Berglund on Waivers with Purpose to Terminate His Contract

[Taro T]

Looks like those who were worrying about a grievance coming will have one less thing to worry about.

Still find it foolish for him to have moved forward in this matter.  As it appears to be depression that got to him, he could've / should've made his situation known to his employer &  they would've gotten him help without forfeiting the contract.

Good on him that he doesn't care about the money, but later on he might & he'd've still had walking away as an avenue available to him had he taken an interim step 1st.

Looks like long run it'll work out for the Sabres, though ST they're taking a hit.  Hope it works out for him as well.

[sabills]

22 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Looks like those who were worrying about a grievance coming will have one less thing to worry about.

Still find it foolish for him to have moved forward in this matter.  As it appears to be depression that got to him, he could've / should've made his situation known to his employer &  they would've gotten him help without forfeiting the contract.

Good on him that he doesn't care about the money, but later on he might & he'd've still had walking away as an avenue available to him had he taken an interim step 1st.

Looks like long run it'll work out for the Sabres, though ST they're taking a hit.  Hope it works out for him as well.

meh, if he doesn't care about the money then just leave. He doesn't owe them anything. Maybe on a personal level he could have been better, but I don't think he cares about burning bridges.

Besides, if anything he helped the team in the long run.

[nfreeman]

@Taro T-- logically, you are 100% correct, but I expect that he likely wasn't capable of thinking logically at the time.

I wonder how much his wife/agent/others close to him pushed for something like what you are suggesting.  They may have been so worried about him that they just went along with his wishes.

[jsb]

29 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

@Taro T-- logically, you are 100% correct, but I expect that he likely wasn't capable of thinking logically at the time.

I wonder how much his wife/agent/others close to him pushed for something like what you are suggesting.  They may have been so worried about him that they just went along with his wishes.

It could have been things weren't working out for him and that was the final straw in Burnout, from doing something for so long you just lose the love of it.

[Weave]

3 hours ago, Sabel79 said:

Bergy put his money where his mouth is, innit?

Got it.  Quitter = sympathy.  Stick it out and try to power through it = unacceptable locker room presence.

[inkman]

3 minutes ago, Weave said:

Got it.  Quitter = sympathy.  Stick it out and try to power through it = unacceptable locker room presence.

That seems pretty black and white. I realize you are being a little tongue in cheek but if a dude divulges he has a mental health issue vs a guy who was just bummed about losing, it's a stark contrast. Management of information is important is every walk of life. Ryan shot from the hip, Patrick had months to digest and filter his message. 

[Weave]

6 minutes ago, inkman said:

That seems pretty black and white. I realize you are being a little tongue in cheek but if a dude divulges he has a mental health issue vs a guy who was just bummed about losing, it's a stark contrast. Management of information is important is every walk of life. Ryan shot from the hip, Patrick had months to digest and filter his message. 

According to anonymous sources divulged by members here, ROR had similar mental illness issues.  I honestly don't get how one was pilloried and the other given sympathy.

[Taro T]

2 hours ago, sabills said:

meh, if he doesn't care about the money then just leave. He doesn't owe them anything. Maybe on a personal level he could have been better, but I don't think he cares about burning bridges.

Besides, if anything he helped the team in the long run.

Thus the statement "looks like long run it'll work out for the Sabres. ;)

2 hours ago, nfreeman said:

@Taro T-- logically, you are 100% correct, but I expect that he likely wasn't capable of thinking logically at the time.

I wonder how much his wife/agent/others close to him pushed for something like what you are suggesting.  They may have been so worried about him that they just went along with his wishes.

Very good question that I doubt we'll ever be privy to.

[SwampD]

Boo f'n hoo. 

Quitter.

He can suck it.

[Sabel79]

1 hour ago, Weave said:

Got it.  Quitter = sympathy.  Stick it out and try to power through it = unacceptable locker room presence.

Guy going through some obviously serious ***** = sympathy.  At least from a good percentage of us.

RoR’s act = nowhere near the same thing, and you know this.   

 

[Weave]

31 minutes ago, Sabel79 said:

Guy going through some obviously serious ***** = sympathy.  At least from a good percentage of us.

