Plan B, Buffalo Style

Hopefully I am wrong about my impending feeling of doom when it comes to Chris Drury and Danny Briere. Hopefully it is all just a bad dream. Unfortunately, my mind knows that this is my stupid heart getting in the way. Therefore it is time to look to plan B. Say they are both gone, Teppo too. What to do, what to do?

Well, I think to start the Sabres would need to change their center ice philosophy a bit. I think a bit bigger would do the trick and allow Connolly to fill Briere's role and leave Roy in his role. The guy I would look for is Michael Handzus. Moneywise I think he would be a good fit and would change the dynamic for the Sabres nicely. A highly mobile 6'5" and 220 pounds he would lend a presence the Sabres have not had since the days of Chris Gratton. Add to that his quality production and I think the Sabres have their centerman to move forward with. If Danius Zubrus were to return as well the Sabres would be much larger up front than last season without much in the way of a loss in mobility.

As unfortunate as the loss of Briere and Drury would be it would give the Sabres a ton of financial flexibility to use to reshape this team. High on the list should be signing or trading for an aggressive and physical defenseman and another gritty forward. The Sabres have many marketable commodities and Dan Paille and Drew Stafford ready to go full time. I would not be at all surprised to see the Sabres make an expensive play for an upper-tier veteran defenseman at the draft . I could easily see the Sabres package a group like Dmitri Kalinin,
Ales Kotlaik and Clark Macarthur off to a team like Calgary for someone like a Robyn Regehr.

This team was close, but as the loss to Ottawa illustratred, they have a long way to go. Losing Briere and Drury would be tough, very tough, but it would hardly be the end of the world.