Darcy tried to get Cullen and Koivu? Wow, if could have gotten even one of them, I would be much more positive about our roster.

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Sophomore Bitches! Class of 2014!
R.I.P. Molly B. 5/28/96-5/23/11

Cullen or Koivu would've been the 3rd line center (or one of the top 3) and then Niedermayer never would've been signed. We're still better at center, but without the extra offense for the PP that those other players would have brought.

I could've seen Koivu being in the top six and Roy playing 3rd line center. He's more defensively reliable than Connolly or Koivu, he's getting MUCH better at his faceoffs (a few days last season, he was in the zone and won 100% of his draws), and he can play a gritty role when surrounded by the right players. Plus, Roy and Grier have known chemistry among them.

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mechaphil

A. I was talking about how we don't have that offensive superstar on our team
B. FA's can improve a team, too. If you sign an FA it could be for the reason of trying to gain a cup.

ALL OF THOSE TEAMS HAD QUALIFIED SUPERSTARS, AND THEY WEREN'T ONLY ON GOAL TENDING.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

Cullen and Koivu aren't any better then Rob Niedermayer at this point, maybe Koivu is, but Cullen has never been more than a third line center. When he went to the Rangers as a second line center he failed and couldn't do it, he was essential for Carolina's third line when they won their cup, because that was his role.

I mean Koivu is better offensively, but with size and grit, Rob wins hands down.

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Maybe Koivu is better than Niedermayer? While you can't really compare the two because they play ENTIRELY different roles, if you want to anyways, Niedermayer in his prime has never been the player Koivu is.

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mechaphil

It's not like one is a D man and one is a forward.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

Koivu's role as a center has always been that of a point-producer. Niedermayer's has always been that of a grinding forward. Again, the two aren't really comparable.

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mechaphil

And in 200 less games, Cullen has more pts than Niedermayer...

Niedermayer - 1082 gms, 450 pts, -115
Matt Cullen - 880 games, 461 pts, -35

Not a huge difference, but Cullen is a slightly better player and two years younger...and plays the point on the PP (which Buffalo needs). Not as big, but just as good defensively if not better considering the +/-.

Wouldn't having the best goalie in the world and an uprising star in Myers, many suggestions saying Buffalo is an amazing place, and an agreeable salary make FA's want to come here? Like, what the hell?

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

NO WAY is a 70^ point guy going to be demoted to the 3rd line, even if they brought in Koivu. We would have more likely seen a Roy/Koivu/Grier 2nd scoring line with Stafford getting bumped down out of the top 2 line mix.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

While your sentence structure borders on insanity, I do get the gist of what you are saying and I agree. Buffalo is without a doubt one of the strongest teams on the rise in the NHL. There's a lot of poor teams out there that are getting bold in free agency, and trying to be a playoff team in the cap era. But Buffalo has quietly built a power house of a playoff team without free agency, and with Stanley Cup potential just around the corner. Heck, winning it LAST season wasn't far fetched with the East being what it is and Miller being who he is.

If I were an NHL player I would want to be a part of it, but if I were the Sabres GM I would shrug my shoulders at the ones that don't come here and say to myself, "You'll see.".

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

I'm pretty sure everyone knew Koivu chose Anaheim the year before, and was likely to return. I'm also pretty sure everyone knew Cullen was from Virginia, Minnesota. The GM's of those teams were able to lure those guys in, weren't they??

This could definitely be considered "half-baked bullshit" more than anything I posted,
"If Darcy doesn't sign a free agent, he's a bad GM because he didn't get it done. Who cares if he offered a player more money or a longer term than he accepted elsewhere. He sucks!!!

If Darcy does sign a free agent, he's a bad GM because it was the wrong player, or he overpaid him.He sucks!!!".

I'm not buying your shtick of "he's not the best GM", because you are clearly the guys biggest supporter(defender). One peep about how he may have made a mistake, and on you come ranting and raving about how stupid people are for questioning his moves.

Daz, with you're reasoning, any other GM that tried to sign Cullen or Koivu was dumb for going after the "wrong" guy. Nobody knows just how serious a player is about going to a specific team unless they call the agent, ask, make an offer, etc... It's worth an attempt or you never know what woulda/coulda/shoulda happened. Ironically, that's exactly what the majority of over-the-top criticism towards Darcy is about - that he doesn't "try" or "do anything".

Squanto is not Regier's biggest supporter. Some would argue that I am, but it mostly comes from the same people that claim Darcy sits around sleeping all day, so I try to take it with a grain of salt. Squanto and I both have our own criticisms of previous moves by Regier, but we also both hate the amount of crazy, ignorant, blasting that he takes from those I term as "rioters". They're the ones that think he's the worst thing to happen to the Sabres, think their cat (let alone themselves) could do a better job just because their ideas worked on Playstation, and never pay attention to the salary cap, team revenues, roster issues, etc. Maybe you're not one of those, but your earlier post sure sounded like it. I just didn't have the energy to respond like Squanto did.

