Buffalo Sabres GM Darcy Regier announced that left wing Michael Ryan and center Paul Szczechura (pronounced sha-HUR-uh) have both agreed to one-year contracts.
Ryan spent five seasons with the Sabres organization from 2003-2007. During that time, Ryan appeared in 65 games with the Sabres and collected 13 points (7+6). In 210 career games with Rochester, Ryan amassed 122 points (56+66).
Ryan also appeared in 18 games with the Carolina Hurricanes during the 2008-09 season. Overall, Ryan has appeared in 83 NHL career NHL games, collecting 15 points (7+8).
Continue reading ‘Sabres Sign Szczechura & Ryan’
(This is slightly less than a day old, but I definitely felt it was worth passing along and will become a regular feature here at Buffalo Sports Daily. One of our photographers, Michael Thomas, is a regular at Buffalo Bills training camp and besides snapping pictures, is a big fan of taking a lot of notes.
Please keep in mind this won’t be the most grammatically correct article you’ve ever read. It’s mostly a random set of observations through the eyes of a photographer and more importantly—a fan. His observations and pretty well thought out and unbiased, so if you can get past any typos or wording issues {I have no desire to edit this type of commentaries}, it’s surely an enjoyable…and informative read.)
It’s hard to believe, but Monday was Day 9 of Buffalo Bills Training Camp. There is only 6 open practices left at St. John Fisher. After an intense couple days in full pads, the Bills wore shoulder pads, shorts and the hitting was minimal. The team worked on their fundamentals in the individual drills, 7-on-7 passing drills, special teams work, and of course the full squad 11-on-11 drill. They also focused on a hurry up 2 minute drill and spent time working in the red zone. The defense definitely won the day as they did a great job shutting down the running game and harassing the quarterbacks. The offense was terrible.
Continue reading ‘Detailed Bills Camp Report From 8/9/11′
The ESPN preseason NFL power rankings are out and to the surprise of very few people, the Buffalo Bills are ranked near the bottom. In fact, the 31st ranked Bills are only ahead of the Cincinnati Bengals, showing again that if the Bills are going to win some respect around the league, it’s going to have to be earned on the football field.
Buffalo is just one spot ahead of the Carolina Panthers, who finished last season with the worst record in the league at 2-14 and have a rookie quarterback in Cam Newton. As far as the rest of the AFC East goes, New England debuts at number two, behind only defending champion Green Bay while the New York Jets rank 7th and Miami is closer to the bottom, ranked 24th.
Fans in Buffalo shouldn’t be upset over the ranking, which of course means absolutely nothing once the games start getting played. The Bills were just 4-12 last season and by all accounts outside of Buffalo, didn’t do a lot in free agency to dramatically improve the roster talent over the past few weeks. Sure, Buffalo could and very possibly will improve on last year, but for now the only way the critics will be silenced is the old fashioned method—– start winning more football games.
It hardly takes a genius to conclude the Buffalo Bills at 4-12 were a bad football team last year. While ardent supporters will state the team lost several close games… and to their credit that’s accurate, a look at the talent occupying the roster last year, or lack thereof, lends a strong clue to just how bad they really were.
Between the end of the 2010 season and start of free agency following the lockout, Buffalo had 10 unrestricted free agents. Of them, only one has returned to the team while two have inked deals with other organizations. As for the remaining 70% of that crop, they’re still in search of employment.
Drayton Florence re-signed with the Bills a few days into free agency; putting his name on a three-year contract worth approximately $15 million. He’s one of only two Bills’ free agents the organization put any effort into any pursuing.
Continue reading ‘Work Hard To Find For Former Bills’
I openly confess to sporadically lifting an idea or concept from a writer or blog I enjoy reading. Such is the case with this post. While scanning the internet at work yesterday, I stumbled across an excellent post by one of my favorite Buffalo Bills’ writers on the net, Brian Galliford of Buffalo Rumblings.
There, he put together his admittedly premature projections on who’d occupy the 53 active spots on the Bills roster come opening day. At first glance my initial thought was Galliford had a tad too much time on his hands on a Monday morning. Upon elaborating on his theme further, I concluded it to be a brilliant idea. So much in fact, that I’m going to take a stab at it myself.
Undeniably, Galliford knows his stuff when it comes to the Bills. For the most part I think he’s spot with his prognosis, though it’s clear there are a few guys we disagree on. On my Bills roster projection, coming up momentarily, I have Marcus Easley, Andra Davis and Cordaro Howard in, while outing Naaman Roosevelt, David Martin and Spencer Johnson.
Naturally, one runs a risk of looking foolish in three to four weeks after final roster cuts are made. I mean come on…. the preseason hasn’t even started yet. Injuries will occur over the next few weeks that alter roster makeup and in the Bills case, it’s usually at least a handful of hopefuls.
Continue reading ‘Our Stab At The Bills 53-Man Roster’
