Michael Peca was arguably the most popular Sabre during the black and red goathead era (amongst the players that didn’t wear #39, that is), and it’s easy to see why. The Sabres’ slogan in the late ’90s was “The Hardest Working Team In Hockey”, and nobody embodied that more than “Captain Crunch”. Night after night, he left everything he had on the ice. He hustled for every loose puck and never quit on a play. He hit everything that moved and, by doing so, elevated the physical play of his teammates (see “Varada, Vaclav”). He could be counted on to score a clutch goal every now and again as well. In short, the guy was everything a fan in a blue-collar town could ask for.
So how did the Sabres show their appreciation for Peca’s heart and leadership? By lowballing him when his contract came up, causing him to sit out the entire 2000-01 season, then trading him to the Islanders for Tim Connolly and Taylor Pyatt after the relationship became unsalvageable. Of course! What else did you expect? Scott Michalak of Buffalo Sabres Nation had a wonderful piece recently about the Peca trade, analyzing who “won” the trade once the last remaining link, Tim Connolly, departed. (Scott’s winner: Dominik Hasek.) It was that post which got me thinking: whose fault was this situation, exactly? As you’ve probably figured out from the title of this post, it wasn’t Darcy Regier.
Why You Can’t Blame Darcy Regier for Trading Michael Peca
1)Peca’s style meant there was significant risk. As much as we admired Peca’s play: if I were an NHL GM, I’d be awfully hesitant to give a lot of money to a guy who throws his body around with reckless abandon every shift. Yeah, I’d probably have a team of 18 Jason Pominvilles. All kidding aside, I admit it’s easy to say in hindsight that Peca wasn’t worth the money because his style was risky. It’s a little unfair as well, because it’s not his fault that Darcy Tucker ruined his knee with a dirty hit in the 2002 playoffs. It’s also not Peca’s fault that he was never the same player after that. But the fact remains that a lot of guys like Peca break down at an early age, and being locked into a high-dollar contract for a broken-down player is not a situation Darcy Regier should have wanted to put himself in. (What? Tim who? Yes, I concede Darcy didn’t learn a lesson here.)
2) Regardless of injury risk, Peca probably wanted too much money. It’s hard to find a lot of information on the contract dispute, so I don’t recall exactly what Peca was asking for. But since Peca made $10.5 million in three years with the Islanders, it seems logical that he was asking for $3.5 – $4 million. That was a lot of money for a guy that didn’t score 40 goals in those days, Dead Puck Era or not. And since the Sabres were already paying Dominik Hasek north of $7 million, the likelihood of handing out another high-dollar contract was rather slim, because…
3) You think Golisano was cheap? I’ll go ahead and say it: The Rigas family is the worst thing to ever happen to the Buffalo Sabres. (Yes, I know, I throw that phrase out a lot. Consider this the “Off-Ice, Off-Field” edition of “Worst Thing Ever”.) My recollection of the dark days of the 2002-03 season, when there was a very real possibility of the Sabres folding or leaving town, is the single reason I never jumped on the “Tom Golisano sucks” bandwagon. It’s hard for newer Sabre fans to really appreciate, but that’s how deep the Rigases drove the Sabres into the ground. Players not named Hasek were not getting paid because John Rigas and his family of criminals were so busy embezzling money from the Sabres and other family-owned business like Adelphia Cable that there wasn’t any money left in the piggy bank. It was so bad that Donald Audette was once sent packing over a difference of $100,000. (If I recall, Audette wanted $1.2 million and the Sabres wouldn’t pay more than $1.1. For a 30-goal scorer!)
4) It takes two to tango. I’ve spent three bullet points on the Sabres’ unwillingness to pay Peca, but his role in this messy divorce can’t be ignored. It takes a special breed of stubborn to forego a seven-figure paycheck by sitting out an entire year of hockey. As much as the Sabres deserve criticism for refusing to budge from their proposal, so does Peca for not deviating from his own demands. He could have chosen to accept less money for a short-term contract just to get back on the ice and further establish his worth, and ultimately it was his holdout that forced the trade to the Islanders.
5) Regier won the trade. Now that we’ve established Peca wasn’t going to get paid by the Sabres, it’s clear that Regier’s only option was to trade him. Before you spit venom and send angry emails, let it be known that I understand the only way there will be a #19 in the rafters of the First Niagara Center (yeah, that name will take a while to get used to) is if it bears a name other than Tim Connolly. But Peca only had one good season left before his knee was Tuckered. Meanwhile, out of Connolly the Sabres got 462 games, 93 goals, and 319 points over seven seasons (these totals don’t count Tim’s aborted 2006-07 campaign). From a perspective of longevity and pure production, the Sabres won that trade. Toss in four moderately useful seasons from Taylor Pyatt, and it’s hard to argue Darcy Regier didn’t get equivalent value by trading Michael Peca. =========
It’s unfortunate that Peca and the Sabres couldn’t come to an agreement. The Sabres were a year removed from a run to the Stanley Cup final and Peca’s absence was, as Scott put it in the article I linked above, “devastating”. Might Peca on the ice have helped, for example, when the Sabres were clinging to a late Game Six lead in the 2001 semis against the Penguins? I submit that it would.
Had Peca remained a Sabre and stayed healthy (in direct contrast to points I’ve previously made, I’ll admit), perhaps the Sabres’ post-2001 slide isn’t as rapid or as dramatic. It certainly would have spared Sabres fans ten years of vitriol towards Tim Connolly – that much is obvious. (Knowing us Sabre fans, we would have simply picked someone else, though.)
But poor ownership and stubbornness on both sides forced Darcy’s hand. In doing the only thing he could after the situation deteriorated past the breaking point, Regier actually found a way to improve his team. For making the best of a bad situation, Darcy Regier should be praised, not criticized. =========
You can read more of Mike’s articles at Roll the Highlight Film, or follow him on Twitter at @mtracz.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
