Quote:
Originally Posted by mac_82
I defer to you on all things Sabres.
But wasn't he handcuffed by ownership and not able to spend money on upcoming free agents, and having to rely on promotion from within the ranks?
From 06-08 they didn't re-sign JP Dumont, Mike Grier, Danny Briere, Chris Drury, and Danius Zubrus. They traded away Brian Campbell and Biron.
And then the only free agents they basically signed were Spacek and Thibault.
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In some ways previous ownership did handcuff him, yes.
From all reports at the time though, both Drury and Briere were willing to sign long term extensions at the beginning of 06-07 season in the neighbourhood of 5 million each. Regier waffled and by the end of the season those were obviously off the table. Letting Dumont go was an enormous mistake.
Still though, in 06 and 07 this was a championship caliber team that had some bad luck keep them away from a trophy. It takes some awful mismanagement to completely blow up that team into one that was lucky to make the playoffs, and now one that is in dead last.