The Clock is Ticking

Regier was not directly responsible for the Sabres inability to afford Drury or Briere. Golisano imposed a tight spending limit and Regier has shown nothing but proactive ability to retain his best players so far under the new regime.

Roy, Pominville, and Stafford are not overpaid. Especially Roy. All of those contracts are relatively cap-friendly and clearly the players are able to live up to any reasonable expectations that accompany those contracts. To judge the contracts based on one season alone (this seaoson in the case of Roy and Stafford) is unjust, all players have bad seasons now and then. Don’t forget how dominant both players were last season, and how dominant Pominville (our captain, no less) is this year. Players of this caliber don’t come cheap, and I’m sure they each could have sought more money with other teams if they so desired.

On the flipside of the coin, you give Regier credit for the Vanek contract. Regier’s hands were absolutely tied on that contract, and to call it a bargain you’d have to compare it to Edmonton’s four first-round picks which we would have received as compensation if they had poached him. I’m certainly glad we kept Vanek, but this is not even close to Regier’s best achievement. Locking up core players long-term and drafting excellently have been his best strengths. To judge him based on Briere and Drury (who, let’s not forget, ended up playing on the 4th line for absurd amounts of money and then was bought out and retired) when his hands were tied financially is farce.

If the fans are stale and the arena is stale, is that necessarily the fault of the team? The players? The coaches? The management? Or did you consider that maybe they are all doing a reasonably good job at dealing with the insane amount of adversity they happen to have been facing this season, while the fans constantly boo the team and sit quietly in discontent and blame them for everything. Perhaps it is the fans and media who should be scrutinized for downplaying logical explanations as meaningless excuses, and for having ridiculous and unrealistic expectations for this team from the start.

To say “every team has to deal with injuries” ignores the extent of injuries this team has seen, which have been far beyond the extents of any other team’s injuries in decades. Sure, the team has other problems that contribute, but to write off the biggest problem as a non-factor is so bat-shit crazy I want to punch someone.

Pegula has a three-year plan to win us a Stanley Cup. Of course I am skeptical of that, but he is the one shelling out the money and doing all he can do to make it happen. If he wants some patience, I can give it to him. If the team needs support from their home crowd in tough times, I’d help give it to them if I lived in Buffalo. Maybe Buffalo fans are too pessimistic when it comes to sports, and there are certainly a multitude of reasons why that is the case. But to suggest that major changes for the sake of major changes are a good way to generate optimism is short-sighted and ignorant.

Firing Ruff or Regeir would be a big mistake. This team just needs some consistent goaltending. Everyone got overly excited with the summer signings. In my opinion, the signings all hinged on Ville Leino becoming a scoring centre. He wasn’t able to do that, which we can hang on Regeir, but that’s hardly a fireable offence since he has built an organization with very strong stable of young talent. The goaltending has been weak and the top players are not performing. It’s time to shake things up with a big trade. Move out players who only perform in contract years (Stafford) and get something that can provide a spark.

It’s also time to let the Drury/Briere whining go. Regeir knew those players were getting overpaid and didn’t bite. If he had, people would be complaining about the fact that he signed an over the hill Drury and an injury prone Briere. If you look at what both players have done since that contract decision, you’d see that it’s unlikely we would have done much better than we have. Drury is finished and Briere has seen his point totals drop each season since leaving Buffalo.

Regeir and Ruff are positives for this team. Don’t fall into the trap of seeing the grass as always greener on the other side.

Regier was in charge when the team failed to retain Danny Briere and Chris Drury, and countered by overpaying Derek Roy and Jason Pominville, and later Drew Stafford.

A lot of people like to say that the contracts given to Pominville, Roy, and Vanek were Regier’s reaction to the departures of Briere and Drury, but the players that were allowed to leave were completely different from those who stayed. Briere and Drury were both in the second half of their careers, and while Briere obviously still had quite a bit of game in him, Drury was almost done. Pominville, Roy, Vanek, and Stafford were all young players who were just reaching their potential, and the contracts of the first three were inflated because of speculation. Regier had to pay for potential, similar to what he did with Ville Leino this past offseason. Regier, knowing that he had to keep future contracts (Pominville, Roy Vanek, Stafford, Gaustad) in mind, realized that he could only keep either Drury or Briere and decided to try and keep Drury. We all know how that worked out, and that’s where the plan went wrong.

The signing of the younger players was not reactionary, but part of a plan that included signing Drury for his valuable leadership. Clearly, the younger “core” was not ready to take on the team by themselves, but it’s not Regier’s fault that Drury turned an equal contract down and Briere then felt spurned by the team. In fact, I believe that it’s to Regier’s credit that the team has not had the bottom drop from under it and receive a top 5 pick in the draft. However, that might be the team’s greatest downfall.

People love to proclaim the Pittsburgh Penguins as a great franchise, but they are only where they are because they sucked for so long. The Penguins drafted in the top 5 for five straight years and in the top 2 for four straight. Two other recently successful teams, the Flyers and Bruins, were among the league worst within the last five years. The Flyers were 11 points away from the next worst team in 06-07. My uncle worked for the Bruins, and I remember him talking about having to write letters apologizing to sponsors and season ticket holders asking them to not abandon the team. That is the same franchise that had over one million people attend the Stanley Cup Parade roughly five years later.

The Sabres haven’t had a chance to get a dynamic top player because they have never been that bad. The last, and only, time the Sabres have picked in the top 10 during Regier’s tenure in Buffalo was in 2003 when they took Thomas Vanek with the fourth pick overall. In essence, the Sabres have been in the bottom third of the league once throughout all of Regier’s tenure here. That becomes especially impressive when talks of Regier being limited financially by profit-minded ownership are considered.

In my opinion, Regier has done a good job here in Buffalo. His drafts and farm system are top notch considering where he’s been drafting every year and the team is stable and poised for moderate success in the future. I can see how the team can appear “stale” though, but that is what we should have seen coming when the core of the team was signed to their contracts: decisions which I find difficult to argue against. I would continue on other subjects but this post is long enough already.