Bucky Gleason whining again

[Dr. Lecter]

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<!-- End /PubSys/Story/MediaBox/MediaBox.comp --><!--endclickprintexclude-->Darcy Regier made the message perfectly clear, abandoning his propensity for subtlety and getting right to the point. It was delivered last week after the Buffalo Sabres signed Derek Roy to a six-year deal worth $24 million, a contract that more than anything outlined the dangers of trickledown NHL economics.

Roy in the first year will receive a 480 percent raise over last season, and Regier immediately said he expects more production. It sounded fair. General managers should demand bang for the buck. But who takes the blame when an organization pays too much for a player?

The Sabres overpaid Roy, plain and simple, with the idea he’ll become a bargain at $5.5 million at the end of the deal. It’s hard to imagine him getting substantially better, but we’ll see. His stock soared this summer even though he didn’t play a shift. He was heading into arbitration prepared to make a valid case as the secondbest center on the roster behind Tim Connolly. Buffalo faced the very real possibility of getting clobbered.

Roy had the hammer, but only because the Sabres handed it to him. It goes back to their mishandling of Chris Drury and Daniel Briere. The saga long ago grew tiresome for Sabres fans, but its effects aren’t going away. The organization for years will be paying, or overpaying, for that series of blunders.

See, had they followed through on the tentative agreement reached last fall that would have paid Drury $21.5 million over four years, and had they satisfied Briere with a five-year extension worth $25 million, Roy would have been the least of their problems. He would have been their fourth-best center, a replaceable player on a stacked team. Not happy? Take a dive.

The Sabres also could have established the market price for their own players rather than have the league do it for them. How? You get Drury and Briere signed in the $5 million range, acceptable for both players. You reference their contracts while aggressively pursuing Vanek long before he hits the market. It would have been the Sabres’ contribution to cost certainty.

http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/story/130852.html

[clumping platelets]

But Bucky is actually right :ontome:

[mchurchfie]

I think Gleason makes excellent sense.

[Dr. Lecter]

He is wrong on a number of points:

The Sabres overpaid Roy, plain and simple, with the idea he’ll become a bargain at $5.5 million at the end of the deal. It’s hard to imagine him getting substantially better, but we’ll see. His stock soared this summer even though he didn’t play a shift. He was heading into arbitration prepared to make a valid case as the secondbest center on the roster behind Tim Connolly. Buffalo faced the very real possibility of getting clobbered.

Here he contradicts himself. First he says Roy is overpaid. Then he says they would have been clobbered at arbitration. Well, which one is it? Did they overpay or was a big arbitration deal on the horizon?


Second he says he will not get much better. Huh? He is only 24.

3rd, the 5.5 million at the end of the deal is intentionally misleading. His cap value will still only be 4 million at that time. So, once again, Bucky lies and tries to cover up the truth and distorts the facts to make the situation look worse than it is.

Finally he totally ignores what the arbitrator does. It is not as much as the value to the team, as it is what comprable players in the NHL make. Sadly, for the NHL, this deal is reasonable.

Bucky has had a clear personal grudge against the Sabres ever since he made his inexcusable comments about Max and his girlfriend during the playoffs. His actions during the press conferences were inprofessional and he sounded like a Junior High student.

A critical assessment of the team is fine. Taking it to a personal level and using your soapbox, without any room for rebuttal, is piss-poor journalism.

[THATHURMANATOR]

Gleason is acting like the Sabres front office banged his girlfriend or something. It is embarrassing. Roy got EXACTLY what he was worth for his age and production.

Gleason is a fat Hack.

[mchurchfie]

I thought his article on Peca last week was a bunch of crap and he was clearly in The Sabre's corner in that one. He distorts things in this article a litttle but he does have some good points about the FOs screwups.

[Dude]

I don't see the problem. The Sabres ****ed up and Bucky is calling them on it.

[THATHURMANATOR]

Points can be made in regards to Drury, Briere etc but to dispute the Roy signing is plain ridiculous.

[Dr. Lecter]

"The Sabres did not sign their players longterm to high money deals. They are stupid."

"The Sabres did sign a player longterm to a big money deal. They are stupid."

Huh?

