Written on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 11:02am by dave in Rocha | No Comments

Bernier deal, revisited

A lot of fans and pundits last week speculated that the trading away of Steve Bernier was because of an impending offer sheet from the Canucks. People thought that Vancouver GM Mike Gillis was trying to avoid looking Lowe-esque by alerting Darcy to the situation before the sheet was offered (I guess you’d call it that). That turned out to be not true, for if it were, Vancouver would have announced Bernier’s shiny new contract right away. Instead, they were faced with this situation:

The Blues signed Group II free agent forward Steve Bernier to an offer sheet worth $2.5 million for next season, which the Canucks were quick to match. If they didn’t, Vancouver would have received St. Louis’ second round draft choice in 2009.

So what’s the deal here? Is St. Louis GM Larry Pleau just getting revenge for the offer sheet Gilles gave to David Backes last week, or would he have made the same move had Bernier still been a Sabre? Honestly, I have more important things to worry about these days. What I do know is that the compensation to the Canucks would have been the Blues’ 2nd round pick in 2009, while Darcy got us Vancouver’s 3rd round pick in 2009 PLUS their 2nd rounder in 2010. So I guess you could call that coming out ahead. Either way, we used part of that package for Rivet, and that’s all that matters now.

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  1. Gilbert P says:
    July 9, 2008 at 12:55 pm

    I still like getting Rivet and two draft picks for Campbell. Bernier was essentially a draft pick that we gave up to get Rivet.

  2. jan says:
    July 9, 2008 at 5:40 pm

    The Sabres have only forwards to trade, etc. to get another player. tough to figure out which one you want to give up to get another defenseman , for example.

  3. Derek J. Punaro says:
    July 10, 2008 at 2:55 pm

    Ouch – we made #4 on Yahoo’s 10 least desirable NHL cities for free agents. http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/The-Deadbeat-Club-10-least-desirable-NHL-cities?urn=nhl,92689

  4. jan says:
    July 10, 2008 at 4:02 pm

    if the Sabres threw really, really big $$$ at some free agents, they’d come to Buffalo in a heartbeat. Some players will go to whatever team offers the most money, no matter where that team plays.

  5. Kevin J. says:
    July 10, 2008 at 5:47 pm

    If the only reason you give in backing up ranking the Sabres that bad in cities for free agents is a Bucky Gleason column, you have no argument in my eyes.

  6. ElmaGolf says:
    July 12, 2008 at 1:29 pm

    @3 – From the article: “Again, recent history shows that the Blues have been an attractive option for a high-profile free agent. But it’s hard to drum up much excitement on the open market when President John Davidson publicly closes the wallet and declares the Blues are building from within. Like the Kings, maturation and success will get St. Louis back on UFA shopping lists”

    This just shows how ridiculous these rankings are.

    When St. Louis was willing to overspend on free agents with little success? THAT’S ATTRACTIVE.

    Not willing to waste money? Oh, how UNATTRACTIVE!

    See – it has nothing to do with the city or management. Big shock – free agents are attracted to overspending.

 

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