Sabres trade Vanek to Islanders.

[DaBoltsNIsles]

A lot of 1st round busts??? C'mon now, most of them were drafted late in the 1st Round where it's not a given they are going to pan out anyways. Most of the players drafted after some of them in the 1st Round never panned out either, so it's not like they missed out on a great player or anything.

And De Haan is not the only bust under Snow, you forgot about players like Bailey and Niederreiter. And to make things worse, Snow gave up 4 picks and a player for De Haan, and he was willing to give up all his picks in the 2012 draft just to get the 2nd overall pick. That's 7 picks, including the 4th overall just to move up 2 spots for 1 players. It never happened, but why he decided to do that is just crazy.

Bailey isn't a bust. He's playing a regular shift in the NHL. He signed a 5 year contract during the offseason. That's not a bust as far as I'm concerned. There are a lot of players who were selected in 2008 who aren't even in the league anymore. Niederreiter is now in Minny. The Isles got Clutterbuck for him. Whether he stays with the Wild or no,t makes no difference to me at this point. He was selected in 2010 & was the youngest player in his draft class. It's still to early to call him a bust. I already said De Haan was a bust. I was upset when they drafted him. I wanted Kulikov or Kassian with that pick.

 

[DaBoltsNIsles]

Agree to disagree then.

I don't feel that Reiger is responsible or at fault for some of the problems the Sabres are facing right now, and I think fans blame who they feel is responsible without knowing the whole picture is all. They blamed Ruff, and wanted him gone, and now those same fans wish he was back.

I'm just saying that I think it's easier just to say it's all Darcy's fault because he's been the one thing that's been constant with this team over the years.


100!

Darcy doesn't deserve all the blame. Scouting is a huge part of what a team does in terms of drafting & trades. Darcy is the GM & the guy Sabres fans know. He's going to get the blame for putting this team together. That's just the way it is.

 

[sabresfaninthesouth]

Darcy doesn't deserve all the blame. Scouting is a huge part of what a team does in terms of drafting & trades. Darcy is the GM & the guy Sabres fans know. He's going to get the blame for putting this team together. That's just the way it is.

And that's the way it should be.

Sure he gets advice from his scouts and coaches, but the ultimate decision on who to draft or trade is made by Regier. The ultimate decision on who to sign to a terrible contract is made by Regier.

He's not the only one making mistakes, but someone has to be held accountable when you put together a team that sucks this badly. Trying to pass blame on to the coaches, scouts, or other personnel is just passing the buck.

If Regier had any balls he'd have a big Harry Truman "The buck stops here" sign on his desk and he'd take responsibility for this.

 

[DaBoltsNIsles]

And that's the way it should be.

Sure he gets advice from his scouts and coaches, but the ultimate decision on who to draft or trade is made by Regier. The ultimate decision on who to sign to a terrible contract is made by Regier.

He's not the only one making mistakes, but someone has to be held accountable when you put together a team that sucks this badly. Trying to pass blame on to the coaches, scouts, or other personnel is just passing the buck.

If Regier had any balls he'd have a big Harry Truman "The buck stops here" sign on his desk and he'd take responsibility for this.

Every GM should be accountable for the team he puts on the ice. The thing is we all know the first scapegoat is always the coach. Look at Philly. They dumped Lavy when Holmgren is the one at fault. He's made a lot of questionable moves in the past 2 years.

 

[Cobiemonster]

And I think much the opposite. He's been given so many chances to make things right and we now are looking at - most likely - the worst Sabres team in history.

Since he took over as GM, there have been 4 different owners (assuming we don't count the 2 years under league control as an owner since the team was still - on paper at least - owned by Rigas), two lockouts, a host of rule changes, and about a zillion different players. The only constants during this entire period were Regier himself and, until last year, Lindy Ruff. They removed Lindy Ruff from the equation and the team got worse.

For years everyone said Darcy was being hamstrung by ownership. While that was obviously true during certain periods, especially during the Rigas/Adelphia issues, he's had free reign at several other times and has done nothing with it. The team that went to the finals in '99 was Muckler's team. And even then, they weren't really all that good (4th in their own division) and road Hasek heavily to the Finals.

Then began the shitstorm of failed negotiations and lousy trades. First was Peca. Then Hasek. Then came the league controllership period and the abysmal Stu Barnes trade. Giving credit where it's due, he also made the Briere and Drury trades during this period.

He did pretty much nothing else coming out of the lockout and the Sabres were expected to be bad. That was obviously a surprise to everyone. Following the 2005-06 season, Regier was given the green-light by Golisano to spend to the cap if necessary. Another solid season in 2006-07 and then begain the second shitstorm. There's the obvious Drury, Briere, and Vanek messes. Then the failed negotiations with Brian Campbell.

Then he gets free reign to spend as much money as he wants under Pegula. And we all know how these last few years have gone.

Long post, I know, but the point I'm trying to make is that I'm not picking on Regier because it's the trendy thing to do. His track record of fuckups speaks for itself.

That, by far, was what killed this team for years to come - even though Chris Drury wasn't the same after Buffalo and Danny Briere was a bit inconsistent at times, the Sabres let all those guys go and haven't been the same since

 

[rgelber9]

Vanek should help the New York Islanders tremendously

Vanek's overtime winner - icatchingsports