SF1980 hit on most of the points I think I would have made.

I'm not Regier's biggest fan. I've said it many times. I think that if there is one non-player position that could use a change for the sake of change, it's GM.

He's hesitant to move an under performing player while they still have some value, and really tends to get married to his players. Early in his Buffalo career his seemed to be more aggressive in general, and put together a very good post lockout roster. However, he doesn't seem to be in touch with the evolution of the game since, and the team has suffered for it.

His draft record seems average. Some hits, some misses. I don't personally put that much stock in the NHL draft compared to most. The NBA and NFL draft players that are going to play right away. The NHL and MLB draft players that will play in a few years. It's not always so cut an dry who you SHOULD draft. But, people like to play the hindsight game and show how Darcy passed on a guy that turned out to be great. Of course, they neglect to mention the other GMs that passed over the same guy too.....

He gets shit on constantly because he doesn't make big splashes in free agency. The fans and the media want something big to happen, but that's not how you build a team. Free agency is more of a payday for the player than it is a benefit to the team, with some exceptions. For every good pickup like Briere, you have a Campbell/Drury/Gomez that falls flat.

To go back to the specific issue of Koivu / Cullen, my point is simple.

If Darcy doesn't offer Koivu or Cullen a contract, he'll be criticized because he didn't do enough to try and improve the team.

However, Darcy DID offer those players contacts, and they chose not to accept them for whatever reason. Instead of saying 'Well, he tried', you come off with 'They were bad players to go after.'

This is what I mean when I say the guy doesn't get a fair shake. There are 3 possible scenarios here.

1. Darcy ignores those players.
2. Darcy offers those players deals, and they decline.
3. Darcy signs those players.

He's criticized NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS. (If they had signed, someone would bitch that they weren't worth the money, not a big enough move, etc. See Leopold. ) THAT is why I chime in to defend Regier from time to time.

I loved the Leopold signing.
I loved the Niedermeyer signing.

If it is indeed not his fault, then how the hell do the Sabres win? Too good to get a game changing pick, but to bad to win a cup. If nobody wants to trade with us, and no FA's want to sign here, what do we do?

According to the Darcy defenders, nobody wants to deal with Buffalo except for a few select players, and nobody wants to trade with Buffalo for some reason, which I see as unlikely. I don't think Darcy isn't doing his job, I don't know what the hell is going on with him, but something needs to happen to win a cup, but we are in a position where nothing can happen.

My point is, FA's won't come here, nobody wants to trade significant players with us, we can't get a good draft pick, our team doesn't change in a positive way or if it does, it's barely a change.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

I don't understand you guys and this superstar mentality. There are only so many superstarts in the league. That's why they are SUPERstars, not just stars. Ours just happens to be our goalie, and potentially a defenseman.

Besides, in what position have we been in to draft a superstar the past few season? The highest we've drafted from 2000-2010 was 5th overall, and that was on Vanek, who I think could have been a superstar had Kevin Lowe not thrown money at him.

Sure, Detroit can grab Zetterberg, Datsyuk, and multiple superstars outside of the first round, but they have a top notch European scouting program that is unmatched by any other team.

The teams that have superstars consistently drafted in the top 5 overall for many years straight. This includes Pittsburgh (Crosby, Malkin, Staal), Chicago (Toews, Kane), Washington (Ovechkin, Backstrom).

The Sabres had consistently been a team that barely missed the playoffs the years before the lockout, and therefore drafted around 10-14th because of that. I've learned that unless it's a deep draft class, if you don't draft in the top 5, you're probably not going to get a superstar in that draft.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

My Malkin proposal is on this board for all to marvel at. I tried to help, shit I even predicted the EXCAT deal Volchenkov got and factored him in on the team.

But, the Sabres actually already have a few stars. Vanek, Miller, and Myers. Half the teams in the league would rather have that top 3 then the ones they have now.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

So, when was the last time we won a cup?

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

I don't have a problem saying that Detroit lucked out pretty damn hard with Datsyuk and Zetterberg. If Detroit was so sure about those players, why were they taken in the 6th rd in 1998 and the 7th rd of 1999??? Obviously they've had prior success anyway, but without those two panning out to be top 20 forwards they don't sniff the Stanley Cup in 07-09, and that organization looks much less than perfect during the salary cap era.

Anyway, they were draft picks that worked out, just like Pittsburgh stocked up more purposefully with no-brainer picks like Fluery, Malkin, and Crosby. Carolina rode the backs of Staal and Ward, Chicago with Toews, Kane, Keith and Seabrook - all draft picks. If you want to vent about Regier, vent about his dismal failures at drafting europeans, and in general, for quite some time until recently. UFAs are not the answer, but drafting is. Even still, it's not all about Darcy when the organization chooses to skimp on scouting. He could very well do better given a bigger budget to locate and study talent.