On Saturday, July 2nd, 2011 the Tim Connolly era in Buffalo ended. He signed a two year, 9.5 million dollar contract with the Sabres’ rival Toronto Maple Leafs. This article isn’t intended to call the Leafs “crazy pants” for giving Timmy a raise since I clearly can’t tell the future. When his departure became official, I actually flashed back to the Michael Peca trade that brought Connolly to Buffalo along with Taylor Pyatt in 2001.
Quite simply, now that all the parties have moved on, who won the trade? I decided to look at the main players and as a sidenote some subsidiary pieces that were obtained after this transaction. Unfortunately no big names were unveiled or branched out from the initial dealing. No great promise spiraling out like Tyler Ennis being the draft pick that came from the Brian Campbell trade to San Jose. But I still find it interesting to see the flow. Though all in all, this significant move for the Sabres and Islanders will be judged by the three players it involved at the outset and not by an secondary effects.
A quick recap for the youngsters out there that probably know Tim and maybe Taylor, but don’t have much recollections of the Mike Peca, the player, or how this whole situation went down. For 5 years, Peca skated with the blue and gold and was arguably the most fearsome body checker the organization had known or would know (with all due respect to Pat Kaleta). He was named captain in 1997, and the nickname “Captain Crunch” was as appropriate a moniker as could be. He also had skill: scoring 20, 18, 27, & 20 goals from 96-97 through 99-00. 2 of these four seasons the Sabres made it to the Conference Finals, including the Stanley Cup Final appreance in 1999 vs Dallas when the infamous “no goal” game six travesty occurred. Peca was a fearless leader whose intensity spurred on a rag tag group of skaters supported by the great Dominik Hasek.
After the 1999-2000 season, though, an extended contract dispute occurred between fan favorite Peca and Sabres management. He proceeded to sit out the whole 2000-2001 season as the team also refused to trade him (or couldn’t find a suitable return). It wasn’t until June 25, 2001 when Darcy Regier finally pulled the trigger on a swap of forwards. Peca would go to the NY Islanders and young forwards Tim Connolly and Taylor Pyatt would come over to the Sabres.
History lesson over. What about the results after the trade? Mike Peca would be named captain in Long Island as well and spent three seasons there, playing 222 regular season games. He scored 49 goals, 93 assists, for 142 points. He also played 15 playoff games and registered 1 assist.
Taylor Pyatt remained with the Sabres for 4 seasons, tabulating 38 goals and 42 assists for 80 points in 230 games played. He contributed for one playoff season, the fondly remembered 2005-2006 run, with 5 assists in 14 games.
The oft-maligned Tim Connolly has by far the most extensive stats. It seems amazing to me now but he spent 9 seasons in the Queen City, racking up 94 goals, 226 assists and 320 points. Over 4 playoff appearances, covering 36 games played, he put up 5 goals, 18 assists, for 23 points.
Now on to the argument/central question with all possible scenarios, pro and con style:
Islanders won the trade
– When Peca arrived in Long Island, the team hadn’t made the playoffs in 7 years. They qualified for the tournament all 3 seasons he was there.
– Since the Islanders traded Peca away, they’ve only made the playoffs once in the last five years (lost to Buffalo in round one in 2007).
– Peca won the Selke award for best defensive forward in 2001-2002 and scored a career high 60 points in his first season after trade. Immediate impact.
Islanders lost the trade
– Peca didn’t last as long with NYI as the other players in trade did with Buffalo. One can argue he wasn’t quite the same after Darcy Tucker’s vicious hit in the 2002 playoffs that blew out his MCL and ACL.
– Islanders gave up 2 young players who may have thrived in their system. We’ll never know.
– Playoff entries did not translate to playoff success. Lost in first round each time. His presence certainly didn’t turn the franchise around. They’re still trying to figure things out.
Sabres won the trade
– Connolly’s longevity & overall production. Played double the amount of games as Peca but still had a better point per game average (.690 vs .640).
– In the 2006 playoffs, Connolly was arguably the Sabres best player in round one series win over Philly and was on the same level (if not better) before getting knocked out in round 2 vs Ottawa.
– Taylor Pyatt’s run in Buffalo was short lived but he still played 1 more year than Peca did in NYI and had more playoff points in less games.
Sabres lost the trade
– Sabres missed playoffs 5 out of 9 years since the trade and Connolly missed most of the successful 06-07 season due to lingering issues with his head/neck from the previous year’s season ending shot. Team lost twice in 1st round as well.
– Connolly’s well documented injury problems, disappearing act in later playoff years, and poor final contract year made him a reviled player in fans’ eyes. The contract extensions’ dollar amounts in 2006 & 2009 did not match his production.
