- Bucky Gleason of the Buffalo News: The Sabres currently sit near the bottom of the league. Gleason thinks the Sabres should consider trading Ryan Miller (33), Jason Pominville (30) and Thomas Vanek (29). All will be unrestricted free agents after next season. Miller:
“I want the situation to be that we’re in a position to win a Cup sooner than later,” Miller said. “That’s ideal.”
“Do a couple of pieces need to come in? Or do they need to develop? How long is it going to take?” Miller said. “They are things you have to evaluate as you see decisions management makes to give you a timetable. Right now, yeah, it seems longer. But you have the trade deadline, the draft.
“Do we become a younger team or do we become a team that’s going to build and try to get this core group of guys a chance to move forward? Or are we not the core anymore? Who knows? They’re not decisions we make. We react off management and circumstance.”
Vanek added:
“It’s always in the back of your mind,” Vanek said. “Stay here or move on? At the end of the day, it’s the team’s decision. I haven’t heard from them. But, yeah, you think about different situations.”
- Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News: The NHL trade deadline is less than three weeks away. Pending Sabres free agents Robyn Regehr, Jordan Leopold and Jochen Hecht should get some interest, and the same with Drew Stafford. It will be interesting to see what they do with Jason Pominville, Thomas Vanek and Ryan Miller.
“These are things that obviously are tough,” Pominville said prior to Tuesday’s 3-1 win over the New York Rangers. “Everyone has different situations. Guys have families. Some guys don’t. I think the biggest thing is doing what we can on the ice to help the team and do the things you can control.
“The other things that go around with it, I think we’re all professional enough to understand them. … Management has to control what they control. We gotta do what we can do. Right now we haven’t done enough.”
On WGR Radio, GM Darcy Regier directly addressed the idea of moving Miller, Vanek or Pominville.
“The reality of those three is if you were to put them on the market, they’re very desirable players,” Regier said. “Given Getzlaf’s contract in Anaheim, which is really the first big one in the new CBA, their contracts are going to be very reasonable. But right now they’re here, we expect to keep them here and build with them. Having said that, where we are, we have to be open to a lot of different things.”
The Sabres have been scouting the Kings, Avalanche and Blues.
Miller and Pominville have no-trade clauses where they submit a list of eight teams they will not accept a trade too. Vanek doesn’t have a no-trade. Regehr has a full no-trade clause.
- Darren Dreger talks about Ryan Miller.