Regier has always had a mind suited for hockey, something that came to the attention of NHL front offices early on in his post-playing career.

Regier weathered 'perfect storm'
By John McGourty | NHL.com
Feb. 1, 2005

Remember The Perfect Storm, the George Clooney movie in which three powerful storm systems reached a confluence in the North Atlantic, swamping his fishing boat and drowning all hands?

Similarly, Buffalo Sabres GM Darcy Regier's aspirations for an NHL playing career were drowned in a trio of common hockey situations. The first follows the old scouts' and coaches' adage: We can teach them to shoot, skate and position themselves correctly, but we can't teach them to be 6-foot-3, 225 pounds. Second, the dreaded numbers game: Regier reached the NHL with the old Cleveland Barons in the season before they were merged with the Minnesota North Stars. Suddenly, a No. 6 defenseman found himself the No. 12 defenseman. Third, young prospects have to make an immediate and continuing strong impression.

That last point has come up three times in the last month in conversations with Chicago Blackhawks assistant coach Bruce Cassidy, who played 36 NHL games in a 14-year pro career; ECHL Greenville Grrrowl coach John Marks, who played 10 NHL seasons; and Regier, who played 26 NHL games in eight pro seasons.

There was never any doubt that Regier had a good mind, one suited for hockey. He played on Lethbridge Broncos junior teams with Bryan Trottier, Steve Tambellini, Brian Sutter and Ron Delorme, for coach Earl Ingarfield, and was taken with the 77th pick in the 1976 NHL Amateur Draft. After two seasons in Lethbridge, Regier had a good rookie season with the Salt Lake City Golden Eagles of the Central Hockey League. He played for four teams the next season and there's no truth to the rumor he was ducking warrants!

Regier started with the CHL Phoenix Roadrunners, but they folded so he was transferred to the Fort Worth Texans. He was then promoted to the AHL Binghamton Dusters and graduated to play 16 games for the Barons at the end of the season. He played the next season for Fort Worth, then joined the CHL Indianapolis Checkers for five seasons, while getting into 11 games with the parent club, the New York Islanders, over two seasons.

Regier's commitment and leadership skills, plus his continuing efforts to get a college education, caught the eye of Islanders' GM Bill Torrey and coach Al Arbour, and Regier was offered the chance to coach the Checkers. Later, he worked in the Islanders' front office and as an assistant coach and spent a year away from the organization as an assistant coach with the Hartford Whalers. He returned to the Islanders and was hired eight years ago to direct the hockey affairs of the Sabres.

The common phrases used by hockey people to describe Regier are character, loyalty and intelligence. He has survived three ownerships in Buffalo, built a team that competed in the 1999 Stanley Cup Finals and has the longest-serving coach in the NHL in Lindy Ruff.

"Darcy and I lived together for two years in Lethbridge and we were in each other's wedding parties," Sutter said. "It's nice what he's done over the years, but he's always been someone you knew would do well. He's smart and articulate and he's always been a sharp hockey guy who is a great human being with a lot of common sense. It doesn't surprise me how well he's done.

"He was an all-star in juniors and a darn good player in the Central League, where they sent all the good players coming out of junior in those days. You know, moving into management in his 20s in that league, that tells you what he's made of. He has the management skills and the understanding of the business end of it. I'm always happy to see him doing well because he really is a special guy."

OK, Darcy, we could go on with the middle-aged guys saying nice things about each other but, tell the truth, how'd you manage to stay out of trouble with Sutter around?

I was the one who had to look after Brian off the ice. He looked out for me on the ice. Brian is an unbelievable practical joker. We were working a hockey school with Archie Henderson, a younger player with us in Lethbridge who later played in the NHL. We're driving by a 7-Eleven and Brian says, "Look, there's Archie's car." The keys were in it, so we drove it a couple of miles, parked it and returned to the store. Archie's going crazy. "What's the matter, Archie?" Brian innocently asks. The cops come and figure out pretty quickly it's us. We got the keys back to him. The cops weren't pleased, but they let us go. Brian would glue your shoes to the floor so the tiles would come up with them. He was a crazy guy, but a great teammate and great roommate. He was a real "heart-and-soul" player. If he was on the other team, you couldn't stand him.