– Neither player lived up to expectations. They were both high draft picks by NYI (Connolly 5th overall and Pyatt 8th overall in 99) & neither became difference makers, besides the aforementioned playoff year for Connolly. I’m sure the Sabres expected them to be stars in the making and that didn’t happen. Jim Lorentz went as far as saying Tim Connolly was the most talented player in the crossed swords since Gilbert Perreault when the trade was made official. And Pyatt flashed potential of being a true power forward at times. But the great moments were few and far between considering the Sabres gave up their captain to secure them.
Before I pass “final judgement” on this trade, I don’t want to forget about those after effects/moves. Again, nothing spectacular here.
First, Peca and Pyatt’s career stats after leaving the Islanders and Sabres. Peca was traded to the Edmonton Oilers and joined that team for their great run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 05-06 where they lost to the Buff….er, Carolina Hurricanes in 7 games (still bitter). He didn’t have a great stat line in the regular season (9-14-23) but had an excellent playoff with 6 goals, 5 assists, for 11 points in 24 games. After that he moved on to Toronto before finishing his career in Columbus with 71 total points those three seasons (16-55).
Taylor Pyatt enjoyed a career year with Vancouver after leaving the Sabres when being paired with the Sedin twins, scoring 23 goals and 37 points. He scored 26 goals and 56 points the next two years, also with Vancouver, before moving on to Phoenix for the last 2 seasons where he’s added a solid 24-24-48 in more of a checking role. He’s probably made the headlines in a bigger and terribly sad way because of the tragic car accident that took his fiance’s life. But not a bad little career for Taylor so far.
When Mike Peca was traded to Edmonton, the Islanders received forward Mike York in return. A solid role player, York scored 19 goals and 46 assists for 65 points for the Islanders in 2 seasons. A conditional 4th round pick also came from Edmonton, which the Islanders in turn traded away to the Colorado Avalanche. The Avalanche selected forward Kevin Montgomery, who hasn’t seen NHL action.
The Sabres received a 4th round pick for Taylor Pyatt in the 2007 draft from the Canucks. At that draft the Sabres took this pick and traded it to Calgary for 2 5th round picks, in which they used to draft goalie Bradley Eidsness and forward Jean-Simon Allard. Eidsness is still Sabres property, but he has been demoted to 2nd string at North Dakota. Allard is no longer a Sabres prospect. Calgary used our 4th round pick on defenseman Keith Aulie who was later sent to Toronto in the Dion Phaneuf trade. Aulie had his first NHL eperience this season in TO, playing 40 games and scoring 2 goals. He’s clearly the brightest spot of all these post-moves. Perhaps the Sabres should have kept that pick. Eh, the later rounds of the NHL draft really are a crap shoot sometimes.
So after all this, what is Mark’s final evaluation of this 10 year old transaction? You know, it’s really close. On the emotional side of things, it’s a fail for the Sabres. They traded Captain Crunch, one of the most beloved players of the modern age for a role player in Taylor Pyatt and one of the most unpopular skaters ever to grace the HSBC Arena. Peca was tough, Connolly was soft. Connolly was graceful and Peca got by mostly on strength of will and intangibles. Which do you think blue-collar Bufflonians would prefer? And Pyatt seems like an afterthought here, doesn’t he?
But I think we have to separate the emotions & look at facts and concrete data. Production wise Connolly was superior. Granted, the points per game stat used above is really close, but as much flak as Tim gets as being fragile, Peca is the one whose body broke down. And prior to this season, Tim had a pretty solid 2010-2011 regular season with 65 points in 73 games. And this was after his 2nd devastating concussion that ended his 05-06 season and almost his career. Think what you want of Toronto’s contract with him, but Tim is still an active NHL player while Peca’s ended somewhat prematurely at age 35. Taylor Pyatt is still contributing as well, as I’ve documented. His goal total actually was more than Timmy’s this year (18 to 13). There’s an age difference here between Connolly/Pyatt and Peca, but Michael’s style of play would never allow him to be a Nic Lidstrom type player, excelling in his forties.
Playoff contributions can’t be ignored either. While the only playoff triumphs to Buffalo’s credit with both these players would be the oft mentioned 2005-2006, Peca and Islanders had virtually no success in the postseason, despite helping them finally get there. Not only did Tim play so good in that post-lockout gem, but Pyatt was a solid 4th line grinder in those playoffs as well. Rookie Thomas Vanek was actually benched in favor of Taylor.
So I have to give the edge to Buffalo. But it’s not a huge win. If you honestly questioned Darcy Regier and Mike Milbury – almost forgot that blowhard ran NY into the ground – I’d bet neither would say they got exactly what they wanted. NY probably hoped for more progress in years 2 and 3 in terms of advancing further in the playoffs and Buffalo thought they had 2 cornerstone pieces, which proved to be false.
In the end, one wishes the Peca contract dispute never happened. But with his style of play, we probably wouldn’t have gotten more than maybe 4 decent years out of him. Unlike the Dominik Hasek trade that same year, at least Regier got several seasons out of a #2/3 center, even if the fans wanted this player gone for a good chunk of that time.
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