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This is the domino we all saw falling for Darcy to land another Bob Corkum.

meh

OKM THE DOMINOS ARE FALLING ITS TIME FOR THE SABRES GET ON SOMTHING OR MAKE A MOVE FOR A BIG NAME IF BUFFALO WANTS A CUP THIS YEAR WE NEED TO MAKE A MOVE BEFORE THE DEADLINE AND AFTER THE OLOMPIC BREACK OR THERE WILL BE NO CUP[ IN BUFFALO WE NEED A FWDAND D MAN THATS GOOD AND A RENT A PLAYER... U COULD HAVE GOTTEN ILYA BUT NO SABRES DID EVEN WANT TO TRY BTW SOME ONE FIRE LARRY QUINN PLEASE HES THE REASON FOR NO CUP IN BUFFALO

good thing the sabres didn't go after this guy!

I knew they wanted some roster players but damn. I think that's great for even just a rental if you have a shot. Talent like this doesn't come around too often. Devils got alot scarier picking him up for nothing really off their roster

Someone tap Darcy on the shoulder, wake him up and let him know teams are making deals right now.

Kovalchuk might not have been a perfect fit for Buffalo, but this shows what great General Managers do -- they make bold moves and are not afraid to take a chance at the Stanley Cup. Darcy and all his players have been too comfortable for too long. Darcy will never be classified a great GM -- the Sabres will never win a cup with him at the helm. We will see the ultra-safe minor move and a first round exit. The usual excuse will be the same again: there were no trades available. Too comfortable, too soft, too ultra-conservative. Think outside the box for once!

Anybody but the Devils, Caps or Sens would have been fine.

really. for that mess? we couldn't pack up a few better players and prospect for him? what the hell.

Keep rooting for these Buffalo teams---they are a FARM system for the rest of the NHL---while you suckers are paying MAJOR LEAGUE PRICES! To see minor league talent-----check it out!...hahaha...how do teams like Pittsburgh afford Malkin and Crosby and Staal, San Jose afford Thorton and Heatley, etc,etc,etc.... Its disgusting

They basically gave up Chris Butler, Drew Stafford, Gerbe or Mancari and a #1 pick for a guy who has scored 328 goals since 2001. You cant tell me we couldnt put a better package then the Devils together for Ilya. That being said Ilya will not fit into that system they are a defensive team so unless they change their whole system for him he wont be as big as an impact for the devils as Hossa was for the penguins.

bam you got a deal. a better deal than what ATL got from NJ.

That's like trading Stafford, Mancari, Tallinder, and a pic. I would do that deal in a second. New Jersey was looking for a way to get rid of Cormier anyway. This is a respectable move that shows NJ is serious about winning a cup. Buffalo will never go all out to win a cup so long as Regier and Quinn are in this sad organization. Regier's trade history is straight up depressing, and it is not going to get any better. The last elite player we had was LaFontaine, and what did darcy trade him for??? a 2nd round pic that turned out to be ANDREW PETERS!!! How embarrassing..

Lets face it folks he isn't willing to mortage the future just for a guy that could possibly be a rental player. Do I believe the Sabres could put a package together that was better than New Jersey I say yes but here's the problem. His contract and the sabres don't have much cap space left to make a move like that! Plus come on everyone what's the sabres ways. It's build thru the draft because it's the easiest way to do it. Buffalo won't get big name talent unless they are able to draft them. It's been this way for how many years now?

Look at his post it's so true of the Sabres and other teams!

typical-same nonsense we have put up with year after year the best get better and we stay idle--i truly think this organization is content with just selling a few more playoff tickets and could care less if we win it all-after all making the playoffs sells more tickets next year

18,690...that is the ONLY thing driving Quinn, Darcy and TG.

Butler, Kennedy, Kassian and a #1pick

They traded away their entire futurefor one rent-a-hotshot. Doubt it will be worth it. Sure, he'll increase the Devils' lack of scoring, but I doubt it will be enough to throw them into the deep end of the playoffs. I agree Darcy needs to make a bold move, but I think it should be more of a reasonable long term investment. I like the Ray Whitney idea, too bad he's going for too much collateral at this point.

