Sunday 13 October 2013

On Daniel Brière; or, Regretting Large Purchases

Daniel Brière's performance and production so far have not been inspiring.  The grumbling is getting louder, and it was pretty significant to begin with, from the moment he signed.  

I'm normally patient and cautious, try to not rush to judgment, but this contract struck me as ill-fated from the moment it was announced.  I had a bad feeling, not quite as bad as for the Tomas Kaberle trade announcement, but in the same ballpark.  


And I take no comfort in the reminders that Daniel Brière’s contract is only for two years. I think that it will be an interminable two years, hogging salary cap space that could have been spent on better, cheaper free agents, on stopgap contracts while the Hamilton brigade marches to our rescue. We’re also locked in on those two years with a No Trade Clause.


I don’t like the person, his claims that he always wanted to wear the bleu blanc rouge feel empty. I don’t like how his skillset lines up with the listed needs we had before the free agency period, it's almost a perfect non-fit. I don’t like how it flies in the face of Marc Bergevin’s stated goal to build a team bigger and tougher to play against.


I don’t want him to fail, I want him to prove me wrong, but I think the only time period that could feel longer than the two-year wait to eke out this contract would have been the final year of Tomas Kaberle’s contract.

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