#regehr

[chinchillin67]

Bouwmeester to St Louis for a 1st and two prospects.

Regehr to Kings for a pair of 2nd round draft picks.

Ryan Clowe for SJ will be a scratch tonight as he's in rumours.

[sabresbuffalonuggets-blog1]

Tyler Myers got into his first fight last night and Robyn Regehr showed that if he's not fighting Zdeno Chara, he will absolutely pound your face in. 

[ohmytheon]

A small dork moment:

So I'm intensely playing NHL 12. While playing against the Buffalo Sabers, I notice a player is named Regehr. I only refer to him as Rhaegar. My boyfriend and friend think I'm just mispronouncing his name. Good times. I'm a dork.

[madcameljockey-blog]

Waiting for the other shoe to drop... (Regehr Trade)

Disclaimer: If you are not a fan of hockey - you'll probably want to stop reading a sentence ago.

I hope there's more to come from Feaster. We still have Free Agency coming on July 1st. The move made on draft day has me interested, disappointed, and waiting (hoping) for something further to fill void.

First let's examine simply the bodies exchanged (dating back to the acquisition of Regehr). We traded Theo Fleury away for Robyn Regehr, Rene Corbet and Wade Belak. Belak was later claimed off waivers. Corbet would be traded for Brad Werenka (career ended with the Flames due to concussion). Now Regehr has been traded for Chris Butler and Paul Byron. So that becomes Fleury for Butler and Byron, Werenka and Belak for a few years, and a nice 11 year run with Regehr (which I have the utmost appreciation for). Ouch. Other voice says we gave up Fleury's drug fueled temper tantrum horrible play days for years of service from Robyn, and some other players too. We were good to be rid of him when we were. I don't think so - I think going to the Avs was bad for him, Chicago and New York were even worse. I think things would have been better for him staying in Calgary. He knows better than I do though.

So our team is pretty tight against the salary cap. I get that. We have a number of large salaries tied with no movement/trade clauses that are hard to do anything with. I get that too. This trade shed 2 big salaries (one of which was worth it to me, the other not at all). It's good we're rid of Kotalik, he wasn't working out here at all. Hopefully he can rekindle the magic he had when he played for the Sabres before. So in order to get Buffalo to swallow the Kotalik pill - something has to give. You ask the assistant captain of your team, who has served for 11 years in red, laid his heart out every game, to waive his no movement clause. In itself that's huge. Could argue his family is now a staple in the Calgary community, but most multi-year Calgary Flames are. I'm happy that we've increased our salary cap breathing room, giving us flexibility in Free Agency and re-signing players. I'm happy with re-signing Tanguay, I like his comments the day after, and I believe he is a steal at $3.5 million per season (compared to other players with similar point totals last season). With this extra money, I'd really appreciate it if Morrison could be re-signed at least. Find somewhere for Stajan to go as well, or else figure out what lights his fire, and fucking light it already.

We have a huge hole to fill. We've just lost 20 minutes from one of the toughest defenceman in the league, every game. A man who made coaches tell players to avoid on the ice (looking at you Hemsky). A representative of Hockey Canada at the World Juniors, World Cup, World Hockey, and Olympics. These are some big shoes to fill for anyone. He was the main go-to guy in the back when it came to minutes against top lines, big strong forwards. Again I repeat - we've got a gaping hole with his departure. To avoid disparaging remarks about our new flames, I'll just say we got back nothing that'll be in the NHL consistently next year, for a guy who was a first round draft pick, and has played like it his whole career so far. Byron was a sixth rounder, Butler chosen in the fourth round (of their respective draft years). This stings too. I would have really liked to see a top six forward come back for Regehr. Honestly - when I heard that the Sabres were "willing to give up a lot" (Feaster) for Regehr I was confused because I couldn't see them parting with Roy, Vanek, Ennis, hell no Miller, so what was a lot? Now I know. My definition of a lot is evidently very different from Feaster's. I think we really could have gotten a lot better. Did Kotalik's involvement in the trade devalue Regehr that much? I don't think so - because Feaster said the deal was good to go as Regehr for Byron and Butler (without the inclusion of Kotalik and a second round pick to Buffalo). When you take away a player that gave the fans a reason to cheer, you need to fill that with another reason to cheer. Signing Tanguay just avoided making another hole. Who is going to fill this one? I have confidence in the rest of our big league defence individually, but on a team level, to deal with three or four lines being rolled by other teams, where's the plug?

Regehr being a Sabre just gives me another reason to cheer for Buffalo - which I'm more than OK with. I think the forwards in the Eastern Conference are in for a rude awakening. The Sabres may well have the lowest goals against (or close to) next season. Looking forward to great stats from Ryan Miller. Good luck Regehr, I know many Flames fans are going to miss you. Byron and Butler - well, I don't really know what to say to you at this point. Welcome to Calgary for starters. See you at training camp. Last words are to Jay Feaster. I really hope you plan on doing something significant with Free Agency. Honestly - and I'll get a lot of flack from some people for this - if we manage to get Ryan Smyth here and slide out another useless contract in the process, I'll feel a lot better. I'm a fan of Ryan Smyth, and I always will be. Another colossal fail trade of a Captain made by the Oilers. Though - how weird would that be. Just picture it - Ryan Smyth in Red, Yellow, White. My eyes are burning.

GO FLAMES GO