All six Sutters played in Lethbridge. Brian and I were the first to billet with the Ross family. Then, Brent, Duane, Darryl, Ron and Rich Sutter all stayed with Margaret Ross. She sends us a pound of her homemade beef jerky every year and my kids really look forward to "Grandma Ross'" package. I was at the World Junior Tournament in Grand Forks recently and talked to Brent. It was great to see him coach the winning Canadian team.

In your second pro season, you played 15 games for the Cleveland Barons with Dennis Maruk, Mike Fidler, Al McAdam, Chuck Arnason, Bob Murdoch, Walt McKechnie, Gary Edwards and Gilles Meloche. You got caught up in a numbers game when the team merged with Minnesota. Then you were traded to the Islanders with Wayne Merrick for Jean Potvin and J.P. Parise. That proved to be a life-changing event.

Numbers game? I don't view it that way. The thing I wished I knew then that I know now is that there is an education process and it's brief. There's a window of opportunity for each player and it closes as time goes on. If the player has the skill to get there, he has to figure some things out, with the help of the organization. If I understood things better, I could have given myself a better chance, but I wasn't that good. That helped me in management to realize we have to do everything we can to educate a young player in a limited amount of time. One thing you overlooked, the NHL was already a very good League and it was opening up to European players at that time, so there were more-talented veteran players arriving at the same that I was.

At Indianapolis, I was playing in the Islander organization in the minor leagues. Jim Devellano, now the Detroit Red Wings Senior Vice President, was the GM in Indy and Bill Torrey was the GM of the Islanders. I spoke to both those gentlemen about my prospects of getting into management when I was done playing. That was when I realized I didn't have an extended prospect of a career in the NHL, unfortunately.

My last season, I played five games with the Islanders. If you played six, they couldn't send you down without putting you on waivers first. I told Al I wanted to play. He said if I did, I'd probably get picked up by some club but that, honestly, I wasn't looking at a long playing career. He said stick with us and we'll find something for you. He was good to his word.

I kept taking college courses in the off-season. Earlier, I was at the University of North Dakota briefly. Gino Gasparini was a recruiter then and signed me. Later, he was head coach and athletic director and they won national championships. I wasn't too excited about sitting in class then, so I signed to play with Lethbridge. It's ironic how twists take you in different directions. There is a tremendous emphasis today in all fields to continue learning.

Torrey was the Islanders' GM for 20 years with Al Arbour as his coach for 13 years. You and Lindy Ruff have the longest GM-coach relationship in the NHL. Coincidence?

No. I felt strongly about that model when I came here. Lindy and I were both young and it was an opportunity to grow together, learn together and last together. I'm not questioning other teams. There are a lot of different philosophies. I saw it work with Bill and Al and it stuck with me. Two people working together can accomplish more than one by himself.

As a player, Al won the Stanley Cup with four different teams and he also played a long time in the minors. He had a vast understanding of the game. One of the things that he stressed to me as an assistant coach was that even though you want to be in management, it's about the players. They play the game. You have to understand them. Understand that aspect better than any other aspect of the game, he told me.

I saw Bill at the Hockey Hall of Fame ceremony in November. I talked to Al two days ago. I'll always keep in touch. They were about more than building championship teams. They built people. I believe lessons learned from them contributed significantly to how people like Bobby Nystrom, Garry Howatt and others have all been very successful away from the game. Did I mention Brent Sutter? It's a real tribute to Bill and Al.

The Buffalo Sabres have the fourth-best winning percentage in NHL history. It must seem like an awesome responsibility to maintain that level of success?

The greatest responsibility we have is to secure the future of this organization. That will be done by Commissioner Gary Bettman. This is a very critical time for this community as it relates to the NHL. It is very important to any league and to any team to be able to do a couple of things: Create hope on a regular basis and have a competitive playing field. It benefits the players and the teams. What the Commissioner is trying to accomplish will do that for this community. Our owner, Tom Golisano, bought the team because he viewed it as an important part of this community and this region, something worth preserving. He also saw a team that needed help and systemic changes within the League to have a healthy future.