A Season In Review: Derek Roy
For the past three seasons and currently, #9 Derek Roy has been the #1 Center for the Buffalo Sabres. This means he has been on a line with top wingers Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville. For the past few seasons, there have been numerous criticisms about Roy, but most of all, the fans believe that he is a “locker room cancer.” Despite this, he is still one of the teams most productive players.
Since joining the team full time in 2005, he has been seldom injured and has missed little time each season while averaging 70 points per season. Last season, Roy was rolling along for the first 35 games at a point per game, before being knocked out for the season with a torn quad tendon. This season, Roy produced the lowest numbers in his career since he played 49 games his rookie season. In 80 of 82 games, Roy scored 17 goals, 27 assists for 44 points and a minus 7. This season is obviously considered a failure of a season. Now there isn’t really much to dive into with Roy in this breakdown since there isn’t much noteworthy to talk about, he was never injured, or sick, and he didn’t move up and down the roster much until after the trade deadline. Roy started the season on the second line with Ennis and Leino, since Adam took the #1 spot for the first month. Then Hecht came back from injury and played a month with Vanek and Pommers until re-injuring himself. Finally, Roy regained the #1 center spot, and played with those two until the trade deadline, when the lines were shaken up again. Roy then played with Leino and Pominville, while Vanek was paired with Hodgson and Tropp. This season, according to ESPN, Roy was considered our top performer in only two games.
Like I said, not a whole lot to dive into, his stats are terrible and there really isn’t a reason for it that I can talk about. What I am going to speak about is the hopes and dreams of the fans. As stated, Roy is considered a “cancer” and that was just reinforced when he called out Lindy Ruff during locker clean out day. To the locker room, he is a great guy and a great leader, but to the fans, he needs to go and fast. Everyone is looking for him to find his way to Edmonton in a possible trade up to the #1 draft pick. But no matter how he goes, everyone wants to see his overpaid a** out of the Queen City. At $4 million with only one more year on his deal the debate is whether to keep him for one more season, allowing him to up his game in his contract year, or tell him to pack his bags and head to the airport for a draft pick or replacement. We can only watch and wait come June 27th to see what will happen to our “#1 Center.”
Up Next is #10 Christian Erhoff