What is going on with Bernier?

Steve Bernier has been getting quite the tour of the NHL lately. After playing for a number of years in San Jose, he got traded to Buffalo last spring for Brian Campbell. Most analysts felt that a change of location would do Bernier good, and that Buffalo was a good fit for him. After finishing out the season for the Sabres instead of being resigned as a restricted free agent, he was traded to Vancouver for draft picks. Before he could get a deal done in Vancouver, he signed an offer sheet from the St. Louis Blues, but later had the offer matched by Vancouver.

Either Bernier is the most wanted player in the league, or the least wanted. Still Vancouver at least seems committed to him, and playing on a line with the Sedins should be a good fit for Bernier.

Had Vancouver not matched the deal he signed with the Blues, the team would have only received a second round pick as compensation, which is less then the second, and third rounders that were traded to Buffalo for him in the first place.

His contract is $2.5 million for one year, and while he is a good player, I'm not sure he is worth that. As such I'm glad the Sabres had traded him out for the two draft picks instead of the one we would have received instead. With the mass amount of right wingers that made trading him possible to begin with there is no way that Buffalo would have signed him for more than Gaustad is making.

Buffalo and Bernier both appear to have made out nicely from all of this. However if this is how the restricted free agent market is going, I want Paille signed as soon as possible, and am really glad that Paul Gaustad is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Sabres get trading

The Sabres made two trades today, in the first one giving away Bernier for two draft picks, and in the second landing Craig Rivet from San Jose for two draft picks.

The first trade with Bernier makes perfect sense. While his first game in town went very well, he fell off the radar a bit after than. I think he would have made the top fifteen forwards, but only just barely with Kaleta, MacArthur, and Gerbe all close to pushing him out. If this trade puts Gerbe in the starting lineup, I'll be happy.

The second trade helped fill out our need at Defense by bringing in Craig Rivet from the San Jose Sharks. Rivet still has three more season under his contract, at $3.5 million a year, which seems very reasonable. I think it is safe to assume, that he will be put on the second line with Spacek. While I feel this gives us three solid defensive lines, with Nathan Paetesch as a very capable seven defenseman. Still the Sabres are still in talks with Numminen, and that's not a bad thing at all.

Further scoop on Bernier

New Sabre Steve Bernier is currently on pace to score 36 goals and 18 assists for Buffalo by the end of the season. While we doubt that will actually happen, he had a very solid first game in Buffalo, and managed to win over the fans.

With a few years of NHL experience all with the Sharks, Bernier is still very young, and was a first round draft pick in 2003. He is a big player, and seems to be aggressive enough to use that size to his advantage.

On the downside the word is he is known to have off days (as if the Sabres were not already a streaky team), however I think that will be less of a problem for him in Buffalo for a few reasons. First Lindy Ruff is still one of the best coaches in the league. Bernier didn't exactly get along too well with the coach in San Jose, and if anyone knows how to help along young players Lindy can. Furthermore the Sabres have a rather young locker room overall and it looks as if at least him and Roy are getting along pretty well.

Also he is from Canada (Montreal) and is happy to be closer to home. Furthermore he is apparently happy to be in a town that enjoys hockey. Perhaps this will help him get motivated to play a little harder day in and day out, and will help convince him to be willing to stay in Buffalo when it comes to it.

That said it may still be a bit early to really want him back, but so far so good. Honestly imagine what a line with Bernier, Kaleta and Gaustad could do. They would honestly just run people over. Maybe they can do that Friday night against Montreal, the Sabres need this win because they didn't get too much help Thursday night.

Also apparently Bernier is very cute, or at least thats what they tell me.

Bernier starts strong

In his first game with the Buffalo Sabres Steve Bernier showed that he was a decent player, scoring the first two goals of the game against the Nashville Predators. Besides the goals he also finished the game plus three with an assist. Furthermore his chemistry with Vanek and Roy looked good (although almost everyone looks good with those two), and he appeared to be rather solid (and responsible) defensively and wasn't on the ice for any goals against.

The Sabres won the game 8-4. The main reason was that Nashville's goaltending was bad, so bad in fact that Andrew Peters scored a goal. Kaleta nicely set up the play for Peters first goal of the season, and fourth of his career. Furthermore it actually came at a critical time when the Predators were starting to make a bit of a comeback. Other Sabres goals came from Paille, Connolly, and Kotalik, while the population of Pominville went up by one as well.

Ryan Miller got hit in the mask, and was bleeding, which as a result gave up the first goal of the game. Thibault had to come in for a little while and didn't look too good giving up two goals in a little over eight minutes of ice time.

Later in the game things turned a little violent as these two teams who barely play each other apparently are not the best of friends. I do recall someone from Nashville sucker punching Spacek from behind when these two teams met last season though. Anyhow there were a number of fights including Roy who seemed a bit more aggressive this game and Bernier who proved himself ready to drop the gloves. Furthermore Peters must have been feeling good off of his goal and actually took a swing in his fight (and landed it), although Mair got absolutely destroyed.

Official Three Stars

Stever Bernier

Derek Roy

Andrew Peters

My Three Stars

Steve Bernier (Two goals to lead off a Gordie Howe hat-trick)

Toni Lydman (four assists, plus three)

Derek Roy (on goal, one assist, plus four)

Soupy traded out

The Buffalo Sabres did what everyone was expecting them to do, and traded away Brian Campbell. While in the long term this is good for the team, it hurts them for this season.

Apparently Campbell had rejected a three year, $17.25 million dollar contract and to be honest even that was significantly more than he is worth (although not more than he will get). As a result there was no way he was going to sign, and so in the long term it was worth giving him up in exchange for a first round draft pick (especially as Buffalo traded away their last first rounder for a center that only stuck with the team for three months). As such this deal really isn't that bad as a long term strategy.

Additionally in the deal the Sabres picked up forward Steve Bernier (whose contract is only through the end of this season) and a also gave up a seventh round draft pick. Now a seventh round draft pick usually doesn't amount to much a getting a player like Gaustad in the seventh round is more the exception then the rule. As for Bernier, I don't really know much about him (apparently he has a fun accent) the Sabres currently are a tad bit injured up front, and he looks to be an improvement over Peters or Gragani.

However a little extra depth on offense, fails to make up for the sudden loss of depth on the backend. While I don't mind seeing Paetsch get more minutes on defense, I'm still not sold on Pratt (or Spacek for that matter) and realize that neither Weber nor Sekera come close to Campbell's skill level. While out top two are still intact seeing who Spacek ends up paired with will be interesting. Short term I think this puts us a step back as far as this seasons playoffs go. In their next step to those ends Buffalo faces off against the Predators and former Sabre JP Dumont tonight. Also I'm fairly certain that Paetsch has picked up the spin move, so that shouldn't be totally gone from the lineup.

A bunch of other trades yesterday as well. Notably, the Capitals picked up goalie Huet from the Canadians, and the Penguins sent Colby Armstrong and a few other multiple year contract players to Atlanta in exchange for Hossa. This helps the capitals alot as it greatly improves their goal tending, not 100% sure why Montreal thought this was a good idea, but they shouldn't be too hurt by this. The bigger question is why the Penguins would give up close to everything they have besides Crosby and Malkin for Marion Hossa. Colby Armstrong is a really good player and by himself may be better than Hossa, never mind that he still his a few years on his contract while Hossa will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. Atlanta benefits nicely as they will actually have a core to work with next season, and may even be able to bring Hossa back. Also alot of pointless deals as well (two evenly matched midline players with expiring contracts) and a fourth line rental to a non playoff team, from a non playoff team, in exchange for a late round draft pick. Why everyone things deadline deals are a good thing is beyond me.