But apparently the Buffalo News’ Bob Dicesare doesn’t think so.

The story about Michael Peca being interested in returning to the Buffalo Sabres has been swirling for a couple weeks now, ever since the team’s debacle earlier this month in losing their two most prized assets.

Peca’s departure from Buffalo was an acrimonius one - back in the late 90’s he demanded a 4 year deal from Buffalo which would have paid him somewhere between $14-$16 million dollars for the life of the contract. The Rigas ownership balked, Darcy Regier said no way, and Peca ended up holding out, while the Sabres dug their heels in. In the end, the team ended up trading him to the New York Islanders, and picked up Tim Connolly and Taylor Pyatt in return.

Says Dicesare…

Peca got his trade, to New York, and an excessive salary that typified the Islanders’ penchant for overpaying.

An NHL player being overpaid for the value of his services? No way Bob! Say it ain’t so!!!

Here is the curious part relating to Peca’s departure from the Sabres. Peca really never left. He and his wife Kristin kept the same home they lived in when he played for Buffalo despite three team changes. They have since started a family and the Pecas and their two children make their offseason home in Getzville. When I talked to Michael last winter and asked him why he lives here when he has the financial means to buy a place anywhere he wants, he replied, “Why would I want to move elsewhere? The people here are so warm and friendly, it’s a great place to raise a family, and it’s close to my wife’s family and mine as well.”

Here is what Peca brings to the table - immediate leadership in the locker room, a probable claim for the “C” on the jersey, the grit and toughness that this team so needs and might have propelled them further on this past year’s squad. Make no mistake - had Peca’s year not come to an early conclusion in Toronto because of a broken leg, the Leafs would have been in the playoffs. At age 33 he may not be the prolific scorer he was when he played here in the late 90s, but the intangibles and the toughness can’t be measured on the stat sheet. When he left the Buffalo Sabres, the team was worse off because of his departure. I see him as a poor man’s Chris Drury.

Read through Dicesare’s piece and a lot of personal slant and nastiness comes bubbling through. I can’t dispute where much of this is coming from, for I have heard stories of Peca’s past aloofness with the media, his obstinance and apparent greed in holding out for a breakout contract, even wife Kristin was not immune from public ridicule.

But that was then. People change, people mature as they get older; the Pecas are dealing with parenting, middle age and eventually life after hockey, and their commitment to Western New York has been solid and unwavering despite all the bad feelings of the failed contract dealings in the past.

Michael Peca is exactly the type of athlete that Buffalonians love to embrace - tough, gritty, lunch bucket. He is a Buffalo guy through and through, and even as a fourth line center, his return to the Sabres would instantly make the 2007-08 squad a better team. Perhaps a much better team.

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