RoR’s act = nowhere near the same thing, and you know this.   

 

That you call ROR's reaction an act makes my point.  It's been reported right here in this forum by supposed people in the know that ROR was suffering from depression every bit as much as Lehner was,  and now Berglund.  Yet ROR is an actor and Berglund is a target for sympathy.  It doesn't make sense to me.

Note that I haven't criticized Berglund here.  He did what he had to do.  I'm just commenting on a disconnect I don't understand.

[Sabel79]

8 minutes ago, Weave said:

That you call ROR's reaction an act makes my point.  It's been reported right here in this forum by supposed people in the know that ROR was suffering from depression every bit as much as Lehner was,  and now Berglund.  Yet ROR is an actor and Berglund is a target for sympathy.  It doesn't make sense to me.

Note that I haven't criticized Berglund here.  He did what he had to do.  I'm just commenting on a disconnect I don't understand.

The “act” referred to was the one put on for the benefit of the media, notably absent in the other two cases.  It may well have been entirely genuine, I dunno.  I have no clue what went on in the room or otherwise with him. I should have been more precise in my language.  

For the record: I harbor no ill will toward RoR either, but he’s gone.  JBots knows why.  The rest is speculation.  

[Weave]

12 minutes ago, Sabel79 said:

The “act” referred to was the one put on for the benefit of the media, notably absent in the other two cases.  It may well have been entirely genuine, I dunno.  I have no clue what went on in the room or otherwise with him. I should have been more precise in my language.  

For the record: I harbor no ill will toward RoR either, but he’s gone.  JBots knows why.  The rest is speculation.  

The assumption that it wasn't genuine is what I don't understand.  Dude wore his heart on his sleeve the whole time he was here.

[Brawndo]

Sportsnet Interview. 

 

 

[Weave]

God, I hate what the tank did to the environment around this team.  It still lingers today.

[dudacek]

28 minutes ago, Weave said:

God, I hate what the tank did to the environment around this team.  It still lingers today.

I saw two potentially takeaways. Either:

a) a man with legitimate mental health issues made a brave decision to walk away from millions in order to get better.

b) a man with serious entitlement issues made a selfish decision to walk away from his responsibilities and exercised his privilege.

If it was mostly the former, good on him, but you cant blame the Sabres culture any more than if any other health issue arose. If it was mostly the latter, then ***** Berglund.

Also, ***** Berglund’s agent, who had one ***** job, ***** Armstrong for his lack of integrity with Berglund and with Botts, and ***** Terry for his stupid ***** deadline forcing us into a rushed deal for damaged goods.

Edited November 30, 2019 by dudacek

[...]

45 minutes ago, Weave said:

God, I hate what the tank did to the environment around this team.  It still lingers today.

This had nothing to do with Buffalo. Replace Buffalo with those 19 other teams and Berglund would have been just as miserable. 

This story is about a dude who loved what he had going on, had it all taken away from him, and doing what he had to do to find peace - none of those things reflects on Buffalo.

Edited November 30, 2019 by ...
Nothing beats nothing.

[Stoner]

More questions than answers.

[SwampD]

Nothing he says changes my long standing opinion.

 

[Weave]

35 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I saw two potentially takeaways. Either:

a) a man with legitimate mental health issues made a brave decision to walk away from millions in order to get better.

b) a man with serious entitlement issues made a selfish decision to walk away from his responsibilities and exercised his privilege.

If it was mostly the former, good on him, but you cant blame the Sabres culture any more than if any other health issue arose. If it was mostly the latter, then ***** Berglund.

Also, ***** Berglund’s agent, who had one ***** job, ***** Armstrong for his lack of integrity with Berglund and with Botts, and ***** Terry for his stupid ***** deadline forcing us into a rushed deal for damaged goods.

How many former Sabres saying they've lost their love of the game is it going to take before we can admit what the tank did to the environment here?

Agreed on the sentiment re: his agent.  The agent's malpractice opened up this possiblity.

17 minutes ago, ... said:

This had nothing to do with Buffalo. Replace Buffalo with those 19 other teams and Berglund would have been just as miserable. 

