plus Brian Campbell, Doug Janik, Andrej Sekera, Drew Schiestel, and Jerome Gauthier-Leduc.
- Small, but skilled forwards--Derek Roy, Jason Pominville, Tyler Ennis and Daniel Catenacci
- Big forwards and defensemen who play/played small--Ales Kotalik, Drew Stafford, Michael Funk, Mike Card, Luke Adam and Zack Kassian.
Mike Weber (#57, 2006,) Corey Tropp (#89, 2007,) Brayden McNabb (#66, 2009,) and Zemgus Girgensons (#14, 2012) are the only ones in the top 100 picks during Regier's tenure that fit the compete aspect of the equation.
Does Regier have it within him to find those types of players?
He may recognize the need for bringing in players with size, grit and compete, but based upon his history, it's doubtful.
************
John Scott was re-signed for another year this week.
The knock on Scott has been that, outside of his enforcer/protector role, he was not worthy of playing a regular shift.
The big guy did his job as enforcer. Regier summed it up rather nicely on GR saying, "[Scott] created a safe work environment" for the team.
What surprised the organization, though, was his ability to log fourth-line minutes without being a detriment to the team.
Coach Ron Rolston used Scott up to 10 minutes for a few games later in the year based upon the solid work the he did when he played a regular shift.
That's a good thing for Buffalo.
Scott is also good in the locker room and his goofy antics have lightened things up a bit.
************
With the NY Rangers down 3-0 in their playoff series with Boston, head coach John Tortorella benched C Brad Richards for tonight's do or die game at the Garden.
Richards is having a horrendous playoff with only one goal. His play has been so bad in the eyes of "Torts" that before his scratch he was relegated to fourth-line duties.
Two years ago, Richards was the premier free agent on the market and Buffalo was amongst the teams ready to pony up the cash and term to sign the former Conn Smythe winner.
The Olean-Times Herald's Bill Hoppe briefly recounts that time.
"Not surprisingly," Hoppe writes, "the Sabres, then at the height of their spending frenzy, wanted Richards. The brain trust planned to go up and meet with Richards as free agency opened."
Regier and Co. decided they didn't have a chance and turned their attention to FA Ville Leino, whom they signed to a 6 yr./$27M contract.
Safe to say that neither of those two signings have worked out all that well and Hoppe surmises that both may end up being an amnesty buyout this off-season.
It should be noted, though, that Leino may not be an amnesty buyout candidate due to his injury which caused him to miss the final 13 games of this shortened season.
Perhaps that's part of the reason why the Rags scratched Richards rather then use him on the fourth line. He's healthy and eligible for the buyout, which would remove his $6.66M cap-hit from their books.
If he is bought out, some team will be able to land a quality center at a very reasonable price.
His precipitous drop from franchise-like #1 center to healthy scratch is curious to say the least. Teams will need to decide if his skill-level is in serious decline or if there were mitigating factors like Torts and/or possibly the addition of Rick Nash.
Something's not right.
I've often felt Richards was overrated and that he was able to ride that playoff MVP for far too long and for far too much money.
But, he's not that bad, is he?
He's still a top-line center and if he's available this summer, the Sabres might want to take a look at signing him.
I don't care what this year's playoff numbers say.
*************
Sabres back-up goaltender Jhonas Enroth is full of confidence after leading Team Sweden to the gold medal in the IIHF World Championship.
"I'm ready [to start]," he told Jon Vogl of the Buffalo News. "I've been growing a lot," he continued. "I learned a lot from this season. And last season too. My goal is to be a starter one year in the NHL."
That one full year is, presumably, to prove that he can be a full-time #1 goalie.
There seems to be a pretty good chance that he'll have that opportunity this coming season.
Ryan Miller is in the last year of his contract. The team has Enroth on the big club already, and their trade-deadline acquisition, Matt Hackett, is out of waiver options.
*************
Speaking of Miller, if he is on the move, no one knows where he might end up.
He has a limited no-trade clause where he can list eight teams that he doesn't want to be traded to. Unfortunately for the Sabres, teams like the NY Islanders, Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers, all of whom could use a #1 goalie, are probably on his no-trade list.
There are other teams who would make for an interesting trade partner, most notably the Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning and possibly the Washington Capitals or the Colorado Avalanche.
This could be a defining moment for the Sabres organization.
I have no idea what Regier is thinking or what the return would be, but one would guess that he'd love to be able to use Miller as a spring-board to a top-3 pick this season--read a trade with Colorado, Florida or Tampa Bay.
It's highly doubtful that the 'Lanche, who have the #1 overall pick in the draft, would trade that for Miller or even some package from the Sabres.
************
Colorado has a new head coach and VP of hockey operations in Hall of Fame goaltender Patrick Roy.
Roy is a legend in Colorado after leading the team to two Stanley Cups. He was brought in by another Avalanche legend, Joe Sakic, who was also a key cog on those Cup winning teams.
Colorado and Buffalo should not be dismissed as trade partners this summer.
Miller is in a similar situation in Buffalo that Roy was in Montreal before the latter demanded a trade. The Sabres #1 goalie has been derided in Buffalo for sub-par performances over the last couple of seasons and he even gave a booing home crowd a mock-wave.
Roy was humiliated in Montreal by his coach in an 11-1 loss. After finally getting pulled by Mario Trembley he said it would be his last game in Montreal.
He was traded to Colorado, won the Cup that same season and the rest is history.
When Miller was asked about similarities between his game and Roy's he said, "It doesn't mean I want to leave, but if that's what you're getting at, the guy won two Stanley Cups. So, hey, why not?"
The guy he's talking about is now in Colorado with questionable goaltending in Semion Varlamov and one would think that he'd rather have a true #1 goalie manning the crease.
Another connection with Roy and the Sabres is that concerning Mikhail Grigorenko.
Grigorenko played under Roy for the Quebec Remparts and had a stellar season before joining the Sabres after the lockout ended.
I'd asked Kris Baker of sabresprospects.com about the possibility of Roy being highly interested in Grigorenko but Bakes said that the Russian center wasn't a good fit in the locker room after his return to junior.
Even so, it wouldn't be all that surprising if the Sabres an Avalanche hooked up. What the pieces would be is the interesting part.
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