Firing Regier was a mistake

Jim Bob

RIP RJ
Feb 27, 2002
55,634
34,454
Rochester, NY
3 words.

Ville ****ing Leino

w768xh576_LeinoJail.jpg
 

SnuggaRUDE

Registered User
Apr 5, 2013
8,946
6,480
He knew what it was time to pull the chute on the team, but I'm not convinced he should have stayed.

I don't think he'd have made many of the moves Murray did. Not that Murray was a visionary.
 

Bobby Bottle Service

Win for Rick
Dec 15, 2005
5,039
3,184
Toronto
I do think DR had some very unfortunate timing. Had TPegs came along pre-2007, team probably keeps the co-captains and stayed very competitive.

And when TPegs did come along, DR was already going to blow up the team but here comes Uncle Money Bags and he doesn't want the first season as owner one where everything is scrapped off, so DR gets the money for very expensive and ultimately horrible band-aid solutions.
 

Icelevel

During these difficult times...
Sep 9, 2009
24,642
4,904
Funny or sad? I'm not sure which better describes the lack of respect TM gets for what he was able to do do for your now upside down organization.
Argument to be made of course that the bylsma hire was not ideal but under the circumstances not sure how many better alternatives there were.
Overall he did a whole bunch of good and was on the right path. Impatience it seems got in the way. And ignorance?
 

OkimLom

Registered User
May 3, 2010
15,122
6,578
Funny or sad? I'm not sure which better describes the lack of respect TM gets for what he was able to do do for your now upside down organization.
Argument to be made of course that the bylsma hire was not ideal but under the circumstances not sure how many better alternatives there were.
Overall he did a whole bunch of good and was on the right path. Impatience it seems got in the way. And ignorance?

Poor coach selection, and change of team building direction(was Heavy "smart possession team" at the start, ended with going towards fast and non heavy team) mid-accelerated rebuild doomed Tim.
 

Dubi Doo

Registered User
Aug 27, 2008
19,219
12,688
BOOM *Mic Drop*
*picks mic back up* 05-07 *carefully places mic on floor to avoid unwanted feedback*

On a side note- I'm terrible at keeping up with a thread I've created. I'd love to respond to most of you, but I'm completely outnumbered and am too damn lazy to craft a well thought out response at this moment.
 

struckbyaparkedcar

Guilty of Being Right
Mar 1, 2008
18,243
1,847
Upstate NY
*picks mic back up* 05-07 *carefully places mic on floor to avoid unwanted feedback*

On a side note- I'm terrible at keeping up with a thread I've created. I'd love to respond to most of you, but I'm completely outnumbered and am too damn lazy to craft a well thought out response at this moment.
The teams that were ultimately unsuccessful because of their GM?
 

Dubi Doo

Registered User
Aug 27, 2008
19,219
12,688
The teams that were ultimately unsuccessful because of their GM?

Aka a bonafide contender hand crafted by Regier through drafting and trading. When Regier was fired the franchise was in a position to be crafted into something special. Regier has proven he was able to put together a contender. He also has an owner willing to spend money to keep core players unlike what he had when tbe co-caps were lost.

I understand he had his flaws, and perhaps they would've came to fruitition again once he completed the rebuild, but he has a proven track record of creating a contender and had a ton of assets at his disposal to do it again.
 

truthbluth

Registered User
Feb 2, 2011
7,183
6,415
Poor coach selection, and change of team building direction(was Heavy "smart possession team" at the start, ended with going towards fast and non heavy team) mid-accelerated rebuild doomed Tim.
Well, we agree on this it seems. Timmy's biggest problem was not focusing on one team building philosophy. Going 'heavy' but drafting Reinhart over Draisaitl didn't make sense. Trading McNabb and Zadorov makes sense of you want to shift D strategy away from big, physical toward smart puck moving, but then the Pysyk-Kulikov trade makes no sense. And recognizing that the org is short on skill is fine, but drafting Nylander over D, when D is the biggest organizational need, on the same weekend you trade a team controlled defensemen for a UFA to be was just weird.

It's hard to make a case that Timmy was good in any one aspect (other than tank commanding, which he was masterful at), because he just didn't see anything through.

Firing Darcy was not the wrong thing to do, but the timing may have been wrong, and Timmy was maybe a bad hire.
 

Dreakon13

Registered User
Jun 28, 2010
4,276
1,305
Mighty Taco, NY
While I do think Regier got fired less for the quality of his work, and more to give the rebuilding organization a fresh start from top to bottom... I don't think it was the wrong move.

Wrong moves may have been made afterwards but IMO, keeping Regier wasn't the answer either.
 

Chainshot

Give 'em Enough Rope
Sponsor
Feb 28, 2002
148,131
96,736
Tarnation
Aka a bonafide contender hand crafted by Regier through drafting and trading. When Regier was fired the franchise was in a position to be crafted into something special. Regier has proven he was able to put together a contender. He also has an owner willing to spend money to keep core players unlike what he had when tbe co-caps were lost.

I understand he had his flaws, and perhaps they would've came to fruitition again once he completed the rebuild, but he has a proven track record of creating a contender and had a ton of assets at his disposal to do it again.

So that one time in his entire tenure when he managed to have a team that could compete based on a shift in rules after the '04 lockout? That's not a lot to base heaping praise upon the guy. If the obstruction crackdown doesn't come out of the lockout, the Sabres would've been a fringe speed team in a league full of giants playing clutch-and-grab hockey.

