What have Darcy's most recent trades included? Picking up Torres, dumping Pallie and MacArthur, picking up Moore, dumping Kotalik and grabbing Rivet. The only way I can criticize these trades is using hindsight. These were good moves at the time, but they just didn't pan out as intended.

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Rivet really wasn't any part of that. If you want to make a Rivet point, we dumped Campbell for Bernier and a pick, and then we traded that pick back to SJ for Rivet. So essentially, we dumped Campbell for Rivet. I'll excuse the downgrade knowing that we were pretty much "sellers" at that trade deadline.

However, I liked the Rivet trade because it showed that we wanted to get some veteran presence here. Unfortunately, he was so "veteran" that we made him our captain.

I can only hope that Darcy can suddenly revert back to the GM that traded for Lydman, Drury, Dumont, and Briere.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

funny!

Gonchar can be average, maybe slightly above average in his own zone most of the time. He was pretty much solid for the Pens during their two runs to the Finals in recent years, and yes, despite having Crosby and Malkin on their team they still differed to #55's power play expertise.

He played pretty bad since the Penguins signed Letang, rumor has it that he didn't play physically because he didn't want to get hurt going into what he described as "my last contract". Under the circumstances I have a tough time faulting a guy for that kind of attitude, though a part of me thinks that he should honor that huge 25 million dollar contract right down to the very last penny. There certainly was enough evidence on the ice to support this rumor, and it doesn't take a mathematician to come to the conclusion that with Letang's 2.66 million dollar raise there wont be enough cap left over for a Sergei Gonchar.

I thought Ray Shero new when to play his cards close to his chest, but by awarding an RFA his contract during the season he cost the team the motivation of another one. Why not keep them both guessing and playing their best? The deal didn't do anything for Letang's confidence one way or the other, bad move by the Pens GM and for once I called it at the time it happened.

As far as Gonchar joining the Sabres, I think he is looking for a 3 year contract to close out his career. At a glance, that doesn't jive well with the Sabres cap situation because Myers will be due for a hefty cap increase after 2 more years. But if they somehow could sign him to a 2 year deal, it wouldn't be a bad idea.

As an armchair GM, I think it would be great for Myers to get a chance to play with one of the all-time greats on the power play, the way Gonchar never even looks at the puck when he is skating, passing, or shooting is uncanny. He's always thinking ahead and slowing it down with some kind of cool Matrix Vision that allows him to see shooting lanes through traffic. If Myers could add some more of that to his game it would only serve him and the Sabres well.

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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 don't see any UFA's of interest from San Jose that are at least doable unless we make some trades. Obviously Marleau and maybe sucker San Jose into a trade for Pavelski for his rights.

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"...they came down into the stands and asked if I knew how to do play by play. I said...No. But. I'll take a shot at it if you want".- Rick Jeanneret

That last paragraph was my logic behind a Gonchar deal. He's got Soupy's wheels and vision + Spacek's shot and hits the net with it everytime. Myers already can command play 5v5 and is a great penalty killer (no doubt under Grier's tutelage), but he needs to learn to command the game 5v4 and Gonchar's presence and expertise in that department would be huge for the boy wonder's development into a future Norris winner and the Sabres' first real franchise defenseman.

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mechaphil

doug gilmour and jp dumont for micheal grosek?

i miss those old fleecings he used to pull every so often.

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doug gilmour and jp dumont for micheal grosek?

i miss those old fleecings he used to pull every so often.[/quote]

Danny Briere for Chris Gratton and draft picks. I call that a good one.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

Yea, that's another that's right up there.

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mechaphil

They were trades that were like WTF WHY?

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

Danny Briere for Chris Gratton and draft picks. I call that a good one.[/quote]

If he was an awesome GM we would have a chance to win the cup.

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

If you knew that ANY of those trades were bad moves the DAY they were made, then start giving me some lottery numbers, buddy.

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I remember being very excited and optimistic when we picked up Moore and when we got Rivet. If you look at the 2009 Trade Deadline, there's maybe 4-5 trades that actually panned out (that included "notable" players). Guerin and Recchi are the only two that immediately come to mind. Maybe Jussi Jokinen too...

If Darcy didn't make a move, we would have been all over him. So, he makes a deal that looked good at the time (63GP 12G 29A 41P). I certainly didn't think he was going to be a huge bust.

Hopefully, a healthy Rivet means at least an 07-08 Rivet. Time will tell

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"Let's just trap Sekera in the caverns underneath HSBC arena." -BlueandYellow

Reporter: "Steve, you guys now lead the league in defensive scoring."
Montador: "It's probably because of how good-looking we are."

I am NOT saying they are bad moves, but I am saying why would you do them if they are the ONLY fucking ones that we got. We didn't IMPROVE the team.

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

Because you can't learn to ride the bike if you never take off the training wheels.

It's not like Darcy knows this won't make the team better. He really thought he did. You can't hit on all of them. Unfortunately for Darcy, he's missed on the last few.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

How about the Kovalchuk trade?

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Exactly. ATL sure won that trade, now that you look at it with all the evidence present.

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mechaphil

More fairly ignorant criticism of Darcy...

Moore was acquired to gain a better face-off man, but then it turned out that Moore was injured. Darcy didn't know this because it was basically kept a secret by all other parties. NOT DARCY'S FAULT.

Rivet was a MONSTER during the first month he was in Buffalo. Then he had the shoulder injury that he tried to play through for 18 months. NOT DARCY'S FAULT. With surgery and rehab he should be a monster again and show why he was acquired in the first place.

Paille under-achieved badly after producing for one season. There was a glut at forward so he was shipped out. He's done well with Boston as a gritty checking forward but not scored much...big deal. Mac and Kotalik are useless, and Campbell is nowhere near worth the contract he has...who cares that they are gone???

I wasn't big on Torres from the start, and I wanted to use that pick later in the summer to acquire a better talent that would actually stay in Buffalo. I don't like that trade, but many fans wanted a gritty physical forward that could score in the playoffs, and Torres had that rep. It goes to show you how much a rep is worth.

As for Gonchar or Marleau, all the recruiting in the world won't change the cap situation. For those players to be signed there will have to be several others that are traded away, leaving roster holes elsewhere. Replacing two UFA d-men with one will still leave a shitty 3rd pairing that isn't worth NHL icetime, and that's a big problem. Trading Connolly/Roy/Stafford and relying on all this young love for a couple rookies is foolish. Wait 'til Ennis and Gerbe play somewhere near a full season before assesng them. It's not like we haven't seen young talent flop before...geez.

Hey man, we're just spitballin (although, if I were to get serious for a moment, I do agree on a lot of your points).

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mechaphil

Same here. I think we could keep Torres and he'd be a better fit with even more time in Buffalo. But the need of more RWers outweighs us keeping another LWer.

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In the San Jose deal we also got a first which got us Ennis. Not a bad trade for us in the end. Especially since soupy left them after.

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Driver of the Tyler Ennis Bandwagon, Ridin' shotgun on the Tyler Myers Bandwagon, chillin' on the Luke Adam Bandwagon


Eh