I don't like the sound of this...

[Bill Brasky]

What's not clear is how far the Sabres are willing to go to re-sign one or both players.


Drury, who set career highs with 37 goals and 69 points, made $3.15 million last season. Briere, who led Buffalo with 95 points in the regular season and 15 in the playoffs, is coming off a one-year, $5 million deal he earned in arbitration.


Regier said he's had preliminary contact with representatives for both players, but wasn't making any promises.


"There's a lot of things at play," he said. "We'll get into that and see where it goes."

Regier added that the Sabres probably won't have any chance of re-signing either player if negotiations go past the start of free agency.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=Atm1QhPa.IY6gasljBZekAB7vLYF?slug=ap-sabres-ruff&prov=ap&type=lgns

[Michael82]

Re: I don't like the sound of this...

Nice job Darcy! If he lets both of those guys go, I'm going to hate him forever and start trying to run him out of town.

[camelcowboy]

Re: I don't like the sound of this...

They have had forever to sign Drury, and Briere if we go past July 1st without signing them they are gone. Darcy loves his deadlines, because its not like they had all year or anything to lock these guys up

[Michael82]

Re: I don't like the sound of this...

They have had forever to sign Drury, and Briere if we go past July 1st without signing them they are gone. Darcy loves his deadlines, because its not like they had all year or anything to lock these guys up

Plus they could have extended them last year for probably half the price, instead of going to arbitration.

[Dr. Lecter]

Re: I don't like the sound of this...

Briere yes, but not Drury. I dubt he would have agreed to it.

And not for half the price. Let's not exagerate too much.

[kgun12]

Re: I don't like the sound of this...

Nice job Darcy! If he lets both of those guys go, I'm going to hate him forever and start trying to run him out of town.

Don't overreact Mikey! If we lose one of them we have a good pile of money to go out and sign and player or 2. If we lose both we can go out and get a boat load of players! There are a ton of free agents out there. Our nucleus is really solid, I'm not worried!

[Michael82]

Re: I don't like the sound of this...

If we lose both we can go out and get a boat load of players! There are a ton of free agents out there. Our nucleus is really solid, I'm not worried!

Are we thinking of the same Darcy Regier?

[BillsSabresB.C.T. Fan]

Re: I don't like the sound of this...

here's why the Sabres don't give out contract extensions when the season is going on. transcript from the Press Conference.

Q: Larry and Darcy, could you address the negotiating policy and the 'no-talking' during the season? I mean, we rarely see a situation where the market backtracks at the end of a season. It continues to grow - it goes up…
Quinn: Right…

Q: … and gets expensive. Can you discuss a little bit about why you approach it that way?

Quinn: I'll try and then Darcy can try. We've evolved with our contract policy - as you recall, the first year that we owned the team, we did not do long-term contracts. You can go backwards and try to second-guess whether you did it the right or wrong way. We also achieved great results when we had everybody on a one-year contract. Last year - the year before - we overachieved and came within a game of going to the Stanley Cup Finals and just about everybody on our team was on a one-year (contract). So, you can go back and say that was a mistake or you can go back and say that was genius - I'm not sure which. So, we did change our policy last summer. The core of our defense is on long-term contracts. Jason Pominville is on a longer-term contract… Ryan Miller (is too). So we did change our philosophy.

The problem with negotiating during a year is - and we're talking about it now - when you do a long-term contract with a Danny Briere, Chris Drury or any of those people, it's going to be for quite a bit of money and it's going to be for long-term. By definition, you have to subtract from your team to afford it. Everybody knows that. So, when you introduce that equation during the course of a season, there are twenty-three other guys (that are) sitting there, saying, "Am I the guy that's being subtracted?". It's our philosophy (when that happens) that you start to tear your team apart.

I'm sitting here, trying to think of the teams that re-negotiated contracts during the year and trying to determine how well they did in the playoffs - and Darcy can probably answer that better than I am. It's just the philosophy - I understand that you can argue it both ways but we really try to put team first and there are sacrifices that you make. These two guys (Ruff & Regier) didn't have their contracts done until now either. So, it's something that we believe, if you're going to talk "team-first", you've got to act it. That's just the way we think - we understand sometimes that it's more expensive.

http://www.sabresfans.com/articles.asp?id=2074&ref=76

[BillsSabresB.C.T. Fan]

Re: I don't like the sound of this...

this is what I'm thinking and I've said this all along your going to see players traded in the draft Players like Afinogenov, Hecht, Kalinin, Kotalik, Spacek, Connolly maybe? for draft choices to re-sign Drury and Briere. Now us the Sabres fans might not like this but the Sabres said that this is going to be a different team next season. the Sabres said they wanted Guerin last year at the trade deadline but they couldn't fit him under the cap and they picked up Zubrus instead. Your going to see the spaces vacated filled by the upcoming players from Rochester. Like Paille, Stafford, MacAurthur etc. maybe we pick up Smyth or Marleau or Gomez. Lindy said in the Press Conference that we need to get better on D so maybe we pick up Souray who is an UFA and looks like he will test the open market montreal just traded Samsonov to Chicago for for defenseman Jassen Cullimore and left wing Tony Salmelainen.

[Dozerdog]

Re: I don't like the sound of this...

Nice job Darcy! If he lets both of those guys go, I'm going to hate him forever and start trying to run him out of town.

Do you hoist Darcy on your shoulders when under his reign he has gotten to the Finals twice (and has an incredible playoff record in his tenure)

Guys like you keep talk radio in business. Thank god you live in a 1 floor house because the ledge ain't that far of the ground.


Darcy knows what he is doing. If we sign both- Great! Lose one? I'm sure there is a plan in place to use the money to save the rest of the roster from demolition.

Lose Both? It would suck- but it does give us the ammunition to get other / retain players. Knock off the "Lets run him out of town" nonsense. I thank thre lord above you are not the GM

[Carlton Bailey]

Re: I don't like the sound of this...

Chris Drury is my favorite athlete in sports history, but the Sabres can't, in Dru's words, curl up and die if they lose the man, the myth, the legend. They'll have to get themselves together and try to trade for a superstar like Vinny Lecavalier or Jarome Iginla. Before you call me crazy, keep in mind that both are rumored to be on the block for the right price.

If that price is too steep, push really hard for Ryan Smyth.

[CuseJetsFan83]

Re: I don't like the sound of this...

rumor has it that iginla may be driven out by keenan........

i'd make a push for him in a trade..... if we cant get drury or briere

[BillsSabresB.C.T. Fan]

Re: I don't like the sound of this...

rumor has it that iginla may be driven out by keenan........

i'd make a push for him in a trade..... if we cant get drury or briere

And you have to wonder how Iron Mike's arrival will impact the long-term stay of the team's two most important players, captain and inspirational leader Jarome Iginla and bailout goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=johnson_george&id=2905184