(WGR 550) -- On the heels of a tumultuous campaign that ended without a post-season appearance, members of the Buffalo Sabres front office met with the media to address the past, present and future of the organization.
Managing partner Larry Quinn, general manager Darcy Regier and head coach Lindy Ruff spoke Thursday morning at HSBC Arena, and here are some of the more important sound bites:
Regier on the team's direction regarding personnel:
"I’ll know better when we finish a full assessment. It could come through trade. It could come through free agency in some shape or form. It could come through players coming up through the minors."
"Pending a final analysis, I think that
leadership is one of the areas we’d like to add to. There are probably some other areas we’ll get to."
Regier on inking Jason Pominville and Ryan Miller to long-term contract extensions:
"It’s very important and we’ll do everything we can to lock them up. That process doesn’t start until... the earliest point is July 1. We’re not locked on. We’re not going to look at it as if it’s not done by July 2, (It's over)."
Regier on whether it was fair to offer Brian Campbell a short-term extension:
"It was a contract offer that allows a player to have two kicks at the can. You have a young player who at 28, gets paid a very high rate and then has another opportunity to go to the marketplace. It isn’t just in favor of the club."
Regier on whether Miller's worth is in the range of a Henrik Lundqvist-like contract:
"We’ve certainly discussed the ballpark that we’ll be in, and we’ll cross that bridge and work toward getting him signed. We all feel it’s important for us to find a way to keep him here."
Quinn on keeping Regier around for the long-term (Regier has one year left on deal):
"I asked him, 'Darcy, do you still love it? Do you still want to do it?' I think as far as ownership’s concerned, if he still has the fire in the belly, he obviously knows he could stay here."
Quinn on longer-term deals:
"The 6-year, 7-year thing is a recent phenomenon. We’re not opposed to it. We tried to find out what was important to him. We didn’t think we could get something done with him and we moved on. Some of the teams will experience it now. We were one of the top teams coming out of the lockout and this CBA system is being defined in large part based on our players."
Quinn on the team's goals:
"Darcy asked me this week, and our goal is to win the Stanley Cup. We’re probably not going to be able to do it by going out and buying the most expensive free agents."
Quinn, paraphrased, on the allegations that the team doesn't spend:
--CBA dictates that team's have to spend at least 56 percent of revenues on players.
-- Sabres have spent 65-70 percent the last two years
-- Viability of franchise has to come from revenues being more than expenses.
-- Owner Tom Golisano invested 20 million in losing seasons before CBA
Quinn on scouting:
"A team that doesn’t develop players through their system is at the mercy of this league."
Quinn on spending to the cap in the future:
"If it goes up 12 percent a year forever, it’s going to be pretty difficult. We spent about 47 million on hockey players. When we bought this team, we were spending 29. We’ve proven that we can. We do it with a lot of smarts, a lot of efficiency. This year we had to do it with a lot of young players. It’s always a challenge, but I wouldn’t want any other one."
Ruff on the team's struggles:
"There was reference to giving up leads. We had fairly good success at locking down with two lines last year. Elevating the Roy line, they were pure offense last year, and asking them to put up on the defensive side, they struggled. There was growth there. It was tough growth, but it was growth."
Ruff on Miller:
"His season was a little bit of a roller coaster ride, and he dealt with some personal adversity early in the season and I think that hurt him. There was a good period of time that I felt he got his game locked down, and it wasn’t as consistent (as it was in 2006-07). There was time that we didn’t protect his backside in games. It’s the time of year that players are going to be hard on themselves."
Ruff on whether he wants to see Miller play 70-plus games:
"Ideally, no (to 70-plus games). It was a very trying season for him, and you don’t know what you’re going to get out of your goaltender until you go there. Hindsight is always a tough place to go. I think he lost some quality practice time in a real tough schedule. In February and March, he couldn’t take three days to practice (the little things)."
Ruff on Tallinder and Lydman:
"First, I’ll talk about Henrik. You addessed the broke his arm twice, separated his shoulder this year, had some very serious injuries that didn’t allow him to train. His game wasn’t anywhere near what I have him as a defenseman. His biggest challenge is to mentally get over those injuries and physically get stronger."
"In Toni’s case. Toni for the most part always shows a lot of battle. He’s going to lay down block shots. He’s gonna hit. Toni’s game wasn’t as good either, and I think those two kind of fed off each other’s weaknesses. They’re disappointed. We’re disappointed."
Ruff on Thomas Vanek blaming himself for the team not making the playoffs:
"He scored 36 goals or whatever he scored. His growth is not in the goal scoring category. That is his gift that he’s always had.
I’ve told him that his growth is going to have to come away from the puck, possibly as a penalty killer on our team. I identified that as an area I’d like to see his growth continue. We may not be as close as we are if Thomas doesn’t get the number of goals we got. This isn’t an individual sport, it’s a team sport."
Ruff on Steve Bernier getting into better shape.
"He is in elite shape. He’s in as good a shape physically as any player who’s walked into our training room. We’ve had players who’ve had to lose 15, 16 pounds to get into elite shape. Steve is very lean. What he needs is, as a big man, a little bit more quickness. That takes footwork, five months of, it may be skating instruction, it may be off-ice footwork. He’s a young player that needs a lot of direction. He’s an elite athlete when it comes to condition."
Ruff on having a solid captain:
"I’ve always been a guy that if leadership isn’t everywhere, it just can’t come from one person. The co-captaincy seemed to work good for us, with Danny and Dru. In an ideal world, I would like one captain. I just felt that as young as were, to see how guys would react to leadership… we saw a lot of good things. At the end, we were still a very young team."
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Originally Posted by Smashingt