For the uneducated Sabre's fan, this move was impossible. So is most deals people want. We are right against the cap, so you can't call them cheap either. We have Pominville %5 mil Connolly 4.5 Roy 4, Miller 6.5 and Vanek 7.5. This is the core of our team. Unless we move one of them no big deal will be made. As soon as one of those players goes we'll hear nothing but whining about how someone's favorite player is gone. Realisticly we cannot pheasably pick up a player who is over 4$ mil a season. On top of all the players we have signed for years we also have to sign Myers, Tallinder and Gaustad hopefully to long term deals soon. Darcy is doing a fine job building from within. We are one of the few teams in the league that aren't looking at having to unload half their roster to stay under the cap. I.E. Chicago, San Jose, Philly, New York, Montreal, Pitt, and now Nj. Let Darcy do his job, He has alot of players he'd like to keep. Making that big splash will ruin that. With that said I have no problem moving Butler, Stafford, Mccarthur, or some prospects for a good vet, but honestly those players are not gonna attract much that is affordable, their salaries aren't high enough to open alot of cap for us.

OK Darcy suck up then address why we are up against the cap with underacieving players! you cant have it all ways. Anyway you look at it, Regier sucks, deal with it and lets get him out of here unless you like mediocrity

The 3rd year of the February-April collapse is on. This team was playing above their head for the first 3 months of the season. They now are falling back because basically the Buffalo Sabres are roster full of mediocrities. Myers is a prodigy and Miller is a savior but the rest of the team is medicore. I like Grier, Gaustad, Kaleta and Kennedy but everyone else is not very good. Derek Roy is not good folks. He is a career mediocrity as is Pominville, Butler, Sekera, Tallinder, Lydman Paetsch, Rivet, Montador and even Tim Connolly for that matter. They may have won enoough games to just sneek in...maybe they get the eighth spot but it wouldn't surprise me if they end up at their usual spot in 10th. This is Larry Quinn and Darcy Regier's fault. They mismanage everything. Their goal is not winning a cup. Its a very low standard of excellence just like the Bills.

Thanks "Salary Cap" guy put some of the basic concepts into perspective, I'm getting pretty sick and tired of all the "Y DINT WE GIT KOVALCHUK LOLN00B DARCY REGIER FIRE QUINN" BS. Go look at NHL salaries. Notice we don't have much room to make a giant non logical trade. Also, look at our history. Once we lost the big 3 (Campbell Briere Drury) we needed to do a rebuild. This team has melded so well in that time because we kept our core players. I agree we could def. offer up a trade for some of our younger guys so they can go on to show off more of their talent elsewhere, but I'm going out on a limb here to possibly offer up Derek Roy Stafford and Lydman/Butler for one or two solid forwards. That would be my big move theoretically, but teams would have to absorb some of Roy's contract, which is at a pretty decent level. Dropping those three would open up space for some more offensivly inclined players. We shall see...

The Sabres do have a "good" not Great core of talent!!! we just lack a Solid Blueliner on the PP...Our defense 5 on 5 is solid, Well besides Rivet and Butler but even Butler has his days, Rivet is just to slow for this system. Sabres are built for speed...My "BIG MOVE" would be sending Stafford/Roy or Butler/Rivet combos to Toronto for Kaberle..this should free up enough space to sign Kaberle for 2 or 3 years. Now I'm no GM so there may be another logical trade out there, but I think a mobile Defenseman on the point on the PP (besides Myers) would open up a whole new arsenal for Buffalo, and pick up a solid forward to replace Stafford or Roy and see what happens....JUST A THOUGHT!

The team is not ready to make a truthful run at the cup. They are still missing a gritty goal scorer (ie. Gausted with a little more talent)and a killer attitude (needed to win in the playoffs). Proof has never been so obvious than the recent hit on Miller and a very little response from the team. Take their record on the recent West Coast Trip. Most of those games demanded long grinding periods and body on body contact to get the "ugly" goal. Buffalo was/is sup-par in this catagory. LOOK for the right trade to get the team ready for next year, we're not going far in the Eastern Conference Playoffs without that.

thats what well hear AGAIN this year. other teams in our confrence and divsion are pulling the trigger.darcey will will til the last sec. of the trade deadline and make some bogus minor league trade and say that there wasint anything out there that fit the sabres. same ole song and dance. we should get something good in return for roy, stafford, and one of our young defenceman. i hate this time of the year with darcy as our g.m.!!! we need a goal scorer!! hello!!!

I still think we are a gritty goal scoring forward and a killer attitude away from making a deep run into the playoffs. Evident on the team's lack of response to the hit on Miller and the recent West Coast trip. Their inability to grind out long periods only to get the "ugly" goal is something this team still has to learn.

