Sabres suspend Berglund

[gaijin]

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/sabres-sus ... 43551.html

The Buffalo Sabres announced on Saturday morning that the organization has suspended forward Patrik Berglund indefinitely for failure to report to the team. The Sabres said they will have no further comment on the suspension at this time.

This announcement comes after the 30-year-old forward missed the previous two games due what coach Phil Housley had called an illness. The Sabres are set to play the defending Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals on Saturday evening and are looking to win their third game in a row.

Berglund was one of the players acquired by the Sabres over the summer in the blockbuster Ryan O'Reilly trade with the St. Louis Blues.

In 23 games with the Sabres this season he has two goals, two assists, is a minus-five, and had been averaging around 14 minutes of ice-time per game. Before he missed the previous two games he had been stuck in a 10-game point drought. The last time he found the scoresheet was the Sabres’ win over the Ottawa Senators back on November 3 when he scored a goal and recorded an assist.

He scored 17 goals and nine assists in 57 games for the Blues a season ago.

Berglund is in the second year of a five-year, $19.250 million contract that carries a salary cap hit of $3.85 million per season and includes a modified no-trade clause.

The Sabres have been one of the NHL’s biggest surprise teams this season with a 19-9-4 record entering play on Saturday, good enough for third place in the Atlantic Division and a 10-point cushion over the non-playoff teams in the Eastern Conference. This is all happening after they finished the 2017-18 season with the worst record in the league for the third time in five seasons. Along with Berglund, the Sabres also acquired Tage Thompson and Vladimir Sobotka in the O’Reilly trade, while also adding Jeff Skinner, Conor Sheary, and Carter Hutton and selecting defenseman Rasmus Dahlin with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. Their 42 points on the season are currently tied for the fourth most in the league.

That seems unusual for Berglund. We always dogged on him for not living up to expectations, but it never seemed like he had attitude problems. And it's not like the team he is on currently is sucking a fat egg like the Blues.

[JCShutout]

Talk about winning a trade (so far)...

Sobotka, Berglund and Thompson COMBINE for...
79gp 9g 6a 15p

O'Reilly by himself has...
30gp 13g 18a 31p

Buffalo is 4th in their conference, the Blues are 13th in ours. (WTF?)

[flyingnote38]

That seems unusual for Berglund. We always dogged on him for not living up to expectations, but it never seemed like he had attitude problems. And it's not like the team he is on currently is sucking a fat egg like the Blues.

The explanation of the trade in the PD today makes it sound like Bergy got screwed by Army. He had had a full no trade clause the became a partial and before Bergy submitted his list, Army dealt him. Surprised that if this is true, the PA hasn't filed a grievance.

[theohall]

Well, WTF was Berglund doing waiting until the day of the modified NTC going into effect to submit his no-trade list. That's just dumb.

[glen a richter]

The Sabres bought out the rest of Berglund's contract. Maybe Army can give him a call. As much as we ragged on him for being a subsatisfactory player, at least the team somehow didn't stink as bad when he was on the roster.

[gaijin]

It wasn't so much that he was bad, just bad when weighed against the size of his contract. And the size of his body, which he never used to full effect.

He was actually a serviceable 2-way forward, which for the right price, would be fully acceptable. If the sell-off of big names happens as some have speculated, he could be a decent stopgap for the right (small) price while the rebuild occurs. That's if the team determines they don't want any more of the young players moving up to the NHL too soon.

[WaukeeBlues]

It wasn't so much that he was bad, just bad when weighed against the size of his contract. And the size of his body, which he never used to full effect.

He was actually a serviceable 2-way forward, which for the right price, would be fully acceptable. If the sell-off of big names happens as some have speculated, he could be a decent stopgap for the right (small) price while the rebuild occurs. That's if the team determines they don't want any more of the young players moving up to the NHL too soon.

I think that scenario would be about the only way I would be happy to have him back as a Blue. Hope it doesn't come to that. But as of right now we have no cap space and I don't know where he'd even fit on the team in terms of a roster spot.

[gaijin]

More: https://www.stltoday.com/sports/hockey/ ... e380c.html

Seems like still no one knows exactly what is going on.

[JCShutout]

As they say, the guys aren't robots. Maybe Bergy really liked stl and hated the move. Who knows.

[abc789987]

https://twitter.com/aalexnil/status/1086328984697106432 Another quote from interview.

My contract and all the money I gave up means nothing. This is really a cliche, but money doesn't make anyone happy. I can give up that sum at any time to feel good inside. If I feel as bad as I did and feel like I do to this day [...] then I really believe that I made the right decision. The money is the last thing that means anything today.

[gaijin]

I was just thinking about this the other day and how there haven't been any updates.

Still can't really tell what the underlying issue is. Severe depression? Pretty cryptic stuff.

[glen a richter]

Seems he just didn't particularly have any motivation to play anymore since leaving St. Louis.

This kind of possibly proves my point that a large chunk of St. Louis treats the players with kid gloves. A guy playing at the level Berglund was at many points during his time with the Blues would have been eaten alive by the fans and media in a lot of different markets. I'm no expert on how the media is in Buffalo, but I'd imagine they were getting on his case about playing like trash and he wasn't used to it. If he was pulling the same lousy play downstate, the NYC sports media would have been merciless and driven him out even faster than he left Buffalo... if the hosts down here actually talked about hockey which they really don't all that much.

[WaukeeBlues]

Seems he just didn't particularly have any motivation to play anymore since leaving St. Louis.

This kind of possibly proves my point that a large chunk of St. Louis treats the players with kid gloves. A guy playing at the level Berglund was at many points during his time with the Blues would have been eaten alive by the fans and media in a lot of different markets. I'm no expert on how the media is in Buffalo, but I'd imagine they were getting on his case about playing like trash and he wasn't used to it. If he was pulling the same lousy play downstate, the NYC sports media would have been merciless and driven him out even faster than he left Buffalo... if the hosts down here actually talked about hockey which they really don't all that much.

I don't know that that's fair. Berglund himself says that whatever the issue[s] is/are, they "continue to this day." One would think if it really was just Buffalo he'd feel better and be wanting to jump to a different team, etc. But that's not what he's saying. He sounds utterly beaten down and done with hockey period. I lean more towards severe depression but that's just me.