[Dude]

"The Sabres could have had all of these guys for a lot less had they not sat around with their thumbs up their asses."

"The Sabres could have dictated their own salary structure rather than sitting around with their thumbs up their asses while the rest of the league drove the prices up."

Does that help?

[Dr. Lecter]

When it came to Roy, the Sabres salary structure was meaningless. the arbitrator would look at the league structure, not the Sabres structure.

[TheGhostofJimKelly]

Instead of looking at what the Sabres front office didn't do over and over again Bucky, take a look at what the Florida Panthers did when they signed Nathan Horton the same exact deal.

[Earthquake Enyart]

Derek Roy is gong to have a monster year next year.

[mchurchfie]

What Bucky is saying that if they would have gotten Briere and Drury at bargain prices earlier like they could have instead of sitting around and allowing the rest of the league to pass the team around like a drunk prom date we would have had our first and second line centers and they could have walked away from Roy if his demands or abitrations decision would have been to their disliking because he would have been a third line center at best.

[mchurchfie]

Derek Roy is gong to have a monster year next year.
Roy is a slightly more talented version of Curtis Brown.:coocoo:

[Philagape]

Roy is a slightly more talented version of Curtis Brown.:coocoo:

Except Brown was better defensively.

[Philagape]

Another good point made is that the Roy line will get a lot more defensive attention.

[THATHURMANATOR]

Roy is a slightly more talented version of Curtis Brown.:coocoo:
:rolleyes:

[BlackMetalNinja]

Are we going to do this again??? I thought it was over with already. It's going to be a long time until October rolls around at this rate.

[THATHURMANATOR]

I am done with the Sabres forum. It SUCKS BALLS!

[SabreEleven]

Derek Roy is gong to have a monster year next year.

No he isn't , he is going to crumble from the pressure to produce and especially with teams keying on him, Vanek and Max...this stuff happens in Buffalo sports all the time.

[mchurchfie]

Are we going to do this again??? I thought it was over with already. It's going to be a long time until October rolls around at this rate.
http://www.billszone.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10033/smiley_abve.gif


I am done with the Sabres forum. It SUCKS BALLS!
http://www.billszone.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10033/crybaby4.gif
:shakeno:

[Dude]

Maybe we should go back to *****ing about the stupid logo. That seemed to be acceptable. Not sure why talking about the team the FO will have wearing the logo isn't.

Oh, wait - some of you DO still ***** about the logo.

You're right, THURM - this forum DOES suck.

[Dr. Lecter]

Churchie posting his self-potraits!

[mchurchfie]

Maybe we should go back to *****ing about the stupid logo. That seemed to be acceptable. Not sure why talking about the team the FO will have wearing the logo isn't.

Oh, wait - some of you DO still ***** about the logo.

You're right, THURM - this forum DOES suck.
You're not allowed to express your concerns or express any displeasure about the team in here Dude. We have to put on our rose-colored glasses and keep everything all warm and fuzzy otherwise the whine-Nazis will bully you and beat you down until you see it their way.:up::coocoo:

[Dr. Lecter]

No, that is not the point.

We all know somebody screwed the pooch in the front office. But now they have, apparently, seen that the way they did things does not work. So now they change their ways and sign guys to long term deals.

And Bucky *****es about that. He also lies and distorts to make his point. He also has launched personal attacks agains members of the team.

Yes they ****ed up with Drury and/or Briere. No they did not with Roy.

[Philagape]

I am done with the Sabres forum. It SUCKS BALLS!

:bigwave:

[mchurchfie]

:bigwave:

[SabreEleven]

No, that is not the point.

We all know somebody screwed the pooch in the front office. But now they have, apparently, seen that the way they did things does not work. So now they change their ways and sign guys to long term deals.

And Bucky *****es about that. He also lies and distorts to make his point. He also has launched personal attacks agains members of the team.

Yes they ****ed up with Drury and/or Briere. No they did not with Roy.

They didn't over pay with Roy because he is the 2nd best center on this team...I agree, but he wouldn't have been if they didn't screw the pooch with Drury and/or Briere.

[BillsSabresB.C.T. Fan]

The Buffalo News should've kept Jim Kelley a real hockey writer who's in the NHL HOF as a hockey writer but the news didn't want to pay him.