*picks mic back up* 05-07 *carefully places mic on floor to avoid unwanted feedback*

On a side note- I'm terrible at keeping up with a thread I've created. I'd love to respond to most of you, but I'm completely outnumbered and am too damn lazy to craft a well thought out response at this moment.

I'm still waiting for an explanation of the timeline that had you thinking A) Rolston was a good hire and that B) Nolan was a Regier hire.
 

threeVo

Registered User
Jan 5, 2010
3,783
1,665
Tampa
look at all the sabres drafts through the 2000s and tell me it was a mistake. Hell even just look at the 1st round picks, you dont need to look any further.
Heisten, Kryukov, Novotny, Ballard, Stafford, Zagrapan, Persson, Myers, Ennis, Kassian, Psysk, Armia.

That should have been our best players or core during the 05/08 runs, but we got lucky we had a couple good trades and late round picks pan out. He was atrocious at drafting.
 

Dubi Doo

Registered User
Aug 27, 2008
19,219
12,688
So that one time in his entire tenure when he managed to have a team that could compete based on a shift in rules after the '04 lockout? That's not a lot to base heaping praise upon the guy. If the obstruction crackdown doesn't come out of the lockout, the Sabres would've been a fringe speed team in a league full of giants playing clutch-and-grab hockey.



I'm still waiting for an explanation of the timeline that had you thinking A) Rolston was a good hire and that B) Nolan was a Regier hire.

Those teams were still incredibly deep at forward. They had a lot of firepower along with some great two-way forwards. The defense was also very good. Would they have dominated like they had if the rules stayed the same? Who knows? But you can't take away the fact that it was still an incredibly talented team.

I believe Rolston was obviously hired for one reason and one reason only. The same reason the roster was constructed so poorly. That was to have the highest odds at a generational talent. In hindsight hiring Nolan worked out well because the team still sucked enough to finish last, but Rolston gave the team as good as odds as any to finish last. As for how I forgot that Rolston and Regier were fired together, well, I'll just say those were my college years, and a lot of my memories during that time are a blur, haha.

I didn't like the fact that prospects were being rushed, but there are examples of young teams playing god awful hockey and still becoming contenders in time. Kings, Pens, etc...I just personally believe in slow cooking prospects, and keeping them away from a tank season.
 

struckbyaparkedcar

Guilty of Being Right
Mar 1, 2008
18,243
1,847
Upstate NY
Your argument is that Regier was better at core acquisitions, depth, and player development.

He was trash at all of those aspects since losing the co-caps, under multiple mandates and owners. FOH.
 
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Chainshot

Give 'em Enough Rope
Sponsor
Feb 28, 2002
148,131
96,736
Tarnation
Those teams were still incredibly deep at forward. They had a lot of firepower along with some great two-way forwards. The defense was also very good. Would they have dominated like they had if the rules stayed the same? Who knows? But you can't take away the fact that it was still an incredibly talented team.

I believe Rolston was obviously hired for one reason and one reason only. The same reason the roster was constructed so poorly. That was to have the highest odds at a generational talent. In hindsight hiring Nolan worked out well because the team still sucked enough to finish last, but Rolston gave the team as good as odds as any to finish last. As for how I forgot that Rolston and Regier were fired together, well, I'll just say those were my college years, and a lot of my memories during that time are a blur, haha.

I didn't like the fact that prospects were being rushed, but there are examples of young teams playing god awful hockey and still becoming contenders in time. Kings, Pens, etc...I just personally believe in slow cooking prospects, and keeping them away from a tank season.

Given free rein at development and fulfilling on new ownership's mandates, he completely threw out slow cooking prospects and we saw Grigorenko, Girgensons, Ristolainen and Zadorov all in the lineup far sooner than normal and the impact of that is still playing out. Hell, he f'd up Novotny in the same fashion going back far enough.

He had some miserable drafting, alienated players and agents through his lack of basic human communication, and couldn't back-fill known roster deficiencies at all. His love for his own draftees appeared to make him even slower moving. He should have been given the heave after Pegula assumed ownership, rather than being allowed to stay on. The mistake wasn't firing him, it was waiting almost 2.5 years to tie a can to his ass and kick him down the street.
 

Howie Hodge

Zombie Woof
Sep 16, 2017
4,422
4,027
Buffalo, NY
Was Darcy good at drafting?

His 1st round picks in the 2000's.
Notable later round picks that played in ( )

2000- Artem Kryukov .. (Gaustad 7'th)
2001- Jiri Novotny..
2002- Kieth Ballard, Danny Paille (Wideman)
2003- Vanek.. (McArthur)
2004- Drew Stafford
2005- Marek Zagrapen
2006- Dennis Persson
2007- None (Paul Byron)
2008- Tyler Myers and Ennis
2009- Zach Kassian (Foligno, McNabb)
2010- Mark Pysyk
2011- Joel Armia
2012- Mikhail Grigorenko and Zemgus Girgensons
2013-Rasmus Ristolainen and Nikita Zadorov

Not all these drafts were full of great prospects, so some years very few GM's did well.

You decide if he was good at drafting....
 

Bobby Bottle Service

Win for Rick
Dec 15, 2005
5,039
3,184
Toronto
He would never have chosen Buffalo.

Let's be honest.

Every coach in the league should write a thank you card to pegula. By offering 50 mil to Babcock, who promptly took that to Toronto and said, beat this... He drove up the salary of every other coach.

Bylsma, iirc, was the 2nd highest paid coach in league history.
 

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