Pick a Pegula-Era GM.

[darksabre]

2 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Darcy’s failure to keep the lockout squad together is mostly on him, but Quinn talks partial blame for Black Sunday and Golisano for the collapse of the development program.

He wasn’t a genius, but we are comparing him to Murray and Botterill who, in 7 combined seasons haven’t topped 81 points or won a playoff game. Darcy’s teams (extrapolating the lockout) topped 81 points 14 times in 15 years, and won 57 playoff games - nearly as many as every other Sabres GM combined.

 

 

I think Murray might have been more successful if Darcy hadn't burned the whole damn thing to the ground.

[PASabreFan]

44 minutes ago, darksabre said:

That's kinda what I'm saying. There was certainly something he could have done, right? Instead his legacy is that he failed to re-sign them both, fired his best friend coach, started a tank when he shouldn't have, and sold off too many parts to do it. He destroyed his reputation AND the team, and it all started with rolling over for LQ.

Pegula-Benson-Black-Sawyer-Battista. The black and gold tank crew. I'll never believe the tank was his idea. In fact, he explicitly said how far the rebuild was going to go would be up to Terry. Why Darcy left or was fired or whatever is still an open question — "he was doing too good a job at tanking" never made sense to me.

[nfreeman]

1 hour ago, Eleven said:

I don't know who Regier blames for the loss of Drury and Briere, but I blame Quinn.  How could you not?

As for the development pipeline, that is solidly on Regier.  

I blame OSP.  It sounds like the Drury contract was agreed and then sat on his desk for over a month while he hemmed and hawed.  That's not LQ's fault. 

LQ might've been the visionary though who decided the Sabres didn't need Briere because they had Roy and Connolly.

Separately, IMHO there is no real debate here regarding the OP.  Darcy had real NHL accomplishments along with plenty of mistakes and a lousy end to his career, while the other 2 have royally crapped the bed while accomplishing less than what a SabreSpace GM committee would've accomplished.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

57 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

Pegula-Benson-Black-Sawyer-Battista. The black and gold tank crew. I'll never believe the tank was his idea. In fact, he explicitly said how far the rebuild was going to go would be up to Terry. Why Darcy left or was fired or whatever is still an open question — "he was doing too good a job at tanking" never made sense to me.

I really am starting to believe that good ol' DR wanted nothing to do with it, but agreed to stay on for the burning to the ground phase.  Then requested a release.  I do not believe that the word 'fired' ws ever used.  I don't think it ever is.

[jad1]

I've often wondered what how things would have played out if Pegula became owner instead of Rigas.  If 'drill another well' would have owned the Sabres before the salary cap.  Would Peca have held out? Would Hasek have forced a trade?  Would Pegula have delivered on the promise to give the team all the tools to be successful?

And how would things been different with no artificial cap after the lockout?  Would Pegula have addressed the Drury/Briere contracts like he addressed Eichel's contract?

Anyway, at his peak, Regier was better at drafting, trading, and team building than Murray and Botterill can ever hope to be.  Under Regier during the better years, the locker room never felt like the morgue it has been the last 9 years.  The Amerks also won the Calder Cup under Regier, while today the fans are happy when an Amerks team full of AHL lifers gets swept in the first round of the playoffs.

If you look at the three choices at their peak, Regier is the obvious choice.  At their nadirs, they're all pretty much the same.

 

 

[Taro T]

9 minutes ago, jad1 said:

I've often wondered what how things would have played out if Pegula became owner instead of Rigas.  If 'drill another well' would have owned the Sabres before the salary cap.  Would Peca have held out? Would Hasek have forced a trade?  Would Pegula have delivered on the promise to give the team all the tools to be successful?

And how would things been different with no artificial cap after the lockout?  Would Pegula have addressed the Drury/Briere contracts like he addressed Eichel's contract?

Anyway, at his peak, Regier was better at drafting, trading, and team building than Murray and Botterill can ever hope to be.  Under Regier during the better years, the locker room never felt like the morgue it has been the last 9 years.  The Amerks also won the Calder Cup under Regier, while today the fans are happy when an Amerks team full of AHL lifers gets swept in the first round of the playoffs.

If you look at the three choices at their peak, Regier is the obvious choice.  At their nadirs, they're all pretty much the same.

 

 

The Amerks won a Calder Cup because Donner the Hutt blew his entire wad on AHL vets and got lucky.  He never had the capital to do that again and was underfunded on all his future ventures.

nfreeman is correct about why Drury ended up unsigned.  Regier & Drury did their parts, Golisano ####ed that one up.

And though Regier did build 4 teams at minimum that were good enough to win the SC, he had to get fired for what he did at the end.  That team he had with Rolston coaching after an imaginary off-season coaching search and darn near nothing down on the farm to help would've been '74-'75 Capitals bad.  The team likely would be better now than it is, but it was unwatchable and would've been IMHO for at least through the '15-'16 season and then still very bad the next 2 years.

[jad1]

21 minutes ago, Taro T said:

The Amerks won a Calder Cup because Donner the Hutt blew his entire wad on AHL vets and got lucky.  He never had the capital to do that again and was underfunded on all his future ventures.

nfreeman is correct about why Drury ended up unsigned.  Regier & Drury did their parts, Golisano ####ed that one up.

And though Regier did build 4 teams at minimum that were good enough to win the SC, he had to get fired for what he did at the end.  That team he had with Rolston coaching after an imaginary off-season coaching search and darn near nothing down on the farm to help would've been '74-'75 Capitals bad.  The team likely would be better now than it is, but it was unwatchable and would've been IMHO for at least through the '15-'16 season and then still very bad the next 2 years.

No doubt all three of these guys have done things that merit them being fired.  Regier has more in the 'plus' column than the others, by far, though.

When Regier was good, he was one of the best GMs in the league.  When he was bad, he was one of the worst.  Some of that was due to the owners he worked for. Some was due to his declining ability to judge talent and to make deals.

 

Edited April 18, 2020 by jad1