Quote:
Originally Posted by 72off
It might have been the right move to not match, but the person who had the most to gain by matching was actually Darcy Regier, as it would be unlikely that he'd still be employed with the club by the time the compensation bore fruit for the Sabres.
Very, very true. Being in Buffalo as fans we were stunned at the fact that Briere, Drury essential ran out of town after the success they had here. They literally at the time let our 2 best players go and the thought of losing Vanek who at the time was in many fans eyes the soon to be greatest pure goal scorer in the league. Unfortunately if you dug a little deeper into his play you would see he never did anything involving the word check (back, fore) he was useless on the PK and on the PP he would do nothing but wait at the blue line for the puck to enter the zone.
He is clearly overpaid as we can all see based on production etc, but at the time it was the right play for the team, Regier, and in terms of keeping the strong fan base going. I think now looking back you have to say letting him go for the 4 1st rounders (sorry thought was 3 off top of head) knowing they would miss the playoffs for 2 yrs even with him was the right decision. They could have used that money to sign 2 decent players in replace of him plus still had the draft picks.
Of course letting go Drury and Briere forced them to overpay for guys like Pominville, Roy and Connolly also.