This Day in Buffalo Sports History: Peca departs

   June 24, 2001 -- Michael Peca had missed the entire 2000-01 season in a contract dispute. Neither side had budged much from their financial positions, so Peca stayed home and waited.

    A trade was an obvious solution, and one finally came just after the NHL Entry Draft. Tim Graham of The News had the details on the swap:

   Four hundred and sixty days after playing his last NHL game, Michael Peca has a new team.

   The Buffalo Sabres' former captain, who missed the entire 2000-01 season because of a nasty contract dispute, was traded Sunday to the New York Islanders for center Tim Connolly and left wing Taylor Pyatt.The deal was announced after the conclusion of the 2001 NHL draft, which took place at the National Car Rental Center.

    "Obviously, the temporary feeling is I'm relieved it's over," Peca said. "Professionally, I look forward to moving on with my career. Personally, my family is looking forward to moving on with our lives."

    The deal is the story of the addition of two youngsters with potential and the subtraction of a veteran leader who wishes he had been out of the equation long ago.

    Peca and agent Don Meehan are convinced the Sabres could have struck a similar deal with the Islanders at last season's March trading deadline. Connolly had been on the block since then, and Pyatt was said to be available.

    "Speaking with the New York people, something could have been done in March," Peca said. "I'm second-guessing why it wasn't done in March.

    "I'm sure, like I maintained all along, a message was intended to be sent. They realized they came to a point where we both had to move on. Thankfully, the Islanders were persistent."

    The trade came as a pleasant surprise to Peca. He was optimistic he would have a new team by Saturday afternoon, but when nothing happened Meehan became irate, calling the Sabres "petty, vindictive and mean-spirited."

--- Budd Bailey

Comments

[CalgarySabre2]

There is a standoff neither side won. Peca said that the Sabres could have made the same deal with the Isles a year earlier, but what did he gain? He sat out a whole year, losing a whole year of salary because he was just as stubborn as the team, and then signed more or less the same deal he could have had here. He will never, ever get that money back. And did any team he has played on since leaving here move him any closer to the Cup (when he was healthy enough to play)? No. So Darcy and Mike had a full year of a standoff and both sides lost. And to top it all off, Peca still tried to make "greed" sound as though it was a "matter of principle." Hilarious.

[Paul R]

"And did any team he has played on since leaving here move him any closer to the Cup (when he was healthy enough to play)?"

In 2006 he was a member of the Oilers that lost in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. So yes. He did actually make it father with another team.

Sabres FO gave the 2000-2001 season over a 500K contract difference with Peca. Could he have got us past the Pens - we were less then 2 minutes from winning that series.

The biggest losers, as usual were Sabres fans.