Ott to Sabres in the works for a while
The Sabres made their first big move of the offseason, trading Derek Roy to the Dallas Stars in exchange for gritty forward Steve Ott and 6-foot-4 depth defenseman Andrew Pardy.
Darcy Regier said that the Sabres need to get bigger at the center position, and with Tyler Ennis and Cody Hodgson in the mix, Roy became expendable. The 29-year-old was coming off a down year, in which he scored only 44 points. Two years ago, he led the team; and was on a point per game pace in December of 2010 before getting hurt.
In a slim trade market, it's a deal that Darcy Regier and Joe Nieuwendyk have been working on for a while.
"It didn't just start up in the last week or two, it's been in the works," Regier said. "And at times I didn't want to pull a trigger on a trade we talked about, or Joe didn't want to pull the trigger on a trade we talked about - either the timing wasn't right or the people weren't."