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While everyone was waiting for the anticipated Zach Parise decision, Dallas and Buffalo were working on a swap of centers, which saw Derek Roy sent to Dallas in exchange for tough center Steve Ott and defenseman Adam Pardy.
Roy has been rumored of being traded for a while, especially after a down season of 17 goals, 44 points in 80 games. He’ll fill the role of the #2 center that was vacated last week with the trade of Mike Ribiero to Washington. Buffalo is getting a bit tougher with the addition of Ott, who will be penciled in as the Sabres’ #3 center. The Stars ended up dumping on $950k in salary in this deal, which added with Ribiero’s $5m, was enough to make room for new signees Ray Whitney and Aaron Rome.
To get some opinions of the trade I asked Jordan Kuhns, a Stars writer at the Checking Line, and Sabres fan Rick, a friend of Crimespree.
Jordan liked the deal from Dallas’ side:
If Roy can regain his scoring form from the 2006-10 seasons, he can be a huge acquisition for the Stars moving forward. Sadly, he only has one year left on his deal, so the Stars need to start impressing as soon as possible.
To me, this deal is a steal for the Stars. They gave up an expendable defenseman, replaced by Aaron Rome, and they lost their resident superpest to pick up a solid second-line centerman to replace Mike Ribeiro. Stars fans deserve to be angry to see a fan favorite go, but they gain a fast scorer in the process.
Roy will be a UFA at the end of the year, as will Brendan Morrow and Michael Ryder. If Roy re-signs with Dallas, it may signal the end of one or both of those players in the Lone Star State next summer. Instead of a rebuild, the Stars could be looking at reloading.
Buffalo’s Rick was happy about the deal as well, going on to say:
Roy has been being shopped for 2 seasons now and many Sabres fans figured he would have not been moved for anything outside of draft picks. In Roy, Dallas gets a guy who has the ability to be a solid #2 Center a good potential replacement for Mike Riberio. It all depends on Roy maturing as a person and an adult. Most [Buffalo] fans see this as an addition by subtraction.
In return the Sabres got exactly what they needed TOUGHNESS. Last season Sabres grit was called into question when Lucic ran Miller. Bringing in Ott gives the Sabres the player many felt Paul Gaustad should have been a guy who can get you 30-40 pts and stick up for his teammates. Throw in Adam Pardy into the mix, the Sabres have 9 NHL Dmen on the roster. With those numbers on the blueline there is speculation the Sabres are not done making moves.
Looking at the Sabres’ roster would leave one to believe that they were not done making moves, as Rick mentioned, with Cody Hodgson, Tyler Ennis and Steve Ott as their centers. Mikhail Grigorenko could be a wild card, but the #12 pick can’t be penned in for a big role to start the season. They’re also still in the Bobby Ryan sweepstakes, so possibly this trade could be a precursor to a bigger deal.
At the very least, it will make Buffalo one tough team to play against, adding pest Ott to agitator Patrick Kaleta and heavyweight enforcer John Scott.
Ott will mostly play wing for the Sabres, and I think they will attempt to acquire Paul Stastny at some point. The Sabres have a ton of d-men under contract and won’t go into the regular season with all nine of them. Plus, the Avalanche need help on defense, so it’s a good fit.
Won’t be surprised at all if Sekera is part of a deal.