Boring NHL Deadline
By Tim Redinger
The Buffalo Sabres stuck true to the form that they would not do anything leading up until the trade deadline until after the current homestand. The timing of the Boyes deal was based on the fact that he was playing in a contest in Calgary, and the Sabres did it so that he could join up with the team in order to play against the New York Rangers.
As of 1:00PM EST – the Buffalo Sabres remained silent on making any changes to the team. With plenty of wholes to fill for a playoff run, not even looking at any rental player for the team this year is a bad decision; if you think you are going to make a run at the playofs this year, take a chance on a rental player – if it works out then resign the guy, if it doesn’t work out then you have nothing more than another Tim Connolly on your team.
As of 3PM EST, Darcy Regier confirmed that he Buffalo Sabres were done with operating the phones on trade deadline day, the Sabres did very little in the term of “buying” for the 2011 playoff push.
So we added Boyes. We kept Connolly. We lose Connolly after this year and get nothing in return for him – not even a pick. The Buffalo Sabres, in an attempt to make a playoff run this year wanted to buy instead of sell. They also wanted to protect the future. Now we are forced to take a run at the playoffs with almost an identical team into the final run of the season.
We failed to address our blue line, which could use some stability and consistentency. As much as I would have liked to see a move done, we are forced to deal with Patrick Lalime as the backup goaltender. We are weak up the middle.
If the Buffalo Sabres make the playoffs, which they probably will as long as they don’t have an epic fail – they have games in hand and games against the teams right in front of them, and they are realistically in reach.
Don’t get me wrong, I was not expecting a new owner to step in and change Darcy enough that we would have landed Richards, Boyes, and a top defensemen – but between six and ten million dollars in salary cap room, you would think that they would have done something more than just add one player to play a position that is already pretty deep.
I do not agree with the decision to keep Tim Connolly on the roster beyond 3PM today. There were obvious suitors in the Western Conference that would have given at least a draft pick for Tim Connolly, and you could basically have gotten the second round pick that you gave up in order to get Boyes on you team.
The fact that there were suitors available for Tim Connolly, a player who has done nothing for your organization this year, and will walk away from your team on July 1st makes me want to run face first into a brick wall.
Sometimes it only makes a small improvement to make a team better. Boyes is familiar with several players on this roster and should be excited coming to a team that has right now probably the highest excitement level in the league. Adding those two excitement levels together are a recipe for success, that will hopefully turn into some score sheet production.