Just hope they keep losing to wake up our idiot general manager. This team sucks! I'd fire Ruff to go with it. If Muckler was still here Kovalchuk would be here.

I think Ruff's the problem here and not Darcy. Miller again tonight. He needs a rest. There are problems in the locker room as well. These guys are not liking this system one bit. Ruff is losing this team. Forget any trades and let this ride out and fire Ruff.

I agree Don't want to give them away but a solid Mobile Defenseman can be a huge upgrade, I still think Butler is in a shell (like Campbell was) and will come out of it, before his injury he was outstanding, but now just an average 14 min a game guy. I just like Kaberle's style.

Good luck beating the Devils in the playoffs Darcy!!

I can’t believe that out of all the potential and viable markets/teams in the league, he chose New Jersey where the fan base is in a coma compared to the others that were in the bidding. They can’t even sell-out the venue(the Prudential Center) for the life of them with a perennial powerhouse that is the Devils. The Flyers, Bruins…even the Rangers would have been a better option for him to relocate and display his skill set imo. Ah-well, he’ll find out sooner than later that he left one critically disinterested fan base for another. And I don’t say all of this out of envy/jealousy. Actually quite the opposite. I’m stoked that he went to such an unpopular market and I’d like nothing more than to see Kovy be successful in his endeavours for him personally and for the fans of NJ.

If it falls in their lap, fine. If it doesn't... enh- they're still selling tickets. How do we free up cap room? Try to trade some salary. Put someone on waivers. Do the job of a GM. It's not so much that Kovalchuk didn't land here, it's that NO ONE thinks Buffalo will ever make a trade for some help. Not even the GM. That's a problem.

I know that Burke & Co. have stated to the press their adamance in trading Kaberle, but nothing’s impossible—if ownership had the desire, they’d be able to coax a deal to get him; but on that note it would cost a lot and as such is merely wishful thinking. As for Whitney, the odds of him becoming a Sabre before the trade deadline is more realistic although unpromising as well as his terms are a bit much to entertain.

this organization is one big comic strip with creators Quinn and Regier printing the same old stale material season after season—eventually you’d think the readers, or in this case the fans, would stop buying into the product. This latest blockbuster deal illustrates just how impervious/oblivious these guys really are when it comes to building and running a true contender even if it’s bringing in a BONA FIDEskilled(as in NOT your Staffords, Kennedys, Pominvilles you get my point) rental like Kovalchuck—a player like that just catapults your already deadly team to unequivocal venerated status. Sure it could be argued that Lamoriello payed a steep price for Kovy’s (rental)services, and he was desperate, but that’s not my point. My point is that HE did make a move, one that made his team more competitive. I mean, at least that’s better than being passive and staying pat—you know, the status quo for Buffalo professional sports year in and year out. You have to show some moxie by taking bold moves—albeit it may be unpopular at the moment—to show the fans that another losing campaign will not be acceptable and nothing short of a Stanley Cup will suffice whatever the price. Shake things up in the locker room. What do you have to lose? I say not anymore than what could be gained. And I’m not harping on the fact that Buffalo didn’t enter the sweepstakes for Kovy so much as they haven’t made any noise whatsoever with regard to trades(ie, speculation, rumours etc.) insofar. Since the official trade deadline is March 3rd (one day after the Olympics which will be too late) teams are treating the deadline to be before it and are making all the power moves now as in not waiting, Darcy. Winning organizations ie, Red Wings, Penguins, Devils etc., invest time scouting, money bringing in formidable NHL level talent(a scarcity on the Sabres). Other owners/managers have the desire and know-how to build championship-calibre teams unlike the Sabres as proven. Okay, you’ve had what’s considered to be a ‘successful’ season seeing as how the team’s exceeded expectations so far. That said, why be content? Human nature dictates that once a certain level/station has been attained in life, to try and advance on what you’ve already built to the next level. In this case it would be the Stanley Cup and nothing else as we’ve experienced everything but. Why not observe the discrepencies and act by taking the appropriate steps to shore them up? I just don’t understand this management’s logic that’s all. Paying customers of cable to watch games on TV and patrons who go pay to see this team live, ought to assemble in front of the Sabres front office and picket to show our aggrevation. Then we should march, or take the Metro, on down to Quinn’s and later Regier’s house and voice our displeasure outside their respective residencies.