Islanders Land Peca
Connolly and Pyatt Buffalo-bound
By AL STRACHAN -- Toronto Sun
SUNRISE, Fla. -- After sitting out a year, Mike Peca may have gone to a worse fate: He's now a New York Islander.
The Buffalo Sabres ended their Peca auction yesterday, dealing him to the Islanders for two highly rated youngsters, centre Tim Connolly and left winger Taylor Pyatt.
Almost every team in the NHL was interested in Peca, and Sabres general manager Darcy Regier exacted a high price. Even Islanders general manager Mike Milbury admitted the youngsters he sent to Buffalo have tremendous futures.
"Darcy did a great job for the Sabres," Milbury said. "He squeezed and squeezed. He got maximum value from us.
"At one point, I said, 'Darcy, that's it,' and he kind of laughed. He had a lot of teams interested in this guy."
Said Peca, "I can't really say I have any regrets. Life would be great if you could go through it not making any tough decisions, and I had to make a few of them.
"I feel redeemed a bit. You can't have regrets because then you would wind up hating yourself."
Milbury, whose team has been bottom-feeding for several years, said yesterday that with the weekend's acquisitions -- Peca yesterday and Alexei Yashin from the Ottawa Senators on Saturday -- he sees change on the horizon.
"We had suffered a long time in Long Island," Milbury said, "and we were sorely lacking in the leadership department. That has been addressed. We have a tremendous crew of young players remaining. We have a lot of the pieces in place to be a seriously competitive team this season."
Yesterday's trade ended a long, unpleasant battle, one which saw Peca sit out a full season and might have cost the Sabres a berth in the Stanley Cup final.
The Sabres and Peca, who was a Group 2 free agent, had been more than $1 million US apart in salary talks when the 2000-01 season began. After a couple of months, Peca demanded a trade. When none was forthcoming, he announced he would never again play for the Sabres.
Regier apparently did not believe him and continued to make slight salary concessions in subsequent offers. On one occasion, Regier flew back from the West Coast to meet with Peca, even though he had been told he was wasting his time.
Peca remained resolute and the Sabres finally made the best of the situation yesterday.
Even so, Regier was gracious in praising Peca.
"I want to thank Michael Peca for everything he has done for our organization," Regier said. "I wish him only the best."
Regier felt that the trade filled some needs for his team, especially adding youth. "We felt centre ice was important for us," he said. "We felt strongly we needed a playmaking centre and we feel we added that (in Connolly)."
Both new Sabres were first-round picks in 1999, Connolly fifth overall and Pyatt eighth. Connolly, 20, had 10 goals and 31 assists for the Isles this past season. Pyatt, 20 in August, had four goals and 14 assists.
CONTRACT
Agent Don Meehan said he doesn't expect any problems negotiating Peca's contract with the Islanders.
"Milbury knew the lay of the land before he made the deal for Peca," he said. "He understands the circumstances."
Milbury also didn't rule out getting involved in the free-agent sweepstakes next week, although it's not likely.
"I really don't know if we'll do much more," Milbury said. "We need some experience in goal, but we'll go somewhat more cautiously than we have in the past couple of days."