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Buffalo surprise? GM Darcy Regier reportedly given two-year contract extension in the fall

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With lots of off-ice news going on in Buffalo concerning the potential announcement of Terry Pegula as the new Sabres owner coming this Thursday, there’s another bit of breaking news that managed to go unannounced as well.

The Buffalo News’ Mike Harrington breaks the story that Sabres GM Darcy Regier was apparently signed to a two-year extension back in the fall worth between $2 and $2.5 million.

This is surprising on a few levels because the Sabres have struggled this year and Regier’s contract was set to expire at the end of the season. With how the team has underperformed and the lack of major upgrades made to the team, the possibility existed that Regier wouldn’t be brought back.

The other side of this is that it was current Sabres owner Tom Golisano who signed Regier to the extension. Harrington gets the wink-and-nod truth of the matter.

Asked by The News Monday if Regier has been given an extension, managing partner Larry Quinn did not confirm -- or deny -- the move.

“I’m not going to confirm that today,” was all Quinn would say.


As is the case with new owners, they sometimes want to get their own people into executive positions to run the team the way they’re looking for it to be done. Golisano giving Regier an extension while he was openly looking to sell the team seems quite bizarre. Making matters worse for Sabres fans, they’re not happy at all with the job Regier has done of late and the fans are looking for someone to pay for the team coming up small so far this season. Giving new owner Pegula a new contract to potentially have to eat seems like a reckless and rather jerky move.

After all, signing a team executive to an extension like that and not announcing it to the public seems very questionable as it is. These sorts of things aren’t really the kinds of things you can keep a lid on for so long. Everything of late surrounding this potential Buffalo sale to Pegula has been wrought with strange happenings and seemingly foolish delays in getting things all put together. Adding a twist like this certainly makes for good theater and for a team that’s as hot and cold as the Sabres, giving the fans a soap opera to follow like this in such a tenuous time seems like a bad idea.