The Darcy Regier era: Worst trades

As a follow-up to the generally well received post about his greatest trades, I’ve decided to do a commentary about Darcy’s less than stellar moments in the trade market.  Overall, it appears that Darcy has done pretty well when attempting to improve the Sabres via trade.  It does seem, however, that Darcy’s magic has worn off a little in recent years.  I will attempt to, in the coming weeks, look at Darcy’s best and worst free agent signings, and rank his draft classes so we here at Die by the Blade can evaluate the tenure of Darcy Regier.  In general, when evaluating a trade, I’ve tried to balance public opinion at the time with the outcome of the deal.  For example, even though he amounted to virtually nothing as a Sabre, I did not include the Dominic Moore deal b/c it seemed a no brainer that Moore would help the club, and overall, based on what he gave up, it was worth the gamble.

The Debatable

Brian Campbell and a 7th to San Jose for Steve Bernier and a 1st round draft pick

After Bernier’s first game, I thought it was certain this trade would pay dividends for years.  Then, he disappeared and then was traded away.  Here’s to hoping the draft pick for him and the first for Campbell amount to something.

The Hasek (Kozlov and a first) and Lafontaine (a 2nd and a 5th) trades have extenuating circumstances and depending on how you feel, could be seen in many ways.  Hasek forced his way out of town and benefited from the Peca debacle in that the Sabres wanted to avoid another ugly hold-out.  That having been said, if you trade arguably the best goaltender of all-time, it should have a lasting positive impact on your roster and this trade has not. 

The Lafontaine deal was tough because I, for one, did not want to see Lafontaine carted off the ice, possibly to never recover, while wearing a Sabres uniform.  That having been said, if I hadn’t included it here, I’m certain someone would have brought it up.  At the time of the trade, sentiment seemed to be 50/50 about whether they should have done it.

The bad

3rd round pick for Andy Delmore

Alright.  When this trade was made, I was mildly encouraged b/c he had been proficient in the past on the power play.  Then he arrived in town and seemed to be clueless when he was on the ice.

Curtis Brown traded to San Jose for Jeff Jillson

A solid teamate and generally a solid two-way guy for a defenseman who never panned out.  Brown didn’t amount to a whole lot in San Jose, but had some utility, if used the right way in Buffalo

The ugly

5th round pick for Bob Corkum

I was very excited for the trade deadline this season.  I had TSNs ticker up on my desktop at work and saw the Sabres logo pop up and got excited.  Then I read that the team traded for Bob Corkum.  Then I wondered if there was another Bob Corkum that I didn’t know about.  Then I cried a little.  Then I waited for the team to make an impact move.  Then I cried a little more.  Given the fact that this was the same year Peca and Hasek were traded, the fans needed to be thrown a bone here.  This is probably the most disappointed I’ve been at the trade deadline in the Regier era.

Stu Barnes for Mike Ryan and a 2nd round pick

A guy who played the game the right way was sent out of town for a prospect who never panned out and a mid round draft pick.  Not Darcy’s best work.  Any time you trade one of your best players, you should get at least one player who can immediately join your roster, or you should get a wealth of prospects and draft picks.  Darcy got neither.

So, I’ll ask the same questions I did for the greatest trade post:

Did I leave anything trades off of this list?

Do you disagree with one of these trades being on the “bad Darcy” list?

Did I make a mistake with any of these? (I checked these out the best I can, but it’s possible I didn’t get everything right)

Did any of the draft picks (traded by or to the Sabres) make any of these trades unbelievable?