This story is about a dude who loved what he had going on, had it all taken away from him, and doing what he had to do to find peace - none of those things reflects on Buffalo.

Of course it had to do with Buffalo.  Why was Buffalo on his and probalby 90% of the other NHLers no trade list?  Rhetorical.  We know why.  Because Buffalo isn't it.

Edited November 30, 2019 by Weave

[dudacek]

17 minutes ago, Weave said:

How many former Sabres saying they've lost their love of the game is it going to take before we can admit what the tank did to the environment here?

Agreed on the sentiment re: his agent.  The agent's malpractice opened up this possiblity.

Of course it had to do with Buffalo.  Why was Buffalo on his and probalby 90% of the other NHLers no trade list?  Rhetorical.  We know why.  Because Buffalo isn't it.

Buffalo’s reputation around the league is that it is a losing franchise in a cold, backwater city that’s surprisingly not a bad place to settle down and raise a family, and ownership that treats its players pretty well.

Only the first thing is a result of the tank, and the team was at the top of the league when Berglund quit. It’s absolutely true the tank hurt the franchise, but blaming it for Berglund quitting is simplistic and ultimately false.

Edited November 30, 2019 by dudacek

[SwampD]

11 minutes ago, Weave said:

How many former Sabres saying they've lost their love of the game is it going to take before we can admit what the tank did to the environment here?

Agreed on the sentiment re: his agent.  The agent's malpractice opened up this possiblity.

Of course it had to do with Buffalo.  Why was Buffalo on his and probalby 90% of the other NHLers no trade list?  Rhetorical.  We know why.  Because Buffalo isn't it.

I might agree with this if they were still losing. At the time he left, they were at the top of the NHL standings.

He loved what he had in St. Louis and someone pulled the rug out from underneath him.

It’s perfect that St. Louis won it all last year. It would be even more perfect if the Sabres won it all this year.

Yes I’m bitter. He can suck it.

[Weave]

7 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Buffalo’s reputation around the league is that it is a losing franchise in a cold, backwater city that’s surprisingly not a bad place to settle down and raise a family, and ownership that treats its players pretty well.

Only the first thing is a result of the tank, and the team was at the top of the league when Berglund quit. It’s absolutely true the tank hurt the franchise, but blaming it for Berglund quitting is simplistic and ultimately false.

Folks on the outside could see that the record at the time was in spite of serious flaws in play and personnel.  I'm pretty sure someone on the inside was even more aware of how in spite of that record was.

Edited November 30, 2019 by Weave

[dudacek]

6 minutes ago, Weave said:

Folks on the outside could see that the record at the time was in spite of serious flaws in play and personnel.  I'm pretty sure someone on the inside was even more aware of how in spite of that record was.

The guy on the inside who walked in with a bad attitude, couldn’t earn a spot of any prominence and essentially was creating a self-fulfilling prophecy?

[...]

32 minutes ago, Weave said:

Of course it had to do with Buffalo.  Why was Buffalo on his and probalby 90% of the other NHLers no trade list?  Rhetorical.  We know why.  Because Buffalo isn't it.

Where does he specifically point to Buffalo as being the problem?  Maybe I missed it.  

In that narrative, they were careful to build up the fact that he was drafted by St. Louis, loved it there, and that his dream was to win a Cup there.  They also made sure we knew his agent didn't turn in his list of 20 teams he couldn't be traded to. Buffalo happened to be on this list, along with 19 other teams (Buffalo + 19 other teams = a list of 20 teams).

They said he was not happy from the moment he heard he was traded.  Any one of those 20 teams (and probably all other teams, frankly) would have had an uphill battle to make Berglund feel better about his life.  Berglund tainted the process from the very first second - there was nothing Buffalo could do. Phil wasn't playing Berglund likely because Berglund had demonstrated he wasn't a team player and that he didn't want to be there.

In my opinion, you're making it up in your mind that the Berglund situation has anything to do with the Sabres specifically. The only thing the Sabres could have done was have the perfect mix of everything that appealed to Berglund himself to prevent Berglund from doing what he did ultimately. Which is clearly ridiculous.